{"id":411159,"date":"2026-05-04T10:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411159\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:55:08","slug":"hops-and-cannabis-share-genetic-sex-switch-scientists-discover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411159\/","title":{"rendered":"Hops and Cannabis Share Genetic Sex Switch, Scientists Discover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at University College Dublin have identified a genetic \u201cswitch\u201d that determines the sex of cannabis plants \u2014 and found that the same system may also be present in hops.<\/p>\n<p>Published in\u00a0New Phytologist, the study identifies a specific region of the X chromosome that influences whether cannabis plants develop as male, female, or both.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was known for quite a while that female cannabis plants possess two X chromosomes and male plants carry an X and a Y chromosome, but there are thousands of genes on those chromosomes,\u201d said Associate Professor Rainer Melzer, senior author of the study. \u201cWhich of those genes determines whether a plant becomes male or female was unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Within a small stretch of DNA, researchers identified three closely linked genes that work together to control male and female development, according to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-04-beer-cannabis-sex.html#goog_rewarded\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">press release.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Using genetic mapping, genome sequencing and gene expression analysis, the UCD team, working with international partners, identified this region \u2014 known as Monoecy1 \u2014 as a major control point for sex expression. The same key genes were also found in hops in a corresponding region of the X chromosome.<\/p>\n<p>This suggests the genetic \u201cswitch\u201d existed before cannabis and hops diverged around 28 million years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were quite surprised when a lot of evidence pointed to a small region on the X chromosome as a key driver of sex determination, because in many other species, including humans, the Y chromosome determines sex,\u201d said Matteo Toscani, a Ph.D. student at UCD and first author of the study.<\/p>\n<p>The findings could have important agricultural applications, particularly for crops such as hops and cannabis, where female plants are more economically valuable.<\/p>\n<p>In brewing, only female hop plants produce the cones that give beer its aroma and flavour. In cannabis, female plants are grown for cannabinoids such as CBD.<\/p>\n<p>The ability to identify and control plant sex could help reduce crop losses and allow growers to reliably produce all-female plants for cannabinoid or hop cone production, or uniform monoecious crops for fibre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers at University College Dublin have identified a genetic \u201cswitch\u201d that determines the sex of cannabis plants \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[211518,10726,111,139,69,147,25626],"class_list":["post-411159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-crop-breeding","tag-gene-editing","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-seed-world-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}