CANNABIS CULTURE – “Israel has the ability to make its mark on the cannabis industry and be among the world’s leaders,” Agricultural Minister Oded Forer said in a statement.
“Contrary to popular belief, the cannabis industry in Israel has been active in the field of research for decades, but it is only in recent years that it has gained momentum due to changes in Israeli policy”.
Scientists have developed a unique method for manipulating cannabis plants that raises the level of its active components and opens up new possibilities for the medical and recreational marijuana industry.
Researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have engineered a cannabis plant that will make it possible for producers to grow new and more powerful strains of cannabis while at the same time increasing crop yields.
The team say they raised the level of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive component in cannabis, by close to 20%, and the level of CBG (cannabigerol), a non-psychoactive cannabinoid, by almost 25%.
In addition, they were able to increase the ratio of terpenes, which are responsible for maximizing the euphoric effects of cannabis, by 25–30%.
Project leader Professor Alexander (Sasha) Vainstein, at the Hebrew University’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, said: “We have devised an approach for changing the production of certain cannabis compounds. This is the first time that this has been achieved with cannabis plants. Until now there has been no way to tailor strains to produce certain cannabis substances or alter the ratio between them.”
Together with their funding and research partners, Mariana Bioscience Ltd, the team set out to intervene in the biochemical pathways in the cannabis plant inorder toaffect the levels of the active components.
“This represents an innovative use of these tools, which were constructed using synthetic biology tools,” Prof. Vainstein said.
“These study results will be valuable to the medical industry to cultivate and develop new strains for medical cannabis users, as well as to the cannabis industry as whole to increase the crop yield of active substances.”
Israel’s medical cannabis market was valued at around $264 million in 2021, roughly just $7 million less than the entire European market, according to Prohibition Partners, an industry analyst.
Following intensive pressure from Israeli cannabis companies, the Government last year changed its medical cannabis export rules to allow for the export of cannabis seeds.
Last month Israel exported its first ever shipment of cannabis seeds to the United States, which the Israeli Agricultural Ministry hailed as a major step towards the country becoming a global pioneer in the field. The seeds are currently being assessed for their suitability for the north American market.
Israel’s Raphael Mechoulam, professor of medicinal chemistry at the Hebrew University, is sometimes referred to as the “father of cannabis research”. His work in 1964 was instrumental in the discovery of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and he together with his research groupare considered to be the first to isolate and synthesize the psychoactive ingredients in the marijuana plant, Including THC, cannabidiol, cannabigerol and various others.
Amit Shema, head of research and development at Mariana Bioscience, said talks are currently underway with potential US partners to distribute the innovative technology to large growing farms in the United States.
“We hope to introduce it to the US by the end of this year, and to the European market by the end of next year as well. Our plan is replicate the technology on a growing farm in the US and by doing that we hope to break into the US market,” he said.
The Israeli research team were able to adjust the levels of specific cannabinoids by manipulating a plant-based virus and repurposing it. They created a version of the virus – which was neutralized and did not harm the plant – that could affect the genes of the cannabis plant that influence the production of its active substances.
“Because our approach is biologically based, it means we can replicate it using just a small quantity of liquid,” Shema explained. “We can apply it in two ways: either we make a tiny cut in the stem and inoculate the plant with a solution (agro-inoculation); or, more suitably for a commercial scale, we can blow little grains of sand or small metal chips to injure the top layer of the plant. This way we can cover a hectare in less than three hours.”
Shema, who is a quantitative geneticist, added: “The most interesting thing about the technique is that it is adjustable. It temporarily silences the gene structure for two weeks, interfering with the DNA sequence and allowing us to manipulate the cannabis compound in any way we choose. We can adjust the cannabinoids to increase or decrease them.
“This is the first time it has been possible to manipulate cannabis in this way, enhancing the structure and increasing the yield. It also makes the research relevant for further discoveries and for new medical treatments.”
Original Article
