Needle Terpenes as Chemotaxonomic Markers in Pinus: Subsections Pinus and Pinaster

Abstract

Chemical compositions of needle essential oils of 27 taxa from the section Pinus, including 20 and 7 taxa of the subsections Pinus and Pinaster, respectively, were compared in order to determine chemotaxonomic significance of terpenes at infrageneric level. According to analysis of variance, six out of 31 studied terpene characters were characterized by a high level of significance, indicating statistically significant difference between the examined subsections. Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis has shown separation of eight groups, where representatives of subsect. Pinaster were distributed within the first seven groups on the dendrogram together with P. nigra subsp. laricio and P. merkusii from the subsect. Pinus. On the other hand, the eighth group included the majority of the members of subsect. Pinus. Our findings, based on terpene characters, complement those obtained from morphological, biochemical, and molecular parameters studied over the past two decades. In addition, results presented in this article confirmed that terpenes are good markers at infrageneric level.

Different responses to environmental factors in terpene composition of Pinus heldreichii and P. peuce: Ecological and chemotaxonomic considerations

“…The evident differences in essential oil profiles between the two pine species, even when growing in the same locality (Ošljak and Zeletin) under the influence of the same environmental factors, can only be explained by strong genetic control. This is in agreement with previous investigations on the usability of oleoresin/essential oil as chemotaxonomic markers in conifers (18,(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45). However, within the investigated species, there is a species-specific composition response to the environment.…”

Terpenes as Useful Markers in Differentiation of Natural Populations of Relict Pines Pinus heldreichii, P. nigra, and P. peuce

“…Despite the described morphological similarities and the fact that Bosnian and black pines can spontaneously hybridize, our results, presented here, showed terpene differentiation of their populations growing naturally in the same area. Recently, Mitić et al . compared composition of essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation of needles of 27 taxa of section Pinus and confirmed positions of P .…”

“…However, in the present study terpene profiles obtained by pentane extraction were analyzed and compounds such as bicyclogermacrene, α ‐cadinol, and guaiol (that showed significant differences between subsects. Pinus and Pinaster ) were detected in concentration lower than 0.5% or not even detected …”

“…However, in the present study terpene profiles obtained by pentane extraction were analyzed and compounds such as bicyclogermacrene, a-cadinol, and guaiol (that showed significant differences between subsects. Pinus and Pinaster [29] ) were detected in concentration lower than 0.5% or not even detected. [13] [18 -20] Based on individual relationships of studied hard pines with a soft pine such as P. peuce, it may be assumed that the terpene profile of P. nigra (defined by high levels of one monoterpene and one sequiterpene) is more basal in comparison to P. heldreichii (characterized by the high amounts of eight compounds: two monoterpenes, five sesquiterpenes and even one diterpene).…”

Relationships among some pines from subgenera Pinus and Strobus revealed by nuclear EST-microsatellites

“…P. leucodermis) was settled in "series" Sylvestres, which was considered as a part of subsection Pinus, more basal than pines of subsection Pinaster (KAUNDUN and LEBRETON, 2010). On the other hand, new and comparative research of terpene composition of several pines of section Pinus put P. heldreichii in subsection Pinaster (MITIĆ et al, 2017).…”