Identifying the Skunk Genes in Cannabis with Manny Maminakis

Ben AmiraultCultivation, Podcast

Manny Maminakis is the inventor and CEO of Cannamatrix INC, a cannabis bioinfomratics platform. Prior to Cannamatrix, Manny spent 12 years in the cannabis industry as an award winning cannabis cultivator and edible chef.

At CannMed 26, he presented a poster titled “Computational Identification of Volatile Sulfur Compound Synthase Homologs in Cannabis sativa Using Profile Hidden Markov Models”

During our conversation, we discuss:

  • What volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) are and why they give certain cannabis strains their skunky, garlicky smell
  • How Manny’s path from cannabis cultivator and award-winning edible chef led him into bioinformatics at Canimatrix
  • Why the GMO (“garlic mushroom onion”) cultivar was chosen as the ideal candidate for studying VSCs
  • How hidden Markov models were used to find candidate VSC genes by comparing cannabis proteins to garlic, onion, and other sulfur-producing plants
  • And more!

Thanks to This Episode’s Sponsor: Cannamatrix

Cannamatrix is a genetic software company that empowers growers to select the best of the best from their seed stock. Their patented system of genetic testing with predictive algorithms helps growers harness the maximum potential of Cannabis while preserving the natural genetic makeup and reducing resource allocation, and saving time and money!

Visit cannamatrix.com to learn more

Related Resources