Compositions and methods for producing tobacco plants and products having altered alkaloid levels with desirable leaf quality

A method of obtaining cured tobacco material, the method comprising the steps of:

• growing at least one tobacco plant comprising a recombinant DNA construct comprising a topping inducible promoter operably linked to a transcribable DNA sequence encoding a non-coding RNA for suppression of an ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) gene having at least 90% identity to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs:
• 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28;
• harvesting at least one leaf from said at least one tobacco plant;
• and
• curing said at least one harvested leaf to obtain said cured tobacco material.

A method of improving leaf quality in a reduced-alkaloid tobacco plant, the method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining at least one reduced-alkaloid tobacco plant, reduced-alkaloid tobacco plant part, or tobacco cell from said reduced-alkaloid tobacco plant;
• transforming said at least one tobacco plant, tobacco plant part, or tobacco cell with a recombinant DNA construct comprising a topping inducible promoter operably linked to a transcribable DNA sequence encoding a non-coding RNA for suppression of an ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) gene having at least 90% identity to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs:
• 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28;
• and
• regenerating at least one transformed tobacco plant comprising said recombinant DNA construct.