"Ins Kuhländchen, in den Nordosten der heutigen Tschechischen Republik, führt Silvia Eckert-Wagner (Jg.1955) die Erforschung ihrer Familiengeschichte. In der kleinen Ortschaft Heinzendorf wurde im Jahre 1822 ihr Vorfahre, der Vererbungsforscher Johann Gregor Mendel, geboren. Dort lebte die Familie seit Hunderten von Jahren, bis sie 1946 vertrieben wurde. Die Reise in die Vergangenheit und die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Deutschen und Tschechen werden für die Autorin zur politischen Standotbestimmung."

The increasing introduction of non-native plant species may pose a threat to local biodiversity. However, the basis of successful plant invasion is not conclusively understood, especially since these plant species can adapt to the new range within a short period of time despite impoverished genetic diversity of the starting populations. In this context, DNA methylation is considered promising to explain successful adaptation mechanisms in the new habitat. DNA methylation is a heritable variation in gene expression without changing the underlying genetic information. Thus, DNA methylation is considered a so-called epigenetic mechanism, but has been studied in mainly clonally reproducing plant species or genetic model plants. An understanding of this epigenetic mechanism in the context of non-native, predominantly sexually reproducing plant species might help to expand knowledge in biodiversity research on the interaction between plants and their habitats and, based on this, may enable more precise measures in conservation biology. For ...