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Europski pitomi kesten plemenita je listača od koje imamo višestruku gospodarsku korist. Osim jestivih plodova i kvalitetnog drva, kestenove šume su još od davnina predstavljale važan izvor različitih sirovina. Međutim, intenzivnim korištenjem kestenovih šuma i nasada te pojavom raka kestenove kore, sredinom prošloga stoljeća došlo je do njihovog propadanja i sušenja. Iz tih je razloga u mnogim europskim zemljama pokrenut niz multidisciplinarnih projekta kojima je svrha očuvanje genskih resursa pitomog kestena i njegovog povrataka na nekadašnje značajno mjesto u ruralnim područjima i šumskim ekosustavima. U ovom radu dan je pregled najznačajnijih ­dugoročnih strategija usmjerenih na očuvanje genofonda ove plemenite listače na europskoj razini, kao i prijedlog smjernica za očuvanje genofonda ove vrste in situ i ex situ metodama na području Hrvatske., Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is a noble, multi-purpose hardwood species. In addition to ­edible fruits and high-quality wood, chestnut forests have been used as a source of various resources since the antiquity. Intensive management of forests and stands, however, together with the emergence of chestnut blight, has led to their decline and dieback. As a result, in numerous European countries multidisciplinary projects were initialized, with goals of conserving the genetic resources of the ­species, as well as reestablishing its significance in rural and forest ecosystems. In this paper, an overview of the most important long-term gene conservation strategies is presented, with suggestions for ­guidelines for application of in situ and ex situ conservation methods in Croatia.

The genus Teucrium is a source of beneficial bioactive phytochemicals and its use is well known in the traditional medicine of many countries. Studies on the wild populations of Teucrium species are scarce. Croatian flora numbers 12 accepted species of this genus, including a recently discovered hybrid between T. montanum and T. polium. This study aimed at sampling of T. montanum and T. polium in Split-Dalmatia County in an area where the two species grow in sympatry and the occurrence of hybrids is more likely. We collected six populations of both T. polium and T. montanum and found potential hybrids at five sites. The goal of our future research is to confirm the hybrids at the genetic level. This work contributes to in situ conservation by providing new insights into the status of wild populations of Teucrium species, supports ex situ conservation by including seed accessions to the Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants ; and enables their further characterization and evaluation for use in future breeding programs.

The development of next-generation sequencing technology and the increasing amount of sequencing data have brought the bioinformatic tools used in genome assembly into focus. The final step of the process is genome annotation, which works on assembled genome sequences to identify the location of genome features. In the case of organelle genomes, specialized annotation tools are used to identify organelle genes and structural features. Numerous annotation tools target chloroplast sequences. Most chloroplast DNA genomes have a quadripartite structure caused by two copies of a large inverted repeat. We investigated the strategies of six annotation tools (Chloë, Chloroplot, GeSeq, ORG.Annotate, PGA, Plann) for identifying inverted repeats and analyzed their success using publicly available complete chloroplast sequences of taxa belonging to the asterid and rosid clades. The annotation tools use two different approaches to identify inverted repeats, using existing general search tools or implementing stand-alone solutions. The chloroplast sequences studied show that there are different types of imperfections in the assembled data and that each tool performs better on some sequences than the others.

Tanacetum cinerariifolium is an endemic species of the eastern Adriatic coast that synthesizes the natural insecticide pyrethrin. We have characterized the complete chloroplast genome of the species and analyzed its phylogeny within the Asteraceae family. The complete chloroplast genome of T. cinerariifolium has a size of 150, 136 bp, including a large single-copy (LSC) region of 82, 717 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18, 411bp, and a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 24, 504 bp. The chloroplast genome of T. cinerariifolium encodes 108 genes, including 77 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 27 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analyses based on the complete chloroplast genomes placed T. cinerariifolium in a sister position to species of the genera Artemisia and Chrysanthemum.

Željeli smo istražiti u kojoj mjeri današnje stanovništvo poznaje samoniklo jestivo bilje što raste na otoku, kojih se starinskih recepata Zlarinke sjećaju iz prošlih vremena te pripremaju li se još uvijek neka jela od samoniklog bilja. Težište je bilo upravo na mješavini od nekoliko (često i više od desetak) različitih biljaka koje se zajedno beru i pripremaju za hranu, a na Zlarinu su poznate pod nazivom diblje zelje. U razgovorima smo saznali da se za mišancu, ili po zlarinski diblje zelje, prikupljalo više bilja nego što smo mogli i pomisliti. Najzanimljivija su nam, isto tako, bila izgubljena imena bilja. Tko danas zna prepoznati mačja muda i kozju bradu ili tustopizdu i kurcoglava? S nestankom znanja o bilju, nestaje i nazivlje, nestaju riječi. Tustopizda je zlarinski naziv za bijelu babljaču (Urospermum picroides (L.) Scop. ex F.W.Schmidt ; Cichoriaceae), a kurcoglav za zlaticu (Ranunculus ficaria L. ; Ranunculaceae). Naslov knjige ukazuje na činjenicu da je bijelu babljaču na Zlarinu lako naći, dok zlatica nije toliko česta. O toponimijskoj sintagmi Babina Guzica i drugim toponimima motiviranim genitalijama akademik Petar Šimunović je u članku Metaforičnost u toponimiji zadarsko-šibenskih otoka nadahnuto napisao: „Životare oni tako na marginama našeg društvenog poimanja uljudnosti, pokriveni smokvinim listom.

European wild pear (Pyrus pyraster (L.) Burgsd.) is a rare, noble hardwood species belonging to the Rosaceae family, with high-quality wood and great importance for biodiversity and ecosystems. It is native in almost all of Europe, and along with P. caucasica Fed., is considered to be the ancestor of the cultivated European pear (P. communis L.). In this study, we evaluate the morphological variability of the wild pear in Croatia. The inter- and intrapopulation variability was determined on the basis of ten measured morphological characteristics of leaves, using descriptive and multivariate statistical methods. The conducted research included 12 populations from both continental and Mediterranean parts of Croatia, and each population was represented by ten trees. The differences between the trees within populations, as well as the differences between populations, were confirmed for all studied characteristics. Biogeographical structuring of populations with a high level of among-tree variation within the populations was identified. In general, populations from the Mediterranean and the continental regions differed in the majority of the studied characteristics, with the Mediterranean populations possessing generally smaller leaves. This study provided insights into the variability of the European wild pear populations in Croatia, which is an important part of the efforts towards producing guidelines for the breeding and conservation of genetic resources of this rare and endangered noble hardwood species.

Background: Chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica is a pathogenic ascomycete introduced from Eastern Asia to North America and Europe, where it causes the aforementioned disease, devastating to chestnut trees. The disease can be biologically controlled utilising Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1), a mycovirus which changes the physiology of the host, reducing its virulence towards chestnut. Objectives: The objective of the study was to determine whether the decrease of fungal virulence is caused by epigenetic changes and/or stress induction in the fungus after CHV1 infection. Methods: Six CHV1 strains of different subtypes were transferred to three C. parasitica isolates in order to assess the effect of different CHV1 strains and/or subtypes on global cytosine methylation level in infected fungus, using methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP). Furthermore, the activity of stress enzymes catalase, glutathione S-transferase and superoxide dismutase was measured in CHV1-infected and uninfected fungal isolates. Results: Infection with CHV1 affected fungal stress enzymes’ activity and the methylation pattern of C. parasitica genome. The increase in methylation levels correlated well with the CHV1-induced reduction of fungal growth in vitro, indicating that C. parasitica genome methylation upon CHV1 infection, rather than being the defensive mechanism of the fungus, is more likely to be the virulence determinant of the virus. Furthermore, the severity of CHV1 effect on stress enzymes’ activity and methylation levels of infected C. parasitica isolates depended mostly on individual CHV1 strain and on the combination of host and virus genomes, rather than on the virus subtype.

Znanstveni centar izvrsnosti za bioraznolikost i molekularno oplemenjivanje bilja (ZCI CroP-Biodiv) je istraživačka mreža usmjerena na prijenos znanja i tehnologija sa svrhom izravnog doprinosa napretku istraživanja u poljoprivredi. Ciljevi Znanstvenog centra izvrsnosti su povećanje dobiti koja proizlazi iz upotrebe biljnih genetskih izvora, optimizacija protokola fenotipizacije i genotipizacije, te primjena novih pristupa u statističkoj analizi podataka. Krajnji je cilj poticanje suradnje i sinergije između hrvatskih sveučilišta i znanstvenih instituta na području poljoprivrede u svrhu utemeljenja istraživačke platforme koja će objediniti nova znanstvena saznanja i tehnološka postignuća u svrhu prevladavanja poteškoća u području oplemenjivanja bilja.

Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is a widely known member of Lamiaceae family with a long tradition of cultivation. Cultivation for different market requirements led to great intraspecific variation at both morphological and biochemical level. The aim of this research was to assess diversity among basil accessions maintained at the Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants as a part of the National Bank of Plant Genes. Eighty basil accessions belonging to five basil morphotypes (True basil, Small-leaf, Lettuce- leaf, Purple basil A and Purple basil B) and five chemotypes (High linalool, Linalool/trans-α- bergamotene, Linalool/methyl chavicol, Linalool/ trans- methyl cinnamate and High methyl chavicol) were analysed using AFLP markers. Sixteen AFLP primer combinations yielded a total of 2, 114 polymorphic markers. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that most of the genetic diversity was attributable to differences among accessions within morphotypes and within chemotypes. Bayesian Analysis of Population Structure (BAPS) resulted in assignment of the investigated accessions to four clusters. The accessions belonging to ‘green’ morphotypes (True basil, Small-leaf, Lettuceleaf) were assigned to Clusters A or B and Purple basil A accessions to Clusters A or C. Purple basil B morphotype was genetically the most admixed, having accessions belonging to all four genetic clusters.

Genus Rubus L. (Rosaceae), with more than 700 species, is one of the largest genera in plant kingdom. Raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) is diploid and belongs to subgenus Idaeobatus. Raspberry leaves are used in traditional medicine for treatment of various disorders most commonly related to menstruation, parturition, and ailments of the gastrointestinal tract and other purposes, while fruit is used as food. In this work we used AFLP markers to analyse intrapopulation diversity and interpopulation relationships of seven wild growing populations of R. idaeus from Serbia, that can be grouped into three spatial groups as well as into two altitude groups. Four AFLP combinations yield a total of 247 polymorphic bands in 133 R. idaeus specimens. Data analysis revealed similar levels of diversity across populations. Population from Mt. Ozren had both the highest diversity and the highest frequency down-weighted marker values. AMOVA analyses further showed high intrapopulation diversity, while population differentiation was low. The partition among spatial groups was not significant while the partition between altitude groups was highly significant. BAPS grouped the samples into three clusters of which to cluster C belong exclusively individuals originating from population Ozren. Clusters were almost identical with or without spatial coordinates. In analysed populations altitude had a stronger influence on differentiation than horizontal distance and that can be attributed to different phenology at different altitudes. Our results indicate that AFLP markers are reliable technique for assessing genetic diversity and relations between R. idaeus populations.