Cotton, the leading textile fiber, is cultivated in about 85 countries in the world. The plant is susceptible to pest and weed attacks. Biotechnologists have been trying to develop pest, disease and herbicide resistant varieties of cotton using genetic engineering.
Failures occur in the process. Recent reports from Gujarat suggest that GM Cotton designed to resist attacks from a pink bollworm pest has begun to fail as the pests have begun to develop resistance. Monsanto is now advising farmers to go in for a second generation seed.
Another focus of biotechnology for cotton is to develop naturally colored fibers so that bleaching and dyeing can be eliminated for making colored cotton textiles.
Coming to animal fibers, Australian biotechnologists are trying to genetically modify sheep so that the animals can secrete an insect repellent from their hair follicles to repel blowflies. Presently, blowfly larvae is a serious problem that affects wool production.
A biopolymer developed by Zeneca Bioproducts, Biopol, can be melted and spun into biocompatible and biodegradable fibers for surgical use. Surgical sutures using these fibers will be degraded by the action of human body enzymes thus eliminating the need to remove these manually.
