Genetically engineering tobacco plants could enable a more sustainable production method for psychedelic drugs, which are increasingly in demand for research and medical uses
Yes, this is basic research, which generally starts with common model organisms that many labs have access to. This increases reproducibility of the early results. The study mentions expression of the relevant genes and proteins in the buds as well, and also calls out one of the pathways in tomato, so perhaps the next step could be to test it in other nightshades and their fruit
Tobacco industry funded a huge amount of molecular biology in transgenic tobacco and it ended up being a well understood plant model system to express anything.
Yes, this is basic research, which generally starts with common model organisms that many labs have access to. This increases reproducibility of the early results. The study mentions expression of the relevant genes and proteins in the buds as well, and also calls out one of the pathways in tomato, so perhaps the next step could be to test it in other nightshades and their fruit
Yeah, was just surprised tobacco is a common base for experiments.
And that explains why it’s used here, it’s never going to be at scale
Tobacco industry funded a huge amount of molecular biology in transgenic tobacco and it ended up being a well understood plant model system to express anything.