M. Musayev

Identification and characterization of grapevine genetic resources maintained in Eastern European Collections

Plenary lecture given at the 8th Mid-European Clay Conference, held in Kosice (Slovakia) on July 4-8th, 2016.COST MOLIM WG3 Meeting, Algorithm Development and High-performance Computing in Chemistry and Physics; Bratislava, March 21-22, 2016; http://web4.umb.sk/molim2016/Oral presentation given at the 8th Mid-European Clay Conference, held in Kosice (Slovakia) on July 4-8th, 2016. S6: application and treatment of clays and other industrial minerals.Cost Action Molim, Molecules in Motions, CM 1405; University Paris-Est Marne-La-Vallee, France, 27-29 August 2015This chapter provides an overview of the main biochemical transformations of major elements, including carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, iron and phosphorus in anaerobic digesters. Mineralization of organic matter during anaerobic digestion processes results in the production of inorganic carbonate, ammonium, sulfide, and phosphate species, which are involved in a complex network of chemical and biological reactions through interaction with available macro and micro nutrients as well as microbial processes with profound effects on the efficiency and stability of the anaerobic digester performance. The interplay of iron, phosphorus and sulfur cycles has recently attracted attention in the frame of research developed for the recovery of phosphorus on one hand and in the frame of the

Centuries-Old Results of Cultivation and Diversity of Genetic Resources of Grapes in Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijan Republic is an ancient country located on the South-East of the Caucasus Mountains and on the North-West of the Iranian Plateau, at the crossroads of Eastern Eu‐ rope and Southwest Asia. Extreme diversity of the soil and climatic conditions of Azerbaijan support a very rich diversity of plant genetic resources. More than 4700 higher plants have been registered here, 237 of which are endemic. Historically wild fruits are used by people for food, as medicinal crops and for other purposes. Azerbaijan is considered one of the evo‐ lution centers of cultivated plants. Practically all present-day major cultivated plants ap‐ peared for the first time in Azerbaijan several millennia B.C. As an example, evidence of ancient horticulture was discovered in a settlement west of Goy-Gol in the early second mil‐ lennium B.C. Fruit crops (apple, pear, apricot, pomegranate, quince, fig, almond, walnut, ha‐ zelnut etc.) and grape have been cultivated to meet the demands of the population for foodstuff and other products. Most of these crops are still considered major agricultural crops in the country. In the book of the ancient Greek scientist Strabon “Geography” was indicated a high prevalence of fruits in Azerbaijan: “The whole country is rich in wild and cultural fruits, evergreens, even olive grows here”.

Genetic and ecological insights into glacial refugia of walnut (Juglans regia L.)

The distribution and survival of trees during the last glacial maximum (LGM) has been of interest to paleoecologists, biogeographers, and geneticists. Ecological niche models that associate species occurrence and abundance with climatic variables are widely used to gain ecological and evolutionary insights and to predict species distributions over space and time. The present study deals with the glacial history of walnut to address questions related to past distributions through genetic analysis and ecological modeling of the present, LGM and Last Interglacial (LIG) periods. A maximum entropy method was used to project the current walnut distribution model on to the LGM (21–18 kyr BP) and LIG (130–116 kyr BP) climatic conditions. Model tuning identified the walnut data set filtered at 10 km spatial resolution as the best for modeling the current distribution and to hindcast past (LGM and LIG) distributions of walnut. The current distribution model predicted southern Caucasus, parts of West and Central Asia extending into South Asia encompassing northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, northwestern Himalayan region, and southwestern Tibet, as the favorable climatic niche matching the modern distribution of walnut. The hindcast of distributions suggested the occurrence of walnut during LGM was somewhat limited to southern latitudes from southern Caucasus, Central and South Asian regions extending into southwestern Tibet, northeastern India, Himalayan region of Sikkim and Bhutan, and southeastern China. Both CCSM and MIROC projections overlapped, except that MIROC projected a significant presence of walnut in the Balkan Peninsula during the LGM. In contrast, genetic analysis of the current walnut distribution suggested a much narrower area in northern Pakistan and the surrounding areas of Afghanistan, northwestern India, and southern Tajikistan as a plausible hotspot of diversity where walnut may have survived glaciations. Overall, the findings suggest that walnut perhaps survived the last glaciations in several refugia across a wide geographic area between 30° and 45° North latitude. However, humans probably played a significant role in the recent history and modern distribution of walnut.

An Alternative Potential Natural Genetic Resource: Sea Buckthorn [Elaeagnus rhamnoides (syn.: Hippophae rhamnoides)]

Elaeagnus rhamnoides (syn.: Hippophae rhamnoides), also known as sea buckthorn, is a member of the Elaeagnaceae family. Every part of the plant is used as medicine, nutritional supplement, fuel and fence, and therefore sea buckthorn is popularly known as ‘Gold Mine’, ‘Wonder Plant’ or ‘Golden Bush’. This plant contains a series of chemical compounds, possessing various biological as well as therapeutic activities including hepato-protective, antitumoural and immunumodulatory properties. The fruits of sea buckthorn have been used as a raw material for foods and medicines for decades in various regions of the world including China, Russia, North America and Europe. Berry products of sea buckthorn are nowadays becoming popular foods in the United States, Canada, Finland, Germany, and some other European countries. During the last decade sea buckthorn has attracted special attention and became an important subject for domestication in many countries as it is one of the most interesting plants for human use. However, the commercial cultivation and exploitation of sea buckthorn berries using its secondary compounds such as flavonoids, vitamins and carotenes for high quality food products or even to produce basic products such as juices is differently developed in Europe, Asia and Russia/NIS. Industrial cultivation, medicinal use, and processing of sea buckthorn berries need to be aligned according to different purposes, e.g. direct consumption, processing, juice or oil production, juice yield or composition of active compounds, seed oil or pulp oil, compounds to be enriched, etc. The medicinal and/or nutritional components of berries will provide very cheap raw material for national and international pharmaceutical industries, benefiting humanity worldwide. That’s why, sea buckthorn is one among the R&D subjects of the pharmaceutical industries all over the world. For this purpose, this chapter highlights the latest information about the sea buckthorn with an emphasis on its morphological features, taxonomic status, ecological and ecophysiological characteristics, biomorphological characteristics of some cultivars, phytochemical contents, traditional uses, potential medicinal characteristics, and other potential economical uses.

Genetic diversity analysis of cultivated and wild grapevine ( Vitis vinifera L.) accessions around the Mediterranean basin and Central Asia

BackgroundThe mountainous region between the Caucasus and China is considered to be the center of domestication for grapevine. Despite the importance of Central Asia in the history of grape growing, information about the extent and distribution of grape genetic variation in this region is limited in comparison to wild and cultivated grapevines from around the Mediterranean basin. The principal goal of this work was to survey the genetic diversity and relationships among wild and cultivated grape germplasm from the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean basin collectively to understand gene flow, possible domestication events and adaptive introgression.ResultsA total of 1378 wild and cultivated grapevines collected around the Mediterranean basin and from Central Asia were tested with a set of 20 nuclear SSR markers. Genetic data were analyzed (Cluster analysis, Principal Coordinate Analysis and STRUCTURE) to identify groups, and the results were validated by Nei’s genetic distance, pairwise FST analysis and assignment tests. All of these analyses identified three genetic groups: G1, wild accessions from Croatia, France, Italy and Spain; G2, wild accessions from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia; and G3, cultivars from Spain, France, Italy, Georgia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, which included a small group of wild accessions from Georgia and Croatia. Wild accessions from Georgia clustered with cultivated grape from the same area (proles pontica), but also with Western Europe (proles occidentalis), supporting Georgia as the ancient center of grapevine domestication. In addition, cluster analysis indicated that Western European wild grapes grouped with cultivated grapes from the same area, suggesting that the cultivated proles occidentalis contributed more to the early development of wine grapes than the wild vines from Eastern Europe.ConclusionsThe analysis of genetic relationships among the tested genotypes provided evidence of genetic relationships between wild and cultivated accessions in the Mediterranean basin and Central Asia. The genetic structure indicated a considerable amount of gene flow, which limited the differentiation between the two subspecies. The results also indicated that grapes with mixed ancestry occur in the regions where wild grapevines were domesticated.