In conventional studies, cryptographic techniques are used to ensure the security of transaction between a seller and buyer in a fingerprinting system. However, the tracing protocol from a pirated copy has not been studied from the security point of view though the collusion resistance is considered by employing a collusion secure fingerprinting code. In this paper, we consider the secrecy of parameters for a fingerprinting code and burdens at a trusted center, and propose a secure tracing protocol jointly executed by a seller and a delegated server. Our main idea is to delegate authority to a server so that the center is required to operate only at the initialization phase in the system. When a pirated copy is found, a seller calculates a correlation score for each user's codeword in an encrypted domain, and identifies illegal users by sending the ciphertexts of scores as queries to the server. The information leakage from the server can be managed at the restriction of response from the server to check the maliciousness of the queries.

Cultivated and weedy clones of yellow nutsedge were analyzed using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers to assess the polymorphism within the species and determine if this approach was suitable for identification of cultivar and wild populations. The RAPD markers unambiguously identified all studied clones. Nei-Li similarities were computed and used in an unweighted pair group method using arithmetic average (UPGMA) cluster analyses. Cultivated and weedy clones were clustered in two groups, but two cultivated clones were more closely related to weedy clones than to cultivated clones. The results showed a high level of genetic variability among the clones tested, particularly among the cultivated ones. Identification of yellow nutsedge cultivars and analysis of genetic diversity within and among weedy populations is possible by using only a small number of primers. In this study, seven selected primers discriminated among the 10 tested clones.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) has been cultivated in Latvia since the 17th century, and formal breeding programmes have been established since the start of the 20th century. The Latvian potato genetic resource collection consists of 83 accessions of Latvian origin, including landraces, old cultivars released starting from the 1930's, modern cultivars and breeding material. These are maintained in field and in vitro collections. Pedigree information about the potato cultivars is often limited, and the use of hybrids of local cultivars as parents is common in the Latvian potato breeding programme. Ninety-four Latvian potato varieties and breeding lines and some commonly used foreign accessions were genotyped with the potato DNA diversity array technology. Analysis of the Latvian potato genetic resources collection revealed that the amount of genetic diversity has increased in the modern cultivars in comparison with the old cultivars.

The model diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana is believed to be a single species with a global distribution, but it has not been confirmed previously whether isolates from different environmental and geographic origins are genotypically and phenotypically identical. In the present study, a polyphasic approach was employed to characterize nine clonal isolates, plus an additional replicate of one of the isolates, of the diatom T. pseudonana from culture collections to investigate whether there was any cryptic speciation in the publicly available strains of this species. Morphological analysis using scanning electron microscopy concluded that the strains were indistinguishable. Furthermore, conventional DNA barcoding genes (SSU rDNA, ITS1 and ITS2 rDNA and rbcL), revealed no nucleotide variation among the strains tested. On employing a whole genome fingerprinting technique, Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP), three clusters were revealed, although the level of variation between the clusters was surprisingly low. These findings indicate a low level of diversity among these cultured T. pseudonana strains, despite their wide spatial and temporal distribution and the salinity range of their original habitats. Based on the limited number of available strains, this suggests that T. pseudonana is a highly conserved diatom that nevertheless has an ability to tolerate wide ranges of salinity and populate varied geographic locations.

Powder diffraction from protein powders using in-house diffractometers is an effective tool for identification and monitoring of protein crystal forms and artifacts. As an alternative to conventional powder diffractometers a single crystal diffractometer equipped with an X-ray micro-source can be used to collect powder patterns from 1 µl samples. Using a small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) camera it is possible to collect data within minutes. A streamlined program has been developed for the calculation of powder patterns from pdb-coordinates, and includes correction for bulk-solvent. A number of such calculated powder patterns from insulin and lysozyme have been included in the powder diffraction database and successfully used for search-match identification. However, the fit could be much improved if peak asymmetry and multiple bulk-solvent corrections were included. When including a large number of protein data sets in the database some problems can be foreseen due to the large number of overlapping peaks in the low-angle region, and small differences in unit cell parameters between pdb-data and powder data. It is suggested that protein entries are supplied with more searchable keywords as protein name, protein type, molecular weight, source organism etc. in order to limit possible hits.

Common lilac is a popular landscape plant with nearly 2000 cultivars. In the present study, nine novel polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed for common lilac using genome screening with inter-simple sequence repeat primers. Each of the nine markers revealed two to five alleles. The markers were used for genotyping of 75 common lilac shrubs, including 17 accessions that represented named cultivars. A dendrogram, based on the allele profiles of the shrubs, was generally in agreement with the grouping made on the basis of morphological traits, as well as with the pedigree information available. The novel markers appear valuable for differentiation between common lilac cultivars.

Microsatellite markers (SSRs) were used to screen and analyse the genetic diversity among clonal genotypes of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) derived by somatic embryogenesis in Oman. Twenty-one palms, representing 14 Omani, five Bahraini, one Iraqi and one Moroccan genotype, were screened with ten microsatellite markers. All primer pairs produced an amplification product in the expected size range and detected high levels of polymorphism among the analysed samples. Correspondence analysis revealed that the genotypes from Bahrain and Iraq showed a close relationship with accessions already grown in Oman. The genotype from Morocco (Medjool) appeared distinct from the rest of the material. Three independent clonal lines derived from a single Khalas Aldahra genotype were found to give identical genetic fingerprints. The value of this work for date palm production and conservation in Oman is discussed.

Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata Poir.) is a dioecious vegetatively propagated tuber crop. It is widely cultivated by traditional techniques in West Africa, its area of origin. The genetic diversity of 146 accessions from Benin was analysed using 10 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) nuclear markers and agromorphological traits. An average of 8.4 alleles per locus was detected. The mean heterozygosity was 0.57 and the mean polymorphism information content (PIC) for polymorphic markers was 0.51. Some cultivars (23%) were found to have an identical genotype for the 10 markers. The structure of the genetic diversity observed in Benin is the result of farmers' crop management practices and their know-how. The cultivar diversity had a geographical component. We also noted major differentiation between early and late cultivars, with higher diversity in the early ones. Cultivars from northern Benin and early cultivars had the greatest allelic richness. SSR markers proved to be powerful tools for fingerprinting each cultivar and analysing their genetic relationships. The results of this study could be useful for defining a strategy for the conservation of genetic diversity in yams.

We successfully generated clear amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) profiles of Anemone coronaria using only a single restriction enzyme (EcoR I). Four primer combinations generated 571 bands in 37 anemone accessions with an average 142.75 bands per primer combination. Polymorphism among the 37 samples was very high (98.15%). This high polymorphism showed that the one-enzyme AFLP method is effective for the assessment of genetic diversity as well as cultivar differentiation of anemone. We observed 26 bands which differentiated between fingerprints derived from leaf and corm DNA of eight plant individuals. However, the low percentage of such bands showed that anemone corms can also be used to evaluate anemone germplasm using AFLP markers.

A morphological diversity study was conducted on African rice gall midge Orseolia oryzivora Harris & Gagné and two other African species, Orseolia bonzii Harris and Orseolia nwanzei Harris & Nwilene, sp. n. Morphological differences between adult and immature stages of the three species are slight and mainly evident in pupal characters. Due to limited differences in morphological characters, genomic DNA fingerprinting of these three insect species was carried out using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and sequence-characterized amplified region (SCAR) methods. Out of 90 operon primers, 15 showed polymorphism among the three species tested, generating 86 bands, 60 (70%) of which were polymorphic. Primer OPV6 produced three RAPD markers that distinguished the three Orseolia species. These markers were cloned and sequenced. Their sequence was then used to design six SCAR primer pairs. Each SCAR primer pair amplified and distinguished the three Orseolia species at genomic DNA level. Both SCAR and RAPD genomic DNA fingerprinting revealed that O. oryzivora and O. bonzii are most closely related and O. nwanzei is distinct. Each of the six SCAR primer pairs produced a specific DNA fragment size specific for O. nwanzei, O. oryzivora and O. bonzii. The DNA fingerprints will be useful for entomological survey, identification of new species and differentiating aggressive from non-aggressive species, aimed at the effective development of rice cultivars with durable resistance to African rice gall midge.

Cili (Rosa roxburghii Tratt), characterized by containing the highest vitamin C content among fruits and showing attractive senescence-retarding and cancer-preventing effects, has gained widespread interest. RAPD markers were applied to identify the seven genotypes of cili and to evaluate the genetic relationships within cili, as well as among its relatives. Sixteen arbitrary primers screened from 154 were adopted to analyse polymorphism in RAPD profiles for the 15 samples. A total of 137 RAPD bands ranging in size from 480 bp to 3.3 kb were obtained, among which 95 were polymorphic, covering 69.3% of the total bands obtained; and an average of 8.6 bands/primer was scored. The genotypes of cili and seedless cili could be identified efficiently by 14 genotype-specific bands, which were obtained from the polymorphic primers OPB-11, OPAF-16 and OPW-02. Additionally, using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean, a dendrogram showing genetic relationships among the 15 samples was constructed based on cluster analysis of genetic distance. The possible origin of seedless cili and multiple-corolla cili is also discussed.