Variation induced by DNA rearrangement in a transgenicBt+CpTI cotton strain

In the development of transgenicBt + CpTI cotton cultivars, one male and female sterile mutant has been found in a homozygous T₄ strain in our laboratory. The mutant plant, as well as its leaves, buds and flowers, is only 1/2–1/3 as large as that of the wild transgenicBt + CpTI bivalant cotton plants. Cytological observation found that the chromosome number of the mutant is 2n = 52; however, there are 4–8 univalents observed in meiosis I of pollen mother cells. Laboratory bioassay indicated that the mutant was highly resistant to bollworm as the wild plants. PCR amplification revealed thatBt andCpTI genes in the mutant were still intactly inserted. However, small deletion of flanked area had been observed in the mutant by Southern blotting analysis. So it is proposed that the mutant phenotype might result from either the DNA deletion or T-DNA transferring in plant genome. No such report has been presented that the rearrangement of chromosome structure in a homozygous transgenic line occurred. Further analysis is ongoing.