A recent study found that nicotine is transported from tobacco plants with a gene help. Japanese researchers have announced that this discovery could pave the way to cigarettes free. It is also known that tobacco plants produce nicotine in their roots and carry it to their leaves, but it is the first time in the world that a transporter gene was identified, according to this research.

Experts found that the gene Nt-JAT1 transports nicotine to vacuoles, or bags accumulating water and other substances in the cells of tobacco leaves. This finding will raise the possibility of developing a variety of tobacco that doesn’t store nicotine in its leaves. And if tobacco leaves will not contain nicotine then smokers will not become addicted to smoking. These changes would also be good for nonsmokers if tobacco smoke did not contain nicotine.

The transport gene could be used not only for the tobacco industry but also for medical and agricultural purposes, said Nobukazu Shitan, assistant professor at the Japanese. "I wonder if cigarettes containing little nicotine would sell well. But the gene could also transport compounds that could be used as medicine," he added. Nicotine is part of a group of commonly found compounds called alkaloids.

In general some alkaloids derived from plants are used to treat cancer and the gene discovery could be used to encourage plants to build up higher levels of useful alkaloids. There are many other genes, who also are involved in carrying nicotine through tobacco plants, said Shitan. But these genes should be studied because researchers are not yet sure of this findings.