Olive is considered one of the oldest and the most important cultivated fruit trees in Albania. In the present study, the genetic diversity and structure of Albanian olive germplasm is represented by a set of 194 olive genotypes collected in-situ in their natural ecosystems and in the ex-situ collection. The study was conducted using 26 microsatellite markers (14 genomic SSR and 12 Expressed Sequence Tag microsatellites). The identity analysis revealed 183 unique genotypes. Genetic distance-based and model-based Bayesian analyses were used to investigate the genetic diversity, relatedness, and the partitioning of the genetic variability among the Albanian olive germplasm. The genetic distance-based analysis grouped olives into 12 clusters, with an average similarity of 50.9%. Albanian native olives clustered in one main group separated from introduced foreign cultivars, which was also supported by Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) and model-based methods. A core collection of 57 genotypes representing all allelic richness found in Albanian germplasm was developed for the first time. Herein, we report the first extended genetic characterization and structure of olive germplasm in Albania. The findings suggest that Albanian olive germplasm is a unique gene pool and provides an interesting genetic basis for breeding programs.

The main challenge associated with genotyping based on conventional length polymorphisms is the cross-laboratory standardization of allele sizes. This step requires the inclusion of standards and manual sizing to avoid false results. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) approaches limit the information to the length polymorphism and do not allow the determination of a complete marker sequence. As an alternative, high-throughput sequencing (HTS) offers complete information regarding marker sequences and their flanking regions. In this work, we investigated the suitability of a semi-quantitative sequencing approach for microsatellite genotyping using Illumina paired-end technology. Twelve microsatellite loci that are well established for grapevine CE typing were analysed on 96 grapevine samples from six different countries. We redesigned primers to the length of the amplicon for short sequencing (~100 bp). The primer pair was flanked with a 10 bp overhang for the introduction of barcodes on both sides of the amplicon to enable high multiplexing. The highest data peaks were determined as simple sequence repeat (SSR) alleles and compared with the CE dataset based on 12 reference samples. The comparison showed that HTS SSR genotyping can successfully replace the CE system in further experiments. We believe that, with next-generation sequencing, genotyping can be improved in terms of its speed, accuracy, and price.

The genetic diversity and variation in crude protein content among eleven wheat genotypes, comprising three elite local genotypes and eight wheat genotypes of foreign origin were investigated in the present study. Variability was evidenced in grain protein content estimated by biuret test, it ranged from 9.5 to 13.9% with mean of 11.58%. Comparative analysis between local and introduced wheat genotypes revealed that the local genotypes had lower protein content than those of foreign origin. Fourteen polymorphic RAPD markers were used to assess genetic diversity among selected wheat varieties. The mean similarity among wheat genotypes was 67%. Genetic similarity among local wheat varieties was higher (83%) than among those of foreign origin (66%). The wheat genotypes were grouped into two main clusters on UPGMA dendrogram constructed based on Dice similarity coefficients. A clear clustering of genotypes according to the origin wasobserved. This clustering was also supported by principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) results. There was no observed clustering based on the protein content. The data revealed that local wheat genetic had narrow genetic diversity, however the wheat genotypes of foreign origin constitute a promising material to be employed in breeding programs aiming the increase of wheat protein content and genetic diversity.

Nowadays, urinary tract infections constitute a major clinical challenge due to rising antimicrobial resistance and the limited efficacy of conventional therapies. This preliminary study evaluated the antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of an alcoholic extract of a wild Albanian Origanum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare against uropathogens. The alcoholic dry extract demonstrated a promising composition, with a relatively high total phenolic content (TPC) of 344.47 mg GAE/g DW, accompanied by considerable antioxidant activity as determined by the FRAP, ABTS, and DPPH assays, and an HPLC-ESI-MS analysis revealed rosmarinic acid as the predominant phenolic compound (42.43 mg/g of dry extract), which drives the bioactivity alongside co-extracted volatile monoterpenes. The remaining quantified phenolic compounds occurred at markedly lower concentrations. Broth microdilution assays revealed broad bactericidal and fungicidal activity against both Gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Proteus mirabilis, P. vulgaris, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Salmonella Typhimurium) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria, as well as Candida albicans, with MIC and MBC/MFC values stabilizing between 2.0 and 4.0 mg/mL. Furthermore, the extract effectively inhibited early-stage biofilm formation, yielding relatively low MBIC₅₀ targets (<0.00195 mg/mL) for highly sensitive strains (E. coli, S. marcescens, S. Typhimurium), while challenging pathogens (P. aeruginosa, E. cloacae) exhibited a non-linear, biphasic hormetic response. These findings validate this wild-type Albanian oregano population as a promising source of polyphenol-rich, multi-target bioactive complexes for advanced biomedical applications in the management of urinary tract infections (UTIs).