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In many ways plant biotechnology first began when humans initiated cultivating and genetically crossing varieties of plant species to intentionally produce desired results. For example, imagine a human ten thousand years ago collecting the pollen from a wheat plant that was slightly taller than the other wheat plants then dusting this pollen onto the female flowers of other wheat plants. Over many years of collecting and dusting pollen from the tall offspring and putting this pollen onto more wheat plants, most of the wheat plants would be tall. This is the most common method used by cannabis breeders.
Molecular biology and plant biotechnology are only beginning to uncover the secrets of the cannabis plant. Scientists now have the opportunity to grow Cannabis plants in vitro (in a test tube or Petri dish), thereby being able to genetically modify these plants in dozens of ways. Fluorescent Cannabis, THC-producing roses, Cannabis that climbs like a vine, and phenomenal increases in branch number and flower size are only a few of the ways in which this plant can be enhanced through biotechnology.
Many would benefit from Cannabis biotechnology. For example, producing genetically transformed, THC-containing weed species might be an effective way to bypass legal issues and still allow sufferers of chronic illnesses to self-medicate. In other words, with biotechnology the legalities concerning Cannabis cultivation diminish. Within the next few years, through biotechnology, a surrogate plant will soon be created that synthesizes THC. This might lead some policy makers to increase their vigilance against the THC molecule itself. Conversely, they may finally put their war on this beneficial plant to rest.
One of the most fundamental components of plant biotechnology is the ability to introduce foreign genes.
Tissue culture is a method where living tissue is sustained apart from an entire organism. It allows for growing organs (i.e. roots) or cell masses in vitro, which literally means, “in glass”. This requires the tissues be placed on a special growth media that contains all the necessary ions and sugars to sustain its growth and energy needs. This is called plant tissue culture. Fortunately for plant biotechnologists, plant tissues grown on this type of media are also very susceptible to taking up foreign DNA. This is how transgenic plants are often created.
In Cannabis tissue culture, auxins and cytokinins are used to control root and shoot formation of a young tissue growing in vitro. From a scientific view it is interesting to know how Cannabis plants are growing and being maintained within their cells. Hormones regulate nearly every response and function within the cannabis plant.
All though it is possible to breed Cannabis with limited success without any knowledge of the laws of inheritance, the full potential of diligent breeding, and the line of action most likely to lead to success, is realized by breeders who have mastered a working knowledge of genetics. As we know already, all information transmitted from generation to generation must be contained in the pollen of the staminate parent and the ovule of the pistillate parent. Fertilization unites these two sets of genetic information, a seed forms, and a new generation is begun. Both pollen and ovules are known as gametes, and the transmitted units determining the expression of a character are known as genes. Individual plants have two identical sets of genes (2n) in every cell except the gametes, which through reduction division have only one set of genes (in). Upon fertilization one set from each parent combines to form a seed (2n). The medicinal value of the Cannabis plant is based on its production of high levels of organic cannabinoid compounds, several of which bind to natural endocannabinoid receptors in the human brain. Chiefly among these molecules are THC and CBD, the two cannabinoids most strongly correlated with the psychoactive and medicinal properties of Cannabis. Many years of intensive selective breeding have generated strains with extremely high THC or CBD levels, and unique THC/CBD ratios, but the genetic basis for these traits is not understood. Cannabis -- aka "skunk" -- has been selectively bred to increase the level of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) upping the potency through selective breeding, another important molecule, cannabidiol (CBD), has been selectively eliminated over time. Evidence points to mechanisms that make it difficult to breed plants that are simultaneously high in both of these compounds. One reason for this is that the enzymes responsible for their production (THC synthase and CBD synthase) are in competition for the same precursor molecules. Another is the likely possibility that these two enzymes are encoded by different alleles of the same gene – which would mean that only strains with one copy of each gene will have the capability of generating both cannabinoids.
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