The fledgling cannabis industry is full of wide-eyed claims about what pot can do.\u00a0Outperform your favorite energy drink? Maybe. Cure cancer? Worth a try. The biggest believers and entrepreneurs\u00a0make the plant sound almost magical. Now one startup has the key to keep\u00a0the science from the hype: the first-ever full\u00a0map of the cannabis genome.<\/p>\n
\u201cDNA, of course I\u2019m biased because it\u2019s what I do, but it doesn\u2019t lie. It really is a way to just sort of clear a lot of the b.s.,\u201d said CJ Schwartz, chief executive officer of Sunrise Genetics, the Fort Collins, Colorado-based company behind the map. \u201cThe excessive claims are really doing a disservice to the plant or the potential of the plant and the science surrounding that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A deeper understanding of\u00a0genetics means companies will be able to figure out which parts of cannabis\u2019s makeup drive different functions, making it\u00a0easier to test for strain continuity and breed plants more quickly and effectively.\u00a0Schwartz said the genome research can allow for more targeted recreational products by specifying exactly how a product might affect the body or mind, for instance by making a consumer feel tired or energized.<\/p>\n
But knowledge of the full\u00a0genome itself, which will be presented for the first time\u00a0at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego on January 17, also opens the door to the prospect of making good on some of the loftier\u00a0possibilities for legal marijuana. A\u00a0cannabis-based energy drink or sleepy-time tea could be on the horizon. Research aided by the genome map\u00a0might identify\u00a0potential cannabis-based medicine for further testing, bringing about a\u00a0marijuana-derived painkiller or alternative to Viagra. (Another application: higher-tech breeding for industrial hemp, a variety of cannabis\u00a0plant that can be used in clothing, insulation, food or lighter-weight concrete.)<\/p>\n
This map isn\u2019t the first attempt to suss out the genetic makeup of cannabis; previous efforts lacked the coordinated research resources\u00a0and stable plant population to make the picture clear.\u00a0There are\u00a010\u00a0pieces that make up the genome, and Sunrise\u2019s higher-resolution sequence can see\u00a0what those strings are made of and where on those pieces the genes are located, said Chris Grassa, the company\u2019s consulting director of bioinformatics.<\/p>\n
Grassa compared the Sunrise genome to\u00a0having both a topographical map of the U.S. and an annotated map with city names and the ability to predict the driving distances between two locations.\u00a0\u201cWe can basically have a 23andMe for cannabis,\u201d\u00a0he said, referring to the popular human genetic testing company.<\/p>\n
Sunrise was founded by Schwartz, a plant scientist, who recruited his brother\u00a0and his brother\u2019s brother-in-law and a family friend\u00a0in 2014\u2014the year pot became legal in Colorado\u2014with the idea to take well-established genetic tools used for other crops and apply them to cannabis. Sunrise\u00a0identifies strains and specific traits within plants to develop\u00a0breeding programs for cannabis companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re their outsourced R&D program,\u201d said\u00a0Jason Schwartz, Sunrise\u2019s chief financial officer.<\/p>\n
While the co-founders\u00a0had previously discussed the importance of a genome map, they assumed someone else was going to get to it first. And then\u00a0they decided to do it themselves,\u00a0assembling\u00a0a crew of scientists and cannabis industry veterans to combine the plant populations and genomic sequencing chops.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pretty much waited as long as we could, but it was really necessary for us to get this assembly to be able to move on with efficient gene discovery,\u201d said CJ Schwartz. \u201cWithout this information, it just takes too long, it\u2019s too expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using genome maps for breeding purposes isn\u2019t a new concept. Big agricultural companies have long done so for crops such as corn, wheat and tobacco.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Monsanto, they do the same thing,\u201d\u00a0said Todd Michael, professor and director of informatics at the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, California.\u00a0\u201cThey want to breed better corn, so they want us to make the corn map and then find very specific differences between them so then we can breed them.\u201d\u00a0Michael, who previously led the Genome Center at Monsanto, is a scientific adviser to Sunrise and\u00a0his lab did a portion of the physical sequencing.<\/p>\n
The reason it\u2019s taken so long to get to this point with cannabis is largely due to the regulatory difficulties. The plant is still\u00a0classified as a Schedule 1 drug by the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, meaning marijuana is ranked in the same category as heroin under federal law. Many research universities and scientists depend on government grants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe endured many years of ridicule and neglect\u201d<\/p>\n
George Weiblen, a professor in the plant biology department at the University of Minnesota, may know the difficulty of working with cannabis better than anybody. His lab has been researching the plant since 2002, when it was the only facility\u00a0in the country that had the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration\u2019s permission to study the genetics of marijuana.\u00a0\u00a0That meant Weiblen had to figure out how to create a compliant research environment, without any previous guidance. He had\u00a0limited access to seeds, received minimal funding\u00a0and had to\u00a0set up prison-level\u00a0security for the lab.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how we were able to get started,\u201d Weiblen said. \u201cI like to remind my graduate students who are working in the lab that they are working within the confines of a minimum-security prison. But rather than trying to keep them in, we\u2019re trying to keep other people out.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was allowed to grow only 25 plants at a time, and as a result it took his group 12 years to publish a paper identifying the gene that differentiates hemp from marijuana. \u201cWe endured many years of ridicule and neglect,\u201d Weiblen said. \u201cAll of a sudden\u00a0there\u2019s tremendous interest in understanding the genetics of the plant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research Weiblen had done and the plant population he had cultivated proved essential for the completion of the\u00a0map. He\u00a0managed to publish\u00a0a preliminary genomic map, which he now compares to an early, distorted representation\u00a0of North America.<\/p>\n
Even now that there\u2019s broader interest in marijuana\u2014the rapidly growing industry\u00a0is expected to reach $50 billion by 2026, up from $6 billion in 2016, according to the investment bank Cowen & Co.\u2014regulatory hurdles make the work difficult. Sunrise Genetics goes by that name, politely scrubbed of pot references, to avoid\u00a0unwanted attention, Jason Schwartz said.<\/p>\n
Cannabis\u2019s\u00a0status under federal law continues to complicate\u00a0Sunrise’s efforts to physically obtain DNA. To get what\u2019s needed to identify strains, the company needs a newly formed leaf from a plant. Even though those leaves aren\u2019t consumable, it\u00a0still counts as marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act.\u00a0Scientists sharing leaves are, technically, distributing illicit drugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no differentiation between the little tiny leaf\u00a0that no one can smoke and the end product, which people can consume, in the federal eyes legally,\u201d\u00a0Jason\u00a0Schwartz said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just have people mail you stuff across state borders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once the leaf is processed into DNA, however, Sunrise says it\u2019s\u00a0fine to mail; after all, DNA is mailed every time someone licks a stamp. Still, Jason Schwartz admits there isn\u2019t much legal clarity.\u00a0\u201cWe have to make some interpretation of what we think the laws would be and err on the side of caution, because we obviously want to work on the right side of the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Collection also requires finding willing partners. That hasn\u2019t been easy, particularly because many cannabis growers have been in the business too long to trust outsiders with their secrets. \u201cYou meet a lot of characters in this industry,\u201d\u00a0he said. \u201cNow that it\u2019s finally aboveboard, you don\u2019t just drop that paranoia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next comes the question of how the businesses\u00a0will use the full genome map. \u201cThere\u2019s such potential to make things better, and that\u2019s really what our goal is:\u00a0to guide that using modern techniques, which are employed all the time by all the major ag companies,\u201d CJ Schwartz said. \u201cCannabis pretty much now is catching up\u2014as long as we don\u2019t get all thrown in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The fledgling cannabis industry is full of wide-eyed claims about what pot can do.\u00a0Outperform your favorite energy drink? Maybe. Cure cancer? Worth a try. The biggest believers and entrepreneurs\u00a0make the plant sound almost magical. Now one startup has the key to keep\u00a0the science from the hype: the first-ever full\u00a0map of the cannabis genome. \u201cDNA, of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[12042],"supplier":[14136],"class_list":["post-49467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-pharmaceuticals","supplier-sunrise-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49467"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=49467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}