Mechanism of control of pathogen infection in Cannabis sativa using copper ions

病原菌感染是植物栽培的主要问题之一，特别是在室内栽培时。随着大麻的合法化，寻找培育和保护大麻植物生长的新方法对加拿大经济将变得越来越重要。控制大麻种植中的病原体感染可以防止大量产量损失，并使有执照的生产者能够满足加拿大卫生部规定的微生物数量要求。Co-Terra是一家加拿大的研发公司，开发各种用于控制植物病原体感染的应用，包括大麻。Co-Terra正在开发的几种产品是基于Cu2+离子的活性；这些产品，包括PX10，过去被用于控制鱼类的病原体感染，控制藻类生长，减少斑叶草和木瓜的病原体感染。本产品从未在商业温室环境中使用过，也从未用于大麻。Co-Terra有兴趣测试PX10以控制大麻中的感染，但该公司目前没有从事大麻研究的许可证。相比之下，我们的实验室在2016年就获得了大麻研究许可证。目前尚不清楚PX10是否真的能够控制大麻中的感染，以及它的有效浓度是多少。目前尚不清楚这种浓度是否会对植物有害，因此可能会改变这些植物的代谢组成。我们假设PX10能够减少种植大麻时病原体的总体负荷，并对特定病原体群体（例如细菌）产生更大的影响。我们进一步假设，在处理过的植株上，花的总产量要么没有变化，要么略有增加。此外，我们假设代谢物的组成，如大麻素和萜类化合物不会因PX10治疗而改变。该项目的成果将使Co-Terra能够开发一种适用于控制大麻病原体的产品。这一信息将使该公司有可能将该产品申请注册为经批准的化学品，用于控制商业大麻业务中的病原体。

Pathogen infection is one of the main problems in plant cultivation, especially when plants are cultivated indoors. With the legalization of cannabis, finding new ways to cultivate and protect the growth of cannabis plants will become increasingly important to the Canadian economy. Controlling pathogen infection in cannabis cultivation can prevent substantial yield loss and allow licensed producers to meet the requirements for the microbial counts set by Health Canada. Co-Terra is a Canadian R&D company developing various applications for control of pathogen infection in plants, including cannabis. Several products that Co-Terra is developing are based on the activity of Cu2+ ions; these products, including PX10, have been used in the past to control pathogen infection in fish and to control algae growth and reduce pathogen infection in sigatoka and papaya. This product has never been used in commercial greenhouse settings and has never been used for cannabis. Co-Terra is interested in testing PX10 for the control of infection in cannabis but the company currently has no license to work on cannabis. In contrast, our laboratory has the cannabis research license since 2016. It is not known whether PX10 would actually be capable to control infection in cannabis and what the active concentration would be. It is unknown whether such concentrations would be damaging to plants, and as a result may alter metabolic composition in these plants. We hypothesize that PX10 would be able to reduce the overall load of pathogens in growing cannabis and will have more substantial effect on specific groups of pathogens, such as bacteria, for example. We further hypothesize that the overall yield of flowers on treated plants will either not change or increase slightly. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the composition of metabolites, such as cannabinoids and terpenoids will not change in response to treatment with PX10. The project outcome will allow Co-Terra to develop a product suitable for the control of pathogens in cannabis. This information will give the company the possibility to apply this product for registration of approved chemicals for the control of pathogens in commercial cannabis operations.