Hops (Humulus lupulus) flowers are most famous for imparting the bitter taste and aroma to beer. Hop flowers produce essential oils that contain many different plant compounds, which impart the characteristic taste and aroma of hop plants. However, how the production of these oils is regulated is not fully understood. The establishment of the craft […]

Cannabis sativa is a plant well-known for its production of cannabinoids, which are lipids with unique pharmacological properties. These compounds are produced mainly in female floral buds in specialized epidermal outgrowths known as glandular trichomes. These structures consist of a long stalk supporting a disk of biosynthetically active cells that produce the cannabinoids. Cannabinoid biosynthesis […]

Traditional breeding of agricultural plants is based on repeated self fertilization of large number of parental plants followed by screening larger offspring populations to uncover random natural or induced genetic variants with a desired trait. This approach can take many years and considerable resources to complete. This approach cannot directly be applied to hops breeding […]