Compositions and methods for producing tobacco plants and products having altered alkaloid levels

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12075746-B2
Application number	US-201916246281-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2019
Priority date	Jan 12, 2018
Publication date	Sep 3, 2024
Grant date	Sep 3, 2024

Abstract

The present disclosure provides tobacco Nic1b locus and associated genes. Also provided are tobacco plants with altered total alkaloid and nicotine levels and commercially acceptable leaf grade, their development via breeding or transgenic approaches, and production of tobacco products from these tobacco plants. Further provided are compositions and methods for producing tobacco plants having novel mutations or alleles to reduce nicotine levels. Further provided are sequence polymorphisms and molecular markers for breeding tobacco with reduced nicotine or alkaloids while maintaining tobacco leaf grade and tobacco product quality.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A tobacco plant, or part thereof, comprising a non-natural mutation that introduces a stop codon into SEQ ID NO: 3, wherein said tobacco plant produces a leaf, when cured, having a USDA grade index value comparable to that of a control plant lacking said non-natural mutation when grown and cured in similar conditions; and
wherein a cured leaf of said tobacco plant, comprises a nicotine level of less than 3.0%.

2. The tobacco plant, or part thereof, of claim 1 , wherein said tobacco plant is a Nicotiana tabacum plant.

3. The tobacco plant, or part thereof, of claim 2 , wherein said tobacco plant further comprises one or more additional non-natural mutations in two or more sequences selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 208 to 214, wherein said additional non-natural mutation introduces a stop codon.

4. The tobacco plant, or part thereof, of claim 2 , wherein said tobacco plant produces a leaf, when cured, having a USDA grade index value of 70 or more.

5. The tobacco plant, or part thereof, of claim 2 , wherein said cured leaf of said tobacco plant comprises nicotine at a level below 40% of the nicotine level of a cured leaf from a control plant when grown and cured in similar conditions, and wherein said control plant does not comprise said non-natural mutation.

6. The tobacco plant, or part thereof, of claim 2 , wherein said cured leaf from said tobacco plant comprises a nicotine level of less than 2.0%.

7. A tobacco plant, or part thereof, comprising a non-transgenic and non-natural mutation that introduces a stop codon into SEQ ID NO:3, wherein said non-transgenic and non-natural mutation reduces the nicotine level of said tobacco plant to below 60% of the nicotine level of a control tobacco plant when grown in similar growth conditions, wherein said tobacco plant produces a leaf, when cured, having a USDA grade index value comparable to the USDA grade index value of said control plant, wherein said control plant does not comprise said non-transgenic and non-natural mutation, and wherein said tobacco plant and said control tobacco plant are Nicotiana tabacum plants.

8. A population of the tobacco plants of any one of claims 1, 2, and 3 to 7 .

9. Cured tobacco material from the tobacco plant of any one of claims 1, 2, and 3 to 7 .

10. The cured tobacco material of claim 9 , wherein said cured tobacco material is selected from the group consisting of flue cured tobacco material, air cured tobacco material, fire cured tobacco material, and sun cured tobacco material.

11. A tobacco blend comprising said cured tobacco material of claim 9 .

12. A tobacco product comprising said cured tobacco material of claim 9 .

13. The tobacco product of claim 12 , wherein said tobacco product is selected from the group consisting of a cigarette, cigarillo, non-ventilated recess filter cigarette, vented recess filter cigarette, cigar, snuff, pipe tobacco, cigar tobacco, cigarette tobacco, chewing tobacco, leaf tobacco, shredded tobacco, and cut tobacco.

14. The tobacco product of claim 12 , wherein said tobacco product is a smokeless tobacco product.

15. The tobacco product of claim 14 , wherein said smokeless tobacco product is selected from the group consisting of loose leaf chewing tobacco, plug chewing tobacco, moist snuff, and nasal snuff.

16. The tobacco plant, or part thereof, of claim 1 , wherein said tobacco plant is from a variety selected from the group consisting of flue-cured tobacco, air-cured tobacco, dark fire-cured tobacco, Galpão tobacco, and Oriental tobacco.

17. The tobacco plant, or part thereof, of claim 1 , wherein said tobacco plant is from a variety selected from the group consisting of Burley tobacco, Maryland tobacco, and dark air-cured tobacco.

18. The cured tobacco material of claim 9 , wherein said cured tobacco material comprises nicotine at a level of less than 2.0%.

19. A tobacco product comprising the cured tobacco material of claim 18 .

20. The tobacco product of claim 19 , wherein said tobacco product is selected from the group consisting of a cigarette, cigarillo, non-ventilated recess filter cigarette, vented recess filter cigarette, cigar, snuff, pipe tobacco, cigar tobacco, cigarette tobacco, chewing tobacco, leaf tobacco, shredded tobacco, and cut tobacco.

21. The tobacco product of claim 19 , wherein said tobacco product is a smokeless tobacco product.

Assignees

• Altria Client Services Llc

Inventors

• Pramod Sreepriya
• De Godoy Lusso Marcos Fernando
• Frederick Jesse
• Adams Andrew Carl
• Xu Dongmei

Classifications

• C12N15/8227

  Root-specific · CPC title

• A24B15/10

  Chemical features of tobacco products or tobacco substitutes · CPC title

• A24B3/12

  Steaming, curing, or flavouring tobacco · CPC title

• A24B3/08

  Blending tobacco · CPC title

• A01H1/06

  Processes for producing mutations, e.g. treatment with chemicals or with radiation (specific mutations prepared by genetic engineering on plant cell or plant tissues C12N15/00 {; process for producing transgenic plants C12N15/82}) · CPC title