Potential heterotic groups in hop as determined by AFLP analysis

• Published in: Crop science Vol. 45; no. 5; pp. 1901 - 1907
• Main Authors: Townsend, M.S, Henning, J.A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Madison, WI The Crop Science Society of America, Inc 01-09-2005; Crop Science Society of America; American Society of Agronomy
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; amplified fragment length polymorphism; Biological and medical sciences; Crop science; Cultivars; Flowers & plants; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetic aspects; genetic distance; genetic markers; genetic variation; Genetics; Genetics and breeding of economic plants; genotype; Genotype & phenotype; Genotypes; heterosis; Heterosis. Floral biology applications: apomixy, male sterility, incompatibility, varia; Hops; Humulus lupulus; Hybridization; Hybrids; Offspring; Plant breeding: fundamental aspects and methodology; Qualitative analysis; Essential oil plant; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Humulus lupulus; Cannabidaceae; Spermatophyta; Genetic distance; Amplified fragment length polymorphism marker; Heterosis
• ISSN: 0011-183X; 1435-0653
• DOI: 10.2135/cropsci2003.0688

Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) is a perennial, dioecious species in which the female inflorescence (cones) are harvested and used in the beer-brewing process to impart bittering and/or flavoring to beer. Hop breeders have typically utilized clonal selection and hybridization to develop new cultivars. The use of genetically diverse parents for the purpose of capturing heterosis in the offspring has received little attention from hop breeders. The objective of this research was to assign male (N = 80) and female (N = 26) hop genotypes into potential heterotic groups using AFLP-generated molecular markers. The six AFLP primers used in this study amplified 550 total fragments, of which 490 (89.1%) were polymorphic. A genetic distance (GD) matrix was computed from the binary data matrix, and groupings and summary statistics were calculated from the GD matrix. Two major clusters were observed, one composed primarily of European hops, while the second group was composed primarily of European-wild American hybrids. The two major clusters were further subdivided into 13 smaller clusters (two female, nine male, two male and female) based on a qualitative analysis. These results suggest potential parental combinations for hop researchers and breeders to study heterosis in hop.