2007 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416) Develop hop germplasm with improved disease resistance and quality characteristics that is suitable for the Washington and Oregon hop producing regions. 1b.Approach (from AD-416) Develop and evaluate new hop germplasm in Washington and Oregon and evaluate these new lines for agronomic and brewing quality characteristics in the contrasting production environments of the two states. Formerly 5258-21000-019-03S (9/01); 5358-21000-030-01S and 5358-21000-030-02S (6/04). Documents SCA with Washington State University, Prosser, WA.. 3.Progress Report This report documents research conducted under a Specific Cooperative Agreement between USDA ARS and Washington State University, CRIS 5358-21000-035-01S. Additional details may be found in the report of the parent project: Genetics, Genomics and Germplasm Development of Hops, CRIS 5358-21000-035-00D. Washington State has the need of publicly developed hop varieties that perform well under dry and hot conditions. The major accomplishments of this cooperative research include creating hop germplasm for evaluation as high-yield, high-quality hop cultivars adapted to arid hop growing regions, testing advanced selections from USDA-ARS in an arid environment thereby expanding the range of environments in which to test these selections, identifying heritable sources of resistance to hop powdery mildew, evaluating seedlings for high beta-acid content and dwarf growth habit, and evaluation of native North American germplasm for future breeding use. An active and continuous hop breeding program under dry and hot conditions that compliments germplasm development performed by the USDA-ARS hop geneticist is required to maintain USA’s position as a top world producer of hop. Multiple crosses were performed to produce new germplasm possessing traits of interest to USA breweries. Offspring from previous crosses were grown out in field plots with advanced selections replicated in off-station large-scale plots. The results of this project are important as they enable further development of hop varieties and germplasm that perform well under arid conditions and will ultimately benefit growers, merchants and breweries in the USA. The ADODR monitored the cooperator's performance on this extramural agreement through site visits, meetings, conference calls, email correspondence and review of data and reports.