Variation in isoabienol content in Pinus sylvestris needles

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Abstract
The diterpene alcohol isoabienol occurs in some individual pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) trees, in which it constitutes 0.6–1.0% of the needle dry weight, and is totally lacking in others. Isoabienol can be found only in the needles, mainly in fully outgrown needles, not in shoot axis tissue, wood, or cortex oleoresin. If sampling is limited to mature needles, within-tree, within-clone, and seasonal variations are insignificant, making isoabienol a suitable marker substance for studies of chemotaxonomy and population genetics. Isoabienol occurs more frequently in northerly provenances than in southerly. No correlation could be shown between isoabienol occurrence and the monoterpene or resin acid composition of the needles. There was no family-level correlation between isoabienol occurrence and resistance towards the pathogenic fungus Gremmeniella abietina.