Scientific name: Nicotiana tabacum
Common name(s): Tobacco
Name as shown in Phylogenes: Tobacco
Ploidy: Tetraploid (4x)
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 evolved from the interspecific hybridization of the ancestor 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's BY-2 plant cell lines are widely used in understanding 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):
