Team:BCU/Description

Description

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Nicotine (1-methyl-2-[3-pyridyl-pyrrolidine], C10H14N2), a major alkaloid in tobacco plants, is a significant factor of evaluation for tobacco and cigarettes. Nicotine plays a critical role in smoking addiction and is well known to be harmful to human beings, because it easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and biological membranes. Meanwhile, with large quantities of tobacco products being produced and consumed, tobacco waste, which includes many toxic substances such as nicotine, aminobiphenyl, naphthylamine, and benzo(a)- pyrene, is entering the environment. Moreover, a number of toxic and harmful substances containing nicotine and other alkaloids are generated in tobacco processing and cannot be recycled, producing serious environmental problems.

2

In recent years, more nicotine-degrading bacteria have been reported, and the degradation pathways of nicotine have been elucidated. The degradation of nicotine through the pyrrolidine pathway by Pseudomonas has been extensively studied.

3

In our study, the first three gene NicA, pnao and sapd is crucial for nicotine degradation, so we will construct a pathway to express the three gene in top10.