GENETIKA, Vol. 34, No.2-3 (2002)
Aleksandar ĆETKOVIĆ
TAXONOMIC AND BIOGEOGRAPHICALLY-ECOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE INSECT FAUNA [Abstract] [Full text]
Dragoslav MARINKOVIĆ
GENETIC BASES OF THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANISMS [Abstract] [Full text]
Ninoslav ĐELIĆ
MECHANISMS OF GENOTOXIC EFFECTS OF HORMONES [Abstract] [Full text]
Goran LJUBIJANKIĆ
GENETIC ENGINEERING: FROM A CLONE TO A PROTEIN [Abstract] [Full text]
Gordana TOMOVIĆ, Verica MITROVIĆ, and Branka STEVANOVIĆ
METHODS OF FIELD STUDIES IN BOTANY [Abstract] [Full text]
Nikola TUCIĆ
GENES, HUMANS AND SOCIETY [Abstract] [Full text]
Kosana KONSTANTINOV, Snežana MLADENOVIĆ DRINIĆ, and Goran DRINIĆ
BIOTECHNOLOGY: REALITY OR DREAM [Abstract] [Full text]
Published in „GENETIKA“ Vol. 34, No.2-3 (2002), pp. 41-52
© 2002 Serbian Genetics Society
S. Bajića 1, 11185 Belgrade-Zemun
Serbia
UDC 575
Review article
TAXONOMIC AND BIOGEOGRAPHICALLY-ECOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE INSECT FAUNA
Aleksandar ĆETKOVIĆ
Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade
Abstract
Ćetković A. (2001): Taxonomic and biogeographically-ecological studies on the insect fauna. – Genetika, Vol. 34, No. 2-3, 41-52.
The topic of taxonomic and biogeographically-ecological studies is presented in the case of social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Vespinae et Polistinae) of the Balkan Peninsula and the neighbouring regions, as an intentionally prepared summary of the author's Ph.D. thesis (Ćetković, 2002). The broader context of this category of studies under local conditions, as well as, topical and spatial frame of the studies, and the summary of the most important results of the analysis, are briefly presented in this paper
Key words: insects, taxonomy, biogeography, ecology
Corresponding author: Aleksandar ĆETKOVIĆ, Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade
Published in „GENETIKA“ Vol. 34, No.2-3 (2002), pp. 53-58
© 2002 Serbian Genetics Society
S. Bajića 1, 11185 Belgrade-Zemun
Serbia
UDC 575
Review article
GENETIC BASES OF THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANISMS
Dragoslav MARINKOVIĆ
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Abstract
Marinković D. (2001): Genetic bases of the evolution of organisms. – Genetika, Vol. 34, No. 2-3, 53-58.
Biological progress consists of the continuous increase of divergence with simultaneous maintenance and the increase of conformance (harmoniousness) of living systems. A mutual balance between divergence of forms and the degree of perfection of their structure and function indicates a level of the evolutionary development of a particular group of organisms, i.e. a level and prospects of their evolutionary progress. An enormous potential of combined genetic polymorphousness is reduced to adaptive landscapes of a limited number of developmental programmes that make actual units of inheritance and variability within each species.
Key words: evolution, genetic bases
Corresponding author: Dragoslav MARINKOVIĆ, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Published in „GENETIKA“ Vol. 34, No.2-3 (2002), pp. 59-71
© 2002 Serbian Genetics Society
S. Bajića 1, 11185 Belgrade-Zemun
Serbia
UDC 575
Review article
MECHANISMS OF GENOTOXIC EFFECTS OF HORMONES
Ninoslav ĐELIĆ
Department of Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Abstract
Đelić N. (2001): Mechanisms of genotoxic effects of hormones. – Genetika, Vol. 34, No. 2-3, 59-71.
A concept that compounds commonly present in biological systems lack genotoxic and mutagenic activities is generally in use, hence a low number of endogenous substances have ever been tested to mutagenicity. Epidemiological and experimental analyses indicated, however, that sexual steroids could contribute to initiation and/or continuation of malign diseases. Detailed studies using methods of biochemistry, molecular biology, cytogenetics and other branches, showed that not only epigenetic mechanisms, such as a stimulation of cell proliferation, but also certain hormones, that can express genotoxic effects, such as covalent DNA modification, then chromosomal lesions and chromosomal aberrations, are in the background of malign transformation under activities of hormones. In the case of oestrogens, it was shown that excessive hormonal stimulation led to a metabolic conversion of these hormones to reactive intermediates with formation of reactive oxygenic derivates, so that cells were virtually under conditions of oxidative stress. Individual and tissue susceptibility to occurrence of deterioration of DNA and other cell components generally results from the differences in efficiency of enzymic and non-enzymic mechanisms of resistance against oxidative stress. Besides, steroid, thyeroid hormones and catecholamine (dopamine, noradrenaline/norepinephrine and adrenaline) can express genotoxic effects in some test-systems. It is interesting that all above mentioned hormones have a phenolic group. Data on possible genotoxic effects of peptide and protein hormones are very scarce, but based on the available literature it is considered that this group of hormones probably lacks mutagenic activities. The possibility that hormones, as endogenous substances, express mutagenic activities results from the fact that DNA is, regardless of chemical and metabolic stability, susceptible, to a certain extent, to changeability compatible with the processes of the biological evolution.
Key words: hormones, toxic effects
Corresponding author: Ninoslav Đelić, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia;
e-mail: ndjelic@vet.bg.ac.yu
Published in „GENETIKA“ Vol. 34, No.2-3 (2002), pp. 73-84
© 2002 Serbian Genetics Society
S. Bajića 1, 11185 Belgrade-Zemun
Serbia
UDC 575
Review article
GENETIC ENGINEERING: FROM A CLONE TO A PROTEIN
Goran LJUBIJANKIĆ
Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Abstract
Ljubijankić G. (2001): Genetic engineering: from a clone to a protein. – Genetika, Vol. 34, No. 2-3, 73-84.
October 15, 1980, was a date when the highest increase of the share price of one company was recorded on the world most powerful New York change - rates of shares of the company Genetech jumped by more than 2.5 times in only 20 minutes. This event was a grand entrance of a new technology into the global economy and it irreversibly established a brand new status of biology within the development of civilization. Genetech is one of the first companies within the field of molecular biotechnology that accomplished such an enormous commercial success no more than seven years upon the last discoveries in the series of scientific findings that had provided formulation of a new technology designated as genetic engineering or a recombinant DNA technology. Today, 20 years later, it can be rightfully claimed that expectations of the new technology are fulfilled: even if the qualitative shift it provided to fundamental research is disregarded, its direct commercial effects are very convincing - the total value of sold products produced by this technology exceeded the sum of 60 billions dollars in 2000. Let us cite market parameters of only some products manufactured by the application of genetic engineering: annual global consumption of recombinant human insulin amounts to approximately 4.6 tons only in the industrialized part of the world, while the annual sale of recombinant human erythropoietin, interferon’s and a human growth hormone amount to 2, i.e. 1.5 billions dollars, respectively.
Key words: genetic engineering, clone, protein
Corresponding author:
Published in „GENETIKA“ Vol. 34, No.2-3 (2002), pp. 85-95
© 2002 Serbian Genetics Society
S. Bajića 1, 11185 Belgrade-Zemun
Serbia
UDC 575
Review article
METHODS OF FIELD STUDIES IN BOTANY
Gordana TOMOVIĆ, Verica MITROVIĆ, and Branka STEVANOVIĆ
Institute of Botany and Botanical Garden "Jevremovac", Faculty of Biology, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Abstract
Tomović G., V. Mitrović, and B. Stevanović (2001): Methods of field studies in botany. – Genetika, Vol. 34 No. 2-3, 85-95.
Different methods of collecting, preparation and preservation of plant collections are very important for botanical field studies. Processed and labeled plants are stored in herbaria in which they are conserved and then used for taxonomic, floristic and phytogeographical studies, and then as the evidence and display material. Besides, various analyses of plant communities and their habitats are used in botanical studies of the flora of our surroundings. Field and literature data, as well as, personal communications and oral presentations are very important sources of scientific information used in flora mapping of a certain region.
Key words: botany, field study
Corresponding author: Gordana Tomović, Institute of Botany and Botanical Garden "Jevremovac", Faculty of Biology, Takovska 43, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Published in „GENETIKA“ Vol. 34, No.2-3 (2002), pp. 97-100
© 2002 Serbian Genetics Society
S. Bajića 1, 11185 Belgrade-Zemun
Serbia
UDC 575
Review article
GENES, HUMANS AND SOCIETY
Nikola TUCIĆ
Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade
Tucić N. (2002): Genes, humans and society. – Genetika, Vol. 34, No. 2-3, 97-100.
Abstract
Corresponding author: Nikola TUCIĆ, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade
Published in „GENETIKA“ Vol. 34, No.2-3 (2002), pp. 101-113
© 2002 Serbian Genetics Society
S. Bajića 1, 11185 Belgrade-Zemun
Serbia
UDC 575
Review article
BIOTECHNOLOGY: REALITY OR DREAM
Kosana KONSTANTINOV, Snežana MLADENOVIĆ DRINIĆ, and Goran DRINIĆ
Maize Research Institute “Zemun Polje”, 11185 Belgrade-Zemun, Yugoslavia
Abstract
Konstantinov K., S. Mladenović Drinić, G. Drinić (2002): Biotechnology: reality or dream. – Genetika, Vol. 34, No. 2-3, 101-113.
The development of molecular biology and molecular genetics, especially of the recombinant DNA technology enabled improvement of experimental methods that provide manipulation within a cell-free system, such as cell and tissue cultures. Such methods resulted in the development of different new technologies with specific properties in relation to the conventional definitions. According to Persley and Lantin (2000) the following components are essential for the contemporary biotechnology: (i) genomics – a molecular characterization of all genes and gene products of an organism; (ii) bioinformatics – the assembly of data from genomic analysis into accessible forms; (iii) transformation – the introduction of genes controlling a trait of interest into a genome of a desired organism (micro organisms, plants, animal systems). By the application of cotemporary biotechnology new methods in the field of diagnostic are developed such as rapid and more accurate identification of the presence and absence of genes in the genome of the organism of interest (identification of pathogens, prenatal diagnostics, molecular markers assisted breeding for plants, etc.). The traits of an organism are determined by its genetic material, i.e. by a molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Watson and Crick (1953) were the first scientists to describe the structure of DNA as a double-stranded helix. Higher organisms contain a set of linear DNA molecules - chromosomes and a full set of chromosomes of an organism is a genome. Each genome is divided into a series of functional units, i.e. genes. The traits of an organism depend on genes, but their expression depends not only on genes, but also on many other factors, including whether a gene, controlling the trait, expresses, specific cells in which it expresses and specially the mode by which the gene and its product interact with the environment. A special aspect within the application of biotechnology occurs as an interaction of a foreign gene with a genome of an integrated organism. Also, application of biotechnology provides transfer of one or several favorable genes from any evolutionary category into other category of an organism and in such a way it is possible to develop genetically modified organisms (GMO) having expressed desired, target traits. A survey of the application of biotechnology in the world and our country is presented in this paper.
Key words: genomics, bioinformatics, genetic transformations
Corresponding author: Kosana Konstantinov, Maize Research Institute “Zemun Polje”, Slobodana Bajića 1, 11185 Belgrade-Zemun, Yugoslavia
tel: +381 11 3756704
e-mail: kkosana@mrizp.co.yu