The war for GM seeds is hotting up. In a new development, JK Agri Genetics Ltd is planning to commercially launch an improved version of its Bt Cotton, containing a stacked combination of cry1Ac and cry1EC genes, by 2010.

The new version of Bt Cotton, which has already been approved for multi-location research trials at 16 locations in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu during the current kharif season, will give competition to Monsanto's Bollgard-II.

According to company officials, if things proceed as per schedule (one year of MLRT and two years of large-scale field trials), the new stacked gene event should hit the market in kharif 2010.

JK Agri Genetics Ltd, a Rs 85-crore (Rs 850 million) Hyderabad-based company, which is part of H S Singhania's JK Organisation, had introduced its first event - involving incorporation of the cry1Ac gene from the soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), in four cotton hybrids - during the 2006 season.

The gene construct technology for this event was sourced from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. The company got the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee's clearance to market four more hybrids based on the same event in the current season.

In kharif 2006, the company sold around 200,000 packets, each containing 450 gm of our Bt hybrid cotton seeds. This year, the firm has sold around 600,000 packets. At Rs 750 per packet, it would translate into a business of roughly Rs 45 crore (Rs 450 million).

JK Agri is next targeting the commercialisation of an improved Bt Cotton version, entailing pyramiding of a new cry1EC gene on the existing cry1Ac gene-based hybrids.

The technology for the new gene construct has been obtained from yet another publicly funded laboratory - the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's National Botanical Research Institute at Lucknow.

The cry1Ac gene synthesises proteins that are toxic to the dreaded Helicoverpa armigera or American bollworm insect pest, thereby, reducing reliance on spraying pesticides.

While JK Agri's first event was a variant of Monsanto's Bollgard-I (featuring the same cry1Ac gene and cleared for commercial release in 2002), the new event is expected to provide competition to the US life sciences major's Bollgard-II.