Biotechnological approaches to combat cotton leafcurl virus disease

Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) is caused by a Geminivirus, transmitted by whitefly Bemisia tabaci vector is a serious pest in North India. Cotton leaf Curl Virus Disease is one of the major threats for cotton production and has emerged as serious disease of cotton in North India. Genetic engineering offers a direct method that selectively targets one or few traits for introduction into the crop plants. The tools of recombinant DNA technology and cell biology are used to produce transgenic plants have become a versatile additional tool at the disposal of plant breeders that can be used to speed up plant genetic improvement. In cotton many marker and agronomical traits have been transferred successfully and regenerated by direct and indirect organogenesis. Genetic engineering of cotton transgenics resistant to leaf curl disease (CLCuD) through antisense RNA approach is potential technique to tackle the disease in cotton.The development on commercial release of transgenic cotton plants for resistance to cotton leafcurl virus will be a boon to the farmers cultivating cotton in the Northern region of India.