Sex-chrom, a database on plant sex chromosomes

This work has been supported by the Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica (Spanish Government: CGL2016-75694-P AEI/FEDER, UE; CGL2017-84297-R), by the Generalitat de Catalunya (‘Ajuts a grups de recerca consolidats’ 2017SGR01116’), by the Czech Science Foundation (grants 16-08698S, 18-06147S and 19-03442S) and by CIJA PRESERVATION, SL. SG benefitted from a Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC-2014-16608) from the government of Spain, and SB and NS received Erasmus + grants from the European Union.Introduction Types of plant sex chromosomes, sex determination systems and their diversity Model systems in sex chromosome research Materials and Methods Information sources Data mining Database web environment and construction Results and Discussion Future directions Acknowledgements Author contribution

Traditional use of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in the Balkans

Comunicación presentada en el 2nd Biological-Psychological Student Conference celebrado en Koper, Slovenia 15. - 17. septiembre 2022Introduction: The hemp plant (Cannabis sativa L.) is one of the most versatile plants, and has been used by humans for thousands of years for its medicinal properties, strong fibre, nutritious seeds, and psychoactive resin. Despite the fact that cannabis has extremely versatile uses, currently, most studies have been focusing mainly on chemical composition of the secondary metabolites of female cannabis inflorescences and their medicinal values. The main goal of this research was to analyse the available data on the use of cannabis in the Balkan Peninsula in the past and to check whether there are connections between certain plant parts and the method of use and, if so, to what extent they are connected. Methodology: Literature has been collected from online databases and digital libraries, (Scopus, Google Scholar, Cobiss) using keywords (`cannabis AND ethnobotany¿, `cannabis AND Slovenia/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Serbia/Macedonia/ Croatia/Montenegro/Kosovo¿, `cannabis AND traditional use¿). Results and discussion: We found 23 publications in online databases, published between 1966 and 2021. The maximum set of data was collected in Croatia and the minimum in Kosovo and Slovenia. The analysis showed that the traditional use of cannabis varies from one country to the other. According to a review of traditional use, in the Balkans, hemp was most commonly used for fibre production, medicinal purposes, and food. As its use is not legalized, we haven¿t found much information regarding its use for psychoactive purposes. The results show that the most commonly used plant parts were seeds, stems, and leaves, while the minimum set of data revealed the use of inflorescences, roots, bark, resin, and other parts of the plant. All the collected data on the traditional use of cannabis in the Balkan Peninsula will be included in the CANNUSE database of traditional Cannabis uses ( http://cannusedb.csic.es ) and thus disclosed to the general public

Urospermum ×siljakii (Asteraceae), a new natural homoploid hybrid between U. dalechampii and U. picroides

This research was funded by the Project ‘COMPOSITAE’ (Ref: PID2020- 116480GB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and the ‘Ajuts a Grups de Recerca Consolidats’ (2017/SGR/1116) from the Generalitat de Catalunya. J.P. benefited from a Ramón y Cajal grant (Ref: RYC-2017-2274) funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future”

Urospermum siljakii Hidalgo, Balant & Pellicer 2022, nothosp. nov.

Urospermum × siljakii Hidalgo, Balant & Pellicer nothosp. nov. Type:— SPAIN. Catalonia. Barcelona: Montjuïc, Carrer Doctor Font i Quer, 14 May 2021, O . Hidalgo 682 & M. Balant (holotype BC). Parentage:— Urospermum dalechampii (Linnaeus 1753: 790) Scopoli ex Schmidt (1795: 276) × Urospermum picroides (Linnaeus 1753: 790) Scopoli ex Schmidt (1795: 275). Diagnosis:—Plants of Urospermum × siljakii are intermediate between U. dalechampii and U. picroides in most traits. They differ from parental species by the consistency of indumentum, that is not as softly hairy as in U. dalechampii nor as strongly hispid and spinulose as in U. picroides, a trait particularly noticeable on the involucrum bracts. Description:—Annual to perennial herb. Stem sometimes prostrate in its lowest part, vegetative and sparingly branched, then upright. Leaves entire to pinnatifid, with hispid and spinulose trichomes at least on the veins beneath. Flowering shoot with usually 0–3 branches restricted to the first order as in U. dalechampii, whereas in U. picroides it may present more branches (up to> 20) and of higher order. Capitula 20–45 mm wide (40–70 mm in U. dalechampii, 10–30 mm in U. picroides), on long peduncles. Involucre of generally eight bracts of equal length arranged in a row and connate in their lower third, covered by a slight indumentum of hispid and spinulose trichomes. Floret number per capitulum closer to U. picroides ( 150). Ligules yellow, sometimes with a dark mark at the apex of petals and a purplish stripe on the outer face. Seeds not developed, suggesting that the hybrid is likely sterile. Chromosome number 2n = 12, intermediate between that of U. dalechampii (2n = 14) and U. picroides (2n = 10). Genome size (i.e., nuclear DNA content) of 2C = 1.89 pg ± 0.01, corresponding to the average value between the genome size of U. dalechampii (2C = 2.26 pg. ± 0.01) and U. picroides (2C = 1.51 pg ± 0.01). Flowering time:—The phenology of Urospermum × siljakii is similar to its parent species U. dalechampii and U. picroides, all of them flowering mostly in spring from April to June. Eponymy:— Urospermum × siljakii is named after Prof. Sonja Siljak-Yakovlev (Vršac, Serbia, 8 September 1946 –), Directeur de Recherche Emérite at the Université Paris-Saclay, France, a botanist with a longstanding interest in the Asteraceae. She has been mentor to many researchers working on karyology and cytogenetics, sparing no time and effort to train and connect researchers from all over the world.Published as part of Hidalgo, Oriane, Balant, Manica & Pellicer, Jaume, 2022, Urospermum × siljakii (Asteraceae), a new natural homoploid hybrid between U. dalechampii and U. picroides, pp. 220-222 in Phytotaxa 544 (2) on pages 220-221, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.544.2.8, http://zenodo.org/record/650391

Seed dormancy and germination of the rare, high elevation Balkan endemic Cerastium dinaricum (Caryophyllaceae)

Short or long-term ex situ conservation is becoming increasingly important in conservation of plants in today’s changing environments. One of the important steps in ex situ conservation is the collection and storage of seeds and the consequent establishment of seed germination protocols. Cerastium dinaricum (Caryophyllaceae) is an endemic, high elevation and rare species of European conservation concern. Because of its severely fragmented distribution along the Dinaric Alps, the populations are likely to undergo further shrinkage in the future, which addresses the need of a long-term effective conservation management. From the potential ex situ population management perspective, we focused our study on germination ecology of C. dinaricum. The study revealed that temperature considerably affected the germination of seeds, which germinate better at 20 °C rather than 10 °C. A period of cold-wet stratification also significantly improved the final germination percentage with more pronounced increase at 20 °C, while addition of GA3 increased the final germination percentage by breaking the dormancy of non-stratified seeds. Mechanical scarification did not improve germination; on the contrary, it resulted in the lowest germination success. Seeds grown in complete darkness germinated significantly better compared to control when they were exposed to cold-wet stratification. Contrary to previous studies on some alpine species, which germinate better when exposed to light, dark treatment resulted in the highest germination percentages with 70 and 90% germination success after 4 and 8 weeks of stratification, respectively.We thank the Croatian Environment Agency for collection permits for Croatia (no. 517-07-1-1-1-16-4) and the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Conservation (no. 35603-4/2016 - 3) for providing seeds from the Slovenian population; Jure Jugovic for technical assistance; Jana Laganis for help in the field work in Slovenia, Jasenka Topić for the help in organising the fieldwork in Croatia and the anonymous referees for valuable comments on the manuscript.Peer reviewe

In search of an identity for Salvia bertolonii (Lamiaceae)

Classical and geometric morphometric analyses of floral characters of Salvia pratensis agg. were performed on populations from the E Adriatic area. Both types of analyses yielded congruent results, and three groups of populations, attributed to S. verbenaca, which served as an outgroup, S. saccardiana and S. pratensis (incl. S. bertolonii), were unambiguously identified. Results confirmed floral size dimorphism, with hermaphroditic flowers being significantly bigger than female ones, while we newly identified floral shape dimorphism in S. pratensis, too. No gynodioecious populations were observed in morphologically otherwise very uniform S. saccardiana. Being a SE Alpine endemic, the latter was for the first time recorded in Croatia. While S. saccardiana merits species rank, we found no support for the segregation of S. bertolonii and S. pratensis. Clinal variation in floral characters of S. pratensis, generally detected in populations of various taxa along the E Adriatic coast, lacks the spatial consistency and geographic pattern that would allow for a clear delimitation of S. pratensis and S. bertolonii.Research funds were provided by bilateral grant between the Republics of Slovenia and Montenegro BI-ME/18-20-005.Peer reviewe