There’s a lot of smart people on here.
I’m going to school for biochemistry and molecular biology, so most of this is in my curiculum. I have the ability to start my own research projects through my University, there’s a couple large companies working on this stuff, but I’m sure there’s a couple people out there doing this on their own.
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Im a small company, we are licensed breeders in 2 states. we breed in greenhouses. we are partnered with a lab to do research, we are stabilizing our cbg and breeding for vigor and high cbd:thc ratios as well as 100% fems.
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IMO the most important thing is genome sequencing. Mapping out the genome of a wide array of cannabis strains will allow us to pinpoint what genes cause certain phenotypic/ chemotypic variations.
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which is where Phylos is way ahead of the game.
or at least the biggest player who’s shown their cards so far.
marker assisted selection makes stabilizing traits soooo much easier.
not quite as neat and tidy as in maize, where your F1 are all neatly arranged 
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I began preaching “Sequence it all and let GOD figure it out” more than 20 years ago …
GOD == Gigs Of Data.
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Yes. Any agronomic lab should be able to provide plant performance testing to help a grower get the most out of their plants. Any cannabis compliance lab should be able to provide testing specific to cannabinoid or terpene content to inform a breeding program.
Gene sequencing is exciting, but still a ways off. I’d love to be able to test a true leaf and know what it’s branch structure and mature height are, but I’ll have to wait.
Check out the above post if you’re interested in helping give direction for plants developed specifically for the extraction industry.
Tons of that data is already on the web, want to breed for a specific trait in theory is as easy as finding two plants which have that gene then breed, them test the progeny.
How much data/information does Phylos give their customer, I have a feeling they only release basic information.
Yeah a simple search on NCBI/ BLAST you can find the whole cannabis genome, different cannabinoid syntheses, etc. You can easily align multiple sequences to find the specific loci you’re looking for and compare the different alleles to find what causes the variation.
However there are TONS of things that haven’t been published on an open source database… think of all the info companies like Phylos have… I know of companies doing genetic transformations to have plants synthesize cannabinoids on the epidermal tissue of fan leaves instead of just flowers… things like that aren’t on the open web.
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Have you been able to stabilize cbg?
yea we think we have one we are ready to release in clone form. about to dedicate 3k sqft to production of clones and then feminized seeds. looking to contract it all to a single farmer…
Why just one farmer? Where are you located?
I was around a few years ago when they started and Sam Skunkman (David Waston) was signing their praises. I didn’t trust them (or him) then, and I don’t trust them (or him) now.
And now it seems they may have stolen the genetic material people sent in to them for free, for testing when they were running their pilot program (to create their Galaxy), or at least Phylos appears to have used the data they collected for their undisclosed plan to put those very same growers and breeders out of business, and used it to create products (seeds) and breeding services they are now selling.
They want to replace all current cannabis cultivars and chemovars with their genetics. They want Big AG to take over. The are the antithesis of this forum, which is built on sharing and being open soucre.
Lots of stink on this company. I called it from day one. They just seemed way too shady.
Here’s one of their founders talking at an cannabis event:
“All the cannabis that’s around now will be replaced by varieties that will be optimized and specialized, and we’re going to be the company that makes those.”
“We have huge barriers to entry protecting us.”
“It would be impossible for anybody else to collect this data set.”
“Cultivators can’t do real breeding on their own.”
“Our core business is plant breeding, we had to build two other businesses to support that…so we built an entire testing business to create all that data.”
“We have a really unusual advisory board. They are not there for show… Ron started and ran a couple of seed companies that he sold to Syngenta, he worked for Syngenta for years and is now the CEO of a spin-out company from there. And Barbara until recently was the VP of technology acquisition for all of Dow / DuPont. So, having these guys around is just critical for us, because we’re building a company that is ultimately going to be acquired by that universe.”
Lots to read here:
Phylos Bioscience sparks outrage after announcing their beginning their own breeding
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just how we prefer to run our business. rather get big checks from one party consistently than search for small sales.
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Precisely. And PCR.
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doesn’t mean they’re not leading the pack as far as having the data.
just means they’re not sharing.
it would be awesome if the public interface to their “galaxy” had usable data. it really doesn’t. not sure there isn’t a pay to play version coming soon.
not particularly upset that they failed to hire me 1/2 dozen times.
especially now they’ve shown their hand.
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doesn’t mean they’re not leading the pack as far as having the data.
just means they’re not sharing.
I agree they’re leading the pack: by stealing data from everyone who sent in samples under the premise it wouldn’t be used for anything other than Galaxy and sending them the results of their samples.
I agree with the other parts of your post.
And I too would say I’m not upset I didn’t take Sam Skunkman (from Hortipharm BV) up on the offer to meet in him San Fran to talk about working with him years ago.
David (Sam Skunkman) and Phylos are in league together, or at least they were.
It was fairly obvious from day one that their strategy was to get folks to pay them to accumulate this data…at least for those with any grasp on molecular genetics.
Gathering it without that income stream would have been far more difficult.
The fact that most folks had no idea what the data was worth doesn’t change the fact that it was a brilliant strategic move.
They didn’t steal the strains, they sequenced them (at least partially) and accumulated data. They now know (or have good guesses) for the genes & alleles responsible for most of the agronomically important traits.
Good science and good business?
Certainly better than a lot of the “plans” I’ve seen.
Solid ethics?
Not close enough to really have a good take on that.
Certainly don’t see any reason to call them evil just because they nailed the data acquisition.
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Last I’ll write about Phylos in this thread. I don’t want to derail it.
It’s the data they stole. That’s the whole issue. They said they would only use it to create publicly available Galaxy, and to give the test results to the people who shared the samples. They also argued that by sending in samples grower and breeders can protect their genetics through prior art I believe.
At first, Phylos worked with Open Cannabis Project. And a main person at Phylos was from OSU I think (it’s been years so I’m not postive), along with SamSkunkman telling everyone they’re legit and to send in samples.
Phylos always claimed they were doing it for the greater good and to protect growers, and so they can publish data publicly to help everyone.
No breeder or grower paid them for testing, at least not when they started in 2014-2015. It was all free. All you had to do was send samples to OSU (I think that’s where they were sent), or send them to SamSkunkman and he would forward them to Phylos/OSU. So they could build their Galaxy to help move cannabis science forward.
If Phylos was honest from the start they would have gotten quite a few takers, but they weren’t.
I don’t blame the people who fell for their lies. I do blame the Phylos for lying and stealing data from breeders and growers.
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