Genetically-Engineered Tobacco Plant Has Minimal Nicotine

Source from:  Star2.com 10/12/2019

Researchers say they have created a kind of tobacco that is almost entirely nicotine-free, an achievement that could help pave the way for a new kind of cigarette that is far less addictive.

According to Germany’s technology university TU Dortmund, their researchers have managed to genetically modify the tobacco plant called Virginia Smoking Tobacco, so that the concentration of the highly-addictive substance was decreased substantially to only one four-hundredth of its previous concentration.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and several other health bodies have called on governments to investigate reducing the amount of nicotine – the main addiction-causing substance – in cigarettes, alongside 4,800 other chemicals contained in the smoke, of which around 70 are probably carcinogenic.

“Instead of 16 milligrammes, every gramme of tobacco now only contains 0.04mg of nicotine,” lead author Felix Stehle said of the new tobacco they had developed.

“Globally, no one has so far been able to reduce the nicotine value by that much.”

The researchers, who first published the results in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, said they used a genetic scissor technology to cut out six genes that are relevant for nicotine production.

While the plant was able to reconstruct the missing genes, the reconstructions were faulty.

Stehle said the process was probably applicable to any tobacco plant.  Enditem