Article content continued

Bohlmann likens the complex interaction of dozens of flavour genes to the sound of an orchestra, in which each song is a specific combination of instruments of different tone and volume.

The flavours of wine and cannabis are heavily influenced by the presence of a variety of chemical compounds called terpenes produced by the plant in certain amounts, many of which are found in both wine grapes and cannabis flowers. The researchers scanned the genome of cannabis plants to identify genes known to be associated with flavour in other plants.

Photo by Getty Images

“In the wine industry, grape varieties are highly standardized, but with cannabis it’s a bit of a wild west,” he said. “The plants have all sorts of names and when it comes to the cannabinoids — the psychoactive compounds — there is a scary level of variation in potency.”

Bohlmann has so far confined his work to flavour compounds and he avoids street terms like “pot” and even marijuana to sidestep the “shadier” elements of the business, while pursuing the science.

Medicinal marijuana growers and a soon-to-be legitimized recreational marijuana industry will be interested in flavour, but even more interested in defining and standardizing the therapeutic and psychoactive chemistry of cannabis, said UBC botanist Jon Page, founder of Anandia Labs, a biotech and cannabis testing firm.

“A big focus of breeding in Canada has been about increasing or modifying the levels of compounds such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol,” he said. “It may be that terpenes, which affect flavour and fragrance, are also modifying the psychoactive and therapeutic properties (of marijuana).”

As a result, different varieties of marijuana with the same levels of the intoxicant THC may be more sedating or energizing depending on different combinations of terpenes present in the plant.

Genomic research is also likely to open the door to identifying genes related to optimal plant size, disease resistance and other characteristics of interest to commercial growers.

rshore@postmedia.com