Objectives: This study investigated the correlation between Tannerella forsythia, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans at dual sites in concurrent endodontic-periodontal diseases. Material and methods: Samples were collected from endodontium and periodontium in cases of concurrent endodontic-periodontal diseases from thirty participants. The sensitivity and specificity of SYBR Green real-time PCR was used to identify the targeted species. Absolute number of targeted genome copies in tested samples were extrapolated from respective calibration curve. Results: No statistical difference was found in the number of detected endodonticperiodontal pathogens between the endodontium and periodontium. The Pearson test detected significant correlation (P<0.001) between targeted bacteria; T. forsythia, F. nucleatum, and P. gingivalis from endodontic-periodontal lesions. Synergistic component observed separately in endodontic biofilm was found only between T. forsythia and F. nucleatum (r=0.380, P=0.03) while in periodontal biofilm T. forsythia, F. nucleatum and P. gingivalis gave high synergism result (P<0.0001). Correlation analysis showed that T. forsythia in primary endodontic infection and in periodontal lesion was significantly decreased with the increase of patients age (r=-0.308, P=0.017). Conclusions: Correlation between targeted bacterial species levels from concurrent endodontic-periodontal diseases confirmed that coronal and cervical dentinal tubules may represent a viable pathway that allows spreading and maintaining of dual sites infection. Periodontal bacteria detected in root canal of concurrent endodonticperiodontal infections may originate from the local periodontal lesions.

Being a crossroad of many ancient and recent historical migrations, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) represents unique spot of multicultural and social diversity. The main aim of this study was to assess genetic structure of three local populations of mountain area from central part of B&H using mtDNA HVS-1 as an informative marker for population genetics studies. A 444 bp HVS-1 segment of control region of mtDNA extracted from buccal swabs was PCR amplified and sequenced. Haplotype and nucleotide diversity, average number of nucleotide differences, AMOVA and pairwise FST based on mtDNA haplotype and haplogroup frequencies were calculated. NJ tree was constructed based on pairwise FST results. Tajima’s D was calculated to evaluate population demographic status.

There are two major theories for inheritance of Rh blood group system: Fisher - Race theory and Wiener theory. Aim of this study was identifying frequency of RHDCE alleles in Bosnian - Herzegovinian population and introduction of this method in screening for Rh phenotype in B&H since this type of analysis was not used for blood typing in B&H before. Rh blood group was typed by Polymerase Chain Reaction, using the protocols and primers previously established by other authors, then carrying out electrophoresis in 2-3% agarose gel. Percentage of Rh positive individuals in our sample is 84.48%, while the percentage of Rh negative individuals is 15.52%. Inter-rater agreement statistic showed perfect agreement (K=1) between the results of Rh blood system detection based on serological and molecular-genetics methods. In conclusion, molecular - genetic methods are suitable for prenatal genotyping and specific cases while standard serological method is suitable for high-throughput of samples.

There is a need for classifying and conserving local apple cultivars from two main regions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH P < 0.001). Analysis of the genetic structure indicates that overall, approximately half of the local apple cultivars from Sarajevo and eastern Bosnia (52% and 45%, respectively) grouped in the RPP1 consisting mainly out of international reference cultivars, whereas the other half grouped in the RPP2 with traditional B&H reference cultivars. Both neighbor joining (NJ) cluster analysis based on Bruvo genetic distance and factorial correspondence analysis (FCA) confirmed the results of the genetic structure analysis. The molecular data show that both apple accessions from Sarajevo and from eastern Bosnia represent an interesting source of diversity, which needs to be conserved.

In order to identify possible mislabeling of the apple accession maintained ex situ in Srebrenik and to gain insight into the genetic structure of the conserved germplasm, 14 accessions from the collection were genotyped using 10 SSR (Simple Sequence Repeats) markers. Obtained SSR profiles were then added to an existing database constructed for previously characterized 24 traditional and 13 international, reference apple cultivars maintained at the same collection. Bayesian analysis implemented in the STRUCTURE program grouped 42 out of 51 analyzed apple accessions (38 traditional and 13 international) into three RPPs (reconstructed panmictic populations) with probability of membership qI higher than 75%. Almost all international, reference cultivars grouped in RPP3, whereas traditional B&H cultivars from the Srebrenik collection grouped in all three RPPs. Large and significant differentiations between all three individual RPPs were detected through the analyses of molecular variance and confirmed with FCA (factorial correspondence analyses). NJ cluster analysis, based on the Bruvo genetic distance, revealed that out of 38 traditional B&H apple cultivars, analyzed in the study, ‘Ljepocvjetka’, ‘Bobovec’ and ‘Bobovec J’ grouped closest to the international reference cultivars. Available date indicates that unlike a large number of B&H apple cultivars which were introduced during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, ‘Ljepocvjetka’ and ‘Bobovec’ were probably introduced at a later date. Cluster analyses also enabled the detection of one synonym and three homonyms within the collection. In four cases, previously conducted identification based on phenotypic analyses was confirmed by genetic analyses. Results of the structure analyses indicate a heterogeneous genetic structure of the analyzed accessions. This characteristic of the B&H apple germplasm could be useful for future breeding programs.

Large scale genetic association meta-analyses showed that neurocan (NCAN) gene polymorphism rs1064395 is susceptibility locus for bipolar disorder. These studies also included patients with bipolar disorder originated from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Followed by theory of shared genetic elements between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia susceptibility, other studies explored several genetic factors with schizophrenia vulnerability as well. In this work, authors investigated the association between previously confirmed bipolar disorder genetic risk factor- neurocan with schizophrenia in a population sample of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ethical aspects of this research were assessed by Ethics Committee of Clinical Center University of Sarajevo. Blood samples for DNA extraction were taken from the total of 86 patients and healthy individuals who previously signed informed consent. Genotyping for rs 1064395 was done using direct sequencing method. A case-control analysis of common genetic polymorphism within neurocan gene and schizophrenia status in a consecutively sampled patient cohort have been done using Fisher-exact test with odds-ratio calculation. No statistically significant allele and genotype association with disease status was found (p>0.05). Our finding supports the fact that large-scale genetic association studies approach need to be employed when detecting the variants with small additive effect in phenotypes with complex ethiology.