17 



surprised that he could not get the nicotine levels as high as he 

 anticipated. In fact, in his 1977 paper, the highest nicotine 

 level he reported in these specially bred lines was 3.4 percent 

 total nicotine, within the normal range for flue-cured tobacco. 



At the same time, international efforts focused on 



controlling and manipulating nicotine by alternative methods. 



For example, the use of reconstituted tobacco: 



"... [LTR, a maker of reconstituted tobacco] which 

 homogenises tobacco for various European cigarette houses 

 cannot only reduce the tar in the sheet it sends back to 

 clients; it is able to work into client's scrap and waste 

 new tobacco of the rustica type, rich in nicotine, in order 

 to change the relationship of nicotine and tar in the sheet. 

 It is able to do the same by the alternative method of 

 adding salts of pure nicotine into the slurry that 

 eventually becomes tobacco sheet. This is an operation 

 parallel to, though more exact than, that on which US 

 geneticists are engaged, in seeking to develop types of ^ 

 tobacco that are low on tar but fairly rich in nicotine." 



Over the next several years Dr. Chaplin continued his 

 efforts to breed a tobacco plant with a higher nicotine level. 

 During that time, an employee of a Brown & Williamson-affiliated 

 company asked Dr. Chaplin for some of his seeds. Some of Dr. 

 Chaplin's original plant varieties were used as a basis for Brown 

 & Williamson's work. From what we can gather, there was no 

 formal release of this high-nicotine tobacco variety for private 

 use. In the early 1980 's, Brown & Williamson grew a number of 

 different plant lines on its experimental farm in Wilson, North 

 Carolina, selecting those that had the best agronomic 

 characteristics. 



In 1983, Brown & Williamson contracted with DNA Plant 

 Technology to work on tobacco breeding. Much of the 

 developmental work on Y-1 took place in the laboratories, 

 greenhouses, and fields owned by DNA Plant Technology. After he 

 retired from USDA, in 1986, Brown & Williamson also hired Dr. 

 Chaplin as a consultant to work on Y-1 and other projects. 



The high-nicotine tobacco variety Y-1 was developed by a 

 combination of conventional and advanced genetic breeding 

 technicjues. (Chart 6) These include traditional crosses and back 

 crosses between different plant varieties and more sophisticated 



