David Joly, PhD is Associate Professor at the University of Moncton, where his team investigates cannabis and cannabinoids. Dr. Joly has unique expertise in the field of plant cannabis genomics and their associated microbes, and his work has been cited more than 1000 times. 



Earlier this year, Dr. Joly published a paper titled “Genome-wide characterization of the MLO gene family in Cannabis sativa reveals two genes as strong candidates for powdery mildew susceptibility”. It’s an important paper when it comes to breeding powdery mildew resistant cannabis plants. As we discuss PM is as common as it is destructive, and it torments all cannabis growers, from the hobbyist home growers to the large-scale commercial operators. 



In our conversation we discuss: 



How PM infects cannabis plants and how environmental conditions play a roleThe prevention and remediation options cannabis cultivators currently have The difference between PM resistance and PM susceptibility and how variations both can affect the severity of infection How breeding out PM susceptibility genes provides more robust protection than breeding in PM resistance genesWhat are MLO genes and how do they affect PM susceptibility How MLO genes were used to breed our PM susceptibility in other crops The importance of having a quality reference genome to investigate genes of interest. and more



Thanks to This Episode's Sponsor: Kannapedia



Kanapedia.net is the world’s most comprehensive cannabis genomic library, and a recent update has made it easier than ever for customers and researchers to explore Kannapedia’s database of more than 1400 cannabis to make smarter breeding decisions and demonstrate novel genetics. 



Kannapedia.net now has a number of new features to help explore your cannabis cultivars' genomic data. 



Improved Search and Filtering make it easy to identify cultivars of interest within the Kannapedia database.New Visualizations and Variant Tables highlight high-impact variants in genes of interest, including the MLO genes cited in Dr. Joly’s paper.  Responsive design means you can view your reports on any screen type.Private Reports allow you to keep sensitive data hidden. 



Visit Kannapedia.net to learn more. 



Additional Resources



Genome-wide characterization of the MLO gene family in Cannabis sativa reveals two genes as strong candidates for powdery mildew susceptibilityDr. Joly's Twitter CannMed ArchiveCannMed Community Board (Facebook Group)Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study








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View the Transcript

Good afternoon, David. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. All right, so you and your team recently published a pretty important paper on powdery mildew susceptibility, which we are going to get into. But first, I wanted to lay some groundwork. Our audience here on the podcast, includes people from all facets of the cannabis industry, and not


everyone's going to be intimately familiar with PM. So let's start by outlining the powdery mildew problem. So I was wondering if you could explain why is powdery mildew a threat to cannabis cultivation and really what is at stake here?



Yeah, well, first of all, I would say that powdery mildew is a threat because it's very common. First of all, so it's not something rare that people are likely not to expect. So it certainly will happen at some point.



So it's very common and it can spread very quickly. So when once a crop is infected, so usually the recovery options are often limited. So we don't want growers, of course, to use those nasty fungicide that we see some time on other crops.