Editing Tobacco (section)

===Genetic modification===
Because of its importance as a research tool, transgenic tobacco was the first genetically modified (GM) crop to be tested in field trials, in the United States and France in 1986; China became the first country in the world to approve commercial planting of a GM crop in 1993, which was tobacco.<ref name="James 1996">{{cite web|last=James|first=Clive|title=Global Review of the Field Testing and Commercialization of Transgenic Plants: 1986 to 1995|url=http://www.isaaa.org/kc/Publications/pdfs/isaaabriefs/Briefs%201.pdf|publisher=The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications|access-date=July 17, 2010|year=1996}}</ref>

====Field trials====
Many varieties of transgenic tobacco have been intensively tested in field trials. Agronomic traits such as resistance to pathogens (viruses, particularly to the [[tobacco mosaic virus]] (TMV); fungi; bacteria and nematodes); weed management via herbicide tolerance; resistance against insect pests; resistance to drought and cold; and production of useful products such as pharmaceuticals; and use of GM plants for [[bioremediation]], have all been tested in over 400 field trials using tobacco.<ref name=GMOCompass>{{cite web |url=http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/database/plants/304.tobacco.html |title=Tobacco |publisher=GMO Compass |access-date=October 3, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002090217/http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/database/plants/304.tobacco.html |archive-date=October 2, 2013}}</ref>

====Production====
Currently, only the US is producing GM tobacco.<ref name="James 1996" /><ref name=GMOCompass /> The Chinese virus-resistant tobacco was withdrawn from the market in China in 1997.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Conner AJ, Glare TR, Nap JP |date=January 2003 |title=The release of genetically modified crops into the environment. Part II. Overview of ecological risk assessment |journal=Plant J. |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=19–46 |pmid=12943539 |doi=10.1046/j.0960-7412.2002.001607.x |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{rp|3}} From 2002 to 2010, cigarettes made with GM tobacco with reduced nicotine content were available in the US under the market name Quest.<ref name=GMOCompass /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/ritarubin/2017/08/14/if-you-took-the-nicotine-out-of-cigarettes-would-fewer-people-want-to-smoke/|title=If You Took The Nicotine Out Of Cigarettes, Would Fewer People Want To Smoke?|last=Rubin|first=Rita|website=Forbes|language=en|access-date=May 3, 2019}}</ref>