Cotton, a major business in the United States, owes about 16 percent of its value to cottonseed. Cottonseed, a major protein source, contains a yellow pigment called gossypol which has caused problems for the industry for years. Though toxic to non-ruminant animals, it is also a promising male antifertility compound. The technology of monoclonal antibody production provides a tool which may be helpful in the research field as well as a tool to provide a clean cottonseed product. This proposal is directed toward the feasibility of producing hybrid clones of cells which will produce monoclonal antibodies to the isomers of gossypol. The individual monoclonal antibodies could be used as tools for separation and purification of individual isomers from the tautomeric mixture, or removal of free gossypol from the pigment gland of the cottonseed in early processing. The development of the separation techniques will be the subject of Phase II studies. Each aspect would lend itself to an individual Phase II: a. the use of a monoclonal antibody to separate isomers with a monoclonal antibody and determine to what extent the levorotatory isomer is effective and safe; and b. the use of antibodies to separate free gossypol from the cottonseed or cottonseed product. The specific area of research area as described under Program Descriptions in the PHS Omnibus Solicitation is Contraceptive Development under the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The second research area comes under the Bureau of Foods of the Food and Drug Administration related to detection, prevention, and control of contamination that may result in injury.
