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Nicotine-free tobacco?
"If we can find a way to suppress the genes’ function, it would be possible to remove nicotine from tobacco leaves," Kazufumi Yazaki, a professor at Kyoto University’s Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere who led the research team, said Tuesday. "(Eliminating the nicotine) could help prevent habitual smoking."
Although it has been established how nicotine is created and then accumulates in the vacuoles of tobacco leaves, how it transferred to the leaves has been a mystery.
Among the thousands of tobacco plant genes, the research team discovered four transporter genes that appear around the time nicotine is produced.
The researchers confirmed in an experiment using one of the four genes, Nt-JAT1, and a single yeast that the gene can transport nicotine from roots to leaves. The group also confirmed that the gene transports natural organic compounds as well as nicotine. -ANN
