Analyses of diverse low alkaloid tobacco germplasm identify naturally occurring nucleotide variability contributing to reduced leaf nicotine accumulation.

Unlabelled: Recent suggestions for mandated lowering of nicotine content in cigarettes have prompted tobacco breeders to search for germplasm with allelic variability contributing to low alkaloid accumulation. In this research, we phenotyped a series of 81 selected diverse tobacco introductions (TIs) to identify a sub-group with authentic low alkaloid phenotypes. We also genotyped these materials for sequences associated with the and loci previously reported to influence tobacco alkaloid biosynthesis.