Somaclonal Variation, Mutation and Epigenetics
We had such a great podcast on the Future Cannabis Project channel last week about Somaclonal Variation, Mutation and Epigenetics. "How is it possible that a clone changes its behavior over time?"
Thank you to Anna Schwabe, PhD, Austin Sheppe, PhD, AMP Jones, and oussama badad for the amazing panel discussion!
And thank you always to Peter Cervieri!
We were able to discuss the a bunch of interesting topics, but I wanted to condense some of the most interesting points down for those who couldn't make it. In particular, we are really trying to drill down into why clone lines seem to lose vigor and display negative traits over time, and "get tired".
Mutation
It could be a factor that is responsible for this phenomenon, but it seems less likely, because mutations should have a random impact on phenotype, while clones getting "tired" often result in the same outcome- pre-flowering, slow rooting, slow veg, less potency, etc. It may be possible to get a baseline of average mutation rate for cannabis with some of AMP Jones' dept's work and see how impactful this truly is. We could also work with Oussama or Austin's companies to try to do a good longitudinal study that determines how frequent and impactful mutations are.
Epigenetics
This was discussed extensively, and there are a lot of different aspects of epigenetics that could be responsible for the reduction in clone vigor. Overall, we mostly agreed that this is most likely the cause of the "tiredness" phenomenon. DNA methylation and Transposable elements were some of the more interesting factors that could contribute to a clone's decline over time. One constant for the epigenetics conversation is that reducing stress and other factors that may lead to more mutation or epigenetic response seems like a good prophylactic for this problem, even if we don't know exactly what causes it. Epigenetic factors may or may not be heritable or reversable.
Evolution
We also briefly discussed evolutionary biology and phylogeny, hypothesizing that certain breeds of cannabis may be much more resistant or susceptible to epigenetic factors or even mutation than others. The reduction of fitness for clones is likely a result of the plant having no mechanism or need to protect itself for more than 1 year, since it is an annual plant. Perhaps equatorial breeds with much longer and less defined growing seasons also have higher resistance to epigenetic factors or mutation. Anecdotally, this seems like a common story, especially with certain haze cultivars.
Overall, this was a super interesting conversation packed with information that you could spend a lifetime studying. Its really cool to discuss these things with the experts because it also shows how involved and how much more research needs to be done to solve these problems.
Click on the description of the Youtube video if you want to see some of the studies we cited in the video.
https://lnkd.in/esYmQw_K
Thanks for watching 🫡
