Mysterious Origins of The Nicotine Molecule Are Finally Revealed

Summary: For over 200 years, scientists have wondered exactly how tobacco plants make nicotine. Now, they finally have the answer! Researchers discovered that the plant uses a sneaky sugar molecule to help build the nicotine, and then the sugar completely vanishes.

Why does this matter? Scientists already use tobacco plants to grow life-saving medicines and vaccines, but the addictive nicotine gets in the way. Now that they know the plant's secret recipe, they can block it. Soon, we could have nicotine-free tobacco plants used strictly for farming healthy medicines!

Source: sciencealert URL: sciencealert.com/mysterious-origins-of-the-nicotine-molecule-are-finally-revealed (opens in new tab)