Leaf n-Alkanes as Characters Differentiating Coastal and Continental Juniperus deltoides Populations from the Balkan Peninsula

The composition of the cuticular n-alkanes isolated from the leaves of nine populations of Juniperus deltoides R. P. Adams from continental and coastal areas of the Balkan Peninsula was characterized by GC-FID and GC/MS analyses. In the leaf waxes, 14 n-alkane homologues with chain-lengths ranging from C22 to C35 were identified. n-Tritriacontane (C33) was dominant in the waxes of all populations, but variations between the populations in the contents of all n-alkanes were observed. Several statistical methods (ANOVA, principal component, discriminant, and cluster analyses) were used to investigate the diversity and variability of the cuticular-leaf-n-alkane patterns of the nine J. deltoides populations. This is the first report on the n-alkane composition for this species. The multivariate statistical analyses evidenced a high correlation of the leaf-n-alkane pattern with the geographical distribution of the investigated samples, differentiating the coastal from the continental populations of this taxon.Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia {[}173029, 172053

Headspace volatiles isolated from twigs of Picea omorika from Serbia

The variability of volatiles isolated from twigs by the static headspace (HS) method in seven natural populations of Picea omorika from Serbia was investigated for the first time. In the overall chemical profile, monoterpenes strongly dominated hydrocarbons as the most volatile compounds (95.7%). The dominant compounds were α-pinene (29.5 %), β-pinene (25.7%) and myrcene (13.0%), totaling 68.2% of the volatiles on average. The following nine volatiles were found to be present in medium-to-high amounts (0.5-10%): tricyclene, camphene, α-phellandrene, δ-3-carene, p-cymene, β-phellandrene, terpinolene, (E)-caryophyllene, and germacrene D. Out of the 78 volatiles detected, the six most abundant (α-pinene, β-pinene, myrcene, δ-3-carene, β-phellandrene and camphene) were selected for principle component analysis (PCA) and cluster analyses (CA). PCA revealed a high degree of similarity between populations, while CA showed a degree of separation of two populations from the others. The presented results are in agreement with previous phytochemical and molecular analyses of this species that confirm high variability in both specialized metabolites and genetic markers

CROSS-SPECIES AMPLIFICATION OF NUCLEAR EST-MICROSATELLITES DEVELOPED FOR OTHER Pinus SPECIES IN Pinus nigra

Due to the current lack of nuclear microsatellites (simple sequence repeats SSRs) specifically developed for Pinus nigra, an important European coniferous species, we cross-species amplified 12 EST-SSRs (expressed sequence tagged SSRs) developed for other Pinus species in P. nigra in order to delineate loci which can be used for assessing levels of genetic diversity and genetic structuring in this species. We amplified these loci in individuals from seven populations from the central Balkans representing four recognized infraspecific taxa of P. nigra (ssp. nigra, var. gocensis, ssp. pallasiana, and var. banatica). Contrary to expectations on high transferability of EST-SSRs into related species, only three out of 12 tested loci were successfully amplified in P. nigra, but they displayed lack/low levels of polymorphism or generated multilocus amplification products. Thus, our estimates on levels of genetic diversity (HE = 0.183) and genetic differentiation (F-ST = 0.007) were based on variability of a single locus harboring four alleles only and they should be taken with cautions. Our study highlights the need for the development of high-resolution molecular markers, such as co-dominant genic or genomic SSRs or predominantly biallelic SNPs, or utilization of anonymous dominant markers, such as AFLPs, for genotyping in P. nigra.Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology of the Republic of Serbia {[}173029, 173030

Leaf n-Alkanes as Characters Differentiating Coastal and Continental Juniperus deltoides Populations from the Balkan Peninsula

The composition of the cuticular n-alkanes isolated from the leaves of nine populations of Juniperus deltoides R. P. Adams from continental and coastal areas of the Balkan Peninsula was characterized by GC-FID and GC/MS analyses. In the leaf waxes, 14 n-alkane homologues with chain-lengths ranging from C22 to C35 were identified. n-Tritriacontane (C33) was dominant in the waxes of all populations, but variations between the populations in the contents of all n-alkanes were observed. Several statistical methods (ANOVA, principal component, discriminant, and cluster analyses) were used to investigate the diversity and variability of the cuticular-leaf-n-alkane patterns of the nine J. deltoides populations. This is the first report on the n-alkane composition for this species. The multivariate statistical analyses evidenced a high correlation of the leaf-n-alkane pattern with the geographical distribution of the investigated samples, differentiating the coastal from the continental populations of this taxon.Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia {[}173029, 172053