1.   An Oakland biotechnology company agreed to plead guilty yesterday to conspiring with a major cigarette-maker to jack up the nicotine content of tobacco plants.

2.   -- Congressional investigators accused the tobacco industry of deliberately manipulating the nicotine content of cigarettes in an attempt to get smokers addicted.

3.   -- Controlling the nicotine content of cigarettes.

4.   Also requested are any records involving the nicotine content of cigarettes or the addictive nature of nicotine.

5.   Clinton also will demand that the Food and Drug Administration be given a freer hand than the June agreement allowed to regulate the nicotine content in cigarettes.

6.   Massachusetts was also the first state to require that cigarette makers disclose all additives and total nicotine content on labels in their products sold here.

7.   Nor, the agency says, would it invoke its authority to reduce the allowable nicotine content of cigarettes or even to ban cigarettes altogether.

8.   That means the government could require a gradual reduction in nicotine content in cigarettes if smoking rates did not decline.

9.   That filler consists of crushed tobacco leaves and stems, and has a lower nicotine content than pure tobacco.

10.   To do that, Philip Morris altered the nicotine content of test cigarettes.