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Dr. Zamir Punja is a Professor of Plant Biotechnology at Simon Fraser University in Canada. His research interests include the etiology and management of plant diseases on vegetable and horticultural crops, and the applications of plant biotechnology for disease management. Since 2018, his work has shifted to researching cannabis, where his group has described a range of previously unreported pathogens affecting the crop and has evaluated various methods for disease management.

Zamir’s latest research has been focused on a pathogen that is spreading throughout cannabis cultivation facilities worldwide, Hop Latent Viroid. HLVd is a relatively new pathogen. It was first identified in hops in the late 80s and was detected in cannabis in 2018. It is also quite small, only 40 nanometers in size. Still, in just five years this tiny pathogen has managed to infect as much as 90% of cannabis facilities in California alone. All while reducing yields by as much as 50% and costing the industry $4 billion in losses.

Zamir shared his latest research on HLVd at CannMed 23, which is the basis of our conversation today. I have put a link to the video of his presentation in the show description. Our conversation covers:

• 0:00 Introduction
  
• 4:38 Why Zamir calls HLVd the “COVID of Cannabis”
  
• 8:06 Evidence that HLVd spreads through seed 10:42 What is it doing to cannabis plants?
  
• 13:17 How hop growers dealt with HLVd
  
• 16:06 Lack of genetic diversity in HLVd
  
• 19:50 Up close view of trichomes on HLVd-infected plants
  
• 29:57 Treatment and Remediation options
  
• 32:53 HLVd Testing protocols
  
• 38:41 Sampling recommendations
  
• 48:05 Hope for the Future
  
• 50:30 Related Resources
  
• 52:47 Outro
  

Thanks to This Episode’s Sponsor: PhenoXpress

PhenoXpress offers low-cost genetic testing services to cultivation facilities. Using qPCR technology, PhenoXpress helps cutlivators identify genetic traits, such as plant sex, while plants are still in the seedling tray. They can also identify plant pathogens, such as Hop Latent Viroid, Lettuce Chlorosis Virus, and Powdery Mildew before plants show obvious signs of infection. Contact PhenoXpress today so they can help you predict, prevent, and eliminate major crop problems before they happen. 

Learn more at phenoxpress.com

Additional Resources

• Understanding and Managing Hop Latent Viroid in Cannabis – Zamir Punja, PhD [CannMed 23 Presentation]
  
• Hop Latent Viroid Shares a 19 Nucleotide Sequence with Cannabis sativa COG7 – Kevin McKernan [CannMed 23 Presentation] –
  
• Hop Latent Viroid in Cannabis
  
• Review the Podcast!
  
• CannMed Archive
  
• CannMed Community Board [Facebook Group]