Integrating target capture with whole genome sequencing of recent and natural history collections to explain the phylogeography of wild-growing and cultivated Cannabis

Cannabis has provided important and versatile services to humans for millennia. Domestication and subsequent dispersal have resulted in various landraces and cultivars. Unravelling the phylogeography of this genus poses considerable challenges due to its complex history.

We relied on a Hyb-Seq approach (combining target capture with shotgun sequencing), with the universal Angiosperms353 enrichment panel, to explore the genetic structure of wild-growing accessions and cultivars by implementing phylogenomic and population genomic workflows on the same Hyb-Seq data.

Our findings support the treatment of Cannabis as a monotypic genus ( C. sativa L.), structured into three main genetic groups—E Asia, Paleotropis, and Boreal—with clear phylogeographic signal despite significant levels of admixture. The E Asia group was sister to the Paleotropis and the Boreal groups. Individuals within the Paleotropis group could be further structured into three subgroups: Iranian Plateau, C & S China and Himalayas, and Indoafrica. Individuals from the Boreal group split into two subgroups: Eurosiberia and W Mongolia and Caucasus and Mediterranean. Hemp and drug-type landraces and cultivars consistently matched their putative geographic origin.

These findings enhance our understanding of the genetic patterns in Cannabis and provide a framework for future research into its current and past genetic diversity.