The genotype is the genetic make-up of a plant: the alleles it carries at one locus (for example B_T/B_D at the cannabinoid synthase locus) or across the whole genome. Each seed is a new genotype. Every clone cut from one plant shares that plant's genotype.
In practice
"Same genotype" is the honest way to say "same plant". A mother kept for ten years and a cut passed to a friend are the same genotype, even if one grows better because of its care or a virus-free status. A pack of seeds from one cross holds many genotypes, which is why you pheno hunt.
A DNA test reads part of the genotype. It can tell whether two cuts are the same plant and give a rough idea of ancestry. It cannot read THC percentage or flavour off the label, because those also depend on many genes and on how the plant was grown.
Don't confuse with
- Phenotype: what the genotype produces in a given environment. Same genotype, different room, different phenotype.
- Strain: a name. Studies of retail cannabis show the same name often hides different genotypes (Sawler et al. 2015).
- Chemotype: the chemical phenotype, partly set by genotype.
An allele is one version of a gene; a diploid cannabis plant carries two alleles at each locus, one from each parent, which may be the same or different.A locus is the fixed position on a chromosome where a particular gene or DNA marker sits; the plural is loci.A cannabinoid is any compound that binds the body's cannabinoid receptors or shares the typical cannabis terpenophenolic structure; the plant-made ones are phytocannabinoids such as THCA and CBDA.In grower slang, a pheno is one individual plant from a seed lot, usually numbered during a hunt, as in "the #4 pheno".Genotyping is reading a plant's DNA at selected markers to identify it, compare it with other plants, check sex or chemotype, or estimate its ancestry.THC (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol) is the neutral, decarboxylated cannabinoid mainly responsible for cannabis's reported intoxicating effects; the living plant makes it almost entirely as THCA.The phenotype is what a plant visibly and measurably is (shape, colour, smell, chemistry, timing), the result of its genotype acting in a particular environment.A chemotype is a plant's chemical phenotype, in cannabis usually its dominant cannabinoid class: THC-dominant (I), mixed (II), CBD-dominant (III), CBG-dominant (IV) or cannabinoid-free (V).Cloning is propagating a plant by rooting cuttings from it, producing new plants that are genetically identical to the donor.Genotype by environment interaction (GxE) is when different genotypes respond differently to the same change in conditions, so the best cultivar in one room may not be best in another.
