Marin Jezic

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Zagreb

Cryphonectria carpinicola , the most recently described species in the genus Cryphonectria , is gaining research interest due to its involvement in common hornbeam ( Carpinus betulus ) decline. So far, no symptoms of hornbeam decline have been observed in Croatian forests. However, following a chance observation of a Cryphonectria ‐like stromata on...

Since its introduction into Europe in the first half of the 20th century, Cryphonectria parasitica has been gradually spreading across the natural range of the sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.), infecting the trees and causing lethal bark cankers. Serendipitously, a hyperparasitic Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1), which attenuates C. parasitic...

North Adriatic sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) orchards are unique as in a relatively small area three different genetic groups can be found: cultivated trees, wild trees, and their natural crosses. Numerous investigations have focused on the morphology of cultivated and wild sweet chestnut trees, but their interactions remain underexplored....

Introduction Forest ecosystems are highly threatened by the simultaneous effects of climate change and invasive pathogens. Chestnut blight, caused by the invasive phytopathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, has caused severe damage to European chestnut groves and catastrophic dieback of American chestnut in North America. Within Europe, the im...

Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is a noble, multi-purpose hardwood species. In addition to edible fruits and high-quality wood, chestnut forests have been used as a source of various resources since the antiquity. Intensive management of forests and stands, however, together with the emergence of chestnut blight, has led to their decline and...

Gene flow between cultivated and wild gene pools is common in the contact zone between agricultural lands and natural habitats and can be used to study the development of adaptations and selection of novel varieties. This is likely the case in the northern Adriatic region, where centuries-old cultivated orchards of sweet chestnut ( Castanea sativa...

Cryphonectria parasitica is an invasive fungal pathogen that causes blight disease on chestnut trees. Its destructive effect can be controlled with naturally occurring mycovirus Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1). To date, the spread of C. parasitica and CHV1 in Europe is fairly well documented, but there are still several unexplored regions. Thus, w...

Plant diseases caused by fungal pathogens are a major cause of yield loss in agriculture and forestry. Mycoviruses have been discovered in many important plant pathogenic fungi. The majority are RNA viruses, that cause persistent infections of their fungal hosts without having an extracellular phase. Virus infection occurs via hyphal anastomosis al...

Intra-host dynamics are a core component of virus evolution but most intra-host data comes from a narrow range of hosts or experimental infections. Gaining broader information on the intra-host diversity and dynamics of naturally occurring virus infections is essential to our understanding of evolution across the virosphere. Here we used PacBio lon...

This paper showcases the development of plant virology in Croatia at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, from its beginning in the 1950s until today, more than 70 years later. The main achievements of the previous and current group members are highlighted according to various research topics and fields. Expectedly, some of those accomplis...

Laccase activity reduction in the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica usually accompanies the hypovirulence caused by the infection of fungus with Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1). However, the different methods utilized for assessing this phenomenon has produced varied and often conflicting results. Furthermore, the majority of experim...

Select varieties of sweet chestnut called marrons are cultivated for their large and exquisite fruits. Most of the countries with native sweet chestnut populations have their autochthonous varieties that were arduously created through selective breeding over many centuries. Marron cultivation has a long history in Croatia, mostly in the Lovran area...

Chestnut blight has spread throughout Europe since the introduction of its causal agent Cryphonectria parasitica over 70 years ago. In our study, we have analysed diversity of vegetative compatibility (vc) and microsatellite genotypes of C. parasitica, as well as sequence diversity of Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1) in six populations from Switzer...

Dutch elm disease (DED) is a vascular wilt disease of elms caused by ascomycetous fungi of the genus Ophiostoma. The initial DED pandemic was caused by Ophiostoma ulmi, a relatively weak pathogen when compared to Ophiostoma novo-ulmi, the causal agent of the current pandemic. The latter has been spreading as two distinct subspecies: O. novo-ulmi ss...

Transmissible hypovirulence associated with Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1) has been used for biological control of chestnut blight, devastating disease of chestnut caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica. The main aims of this study were to provide molecular characterization of CHV1 from Croatia and Slovenia and to reveal its genetic variab...

Infection of American and European chestnuts with the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica results in the formation of cankers, lesions caused by the growth of mycelia within bark tissue of the host plant. Infection of the fungus with Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV‐1) results in conversion of the mycelial phenotype from virulent to hypov...

Epigenetic modifications may play an important role in invasion and adaptation of clonal and invasive populations to different environments. The aim of this study was to analyse epigenetic diversity and structure within and among populations of invasive pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica from south‐eastern Europe, where one haplotype ‐ S12...

In January 2015, an investigation of 800 ha of declining oaks in Istria and Cres (Croatian North Adriatic karst area) revealed intense dieback symptoms on Quercus cerris, Q. pubescens, and Q. ilex. Oaks make up 82 to 100% of the trees in these stands. The disease was recorded on 357 trees/ha at the most affected site. Black stromata of various size...

From 2013–2017, 11 chestnut populations and 16 apple orchards/plantations in Macedonia were examined for health; soil, root and bark samples were collected from trees expressing symptoms regarded as Phytophthora specific. Using leaf baits of Prunus laurocerasus and selective V8 Agar (PARPNH), 19 pure Phytophthora sp. cultures were isolated and iden...

Biotic stress caused by virus infections induces epigenetic changes in infected plants and animals, but this is the first report on methylation pattern changes in a fungus after mycovirus infection. As a model pathosystem for mycovirus-host interactions, we used Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1) and its host fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, in which...

Invasive species, especially plant pathogens have a potential to completely eradicate native plant species and remodel landscapes. Tripartite interaction among sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa, chestnut blight-causing invasive fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, and a hyperparasitic virus, Cryphonectria parasitica hypovirus 1 (CHV1) were studied in tw...

Understanding virus evolution is a fundamental goal of virology, evolutionary biology, and disease epidemiology. We provide a detailed analysis of evolution and origin of Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1) populations in Europe, based on the complete genome sequence of all European subtypes. Phylogenetic analyses divided European strains into two clo...

Symptoms specific for Phytophthora spp. on sweet chestnut have been previously reported in Macedonia, but never have they been confirmed by culturing or molecular techniques. We surveyed 15 chestnut populations, aged 15 to 70 years, at sites: Skudrinje, Osoj, Knezino, Straza, Recane, Vrutok, Kale, Kalista, Trebenista, Vratnica and Smolari throughou...

Surveys were carried out in 36 sites in forest ecosystems (21 in natural or artificial forest populations, 9 forest nurseries, 6 private ornamental nurseries) and 17 sites in agricultural ecosystems (17 apple orchards) throughout Macedonia for presence of collar and root lesions, rot and crown symptoms on trees and seedlings. Over 350 soil, and 50...

Cryphonectria parasitica is a phytopathogenic fungus introduced from Eastern Asia to North America and to Europe, where it causes chestnut blight, a devastating disease of chestnut trees. The disease can be biologically controlled utilising the mycovirus Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1), which changes the physiology of the host, reducing its virule...

The ascomycete fungus Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr, causal agent of chestnut blight, is probably one of the best known invasive fungal pathogens in forests of Europe and North America. Mycovirus that reduces virulence of C. parasitica can be used as biocontrol agent of the chestnut blight. However, anastomosis-mediated virus transmission i...

Background: Chestnut blight, caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, is a severe chestnut disease which can be controlled with naturally occurring hypoviruses in many areas of Europe. The aim of this research was to measure effect of different Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1) strains on the growth of fungal host and select strains that coul...

The sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is a widely spread and important multipurpose tree species in the Mediterranean area, which has played an important role in human history. Natural events, such as glaciations, and human influence played significant roles in the distribution and genetic makeup of the sweet chestnut. In order to better under...

Salinity is an abiotic factor that has a negative impact on plant growth and seed germination, leading to limited crop production. The effect of salt stress (100 and 200 mM NaCl) on the expression of dehydrins (DHNs), heat-shock protein 70 (HSP70), superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn SOD), and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) was i...

Candidatus (Ca.) Phytoplasma ulmi’, the causal agent of elm yellows, was found widely distributed across elm populations in Croatia infecting Ulmus laevis and U. minor. Especially high prevalence of the infection, approximately 75%, was detected in U. laevis, but more than half of the trees were asymptomatic. ‘Ca. Phytoplasma solani’ and ‘Ca. Phyto...

Salinity is a common abiotic factor that affects plant growth and development. Seedlings of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) F1 hybrid DH10 and three dihaploid lines (207B, 238C and 239K) obtained by diploidization of anther-derived haploids of hybrid DH10 were subjected to 0, 100 and 200 mM NaCl in in vitro conditions for 33 days and the effect on r...

Wild apple (Malus sylvestris L. Mill.) and wild pear (Pyrus pyraster L. Burgsd.) are direct ancestors of modern apple (M. domestica Borkh.) and pear (P. communis L.) cultivars grown and utilized for human consumption. These endangered species are native to central, western, and southern Europe. They occur in a scattered distribution pattern as sing...

Salinity is an important abiotic factor that limits plant growth and development. The influence of salt stress induced by sodium chloride on plant growth, proline content, level of lipid peroxidation and activities of antioxidative enzymes was studied in F1 hybrid DH10 and four dihaploid lines (207B, 238C, 239K, 244B) of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum...

The DNA demethylating agent 5-azacytidine (5-azaC) has a teratogenic influence during rat development influencing both the embryo and the placenta. Our aim was to investigate its impact on early decidual cell proliferation before the formation of placenta. Thus, female Fischer rats received 5-azaC (5 mg/kg, i.p.) on the 2nd, 5th or 8th day of gesta...

In Lovran (coastal Croatia), a unique forest/orchard of evenly mixed grafted marrons and naturally growing nongrafted sweet chestnut trees exists. This old chestnut population has been devastated by chestnut blight, caused by an aggressive introduced pathogenic fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica. However, initial observations indicated recovery of na...

The grapevine cultivar Grk, a close relative of Crljenak kaštelanski/Zinfandel, is grown exclusively in southern Croatia. Grapevine yellows-like symptoms were observed on vines in the vineyards in Lumbarda (southern Croatia) and in propagated grapevines near Zadar and Zagreb. The majority of the detected phytoplasma isolates belonged to the 16SrI g...

Seven conifer species: Cupressus sempervirens, Juniperus communis, J. oxycedrus, Picea abies, Pinus halepensis, P. mugo and P. nigra were tested for the presence of phytoplasma DNA. Using nested PCR (primer pairs P1/P7 followed by R16F2n/R16R2), 'Candidatus Phytoplasma pini' was detected in five out of 10 sampled P. halepensis trees and in one out...

The fate of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) during plastid development and conversion between various plastid types is still not very well understood. This is especially true for the cpDNA found in plastids of naturally senescing leaves. Here, we describe changes in plastid nucleoid structure accompanied with cpDNA degradation occurring during natural sene...

The ascomycete fungus Cryphonectria parasitica is an aggressive introduced pathogen of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.). It has spread throughout the chestnut-growing areas of Europe, with higher diversity in the regions close to its first introduction and lower diversity in its expanding ranges in Europe. To reconstruct the invasion events t...

Phytoplasma-infected and healthy grapevines were treated on the leaves with indole-3-butyric acid. The effect of IBA was examined by testing the grapevine for presence of phytoplasma 16S rDNA and by measuring stress parameters before and after the treatment. Vines treated with IBA showed signs of recovery, but high incidence of natural recovery was...

To elucidate the possible mechanism of phytoplasma elimination from periwinkle shoots caused by indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) treatment. It has been shown that a transfer of in vitro-grown phytoplasma-infected Catharanthus roseus (periwinkle) plantlets from medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) to one supplemented with IBA can induce remi...

Quercetin is known to possess antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and viruses. The activity of this flavonoid against phytoplasmas, non-cultivable plant pathogenic bacteria that cause numerous plant diseases, has never been examined before. The aim of this research was to examine the effect of different concentrations of quercetin (10 μ...

Quercetin is known to possess antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and viruses. The activity of this flavonoid against phytoplasmas, non-cultivable plant pathogenic bacteria that cause numerous plant diseases, has never been examined before. The aim of this research was to examine the effect of different concentrations of quercetin (10 m...