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Andrea Tetamo

  • Biodiversity Journal, 10 (4): 451-456 - MONOGRAPH

    Eugenia Oliveri, Davide Vancheri, Andrea Tetamo, Alessia Galanti, Pierluigi Ferina, Mariella Piazza & Stefano Reale
    Creation of a pollen database for Mediterranean flowering plants
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2019.10.4.451.456

    ABSTRACT
    Palynology is the science that studies pollen grains (size, morphology, structure, function, ornamentation, physical and chemical properties), the carriers that transport the male gametes to the pistil (more precisely to the stigma) allowing the fertilization of the eggs. In seed plants pollens represent an extra generation (haploid generation), the widely reduced male gametophyte. During the pollen release phase, the pollen grains separate completely from the plant (diploid generation, or sporophyte) in an attempt to reach the female flower to allow the release of genetic material and, therefore, the fertilization of the egg. Pollens possess many varieties of shapes, sizes, designs, ornamentations, openings with variable shapes and numbers that can be observed by optical microscopy and that have a high systematic value. Each botanical species has pollens with unique characteristics that allow their identification. Palynology is widely used as an extremely important tool in various types of studies and investigations, such as paleobotany, forensic investigations, melissopalynology, studies on the biodiversity of precise geographical areas, identification of cases of introduction of non-native species and identification of hybridization between species. For these reasons the creation of a pollen database could be a particularly efficient and useful tool.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 10 (4): 329-336

    Davide Vancheri, Andrea Tetamo, Stefano Reale, Eugenia Oliveri & Gabriele Ciaccio
    Melissopalinological study of Sicilian honey by morphological and molecoular approach
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2019.10.4.329.336

    ABSTRACT
    With the Legislative Decree n.179 of 21 May 2004 on the unifloral honey’s characteristics and with the CEE regulation 2081/92 of DOP denomination (from protect origin), scientific investigations in the agri-food sector started to occupy a prominent position with increasing importance. This area of investigation has been considerably deepened, becoming fundamental in order to consider this term valid, as it is also fundamental for investigation on production chain and denomination, made on various types of products. The morpho-genetic characterization analysis of pollen from honeys, made in the present work, lands itself well to this purpose; with the aim of ascertaining the validity of the wording of “unifloral” applied to some products from the beekeeping industry. Since the implications to which the investigations in the agri-food sector lead to cover not only the purely scientific-agronomic, but also the legal field, it follows the importance of an increasingly scientifically accurate methodology that also allows a faster processing of the sample. The protocol commonly used for pollen characterization of honeys is based on the visual recognition of the pollen present in the sample, their count and statistical analysis of the data obtained. Our method, using Real Time PCR technology, allows a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the pollen species inherent in the sample, thus allowing a fast and accurate analysis of the data that lends itself well to assist the classical research based on visual recognition of pollen.