Who is farming Who?
As a genomicist, I view cellular division and DNA propagation as a blockchain. It requires ATP (quite literally as its one of the bases in RNA/DNA) to replicate the message from division to division. This is a proof of work that requires a biological form of energy to replicate good ideas from non-propagative ideas. The energy of the system is required to write the message so erroneous messages are quickly selected against. Ideas too divergent don't replicate within the same species but some divergence is allowed within a given species ATCG blockchain. In many organisms there is a MHC hyper variable region in the genome that helps to define self and guide the immune system to prune cells that don't conform to the consensus message. Unlike digital blockchains today, quaternary blockchains are not error free. Mutation rates can be advantageous and are analogous to forked blockchains speciating much like ETC/ETH/DAO. We are currently witnessing how two diverged blockchains will or will not inter mate and how to handle "replay". I suspect more of this will happen going forward.
Given this esoteric analogy, consider this question;
What genome is replicating faster through space and time?
1)The Human Genome
2)The Cannabis Genome
If you guessed #2, you are correct. There are an estimated 10 fold more cannabis plants sprouting every year than humans born every year and the genomes are close in size (1Gb vs 3Gb). The estimated calculations are below and arguably hard to measure due to black markets but likely under measured compared to humans. Nevertheless its important to consider. The domestication of this plant has some of the earliest records of use compared to any other domesticated plant. The evolution of THC rich Cannabis and its interaction with the human endocannabinoid system requires one to ask, how old is this tune? Do other blockchains play this game? There are a few blockchains to review. The human CB1 and CB2 receptor evolution and the THCA/CBDA synthase genes in the plant.
The human endocannabinoid system is evolutionarily conserved back to invertebrate leeches 600 Million years ago and the CB1 receptor remains 100% identical to mouse CB1 receptors (only 58% AA homology in leeches). Despite this, hemp was the OPEC of earlier empires. Hemp made an oil but more importantly, hemp made sails and navy's spread its seed throughout the world with the fibre of hemp. Australia received hemp in ~1800 from a British vessel planting it for a safe source of fibre for the trip home.
There is also the question of why is THCA synthase found in only 1 plant? Why is it a single exon gene with homology back to fungi? Why are terpene synthases multi-exon genes (15-20 exons), yet these are competing with the same GPP precursor the plant needs to make more complex cannabinoids? Why are cannabinoids such potent antimicrobials and biofilm dissolving compounds? Why are the very rare cannabinoids microbial metabolites of plant cannabinoids?
This is a long way of showcasing some early work in regards to what we can discern from over 120 Gigabases of Cannabis sequence.
First question. What happens when you breed 10 families of cannabis and measure the genetic diversity of their offspring (Sib Pairs) and compare these sequences to many other Emerald Cup winning samples and high CBD samples?
Figure 1. A phylogenetic tree where the length of the line one can draw to another sample is the genetic distance of that strain to another. The colored groupings are siblings from the same cross thus highlighting the diversity in meiosis of highly polymorphic plants. Double Tangie Banana is in yellow. Crosses were the courtesy of The Slater Center
An interesting picture emerges. The spread in sib-pairs is quite surprising in relationship to many marque strains and emerald cup winners. Of interest is the Double Tangie Banana that appears to have very distant parents. Humans differ in 1 base in ~800 bases of DNA sequence. Each cell in your body has a paternal genome and a maternal genome and if you are fairly inbred those differences are less frequent (10-20 fold higher rates of genetic disease in nations with consanguinity) but you cannot mate with a chimp.
While I'm sure many have tried, their offspring wasn't be viable (Trump might be the exception). Cannabis on the other hand can differ every 120 bases. It is the near equivalent of humans and chimps having viable off spring.
One interesting lesson of tolerance from the cannabis plant might be to prepare for integration with multiple blockchains, particularly if you find mutual benefit. Its decision to do so has made it the longer genetic blockchain and perhaps evokes more existential questions of who is farming who?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3709439 Human Birth Rate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_rate
https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/infantcare/conditioninfo/Pages/born.aspx
Cannabis plants per year are derived from DEA seizure data (likely flawed but black market data is hard to get to)
http://www.drugscience.org/Archive/bcr2/estproc.html• http://www.dea.gov/ops/cannabis.shtml DEA report over 4M plants seized and believes to only seize less than 10% of whats out there.10,000 metric tons at 1 pound per plant = 2204 X10,000 or 22M plants in the USA alone (5% of global population)about 4M people were born in the USA in 2010
From McPartland et al.
"Purpose of This Study
The present study has three aims. First, it will examine the similarity
between human CB genes and their homologs in other animals. CB
gene sequences vary from species to species, due to accumulated mutations.
For example, the CB1 gene from the rhesus monkey (Macaca
mulatta) is 100% identical to the human CNR1 sequence, whereas the
partial CB1 gene cloned from the leech (H. medicinalis) shares only
58% identity with CNR1. Their percent identity is proportional to the
evolutionary distances between them. The primordial ancestors of humans
and leeches diverged at least 600 million years ago (Lee 1999), so
CB genes in the two species had over half a billion years to accumulate
differences. In contrast, the CB genes in humans and monkeys had only
10 million years to accumulate differences. These differences will be
used to construct a gene tree of CNR1, CNR2, and their related paralogs
and orthologs."