Scientists engineered a soil bacterium to turn nicotine from tobacco industry waste into a valuable chemical called 6-hydroxynicotine, offering a way to recycle a toxic byproduct instead of letting it pollute the environment.
1
A gene-edited bacterial strain overexpressing nicotine dehydrogenase produced up to 1.78 g/L of 6-hydroxynicotine, with a production rate of 104.4 mg/L per hour.
2
Adding 0.8 mM zinc sulfate blocked a competing enzyme (6-hydroxynicotine oxidase) and extended the window for product accumulation without hurting nicotine breakdown.
3
The process scaled up successfully in a stirred bioreactor using both pure nicotine and real tobacco extracts, with oxygen levels in the tank serving as a useful signal for monitoring the reaction.
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