Establishment of a hop (Humulus lupulus) seeds germination protocol for cultivar development

葎草是北半球温带地区原生开花植物的一个小属。啤酒花**是葎草（Humulus lupulus）的雌花（球果、球果），是啤酒中的主要风味成分。狼疮是一种营养繁殖的农作物，因此对其种子的生产及其萌发特性的研究还不广泛。BioCan Technologies是一家植物生物技术公司，专注于为包括啤酒花在内的多种经济上重要的植物开发品种和害虫管理解决方案。为了实现这一目标，该公司已经建立了现有啤酒花品种和野生啤酒花的种群，以支持生产结合不同亲本品系的理想性状的杂交品种。野生啤酒花材料中存在的抗虫性状是引入具有其他有价值农艺性状的现有品种的主要目标。利用控制杂交和形成杂交种子的传统育种方法一直是公司品种开发管道中的重要工具。然而，基于种子的育种计划发展的一个重要瓶颈是收获后种子的强烈休眠，可能需要收获后长达2年的储存才能发芽。野生啤酒花品种似乎具有特别强的种子休眠性，这些特性大大减缓了**公司的品种开发管道。本项目旨在通过建立减少种子休眠时间、优化啤酒花种子萌发环境条件和激素需求的协议，加速BioCan Technologies的育种计划。

Humulus is a small genus of flowering plants native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Hops**are the female flowers (seed cones, strobiles) of the species Humulus lupulus which are used as a main flavor**ingredient in beer. H. lupulus is vegetatively propagated as an agricultural crop and therefore the production of**seed and its germination characteristics has not been extensively studied. BioCan Technologies is a plant**biotechnology company focusing on cultivar development and developing pest management solutions for a**variety of economically important plants including hops. To achieve this goal, the Company has established a**population of existing hop cultivars and wild hop accessions in order support the production of hybrids that**combine desirable traits from different parental lines. Pest resistance traits that are present in wild hop**accessions are primary targets for introgression into existing cultivars which have other valuable agronomic**traits. Traditional breeding methods using controlled crosses and the formation of hybrid seeds have been an**important tool in the Company's cultivar development pipeline. However, an important bottleneck for**development of seed-based breeding programs is the strong post-harvest seed dormancy that can require up to 2**years of of post harvest storage in order to become germinable. Wild hop cultivars appear to have particularly**strong seed dormancy and these traits have significantly slowed the cultivar development pipeline for the**Company. This project aims to accelerate BioCan Technologies breeding program through the establishment of**a protocol that reduces the seed dormancy period and optimizes the environmental conditions and hormonal**requirements for hop seed germination.