The Cream of the Crop: Biology, Breeding and Applications of Cannabis sativa

Abstract

Cannabis sativa is an extraordinarily versatile species. Hemp and its cousin marijuana, both C. sativa, have been used for millennia as a source of fibre, oil and for medicinal, spiritual and recreational purposes. Because the consumption of Cannabis can have psychoactive effects, the plant has been widely banned throughout the last century. In the past decade, evidence of its medicinal properties did lead to the relaxation of legislation in many countries around the world. Consequently, the genetics and development of Cannabis as well as Cannabis-derived products are the subject of renewed attention.Here, we review the biology of C. sativa, including recent insights from taxonomy, morphology and genomics, with an emphasis on the genetics of cannabinoid synthesis. Because the female Cannabis flower is of special interest as the site of cannabinoid synthesis, we explore flower development, flowering time well as the species' unique sex determination system in detail. Furthermore, we outline the tremendous medicinal, engineering, and environmental opportunities that Cannabis bears. Together, the picture emerges that our understanding of Cannabis biology currently progresses at an unusual speed. A future challenge will be to preserve the multi-purpose nature of Cannabis, and to harness its medicinal properties and sustainability advantages simultaneously.

The Past, Present and Future of Cannabis sativa Tissue Culture

“…C. sativa is native to central Asia, likely in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountain Range [ 1 , 2 ]. Cannabis is a fast-growing plant, growing up to 10 cm a day and reaching heights of 6 m in its native habitat, while growth in temperate climates is usually lower [ 23 , 26 , 27 ].…”

Advances and Perspectives in Tissue Culture and Genetic Engineering of Cannabis

“…During the last decade, the industrial properties of cannabis ( Figure 1 ) for applications in textiles, paper, building materials, cosmetics, and foods [ 5 , 6 , 7 ], as well as pharmacological properties ( Table 1 ) such as the palliation of chronic pains associated with cancer, neutralizing the adverse impacts of chemotherapy with cytostatic drugs, eating disorders related to anorexia and AIDS, inflammatory diseases, epilepsy, and anti-spastic activity in Tourette’s syndrome or sclerosis multiplex cases have been broadly studied and supported [ 5 , 8 ].…”

In Silico Identification of MYB and bHLH Families Reveals Candidate Transcription Factors for Secondary Metabolic Pathways in Cannabis sativa L.

“…Interestingly, we identified Cannabis bHLH orthologs of Arabidopsis genes within subfamilies 2, 24, and 28 whose members are known to be involved in flower development and light signaling perception, including CsbHLH27 (ortholog of AtHEC3) and CsbHLH27 (ortholog of AtHEC1), CsbHLH proteins of the PIF subfamily (CsbHLH30/PIF3, CsbHLH41/PIF7, CsbHLH33/PIF1, and bHLH31/PIF5), CsbHLH29 (ortholog of AtUNE10), and CsSPATULA (CsbHLH25). Moreover, we found five CsbHLHs (from bHLH115 to bHLH119) among members of subfamily 2/III d + e, known to include genes involved in response to several biotic and abiotic stimuli as well as anthocyanin metabolism and hormone (jasmonic and abscisic acid) signaling [ 28 ]. Cannabis orthologs of AtMYC2 (CsbHLH117-CsbHLH119) and AtMYC3 (CsbHLH118) were identified, suggesting a potential role in jasmonic acid-dependent flowering time regulation.…”

“…Due to the newly released high-quality gene annotation [ 25 ], the genome assembly, namely cs10 of a high cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) cultivar of C. sativa (CBDRx) [ 23 , 26 , 27 ], has been chosen as reference genome by the Cannabis scientific community and is publicly available on the Genome Data Viewer (GDV) platform, provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website. The availability of chromosome-level cs10 genome assembly and genome-wide annotations, together with abundant transcriptomic data and recently released long read-sequencing [ 28 ], will further facilitate in silico analyses on target gene loci affecting key phenotypic traits of Cannabis and will speed up the improvement of genetic and genomic knowledge on this species.…”