Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 8, 2026
10:23
A Concoction Pipeline for Generating Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) Among Riparian and Aquatic Beetles
Published on: July 11, 2025
Molecular phylogeny of wild hops, Humulus lupulus L
A Murakami1, P Darby, B Javornik
1Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd, Research Laboratory for Brewing, 1-17-1 Namamugi Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-8628, Japan. m-atsushi@kirin.co.jp
Heredity
|May 11, 2006
Summary
Wild hops (Humulus lupulus) from the Northern Hemisphere show distinct genetic groups, with European, Asian, and North American types diverging over a million years ago. This genetic analysis reveals insights into hop evolution and geographical spread.
Area of Science:
- Botany
- Evolutionary Biology
- Genetics
Background:
- Wild hops (Humulus lupulus) are crucial for brewing and traditional medicine.
- Understanding their genetic diversity and evolutionary history is key to conservation and domestication efforts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolutionary history and phylogenetic relationships of wild hops.
- To analyze the genetic diversity and geographical distribution of hop haplotypes across the Northern Hemisphere.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of wild hop samples collected globally.
- Characterization of haplotypes using nuclear ribosomal DNA spacer regions (length and sequence) and chloroplast DNA noncoding regions (sequences).
Main Results:
- Identified primary divergence into European and Asian-North American types 1.05-1.27 million years ago.
- European hops exhibit wide distribution but low genetic variation, suggesting recent expansion.
- North American hops show high diversity, potentially originating from Asia; Japanese and Chinese hops are genetically distinct.
Conclusions:
- Wild hops are genetically differentiated across growing regions, possessing significant genetic diversity.
- The study provides insights into the complex evolution and potential domestication pathways of Humulus lupulus.
Related Concept Videos
02:54Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
01:29Modern Molecular Taxonomy
Advancements in molecular biology have revolutionized the identification and characterization of bacteria, with multiple methods leveraging DNA sequencing for enhanced precision. As sequencing technologies improve and costs decline, these approaches are increasingly used in clinical, environmental, and evolutionary studies.Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) examines several housekeeping genes, essential chromosomal genes encoding cellular functions, to distinguish strains. Approximately...
03:21Phylogenetic Trees
Phylogenetic trees come in many forms. It matters in which sequence the organisms are arranged from the bottom to the top of the tree, but the branches can rotate at their nodes without altering the information. The lines connecting individual nodes can be straight, angled, or even curved.The length of the branches can depict time or the relative amount of change among organisms. For instance, the branch length might indicate the number of amino acid changes in the sequence that underlies the...
03:21Phylogenetic Trees
Phylogenetic trees come in many forms. It matters in which sequence the organisms are arranged from the bottom to the top of the tree, but the branches can rotate at their nodes without altering the information. The lines connecting individual nodes can be straight, angled, or even curved.The length of the branches can depict time or the relative amount of change among organisms. For instance, the branch length might indicate the number of amino acid changes in the sequence that underlies the...
01:23Phylogeny
Phylogeny is concerned with the evolutionary diversification of organisms or groups of organisms. A group of organisms with a name is called a taxon (singular). Taxa (plural) can span different levels of the evolutionary hierarchy. For instance, the group containing all birds is a taxon (comprising the class Aves), and the group of all species of daisies (the genus Bellis) is a taxon. Phylogenies can likewise include just one genus (i.e., depict species relationships) or span an entire...
02:05Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
In contrast, regions which code...
In contrast, regions which code...