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"Hacked" Photosynthesis and Cannabis. Thoughts on Genetically-Modified Cannabis

SheWasLvL18

SheWasLvL18

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"Hacked" Photosynthesis and Cannabis. Thoughts on Genetically-Modified Cannabis

An international research project, known as Realized Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), has found a way to "hack" photosynthesis and increase crop production by up to 40%. Basically, they have found a protein that is critical to photosynthesis and have modified it to be more efficient by grabbing only carbon dioxide from the air, not oxygen which can be toxic to plants.

Rubisco has one job. It picks up carbon dioxide from the air, and it uses the carbon to make sugar molecules. It gets the energy to do this from the sun. This is photosynthesis, the process by which plants use sunlight to make food, a foundation of life on Earth.

"But it has what we like to call one fatal flaw," Cavanagh continues. Unfortunately, Rubisco isn't picky enough about what it grabs from the air. It also picks up oxygen. "When it does that, it makes a toxic compound, so the plant has to detoxify it."

Plants have a whole complicated chemical assembly line to carry out this detoxification, and the process uses up a lot of energy. This means the plant has less energy for making leaves, or food for us. (There is a family of plants, including corn and sugar cane, that developed another type of workaround for Rubisco, and those plants are much more productive.)
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https://ripe.illinois.edu/news/scientists-have-hacked-photosynthesis-search-more-productive-crops

My question is pretty much: What are your thoughts on GMO Cannabis? Is it good or bad? Would you consume it? Is it paving the way for large corporations, reducing resource costs, or both?
 
If it ends up working for cannabis, meaning drastic yield increases, then I can understand why this would become a big deal. I don't immediately see any health issues that would be applicable to the user. Of course the plant itself would need to make some pretty big hurdles for it to work in the first place, but so what it's just a plant.

My biggest concern is the fact that the USDA is already attempting to put a patent on this process. That's fucked up beyond repair. I really don't like the implications behind that.
 
Yeah I am not a fan of patents coming into cannabis either.

They used tobacco for their research because in their words it was "easy to work with." I don't know if that's because there's a lot research on tobacco or if it has some inherent properties that make it better for this type of modification.

Also, if it does work for Cannabis there's still the matter of directing the energy to the buds. The extra energy could just produce more leaves and stalk.
 
SheWasLvL18 - I worked in research for over 27 years until taking medical retirement. What is done in the name of science (getting grant money) is morally obscene; usually in how new products are tested (rats, mice, chickens, dogs, cats and pigs are what I?ve worked with) including GMO diets.

The end products themselves (say a very specific strain, THC/CBD content, flowering time) I would have no problems consuming. But if you get a GMO seed in your 45% THC weed, don?t plant it (copyright violation).

So yeah, I?m opposed to the ?control? of a plant but I?m open to consuming the products of said plant control if I perceive them to be beneficial.One interesting speculation is that when the sequence of genes/proteins for THC production are mapped into functional units you?ll have them inserted into bacteria for expression; and THC will be grown in lab vats and extracted chemically, sold and then made into products.

https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/gb-2011-12-10-r102

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-researchers-publish-long-awaited-cannabis-genome-map

Tom
 
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I think gmo spices are weird and could be detrimental to the environment. But I’m not totally against it, I just think we need to understand our organic environments before we start messing with things. Seems like the earth is in a bad state and a lot of animals are endangered and there is a lot of war.
 
Yeah I saw a few articles about that specific "biohack". I think the question yet to proven is whether 40% increase in growth equates to 40% increase in yield/thc and cannabinoid production. Or is it just producing bigger bud/fruit with the same overall amount of cannabinoids/nutrients as a normal plant?
 
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Problem with all these hightech developements in agriculture and horticulture is that they will be exclusively exploited economics-wise by big corporation who can afford hightech. No small farmer or grower will make profit fron this because even buying these genetics will be super expensive.
 
Thomas Davie said:
if you get a GMO seed in your 45% THC weed, don?t plant it (copyright violation).
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I never thought about that, but damn that's scary lol

Bagseed said:
Problem with all these hightech developements in agriculture and horticulture is that they will be exclusively exploited economics-wise by big corporation who can afford hightech. No small farmer or grower will make profit fron this because even buying these genetics will be super expensive.
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This is definitely what I'm worried about, but the little guys seem to be getting pushed out either way. I hope things change because a lot of people used cannabis to feed their families, wholly or supplementary.
 
There is a major difference between selective breeding and splicing other species' DNA into another's. Cannabis strains, with the exceptions of ones like mentioned in this article, are the product of decades of selective breeding, the process of takings the choice plants of the crop and breeding them together over multiple generations. Completely different than creating a strain in a lab, which is active modification of DNA.
 
Honestly, I think that is the direction big canna will take. It will be pesticides and GMO. In theory this could make for some pretty incredible bud. However, as a passionate grower and medical user myself I think that it is super important to preserve our favorite strains and that we make an effort to keep craft cultivation alive!
 
determined2019 said:
Honestly, I think that is the direction big canna will take. It will be pesticides and GMO. In theory this could make for some pretty incredible bud. However, as a passionate grower and medical user myself I think that it is super important to preserve our favorite strains and that we make an effort to keep craft cultivation alive!
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Yeah I'm with you man. As long as there are people who want the best product, I'm sure there will be a market for the smaller guys, but I think it will be a lot less little guys. If the laws and licensing weren't so ridiculous I could see smaller growers banding together as like a syndicate.
 
^^^^ Big Canna sucks. It’s a;ready here in Canada;

Aurora MJ
Canopy Growth Corporation aka Tweed
Aphria
Hydropothecary

All of these are LP’s with projected output of over 100,000 kg/year. They run brick and mortar stores and are still expanding their productive output. Not satisfied with the domestic market, Canadian LP’s are starting to export (primarily to Europe and specifically Germany) to foreign markets. It’s a price thing; they can sell their weed internationally for more than they can sell it inside of Canada.

The small guys are getting shut out. They can band together but they can’t fight Health Canada, so all they can do is sell on the black market and continue to take risks.

Cannabis is going in the wrong direction in Canada. I do hope that some province/territory has the balls to start their own licensing scheme.

Tom
 
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