Abstract
Cannabis sativa has a complex history reflected in both selection on naturally occurring compounds and historical trade routes among humans. Iran is a rich resource of natural populationswhich hold the promise to characterize historical patterns of population structure and genetic diversity within Cannabis. Recent advances in high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies have dramatically increased our ability to produce information to the point that it is now feasible to inexpensively obtain population level genotype information at a large scale. In the present investigation, we have explored the use of Genotyping-By-Sequencing (GBS) in Iranian cannabis. We genotyped 98 cannabis samples 36 from Iranian locations and 26 accessions from two germplasm collections. In total, 24,710 high-quality Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) were identified. Clustering analysis by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) identified two genetic clusters among Iranian populations and fineSTRUCTURE analysis identified 19 populations with some geographic partitioning. We defined Iranian cannabis in two main groups using the results of the PCA and discovered some strong signal to define some locations as population according to fineSTRUCTURE analyses. However, single nucleotide variant analysis uncovered a relatively moderate level of variation among Iranian cannabis.
Highlights
Cannabis sativa L. is a dioecious species in the Cannabaceae family[1] with a broad global distribution which is likely the result of human cultivation
We have found that natural populations of Cannabis in Iran are more closely related to marijuana than hemp, and that these populations harbor unique pools of genetic diversity
Taken together these data support the hypothesis that reduced diversity across fibre types suggests that hemp cultivars are derived from marijuana[30]
Summary
Cannabis sativa L. is a dioecious species in the Cannabaceae family[1] with a broad global distribution which is likely the result of human cultivation. Humans have cultivated the plant as a source of fiber, food, medicines, intoxicants and oils for thousands of years[1,2] This use and breeding has led to the selection of two distinct types of C. sativa, one for fibre and seed (hemp) and one for medicinal use (marijuana). It is likely that Cannabis spread to ancient Persia very early, assisted by Aryan and Scythian tribes expanding westward from central Asia Evidence for this early spread comes from archeological studies of the Scythians, who occupied an area encompassing large swathes of what is northwest Iran from the 7th century BCE to the 4th century CE, this culture was known to use Cannabis for entertainment and spiritual purposes. GBS provides a robust, cost-effective alternative to other approaches and provide greater power to detect genome wide patterns associated with population structure and demographics than other molecular markers[33,34]
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