Untargeted Metabolomic Analyses Reveal Chemical Complexity of Dioecious

Cannabis is a mostly dioecious multi-use flowering plant genus. Sexual dimorphism an important characteristic in Cannabis-based commercial production systems, which has consequences for fibre, seed, and the yield of secondary metabolites, such as phytocannabinoid terpenes therapeutic uses. Beyond obvious morphological differences between male female plants, metabolic variation among flowers largely undefined. Here, we report pilot metabolomic study comparing staminate (male) pistillate (female) unisexual flowers. Enrichment α-linolenic acid pathway consensus evaluation jasmonic (JA) related compound 12-oxo-phytodienoicacid (OPDA) differentially abundant metabolites suggests that oxylipin signalling associated with metabolism sex expression Several putative phytocannabinoid-like compounds were observed to be upregulated flowers, but full identification was not possible due limitation available databases. Targeted analysis 14 phytocannabinoids using certified reference standards (cannabidiolic (CBDA), cannabidiol (CBD), Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolic A (Δ9-THCAA), Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), cannabichromenic (CBCA), cannabichromene (CBC), cannabigerolic (CBGA), cannabigerol (CBG), cannabinolic (CBNA), cannabinol (CBN), cannabidivarinic (CBDVA), cannabidivarin (CBDV), tetrahydrocannabivarinic (THCVA), tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV)) showed higher total content compared expected. In summary, development phytocannabinoid-specific accurate-mass MSn fragmentation spectral library gene pool representative metabolome potential improve small molecule annotation accelerate understanding underlying phenotypic diversity Cannabis.