Analgesia: Morphine-pathway block in 'top1' poppies

[Ed Dunkel]

http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf...431413a_fs.html

"Better poppy painkillers. Scientists from CSIRO Plant Industry have determined why a poppy variant known as TOP1 doesn’t produce morphine. In their recent Nature paper, the team have determined that thebaine accumulates instead of morphine due to a blockage in demethylation activity. Many new generation painkillers are derived from thebaine. Other derivatives are used in the treatment of addiction and the TOP1 crop carries little risk of diversion for illicit purposes. TOP1 poppy was discovered in 1995, and started commercial production in Tasmania a mere two years later."

[mr toodly]

I wonder if the seeds from this plant will find their way to culinary circles. Fascinating.

Aside: Is anyone here familiar with the Tasmanian poppy industry? I have some questions for you.

[mr toodly]

[ 11. October 2004, 13:44: Message edited by: r. Jackson ]

[Rev]

There are people more familiar than myself here but ive looked at the Norman strain poppies , the thebaine ones, a little and i used to go to uni with a guy whose family grew poppies in TAs so i picked his brains

what did u want to know?

[VINS]

downloads all the available Tasalk (tasmanian alkaloids company) poppy grower's bullettin.

each bullettin is 15pages in pdf format with a good resumy of the different step in the evolution (from before the norman age to the news OMG poppies )

[nabraxas]

http://www.tasalk.com.au/home.html

couldn't find the Pdf's Vins mentioned, but there's a fair bit there.

[mr toodly]

reville:

There are people more familiar than myself here but ive looked at the Norman strain poppies , the thebaine ones, a little and i used to go to uni with a guy whose family grew poppies in TAs so i picked his brains

what did u want to know?

In poppies, is there a strong correlation between genotype and chemotype?

[VINS]

Nabraxas, here's the only one i found in my bookmarks , the latest: http://www.tasalk.com.au/news/Poppy_Bulletin.html

could you try to explain me what is a chemotype please ?

[SirLSD]

a friend of mine would really like to know how to id these. do they look like the usual tazzies? are the seeds being sold in supermarkets. how would one know if they have just poluted their gene pool by allowing store bought poppy seeds to freely cross with other varieties?? do tazzies normally have hairs on their stems as with the store bought ones or could this be a trait of the top1's?

[zl00j]

VINs, I think chemotype is "the chemical make-up".

To say that "there is a strong correlation between chemotype and genotype" means that the chemical make-up is principally controlled by the genes (as opposed to environmental factors).

Whether this is true or not I would like to know.

Salut!

[VINS]

nitrogen top dressing at hook stage and correct fertilizer balance during the groth are arround 50% and genotype is the other half part.

there is a diagramm which explain that in detail in the bulletin that i mentionned at first

check the link

[VINS]

something like that

[Rev]

The loss of activity by the gene that makes teh difference is acuased by a mutation at a single recessive site

therefore hybrids will regain the activity

as will most of the F2

remmeber those dominant recessive mendelian ratios- just like that

If you can find a spot test for codeine you can weed out the phenotypes but the recessives will continue to lurk

Phenotype - the Variety as defined by its physicality as put together by al the dominant and co-dominant traits under the conditions of study

Genotype - the variety as defined by its genes including all the ones it carries but does not express, for example mutant copies such as the doubles in poppies. In my expts the crossing of doubles and singles made for single F1's as single seems dominant (Bummer ). A mutation is more rarely dominant over the wild type than it is recessive.

Chemotype - The variety as defined by its chemical composition eg High morphine types, high codeine types, Thebaine varieties etc etc can be much more specific. Landraces (open pollinated strains from a traditional locality) of poppy can be all mixed colours but share a common profile (with variance). In this case we define poppy strains by traits like chemotype, disease resitance, sowing times, latex yeld , seed yield, rather than flower colour which is not selcted for and so tends to wander....

[Rev]

In the book ive read it gives many indian cultivars and comments about their traits

some may yield very good quality opium but yield poorly in volume (latex)

so many genes affect profile, latex yield per capsule, number of capsules per plant

and agronomic factors make up the rest

From the way they play with profiles it would seem this is quite susceptible to change and owing to a complex number of alleles goevrning rate limited steps in the biosynthesis that depending on their harmony push the profile one way or another (these enzymes may be assisted by trace minerals)

whiles the general vigour, size and nutritional status of the plant afects yield more and so planting time, nitrogen and water are important

There are also some other strange occurences.

They say chilling the seed for a few weeks at fridge temps increased morphine yields by 25% and many other such treatment claims. So there is much more to be tweaked it seems till we reach the optimum technique even with good genes as the base level

Has anyone else seen poppies with Pink latex? wierd, quite numbing and acrid to the tongue.

[ 15. October 2004, 23:28: Message edited by: reville ]

[VINS]

reville:

In the book ive read it gives many indian cultivars and comments about their traits

some may yield very good quality opium but yield poorly in volume (latex)

so many genes affect profile, latex yield per capsule, number of capsules per plant

and agronomic factors make up the rest

Has anyone else seen poppies with Pink latex? wierd, quite numbing and acrid to the tongue.

Reville try a search at ODC , there is a lot of studies about all this things. really scientistic in approach. unfortunatly there is only olds studies (1950)

the more recent research are made by tasmanian industry and est european lab, but they keep their secret because now there is copyright on strains and money on the table....

i think this link is good but not sure :http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/bulletin_on_narcotics_keyword_index_84.html

and regarding the pink latex is is not a rare thing. persian and taz are often pink (but i would more compare the tongue sensation to a local analgesia)