Journal:Fertilization following pollination predominantly decreases phytocannabinoids accumulation and alters the accumulation of terpenoids in Cannabis inflorescences
| Full article title | Fertilization following pollination predominantly decreases phytocannabinoids accumulation and alters the accumulation of terpenoids in Cannabis inflorescences |
|---|---|
| Journal | Frontiers in Plant Science |
| Author(s) | Feder, Carni L.; Cohen, Oded; Shapira, Anna; Katzir, Itay; Peer, Reut; Guberman, Ohad; Procaccia, Shiri; Berman, Paula; Flaishman, Moshe; Meiri, David |
| Author affiliation(s) | Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Agricultural Research Organization of Israel |
| Primary contact | Email: dmeiri at technion dot ac dot il |
| Editors | Taglialatela-Scafati, Orazio |
| Year published | 2021 |
| Volume and issue | 12 |
| Article # | 753847 |
| DOI | 10.3389/fpls.2021.753847 |
| ISSN | 1664-462X |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.753847/full |
| Download | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.753847/pdf (PDF) |
Abstract
In the last decades, growing evidence showed the therapeutic capabilities of Cannabis plants. These capabilities were attributed to the specialized secondary metabolites stored in the glandular trichomes of female inflorescences, mainly phytocannabinoids and terpenoids. The accumulation of the metabolites in the flower is versatile and influenced by a largely unknown regulation system, attributed to genetic, developmental and environmental factors. As Cannabis is a dioecious plant, one main factor is fertilization after successful pollination. Fertilized flowers are considerably less potent, likely due to changes in the contents of phytocannabinoids and terpenoids; therefore, this study examined the effect of fertilization on metabolite composition by crossbreeding (-)-Δ9-trans-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)- or cannabidiol (CBD)-rich female plants with different male plants: THC-rich, CBD-rich, or the original female plant induced to develop male pollen sacs. We used advanced analytical methods to assess the phytocannabinoids and terpenoids content, including a newly developed semi-quantitative analysis for terpenoids without analytical standards. We found that fertilization significantly decreased phytocannabinoids content. For terpenoids, the subgroup of monoterpenoids had similar trends to the phytocannabinoids, proposing both are commonly regulated in the plant. The sesquiterpenoids remained unchanged in the THC-rich female and had a trend of decrease in the CBD-rich female. Additionally, specific phytocannabinoids and terpenoids showed an uncommon increase in concentration followed by fertilization with particular male plants. Our results demonstrate that although the profile of phytocannabinoids and their relative ratios were kept, fertilization substantially decreased the concentration of nearly all phytocannabinoids in the plant regardless of the type of fertilizing male. Our findings may point to the functional roles of secondary metabolites in Cannabis.
Keywords: Cannabis, cannabinoids, terpenoids, secondary metabolites, chromatography/mass spectrometry, analytical methods, gas chromatography, high pressure liquid chromatography
References
Notes
This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation. Some grammar and punctuation was cleaned up to improve readability. In some cases important information was missing from the references, and that information was added. The original article lists references in alphabetical order; however, this version lists them in order of appearance, by design.
