@SchmoeJoe came across this article i just took a pertinent snippet with the referenced studies it appears there isn't any evidence that proves hop latent viroid is transmissible through seed
In 1999, the first study of its kind on the transmission of HpLVd claimed that the viroid is potentially transmitted in one specific chemotype of hops at a frequency of 8%, but study data is not available.8 Prior to this study published, there was no information on the transmissibility of HpLVd through the generative (seed-making) or seed phases.3 Successive studies reiterate that "low transmission efficiency has been reported through pollen transfer or by seed." These studies have since disproved the claims of seed-transmissibility.3,8,9
In one follow-up study, 100% infected parent plants were used to produce F1 hybrids, which showed no infection when grown under greenhouse conditions.3
The researchers found that, once these F1's were reintroduced into an outdoor garden, HpLVd reemerged gradually over a period of ten years; the study suggests that is a result of contamination from an uncontrolled environment. Throughout the entirety of the study, only two "weakly-positive" samples were found amongst the F1 hybrids, having 0.5% of the minimum viroid level to be considered "infected."9
Their results suggest that HLVd is not readily transmissible through seed and that the re-infection appears either due to some threshold viroid content in some plants and/or as a result of viroid transmission from other infected materials."3
Eight years later, those same researchers authored another study in 2008 confirming that "Hop latent viroid (HLVd) is not transmissible through hop generative tissues and seeds," continuing further that, while HLVd can propagate in hop pollen, it is eliminated during the first stages of mitosis, and "no viroid was detectable in in vitro germinating pollen, suggesting complete degradation of circular and linear HLVd forms."9
While we can infer from these results that, like hops, HpLVd is also not transmissible through cannabis seeds, there has yet to be any published data confirming transmissibility specific to cannabis.
source / studies
3. Matoušek, J., and Patzak, J. (2000). A low transmissibility of hop latent viroid (HLVd) through a generative phase of hop (Humulus lupulus L.). Biol. Plant 43:145-148.
https://bp.ueb.cas.cz/pdfs/bpl/2000/01/33.pdf
8. Darby, P. (1999). New selection criteria for hop breeding. Pages 3-6 in: Proc. Sc. Comm. Int. Hop Grow. Convn. Pulawy.
9. Matousek J, Orctová L, Skopek J, Pesina K, Steger G. (01 February 2021). Elimination of hop latent viroid upon developmental activation of pollen nucleases. Biol Chem. 2008 Jul;389(7):905-18. doi: 10.1515/BC.2008.096. PMID: 18627315.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18627315/
