A Multivariate Analysis of Allozyme Variation in 93 Cannabis Accessions from the VIR Germplasm Collection

Abstract The Vavilov Institute (VIR) in Russia maintains the world's largest collection of Cannabis sativa hemp germplasm through periodic seed regeneration. Sample populations of 93 accessions from the VIR collection were assayed for allozyme variation at 17 gene loci by starch-gel electrophoresis. The frequencies of 47 alleles were subjected to principal components (PC) analysis. A scatter plot on the first two PC axes showed little tendency for the accessions to cluster according to country of origin or their assignment to eco-geographical groups. Three Chinese accessions previously assigned to the hemp biotype of C. indica clustered separately. Eleven other Chinese accessions clustered with accessions from Europe, Asia Minor, and central Asia, and are likely to be hybridized. Conservation ofC. indica hemp landraces is of vital importance to the hemp industry.