title: Cannabis microbiome sequencing reveals several mycotoxic fungi native to dispensary grade Cannabis flowers.
abstract: The Center for Disease Control estimates 128,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized annually due to food borne illnesses. This has created a demand for food safety testing targeting the detection of pathogenic mold and bacteria on agricultural products. This risk extends to medical Cannabis and is of particular concern with inhaled, vaporized and even concentrated Cannabis products . As a result, third party microbial testing has become a regulatory requirement in the medical and recreational Cannabis markets, yet knowledge of the Cannabis microbiome is limited. Here we describe the first next generation sequencing survey of the fungal communities found in dispensary based Cannabis flowers by ITS2 sequencing, and demonstrate the sensitive detection of several toxigenic Penicillium and Aspergillus species, including P. citrinum and P. paxilli, that were not detected by one or more culture-based methods currently in use for safety testing.
authors.affiliation: Medicinal Genomics Corporation, Woburn, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McKernan
authors.affiliation: Medicinal Genomics Corporation, Woburn, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spangler
authors.affiliation: Medicinal Genomics Corporation, Woburn, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Medicinal Genomics Corporation, Woburn, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Vasisht
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tadigotla
authors.affiliation: Medicinal Genomics Corporation, Woburn, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Helbert
authors.affiliation: Medicinal Genomics Corporation, Woburn, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Theodore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Foss
authors.affiliation: Medicinal Genomics Corporation, Woburn, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smith
keywords: Cannabidiol; Cannabis; Citrinin; Culture; Microbiome; Mycotoxins; Next generation sequencing; Paxilline; qPCR