Using genetics to determine a plants sex

[thegenemaster]

Hi all, this is my first post. I'm actually a scientist. I currently do cancer research but I had been a plant molecular geneticist at one point in my past. I started growing medical cannabis a couple years back and wondered if it would be possible to determine the sex of a plant simply by looking at the genes. In this way you could identify males and females as very small seedlings. Bottom line is I have done it. I use a marker to screen my plants and separate out the males.

I developed this technique just for my own purposes but now have been told that a great many growers would really benefit from my service. It has been tried on over fifty varieties and identifies the males in everyone tried to this point. I guarantee it works. I am set up to analyze a lot of plants and I can do it for a very reasonable price. Please give me some feed back on this. Thanks!

thegenemaster Reviewed by thegenemaster on 06-13-2008. Using genetics to determine a plants sex Hi all, this is my first post. I'm actually a scientist. I currently do cancer research but I had been a plant molecular geneticist at one point in my past. I started growing medical cannabis a couple years back and wondered if it would be possible to determine the sex of a plant simply by looking at the genes. In this way you could identify males and females as very small seedlings. Bottom line is I have done it. I use a marker to screen my plants and separate out the males. I developed Rating: 5

[stinkyattic]

If this is a sales post, it's in violation if site rules. Please read the forum guidelines concernig unauthorized advertising, and contact the site admin if you would like to advertise legitimately, thanks!

Sex in cannabis is 'set' during the very early seedling stage. You can easily force 99.9%+ female by simply pollinating a 'normal' female with pollen from a female that has, either naturally or through photoperiod manipulation or even chemical treatment, produced male sex parts. These 'nanners', as growers call them, are interesting in that, while they produce pollen that by all appearances is in fact viable pollen, it is physically impossible for it to contain a Y chromosome. Therefore, all offspring will be female.

Google 'feminizing seeds' and you will eventually find an interesting article by the breeder Soma on this subject.

[Weedhound]

Go Stinskter!!

[GreenLeaf420]

I guess it is easier to find the sex of a plant then to find a cure for cancer....

If you don't want to share then you must not have been around this site to long. If you understand the whole theory of the site it is to HELP others not to sell your services.

So if you wont tip us off hurry the fuck up and find the cure for cancer. We have been sexing plants longer then cancer has been killing hundreds of thousands people. We do our job so you do yours ,shit you are probably typing @ work and the cure for cancer could have just passed you by.....

I don't believe you are a scientist. Do you know what plant grows in HAWAII and cures skin cancer? Answer that and I will believe you....

[Forwhat420]

Well Im just wondering...How this info is useful? If one wants all females just buy them that way, otherwise some of us like the process of guessing and then waiting to see if we are right. Anywho I don't think anyone wants to buy that idea on the site. But if you want to give it to us then shoot!!

[thegenemaster]

I'm happy to tell eveyone how to do it. Use one of the half dozen methods available to extract DNA for a piece of plant tissue. I recommend using younger tissue as it has more cells per unit area. Determine the relative concentration of DNA and adjust it to approx. 50ng/ul(you will need a refrigerated centrifuge for this). Set up PCR(Polymerase Chain Reaction) each reaction should contain aproximately 50ng of sample DNA, 1x Taq polymerase reaction buffer, I recommend using 1.5mM MgCl2 but this may vary depending on the specific Taq polymerase you use. Aslo include in your reaction mixture approx. 0.02Units of Taq(thermostable DNA polymerase). Finally you will need to include a forward and reverse primer for one of the five known molecular male markers for cannabis. The concentration of these will need to be determined empirically as the specificity of the reaction is determined by the specific primer set you elect to use.

Now your ready to run your reactions. Be sure to keep the samples on ice prior to running the reactions. Place your samples in a previously calibrated thermocycler. These are available from a variety of vendors and a reasonably priced one is about 15K. Okay if you have made it this far contact me and Ill tell you how to set up your specific program interms of annealing Tm and hold times and recommended number of cycles to avoid non-specific amplification. When you contact me please be sure to let me know what the Tm is of each of your specific primers.

Okay now run your reaction out on a 1% 1xTBE agarose gel.

[thegenemaster]

Run the gel for about an our at 100v using an appropriate power supply. Now stain the gel with ethidium bromide, place the gel on a uv light box and take a photograph . Your done.

Look obviously I can tell you all how to do it but it just so happens I have all the equipement supplies and knowledge to to this and have done it several times.

I didn't develop this to make $$ I developed it to save my self tremendous time energy and money as a grower. Friends said there would be alot of people that would benefit form this service and would be happy to pay a reasonable fee for the service. Obviously I'm not going to do it for free.

I am a very capable of sexing plant as are many of you. But a can any of you do it before the plant even has true leaves???

[midlifecrisis]

Damn!!!!! My $25,00 dollar thermocycler is in the shop..........Oh well, guess I'll just have to order some feminized seeds again.....:jointsmile:

[thegenemaster]

I'm not trying to get rich.. and yes I have a fucking day job. Man I have just come this form this morning and I have apparently hit the asshole motherload.

FYI I am a very very good scientist. My research has directly led to the development of a drug that is scheduled to go into clinical trials within the year. I have been in the field for better than 15 years and less then 0.1% of any cancer researchers can make that claim.

So again, I'm only here to lend my expertise to fellow growers if they so desire it. Sorry I can't do it for free but I'm not going to go broke helping others out. Thanks for listening and in the future a little more decorum to fellow medical cannabis users and grows new to the forum is in order.

[thegenemaster]

available for you in every variety your interested in growing? And I have made and used femenized seeds in the past and my experience is that they have less than optimal genetic background.