The desiccation-tolerant plants of the R. serbica and R. nathaliae are resurrection plants which are able to fully recover their physiological function after anabiosis. A comparison of chlorophyll fluorescence imaging and photosynthetic pigment contents responses of R. serbica and, for the first time, R. nathaliae to dehydration and rehydration were investigated. For this purpose, plants after collection from their natural habitats were kept fully watered for 14 days at natural condition. The experiment was conducted with mature leaves of both species. R. serbica and R. nathaliae plants were dehydrated to 5.88 % and 7.87 % relative water content (RWC) by withholding water for 15 days, afterwards the plants were rehydrated for 72 hours to 94.67 % and 97.02 % RWC. During desiccation, R. serbica plants preserved the chlorophyll content about 84 %, while R. nathaliae about 90 %. During dehydration when RWC were more than 40 %, photochemical efficiency of PSII for photochemistry, the Fv/Fm ratio, decreased about 40 % in R. nathaliae plants, but a strong reduction with 60 % was recorded for R. serbica. Following rehydration, the Fv/Fm ratio recovered more rapidly in R. nathaliae. The higher photosynthetic rates could also be detected via imaging the chlorophyll fluorescence decrease ratio Rfd, which possessed higher values after rehydration leaves of R.nathaliae as compared to R. serbica. The results showed that the photosynthetic activity and chlorophyll contents after rehydration are recovered more rapidly in R. nathaliae in comparison to R. serbica.

JG-B. In the Bulgarian in vitro collection, a dry sterilization of seeds was applied for a first time for Gesneriaceae family. The micropropagation and conservation of Ramonda seeds and plantlets were similar in Albanian and Bulgarian collections. The plantlets in vitro as an explant material were developed in JG-B medium with different phytohormones. The direct organogenesis of two Ramonda species is very similar models. The method of conservation in vitro with minimal growth method (modification of nutrient medium) was used. Meiosis and mitosis examinations of the natural populations and plantlets cultivated in vitro were carried out by standard Squash method. Cytogenetical study of natural populations showed polyploid forms as a mixture (2n=72) and (2n=96). Mitosis preparations in plantlets in vitro showed a predominance of the most frequent form (2n=96). The biodiversity in interspecific level of the natural populations of Ramonda serbica of Central Albania, R. nathaliae from Macedonia and cultivated plantlets in vitro from Albania and Bulgaria was evaluated via molecular markers (RAPDs

Ramonda serbica and Ramonda nathaliae are rare and endemo relict plant species from Balkan Peninsula. An efficient micro propagation and in vitro conservation method via direct and indirect organogenesis from seed and leaf explants, respectively, was established in this study. The seed of both Ramonda species were collected from different populations in Kosovo, and were germinated in nutrient media JG-B without any phytohormone. The highest number of shoots and multiplication rate was observed on JG-B medium supplemented with BAP and IAA (0.5 mg l −1 each), whereas the highest number of leaves per plantlets was found on WPM and RA medium supplemented with BAP and IAA (0.1 mg l −1 each). During this stage of micro propagation some significant differences were observed in plantlets from different populations. The indirect organogenesis from parts of leaves of natural plants was not successful due to unavailability of established protocol for disinfections of the plant material. On other hand, parts of leaves from micro propagated plantlets, cultured on MS medium supplemented with different ratio of BAP and NAA, resulted in the highest efficiency for shoot regeneration. In vitro conservation of micro propagated plants at the lower temperature (4°C) had a significantly positive effect for storage of more than 12 months.

Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV) has been identified in many grape growing countries of the world since 2012. The aim of this work was to investigate the presence of GPGV on some accessions collected from a germplasm collection, in addition to the propagation material and clonal selection samples. During 2019–2020, a total of 199 samples have been analysed by a double antibody sandwich – enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) for the presence of GPGV, Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV), Grapevine leafroll-associated virus-1+3 (GLRaV-1+3) and Grapevine fleck virus (GFkV). Among them, 107 samples (53.76%) showed a GPGV-infection, associated with or without symptoms on the leaves (deformations, chlorosis, mosaic, wrinkles) or stunting plants. The distribution of infected varieties showed a high rate of infection in old varieties (37.38%), followed by clones (32.71%), rootstocks (11.21%), clonal selections (9.35%) and new varieties (9.35%). The tests revealed the association of GPGV with GFkV (5 cases) and GLRaV-1+3 (2 cases). GPGV should be included in the rules of grapevine certification schemes for the production of virus-free mother plants.

<p style="text-align: justify;">A recently restored ampelographic collection of Albanian grapevine accessions has been submitted to genetic profiling with eleven nuclear microsatellite markers, widely used in other studies. Microsatellite profiling resulted in 28 single profiles for 29 accessions. Two cultivars, Shesh I bardhë and Pucalla, were found to be synonyms. Genetic profiles of Albanian cultivars were compared at 8 microsatellite loci to 29 most commonly cultivated Greek cultivars. Albanian cultivars were found to be more closely related to Greek cultivars from Peloponnese. One Greek cultivar named Dempina was found to be genetically close to two Albanian cultivars Debina teki and Debina kala, which are homonyms Another cultivar, known as Toska or Sinambel displayed a tri-allelic profile at 5 loci over 10 analysed loci. Such a high number of tri-allelic loci found in one individual favours the hypothesis of triploidy but the chimerism hypothesis cannot be excluded without further work.</p>