AFP: Japanese researchers envisage nicotine-free tobacco
Japanese researchers have announced they had identified a gene that transports nicotine through tobacco plants, a discovery that could pave the way to cigarettes free of the carcinogen. It was already known that tobacco plants produce nicotine in their roots and carry it to their leaves, but it is the first time in the world that a transporter gene was identified, according to one of the researchers...The finding "raised the possibility of developing a variety of tobacco that does not store nicotine in its leaves," said the team led by professor Kazufumi Yazaki. "This would enable smokers to stem nicotine addiction without using anti-smoking goods," it said, adding it would also be good for nonsmokers if tobacco smoke did not contain nicotine..."I wonder if cigarettes containing little nicotine would sell well. But the gene could also transport compounds that could be used as medicine," he told AFP...more...
