ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbe and Virus Interactions with Plants
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1652923
This article is part of the Research TopicEmerging Plant and Fungal Viruses: Impacts, Detection, and Management in a Changing WorldView all 7 articles
Viroid Ecology in Hops (Humulus lupulus L): High Prevalence in Commercial Systems but Low Presence in Wild Populations
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
- 2Bayerische Landesanstalt fur Landwirtschaft, Freising, Germany
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Word count: 169 This study presents a detailed survey of viroid and virus infections in hop (Humulus lupulus L.) across commercial, settlement, and wild populations in Germany. It emphasizes on the distribution and epidemiology of emerging viroid threats, including citrus bark cracking viroid (CBCVd), hop latent viroid (HLVd), and the first confirmed occurrence of hop stunt viroid (HSVd) in German commercial hops. The presence of identical HSVd sequences in hops and nearby infected grapevines suggests potential cross-species transmission. Additionally, five economically important viruses were assessed: hop latent virus (HpLV), american hop latent virus (AHpLV), hop mosaic virus (HpMV), arabis mosaic virus (ArMV), and apple mosaic virus (ApMV).PCR-based diagnostics revealed significant differences in pathogen prevalence across different growth environments. Commercial hops exhibited the highest infection rates, while wild populations harbored few or no detectable pathogens. Sequence analysis of HSVd isolates from hop and grapevine showed no genetic divergence, suggesting either early-stage spread or pre-existing host compatibility. This study offers new insights into the ecology, distribution, and transmission of RNA pathogens in hop cultivation.
Keywords: Cocadviroid, Hostuviroid, Carlavirus, Humulus lupulus L., Sanger sequencing, RT-PCR
Received: 24 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jagni, Krönauer, Born and Hagemann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Michael Helmut Hagemann, michael.hagemann@uni-hohenheim.de
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