22nd Century Group Receives USPTO Notice of Allowance for Regulating Nicotine in Tobacco with Transcription Factor Gene

22nd Century Group, Inc.

announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for tobacco plants with altered nicotine content developed by using nucleic acids derived from a transcription factor gene identified as NbTF7 – also known as NbARF1. NbTF7 simultaneously regulates the expression of multiple nicotine biosynthesis genes. The allowed claims of Patent Application No. 13/464,212, entitled, NUCLEIC ACID SEQUENCES ENCODING TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS REGULATING ALKALOID BIOSYNTHESIS AND THEIR USE IN MODIFYING PLANT METABOLISM, cover producing tobacco plants with altered nicotine levels by mutagenesis of the transcription factor gene NbTF7 that negatively regulates nicotine biosynthesis. NbTF7 is one of