To respond to the increasing need in developing new medical and adult-use marijuana strains, this course will cover the existing and future methods used to create new cultivars or varieties of plants. Cannabis has been successfully and selectively bred for thousands of years, culminating in incredible yields, quality, resistance, and medical effectiveness that are available in strains today. The strategies used to produce these strains are increasingly based on our knowledge of relevant science, particularly genetics, but it also involves a multidisciplinary understanding that optimizes the approaches taken. Plant Genetics and Breeding introduce both classical and molecular tools for plant breeding. Topics such as biotechnology in plant breeding, intellectual property, risks, emerging concepts, and more are examined.
Credit Hours: Lecture – 3, Lab – 1, Credits – 4