Abstract
The 53rd Tobacco Science Research Conference (TSRC), held in Montreal on September 12-15, 1999, was attended by about 300 scientists; 82 papers and 11 posters were presented. A keynote theme of the Conference was addressed in the Symposium on “Genetics and the Future of Tobacco”, with four contributions focussing on the effects of modern gene technology on tobacco growing, possible uses of transgenic tobacco and the main areas of research in this field, as well as consumer acceptance of transgenic products and regulatory issues, respectively.