Viroids in the spotlight: Dr. Tanja Guček speaks to Radio Slovenia

What are viroids, how do new plant diseases emerge, and why can they pose such a serious threat to agriculture?

These were some of the questions explored by Dr. Tanja Guček from the Slovenian Institute for Hop Research and Brewing (IHPS) in a recent interview for Radio Slovenia’s ARS programme “Podobe znanja.”

Dr. Guček shared insights into the IHPS’s role in the discovery of citrus bark cracking viroid (CBCVd) in hop, an emerging disease that was first encountered by Slovenian hop growers and researchers and later spread into a major epidemic, resulting in the removal of hundreds of hectares of hop plantations.

The interview also highlighted ongoing efforts to better understand and detect viroid infections, including the development of diagnostic tests that could one day allow hop growers to test for the disease themselves.

The interview, conducted by journalist Klara Jurečič, was broadcast at the end of August 2026. It is available in Slovenian at Ars RTV SLO.

The ViroiDoc project also supports the next generation of researchers. As part of this initiative, IHPS hosts MSCA Doctoral Candidate Octave Lacroix, who conducts his individual research project “Climate change impacts on viroid diseases”.

In addition to ViroiDoc, IHPS, in collaboration with Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, and the Jožef Stefan Institute, is coordinating the EnviroViroSeq project. The project aims to investigate viromes in hops and related agroecosystems in Slovenia, using advanced high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and artificial intelligence approaches.

ViroiDoc project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.