Will the genetic engineers invent other plants that produce THC?

Question

y'know the active ingrediant in marijuana

Answer 1

THC synthesis pathway is already known and there is a branch of genetic engineering called Pathway Synthesis where all the necessary genes of a biochemical pathway is introduced into a host organism for a desired characteristic (Recently, "blue colored rose" is created this way by introduction of genes from iris and pansy plants, for example) Therefore theoretically it is possible to create a plant that synthesizes THC (if not already created at some plant lab :)

Answer 2

that i dont know but we can all hope

Answer 3

Probably so they dont have to legalize it. They'd probably use it for "medical" reasons and just get high legally.

Answer 4

Contrary to what another poster said, it's quite possible to take genes from one organism and put it in another. The tomatoes you eat have genes from fish in them to give the cold weather resistance. They're also trying to put genes from a spider in goats to produce the proteins that make up spider silk.

That being said, on to your question:

While it may be possible to do this, I doubt it will be done. The genetic engineering of plants requires labs with lots of expensive equipment; it can't be done in a basement. Therefore this would have to be carried out in a reputable lab. Reputable labs are motivated to do their research by grant money and end-product profit. The problem is, no grant money would be given out for this research and any end product would either not be approved by the FDA or would quickly be made illegal by the anti-drug zealots in Washington. Therefore any potential money associated with this would be zero, thus removing any motivation to do so.

Your only hope for this is that some rich drug cartel spends the money to set up a lab to do so.

Answer 5

Genetic engineers attempt to create more desirable features for the type of plant... for example a tomato would be made to have bigger tomatoes that repel insects, all of these attributes are found naturally in the tomato as a species and they can be modified to appear more frequently. you cannot engineer a plant to have attributes that exist in another species... your more likely to get humans laying eggs.

Answer 6

I was at a conference about 10 years ago and met a student from a lab in the United States (I won't say which university). He was working in Arabidopsis thaliana (a common plant genetic model), but as a "side" project he was trying to clone the genes responsible for THC production and express them in Arabidopsis. I rather doubt he had much success: difficult to do such work on "the side" without someone noticing.

My father in-law does research in hemp (strains of Cannabis sativa that produce very little THC) and it is my understanding that the genes responsible have been identified.