Population genomics of a natural Cannabis sativa L. collection from Iran identifies novel genetic loci for flowering time, morphology, sex and chemotyping
Mahboubeh Mostafaei Dehnavi, Annabelle Damerum, Sadegh Taheri, Ali Ebadi, Shadab Panahi, George Hodgin, Brian Brandley, Seyed Alireza Salami, Gail Taylor
BMC Plant Biology· 2025
Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) study of 228 male and female individuals drawn from 35 natural Iranian Cannabis sativa populations spanning multiple climatic zones, grown in a randomised complete block design field experiment at the University of Tehran. Recovers approximately 23,266 high-quality SNPs and links them via association analysis to inflorescence characteristics, flowering time, plant morphology, THC and CBD content, and sex. Resolves the Iranian collection into five fineSTRUCTURE groups against a higher-level two-cluster PCA structure, and finds that Iranian populations are globally distinctive when compared to international reference data. Identifies novel candidate genetic loci for flowering time, morphology, sex determination and chemotype, providing markers that can underpin future cannabis breeding from Iranian germplasm. Frames Iranian natural populations as wild relatives and progenitor-adjacent material that retain genetic variation lost from highly bred modern cultivars. Critical regional reference for the Iran/Persian gene pool on the wiki, complementing the broader Balant et al. 2025 phylogeography (which places the Iranian Plateau as a distinct Paleotropis subgroup) with population-scale resolution and a marker-trait association layer.
2025-01-21
2026-05-04
Population genomics of a natural Cannabis sativa L. collection from Iran identifies novel genetic loci for flowering time, morphology, sex and chemotyping
Journal article
Mahboubeh Mostafaei Dehnavi, Annabelle Damerum, Sadegh Taheri, Ali Ebadi, Shadab Panahi, George Hodgin, Brian Brandley, Seyed Alireza Salami, Gail Taylor
BMC Plant Biology
2025
10.1186/s12870-025-06045-4
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12870-025-06045-4
https://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/
Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) study of 228 male and female individuals drawn from 35 natural Iranian Cannabis sativa populations spanning multiple climatic zones, grown in a randomised complete block design field experiment at the University of Tehran. Recovers approximately 23,266 high-quality SNPs and links them via association analysis to inflorescence characteristics, flowering time, plant morphology, THC and CBD content, and sex. Resolves the Iranian collection into five fineSTRUCTURE groups against a higher-level two-cluster PCA structure, and finds that Iranian populations are globally distinctive when compared to international reference data. Identifies novel candidate genetic loci for flowering time, morphology, sex determination and chemotype, providing markers that can underpin future cannabis breeding from Iranian germplasm. Frames Iranian natural populations as wild relatives and progenitor-adjacent material that retain genetic variation lost from highly bred modern cultivars. Critical regional reference for the Iran/Persian gene pool on the wiki, complementing the broader Balant et al. 2025 phylogeography (which places the Iranian Plateau as a distinct Paleotropis subgroup) with population-scale resolution and a marker-trait association layer.
