The need for a cheap herbicide with little residual for the cropping systems on the Texas High Plains has been recognized for many years. Because cotton is the major crop here, efforts have been ongoing for twelve years to obtain 2,4-D resistant cotton using traditional breeding methods. These methods have not been successful; however, we recently obtained a soil bacterium, Alcaligenes eutrophus, which harbors a gene for 2,4-D monoxygenase. This gene has been cloned and transferred into cotton via Agrobacterium tumefaciums. Transgenic cotton plants resistant to 2.5 X the recommended field application levels have been obtained.