Mapping the genetics of the cannabis plant is changing the world around you, adding to better yields, better resistance to disease, and also higher stress tolerance.
Researchers are also applying this directly to cannabis through mapping the strains genome, giving new breeding and varieties of cannabis too.
The problem with Current strains
Right now, reports have found that the strain names don’t really have the right constituents that come within the cultivar, which leads to false diversity on the market, especially since the names of this, along with the effects get categorized from the scientific types of classification systems.
More scientifically valid ways of categorizing the cannabis, such as through chemotypes and chemovars are the best way to do this, especially based on terpenes and cannabinoids.
This can help customers figure out the right effects, leaving so much to be desired when you look at the genomics, especially with understanding cannabis at its core.
Sequencing the genetics of these strains helps to restore not only meaning, but also function to this.
Rather than getting seeds all labeled just Hindu Kush belonging to that, there are now differ ways to get different traits from the strains, offering more of a genetic presence in one way than another.
Why this Benefits Breeders
Right now, qualitative data has been the focal part of breeding cannabis.
While prohibition did force many cultivars to work underground, they’ve managed to create the best varieties of cannabis that many smokers still love.
These horticulturists that have these strains do use their eyes to judge it all, and also to look at the yield and shape, also to scrutinize the terpenes that are in there, and also weigh in on the psychotropic results of this.
They keep the specimens with the best traits but also breed them with others that are similar.
While this is a form of creating hybrids, this sort of breeding is not as efficient, since with this billion-dollar industry, you need to have a more quantitative than qualitative.
While you do have the indica and sativa ideas in most dispensaries, now, it’s more about the different other parts to this.
Having the exact phytochemical profiles in place, it offers genetic sequencing within the breeding world.
Sequencing allows for growers to develop the perfect cultivars, and also higher yields of this, pest resistance and tolerance to the stress of the environment.
Prohibition did create a bit of a latency between the development of this, and cannabis application, but now it’s coming back, and it’s changing the world.
These can offer many advancements have already looked at the genes that code the enzymes that will influence this.
For example, genes that’ll code for THCA result in conversion into CBGA, which is the “mother cannabinoid that goes into THCA, which precures THC in most cases.
These strains are oftentimes more psychotropic than the ones that lack them.
But it’s more than just the THC potency and the values of this too. Breeders use lab testing these days to look at cannabinoids and terpenes within this, and through the genetic sequencing, they can also determine many of the outcomes of the phytochemicals within the plans as early as seedling stages too.
The genome maps for these strains allow for breeders to select each one and the right genetics that create the right types of terpenes and chemicals, and even new ones including CBC.
So yes, this is changing the world of cannabis, and hopefully, we’ll see even more of these strains too whenever you look at them as well for the future use.
