Clones are durable enough to prove that sometimes cannabis is medicine

Cannabis strains (cultivars) cause a lot of debate. Seeds from a single strain can express a variety of phenotypes and profiles. And clones of a single phenotype can mutate and undergo changes. However, terpene and cannabinoid profiles can be kept consistent across a long lineage of generations, clone after clone. In fact, the genetic stability has helped prove to federal authorities that cannabis is medicine – once or twice.

For half a century, clones have been used by breeders to consistently produce cannabis with similar profiles.

sow inconsistencies

A popular study conducted by Dalhousie University last year discovered that terpene genetics are a key between indica and sativa strains in today’s market. At the same time, the researchers also discovered how terribly inconsistent strains on store shelves have become. (1) Fortunately, as the lead scientist behind a Dalhousie University study said in an email, clones can preserve terpene and cannabinoid profiles harvest after harvest.

Plants grown from seed will be unique from one another. If a couple of seeds in a seed bag are all labeled with the same “name” then that name doesn’t mean much because each seed will produce a unique plant. However, it is possible that these seeds all came from the same mother plant, in which case it is possible that all seeds are siblings to each other (i.e. same mother and father).

But if you are propagating from cuttings or via tissue culture, which is now standard practice for any large-scale commercial entity, then large numbers (theoretically infinite) of genetically identical plants can be produced, and then it would make sense to assign each a unique “strain” name ‘ which propagates.

Professor Sean Myles

Three days after this clarification, a University of Guelph study was published that mildly contradicted Myles’ suspicion. Mosaicism, the presence of multiple genetic lineages in a single cell, occurred in one lineage of cannabis clones due to genetic mutations, according to the study. (2)

Skunk #1 bred from seed and photographed by Flower Patch Humboldt, seeds from AG Seed Co (Todd McCormick). Years of storage > 24 more years of storage > selectively reproduced by McCormick (AG) in 2020.

From clones to homozygotes

When we turned the clock back about 50 years, breeders were put to the test. Cultivating genetics capable of obtaining consistent clones was a rite of passage to enter an elusive circle. A circle of breeders officially known as the Sacred Seeds Collective disbanded after a mysterious DEA bankruptcy in the 1980s; notorious for his involvement with Skunkman Sam (David Watson).

Coincidentally, HY Mohan Ram published two studies in 1982. dr Rita Sett and Mohan Ram from the University of Delhi in India were the first to reverse the sex of a cannabis plant using silver thiosulphate (STS). Rather, the Indian research couple used ethepon and an ethylene agonist (silver nitrate and AVG) to convert males to females. (3) Within a year, their research was being used by David Watson to self-grow a cannabis plant by converting half a female to a male.

The result, according to a study by Etienne Petrus Maria de Meijer, a Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences, once employed by Watson. (4) Aside from making feminized seeds, selfing was a new way to propagate genetically stable cannabis, similar to cloning.

But Watson bred a consistent and medicinally viable phenotype from regular cuttings between 1969 and 1981. This means that Skunk #1 was bred before the STS method for cannabis existed. Rather, a supposedly exhaustive process of selecting and selecting a few plants from hundreds of traditional clones led to the development of Original Skunk #1.

Linnan Pan, who lists Hortapharm’s David Watson as a client (5), explains in her doctoral thesis how Watson’s genetics were instrumental in GW’s deals with Big Pharma.

Traditional clones of clinically stable cannabis

Skunk #1 and its clones were so enduring that GW Pharmaceuticals was able to turn them into a clinical cannabis drug called Sativex. But of course, even the Skunk used by GW in the late 90’s expressed a very different profile than the original Skunk mother from the late 60’s.

Still, clones of Skunk genetics have been resilient enough to secure a controversial deal with Bayer to distribute Sativex to Canada. (5) Meanwhile, years later, the FDA still refuses to consider cannabis a drug because of chemical variability.

Synthetic THC was simply the preferred choice of drug regulators, rejecting herbal medicines. In a cruel comparison, an anesthetic called Ketelaar consists of a random mix of two unique ketamine molecules with opposite effects. (6) Essentially, racemic ketamine is completely contradictory but still an approved anesthetic, contradicting the fate of cannabis as a medicine in the hands of federal authorities.

Original Haze. Genetics and photo by AG Seed Co.

A veil of genetics from clone to clone

True, cannabis can become a veil of genetics that can change when cloned and copied. A prime example is a contradictory strain called Haze, said to have been created in Hollywood in 1969 by Skunkman’s neighbors R. And J., The Haze Brothers. Original Haze was a cross between Colombian, Indian, Thai and possibly Mexican genetics. Although it has been said that Afghan or OG Kush genetics mixed into today’s strains can also cause genetic inconsistencies.

Before the 80’s, indica and sativa weren’t so mysterious, as each strain’s landrace origins were easy to trace. This was because seed banks were still in their infancy and a limited number of individuals crossed different landraces. Essentially, genetics were far less diverse before things exploded from a narrow lineage. Landrace used to be used to describe cannabis. That changed after the days of Skunk and the Super Sativa Seed Club. Since then, cannabis has been sold as a single strain.

Regardless of Haze and recent research from Guelph University, consistency with highly specific strains is possible. It doesn’t help, however, that cannabis genetics became completely ephemeral a few decades after Original Skunk and the first seed banks worldwide. The chemical diversity actually unlocks more medical potential. This has also made it counterintuitively difficult to prove to authorities like the FDA and DEA that cannabis is a drug.

Essentially, marketing is another big mistake hampering the viability of plant genetics and therapeutics. Of course, isn’t that peanuts compared to a century of bureaucratic nonsense transferred from political and pharmaceutical bigwigs to a medical resource?

sources

1. Watts, S., McElroy, M., Migicovsky, Z. et al. Cannabis labeling is linked to genetic variation in terpene synthase genes. nat. plant 7, 1330-1334 (2021).
2. Adamek, Kristian & Jones, A. & Torkamaneh, Davoud. (2021). Accumulation of somatic mutations leads to genetic mosaicism in cannabis. The Plant Genome. e20169. 10.1002/tpg2.20169.
3. Mohan Ram, HY, & Sett, R (1982). Induction of fertile male flowers in genetically female cannabis sativa plants by anionic silver nitrate and silver thiosulfate complex. SHIELD. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 62(4), 369-375. | 3b. HY Mohan Ram, Rina Sett, Modification of Growth and Sex Expression in Cannabis sativa by Aminoethoxyvinylglycine and Ethephon, Journal of Plant Physiology, Volume 105, Issue 2, 1982, Pages 165-172, ISSN 0044-328X, | 3c. HY Mohan Ram, Rina Sett, Reversal of Ethephon-Induced Feminization in Male Plants of Cannabis sativa by Ethylene Antagonists, Plant Physiology Journal, Volume 107, Issue 1, 1982, Pages 85-89, ISSN 0044-328X.
4. de Meijer, E.P., Bagatta, M., Carboni, A., Crucitti, P., Moliterni, VM, Ranalli, P., & Mandolino, G. (2003). The inheritance of the chemical phenotype in Cannabis sativa L. Genetics, 163(1), 335-346.
5. Pan, Linan. 2007. The Sativex Feasibility Study in China. Thesis. University of Twente.
6. Paul R, Schaaff N, Padberg F, Möller HJ, & Frodl T (2009). Comparison of racemic ketamine and S-ketamine in treatment-resistant major depression: report of two cases. The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry: the Official Journal of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry, 10(3), 241-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/15622970701714370
7. by Meijer. 1994. Diversity in Cannabis. Agricultural University of Wageningen.