Cigarettes pretended to be useful
Genetically modified products have become a real breakthrough in crop production, allowing agronomists to grow not only varieties resistant to pests and bad weather, but also to increase the content of nutrients in them, for example, starch or protein.
Ramsey Lewis and Ralph Dewey from the University of the American State of North Carolina went the opposite way, using a long-tried method to reduce the content of harmful substances in tobacco leaves.
The experiment was a success – a tobacco variety with a reduced content of nornicotine has already been created.
Nornicotine is a precursor substance of N-nitrosonornicotine (NNN), one of the numerous carcinogens of tobacco smoke. Undesirable transformation into NNN occurs at the stage of processing tobacco leaves – drying, grinding and storage. By the way, this process, along with strong heating during smoking, makes a major contribution to the formation of toxins and carcinogens.
The Berley variety, namely, it was modified by agronomists, refers to "light", used exclusively for cigarettes. The interest in it is easily explained: more than 75% of all Burley plantations are located in the states of North Carolina and Kentucky, whose scientists formed a creative alliance together with specialists from the "multinational" Philip Morris, which paid for the research.
Scientists have "turned off" the enzyme nicotine demethylase in the plant, which converts nicotine into nornicotine. In the first attempt, scientists "turned off" the work of this gene using RNA interference. In this case, the introduction of very short RNA chains leads to a halt in the process of protein synthesis, but does not change the genome, and therefore heredity. In the leaves of the grown plant, as expected, they registered a significant decrease in the concentration of the enzyme and the reaction product – nornicotin.
They managed to achieve the same results in field studies: by introducing several mutations in the necotindemetylase gene, Lewis and Dewey grew tobacco, whose leaves after standard treatment contained 6 times less NNN.
Other advantages of a genetically modified representative of nightshade include a reduced content of nitrosamines, which, according to Lewis, are the most aggressive carcinogens of tobacco smoke in the laboratory. However, in addition to these carcinogens, the smoke contains several hundred more diverse dangerous compounds.
As the scientists noted, the specimen they created did not differ in all other characteristics from the "source" – they did not change either its "taste properties" or even resistance to parasites, in particular, black stem and blue mold, which cause thousands of damage to plantations.
Anticipating the attacks of anti-smoking fighters, scientists confirmed their "high" motives with several remarks in an article published in Plant Biotechnology Journal.
Firstly, they noted that the best way to avoid the harmful effects of tobacco is not to use its products, and not only for smoking. And secondly, "tobacco with a lower content or even the absence of harmful compounds can be used in the pharmaceutical industry."
It is unknown whether the sponsor of the research will want to miss the opportunity to create a new brand of "harmless cigarettes" or something like that. In 2006, an American federal court already banned Philip Morris and other tobacco companies from calling cigarettes "light", and a year ago the same court confirmed that the ban applies not only to the United States, but also to the rest of the world.
So far, the company has not lost the war with the opponents of smoking, although it has lost several battles to them. For example, last year a jury ordered the company to pay about $80 million to the widow of a smoker who died of cancer, but the decision was later overturned for procedural reasons. A class-action lawsuit for $11 billion continues to hang out between federal and state courts, which a group of former smokers and their relatives are demanding to recover from Philip Morris and other tobacco giants. The point in these cases is not set.
Despite the court squabbles, scientists, inspired by the success, are working hard to consolidate the results obtained in agricultural Burley and other types of tobacco already on an industrial scale. However, there are still many targets for genetic modifications in this amazing plant.
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