<p style="text-align: justify;">The cotton line COT102 was developed to resist attack by lepidopteran insects pests such as cotton bollworm (<i>Helicoverpa zea</i>), tobacco budworm (<i>Heliothis virescens</i>), pink bollworm (<i>Pectinophora gossypiella</i>), fall armyworm (<i>Spodoptera frugiperda</i>), beet armyworm (<i>Spodoptera exigua</i>), soybean looper (<i>Pseudoplusia includens</i>), cabbage looper (<i>Trichoplusia ni</i>), and cotton leaf perforator (<i>Bucculatrix thurberiella</i>). The vegetative insecticidal protein VIP3A, which is a product of a gene originally derived from <i>Bacillus thuringiensis</i> strain AB88, is produced in the tissues of COT102. The VIP3A proteins act by binding to specific sites located in the midgut epithelium of susceptible insect species of the order Lepidoptera. Following binding, cation-specific pores are formed that disrupt ion flow in the midgut, thereby causing paralysis and death. The insecticidal nature of the VIP3A protein is attributable to the presence of specific binding sites in these insects, which are different than those specific to Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac. There are no binding sites in the epithelium of mammalian and avian intestinal sites for the vegetative insecticidal proteins of <i>B. thuringiensis</i>. Humans and livestock animals are therefore not susceptible to the damaging effects of these proteins.</p>
