Long-lost cannabis enzymes are back, and they pinpoint when the plant first gained the chemistry to make THC, CBD, and CBC. These three compounds drive the psychoactive and medical effects of cannabis. Their results tie that evolutionary moment to sturdier enzymes that could help produce medical cannabis compounds with fewer supply swings.
Modern cannabis genomes still carry traces of older chemistry, even after those enzymes vanished millions of years ago. By rebuilding extinct proteins, Dr. Robin van Velzen at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) in the Netherlands tested how older enzymes behaved.
Velzen's reconstructions showed that the oldest enzyme made none of these compounds, while a later ancestor produced all three. Separate enzymes for THC and CBD emerged later, and that slow split still shapes what medical cannabis can offer.
Gene copies gave evolution room to tinker, and cannabis used that opening to refine its chemical mix. After a gene duplication, each copy gathered changes that nudged its output. One descendant enzyme favored THC, another leaned toward CBD, and a third preferred CBC, once those small differences added up.
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