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NCSU to map tobacco

North Carolina State University in Raleigh and Philip Morris USA of New York have reached an agreement under which the tobacco company will provide $17.6 million over four-plus years to fund the university's mapping of the tobacco genome.

The Tobacco Genome Initiative will be carried out in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The contract is the largest ever signed for a research effort in the college and among the largest for the university.

"This initiative marks a milestone in N.C. State's emergence as a national leader in genomic research, and opens a new chapter in our understanding of the tobacco genome," said N.C. State Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, Ph.D.

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The research initiative will be led by Charles Opperman, Ph.D., professor of plant pathology and genetics. "Tobacco is an important model system," Opperman said. "It's used to study other plants that may be more difficult to work with."

When the mapping is complete, tobacco will be among a handful of plants whose genomes have been mapped, such as rice and the Arabidopsis weed, which is a member of the mustard family.

"We hope to sequence over 90 percent of tobacco's genes," said Opperman. "This does not mean we'll know what all the genes do, although in some cases we will be able to determine gene function." It's not clear now many genes a tobacco plant has, but estimates hover between 25,000 and 50,000 genes.

The information produced by the project should be valuable to scientists working with a range of other plants. Tomatoes, potatoes and peppers are relatives of tobacco, so much that is learned from the Tobacco Genome Initiative may be directly applicable to understanding how these relatives function.

At the same time, the project is likely to provide information that may lead to genetic engineering of tobacco for alternative uses. Tobacco is thought to be a promising candidate for molecular farming. It may be possible to change the genetic makeup of tobacco plants so that the plants produce valuable chemicals or drugs. The plants would then be harvested and processed for these chemicals or drugs.

While the Tobacco Does your company need to jump-start the New Genome Initiative will be Year with some crucial meetings? Hold them at relatively new facilities in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences such as the Genome Research Laboratory, a 4,000-square-foot, $3 million lab on Centennial Campus.

N.C. State has contracted with Orion Genomics of St. Louis, for the use of the company's proprietary Gene Thresher technology that identifies gene-rich regions of a genome. Only about 1 percent of the tobacco genome is thought to contain genes, so the technology will help narrow the search.

The signing of the agreement with Philip Morris comes at the conclusion of a year-long pilot study. "We developed some of the tools we'll need for the project," said Opperman. "We tried out sequencing strategies, developed some physical infrastrucLure and data analysis tools. The first year was basically a feasibility study. Could we scale up and do this? The answer was 'yes.'"

Does your company need to jump-start the New Year with some crucial meetings? Hold them at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center's Charles Hamner Conference Center. Visit www.hamnercenter.org for more information.

Technology Industry

NCSU to map tobacco

BT Catalyst, Jan, 2003

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