Elimination of viruses from the hop(Humulus lupulus)by heat therapy and meristem culture

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Abstract
Summary A method was evolved for growing hop plants in vitro from meristem tips 0.3–0.8 mm long bearing two or three pairs of leaf primordia. Of several media tested using filter paper bridges the most satisfactory growth was obtained on a modified Murashige and Skoog medium (1962). After 10–20 days, cultures were transferred to a simplified agar medium containing auxin but no gibberellin. Using this technique two-thirds of the meristems grew into plants and 72 of 91 plants tested were free from the hop mosaic and/or hop latent viruses present in the parent plants. All clones of cv. Branding were still infected with Prunus necrotic ringspot virus but this was removed by rooting 1–5 cm shoot-tip cuttings taken from sources heat-treated at 35°C for 10 days. These techniques have been used to obtain virus-free plants of the new Wye College cultivars and are now used as routine on all new cultivars.

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