IN Brief:
- Suntory and the Czech Hop Research Institute have identified a chromosome 3 region associated with drought tolerance in hops.
- Variants around candidate gene HlMYB113 were associated with stronger shoot growth under drought conditions.
- A drought-tolerant variety developed in 2024 is undergoing a 4.2-hectare field trial in the Žatec region.
Suntory Global Innovation Center has identified a genetic basis associated with drought tolerance in hops, extending a long-running breeding programme intended to improve the resilience of brewing raw-material supply. The findings were presented at the 32nd International Horticultural Congress in Kyoto, held from 23 to 28 August 2026.
The research was carried out with the Hop Research Institute in the Czech Republic, where Suntory has conducted hop research since 2010. Work specifically targeting drought tolerance began in 2018 as reduced rainfall and increasingly dry soil conditions affected hop-growing areas and added further uncertainty to crop yield.
The programme has already produced a drought-tolerant variety developed through repeated crossbreeding between a selected tolerant line and established high-quality hop varieties. Suntory says that variety was completed in November 2024 and is now being tested across approximately 4.2 hectares in the Žatec region of the Czech Republic.
The field work is intended to measure quality and yield under commercial growing conditions rather than relying only on controlled trials. That distinction is important for brewing because an agronomically resilient plant is of limited value if it cannot deliver the aroma, flavour, bittering characteristics, and processing consistency expected from established hop varieties.
Alongside the breeding programme, researchers used phenotypic analysis and next-generation sequencing to investigate the genetic mechanism behind drought tolerance. The team examined yield and plant characteristics under drought conditions and mapped genomic regions associated with the response.
The analysis identified a region on chromosome 3 and narrowed the search to a candidate gene known as HlMYB113. Drought-tolerant lines carried multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms in the gene’s promoter region compared with the publicly available hop reference genome.
Plants carrying those genetic variants showed significantly greater shoot growth under drought conditions. The practical significance lies in selection: if the association continues to hold across breeding populations, genetic screening could allow researchers to identify promising drought-tolerant plants earlier rather than waiting for repeated growing seasons to reveal the trait in the field.
That would not remove the need for field evaluation. Drought tolerance is only one element of a commercial hop specification, and breeding programmes still need to test yield, disease performance, harvest characteristics, chemical composition, and sensory quality. The current Žatec trial therefore represents the more consequential stage of the work because it puts the selected variety into a larger agricultural environment.
The brewing supply chain has good reason to watch that performance. Hop production is geographically concentrated, and brewers depend on reliable supply of varieties with defined alpha-acid levels and aroma characteristics. Poor harvests can tighten availability and complicate procurement, particularly where a beer depends on a specific variety or regional profile that cannot simply be replaced without changing the finished product.
Drought-resilient varieties could add another layer to raw-material risk management without requiring brewers to abandon established quality requirements. Large beverage manufacturers can spread procurement across suppliers and growing regions, but agricultural resilience at varietal level becomes increasingly valuable where weather variability affects a crop whose sensory contribution is difficult to substitute.
For growers, that resilience also has an operational dimension. A variety that maintains acceptable performance under water stress can reduce the volatility of crop planning and help preserve contracted supply volumes, even if irrigation, soil management, and harvest timing remain important parts of the production system.
The research also demonstrates how beverage manufacturers are moving further upstream into crop genetics when raw-material performance directly affects industrial production. Suntory’s collaboration with the Czech institute has previously included hop genome sequencing and work on sex determination, providing the genomic foundation needed to investigate more specific traits such as drought tolerance.
For processors and brewers, the useful result will not be the identification of a candidate gene alone. Commercial value depends on whether plants carrying the relevant markers continue to perform across larger areas and variable seasons while delivering the quality parameters required downstream.
The 4.2-hectare Žatec trial will provide the next evidence on that point. If the selected variety can maintain yield and brewing quality under drier conditions, the combination of genetic screening and field breeding could shorten future development cycles and give hop growers another route to manage increasingly variable water availability.
