Tobacco biotechnology is turning over a new leaf

摘要

A defining characteristic of molecular biology is the use of simple model organisms to elucidate the workings of more complicated ones. Its historically favorite model, Escherichia coli, which began public life from humble origins—as noted in a scatological rhyme of my graduate-school days that refers to it as "the subject of innumerable doctoral theses"-was not only the genetic laboratory of molecular biology, but became a major production tool of biotechnology. In a curiously symmetrical relationship, Nicotinia tabacum, a once nobly regarded plant, praised in even more blasphemous rhymes, became scientifically prominent as one of the important model systems for plant molecular biology at a time when its public persona was becoming more and morenon grata. As demonstrated by two papers in this month's Bio/Technology, however, its most recent transformation into a key production vehicle of the transgenic "pharm" may go a long way toward rehabilitating its tarnished image.