Baiba Krivmane

• Master of Science
• Researcher at LSFR Silava

With an occurring shift in the tree species distribution, European beech ( Fagus sylvatica L.) is becoming a perspective for forestry in the Baltics and Latvia in particular, despite presumed occurrence outside the natural distribution range. In 2023, a survey of European beech plantations established in 2020 in the central region of Latvia reveale...

Background/objectives: Methyl jasmonate is a plant signaling molecule involved in a wide range of functions, including stress responses. This study investigates the relative differential expression of microRNAs and their target genes in response to methyl jasmonate treatment of Scots pine needles. Methods: A combined strategy of high-throughput seq...

Mycorrhizal fungi contribute to crop growth, yields, and stress tolerance. In forests, common mycorrhizal networks are suggested to function as carbon storage and to transfer substances and signals between trees, thus likely contributing to their resilience. Such properties are crucial under increasing environmental stresses, particularly for clona...

During plant development, woody plants progress from a juvenile phase to the reproductive mature phase. This process is marked by morphological, physiological, and biochemical changes, including loss of competence to vegetative reproduction. During in vitro stabilisation, mature tissues undergo rejuvenation, however, the exact degree of juvenility...

In plants, phase change from the juvenile stage to maturity involves physiological and anatomical changes, which are initiated and controlled by evolutionary highly conserved microRNAs. This process is of particular significance for the in vitro propagation of woody plant species, as individuals or tissues that have undergone the transition to vege...

Silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) is the most significant deciduous tree species in Latvia. Efficient vegetative reproduction methods are crucial for shortening breeding cycles. In many woody tree species, success of vegetative propagation sharply decreases as individuals mature. Development of molecular genetic markers related to phase change has...

In plants, phase change from the juvenile stage to maturity is a tightly controlled process at the physiological and genetic level, which is controlled by evolutionary highly conserved microRNAs. These phase changes are more pronounced in woody plant species, but the majority of molecular genetic studies on the regulation of this transition has bee...

Silver birch ( Betula pendula Roth.) is an ecologically and economically important deciduous tree species in Northern Europe. In vitro culture initiation and shoot rejuvenation from birches in their reproductive phase is difficult and often unsuccessful. Currently, markers to evaluate the degree of juvenility of birch in vitro shoots, which could b...

Oregano ( Origanum vulgare L.) is one of the priority medicinal and aromatic plants in Europe because of its broad potential for use and distribution assessments of the species. The involvement of oregano genetic resources in cultivation can solve the problems of depletion of natural habitats and allows receiving high yield in marginal meteorologic...

Silver birch ( Betula pendula Roth.) is an ecologically and economically important deciduous tree species in Northern Europe. In vitro culture initiation and shoot rejuvenation from birches in their reproductive phase is difficult and often unsuccessful. Currently, markers to evaluate the degree of juvenility of birch in vitro shoots, which could b...

Oregano is one of the most commonly cultivated aromatic and medicinal plants in Europe. There is a lack of information about fungi infecting oregano during the vegetation period. In autumn 2020, the diversity of fungi colonizing and damaging oregano leaves was surveyed in the ex-situ collection held at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Tec...

Changing climatic conditions are transforming the ecological and silvicultural roles of broadleaf tree species in northern Europe. Small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata Mill.) is distributed throughout most of Europe, and is a common broadleaf species in Latvia. This species can tolerate a broad range of environmental and ecological conditions, includin...

Acer platanoides L. (Norway maple) is the most widespread native maple species in Europe, with a distribution from south and central Europe to northern Europe and Scandinavia. Acer platanoides is widespread throughout the territory of Latvia, and is mainly found in mixed broadleaf and conifer stands. The genetic diversity and differentiation of Lat...

Water ecosystems have an important role in maintenance of biological diversity and environmental quality in Latvia. Fish resources are one of the most valuable biological resources in Latvia. To evaluate the influence of economic activity (anthropogenic influence of cities, hydroelectric power stations) on freshwater ecosystems, the genetic structu...

The induction of defense responses in Pinus sylvestris L. seedlings by methyl jasmonate (MeJA) was investigated in three experiments. Two different MeJA application methods were tested, and induction of defense responses was assayed by seedling inoculation with Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref. and Lophodermium seditiosum Minter, Staley and Millar...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-protein coding RNAs of ~20–24 nucleotides in length that play an important role in many biological and metabolic processes, including the regulation of gene expression, plant growth and developmental processes, as well as responses to stress and pathogens. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize novel and c...

Thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) are pathogenesis-related proteins, which are involved in plant defense responses to pathogen infection. Expression of the Pinus sylvestris L. TLP gene is up-regulated by methyl jasmonate treatment and inoculation with Heterobasidion annosum. A full-length Pinus taeda TLP gene sequence was used to design PCR primers fo...

The importance and impact of gene copy number variations (CNVs) as a source of polymorphism in the human and other genomes is being increasingly recognized. Less information is available about CNVs in forest tree species, mainly due to the relative lack of genomic resources. In this study, several methods—quantitative polymerase chain reaction, com...

Isolation of large amounts of high quality RNA from a limited amount of starting material is particularly difficult if extracting from woody tissues of trees. Often the amount of starting material may be limited, when specific tissues are harvested. There are no commercially available kits specifically developed and intended for isolation of RNA fr...

Research of gene copy number variation (CNV) was first started on a large scale after sequencing of the human genome. The frequency of CNVs in genomes is higher than initially expected. Changes in gene copy number have been linked with various diseases and are also correlated with differences in gene expression. In 2011 our group of researchers pub...

Copy number variations (CNVs) are structural variations in genomes, resulting from the duplication of a section of DNA that is usually from one kilobase to several megabases in size. The aim of this research was to investigate gene copy number variation in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Twenty nine Scots pine trees from a research pine plantation w...

Relation of the Leu40Arg variant of glycoprotein IIIA to personal and family history of myocardial infarction GPIIb/IIIa fibrinogen receptor is a key element of the thrombotic pathway. In this study, we investigated the possible relation of PlA1/A2 polymorphism (1565T>C; Leu33Pro) and a rare 1586T>G (Leu40Arg) variation of GPIIIa gene to personal a...