The domestication of the Eurasian grape ( Vitis vinifera ssp. sativa ) from its wild ancestor ( Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris ) has long been claimed to have occurred in Transcaucasia where its greatest genetic diversity is found and where very early archaeological evidence, including grape pips and artefacts of a 'wine culture', have been excavated. Whether from Transcaucasia or the nearby Taurus or Zagros Mountains, it is hypothesized that this wine culture spread southwards and eventually westwards around the Mediterranean basin, together with the transplantation of cultivated grape cuttings. However, the existence of morphological differentiation between cultivars from eastern and western ends of the modern distribution of the Eurasian grape suggests the existence of different genetic contribution from local sylvestris populations or multilocal selection and domestication of sylvestris genotypes. To tackle this issue, we analysed chlorotype variation and distribution in 1201 samples of sylvestris and sativa genotypes from the whole area of the species' distribution and studied their genetic relationships. The results suggest the existence of at least two important origins for the cultivated germplasm, one in the Near East and another in the western Mediterranean region, the latter of which gave rise to many of the current Western European cultivars. Indeed, over 70% of the Iberian Peninsula cultivars display chlorotypes that are only compatible with their having derived from western sylvestris populations.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique widely used in fungal research. One of its advantages is the ability to amplify very small amounts of DNA, in the picograms range, even in

Curcumin, extracted from the rhizome of Curcuma longa, has been widely used in medicine for centuries due to its anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and anti-microbial effects. However, its bioavailability during treatments is poor because of its low solubility in water, slow dissolution rate and rapid intestinal metabolism. For these reasons, improving the therapeutic efficiency of curcumin using nanocarriers (e.g., biopolymer nanoparticles) has been a research focus, to foster delivery of the curcumin inside cells due to their small size and large surface area. Silk fibroin from the Bombyx mori silkworm is a biopolymer characterized by its biocompatibility, biodegradability, amphiphilic chemistry, and excellent mechanical properties in various material formats. These features make silk fibroin nanoparticles useful vehicles for delivering therapeutic drugs, such as curcumin. Curcumin-loaded silk fibroin nanoparticles were synthesized using two procedures (physical adsorption and coprecipitation) more scalable than methods previously described using ionic liquids. The results showed that nanoparticle formulations were 155 to 170 nm in diameter with a zeta potential of approximately −45 mV. The curcumin-loaded silk fibroin nanoparticles obtained by both processing methods were cytotoxic to carcinogenic cells, while not decreasing viability of healthy cells. In the case of tumor cells, curcumin-loaded silk fibroin nanoparticles presented higher efficacy in cytotoxicity against neuroblastoma cells than hepatocarcinoma cells. In conclusion, curcumin-loaded silk fibroin nanoparticles constitute a biodegradable and biocompatible delivery system with the potential to treat tumors by local, long-term sustained drug delivery.

The genetic structure of six Iberian populations of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci, two of them biotype Q, one biotype B, and the other three a mixture of both, has been studied using random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR). A total of 336 individuals was completely discriminated by means of 234 scored bands. Separate analyses of molecular variance of haploid males and diploid females using the pairwise number of differences between haplotypes showed that biotypes contribute significantly more to the observed variability than populations within biotypes. On average, gene flow between two biotypes of the same population is lower than between populations of identical biotypes. On the basis of these results and the nondetection under natural conditions of a single hybrid, we consider that both biotypes are genetically isolated under the ecological conditions prevailing in the south Iberian Peninsula. All populations of biotype Q presented similar values of intrapopulational diversity, which were higher than the values shown by populations of biotype B.

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