Question

Cultivation of Bt cotton has been much in the news. The prefix Bt means:

• A. Barium-treated cotton seeds
• B. Bigger thread variety of cotton with better tensile strength
• C. produced by biotechnology using restriction enzymes and ligases
• D. carrying an endotoxin gene from Bacillus thuringiensis

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

carrying an endotoxin gene from Bacillus thuringiensis

Answer 2

$B t$-cotton, $B t$-tobacco, $B t$-tomato etc are transgenic plants having Bt-$2$ gene encoding Bt toxin (eg, thurioside). Bt-toxin gene has been isolated from a bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis therefor called Bt (ie, Bacillus thuringiensis). These plants are resistant for more than $140$ species of insects including common cabbage worm, tent caterpillars, Bag worms, Canker worms, gypsy worm etc.