Cornell Hemp Webinar Series: Feral Germplasm and Genetic Diversity
Shelby Ellison, University of Wisconsin
May 1, 2024 | 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. (EST)
Dr. Shelby Ellison is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She received a B.S. in Genetics at UW-Madison, a Ph.D. in Genetics at UC-Davis and was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at UW-Madison. Her research interests include preserving, characterizing, and utilizing genetic diversity to develop new alternative crops that meet the needs of farmers while considering environmental implications. She is also interested in how human interactions with plants, through domestication and breeding, have altered the plant genome and how we can use these selection signatures to trace domestication and improvement throughout history. Dr. Ellison is leading a nationwide effort to collect feral hemp germplasm to help rebuild the new US hemp seedbank. She is also a member of the Midwestern Hemp Research Collaborative which trials high cannabinoid, grain and fiber hemp cultivars for regional adaptation.
The establishment of US hemp breeding programs to develop cultivars possessing complaint chemical profiles and consistent trait expression has been stalled by the lack of a publicly accessible industrial hemp seed bank. Fortunately, Cornell AgriTech now houses the recently established USDA-ARS Hemp Germplasm Repository. Our research group, in collaboration with citizen scientists and peer institutions, has embarked on a national initiative to collect and characterize geographically distributed, naturalized feral populations to facilitate access to hemp seed material for breeding and research projects. To date we have collected 1050 samples from 13 states. A subset (n=453) of the materials have been genotyped to assess genetic diversity and population structure. Three major subpopulations were identified and cluster based on geographic origin. The populations were significantly different from one another as inferred from Fixation indices (Fst) between populations (> 0.15), and AMOVA results revealing high genetic variation within and across the germplasm. The CBDAS PACE genotyping assay indicated most of the feral populations (80%) were CBD-type, with a fair distribution of Intermediate and THC-type chemotypes. Initial phenotyping efforts of the feral populations show tremendous phenotypic variation and promising results for fiber yield and disease resistance. The data generated and germplasm obtained are potential resources for hemp breeding and improvement in cannabis.
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Those who register will receive the Zoom link prior to each webinar.
If you missed one of our sessions or want to watch a session again, you can find recordings on our 2024 Cornell Hemp Webinar YouTube playlist.