Why does cannabis produce resin?

[VerdantGreen]

I wouldn't call it a "pretty good proof" actually, and not much usable for cannabis which, correct me if i'm wrong, didn't evolve in a tropical setting.
The abstract at the bottom of the page, fits cannabis quite well actually.

the point is that flowers originally evolved to attract insects through their bright colours, shape and smell. . cannabis is an angiosperm (flowerring plant) that has since evolved to be wind pollinated, but it's ancestors (that it evolved from) would have been insect pollinated. it is classified in the family Rosaceae, many other members of this family are insect pollinated.
im certainly no expert on this but from what i know and have found i think this is true.
if you have some references that say different then i would love to read them.

VG

 

[bombadil.360]

if it was insect pollinated and "evolved" to be air-pollinated, why did no body tell the poor insects about it?

 

[VerdantGreen]

hey bombadil i dont think anybody did - which is why cannabis flowers seem to be very attractive to insects still

check page 244 of this book

whatever the effect of insect pollination on initial angiosperm diversification, discovery of early and mid cretaceous flowers leave no doubt that early members of the group were insect pollinated

VG

 

[Budley Doright]

Personally Ive never questioned why cannabis produces resin....

Having grown outdoors Ive seen lots of insect damage to leaves....

not so much for the flowers....

Clearly imo the main reason for resin is to deter insects....

The resin generated close to the reproductive bits of the plant especially the seeds....


I think insects are the greatest threats to plant and from an evolutionary standpoint the plants with better protection from insects are more likely to survive....

 

[mean mr.mustard]

THC is not contained only in resin glands, but is also present throughout the plant tissues, plant matter (leaves, flowers, etc.). It is this thc which is spread all around in plant which provides most of the protection against UVs.
The whole plant needs to be protected against UVs, not only the seeds.

Irie !

THC is only produced in resin glands.

 

[bendoslendo]

cannabis seeds have a tough opaque coating so i fail to see the need for the resin to protect the seeds. if DNA needed to be preserved we would see resin on male pollen sacs yet this is quite a rare trait afaik.[.......] it seems there is no proven 'right' answer to this question just yet...

Opaque to visible light but to UVB light? Also, is this coating present during early stages of "seed" formation?

The amount of pollen males produce may preclude the necessity for protection. This is quite often the case in plant/animal life. Males produce lots of gametes, females produce relatively few. A small amount of pollen becoming sterile due to dessication or UVB would have little to no evolutionary impact because of this vast difference in gamete production between sexes.


The original question is a bit vague and reforming it might produce a more fruitful discussion.

Why does cannabis produce resin?
The question is heavily dependent on your frame of causality. For our most proximate cause quite simply: Cannabis produces resin because it is genetically programmed to do so; moderated and/or mediated by environmental conditions. So this is pretty banal and useless answer that I think we all knew anyway.

Assuming the premise that all life has evolved we can take our chain of causality out another step and say: Cannabis produces resin because it has evolved to do so; initially in response to recurrent selective pressures, then more recently due to selective breeding by humans.

So now we can ask the more exact questions.

What selective pressures led to the initial production of resin in ancestors of cannabis?

What selective pressures may have led to the cooption or exaptation of resin for other purposes.

What selective pressures led to the evolution of distinct chemical properties of cannabis resin.

What environmental variables currently moderate/mediate the production of resin and it's components in cannabis.

 

[VerdantGreen]

some good thoughts there bendoslendo

i would disagree with the pollen argument, because i think the danger of UV is not in making pollen sterile, but it's deleterious effect on DNA. incidentally dessication is pollen's friend - makes it last longer just like seeds.

and perhaps your series of questions could be summerised, pre human involvement, into
"what was the evolutionary advantage that resin gave to the cannabis plant" - indeed there may be more than one advantage.
given that the quantity of resin seems so variable in different landraces/cultivars - i still wonder if it's original purpose isnt some 'relic' that is no longer needed - which led me to insect attraction.

VG

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

What about the GENETIC variables that are responsible for resin/Cannabinoid/terpenoid profile, quantity and quality as well as type of trichomes and amounts, and locations.
This also maybe includes lots of CBG and any required synthases, or even earlier Geranyl pyrophosphate and olivetolic acid and all the steps to THC and the rest of the Cannabinoids.

Here is a paper that talks about some of the issues.
-SamS

Identification of candidate genes affecting Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol biosynthesis in Cannabis sativa.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2736886/?tool=pmcentrez

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

layman's perspective...

Where does hemp oil come from? - Seeds. Ever seen a big ass plant fully seeded? That's a lot of oil, it has to be produced. Cannabis produces resin for the seed manufacturing process. I'm venturing a guess but seed oil comes in the form of cellulose inside the seed. Seed cellulose comes from resin.

Plants have resin, (maybe more commonly referred to as oil.) Whether any have visible oil glands like weed is beyond my knowledge.

...it's also adhesive for pollen spores.

It might be possible to test the adhesive idea. Use an artist brush and paint pollen on a sugar leaf as opposed to calyx.

 

[Cojito]

i think it was after reading Michael Pollan's book "The Botany of Desire" that i came away with the idea that resin and THC are produced in response to man's desire for intoxication. i understand that resin/THC was minimal in early Cannabis. it could have been just a random mutation. but then man discovered THC/resin was useful, so he bred the plant to produce more of it. the Cannabis plant thrives because of man's efforts. we enjoy a kind of symbiotic relationship.

 

[bendoslendo]

... because i think the danger of UV is not in making pollen sterile, but it's deleterious effect on DNA. incidentally dessication is pollen's friend - makes it last longer just like seeds.

A deleterious mutation on DNA would generally result in the gamete (pollen) becoming sterile. Less likely the seed would develop, less likely even still the seed will germinate and form some kind of mutant. I have no specific proof or knowledge of UV light harming cannabis pollen. This is just coming from knowledge of point mutations in gametes.

sure pollen is best stored in cool dry location. But if resin provided any benefit by preventing dessication it would likely be by protecting the plant organ producing the pollen. After all, there are no trichomes on a pollen grain. I'm not saying that resin provides any anti-dessication benefit to male flowers though. Evolution does not create 100% ideal and practical machines. I don't need nipples.

I dig your insect attractant theory, it seems as sound as I can tell. It seems very unlikely though that the resins of today or even 30K years ago were much like the resins produced by the distant ancestor of cannabis that first transitioned from being insect pollinated though. Perhaps the mechanisms or "rudimentary" formulas, but an entirely different sticky icky I think. I have to do more reading on this, work out some sort of timeline. In other words, I doubt the complex resin of cannabis is entirely vestigial. Seems just too valuable to the plant to be.

 

[Kcar]

When I accidentally stick to the damn sticky trap in my grow room, my first instinct
is to pull away, fast. I think this is why the resin is sticky. To keep birds and
insects away until the plant is ready. Then the calyxs split open and the buffet is on.

 

[supermanlives]

i believe its in defense of something . be it uv, sunshine bugs or birds and such. my bird hates resin but loves seeds. he has gotten into the room and only ate fan leaves. i was stoned and watched him. he tried several bud and seedpod samples and always shook his head and then tried to clean his beak on a branch.he does wonders in the veg area tho

 

[bombadil.360]

Assuming the premise that all life has evolved...

some would spit in your eye and maybe even burn you if you did not assume that all life has 'evolved'...

you could easily become outcasted from most so-called science circles just by wording your sentence that way hehehe...

peace

 

[Highlight]

Deleted

 

[bigwity]

layman's perspective...



...it's also adhesive for pollen spores.

It might be possible to test the adhesive idea. Use an artist brush and paint pollen on a sugar leaf as opposed to calyx.

this is a great idea i wonder if you could pollinate a plant by only putting pollen on the sticky leaf

 

[VerdantGreen]

it would be a good thing to test but i personally doubt that pollen landing on anything other than pistils would result in fertilization.

What about the GENETIC variables that are responsible for resin/Cannabinoid/terpenoid profile, quantity and quality as well as type of trichomes and amounts, and locations.
This also maybe includes lots of CBG and any required synthases, or even earlier Geranyl pyrophosphate and olivetolic acid and all the steps to THC and the rest of the Cannabinoids.

Here is a paper that talks about some of the issues.
-SamS

Identification of candidate genes affecting Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol biosynthesis in Cannabis sativa.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2736886/?tool=pmcentrez

thanks for the paper sam - am i undesrtanding it right? - there are at least 1000 genes thought to be responsible for the steps needed to produce THC. thats a whole lot of genes.

sam so you have any ideas/knowledge R.E. the reason for resin production? - would love to hear your take on it

VG

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

castor oil, anyone?

castor oil, anyone?

The function of essential oils is debated. As with many secondary compounds, essential oils were once considered waste products. However, the biosynthetic pathways that yield essential oils are specialized and imply an expenditure of energy by the plant for their production. Another debated role for essential oils is to inhibit competing plants, or allelopathy. For example, essential oils in shed leaves can leach into the soil where they may inhibit the germination or growth of other plants competing for the same resources (e.g. light, mineral nutrients, water). As with many other secondary compounds, they are now believed to also deter herbivory and prevent infection by pathogens (i.e. bacteria and fungi). However, there is much to be learned about the physiological and ecological functions of essential oils whose functions probably also include the promotion of fire in fire-adapted species, attraction of pollinating and seed dispersing insects and vertebrates, and protection from oxidative stress caused by exposure to solar radiation (i.e. sunlight).e.g. a-pinene
What is the role of essential oils in plants? Put another way, why are these oils present in plants? Some of the reasons could be: (a) for attracting the pollinating insects by their aromas, and (b) for protecting against harmful organisms (insects and animals) by the anesthetic effects of the oils.

http://www.castoroil.in/reference/plant_oils/plant_oils.html (huge page, lots of info and links)

Essential oils are volatile, and are usually derived from the non-seed parts of the plants. Most fixed oils are the so-called “fatty oils”, and a majority of the fatty oils are derived from the seeds – hence the term oilseeds, meaning oil-bearing seeds. Some of the fixed oils are derived from vegetables & nuts.

 

[bendoslendo]

cannabis is an angiosperm (flowerring plant) that has since evolved to be wind pollinated, but it's ancestors (that it evolved from) would have been insect pollinated. it is classified in the family Rosaceae, many other members of this family are insect pollinated.
im certainly no expert on this but from what i know and have found i think this is true.
if you have some references that say different then i would love to read them.

VG

cannabis is in the the family cannabaceae, in the order rosales. wind pollination is the name of the game in cannabaceae as well as other families inside the order rosales i.e. Urticaceae

early this week I'm devoting a day of research to this topic.

some would spit in your eye and maybe even burn you if you did not assume that all life has 'evolved'...

you could easily become outcasted from most so-called science circles just by wording your sentence that way hehehe...

I'm an [unemployed] evolutionary biologist and I've never spit in anybodies eye. I've never really been allowed in the "circles" to begin with so I'm not so concerned about being thrown out.

Sometimes it's good to state accepted premises, just to be clear.

 

[foomar]

Is there any soft fossil evidence showing trichome structures before man became a factor , ancient canna in amber maybe ?

Under the microscope trichomes are not stickey and retain no pollen , mites and similar sized pests climb all over them , ladybugs legs push them aside and they do not burst , maybe more defense against catterpillers and suchlike.

Looking at a pistill under high mag its like a giant feather boa with a vast surface area to catch pollen , cant see trichs adding much to this.