Cannabis tissue culture has seen a surge in popularity in Canada the past years. Cannabis is renowned for its potential in both medical and recreational applications. As the cannabis industry continues to evolve, so does the research about methods employed to cultivate and enhance the plant. Among these methods, cannabis tissue culture has gained significant attention.
Tissue culture is a scientific in-vitro plant micropropagation technique used in biology and agriculture. This cutting-edge technique involves the cultivation and growth of tissues or cells, in a closed and sterile environment.
Cannabis tissue culture begins with the dissection of a healthy and desirable mother plant, from which a small tissue sample is collected (the explant). This tissue is then placed on a nutrient-rich agar media in a laboratory setting, where all the conditions are in favor of the cells’ multiplication. After rooting and growth, the newly obtained plants (clones) are genetically identical to the mother plant.
This method is very promising for the industry, due to the various advantages it presents:
- Elimination of diseases (bacterial, fungal and virus) from unhealthy plants
- Rapid cloning: Micro-propagation allows for the rapid production of large quantities of clones in a short time, enabling growers to scale up their operations efficiently
- Space and resource efficiency: enables transport and easy observation
- Preservation of the genetic material, ensuring each new plant is an exact replica of the mother plant, preserving the desired characteristics such as potency, flavor, etc. This genetic consistency is difficult to achieve through traditional seed propagation. It is still crucial for the production of consistent and standardized cannabis-derived pharmaceuticals to ensure precise dosing and efficacy.
- Genetic engineering can be done for genetic ameliorations of cannabis plants, including for example developing new cannabis strains with specific characteristics (increasing cannabinoid content, or disease resistance for example).
However, even though this method has already been used with other plants, studies started very recently with cannabis, and limited publications exist currently. Each strain might have different needs to be able to grow in vitro. Strict laboratory practices and highly trained employees are very important to work on cannabis tissue culture.
If you want to learn more about Cannabis Tissue Culture and work with professionals, La Cité College has the equipment, personnel, and expertise to work on many aspects of cannabis research. They propose various services to help companies within their R&D projects in cannabis tissue culture.
Also, knowing that Canadian companies facing scientific and technological challenges in cannabis culture methods present a high potential of eligibility of their research projects to the SR&ED (Scientific Research & Experimental Development) program. If you want to know if your company is admissible to claim SR&ED tax credits, feel free to contact one of our experts for free today!
