Netherlands Company Sequences Genome of Marijuana
Posted on August 20, 2011
A Netherlands company has announced the successful sequence of the genome of marijuana. The company, named Medicinal Genomics, provided the raw sequence of the Cannabis sativa genome, using Amazon's EC2 public cloud computing service.
Nature reports that the Cannabis sativa genome is about 400 million base pairs long, which is three times as large as the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana, a weed used as a model organism in plant biology and genetics.
NPR shares the buzz killing news that the plant was sequenced for health, not for highs. Medicinal Genomics hopes the genome data it provided will help scientists breed marijuana plants with less delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical in marijuana that makes people high.