2016/11/01 by Robert C. Clarke, Mark Merlin · 1 voice
Medicine · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research #Plant Parasitism and Resistance #Plant tissue culture and regeneration
paper · doi:10.1080/07352689.2016.1267498
openalex publication_date 2016/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/09
Humans and the Cannabis plant share an intimate history spanning millennia. Humans spread Cannabis from its Eurasian homelands throughout much of the world, and, in concert with local climatic and human cultural parameters, created traditional landrace varieties (cultivars resulting from a combination of natural and farmer selection) with few apparent signs of domestication. Cannabis breeders combined populations from widely divergent geographical regions and gene pools to develop economically valuable fiber, seed, and drug cultivars, and several approaches were used with varying results. The widespread use of single plant selections in cultivar breeding, inbreeding, and the adoption of asexual reproduction for commercial drug production, reduced genetic diversity and made many present-day cultivars susceptible to pathogens and pests. The great majority of drug Cannabis cultivars are now completely domesticated, and thus are entirely dependent on humans for their survival. Future ramifications remain to be realized.