European Collections Research Articles

Garlic (Allium spp.) viruses: detection, distribution and remediation attempts in a European garlic collection

Garlic is an important vegetable crop in numerous countries used as food and natural based medicine. Similar to the majority of vegetatively propagated plants, garlic may be affected by several viruses that can cause severe crop losses. The present study aimed to screen 105 garlic accessions (mother plants) from 5 European countries (Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, and France) for possible presence of Onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV), Leek yellow stripe virus (LYSV), Garlic common latent virus (GCLV) and Shallot latent virus (SLV). The occurrence of three Allexiviruses (GarV-A, GarV-B and GarV-C) in mixed assays was also investigated. Meristem-tip culture assays were performed in order to attempt eradication of the studied viruses. Garlic viruses identification was made by ELISA and RT-PCR. ELISA outcomes showed that all 105 garlic accessions were infected by different virus combinations. The OYDV and LYSV were identified, by ELISA, in all countries at 96% and 88,6% respectively and by RT-PCR at 99% and 96%. Furthermore, GCLV and SLV were detected by ELISA in about 88% and by RT-PCR at 89% and 90%, respectively with the exception of the studied Allexiviruses which were not amplified by RT-PCR with ALLEX1/ALLEX2 primers. Smaller meristem size (0,3-1,5 mm) led to better virus elimination efficiency (29%) compared to 8% obtained for the larger size (2-2,5 mm). The outcomes were opposite (16% vs. 90%) for plants regeneration. Virus elimination efficiency was linked to the virus type, e.g., OYDV and LYSV were eradicated at 90% while GCLV and Allexiviruses were difficult to eliminate (57,4% and 55,6% of eradication). Given the economic relevance of garlic crops worldwide and the frequently reported incidence of viral infections, it is important to make virus-free germplasm available. Therefore, investigating the garlic germplasm sanitary status and constantly improving it is of crucial importance aiming to increase the overall garlic production.

Making use of apex predator sample collections: an integrated workflow for quality assured sample processing, analysis and digital sample freezing of archived samples

Using monitoring data from apex predators for chemicals risk assessment can provide important information on bioaccumulating as well as biomagnifying chemicals in food webs. A survey among European institutions involved in chemical risk assessment on their experiences with apex predator data in chemical risk assessment revealed great interest in using such data. However, the respondents indicated that constraints were related to expected high costs, lack of standardisation and harmonised quality criteria for exposure assessment, data access, and regulatory acceptance/application. During the Life APEX project, we demonstrated that European sample collections (i.e. environmental specimen banks (ESBs), research collection (RCs), natural history museums (NHMs)) archive a large variety of biological samples that can be readily used for chemical analysis once appropriate quality assurance/control (QA/QC) measures have been developed and implemented. We therefore issued a second survey on sampling, processing and archiving procedures in European sample collections to derive key quality QA/QC criteria for chemical analysis. The survey revealed great differences in QA/QC measures between ESBs, NHMs and RCs. Whereas basic information such as sampling location, date and biometric data were mostly available across institutions, protocols to accompany the sampling strategy with respect to chemical analysis were only available for ESBs. For RCs, the applied QA/QC measures vary with the respective research question, whereas NHMs are generally less aware of e.g. chemical cross-contamination issues. Based on the survey we derived key indicators for assessing the quality of biota samples that can be easily implemented in online databases. Furthermore, we provide a QA/QC workflow not only for sampling and processing but also for the chemical analysis of biota samples. We focussed on comprehensive analytical techniques such as non-target screening and provided insights into subsequent storage of high-resolution chromatograms in online databases (i.e. digital sample freezing platform) to ultimately support chemicals risk assessment.

Late Roman and Early Byzantine Solidi of the Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection

This is a study of 33 Late Roman and Early Byzantine solidi from the period 394-565 that are kept in the Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection. The solidi were acquired in the late nineteenth century by the co-founding president of the Swedish Numismatic the Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection (Heilborn 1882). The entire collection was acquired at a sale from the Bukowski auction house in Stockholm by the Swedish-Texan antebellum cattle baron and gilded age banker Swante Magnus Swenson the same year. Together with many other coins and various prehistoric objects acquired in Sweden, the Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection was donated by Swenson in 1891 to the State of Texas under the name of the Swenson Collection. The Stiernstedt Ancient Coin Collection is currentlykept at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. The study concludes with a catalogue of the 33 solidi. In the commentary, I have tried to identify and recontextualize the solidi by comparing them to recorded hoards from Scandinavia and the European Continent as well as unprovenanced solidi in Swedish and European collections.

DiSSCo Flanders: A regional natural science collections management infrastructure in an international context

DiSSCo Flanders aims at developing a standardised natural science collections management infrastructure, ensuring proper long-term conservation, and future re-usage of the collections. Meise Botanic Garden coordinates the Flemish consortium. This four-year project, funded by the FWO (Research Foundation – Flanders), started in January 2021. The consortium brings together both the more classical ‘museum’ collections (Meise Botanic Garden, Ghent University Museum), with research collections (Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Flanders Marine Institute, universities), and living collections (Belgian Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta, Zoo of Antwerp (Poo 2022)). Many of the research collections are smaller orphan collections, lacking a (full-time) curator, for which collection management is not the core business of the hosting institute. The Belgian federal DiSSCo members are associated with the project, allowing close collaboration between European, national and regional (digital) collection management inititatives. Building on the expertise of the European DiSSCo-related projects, an initial high-level inventory and assessment of the collections has been made and will provide a better understanding of the collections landscape in Flanders (Van Baelen 2022). This step in the digitization will increase the findability of the diverse regional collections and highlight the available knowledge to the research community. Close collaboration with the TDWG Collections Descriptions interest group and the development of the Latimer Core standard (Woodburn 2021) will ensure maximal interoperability of the collection data. In order to be relevant for research, the Flemish collections need to be more interconnected and linked to other data sources. To ensure that collection data is adhering to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Resuable) and ready to connect to the DiSSCo research infrastructure, DiSSCo Flanders will have a large focus on the collection(s) management system (CMS). Depending on the needs and specificities of each collection, a strategy will be chosen to implement and/or collection data will be migrated to (an) optimised system(s). Parallel to the digital inventory and CMS choice, the consortium addresses specific themes in the format of working groups. Most of the institutes have identified that their molecular collection (DNA, tissues) has not been properly acknowledged as a separate long-term collection. Challenges such as the storage and curation of e-DNA and environmental samples (e.g., soil) have been identified. Very often it will only be feasible to add basic data in the CMS and essential data is not available to the researchers. DiSSCo Flanders invests in the enrichment of specimen data to ensure that a maximal amount of information becomes available to the community. This can be accomplished either through the use of citizen science/crowdsourcing using the DoeDat platform (Groom 2018), or by using machine learning techniques performed by the IDLab at Ghent University (Thirukokaranam Chandrasekar 2021). Besides the technical aspects of the DiSSCo research infrastructure, the consortium is covering topics such as data publication, legal aspects of collections, standard operating procedures, etc. through knowledge sharing and active dialog.

From data pipelines to FAIR data infrastructures: A vision for the new horizons of bio- and geodiversity data for scientific research

Natural science collections are vast repositories of bio- and geodiversity specimens. These collections, originating from natural history cabinets or expeditions, are increasingly becoming unparalleled sources of data facilitating multidisciplinary research (Meineke et al. 2018, Heberling et al. 2019, Cook et al. 2020, Thompson et al. 2021). Due to various global data mobilization and digitisation efforts (Blagoderov et al. 2012,Nelson and Ellis 2018), this digitised information about specimens includes database records along with two/three-dimensional images, sonograms, sound or video recordings, computerised tomography scans, machine-readable texts from labels on the specimens as well as media items and notes related to the discovery sites and acquisition (Hedrick et al. 2020,Phillipson 2022). The scope and practice of specimen gathering are also evolving. The term extended specimen was coined to refer to the specimen and associated data extending beyond the singular physical object to other physical or digital entities such as chemical composition, genetic sequence data or species data. Thus the specimen becomes an interconnected network of data resources that have incredible potential to enhance integrative and data-driven research (Webster 2017,Lendemer et al. 2019,Hardisty et al. 2022). These practices also reflect the role of data and the curatorial data life-cycle starting from the initial material sampling process to the downstream analysis. We are also seeing growing acknowledgement that disparate and domain specific data elements prevent interdisciplinarity which is crucial for a holistic understanding of biodiversity and climate crisis (Hicks et al. 2010, Craven et al. 2019, Folk and Siniscalchi 2021). Thus the data elements are not just records or rows in a database or data pipelines going from one repository to another. They have the potential to become self-describing digital artefacts that can revolutionise how machines interpret and work with specimen data. Within this context, the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), a new European Research Infrastructure for natural science collections, envisions an infrastructure based on FAIR Digital Objects (FDO) that can unify more than 170 European natural science collections under common and FAIR-compliant (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) (Wilkinson et al. 2016) access and curation policies and practices. DiSSCo’s key element in achieving FAIR is the implementation of Digital Specimen (a domain specific FDO) that closely aligns with the extended specimen practices. The idea behind Digital Specimen – an FDO that acts as a digital surrogate for a specific physical specimen in a natural science collection – was influenced by global conversations around the implementation of the Digital Object Architecture for biodiversity data (De Smedt et al. 2020, Islam et al. 2020,Hardisty et al. 2020). The main purpose of this talk is to explain the vision of how FAIR and FDO can create a data infrastructure that can not only take advantage of existing databases and repositories but at the same time provide support for innovative services such as AI and digital twinning. With scientific use cases in mind, the talk will highlight a few key FAIR and FDO components (persistent identifiers, metadata, ontologies) within the collaborative modelling activity of Digital Specimen specification. These components provide the template for specifying how a Digital Specimen should look so DiSSCo can build a FAIR service ecosystem based on FDOs (Addink et al. 2021). We will also give examples of envisioned services that can help with image feature extraction, and model training (Grieb et al. 2021,Hardisty et al. 2022) and digital twinning (Schultes et al. 2022). We believe this is an exciting new paradigm powered by FAIR and FDO that can help both humans and machines to accelerate the use of specimen data. From physical objects curated over hundred years, we have developed data pipelines, aggregators and repositories (Barberousse 2021). Now is the time to look for solutions where these data records can become FAIR Digital Objects to enable wider access and multidisciplinary research.

Engaging Users for Participating in a European Data Collection Campaign with Smartphones

Researchers worldwide require valuable data to confirm and validate their models or theories. Obtaining such data, especially concerning people's behaviour, is very difficult. Although ICT technologies can facilitate the data collection process, it is necessary to consider the right promotional and communication tools to ensure the required sample size. The paper provides evidence on users' engagement during the European data collection campaign (H2020 MoTiV project ) using the Woorti mobile application. The results show that using the mobile application to collect data does not automatically attract and engage citizens. This brings several challenges to be addressed during the data collection campaign. The study found that electronic media are not always the most effective channels to attract users to research. Direct addressing and outreach events seem to be more effective for this purpose. This case study also shows that although incentives motivate people to participate in data collection, the most crucial factor in their participation is contributing to the research.

Kolekcjonowanie popkultury. Kilka słów o archiwizacji anime i japońskich filmowych memorabiliach

The presented article concerns the issue of collecting film memorabilia, with a particular emphasis on the Japanese artefacts related to anime production. Beginning with a brief introduction to the differences between collections and archives, the author aims to present the current state of research on the categorization of popular culture memorabilia. The following parts of the article underline the importance of considering Japanese post-animation products as historical resources. Regarding the ways of presentation of selected works in galleries, the author provides such case-study examples of exhibitions as A World Is Born: The Emerging Arts and Designs in 1980s Japanese Animation (Singapore 2018, Stockholm 2019) and Proto Anime Cut — Spaces and Visions in Japanese Animation (International, 2011–2012). A significant part of the article is devoted to the description and analysis of the presence of Japanese anime memorabilia in European and Polish collections, which shows the rapid development of interest in collecting popular culture.

Distribution and phylogeography of the genus Mattirolomyces with a focus on the Asian M. terfezioides haplotypes.

Mattirolomyces is an edible commercial sequestrate genus that is globally distributed. From the five described taxa of this genus, Mattirolomyces terfezioides is the most common species in Asia. Our recent attempts to locate M. terfezioides outside its current distribution area in China documented its first records in areas of poplar trees with the lowest known temperature and precipitation averages ever recorded for this species. This peculiar ecology was not reflected on the species-morphological features nor on its phylogenetic position in the genus. The first attempt to apply the phylogenetic network approach to Mattirolomyces revealed its geographic origin in the Asian-Pacific areas prior to frequent long-distance migration events. Based on data from recent study areas, we found that the collections from Inner Mongolia and the Shanxi province were similar to European collections. Asian haplotypes were less distant from the outgroup comparing to collections from Europe, supporting the hypothesis that M. terfezioides was originated from this Chinese area and was subsequently transported to Europe. Exploring M. terfezioides ecology and its mycorrhiza potential to grow in association with poplars would be of great importance for planning cultivation projects of this valuable desert truffle species in Central and Eastern China, a currently underexploited economic sector that deserves further ecological and M. terfezioides mycorrhizal synthesis investigations.

First record of Lactocollybia variicysti s from Asia

During surveys of macrofungi in Pakistan, eight specimens belonging to the genus Lactocollybia were collected from the plains of Punjab and foothills of Murree. Morphological studies and molecular characterization refer all collections to a single species, Lactocollybia variicystis, previously restricted to Africa and Europe; this is the first report from Asia. Except for geography, no significant differences were found among African, European, and Pakistani collections.

Improvisational flops: a problematic concert (1969) and controversial LP (1970) of the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza

In the history of the Rome-based Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (GINC) – one of the first European collectives of free improvisation in so-called New Music – the years 1968-1972 can be considered the zenith of the group’s success in terms of recognition, visibility, and increased output. Two contemporary events, however, appear as uncharacteristic flops: a concert in Berlin during the 6 Tage Musik Festival in December 1969, and the LP The Feed-Back produced by RCA Italiana between March and October 1970. In the first case, a concert, specifically formatted as a “rehearsal-session” to broaden the participation of the audience by dialogic means, turned out to be a challenging experience due to the confrontational behaviour of a part of the audience. In the second case, the production of an LP experimenting in a style that the group’s spokesperson called “upperground”, which included elements of beat music and was thought would also offer a potential economic gain, turned out to be a controversial and disappointing experience. Using documentary and archival materials, as well as oral and written accounts of former GINC members, viewed through the lens of Actor-Network Theory, in this article I explore the many complexities of the two flops. Namely: which entities/actor-networks are involved in them; how these entities/actor-networks interact, which kind of issues they raise, and which negotiation spaces they enact (inside and outside the musical performance space); how in the case of these two projects the premises and the results failed to be aligned, and the consequences for the overall project, i.e. GINC itself. In this article I present a framework which more readily allows for following individual projects (and their eventual flops) not only inside the performance space but also in their relation to the variations in configuration of the overall experimental project/group.

Passiflora mistratensis, a new species of Passiflora (Passifloraceae) from Colombia, commonly known from European cultivation

Passiflora mistratensis, a new species of Passiflora sect. Granadillastrum is described and illustrated. This species has been known for several years from its popular cultivation in European collections and horticulture, however, an official name never was assigned to this new taxon. It is endemic to the Colombian Cauca River valley where it grows in premontane tropical wet cloud forest of the states Valle de Cauca, Risaralda and Antioquia. It is most closely related to Passiflora danielii and Passiflora trisulca, from which it can be readily distinguished by the combination of its unlobed leaves and the notably shorter inflorescence and corni. Its taxonomy, ecology and conservation are discussed in this paper.

Fossil molluscs from the Middle Miocene of Öhningen, southwestern Germany

Herein, we revise an extensive set of mollusc fossils from the Upper Freshwater Molasse deposits of Öhningen palaeolake (SW Germany; Middle Miocene, MN7). Based on material housed in paleontological collections in Europe and North America, we present the first thorough systematic account of the phylum from this historic locality. A total of ten species were identified from Öhningen: three freshwater gastropods (Lymnaea dilatata Noulet, 1854, Gyraulus cf. applanatus (Thomä), Planorbarius mantelli (Dunker)), two terrestrial gastropods (Granaria cf. schuebleri (Klein), Palaeotachea sylvestrina (Schlotheim)), and five bivalves (Anodonta splendens Goldfuss, A. lavateri (Münster), Pseudunio flabellatus (Goldfuss), “Dreissena” sp., Pisidium escheri (Mayer-Eymar, 1865)). Three freshwater and five terrestrial gastropod genera mentioned in older literature could not be found in the available material. Ours is the first report of a Dreissenidae from Öhningen.

P-47 Inhibition of phosphoprotein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) sensitizes pancreatic cancer to PARP inhibitors by modulation of homologous recombination repair

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most difficult to treat cancers with a 5-years survival of less than 6%, representing one of the most lethal types of cancer, recent research has shown that PP2A inhibitors (LB-100) sensitize pancreatic cancer to chemotherapy and radiation. In addition, the finding from clinical trial study demonstrated that the effectiveness of single-agent Talazoparib for treatment of patients with and without germline BRCA1/2 mutation in ovarian, breast, small cell lung and Pancreatic cancers. The aim of this work was to Ι. investigate activity of LB-100 against pancreatic cancer cells as monotherapy and in combination with PARP inhibitions (Talazoparib). ΙΙ. Investigate the mechanism by which LB-100 and Talazoparib effect pancreatic cancer cells by studying effect of drugs on cell cycle and modulation of cell cycle regulatory proteins and assess the role of treatment combination in control DSB and HR repair through modulation of ATM phosphorylation. Human pancreatic cancer cell lines Panc-1, MIA-Pa-Ca-2 and BxPC-3 were obtained from European Collection of Authenticated Cell Culture (ECACC) and grown in either Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium (DMEM) (MiaPaCa-2 and Panc-1) or RPMI medium (BxPC-3) with 10% FBS. Cell cultures were maintained in an atmosphere of 5% CO2/95% air at 37 C. PP2A activity was measured by PP2A Immunoprecipitation phosphatase assay Kit (Millipore), cell cytotoxicity were measured by MTT assay, cell cycle determined by flow cytometry. Western blot techniques were used to assess levels of proteins associated with regulation of cell cycle (Cdc2, p-Cdc2, and Cdc25c), apoptosis (caspase3) and DNA damage (γ-H2AX). Data are expressed as the mean ± (SEM) and analysed by an analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results show that LB-100 decreased PP2A activity in all pancreatic cancer cells in dose dependent manner. LB-100 significantly decreased cell viability of Panc-1, MIA-Pa-Ca-2 and BxPC-3 with IC50 (3.94 μM, 6.86 μM, and 10.87 μM) respectively. Interestingly adding 25 nm of Talazoparib further decreased IC50 in all cells (1.88 μM, 5.24 μM and 5.83 μM). Treatment combination attenuated pancreatic cancer cells growth through caspase activation and G2/M cell-cycle arrest. Combination therapy impaired cellular repair and induced DNA double-strand breaks by inducing Υ-H2AX. Our results suggest that treatment combination of LB100 and talazoparib in vitro inhibit cancer cells growth by modulation of the DNA damage response pathway and cell cycle checkpoint abrogation. The combination of PP2A inhibitor with PARP inhibitor has a synergistic effect in vitro. Further in vivo studies are needed to explore this combination as an effective option in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Sculpture Collections in Europe and the United States, 1500–1930. Variety and ambiguity. Studies in the History of Collecting and Art Markets 10

<i>Sculpture Collections in Europe and the United States, 1500–1930. Variety and ambiguity</i>. Studies in the History of Collecting and Art Markets 10

Martha Graham, the Ancient Greek Theater and the Rewriting of the Classical Texts through the Bodily Movement on Stage

The dancer, choreographer, and public figure Martha Graham (1894-1991) is considered one of the brightest personalities of the 20th Century, as well as one of the greatest innovators of dance. Often compared with Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky and James Joyce for the way in which she revolutionized the arts, Graham danced until late in her long life and created hundreds of dances. A significant number of them are considered masterpieces. However, an important segment of her creation was inspired from the Greek ancient theater and mythology. Graham’s deep interest and fascination with Greek culture resulted in a number of modern and original choreographies, to be found at the intersection of performing arts, including theater. Most importantly, “the Greek works” are still present in Graham’s Company (established in 1926) repertoire, which continues to embody Graham’s artistic vision nowadays. My presentation addresses some of Graham’s “Mythographic and Mythologic Circle” works, focusing on the way in which the Greek ancient theater was re-written in Graham’s creations through dance, gesture, scenography and music. A special attention will be given to the works Cave of the Heart, Errand into the Maze, Night Journey and Clytemnestra, which are describing Medeea, Ariadna, Jocasta, Clytemnestra, Oedipus and Agamemnon’s destinies. Graham and her Greek Choir told their stories of love, jealousy, incest, hope and tragedy without words, while rewriting the texts through dance. My presentation is based on research from American and European archives and collections, interviews with former Graham dancers, and it will be accompanied by visual materials and excerpts from films and documentaries dedicated to Martha Graham and her Company. It will end my presentation with a discussion of the way in which Graham Company, based in New York City, is continuing nowadays the dialogue between the past and the present, the dance and the theater, the words and the body language.

Semantics of European poetry is shaped by conservative forces: The relationship between poetic meter and meaning in accentual-syllabic verse.

Recent advances in cultural analytics and large-scale computational studies of art, literature and film often show that long-term change in the features of artistic works happens gradually. These findings suggest that conservative forces that shape creative domains might be underestimated. To this end, we provide the first large-scale formal evidence of the association between poetic meter and semantics in 18-19th century European literatures, using Czech, German and Russian collections with additional data from English poetry and early modern Dutch songs. Our study traces this association through a series of unsupervised classifications using the abstracted semantic features of poems that are inferred for individual texts with the aid of topic modeling. Topics alone enable recognition of the meters in each observed language, as may be seen from the same-meter samples clustering together (median Adjusted Rand Index between 0.48 and 1 across traditions). In addition, this study shows that the strength of the association between form and meaning tends to decrease over time. This may reflect a shift in aesthetic conventions between the 18th and 19th centuries as individual innovation was increasingly favored in literature. Despite this decline, it remains possible to recognize semantics of the meters from past or future, which suggests the continuity in meter-meaning relationships while also revealing the historical variability of conditions across languages. This paper argues that distinct metrical forms, which are often copied in a language over centuries, also maintain long-term semantic inertia in poetry. Our findings highlight the role of the formal features of cultural items in influencing the pace and shape of cultural evolution.

Reconciling the economic and biological fishery data gathered through the European Data Collection Framework: A new R-tool.

Fishing fleets and targeted stocks are the basis for the design of multiannual management plans at European or Mediterranean levels. Management Strategy Evaluation and bioeconomic modeling need data at a specific level of resolution in terms of time, area and type of fishing activity for analyzing measures for management procedures using simulations. Within the Data Collection Framework, data are to be aggregated at different levels, e.g.: fleet segment and métier, the former linked to the predominant gear and the size of the vessel and the latter to the activity itself. Fishing costs are collected by fleet segment, effort and landings by fleet segment and métier. Bioeconomic modeling for management purposes requires data at the same resolution. The aim of this paper is to describe a methodology, implemented in SECFISH R package, to disaggregate variable cost data from the fleet segment to the métier level. The presented tool allows to determine the correlation between the variable costs of a vessel and its activities to estimate costs at the activity level (e.g. métiers). The tool is applied to selected Italian fleet segments characterized by a variety of métiers and high dynamicity.

European traditional tomatoes galore: a result of farmers' selection of a few diversity-rich loci.

A comprehensive collection of 1254 tomato accessions, corresponding to European traditional and modern varieties, early domesticated varieties, and wild relatives, was analyzed by genotyping by sequencing. A continuous genetic gradient between the traditional and modern varieties was observed. European traditional tomatoes displayed very low genetic diversity, with only 298 polymorphic loci (95% threshold) out of 64943 total variants. European traditional tomatoes could be classified into several genetic groups. Two main clusters consisting of Spanish and Italian accessions showed higher genetic diversity than the remaining varieties, suggesting that these regions might be independent secondary centers of diversity with a different history. Other varieties seem to be the result of a more recent complex pattern of migrations and hybridizations among the European regions. Several polymorphic loci were associated in a genome-wide association study with fruit morphological traits in the European traditional collection. The corresponding alleles were found to contribute to the distinctive phenotypic characteristic of the genetic varietal groups. The few highly polymorphic loci associated with morphological traits in an otherwise a low-diversity population suggests a history of balancing selection, in which tomato farmers likely maintained the morphological variation by inadvertently applying a high selective pressure within different varietal types.

An Overview of the Taxonomy and Geographic Distribution of Venezuelan Epicauta (Coleoptera: Meloidae)

The incomplete knowledge of the species distribution ranges represents a serious barrier for many areas of study in Biology that goes from Systematics to conservation of Biodiversity. One of the most important available resources to deal with the lack of geographic information are scientific collections. Epicauta with more than 366 species described is one of the most speciose lineages within Meloidae. Almost 73% of its diversity occurs in America. In Venezuela, the tenth richest country in biodiversity of the world, only nine species of Epicauta have been recorded and most of them are known from one or two localities. The revision of the specimens of Epicauta held at the entomological collection of the Museo del Instituto de Zoología Agrícola “Francisco Fernandez Yépez” (MIZA) of the Universidad Central de Venezuela at Maracay, with additional data from other American and European collections allowed us to improve significantly the knowledge of the geographic distribution of the Venezuelan taxa. Besides, the morphological study of the specimens resulted in the addition of some species not previously recorded in Venezuela, the description of a new species, and the redescription of the almost unknown and forgotten species E. subvittata (Erichson 1848).

Fingerprinting, structure, and genetic relationships among selected accessions of blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea L.) from European collections

Due to its value and economic importance, the genome of Lonicera caerulea L. has been widely studied in various fields of science. In this study the genetic structure and relationships between 24 accessions of L. caerulea of different origins were assessed. A total of 692, 814, and 258 loci were amplified using 43 RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA), 40 ISSR (intersimple sequence repeat), and 20 R-ISSR (RAPD+ISSR) primers, respectively. Among the amplified loci, 66–78% were polymorphic and 12–20% were private. Selected R-ISSR sequences were detected in Lonicera japonica transcripts. Cluster and STRUCTURE analyses performed for each of the techniques revealed the existing differences and unknown similarities between the genotypes. The r-factor values calculated in the Mantel test indicated highly significant positive correlations between the Nei distance matrices, similar to the FST values (FST_RAPD = 0.223, FST_ISSR = 0.279, FST_R-ISSR = 0.363) determined in the analysis of molecular variance. It was found that 78%, 72%, and 64% of the genetic variations were related to the differences observed within the populations, which suggest that the variations are mainly reflected in the differences among the genotypes. The principal coordinate analysis showed greater differences between the mean distances of the Lonicera genotype pair and the actual distances of the same pairs on the Nei matrix compared to multidimensional scaling. These differences were 45%, 56%, and 42% higher for RAPD, ISSR and R-ISSR, respectively.