Cotton variety FM 2498GLT

Abstract

The disclosure provides a new cotton variety FM 2498GLT. The disclosure relates to seeds, plants, plant cells, plant tissue, harvested products and cotton lint as well as to hybrid cotton plants and seeds obtained by repeatedly crossing plants of variety FM 2498GLT with other plants. The disclosure also relates to plants of variety FM 2498 reproduced by vegetative methods, including but not limited to tissue culture of regenerable cells or tissue from cotton variety FM 2498GLT.

Claims

1. A plant or regenerable part thereof or seed of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, wherein a representative sample of seed of said cotton variety has been deposited under ATCC Accession No. PTA 126942.

2. The plant part of claim 1, wherein said plant part is a leaf, an ovule, a cell, a root, a flower, or a pod.

3. A plant, or regenerable part thereof, produced by growing the seed of claim 1.

4. A cotton plant having all the morphological and physiological characteristics of the plant of claim 1, wherein a representative sample of seeds of said variety has been deposited under ATCC Accession No. PTA 126942.

5. A cell or tissue culture produced from the plant, or a part thereof, of claim 1.

6. A cotton plant regenerated from the cell or tissue culture of claim 5, wherein said plant has all of the morphological and physiological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, when grown under the same environmental conditions, and wherein a representative sample of seed of said cotton variety has been deposited under ATCC Accession Number PTA 126942.

7. A method of producing the plant of claim 1, or a part thereof, comprising vegetative reproduction of the plant of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, wherein a representative sample of seed of said cotton variety has been deposited under ATCC Accession Number PTA 126942.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said vegetative propagation comprises culturing regenerable cells or tissue from cotton variety FM 2498GLT.

9. A plant, or regenerable part thereof, obtained by vegetative reproduction from the plant, or a part thereof, of claim 1, wherein said plant or a part thereof has all of the morphological and physiological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, wherein a representative sample of seed of said cotton variety has been deposited under ATCC Accession Number PTA-126942.

10. A method of producing a F1 hybrid cotton seed, comprising crossing the plant of claim 1 with a different cotton plant and harvesting the resultant F1 hybrid cotton seed.

11. An F1 hybrid cotton seed produced by the method of claim 10.

12. An F1 hybrid cotton plant, or a part thereof, produced by growing the hybrid seed of claim 11.

13. A method of introducing a desired trait into a cotton plant, comprising transforming the plant of claim 1 with a transgene that confers the desired trait, wherein the transformed plant otherwise retains all of the morphological and physiological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT and contains the desired trait.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said desired trait is fiber quality, herbicide resistance, insect or pest resistance, disease resistance, bacterial disease resistance, fungal disease resistance, male sterility, modified carbohydrate metabolism, or modified fatty acid metabolism.

15. A method of introducing a desired trait into a cotton plant, comprising transforming the plant of claim 1 with a transgene that confers the desired trait, wherein the transformed plant retains all of the morphological and physiological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT and contains the desired trait, wherein a representative sample of seed of said cotton variety has been deposited under ATCC Accession Number PTA-126942.

16. A cotton plant produced by the method of claim 15.

17. A method of introducing a single locus conversion into cotton variety FM 2498GLT, comprising: (a) crossing a plant of variety FM 2498GLT with a second plant comprising a desired single locus to produce F1 progeny plants, wherein the single locus confers male sterility, herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, pest resistance, disease resistance, modified fatty acid metabolism, modified carbohydrate metabolism, or modified cotton fiber characteristics; (b) selecting F1 progeny plants that have the single locus to produce selected F1 progeny plants; (c) crossing the selected progeny plants with at least a first plant of variety FM 2498GLT to produce backcross progeny plants; (d) selecting backcross progeny plants that have the single locus and otherwise comprise all of the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498 GLT to produce selected backcross progeny plants; and (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) one or more times in succession to produce selected second or higher backcross progeny plants that comprise the single locus and otherwise comprise all of the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, when grown under the same environmental conditions, wherein a representative sample of seed of said cotton variety has been deposited under ATCC Accession Number PTA-126942.

18. A method of producing a commodity plant product comprising obtaining the commodity plant product from a plant of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, wherein a representative sample of seed of said cotton variety has been deposited under ATCC Accession Number PTA 126942.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the commodity plant product is lint, seed oil, or seed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

(1) The disclosure relates to a plant of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, wherein a representative sample of seeds of said variety will be deposited under Budapest Treaty, with ATCC Accession Number PTA 126942.

(2) The disclosure also relates to a seed of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, wherein a representative sample of said seed will be deposited under Budapest Treaty, with ATCC Accession Number PTA 126942.

(3) The disclosure also provides a method of producing cotton seed, comprising the steps of using the plant grown from seed of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, of which a representative sample of seed of said variety will be deposited under Accession Number PTA 126942, as a recurrent parent in crosses with other cotton plants different from cotton variety FM 2498GLT, and harvesting the resultant cotton seed.

(4) The disclosure further provides a plant grown from the seed of cotton variety FM 2498GLT.

(5) Also provided is a plant part obtained from cotton variety FM 2498GLT, wherein said plant part is a leaf, a part of a leaf, pollen, an ovule, a cell, an embryo, a meristem, a petiole, a shoot or a part thereof, a stem or part thereof, a root or a part thereof, a root tip, a seed, a part of a seed, a pod, a hypocotyl, cotyledon, a pistil, an anther, and a flower or part thereof and the like. In another aspect, the plant part obtained from cotton variety FM 2498GLT is a cell or tissue culture.

(6) The disclosure further relates to a cotton variety FM 2498GLT, which when compared to its Reference Variety, FM 1911GLT, has the following distinguishing characteristics as shown in Table 2: 1) stronger fiber; 2) coarser fiber (micronaire); 3) taller mature plant (from cotyledonary node to terminal); 4) a spreading plant habit; 5) an indeterminate growth; 6) longer length from cotyledonary node to 1.sup.st fruiting branch; 7) higher gin turnout (stripped); and 8) more seeds per boll, when grown under the same environmental conditions. Also encompassed are parts of that plant.

(7) In one aspect, a plant of cotton variety FM 2498GLT or a progeny thereof, comprises all of the following morphological and/or physiological characteristics as shown in Table 1, when grown under the same environmental conditions. A part of this plant is also provided.

(8) In another aspect, cotton variety FM 2498GLT contains a transgene which confers resistance to herbicides glyphosate and glufosinate, and for lepidopteran insect control, referred to in the aggregate as the trait package GLYTOL® TWINLINK® (GLT).

(9) In another aspect, the plant of cotton variety FM 2498GLT or a part thereof, or progeny thereof comprises resistance to Xanthomonas axonopodis (Bacterial Blight) Race 18, Verticillium dahlia, Helicoverpa spp. (Bollworm); Spodoptera frugiperda (Fall Armyworm), Pectinophora gossypiella (Pink Bollworm), and Heliothis virescens (Tobacco Bud Worm).

(10) The disclosure further provides a cotton plant which does not significantly differ from the physiological and morphological characteristics of the plant of variety FM 2498GLT, when grown under the same environmental conditions. In a particular aspect, the plants are measured in the same trial (e.g., the trial is conducted as recommended by USDA). The disclosure comprises a part of said plant.

(11) The disclosure also provides for a tissue or cell culture comprising regenerable cells of cotton variety FM 2498GLT. The cell of cotton variety FM 2498GLT used to start the culture can be selected from any plant part suitable for vegetative reproduction, or, in a particular aspect, can be one or more of an embryo, a meristem, a cotyledon, a hypocotyl, pollen, a leaf, an anther, a root, a root tip, a pistil, a petiole, a flower, a fruit, a seed, a pod, or a stem. In another particular aspect, the tissue culture does not contain somaclonal variation or has reduced somaclonal variation. The skilled person is familiar with methods to reduces or prevent somaclonal variation including regular initiation.

(12) In one aspect, the disclosure provides a cotton plant regenerated from the tissue culture or cell culture of variety FM 2498GLT, wherein the regenerated plant has all or all but one, two, or three of the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT (or all or all but one, two, or three of the physiological and morphological characteristics as listed in Table 1), when grown under the same environmental conditions. Optionally, the plant has one, two, or more of the physiological and morphological characteristics that are affected by mutation or transformation.

(13) Cotton variety FM 2498GLT, or its progeny, or a plant having all the physiological and/or morphological characteristics or all but one, two, or more which are different from those of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, can also be reproduced using vegetative reproduction methods. Therefore, the disclosure provides for a method of producing a plant, or plant part of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, comprising vegetative propagation of cotton variety FM 2498GLT. Vegetative propagation comprises regenerating a whole plant from a plant part of variety FM 2498GLT, from a progeny or from a plant having all the physiological and/or morphological characteristics of said variety.

(14) The disclosure also provides for a vegetatively propagated plant of variety FM 2498GLT (or from progeny of cotton variety FM 2498GLT or from a plant having all but one, two, or three of the physiological and morphological characteristics of that variety), wherein the plant has all of the morphological and physiological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, when grown under the same environmental conditions. In another aspect, the propagated plant has all but one, two, or three of the morphological and physiological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, when grown under the same environmental conditions.

(15) In another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of producing a cotton plant comprising crossing a plant of variety FM 2498GLT with second cotton plant at least one, selecting a progeny cotton plant from said crossing, and optionally allowing the progeny cotton plant to form seed. Optionally, the progeny is crossed twice, thrice, or four, five, six, or seven times, and allowed to set seed.

(16) In yet another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of producing a cotton plant, comprising selfing a plant of variety FM 2498GLT one or more times, and selecting a progeny cotton plant from said selfing. In one aspect, the progeny retains all the distinguishing characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, when grown under the same environmental conditions. In a different aspect, the progeny plant comprises all (or all but one, two, or three) of the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT of Table 1.

(17) In other aspects, the disclosure provides a method of producing progeny cotton plant of variety FM 2498GLT comprising crossing the plant of variety FM 2498GLT with other, different or distinct cotton plant, and further selfing or crossing these progeny cotton plant with other, distinct plant and subsequent selection of derived progeny cotton plant. The process of crossing cotton variety FM 2498GLT derived progeny plants with itself or other distinct cotton plants and the subsequent selection in the resulting progenies can be repeated up to 7 or 8 times in order to produce cotton variety FM 2498GLT derived cotton plants. In particular, the disclosure provides for a progeny plant that retains all the essential morphological and physiological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, or in another aspect, a progeny plant that retains all, or all but one, two or three of the morphological and physiological characteristics as listed in Table 1, when grown under the same environmental conditions.

(18) Also provided is a method of producing a hybrid cotton variety, comprising repeatedly crossing plants of cotton variety FM 2498GLT with plants of a different variety or varieties or with plants of a non-released line or lines. In practice, three different types of hybrid varieties may be produced (see, e.g., Briggs and Knowles, Chapter 18, supra). The “single cross hybrid” produced by two different lines, the “three-way hybrid”, produced by three different lines such that first the single hybrid is produced by using two out of the three lines followed by crossing this single hybrid with the third line, and the “four-way hybrid” produced by four different lines such that first two single hybrids are produced using the lines two by two, followed by crossing the two single hybrids so produced. Each single, three-way or four-way hybrid variety so produced and using cotton variety FM 2498GLT as one of the parent lines contains an essential contribution of variety FM 2498GLT to the resulting hybrid variety is encompassed.

(19) The morphological and/or physiological differences between two different individual plants described herein (e.g., between cotton variety FM 2498GLT and its progeny) or between a plant of variety FM 2498GLT or progeny of said variety, or a plant having all or all but one, two or three of the morphological and physiological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, (or all, or all but one, two or three of the characteristics as listed in Table 1) and another known variety can easily be established by growing said variety next to each other or next to the other variety (in the same field, under the same environmental conditions), preferably several locations which are suitable for cotton cultivation, and measuring the morphological and/or physiological characteristics of a number of plants. Thus, the disclosure comprises cotton plant having one, two or three physiological and/or morphological characteristics which are different from those of the plant of variety FM 2498GLT and which otherwise has all the physiological and morphological characteristics of the plant of variety FM 2498GLT, when grown under the same environmental conditions. In another aspect, the different characteristic(s) is/are result of breeding with cotton variety FM 2498GLT and selection of progeny cotton plant comprising one, two or three characteristics which are different that in cotton variety FM 2498GLT. In another aspect, the different characteristic is the result of mutation (e.g., spontaneous mutation or a human induced mutation through e.g., targeted mutagenesis or traditional mutagenesis such as chemically or radiation induced mutagenesis), or it is the result of transformation.

(20) The disclosure provides for methods of producing plants which retain all (or all but one, two or three) of the morphological and physiological characteristics of the plant described herein, but which are still genetically closely related to cotton variety FM 2498GLT. The relatedness can, for example, be determined by fingerprinting techniques (e.g., making use of isozyme markers and/or molecular markers such as SNP markers, amplified fragment length markers (AFLP) markers, microsatellites, minisatellites, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers and others). A plant is “closely related” to cotton variety FM 2498GLT if its DNA fingerprint is at least 80%, 90%, 95% or 98% identical to the fingerprint of that variety. In another aspect, AFLP markers are used for DNA fingerprinting (see, e.g., Vos et al., 1995, Nucleic Acid Research 23: 4407-4414). A closely related plant may have a Jaccard's Similarity index of at least about 0.8, preferably at least about 0.9, 0.95, 0.98 or more (see, e.g., Pisanu et al. ISHS 2004, Acta Hort. 660).

(21) By crossing and/or selfing, single traits may be introduced into cotton variety FM 2498GLT (e.g., using backcrossing scheme), while retaining the remaining morphological and physiological characteristics of said variety and/or retaining one or more or all distinguishing characteristics. A single trait converted plant may thereby be produced. A single locus may comprise one gene, or in the case of transgenic plants, one or more transgenes integrated into the host genome at a single site (locus). For example, disease resistance genes may be introduced, genes responsible for one or more quality traits, yield, etc.

(22) Any pest or disease resistance genes may be introduced into a plant of variety FM 2498GLT, progeny of said variety or into a plant comprising one, two or three of the morphological and physiological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT (e.g., as listed in Table 1). Resistance to one or more the following diseases or pests may be introduced into the plants described herein: Alternaria macrospora, Anthracnose, Ascochyta Blight, Xanthomonas axonopodis (Bacterial Blight) Race 1, Race 2, and/or Race 18, Diplodia Boll Rot, Fusarium Wilt, Phymatotrichum Root Rot, Pythium spp., Cotton seedling disease (Rhizoctonia solani), Southwestern Cotton Rust, Thielayiopsis basicola, Verticillium Wilt (Verticillium dahliae), Meloidogyne spp. (Root-Knot Nematode), Boll Weevil, Bollworm (Helicoverpa spp), Cotton Aphid (Aphis gossypii), Cotton Fleahopper, Cotton Leafworm, Cutworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (Fall Armyworm), Reniform Nematode, Grasshopper, Lygus, Pectinophora gossypiella (Pink Bollworm), Cotton Spider Mite (Tetranychus spp.), Cotton Whitefly (Bemisia tabaci), Stink Bug, Tobacco Thrips (Thrips tabaci), and/or Heliothis virescens (Tobacco Bud Worm). Other resistances, against pathogenic viruses, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, insects or other pests may also be introduced, or other traits.

(23) In one aspect, the disclosure relates to a plant of cotton variety FM 2498GLT comprising at least a first transgene, wherein the cotton plant otherwise has all the physiological and morphological characteristics of the cotton variety FM 2498GLT as listed in Table 1. In a particular aspect, a plant comprising a single locus conversion is provided. A single locus conversion may comprise a transgenic gene which has been introduced by genetic transformation into the cotton variety FM 2498GLT or a progenitor thereof. In a particular aspect, the single locus conversion confers male sterility, herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, pest resistance, disease resistance, modified fatty acid metabolism, modified carbohydrate metabolism, or modified cotton fiber characteristics.

(24) The disclosure provides for a method of introducing a single locus conversion into cotton variety FM 2498GLT comprising: a) crossing the FM 2498GLT plants, grown from seed deposited under Accession Number PTA 126942, with plants of another cotton line that comprise a desired single locus to produce F1 progeny plants; b) selecting F1 progeny plants that have the single locus to produce selected F1 progeny plants; c) crossing the selected F1 progeny plants with the FM 2498GLT plants to produce first backcross progeny plants; d) selecting for first backcross progeny plants that have the desired single locus and the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT as listed in Table 1, when grown under the same environmental conditions, to produce selected first backcross progeny plants; and e) repeating steps c) and d) one or more times (e.g., one, two, three, four, etc. times) in succession to produce selected third or higher backcross progeny plants that comprise the desired single locus and all of the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT as listed in Table 1, when grown under the same environmental conditions.
Plants produced by this method have all of the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, except for the characteristics derived from the desired trait.

(25) In one aspect, a plant of cotton variety FM 2498GLT may also be mutated and mutated seeds or plants may be selected in order to change one or more characteristics of said variety. Similarly, cotton variety FM 2498GLT may be transformed and regenerated, whereby one or more chimeric genes are introduced into the variety or into a plant comprising one, two or three of the physiological and morphological characteristics (e.g., as listed in Table 1). Transformation can be carried out using methods well known in the art, such as Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation or biolistics, followed by selection of the transformed cells and regeneration into plants (see, e.g., Sakhanokho et al., 2004, Reynaerts et al., 2000, Umbeck et al., 1988). Examples of transgenic events transformed in this way are “LLCotton25,” USDA-APHIS petition 02-042-01p, “Cot 102,” USDA-APHIS petition 03-155-01p, and “281-24-236,” USDA-APHIS petition 03-036-01p combined with “3006-210-23,” USDA-APHIS petition 03-036-02p. Information regarding these and other transgenic events referred to herein may be found at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) website (www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/home/). An “Event” is defined as a (artificial) genetic locus that, as a result of genetic engineering, carries a foreign DNA comprising at least one copy of the gene(s) of interest. Other methods of genetic transformation are well known in the art such as microprojectile bombardment (see, e.g., U.S. 2009/0049564).

(26) In another aspect, a desired trait (e.g., gene(s) conferring pest or disease resistance, herbicide, fungicide or insecticide tolerance, etc.) can be introduced into cotton variety FM 2498GLT, or progeny of said variety, by transforming said variety or progeny of said variety with a transgene that confers the desired trait, wherein the transformed plants retains all or all but one, two or three of the physiological and/or morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT or the progeny of the said and contains the desired trait.

(27) The disclosure also provides for a method of producing a cotton plant comprising introducing a transgene conferring the desired trait into the plant, resulting in a plant with the desired trait and all or all but one, two or three of the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, when grown under the same environmental conditions. In another aspect, the disclosure provides for a method of producing a cotton plant from cotton variety FM 2498GLT comprising genetically transforming a desired trait in regenerable cell or tissue culture from a plant described herein, resulting in a cotton plant that retains all the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT, except for the characteristics changed by the introduction of the desired trait.

(28) In a further aspect, the desired trait is modified cotton fiber characteristics, herbicide resistance, insect or pest resistance, disease resistance, including bacterial or fungal disease resistance, male sterility, modified carbohydrate metabolism and/or modified fatty acid metabolism. Such traits and genes conferring such traits are known in the art (see, e.g., US 2009/0049564).

(29) In a particular aspect, the desired trait is herbicide tolerance and the tolerance is linked to a herbicide such as glyphosate, glufosinate, sulfonylurea, dicamba, phenoxy proprionic acid, cyclohexanedione, triazine, benzonitrile, bromoxynil or imidazalinone.

(30) In another particular aspect, the desired trait is insect resistance conferred by a transgene encoding a Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) endotoxin, a derivative thereof, or a synthetic polypeptide modeled thereon.

(31) The disclosure also provides for a method of producing an inbred cotton plant derived from the cotton variety FM 2498GLT comprising: a) preparing a progeny plant derived from cotton variety FM 2498GLT, a representative sample of seed of said variety will be deposited under ATCC Accession Number PTA 126942, by crossing cotton variety FM 2498GLT with a cotton plant of a second variety; b) crossing the progeny plant with itself or a second plant to produce a seed of a progeny plant of a subsequent generation; c) growing a progeny plant of a subsequent generation from said seed and crossing the progeny plant of a subsequent generation with itself or a second plant; and d) repeating steps (b) and (c) for an additional 3-10 generations with sufficient inbreeding to produce an inbred cotton plant derived from the cotton variety FM 2498GLT.

(32) The disclosure also provides for cotton lint or fiber produced by cotton variety FM 2498GLT. Also provided is the textile produced from the unique fiber of cotton variety FM 2498GLT.

(33) The disclosure also provides for a method of producing a commodity plant product (e.g., lint, cotton seed oil, seed), comprising obtaining a plant of cotton variety FM 2498GLT or a part thereof, and producing said commodity plant product therefrom.

(34) All documents (e.g., patent publications, non-patent literature) are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, “Objective Description of Variety Cotton (Gossypium spp.)”, world wide web at ams.usda.gov/services/plant-variety-protection/pvpo-c-forms, under cotton. Briggs, F. N., and Knowles, P. F., “Introduction to Plant Breeding”, Rheinhold Publishing Corporation, 1967. Burdett, L. P., “Cotton Variety 02T15,” U. S. Pub. No. 20090049564. Pisanu, A. B., et. al., “Yield and Biometric Characteristics of 9 Clones Selected from the Population of “Spinoso sardo” Artichokes, Acta Hort., 2004, ISHS 660, pp. 83-89. Reynaerts, et. al., “Improved Method for Agrobacterium Mediated Transformation of Cotton,” 2000, Patent application number WO 0071733. Sakhanoko, H. F., et. al., “Induction of Somatic Embryogenesis and Plant Regeneration in Select Georgia and Pee Dee Cotton Lines”, Crop Science, 2004, vol. 44, pp. 2199-2205. Stam, P., “Marker-assisted introgression: speed at any cost?” Proceedings of the Eucarpia Meeting on Leafy Vegetable Genetics and Breeding, Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, 19-21 Mar. 2003. Eds. Th. J. L. van Hintum, A. Lebeda, D. Pink, J. W. Schut. P117-124. Trolinder, et al., “Herbicide Tolerant Cotton Plants having Event EE-GH1,” 2004, U.S. Pat. No. 6,818,807 Umbeck, et. al., “Genetic Engineering of Cotton Plants and Lines”, Patent application number EP0290355. Vos, P., et al., “AFLP: A New Technique for DNA Fingerprinting”, Nucleic Acids Research, 1995, vol. 23(21), pp. 4407-4414.

Deposit Information

(35) A total of 2500 seeds of variety FM 2498GLT have been deposited and approved according to the Budapest Treaty by the Applicant on Jan. 7, 2021 at the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), 1801 University Boulevard, Manassas, Va. 20110, USA. The deposit has been assigned ATCC Accession Number PTA 126942. Seed of cotton variety FM 2498GLT is located at the BASF Maricopa Cotton Breeding Station, 880 N Power Road, Bapschule, Ariz. 85121, with lot number XB7AR6138F.

(36) Access to this deposit will be available during the pendency of the application to persons determined by the Director of the U.S. Patent Office to be entitled thereto upon request. Subject to 37 C.F.R. § 1.808(b), all restrictions imposed by the depositor on the availability to the public of the deposited material will be irrevocably removed upon granting of the patent. The deposit will be maintained for a period of 30 years, or 5 years after the most recent request, or for the enforceable life of the patent, whichever is longer, and will be replaced if it becomes nonviable during that period. Applicant does not waive any rights granted under this patent or under the Plant Variety Protection Act (7 U.S.C. § 2321 et seq.).

(37) Development of Cotton Variety FM 2498GLT

(38) The disclosure described herein has been obtained by a general breeding process comprising the steps outlined below (see, e.g., Introduction to Plant Breeding, 1967, Chapter 11, Briggs and Knowles, Rheinhold Publishing Corporation).

(39) Parent plants, which have been selected for good agronomic and fiber quality traits are manually crossed in different combinations. The resulting F1 (Filial generation 1) plants are self-fertilized and the resulting F2 generation plants, which show a large variability on account of optimal gene segregation, are planted in a selection field.

(40) These F2 plants are observed during the growing season for health, growth vigor, plant type, plant structure, leaf type, stand ability, flowering, maturity, seed yield, boll type, boll distribution, boll size, fiber yield and fiber quality. Plants are then selected. The selected plants are harvested, and the bolls analyzed for fiber characteristics and the seed cleaned and stored. This procedure is repeated in the following growing seasons, whereby the selection and testing units increase from individual plants in the F2, to multiple plant containing ‘lines’ (descending from one mother plant) in the F5 and the number of units decrease from approximately 2500 plants in the F2 to 20 lines in the F5 by selecting about 10-20% of the units in each selection cycle.

(41) The increased size of the units, whereby more seed per unit is available, allows the selection and testing in replicated trials on more than one location with a different environment and a more extensive and accurate analysis of the fiber quality.

(42) The lines or candidate varieties become genotypically more homozygous and phenotypically more homogeneous by selecting similar plant types within a line and by discarding the so called off-types from the very variable F2 generation on to the final F7 or F8 generation.

(43) Depending on the intermediate results the plant breeder may decide to vary the procedure described above, such as by accelerating the process by testing a particular line earlier or retesting a line another year. He may also select plants for further crossing with existing parent plants or with other plants resulting from the current selection procedure.

(44) By the method of recurrent backcrossing, (see, e.g., Briggs and Knowles, supra, in chapter 13, “The Backcross Method of Breeding”), the breeder may introduce a specific trait or traits into an existing valuable line or variety, while otherwise preserving the unique combination of characteristics of this line or variety. In this crossing method, the valuable parent is recurrently used to cross it at least two or three times with each resulting backcross F1, followed by selection of the recurrent parent plant type, until the phenotype of the resulting F1 is similar or almost identical to the phenotype of the recurrent parent with the addition of the expression of the desired trait or traits.

(45) Cotton variety FM 2498GLT was derived from a backcross breeding program with a proprietary recurred line as one parent and a proprietary line as the donor parent which contained GLYTOL® and TWINLINK® proprietary technologies, which expresses tolerance to herbicides. The initial cross between the proprietary recurrent line and the proprietary GLYTOL® and TWINLINK® donor line was made in the greenhouse. Two generations of backcrosses to the proprietary recurrent line were then performed. Individual plants were selected for homozygosity in the BC2F2 generation. The following year, BC2F3 progeny rows were grown for seed increase. Then sister lines of this material were tested in several locations across the High Plains of Texas. Two lines were identified bases upon data gathered from replicated testing. These two lines were selected and bulked based upon performance and adaptations to the Texas High Plains.

(46) Characteristics of Cotton Variety FM 2498GLT

(47) The most similar variety to cotton variety FM 2498GLT is referred to as FM 1911GLT, a variety from BASF Agricultural Solutions Seed US LLC. In Table 1, a comparison between cotton varieties FM 2498GLT and FM 1911GLT is shown based on a trial in the USA. In Table 2, the distinguishing characteristics between cotton variety FM 2498GLT and the Reference Variety FM 1911GLT is shown.

(48) In one aspect, the disclosure provides a plant having all the physiological and morphological characteristics of cotton variety FM 2498GLT as presented in Table 1.

(49) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Objective Description of Cotton Variety FM 2498GLT and the Reference Variety FM 1911GLT USDA Descriptors FM 2498GLT FM 1911GLT Areas of Adaptation: Adapted Not Adapted Not tested Eastern Not tested Not tested Delta Not tested Not tested Central Not tested Not tested Blacklands Not tested Not tested Plains Adapted Adapted Western Not tested Not tested Arizona Not tested Not tested San Joaquin Not tested Not tested Other General Plant Type: Plant habit: Spreading Intermediate spreading, intermediate, compact Foliage: Intermediate Intermediate sparse, intermediate, dense Stem lodging: Erect Erect lodging, intermediate, erect Fruiting branch: Normal Normal clustered, short, normal Growth: Indeterminate Intermediate determinate, intermediate, indeterminate Leaf color: Light green Light green greenish yellow, light green, medium green, dark green Boll shape: Length more than Length more than length less than width, length equal to width, width width length more than width Boll breadth: Broadest at middle Broadest at middle broadest at base, broadest at middle Maturity: Days till maturity: Mid maturity Early-mid maturity Plant: cm to 1.sup.st fruiting branch: (from cotyledonary 25.5 23.1 node) No. of nodes to 1.sup.st fruiting branch: (excluding 8.0 7.9 cotyledonary node) Mature plant height (cm): (from cotyledonary 75.2 64.2 node to terminal) Leaf: (upper most fully expanded leaf) Type: Normal Normal normal, sub okra, okra, super okra Pubescence: Sparse Sparse absent, sparse, medium, dense Nectaries: Present Present present, absent Stem pubescence: Intermediate Intermediate glabrous, intermediate, hairy Glands: absent, sparse, normal, more than normal Leaf: Normal Normal Stem: Normal Normal Calyx lobe: (normal is absent) Normal Normal Flower: Petals: Cream Cream cream, yellow Pollen: Cream Cream cream, yellow Petal spot: Absent Absent present, absent Seed: Seed index: (g/100 seeds, fuzzy basis) 12.5 12.8 Boll: Lint percent: 0.44 0.41 picked  x  pulled   Gin turnout: .375 .330 picked  x  stripped   Number of seeds per boll: 28.1 26.8 Grams seed cotton per boll: 3.9 3.8 Number of locules per boll: 4.6 4.3 Boll type: Storm resistant Storm resistant stormproof, storm resistant, open Fiber properties: Method: HVI HVI Length (inches, 2.5% SL): 1.17 1.18 Uniformity (%): 79.2 79.1 Strength, T1 (g/tex): 29.4 29.0 Elongation, E1 (%): 8.6 8.6 Micronaire: 3.22 2.93 Resistance to diseases: Not tested, susceptible, moderately susceptible, moderately resistant, resistant Bacterial Blight, Race 18 Moderately Moderately resistant resistant Verticillium Wilt Moderately Moderately resistant resistant Resistance to nematodes, insects and pests: Not tested, susceptible, moderately susceptible, moderately resistant, resistant Bollworm Resistant Resistant Fall Armyworm Moderately Moderately resistant resistant Pink Bollworm Resistant Resistant Tobacco Bud Worm Resistant Resistant Root-knot Nematode Not tested Moderately resistant

(50) TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Distinguishing Characteristics Between the Cotton Variety FM 2498GLT and the Reference Variety FM 1911GLT Distinguishing Characteristics FM 2498GLT FM 1911GLT Fiber Strength, T1 (g/tex) 29.4 29.0 Fiber Micronaire 3.22 2.93 Mature Plant Height, cm (from 75.2 64.2 cotyledonary node to terminal) Plant Habit Spreading Intermediate Plant Growth Indeterminate Intermediate Maturity Mid maturity Early-mid maturity cm to 1.sup.st Fruiting Branch (from 25.5 23.1 cotyledonary node) Gin Turnout (stripped) .375  .330 Number of Seeds per Boll 28.1 26.8