Melbourne start-up Hexima applies to test GM cotton

Melbourne plant biotechnology company Hexima has applied to the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator to conduct a small field trial of transgenic cotton lines containing its novel protease-inhibitor genes.

Hexima has applied to trial its new cottons on one or two small sites, totaling no more than 0.5 hectares, in a selected area in southern Queensland's cotton country. The trials will test the cottons' agronomic performance, and resistance to the most destructive pest of Australian cotton, caterpillars of the heliothine moth, Helicoverpa armigera.

If Gene Technology Regulator Dr Sue Meek approves the trial, it will be the first test in Australia of an alternative to Monsanto's Ingard pest-killing technology that dominates in genetically modified cotton crops around the world.

Ingard cottons and their doubly protected Bollgard 2 successors express genes for insecticidal toxins cloned from the common soil microbe Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt genes produce toxins that kill by binding to and destroying the cells lining the caterpillar pest's gut, causing it to starve.

In contrast, Hexima's protease-inhibitor technology, developed by La Trobe University molecular geneticist Dr Marilyn Anderson, induce starvation by inactivating the protease enzymes that the pest needs to digest plant proteins.

The Hexima cottons contain two transgenes, both from Solanaceae family species: NaPI, cloned from ornamental tobacco (Nicotiana alatum), and PotI, from the potato (Solanum tuberosum).

Hexima was co-founded by Dr Anderson and Melbourne University plant molecular geneticist Prof Adrienne Clarke.

The Gene Technology Regulator announced today that her initial assessment was that the Hexima cottons do not pose a significant risk to human health and safety, or to the environment.

That assessment means the regulator is not required to seek public comment on the proposed field trial until the release of a risk assessment and risk management plan (RARMP) in May.

Hexima has applied to conduct its first small-scale field trial in season 2004-05, with further trials in the two following seasons.