19.10 Short Tandem Repeat (STR) and SSR Analysis
Hsieh et al. ( 2003 ) investigated the use of short tandem repeat loci in identification
of cannabis samples and predicting their genetic relationship. Alghanim and
Almirall ( 2003 ) also developed STR markers for cannabis and showed that these
markers were very effective in identifying 27 samples tested and useful for estab-
lishing genetic relatedness. In contract, Mendoza et al. ( 2009 ) were unable to
distinguish between marijuana and hemp strains using STR markers. Dufresnes
et al. ( 2017 ) used 13 microsatellite loci (STRs) to distinguish between hemp and
marihuana samples and described a high level of genetic differentiation between
marihuana strains. Expressed sequence tag simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR)
markers were used by Gao et al. ( 2014 ) to distinguish among a range of hemp
strains from different geographical regions.
Fig. 19.12Dendrogram showing the genetic relationship among 36 strains of cannabis used in
commercial production and originating from diverse sources. ISSR primers shown in Table19.1
were used in the analysis
19 Assessing Genetic Diversity inCannabis sativa... 411