Weed My Lips: Cannabis Viroids with Dr. Zamir Punja

Viroids are some of the most unusual biological infectious agents because they consist of only very small circular RNA molecules.  They are too small to encode proteins, yet they are resilient and cause disease in a variety of agriculturally important plants, including cannabis, the sixth largest cash crop in the U.S. Dr. Zamir Punja is a Professor of Plant Biotechnology at Simon Frasier University, whose laboratory studies the cannabis viroid, which he refers to as the “COVID of cannabis”.  Dr. Punja describes how viroids only infect plants, how a viroid stunts the growth and potency of cannabis plants, where viroids may have come from, why agricultural practices may enhance the spread of the cannabis viroid, how “beneficial” biological approaches may protect cannabis from infectious agents, and how the beautiful environment of Vancouver promotes good science. Dr. Vince Young joined microTalk on this episode, which was supported by Gordo Sheepsay’s My Dope Microscope.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Zamir Punja, Ph.D. (Simon Frasier University)
• Vincent Young, M.D., Ph.D. (University of Michigan)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)