Chapter 17
Induction of Polyploidy and Its Effect
onCannabis sativaL.
Hakimeh Mansouri and Mahsa Bagheri
Abstract Polyploids are organisms with three or more complete chromosome sets.
Polyploidization is widespread in plants, and is an important mechanism of spe-
ciation. Polyploids can be formed in various ways. The study of polyploids has both
important theoretical significance and valuable applications. The production and
application of polyploidy breeding have brought remarkable economic and social
benefits. We reported the production of putative tetraploid plants ofCannabis
sativaL., with the ultimate aim of improving the medicinal and physiological traits
of this widely distributed cultivated plant. The production of tetraploid plant was
improved with colchicine at different concentrations and time through dropping
method. Flow cytometry analysis was used to confirm the ploidy level.
Morphologic, anatomic and biochemical characteristics were compared between
tetraploid and diploid control plants. The results showed that 0.2% colchicine for
24 h was the most efficient for production of polyploid plants. The percentage of
tetraploid plants and the survival rate were lowered by the increasing the treatment
time. In addition, the leaf index and height of tetraploid plants exhibited a signif-
icant decrease compared to the diploid plants. The size of stomata on epidermis of
leaves were larger in tetraploid plant compared to the diploid ones, in spite of the
tetraploid plants have less stomata density. However, the amount of total chloro-
phyll and carotenoids were almost the same in both tetraploid and diploid plants. In
addition, some differences were also observed in the cross section of stem of these
plants from a descriptive structural point of view. Overall, the results introduced
usage of the stomata parameters as an effective, fast and convenient method for
detecting the tetraploid plants. We also investigated polyploidy effects on some
primary and secondary metabolites. The results of biochemical analyzes showed
that soluble sugars and total protein content increased significantly into mixoploid
plants compared to tetraploid and diploid plants. Tetraploid plants had higher
amount of total proteins compared with control plants. The results showed that
polyploidization could increase the contents of tetrahydrocannabionol only in
H. Mansouri (&)M. Bagheri
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Shahih Bahonar
University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer International Publishing AG 2017
S. Chandra et al. (eds.), Cannabis sativaL. - Botany and Biotechnology,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54564-6_17
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