Endophytic bacteria of the forest trees - state of the art and possible applications

The interaction of endophytic microorganisms with plants are a common occurrence that brings mutual benefits to partners. Plants are the main habitat of bacteria that live inside their tissues and do not cause disease symptoms, but affect the growth and development of plants by producing substances that promote their development. Research on the diversity of endophytic bacteria associated with forest trees is insufficient – little is known about the diversity of endophytic bacteria, and especially their function in tree tissues. Bacteria positively affecting the host tree, among others, increase biomass growth by supporting tree health. The species diversity of endophytic bacteria in plants is influenced by the plant genotype, tissue type, development phase and environmental conditions. So far, bacteria that develop in root, stem, and leaf tissues have been best known. Among the forest trees in which the occurrence and diversity of endophytic bacteria have been studied, there are species such as pine, spruce, birch and oak. The presented paper is a review of the latest literature on the subject

DNA barcoding: A practical tool for taxonomy and species identification of entomofauna

DNA barcoding is an innovative system designed to provide rapid, accurate, and automatable species identification by using short, standardized gene regions as internal species codes. The mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase I (COI) gene was proposed by Paul Hebert as an official marker for animals, because of its small intraspecific but large interspecific variation. Since the launch of the project Barcode of Life, this simple technique has caught the interest of taxonomists, ecologists and plantquarantine officers charged with the control of pests and invasive species. The great diversity of insects and their importance have made this group a major target for DNA barcoding. In most cases, the identification of insect species by traditional methods based on morphological features requires specialist knowledge and is labor-intensive. DNA barcoding aims at meeting the challenge of monitoring and documenting the biodiversity of insects. The utility of DNA barcoding for identifying small insects, cryptic taxa or rare species, as well as many species of forest entomofauna that are impossible to discriminate morphologically throughout all of their life stages, is a subject discussed in this review. Due to its usefulness, also in Poland in the Forestry Research Institute, a method for identifying selected species of saproxylic beetles based on the sequence of the COI region was developed. In the future, this method will be used to assess the state of biodiversity and the naturalness of forest ecosystems. Therefore, this and other future implications of this promising new technique are also discussed here

Genetic diversity of wild cherry (Prunus avium L.) in Poland

The purpose of our study was to estimate genetic diversity of Prunus avium in natural populations. Genetic studies were carried out in 27 wild cherry populations sampled from several Polish tree stands. Chloroplast DNA variation was assessed and two haplotypes were identified. Theirs distribution divided populations into two groups. Haplotype H1 was present in 11 of 27 populations and H2 in 16 populations. The PCR− −SSR technique was used to detect nuclear DNA diversity. Three highly polymorphic SSR (microsatellite) primer pairs were used to describe the genetic variation. Heterozygosity values ranged from 0.500 to 0.633, while gene diversity (PIC) from 0.75 to 0.79. This study demonstrated that SSR fingerprinting with cpDNA diversity, can be used for preliminary characterization of Prunus avium populations

Micropropagation of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) and genetic stability of long term cultivated plants

The study on the in vitro micropropagation of Robinia pseudoacacia L. shows the possibility of the rapid increase of the vegetative progeny using organogenesis. The culture system consists of sequential use of three media, namely, the initiation medium (MS medium supplemented with 0.6 mg · l−1 6-BA (6-benzylamino-purine), 0.1 mg · l−1 NAA (naphthalene acetic acid), proliferation medium (1/2 MS medium added with 1 mg · l−1 6-BA,) and root-induction medium (1/2 MS medium fortified with 0.2 mg · l−1 NAA). The resulting micropropagated plants, fully acclimatised to an in vivo environment, did not show any visually detectable morphological variation

Characterization and mapping of QTL used in breeding of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.)

This paper reports the construction a map based on Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphic DNA (AFLP) in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). The main purpose of map construction was its application to quantitative traits loci (QTL) mapping for breeding traits economically important in Scots pine breeding program such as tree height and diameter at breast height, number of needles and their length, width, and area. Genomic DNA of needles and haploid megagamethophytes from seeds originating from a single tree were amplified with 25 AFLP primer-enzyme combinations with three or four selective nucleotides. Sixteen of them generated easily readable patterns and revealed a polymorphism. Each analyzed marker was tested for the expected 1 : 1 segregation ratio using χ2 – test and only 6 were significant with (α ≤ 0.05). The total map size equaled 291,7 cM and all markers were distributed within one linkage group. For all traits only one QTL associated with tree height (H) was detected