Tobacco plants having reduced nicotine demethylase activity
AssigneeU.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company LLC
InventorsDongmei Xu, Mark T. Nielsen, Yanxin Shen
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Abstract
The present invention generally relates to methods and materials involved in producing tobacco plants having reduced levels of conversion of nicotine to nornicotine. In certain embodiments, the invention is directed to mutations in a nicotine demethylase gene, tobacco plants comprising mutations in a nicotine demethylase gene, and tobacco compositions and products thereof. In other embodiments, the invention is directed toward nicotine demethylase RNA interference, tobacco plants comprising a nicotine demethylase RNA interference transgene, and tobacco compositions and products thereof.
Claims18
A tobacco hybrid comprising plants having a mutant allele at a nicotine demethylase locus, said mutant allele encoding the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:2, wherein the tryptophan at amino acid 329 is replaced with a stop codon.
A method of making a tobacco plant, comprising the steps of:
- a) inducing mutagenesis in cells of a Nicotiana species;
- b) obtaining one or more plants from said cells;
- c) identifying at least one of said plants that contains a nicotine demethylase gene
- encoding the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:2, wherein the tryptophan at amino acid 329 is replaced with a stop codon.
A method for producing a tobacco plant comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a first tobacco plant having a mutation in an endogenous nicotine demethylase gene having the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:2 and a second tobacco plant that contains a desired phenotypic trait, wherein the mutation is a stop codon at residue 329;
- b) crossing said first tobacco plant with said second tobacco plant to produce one or more F1 progeny plants;
- c) collecting seed produced by said F1 progeny plants;
- and
- d) germinating said seed to produce tobacco plants having decreased expression of a nicotine demethylase gene.
A tobacco variety comprising plants having a mutant allele at a nicotine demethylase locus, said mutant allele encoding the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:2, wherein the tryptophan at amino acid 329 is replaced with a stop codon.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.