Molecular genetic analysis of wood and bark tissue vaccinations of different-type birch

Seven microsatellite markers were used in molecular genetic analysis of curly birch and silver birch trunk tissue fragments produced through whip grafting or bark ring transplantation. The analysis showed that whichever grafting method was used, each component steadily retained their genotype upon tissue fusion. It is demonstrated that aberrant cells may be formed at the point of bark and trunk tissue fusion after donor bark ring transplantation, when all the ascending and descending transport pathways along the recipient’s trunk axis have been severed all around the trunk circumference. Even then, however, both curly birch and silver birch retain their phenotypic (figured and straight wood grain, respectively) as well as genotypic (which is expressed in preserving a combination of identified allelic variants) traits.