Dezessete acessos oriundos de hortos botânicos na Europa, dois cultivares Rekord e Kończewicki, e quatro cepas foram analisados por RAPD-PCR para determinar a diversidade genética entre os materiais incipientes e as cepas do cominho. As amostras com cinco plantas individuais de acessos, cultivares ou cepas derivaram-se de jovens folhas em roseta. Quarenta Genset Oligos RAPD primers foram usados para análise, dos quais oito produziram padrões claros e reproduzíveis de banda. Sessenta e dois padrões de bandas foram obtidos, revelando 23 bandas polimórficas, enquanto o número de bandas polimórficas chegou entre dois a quatro para um primer. Os primers GS12 e GS43 prodiziram duas bandas polimórficas, enquanto cada um dos primers GS8, GS21, GS22, GS41 and GS53 gerou três bandas. O primer mais informativo foi GS53, revelando 60% do polimorfismo estimado. A distância genética estava entre 0,22 e 0,67. A menor distância genética encontrou-se entre os acessos oriundos de Cluj e Lousanne (0,22) e a maior distância genética foi estimada entre o acesso oriundo de Berlin e a cepa 6 do cultivar 'Kończewicki' (0,67). A análise de agrupamento UPGMA, baseada em oito RAPD primers, colocou os genótipos analisados em quatro grupos.

In order to estimate genetic diversity among starting materials and breeding strains of caraway, a collection of 17 accessions from botanical gardens in Europe, two cultivars 'Rekord' and 'Kończewicki', and four own breeding strains were analyzed by RAPD-PCR. The representative samples, each of five individual plants of accession, cultivar or strain, were taken from young rosette leaves. Forty of Genset Oligos RAPD primers were used for analysis and eight of them produced clear and reproducible banding patterns. In total, 62 banding patterns were obtained revealing 23 polymorphic bands, whereas the number of polymorphic bands ranged from two to four for one primer. The GS12 and GS43 primers generated two polymorphic bands, while each of the GS8, GS21, GS22, GS41 and GS53 primers generated three bands. The GS53 primer was the most informative one, revealing 60% of the estimated polymorphism. The estimated value of genetic distance ranged from 0.22 to 0.67. The lowest genetic distance was found between accessions from Cluj and Lousanne (0.22). The highest genetic distance was estimated between accession from Berlin and the strain no. 6 of cultivar 'Kończewicki' (0.67). UPGMA cluster analysis, based on eight RAPD primers, categorized the analyzed genotypes into four groups.

A alcaravia é uma das plantas medicinais mais importantes cultivadas na Polônia. O óleo essencial da alcaravia tem atividade média antimicrobiana embora ele iniba o crescimento de várias bactérias e fungos. Esse estudo não somente avalia a atividade microbiológica do óleo de alcaravia obtido da fruta oriunda de vários genótipos, mas também investiga a correlação entre essa atividade e o conteúdo do óleo essencial e seus componentes principais. Em experimentos realizados em 2008 e 2009, foi testado o óleo essencial de 20 genótipos selecionados, cultivar Konczewicki, oriundos de jardins botânicos europeus (17) e de nossas cepas (2). Foi analisada a Concentração Mínima Inibitória (CMI), a qual inibiu a cepa bacteriana padrão. O valor de CMI foi recalculado para unidades antibióticas (UA) e registrou-se que a atividade microbiológica do óleo da alcaravia foi diferente. A mais forte atividade produziu óleo oriundo do genótipo Cluj (CMI = 0,16 mg mL-1; AU = 8650), enquanto o mais fraco foi derivado do óleo oriundo do genótipo Krakow (MIC = 1,75 mg mL-1; AU = 582). Uma correlação negativa significante foi registrada entre CMI e o conteúdo carvone. Todavia, a correlação positiva foi registrada entre CMI e o conteúdo limonene. O óleo essencial de alcaravia mostrou uma atividade média antimicrobiana enquanto o carvone pode ser determinado como um dos componente ativos.

Caraway is one of the most important medicinal plant cultivated in Poland. Caraway essential oil performs medium antimicrobial activity, although it inhibits growth of many bacteria and fungi. The aim of the study was to evaluate microbiological activity of caraway oil obtained from fruit originated from different genotypes and investigate the correlation between this activity and essential oil content and its main components content. In the experiments done in 2008 and 2009, essential oil of 20 selected caraway genotypes originated from: European botanical gardens (17), cultivar 'Konczewicki' and our own breeding strains (2) was tested. The Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of oil, which inhibited standard bacterial strain was investigated. MIC value was recalculated to antibiotic units (AU). The microbiological activity of caraway oil of the tested objects was significantly different. The strongest activity performed oil of population from genotype Cluj (MIC = 0.16 mg mL-1; AU = 8650), while the weakest activity was determined for oil of population from genotype Krakow (MIC = 1.75 mg mL-1; AU = 582). A significant negative correlation was observed between MIC and carvone content, however positive correlation was observed between MIC and limonene content. Caraway essential oil exhibited medium antimicrobial activity and carvone can be recognized as a one of the active component.

Epistasis, an additive-by-additive interaction between quantitative trait loci, has been defined as a deviation from the sum of independent effects of individual genes. Epistasis between QTLs assayed in populations segregating for an entire genome has been found at a frequency close to that expected by chance alone. Recently, epistatic effects have been considered by many researchers as important for complex traits. In order to understand the genetic control of complex traits, it is necessary to clarify additive-by-additive interactions among genes. Herein we compare estimates of a parameter connected with the additive gene action calculated on the basis of two models: a model excluding epistasis and a model with additive-by-additive interaction effects. In this paper two data sets were analysed: 1) 150 barley doubled haploid lines derived from the Steptoe x Morex cross, and 2) 145 DH lines of barley obtained from the Harrington x TR306 cross. The results showed that in cases when the effect of epistasis was different from zero, the coefficient of determination was larger for the model with epistasis than for the one excluding epistasis. These results indicate that epistatic interaction plays an important role in controlling the expression of complex traits.

Knowledge of the nature and magnitude of gene effects, as well as their contribution to the control of metric traits, is important in formulating efficient breeding programs for the improvement of plant genetics. Information concerning a genetic parameter such as the additive-by-additive epistatic effect can be useful in traditional breeding. This report describes the results obtained by applying weighted multiple linear regression to estimate the parameter connected with an additive-by-additive epistatic interaction. Three weight variants were used: (1) standard weights based on estimated variances, (2) different weights for minimal, maximal and other lines, and (3) different weights for extreme and other lines. The approach described here combines two methods of estimation, one based on phenotypic observations and the other using molecular marker data. The comparison was done using Monte Carlo simulations. The results show that the application of weighted regression to the marker data yielded estimates similar to those obtained by phenotypic methods.

Epistasis (additive × additive interaction) plays an important role in the genetic architecture of complex traits. This study presents analytical and numerical comparisons of two methods of estimation of additive × additive interaction of QTL effects. In the first method, we observed only the plant phenotype, while in the second method we have additional information from the molecular markers observations. In this study, two data sets were analyzed: i) 150 barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) doubled-haploid lines derived from the cross Steptoe × Morex and ii) 145 doubled-haploid lines of barley obtained from the cross Harrington × TR306. In total, 153 sets of observations were analyzed. The additive × additive interaction effect calculated on the basis of the marker observations is smaller than the total additive × additive interaction effect obtained from phenotypic observations only.