УНИВЕРЗИТЕТ У БАЊОЈ ЛУЦИ,
ИНСТИТУТ ЗА ГЕНЕТИЧКЕ РЕСУРСЕ

UNIVERSITY OF BANJA LUKA,
GENETIC RESOURCES INSTITUTE

Working Group – Fruit and Vitis

 Do not forget what happened yesterday, enjoy what we have today and leave something for those who come after us.

One of the main tasks of the Working Group for Fruit and Vitis is the collection, preservation and sustainable use of autochthonous species and varieties of fruit trees and vitis, as well as raising people’s  awareness about it. In this regard, the specific objectives of the Working Group are:

  • to identify, locate, make inventory and evaluate potential hazards and threats for all species, ecotypes, varieties and populations of fruit trees and vitis,
  • to create conditions for the development and implementation of various conservation strategies, as well as other actions necessary for the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources of fruit trees and vitis,
  • to improve and provide a better understanding of the significance and impact of the existing on-farm conservation of fruit trees and vitis,
  • to achieve a more balanced relationship between ex situ and in situ conservations,
  • to encourage the establishment of public or private collections and other institutions as the holder of a successful on-farm selection and breeding process,
  • to provide significant support to the process of preserving existing rare and valuable diversities in the existing ex situ collections of genetic resources,
  • to develop and strengthen cooperation between national programs and national institutions in order to support  ex situ collections,
  • to establish adequate infrastructure necessary for periodic regeneration of specific genotypes,
  • to collect the species, ecotypes, varieties, or other cultivars, which are under threat of being or have been at the end of use,
  • collection and preservation of traditional knowledge and skills.

Members and associates of the Working Group for Fruit and Vitis have visited the numerous municipalities of the Republic of Srpska and inventoried various varieties of apples, pears, plums, cherries, quince, medlar, mountain ash, walnut and others. The inventoried trees are several hundred years old, and some of them have been present through generations of one family. The following was prepared in detail for each new accession: a questionnaire on inventory, a minimum passport descriptor, collection form and photo documentation. The sampled fruits of species/varieties shall be  processed in the following manner:

 • transport of samples to the laboratory,
• taking samples and recording,
• measuring  of the fundamental pomological fruit characteristics (weight, height, width),
• photographing fruit,

• chromometric determination of basic and supplementary fruit skin colour,
• determination of fruit flesh hardness,
• determination of soluble solids in the fruits cell juice,
• scan of the fruit section,
• seeds extraction,

• homogenization of the fruit tissue - grinding, freezing and storage of samples until the time of performing chemical analyses of fruits,
• chemical - physical analysis of fruit (for now, the following analyses are made: pH of homogenized fruit pulp, the moisture content, the total content of organic acids, vitamin C, antioxidant activity of a sample, the contents of total phenols, total flavonoids).

The total number of collected plants in the multiplication was 1414 by the end of 2012. There are about 62 trees of apple and pear located in the clonal orchard of the Botanical Garden.

In cooperation with the municipality of Čajniče and local associations of farmers, the Genetic Resources Institute established a clonal collection of autochthonous varieties of fruits in the area of ​​Čajniče.

The database shall provide an overview of information on all collected accessions with their basic characteristics and specific features. Some of the inventoried varieties have very interesting folk names such as: Krompiruša, Glibanjka, Švabulja, Budalača, Zećuša, Lubeničarka, Zveka etc. 

Members of the Working Group:

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