The post Scientists Are Trying To Map Out The Marijuana Genome appeared first on High Times.
The drive to bring cannabis cultivation up to speed with the sophisticated technologies employed by major agriculture companies has prompted something like a research and development arms race. The objective is clear: map the entire marijuana genome.
Scientists Are Trying To Map Out The Marijuana Genome
It’s difficult to overstate the significance of knowing the DNA sequence of cannabis chromosomes. Future strains, future products, future applications… The fate of the next era of cannabis lies in the still-incomplete map of the marijuana genome.
Yet it’s not just the prospect of breeding better, more specialized strains. The stakes of the race to map the weed genome are much higher.
Namely, who will own the priceless information twisted up in the DNA of cannabis plants? The public? Or private corporations?
At bottom, the possibility of wresting total control over marijuana’s genes is an attractive one for major agriculture companies. Indeed, they’ve been doing the same thing with corn, tomatoes, soy and other crops for decades.
And to make sure they’re the first across the finish line, ag companies are recruiting a small army of scientists. At the same time, however, other scientists are racing to place knowledge about the marijuana genome in the public domain, which would help protect it from being patented.
Is There An Ulterior Motive Behind Efforts To Map Weed’s DNA?
A recent Bloomberg story on the issue frames scientists’ work mapping the marijuana genome as motivated by “the prospect of making good on some of the loftier possibilities for legal marijuana.”
Yet some of those