Resistance is one of the greatest threats to effective pest control in the Australian Cotton Industry, both against insecticides as well as transgenic cotton.

I attended the International Cotton Genomics Initiative meeting in Brazil on 18,19, 20 September, 2006. I replaced Curt Brubaker who, because he had left CSIRO, was unable to attend.

Despite its widespread occurrence, the genetics of fusarium wilt resistance in cotton has still not been clearly elucidated.

Stable transformation is an essential tool for molecular biologists workingon non-model organsims.

This report presents the results of a successful collaboration between Rod Mahon and Karen Olsen (CSIRO Entomology) and Dr David Heckel (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany).