Transgenic and mutation-based suppression of a berberine bridge enzyme-like (BBL) gene family reduces alkaloid content in field-grown tobacco.

Motivation exists to develop tobacco cultivars with reduced nicotine content for the purpose of facilitating compliance with expected tobacco product regulations that could mandate the lowering of nicotine levels per se, or the reduction of carcinogenic alkaloid-derived tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). A berberine bridge enzyme-like (BBL) gene family was recently characterized for N. tabacum and found to catalyze one of the final steps in pyridine alkaloid synthesis for this species. Because this gene family acts downstream in the nicotine biosynthetic pathway, it may represent an attractive target for genetic strategies with the objective of reducing alkaloid content in field-grown tobacco. In this research, we produced transgenic doubled haploid lines of tobacco cultivar K326 carrying an RNAi construct designed to reduce expression of the BBL gene family. Field-grown transgenic lines carrying functional RNAi constructs exhibited average cured leaf nicotine levels of 0.684%, in comparison to 2.454% for the untransformed control. Since numerous barriers would need to be overcome to commercialize transgenic tobacco cultivars, we subsequently pursued a mutation breeding approach to identify EMS-induced mutations in the three most highly expressed isoforms of the BBL gene family. Field evaluation of individuals possessing different homozygous combinations of truncation mutations in BBLa, BBLb, and BBLc indicated that a range of alkaloid phenotypes could be produced, with the triple homozygous knockout genotype exhibiting greater than a 13-fold reduction in percent total alkaloids. The novel source of genetic variability described here may be useful in future tobacco breeding for varied alkaloid levels.