Jelena M Aleksić

Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering · Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering

Flora and fauna in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) are characterized by a high degree of endemic and relict taxa. One of them is the Serbian spruce (Picea omorika (Panč.) Purk). This species is IUCN red-listed European conifer, endemic to the Balkan region. A total of 284 Serbian spruce trees were sampled in 12 different populations which cover the cu...

Purpose of Review Recognizing that in the context of global change, tree genetic diversity represents a crucial resource for future forest adaptation, we review and highlight the major forest genetics research achievements of the past decades in biodiversity-rich countries of the Mediterranean region. For this, we conducted a bibliometric analysis...

Studying how genetic diversity is transmitted between generations is critical for assessing the survival prospects of fragmented forest tree populations. This is especially urgent in the case of rare, endangered species that are at high risk of extinction and/or exceptionally susceptible to climate change, and are thus to be prioritised for conserv...

Mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) is a valuable resource in resolving various human forensic casework. The usage of variability of complete mtDNA genomes increases their discriminatory power to the maximum and enables ultimate resolution of distinct maternal lineages. However, their wider employment in forensic casework is nowadays limited by the lack o...

The dominant donkey breed in the Balkans is the mid-sized Balkan donkey with a grey to chocolate coat color. Local breeders from Serbia, however, still maintain a few larger individuals of a lighter coat color, named Banat donkey, and speculate that they are descendants of a Spanish donkey heard that had been transferred to the Banat region by the...

Key message High levels of genetic diversity, pronounced genetic structure and limitations to gene flow in Serbian spruce, a rare and endangered tree species from the refugial Balkan region, point towards a “one population-one unit” strategy for assembling a network of Genetic Conservation Units (GCUs) for its dynamic conservation. On the other han...

Goniolimon species are mainly components of the Eurasian steppe or steppe-like rocky vegetation, with some taxa occurring also in south-eastern Europe and northern Africa. We analysed the variability of: (i) two maternally inherited plastid loci (rpl32-trnL and 3′rps16-5′trnK) in 110 individuals of six currently accepted species from the Balkans an...

In this paper, the morphological variability of autochthonous unregistered experimental white poplar clones, L-12, L-80 and L-100, and the registered reference clone Villafranca were monitored in a two-year nursery trial. The highest percentage of rooting of cuttings and survival of rooted cuttings were recorded for clone L-12, during the two growi...

Selectively neutral nuclear microsatellites (SSRs) are available for Fagus sp., and have been used in F. sylvatica, an ecologically and economically most important European Fagus species. We provide a comprehensive technical overview of available Fagus sp. SSRs (185 loci), carry out meta-analysis of loci used in F. sylvatica (62 loci employed in 62...

Primeval forests are today exceedingly rare in Europe and transfer of forest reproductive material for afforestation and improvement have been very common, especially over the last two centuries. This can be a serious impediment when inferring past population movements in response to past climate changes such as the last glacial maximum (LGM), some...

Serbian spruce is an old, relict and currently rare and endangered spruce species particularly susceptible to climate change that attracts a lot of attention in the academic community since its discovery in 1875. Today, Serbian spruce is limited to the area of ~100 km² localized around the mid-course of the Drina River in the mountainous central Ba...

Protection of honey bees is of great economic importance because of their role in pollination. Crucial steps towards this goal are epidemiological surveys of pathogens connected with honey bee losses. In this study deformed wing virus (DWV), chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV), acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) and sacbrood virus (SBV) were investiga...

Virus occurence in different regions of Serbia Region mark 1 North 2 East 3 South 4 West 5 Center Colony strength mark 3 Strong 2 Medium 1 Weak

Intensity of virus infections (Ct values) in single DWV infection and in multiple infections combinations (DWV+ABPV+CBPV; DWV+ABPV+SBV; DVW+ABPV+CBPV+SBV)

Ct value ratios of viruses in double virus infections in colonies of different strength

Database of bee virus genome sequnces

Real-time RT-PCR amplification curves obtained with probes (TaqMan Probe®) showing the presence of single infections with DWV, ABPV, CBPV and SBV

Primeval forests are today exceedingly rare in Europe and transfer of forest reproductive material for afforestation and improvement have been very common, especially over the last two centuries. This can be a serious impediment when inferring past population movements in response to past climate changes such as the last glacial maximum (LGM), some...

Capitulate inflorescence is a specific, strongly adaptive and rare feature in the genus Campanula. We studied morphologically eight capitulate Campanula taxa from the Balkans (1537 individuals/52 populations) and one more species from Caucasus at the molecular level (using chloroplast markers trnGUCC-trnSGCU and psbA-trnH, 130 individuals/58 popula...

The Balkan donkey (Equus asinus L.) is commonly regarded as a large-sized, unselected, unstructured and traditionally managed donkey breed. We assessed the current genetic status of the three largest E. asinus populations in the central Balkans (Serbia) by analysing the variability of nuclear microsatellites and the mitochondrial (mtDNA) control re...

The last resort for conservation of rare tree populations in refugial areas under high risk of climate driven extinction may be ex situ conservation and assisted translocation. Although such actions require detailed knowledge about the spatial scale and heterogeneity of the within-population distribution of genetic diversity, it is still unknown wh...

Background: Available mitochondrial (mtDNA) data demonstrate genetic differentiation among South Slavs inhabiting the Balkan Peninsula. However, their resolution is insufficient to elucidate the female-specific aspects of the genetic history of South Slavs, including the genetic impact of various migrations which were rather common within the Balka...

Serbian spruce (Picea omorika (Pančić) Purk.) is a rare and endangered tertiary relict and endemic species, with restricted and fragmented natural range in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly around the mid-course of the Drina river. Since the middle of the 19th century, its natural range declines constantly, followed by a decline in the numb...

Mitochondrial genomes (mtDNAs or mitogenomes) of seed plants are characterized by a notoriously unstable organization on account of which available so-called universal or consensus primers may fail to fulfil their foreseen function - amplification of various mtDNA regions in a broad range of plant taxa. Thus, the primers developed for groups assume...

Pinus nigraJ.F. Arnold, European black pine, is a typical component of Mediterranean and subMediterranean coniferous forests with highly fragmentary distribution. Western Mediterranean populations of this species have been studied genetically to date, while eastern populations from the central Balkans, which are larger and more abundant, are still...

J.F. Arnold, European black pine, is a typical component of Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean coniferous forests with highly fragmentary distribution. Western Mediterranean populations of this species have been studied genetically to date, while eastern populations from the central Balkans, which are larger and more abundant, are still geneticall...

Faba bean is a grain legume producing protein-rich seeds and offering valuable ecological services in sustainable agriculture. Its wide-world distribution demonstrates a basic good capacity to adapt to diverse climates. Breeding represents a major lever to bring reliable yields, seed quality adapted to valuable uses and new ecosystem services. Posi...

Vaccinium myrtillus L., Vaccinium uliginosum L. and Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. are perennial, coldadapted clonal shrubs distributed throughout Europe, northern Asia and North America. Due to their usage in food (berries) and pharmaceutical industry (berries and leaves), their natural populations are exposed to anthropogenic and other impactsthat affe...

Salvia officinalis (Lamiaceae), common or Dalmatian sage, is a Mediterranean aromatic and medicinal plant used in medicine since ancient times. Knowledge on current genetic patterns and genealogical history of its natural populations is required for both breeding efforts and species conservation. We used sequences of two chloroplast intergenic spac...

Although more than 400 microsatellite loci are currently available for Vicia faba L. (faba bean), an important food and feed grain crop legume, they have not yet been used for comprehensive molecular characterization of this crop. We report a three-step procedure for rapid and cost-effective delineation and utilization of informative genomic nuclea...

Although south-Slavic populations have been studied to date from various aspects, the population of Serbia, occupying the central part of the Balkan Peninsula, is still genetically understudied at least at the level of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation. We analyzed polymorphisms of the first and the second mtDNA hypervariable segments (HVS-I and...

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...

The taxonomically intricate Campanula lingulata complex confined to the Balkan Peninsula is reviewed using molecular and morphological data. An extensive sample of 62 individuals for phylogenetic analyses and 402 individuals for morphometric analysis from 17 populations across the species range was used. The phylogenetic analyses based on two chlor...

Serbian spruce, Picea omorika (Panč.) Purk., is a cold-adapted conifer confined to an area of c. 10,000 km2 within the Balkans. This area, which has not been exposed to severe anthropogenic disturbances in the recent past, represents a long-term cryptic refugium of this species. We studied Quaternary dynamics of fragmentary distributed Serbian spru...

Aromatic species of the genus Satureja are rich in secondary metabolites that interfere with DNA isolation procedures. Four protocols based on the standard CTAB DNA extraction protocol of Doyle and Doyle (1987) were tested in six savory taxa. The polyphenol adsorbents activated charcoal and/or polyvinylpyrrolidone 10 were employed in three procedur...

We performed in silico PCR analyses utilizing complete mitochondrial (mtDNA) genome sequences of faba bean (Vicia faba) and two related species, Vigna angularis and Vigna radiata, currently available in GenBank, to infer whether 15 published universal primer pairs for amplification of all 14 cis-spliced introns in genes of NADH subunits (nad genes)...

We report an efficient, simple, and cost-effective protocol for the isolation of genomic DNA from an aromatic medicinal plant, common sage (Salvia officinalis L.). Our modification of the standard CTAB protocol includes two polyphenol adsorbents (PVP 10 and activated charcoal), high NaCl concentrations (4 M) for removing polysaccharides, and repeat...

Today, faba bean (Vicia faba L.) in Serbia is almost completely replaced with Phaseolus beans and has become a neglected crop with no official data. A recently launched action of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops and the Faculty of Agriculture in Novi Sad is aimed at the identification of the regions in Serbia where faba bean, known in Ser...

Picea omorika (Panč.) Purk. is a relict and an endemic species found exclusively in the Balkan, within an area of ca. 10 000 km2. Marker-based genetic diversity data in this conifer are very limited and partially contradictory. Therefore, twelve nuclear markers (ten EST-SSRs and two genomic SSRs) were tested for cross-species amplification in P. om...

Picea omorika (Panč.) Purk. is a relict from the Arcto-Tertiary flora with its entire current natural range confined to an area of only 10,000 km2 within the Balkans, a region well known as a Quaternary refugium. We have amplified the second intron of the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit1 gene in 200 trees originating from ten natural popul...

Principles of the conservation of genetic resources of elms (Ulmus spp) do not differ fundamentally from the general principles accepted for the conservation of genetic resources of other common Noble Hardwoods. Efficient conservation can best be achieved through appropriate combination of in situ and ex situ methods, which have distinct advantages...