Research by scientists at the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories, Thomas Jefferson University (United States) can potentially provide a new added-value for the tobacco plant: oil for biodiesel production. Many of the plant oils used for biodiesel production are commonly found in the seeds. The tobacco plant also has a "potent oil biosynthesis machinery", with an ability to accumulate 40% of oil in its seed. However, because the tobacco plant yields only a moderate amount of seeds (only about 600 kg per acre), the Thomas Jefferson University scientists modified the tobacco plant (by metabolic engineering approaches), so that the oil can be overexpressed in the leaves. Two metabolic approaches were explored to enhance the oil content in tobacco leaves: (1) an Arabidopsis thaliana gene diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) coding for a key enzyme in triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis, was expressed in tobacco under the control of a strong ribulose-biphosphate carboxylase small subunit promoter, and (2) a master regulator of seed maturation and seed oil storage under the control of an inducible Alc promoter was expressed in tobacco Arabidopsis gene LEAFY COTYLEDON 2 (LEC2). The first approach resulted in a 20-fold increase in oil accumulation in the tobacco leaves. In the second approach, "stimulation of LEC2 expression in mature tobacco plants by acetaldehyde led to the accumulation of up to 6.8% per dry weight of total extracted FA (fatty acid)". The research findings are published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal (URL above)..