Medicinal Genomics, a private company headquartered in Marblehead,
Mass., USA and the Netherlands, announced today that it has sequenced
the entire genomes of Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica,
representing two strains of the therapeutic plant. The genome
assemblies, comprising over 131 billion bases of sequence, are the
largest known gene collection of the Cannabis genomes and will be
made publically available to the scientific community this fall. The
genomic data is expected to aid in the advancement of research on the
therapeutic benefits of the Cannabis plant for a wide range of
health conditions, including cancer and inflammatory diseases.
"Despite compelling evidence of the therapeutic benefits of Cannabis,
very little genomics research has been performed in this area,” said
Kevin McKernan, founder and head of scientific operations of Medicinal
Genomics. "With the goal to sequence multiple Cannabis varieties,
we initially took the approach of using short-read next generation
sequencing technology on the C. sativa strain. We very quickly
realized that this method was not going to provide a clear picture of
the genome required to tease out the important biological pathways. This
realization caused somewhat of a paradigm shift in the way we approached
this project. At this point we moved to triple backcrossed cultivars and
longer read technology.”
Surprised in part by the finding that genomic variation between Cannabis
strains is over 1%, a figure that is 10 times the variation of human
genomes, the team at Medicinal Genomics turned to Roche’s 454 Sequencing
Center in Branford, Connecticut to sequence the Cannabis indica
strain on Roche’s new GS FLX+ System, the latest advance in long read
next generation technology. The researchers obtained roughly 18x genome
coverage with the 700-800 base pair long reads, enabling a high-quality
draft assembly of this complex plant genome.
"I was stunned by the data quality and more impressively the read
lengths of the data coming off the GS FLX+ Instruments,” said McKernan.
"With the long reads we can sort out the variation in the strain and
phase alleles so that we can make biological sense of the sequencing
data. We can assemble some key synthase genes into much longer phased
blocks, allowing us to focus more on the biology and less on the
computational concerns over collapsed polymorphic assemblies we were
seeing with the shorter read systems.”
"We are pleased to see an industry-renowned expert in the field of next
generation sequencing recognize the value of the long reads offered with
our new GS FLX+ System,” said Todd Arnold, Vice President of Development
at 454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company. "This project, along with other
work on a variety of large plant and animal genomes, confirms the power
of long reads for high-quality assembly and, most importantly, for
correlating sequence content with biological significance.”
Later this fall Medicinal Genomics plans to release the raw sequence
data of the Cannabis indica genome as well as a full genome
annotation. With the genomes in hand, researchers can begin to identify
non-psychoactive compounds or enzyme pathways to better elucidate the
therapeutic benefits of Cannabis, including the plant’s
anti-cancer properties. These pathways can be optimized in the plant or
cloned into other hosts for more efficient biologic production. In
addition, it may be possible through genome directed breeding to
attenuate the psychoactive effects of Cannabis while enhancing
the medicinal aspects.
For more information on the 454 Sequencing Systems, visit www.454.com.
About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in
research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals
and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company with truly
differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism
and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics,
tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management.
Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and
diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health,
quality of life and survival of patients. In 2010, Roche had over 80’000
employees worldwide and invested over 9 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The
Group posted sales of 47.5 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United
States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a
majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com.
About Medicinal Genomics
Medicinal Genomics is the first known organization to sequence the
complete genomes of Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica.
Aside from being a useful tool to discover small molecule therapeutic
drug candidates, there are many other commercial applications of these
sequences, including the design of genomic assays that measure genes
predictive of Cannabinoid levels in the plants at seedling stages. Use
of these genomic assays will help regulate the medicinal Cannabis
market through better oversight and labeling and will inform selective
breeding in both Cannabis and hemp production. Medicinal Genomics
maintains its corporate headquarters in Marblehead, Mass. All scientific
operations are conducted at the company’s research facility in
Amsterdam, Netherlands in collaboration with DNA Genetics. For further
information, please visit www.medicinalgenomics.com.
For life science research only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
454, 454 LIFE SCIENCES, 454 SEQUENCING, and GS FLX are trademarks of
Roche.
All other product names and trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
