numbers are higher than a haploid cell.
Chromosomes are too small to be seen without expensive equipment. Before mitosis occurs each cell prepares itself for cell division. The duplicated chromosomes are called dyads and these can be seen with less expensive microscope equipment because the chromosome stretches itself out.
All information transmitted from the parent plant to the offspring generation must be contained in the pollen of the staminate parent and the ovule of the pistillate parent.
Fertilization unites these two sets of genetic information. A seed forms and a new generation begins. As we have seen, both pollen and ovules are known as gametes, and the transmitted units determining the expression of a character are known as genes. Individual plants have two identical sets of genes (2n) in every cell except the gametes, which through reduction and division have only one set of genes. Upon fertilization one set from each parent combines to form a seed (2n).
In cannabis the haploid number of chromosomes is 10 and the diploid is 20. The gametes are haploid .
POLYPLOIDY
There is an unnatural condition in cannabis called the polyploid state. This happens when a cell contains more than two homologous sets of chromosomes and may breed the condition through to other cannabis plants. It is possible that such a condition arose from mutations and that those mutant plants drifted in and out of different populations in the wild, but the problem is that the trait is not usually stable or sustainable through seed.
Polyploids have been noticed in the wild on rare occasions but are more than likely either the result of man-made interference with cannabis plants or an ancestral mutation that passed down the lines. Either way there is not enough information currently available on the polyploid status of the cannabis plant to know much about it. Some researchers, such as H.E Warmke, have suggested that polyploid cannabis plants have higher potency levels than normal. This does not appear to be case. Although there are known linkages in cannabis genes there is nothing to suggest that the polyploid condition is somehow linked to potency. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that the polyploid condition will affect potency. It is extremely hard to continue the polyploid trait in offspring because the parent plants usually end up sterile in the process. You need to have large selections in order to experiment with this condition.
There are many products on the market that will mutate cells. Colchicine is one such substance that actually promotes the polyploid condition. However colchicine is also a mutagen and mutations are not under the grower’s control. It is more than probable that the potent polyploid condition was the result of separate mutations in Warmke’s experiments. In the future we hope to see more research in this area.
7
EVOLUTION AND MUTATIONS
GREGOR MENDEL AND EVOLUTION
The theory of evolution is just that—a theory. Although the theory itself, proposed by Darwin, contains much merit, and is very much applicable to cannabis species development, it is still very much a recent discovery and much of it is still an incomplete work. The reader is asked not to take evolution theory at face value but to consider the anomalies associated with evolution theory and maybe do a little research for him or herself before subscribing entirely to this area of scientific thought.
While we can look at principles like Hardy-Weinberg’s Equilibrium and see set rules and know how and when those rules can be broken, the theory of evolution still has some problems that we have yet to clearly observe or discover answers to.
One of the most important elements to the theory of evolution is mutations. Since man, plants, fly and worm have all evolved from the same source, why are there no links found in fossils which prove this is so? It could be that we have not found such links yet, but as science
Chromosomes are too small to be seen without expensive equipment. Before mitosis occurs each cell prepares itself for cell division. The duplicated chromosomes are called dyads and these can be seen with less expensive microscope equipment because the chromosome stretches itself out.
All information transmitted from the parent plant to the offspring generation must be contained in the pollen of the staminate parent and the ovule of the pistillate parent.
Fertilization unites these two sets of genetic information. A seed forms and a new generation begins. As we have seen, both pollen and ovules are known as gametes, and the transmitted units determining the expression of a character are known as genes. Individual plants have two identical sets of genes (2n) in every cell except the gametes, which through reduction and division have only one set of genes. Upon fertilization one set from each parent combines to form a seed (2n).
In cannabis the haploid number of chromosomes is 10 and the diploid is 20. The gametes are haploid .
POLYPLOIDY
There is an unnatural condition in cannabis called the polyploid state. This happens when a cell contains more than two homologous sets of chromosomes and may breed the condition through to other cannabis plants. It is possible that such a condition arose from mutations and that those mutant plants drifted in and out of different populations in the wild, but the problem is that the trait is not usually stable or sustainable through seed.
Polyploids have been noticed in the wild on rare occasions but are more than likely either the result of man-made interference with cannabis plants or an ancestral mutation that passed down the lines. Either way there is not enough information currently available on the polyploid status of the cannabis plant to know much about it. Some researchers, such as H.E Warmke, have suggested that polyploid cannabis plants have higher potency levels than normal. This does not appear to be case. Although there are known linkages in cannabis genes there is nothing to suggest that the polyploid condition is somehow linked to potency. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that the polyploid condition will affect potency. It is extremely hard to continue the polyploid trait in offspring because the parent plants usually end up sterile in the process. You need to have large selections in order to experiment with this condition.
There are many products on the market that will mutate cells. Colchicine is one such substance that actually promotes the polyploid condition. However colchicine is also a mutagen and mutations are not under the grower’s control. It is more than probable that the potent polyploid condition was the result of separate mutations in Warmke’s experiments. In the future we hope to see more research in this area.
7
EVOLUTION AND MUTATIONS
GREGOR MENDEL AND EVOLUTION
The theory of evolution is just that—a theory. Although the theory itself, proposed by Darwin, contains much merit, and is very much applicable to cannabis species development, it is still very much a recent discovery and much of it is still an incomplete work. The reader is asked not to take evolution theory at face value but to consider the anomalies associated with evolution theory and maybe do a little research for him or herself before subscribing entirely to this area of scientific thought.
While we can look at principles like Hardy-Weinberg’s Equilibrium and see set rules and know how and when those rules can be broken, the theory of evolution still has some problems that we have yet to clearly observe or discover answers to.
One of the most important elements to the theory of evolution is mutations. Since man, plants, fly and worm have all evolved from the same source, why are there no links found in fossils which prove this is so? It could be that we have not found such links yet, but as science
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