Univ., Diss./1997--Münster, 1996.

Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is native to Europe and North America and constitutes an important nutritional resource for both humans and animals. Over the years, a series of chemical analyses have revealed several health-beneficial compounds in bilberry, and with the current demand of the berries mainly covered by Sweden and Eastern Europe, there has become an increasing desire to cultivate bilberry in Norway. In order for such cultivation to be successful an increased knowledge about bilberry is seen as essential and thus several studies have investigated the chemical composition of the berry. However, the underlying genetic diversity and the variation between populations in biochemical compounds remain to be thoroughly investigated. Therefore, the aim of present study was to investigate the differences in biochemical composition between populations of bilberry distributed on a latitudinal gradient, and estimate the level of genetic variation within and among the populations. This in order to examine whether biochemical composition was reflected by observed levels of genetic variation.Bilberries from four Norwegian populations at three regions differing in latitude were analysed for content of total phenolics (TPH), total anthocyanins (ACY) and antioxidant activity (FRAP). Furthermore, metabolic profiling was performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to reveal biochemical differences between the populations in content of sugars, acids and some simple phenolics. Multivariate statistics were performed and revealed a clustering of samples from the two locations in Mid-Norway, and a clustering of the northern with the southern population. In addition, there were found significant differences in some of the compounds between the populations.Genetic analyses using four microsatellites were carried out to examine whether metabolic differences between populations were reflected by genetic differentiation. Despite the significant differences between populations in the concentrations of some metabolites no significant genetic differentiation was found. Thus, it seems that the variation in biochemical compounds discovered among populations could be environmentally induced differences on a similar genetic background. However, due to the limited number of working microsatellites and the fact that these molecular markers are neutral, there is still a possibility that the genetic differences causing compound concentrations to differ could be so minor as to remain undetected. Hence, further studies utilizing more microsatellite markers or new state-of-the-art molecular techniques are needed to determine whether this result holds and is valid also for genetic variation in coding parts of the genome.

In Norway today no commercial exploitation of the wild growing Norwegian bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) exists. The market in other regions of Europe, North- and South-America is based on the utilization of cultivated Vaccinium species. V.myrtillus shows generally a higher content of biochemical compounds with health-beneficial properties. As a consequence of an increasing demand for healthier food, the Nordic Bilberry project started in 2008 with the major goal to find superior clones adapted for different regions with effective production of phytochemicals. In addition, a 4-years Norwegian Bilberry project aiming at cultivation and yield potential aspects, was launched the same year (NFR project no. 184797). The presented master projected was affiliated to this project focusing on phytochemical and genetic diversity in Bymarka. It is known that life history traits of a plant species influence the clonal diversity and structure within populations. In this thesis different phytochemical methods were used for detection of total phenolics, anthocyanins and antioxidants in berry and plant material from 4 different areas in the geographic restricted area Bymarka, were a total of 80 individuals were collected. Average values detected for total phenols were 490 mg/100 g, 155 mg/ 100 g for anthocyanins and 4 mmol/ 100 g for antioxidants. The results showed little variation among clones in the restricted area. 16 primer pairs for 16 microsatellite loci were tested but only 4 (NA741, NA961, CA421 and CA483) turned out to be of good quality. These microsatellite loci were used to estimate genetic variability within and between populations. Little genetic variation was detected between the different plots, and populations had similar levels of within-population genetic variation. The highest diversity both genetic and phytochemically was found in plot D with berries without any wax layer. This plot was also more genetically different from the other populations than the berries in the same location/area/plot with a wax layer, though no significant differences was found in FST, Heterozygosity observed, Heterozygosity expected or allelic richness (P<0.05). The result from this thesis could be used further for improvement of breeding strategies and selection of cultivars with high phenolic contents for production of quality food.

African savannah elephants play a vital role in the Serengeti ecosystem with the opportunity to alter the entire ecosystem by its sheer number. Management of these animals are therefore of high importance, but little genetic research has been done thus far in the ecosystem. Their recent traumatic history of poaching serves as a template for intriguing evolutionary theories and further understanding of elephant behavior. In this study it was investigated on the genetic structure and spatial differentiation of the elephants in Serengeti using a mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) marker. A widespread sample size of 55 elephants were collected in three zones of the Serengeti National Park (West, North and Seronera) and analyzed for genetic diversity. The results gave the impression of a slightly outbreeding population with no ongoing subdivision (FST = -0.04864, p = 0.92082). A total of 7 haplotypes were obtained with one clearly being dominant (78.2 %). All collected haplotypes were compared to earlier studies using the same mitochondrial marker and having a wider perspective, with samples ranging across the sub-Saharan Africa. Results show that there is a possibility that the elephants now inhabiting the Serengeti are primary descendants of Northern populations coming from Kenya and Uganda, with additional individuals giving the impression that the Serengeti elephants are a mixture of individuals with historical connections from all over sub-Saharan Africa.

I denne masteroppgaven har det blitt utviklet primerpar for 17 humane PLA2-isotyper. Ved hjelp av primerene har vi påvist uttrykk av 17 PLA2-isotyper i HaCaT-keratinocytter, hvorav 11 av disse representerer førstegangspåvisninger i HaCaT. Funnene representerer økt kunnskap om PLA2-familien og viser at HaCaT uttrykker et mangfold av PLA2-isotyper. Primerene ble også benyttet til å kartlegge PLA2-uttrykk gjennom keratinocytters differensiering. Resultatene viser at 13 av 17 isotyper uttrykkes gjennom hele differensieringsprosessen, som indikerer at PLA2-enzymer spiller sentrale roller i lipidmetabolisme i human epidermis. PLA2G2A viste, som den eneste av de studerte isotypene, sterk oppregulering under differensieringen, som vitner om at enzymet kan spille en viktig rolle i de øvre strata i epidermis.Sammendrag Under utviklingen av primerparene ble human postnatal placenta tatt i bruk som antatt positiv kontroll for uttrykk av samtlige PLA2-isotyper. 8 av 17 primerpar detekterte mRNA i placenta, hvorav PLA2 gruppe 2D, 4C, 4D og 10 representerer førstegangspåvisninger i human placenta. Sammendrag Primerene utgjør et verktøy som gjør det mulig å kartlegge PLA2-uttrykk i alle humane celler og vev. Da diverse PLA2-isotyper har blitt vist å spille en sentral rolle i inflammasjonssykdommer ved å katalysere hydrolysen av arakidonsyre fra glyserofosfolipider, vil det være intressant å kartlegge PLA2-uttrykk i friskt vev versus betent vev. Primerene vil legge grunnlaget for økt forståelse av de mange PLA2-enzymenes funksjoner i inflammasjonssammenheng, og potensielt legge grunnlag for utvikling av målrettede medisiner mot kronisk inflammatoriske sykdommer.

IDL6 and IDL7 are postulated peptides of the INFLORESCENCE DEFICIENT IN ABSCISSION (IDA) peptide family in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. The genes encoding the postulated peptides, IDL6 and IDL7, were investigated to potentially elucidate the function of the peptides and the possible relations to plant defense and stress tolerance in A. thaliana. A phenotypic characterization study of single and double knockout mutant lines, and over-expression lines of IDL6 and IDL7 was conducted to potentially find a phenotype linked to the genes by analyzing deviations in growth and development, compared to wild type (Wt) A. thaliana. Over-expression lines showed a tendency to have a higher amount of individuals reaching defined growth stages in seedling development, but this could not be concluded to be a phenotype linked to IDL6 or IDL7.The genes have been shown to be highly up-regulated in response to several different stress treatments, both abiotic and biotic in silico data. Several different transgenic lines of A. thaliana were subjected to different types of stress treatments to potentially verify the in silico data. Knockout lines, double knockout lines, over-expression lines and promoter:GUS lines of IDL6 and IDL7 were treated with abiotic stress factors (NaCl, mannitol, UV-B light, H2O2 and paraquat) and biotic stress factors (aphids, Pseudomonas syringae and flagellin22) to investigate differences in tolerance, gene expression and promoter activity in the respective transgenic lines and Wt A. thaliana.No absolute phenotype was detected in experiments related to stress tolerance, and great variations in promoter activity using promoter:GUS lines were observed. However, double knockout mutants of idl6 and idl7 showed a small trend to tolerate NaCl better than Wt A. thaliana and other transgenic lines. The great variation in GUS expression from GUS assay lead to a thorough screening and expression analyses of promoter:GUS lines. Results presented in this work, indicate that expression of the IDL6 and IDL7 genes may be subjected to extensive post transcriptional regulation through mRNA degradation, possibly governed by stress related environmental signals. A novel member of the IDA peptide family, IDL8, was also analyzed. Segregation analyses of knock out lines were conducted and they were genotyped to verify that mutant lines of idl8 were real knockouts. Results presented here show that one of the idl8 mutant lines had the T-DNA inserted to the promoter region of the gene and is postulated to be a real knockout. However, further expression analyses should be conducted to verify that the gene is not transcribed. Over-expression lines of IDL8 were successfully constructed through recombinant DNA technology and by T-DNA insertion using Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

This thesis describes the cytochrome p450 superfamily in the pennate diatom Seminavis robusta. This diatom has a benthic way of life and can adhere to surfaces, and is a new candidate model organism representing the pennate diatoms. The genome of S. robusta is currently being sequenced and is characterized. This revealed that the genome of S. robusta contains 68 genes encoding CYPs, an unusually high number compared to other related organisms. Several unique families and subfamilies were discovered, but also known families from both plants and animals. This reflects the diversity of factors that may have contributed to the evolution of these genes in diatoms, and possibly how a benthic lifestyle may drive this process.Both bioinformatical tools and transcriptional analysis have been used to characterize and explore this superfamily. An experimental study was performed by cultivating S. robusta at different conditions, including normal temperature and light, lower temperature and a day/night cycle. This confirmed some of the CYPs&#146; involvement in light-/dark-responses, as well as some responses that seemed coupled to temperature.As part of the study, a comparison was made between two software programs used for analyzing gene expression data. This concluded that replacing the software currently used with a new software program with more possibilities will be beneficial for ensuring a higher quality assurance when publishing RT-qPCR data, as well as one step closer publishing according to the MIQE-guidelines.

Inaug.-Diss.--Theologische Bildung--Hildesheim, 1980. / Bibliogr. p. 222-230.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal