Skip to main content
45th TWC, Tob. Work. Conf., 2012, abstr. 33

Nicotiana hybrids for the contained production of plant-made materials

CHAMBERS O.D.; MUNDELL R.E. Jr.; RICE J.H.; MILLWOOD R.J.; STEWART C.N.; DAVIES H.M.
KTRDC, 1401 University Dr., University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0236 USA

The Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center (KTRDC) research mission includes the development of tobacco as a production system for pharmaceutical and industrial materials. Strict regulatory requirements to safeguard the conventional crop from co-mingling concerns and to protect the environment from an accidental loss of containment are in place. Still there is a need to develop specialized farming methods and custom tobacco varieties for these new applications of the crop to reduce production costs and optimize the suitability of tobacco for such applications. Highlights of this work to develop a specialized tobacco crop include work on developing custom tobacco varieties with traits such as identity preservation, sterility, and engineered disease, insect, and herbicide resistance, as well as novel production methods such as multiple and machine harvesting. Results suggest biomass production of 70,000 to 80,000 kg/ha can consistently be obtained. In addition, results from a collaborative project between the University of Kentucky and the University of Tennessee showing the outcrossing potential of a KTRDC hybrid were presented. The research used a modified Nelder-wheel design to field test gene-flow from a KTRDC hybrid to indicator plants and to assess seed set on the hybrid. The results suggested a high level of sterility for the KTRDC hybrid and thus potential for improved containment of genetically engineered tobacco production. (Reprinted with permission)