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Scientific name: Nicotiana tabacum

Common name(s): Tobacco

Name as shown in Phylogenes: Tobacco

Ploidy: Tetraploid

Description:

Nicotiana tabacum, also known as tobacco, is an annual herb and member of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family that also includes other familiar species like eggplants (fruit), bell peppers (fruit), potatoes (tuber), and tomatoes (fruit). N. tabacum is an allotetraploid, derived from the interspecific hybridization of the ancestors N. sylvestris and N. tomentosiformis about 200,000 years ago.

Historically, tobacco has been used as model for understanding disease susceptibility, for example, plant infection by the Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Tobacco BY-2 plant cell lines are widely used in understanding plant molecular processes.

Reference(s):

Sierro N, Battey JN, Ouadi S, Bakaher N, Bovet L, Willig A, Goepfert S,Peitsch MC, Ivanov NV. The tobacco genome sequence and its comparison with those of tomato and potato. Nat Commun. 2014 May 8;5:3833. doi: 10.1038/ncomms4833.

Genome Database(s):

Sol Genomics Network

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