IRANIAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY
Year:2010 | Volume:23 | Issue:4|Papers Count:20

Hospital infection is one of important agent morbidity and mortality in patient. According to report of WHO on of average 8.7% of patients in hospital acquired hospital infection. Bacillus cereus is one of agent of hospital infection and cause systemic‚topical and food poisoning. Surface can serve as reservoirs of potential pathogen and is important in chain of infection; staff hands are more source to transmission bacteria from surfaces. Hands of staff are the most sources to transfer bacteria in environment and in patients. The research was performed with laboratory method and performed in 1384/86 years, in Azzahra hospital in Isfahan, according to statistical formula randomly selected 274 (194 sample from surface and 80 sample from staff hand). Environmental samples collected, with swab in NB and staff hand, samples collected whit finger print method, identification bacteria, were performed with microbiological methods: staining, chemical test, use of differential and Bacillus cereus selective media. Survey antibiotic pattern performed with Kirby Bauer method,then data analyzing whit SPSS (ver 14) soft war. Survey result of 247 Bacteria, prevalence of B.cereus strains was %9.49. Prevalence of Bacillus cereus strains in environmental and staff hands were respectively %6.7 and %16.25. According to antibiogram test %81 of strains were resistant to penicillin, %47.6 to cefotaxime and %19 ampicillin. According to high prevalence of B.cereus strains in hospital and their resistance to b-lactame antibiotics, it is necessary for performed grant study in all of hospital in Iran and go on to ,controlic methods for reduce prevalence rate ,hospital infection  and antibiotics resistance.

Cold acclimation leads to biochemical, physiological and metabolic changes in plants which regulated in gene expression level by non-freezing temperature (0-4oC). These changes improve plant capacity to survive under freezing temperature. Carbohydrates accumulation is one of the most important changes which regulates by alternation in expression of sugar transporter genes. In this paper, gene expression profile of one sugar transporter gene (SuT1) was studied in freezing tolerant and susceptible variety under cold acclimation (2oC) by Quantitative real-time PCR. Results showed differential expression pattern of this gene. SuT1 gene showed 3 times up-regulation and 3 times down-regulation after 1 day cold acclimation in freezing tolerant and susceptible variety, respectively. Evaluation of promoter sequence of this gene confirms the existence of low temperature responsive elements (LTRE), sugar responsive elements (SURE), dehydration responsive elements (DRE) and many other regulatory elements. Therefore, SuT1 gene can be introduced as a COR candidate gene to induce freezing tolerance in wheat. It is probable, the up-regulation of SuT1 gene leads to accumulate carbohydrate and decrease following freezing damages in hard winter condition.

A population including 59 advanced backcross lines (BC2F5) which derived from the cross between IR64 as recurrent parent and Tarom molaei as donor parent, studied in order to map and determine the characters of QTLs for some quantitative traits in rice. The parental survey and genotyping were done by 235 and 114 SSR markers, respectively. Positive and/or negative transgressive segregationes were observed for all traits. From the QTLs mapped for all traits, at least one QTLs with additive effect mapped for all chromosomes, except of chromosomes 5, 9, and 12 with no QTL. Using multiple interval mapping, a total of 27 QTLs were detected, of which 3 were for plant height, 5 for number of tillers, 0 for flag leaf length (FLL), 10 for flag leaf width (FLW), and 9 for FLL/FLW. More than 44% of QTLs had negative additive effects. The maximum and minimum number of QTLs were mapped in chromosomes 1 with 9 QTLs, and chromosomes 3, 6, and 8 with one QTL, respectively. The digenic epistatic effect observed only for number of tiller with two additibe by additive interactions.

Production of material such as synthetic polymers resistant to biodegradation increases wastes and accumulates them in environment for a long time. Hence, the production of biodegradable polymers particularly from renewable and natural resources become necessary. Polyhydroxybutyrate(PHB) is a storage material and biodegradable polymer in a great variety of bacteria. Ralstonia eutropha has been studied extensively because of its ability to accumulate PHB. In this bacteria PHB is synthesized by acetyl coA in three steps by function of three enzymes, b-ketothiolase, NADPH-dependent acetylcoA reductase, PHA synthase which are encoded by phbA, phbB, phbC, respectively. These genes are located in an operon. In this project, A strain of Escherichia coli was engineered to express poly(3 hydroxybutyrate) and gene E (E.lysis) coordinately. A gene encoding E.lysis was placed under the control of the IPTG-inducible T7 promoter in pET28a while the polyhydroxyalkanoate synthesis operon (phaCAB) from R. eutropha was expressed constitutively under the control of its native promoter. After the production of PHB in late logarithmic phase, IPTG was added and gene E expressed. The aim of this project is the construction of autolysing E. coli cells which produce bioplastic.

The aim of this study was to determine plant ecological species groups related to environmental factors and to specify sites as ecological groups. The study area is located in the Ghelarang's protected area of Ilam in western Iran. In order to conduct this research, sampling plot size was determined 400 m2 (20×20 m) for inventorying woody species (tree, shrub and bush) and Whittaker’s nested plot sampling was used to survey herbaceous species and minimal plot area was obtained 64 m2. In total, 50 sampling plots were taken using random-systematic method. The coverage percent of woody species were measured in regard to large and small canopy diameter in each plot. The herbaceous species were coded and their coverage percent was estimated. In addition, topographical factors and some physical and chemical properties of soil were taken in each plot. For data analyzing, multivariate methods (i.e., PCA and CCA) were used. Results indicated that 4 trees, 3 shrubs, 1 bush and 78 herbaceous species belonging to 73 genera and 32 families grow in the studied area.  Five ecological species groups (i.e., five sites) were recognized according to multivariate analysis. The environmental factors of elevation, organic matter, N, P, K, bulk density, SP, C/N, pH, and clay percent were the most important factors in separating ecological species groups.

Germplasm banks are basic sources for selecting and breeding programs. Iran is known as one of the origins of olive in the world with many different olive cultivars and considerable number of old olive orchards. Evaluation and classification of existing olive genotypes in Iran seems to be very important. Thirty-five years ago, 25 olive genotypes (originated from different parts of the world) had been transferred to an olive orchard near Gorgan city. In 1377 their duplicated plants obtained from these genotypes were transferred to collection of Olive Research Station in Tarom-Zanjan. Each selected genotypes propagated with nine replications and nominated as “Tn”. In this study we used morphological characteristics to identify these unknown genotypes. Samples were collected from 15 genotypes with three replications. Morphological data used for cluster analysis. By using of variance analysis, all the studied quantitative characters (except one) revealed significant differences between genotypes and clearly separated from each other. Comprising results with typical known Iranian olive cultivars, showed a remarkable distance between them.

Anatomy and morphology of leaf, stem and root of Plantago lanceolata and P. major were examined in two different altitudes by using electron and light microscopy. A comparative study of the anatomy indicated a difference between the leaf, stem and root structure includes trichomes and stomata density, cuticle and epidermal thickness, type of mesophyll, stem diameter, periderm and parenchyma thickness, vessel length and aeranchyma spaces in root. The study of altitude effect on these two species indicate that altitude cause increase in trichomes and stomata density, cuticle and epidermal cells thickness, lamina thickness in leaf, also periderm thickness, parenchyma layer thickness and vessel length and root diameter increase with increase of altitude where as aeranchyma spaces in root decrease with increase of altitude.

In aquaculture one of the most important problems is to provide of appropriate food for the larvae. The main aim of this work was to access the suitable time for hatching cysts of Artemia urmiana and its effect on chemical composition of newly hatched nauplii. This study was performed in four hatching time:18,20,22,24 hour (three replicates run for each time) .The results showed the highest percent of hatching was at 24 h that was significantly different companied to other times (P<0.05). The effect of hatching time on chemical composition of Artemia urmiana showed that there was not significant difference between different hatching time (P>0.05).

This study is carried out during May-September, 2003. Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybridus) observed in two breeder groups in Marzoonabad Ab-bandan. Reproductive  phenology of whiskered Tern (C. hybridus) is started with nest building behavior in the first breeder group and was continued to chicks fledged time in beginnings July (1155 pairs), whereas, this behavior in the second breeder group has been started at the end of May and was continued to beginning of August (235 pairs). Clutch size was 1-4 and 1-5 eggs in the first and second breeder group, respectively. Brood size has been included 1-3 and 1-2 chicks, respectively. Breeding success in the first and second breeder group was %82.96 and %75.87. Breeding success has not any significant difference between clutch size and brood size (p> 0.05). There is significant difference (p< 0.05) between the rates of losses among the reproductive phenology stages and the maximum losses were occurred during the incubation time. Breeding success have not any significant difference in both groups (p=0.206).

In the present study, plasma osmotic variations including Na+, K+, Ca++ ions, osmolarity and total protein were analyzed  during developmental stages of oocyte in kutum (Rutilus frisii kutum). Also, changes of oocyte diameter was investigated during these stages. Sampling of kutum was performed monthly from catches along southern Caspian Sea (Anzali coast) and rivers ending to the sea (because of anadromic migration of the fish) during reproductive period during October 2007 to May 2008. Blood samples were immediately collected from caudal vessel. The Flame photometer, Multi analyzer, and Osmometer sets were used to measure Na+, K+ ions, Ca++ and osmolarity respectively. Total protein was measured by Bradford method. Based on histological observations, the oocyte development divided into six stages: 1) primary oocyte growth, 2) perinucleolar, 3) cortical alveolus, 4) vitellogenesis, 5) maturation, 6) spent. The results indicated that the most decreasing changes of Na+, K+ and osmolarity occurred concurrent with hydration process in maturation stage. The minimum value of Na+ (120±10.12 mEq/l), K+ (0.45±0.08 mEq/l) and osmolarity (238.9±27.72 milliosmol/l) corresponding with maturation stage were measured in which showed significant difference comparing with earlier stages of oocyte development. The changes of total protein and calcium showed high positive correlation (R=0.88) in which there was an ascending trend although without a significant difference (P>0.05) from cortical alveolus until primary maturation stage. In final maturation (15 April sampling) and spent stages the changes of total protein and calcium were significantly dominated by a descending trend (P<0.05). In general, due to presence of demersal eggs (benthophil) in Kutum, hydration process occurred at lower than marine teleost possessing pelagic eggs (pelagophil) in maturation stage. The vitellogenesis function was responsible for main increment of oocyte diameter during ovarian growth. In addition, analysis of data showed K+ and Na+ played a major and minor role respectively during hydration.

Recognition of animal taxa such as rodents is one of the essential terms for each fundamental and applied study. So in this study, rodents’ diversity of Shiraz (central part) and especially Bamoo National Park was studied. Sampling was performed during one year by use of live and snap traps from different places which have variable soil kinds, plant covering and other geomorphological characters. Results reveal that seven species exist in this area: Mus musculus, Tatera indica, Meriones persicus, Meriones libycus, Rattus rattus, Microtus irani, Hystrix indica. These samples were recognized based on morphological and karyological studies and their dental and skull characters. Microtus irani and Meriones persicus and also Tatera indica and Meriones libycus were sympatric. Based on this study Microtus irani as a species which so far is recognized only from its type locality (Shiraz) was studied and its existence based on statistical studies is confirmed. In addition to house mouse that has a cosmopolitan distribution, Meriones persicus has a wide distribution in Bamoo National Park. This may because of its suitable adaptation with ecological situation. Ectoparasites of rodents were collected from rodents’ body and were recognized which are as follows: Cetenocephaledes canis(on Meriones libycus and Tatera indica and Microtus irani), Ornithnyssus bacoti (on Meriones libycus and Tatera indica) and Poly pylax (on Tatera indica).

Growth and recruitment of exotic bivalve, Mytilaster lineatus, was studied in Amirabad, Khazarabad and Noor coasts of the Caspian Sea. This species formation Microecosystems on rocky and stony bases. Samples were collected monthly from May 2003 to May 2004 by quadrate sampling method (43cm2 ). shell length of 6248 individuals as well as dry weigth and ash-free dry weigth of 1888 individuals were measured in this study. A dominant cohort (CA) in all three sampling stations and cohorts B and A+B in Noor and Khazarabad were observed. The mean length of cohort A of Noor station was lower and population density was greater than the other two (p<0.05). Larval recruitment were observed in Noor (L=1.5mm) in August and Khazarabad (L=3mm) in September, but no recruitment in Amirabad was obsorved; this indicated the reproduction season during summer. Shell length of M. lineatus strongly correlated with ash free dry weight (R2=0.93, n=388) and dry weigth (R2=0.94, n=388). In addition, we calculated two equations for correlation of shell length with ash free dry weight (W= 0.0717L2.6591, Re=16.3) and shell length with dry weight (W=0.139L2.6924, Re=10) that could be applied in future studies to estimate weight of M. lineatus based on shell length.

Haematological parameters are valuable tools for the monitoring of fish health and growth that they are affected by many endogenous and exogenous factors such as metabolic rate, water temperature, water ionic factors and other environmental conditions. In this research which was carried out within 7 months in Dikjeh area of Gonbad in Golestan province, the relationship between organic parameters of blood serum in common carp (Cyprinus carpio) with water pH and ionic factors in 15 ponds (10 hectare) were investigated. The purpose of this study was to determine biochemical optimum condition of fish body and cultured environment. The range of water pH (8-9), Na+ (0.99-26.30 Mmol/l), K+ (0.60-14.20 Mmol/l), Ca2+ (0.68-24.62 mgr/dl) and Mg2+ (0.87-12 mgr/dl), also the rang of blood serum organic composition were measured (0.2-2.92 gr/dl) total protein, (50.93-391.43 mgr/dl) cholesterol and (14.07-265.91 mgr/dl) glucose. According to the results of pearson, water Mg2+ with blood serum cholesterol was significant and positive correlation (p<0.01) and water Na+ with blood serum total protein and cholesterol were significant and positive correlation (p<0.01) and (p<0.05) repectively. So, regulation and management of water ionic parameters, special Mg2+ and Na+, influence decrease of lipid aggregation and carcaser high quality in common carp.

Distribution and abundance of macrobenthic organisms in Gorgan Bay were seasonally investigated from winter 2004 till fall 2005. Samples were taken with a grab from 7 sampling stations. Sediment grain size and organic matter of sediments were measured and their relationship with the abundance and distribution of macrobenthic were analyzed. Seven group of macrobenthos were identified of which the most abundant order were Polychaeta(42%), Gastropoda(26%), Bivalvia(19%). The maximum abundance of macrobenthos was observed in summer (341 individual/m2), while the minimum was seen in winter (199 individual/m2). The maximum and minimum biomass was 42.36 g/m2 and 10.92 g/m2 in summer and winter, respectively. The average wet biomass of macrobenthos was 29.75 g/m2. Also the correlation test between abundance and biomass of macrobenthos with total organic matter and texture of sediments in sampling stations during the period of study were calculated. In the summer and winter macrobenthic abundance and biomass showed a negative relation with sand percentage and a positive relation with organic matter.

In the popular medicine, Mentha piperita leaves are used to treat flatulence, vomiting, indigestion and stomach cramps. It is also recognized for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral activities. To determine the antinociceptive effects of Mentha piperita leaves, we investigated the effects of plant ethanolic extract in adult male NMRI mice. Antinociceptive activity was done by using formalin, hot plate and writhing tests. The ethanolic extract was injected intraperitoneally. The control groups were administered saline as vehicles of ethanolic extract. The results showed that the ethanolic extract decreased the both first and second phases of pain in formalin test. In hot plate test, the extract raised pain threshold during 60 min. The ethanolic extract exhibited antinociceptive activity against writhing-induced by acetic acid. The present data indicates that the Mentha piperita leaves may have analgesic effects in mice and the plant should be considered in future therapeutic researches.