Delineating genetic regulation of cannabinoid biosynthesis during female flower development in Cannabis sativa

Abstract Cannabinoids are predominantly produced in the glandular trichomes on cannabis female flowers. There is little known on how cannabinoid biosynthesis is regulated during female flower development. We aim to understand the rate‐limiting step(s) in the cannabinoid biosynthetic pathway. We investigated the transcript levels of cannabinoid biosynthetic genes together with cannabinoid contents during 7 weeks of female flower development. We demonstrated that the enzymatic steps for producing cannabigerol (CBG), which involve genes GPPS, PT, TKS, and OAC, could rate limit