Plant habit and production of secondary metabolites in chamomile plants depend on endogenous and exogenous factors that can be divided into two groups (FRANZ 1982): a) morpho-ontogenetic variability, b) genetic variability or genetic determinateness. The activity of these factors is reflected in biomass production, flower drug production, content and composition of essential oil and some other ...

Cassava is a major tropical food crop in the Euphorbiaceae family that has high carbohydrate production potential and adaptability to diverse environments. Here we present the draft genome sequences of a wild ancestor and a domesticated variety of cassava and comparative analyses with a partial inbred line. We identify 1,584 and 1,678 gene models specific to the wild and domesticated varieties,...

BACKGROUND Olive trees (Olea europaea subsp. europaea var. europaea) naturally grow in areas spanning the Mediterranean basin and towards the East, including the Middle East. In the Iranian plateau, the presence of olives has been documented since very ancient times, though the early history of the crop in this area is shrouded in uncertainty. METHODS The varieties presently cultivated in Ira...

The olive is an important fruit species cultivated for oil and table olives in Italy and the Mediterranean basin. The conservation of cultivated plants in ex situ collections is essential for the optimal management and use of their genetic resources. The largest ex situ olive germplasm collection consists of approximately 500 Italian olive varieties and corresponding to 85% of the total Italian...

Rice blast, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most devastating diseases. The two major subspecies of Asian cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.), indica and japonica, have shown obvious differences in rice blast resistance, but the genomic basis that underlies the difference is not clear. We performed a genomewide comparison of the major class of resistant gene family, the nucleotide-bind...

Red or variegated chicory (Cichorium intybus L., 2n=2x=18) native to, and very extensively cultivated in North-Eastern Italy as a leafy vegetable, locally called “radicchio”, includes different types which represent valuable high-quality crops. The five major types of radicchio cultivated in the Veneto region were investigated by PCR-derived molecular markers (e.g. RAPDs, AP-PCRs, I-SSRs and AF...

Considerable insights were recently gained into the history and process of rice domestication. It becomes increasingly clear that artificial and natural selections coupled with extensive introgression have shaped the genomes of cultivated rice. The interplay of these evolutionary forces gave rise to the cultivated species, Oryza sativa, with divergent genomic backgrounds from two wild species, ...