Abstract In order to investigate the intraspecific diversity of wild Humulus lupulus (hop) in Central Italy, 12 populations were evaluated for their genetic polymorphism by means of 13 SSR loci together with six commercial cultivars as a reference. High levels of polymorphism were found across the populations, being 140 the number of multilocus genotypes over 159 samples analyzed. Moreover, the observed heterozygosity was higher than expected in most of the populations. High levels of gene flow were thus envisaged to occur within and among wild populations, and our sampling strategy allowed us to gain insights on the propagation modes of this species, i.e. clonal versus sexual propagation. Nevertheless, a genetic structure of populations with at least five genetically different clusters was disclosed. Private alleles were observed in both wild and cultivated hops. Chemical analysis of bittering and aromatic quality of female flowers from a subset of 8 wild populations revealed a high variability among plants, especially for essential oil components. Overall, the high variability of wild accessions here examined represent a valid source to be exploited in future breeding programs for new or improved hop cultivars development.

中文翻译：

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来自意大利中部的野生啤酒花种群的高遗传和化学多样性，具有受有性和无性繁殖影响的遗传结构信号

摘要 为研究意大利中部野生葎草（Humulus lupulus）种内多样性，以13个SSR位点为参考，对12个种群进行了遗传多态性评估。在整个种群中发现了高水平的多态性，在分析的 159 个样本中，多位点基因型的数量为 140。此外，在大多数人群中观察到的杂合度高于预期。因此，设想在野生种群内部和之间发生高水平的基因流动，我们的采样策略使我们能够深入了解该物种的繁殖模式，即克隆与有性繁殖。然而，公开了具有至少五个遗传不同簇的种群的遗传结构。在野生和栽培啤酒花中都观察到了私有等位基因。对来自 8 个野生种群的一个子集的雌花的苦味和芳香质量的化学分析表明，植物之间存在很大的变异性，尤其是精油成分。总体而言，这里检查的野生种质的高度可变性代表了在未来育种计划中可利用的有效来源，以开发新的或改良的啤酒花栽培品种。