<p style="text-align: justify;">The cotton line 281-24-236 was produced by <i>Agrobacterium</i>-mediated transformation of plant cells from the cotton variety &lsquo;Germain&rsquo;s Acala GC510.&rsquo; The pAGM281 plasmid was used for the transformation. It contained the <i>cry</i>1F gene, coding for a full length chimeric Cry1F protein (delta-endotoxin) which confers Lepidopteran insect resistance; a mannopine synthase promoter containing four copies of the octopine synthase enhancer ((4OCS)delta-mas2&rsquo;) from <i>A. tumefaciens</i> strain LBA 4404 pTi15955; and a bi-directional terminator (ORF25polyA) from the same <i>A. tumefaciens</i> strain as the promoter. The pAGM281 plasmid also contained a synthetic version of the <i>pat</i> gene, coding for glufosinate ammonium tolerance, and used as a selectable marker. The expression of the <i>pat</i> gene was under the control of a <i>Zea mays</i> ubiquitin promoter (UbiAm1). The plasmid backbone, derived from plasmid Rk2, contained an erythromycin resistance gene to allow the selection of bacteria containing pAGM281.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Successful transformants were detected as those tolerant to glufosinate ammonium. Resistance to lepidopteran insects was tested by conducting a bioassay using leaf discs from the successful transformants. Leaf discs were fed to the larvae of cotton bollworm, a target lepidopteran pest. The successful event was designated 281-24-236 and was subsequently introgressed into the elite genotype &lsquo;PSC355,&rsquo; a cultivar with a broad adaptation to the southern United States.</p>
