JOURNAL OF GENETIC RESOURCES
Year:2017 | Volume:3 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

Infections with blood parasites are common phenomenon in reptiles from all over the world. Apicomplexan are the majority of blood parasites that frequently occur with high levels of parasitaemia in the snakes. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of blood parasites in some snakes Guilan province in the North of Iran. A total of 51 specimens of three snake species were captured including 18 specimens of Natrix natrix, 30 of Natrix tessellata and three from Zamenis longissimus. Blood sampling was carried out from the caudal vein by insulin syringe. The blood smears were stained with Giemsa solution and examined by light microscopy for heamoparasites. We found one species of Hepatozoon sp. as well as two intra-erythrocytic structures that we referred them to Rickettsia and Serpentoplasma in the snakes. The Serpentoplasmawith small amoeboid shape only detected in N. tessellate. But the Rickettsia which is bigger in size and formed roughly spherical inclusions detected in both Natrix species. This finding of haemoparasites represents for the first time in these snakes.

Low zinc (Zn) availability and its absorption limit wheat production and quality of yield in calcareous soils. In order to identify Zn deficient stress tolerance in wheat, fifteen spring genotypes (Diyarbakir-81; Gediz-75; Svevo; Zenit; Amanos-97; Fuatbey-2000; Balcali-2000; Ceylan-95; Firat-93; Aydin-93; Ozbek; Artuklu; Akcakale-2000; Aday-19; and Ege-88) were evaluated under two conditions (normal and Zn deficient stress) in 2014-2015 growing season. This research was carried out in a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications. Results of variance analysis showed that zinc-deficient stress had significant effects on plant height (PLH), spike length (SL), peduncle length (PedL), grains number per spike (GNPS), biomass yield (BY), and grain yield (GY). There were significant differences among genotypes for all studied traits, except spike length, BY, and GY. The interaction effects of genotypes and Zn deficient stress conditions were non-significant for all studied traits. The results showed that zinc-deficient stress caused 7. 3, 9. 5, 8. 0, 20. 8, 18. 6, and 22. 1% reduction in PLH, SL, PedL, GNPS, BY and GY, respectively. But had no significant effect on 1000-grain weight and harvest index. Results showed that ‘ Gediz-75’ genotype with 0. 62 g/plant and 14 grains had the highest GY and GNPS under two different conditions. But, ‘ Aday-19’ genotype with 0. 36 g/plant and 8. 3 grains had the lowest GY and GNPS under two different conditions. The ‘ Gediz-75’ genotype showed the highest STI (1. 186), GMP (0. 610), MP (0. 621), and HARM (0. 599) Zn stress indices. However, the ‘ Aday-19’ genotype showed the lowest STI (0. 399), GMP (0. 354), MP (0. 360), and HARM (0. 347) Zn stress indices. With consideration, the correlation between indices and grain yield under zincdeficient stress and non-stress, these indices (except the TOL, SSI, RDI, YSI, DI, ATI, and SSPI) were identified as the best stress indices for isolation and selection of tolerant genotypes.

Myo-inositol (MI) which is produced at low concentration is an essential substance for animal’ s natural growth. This study was performed to investigate the effects of MI on viability, proliferation and some biochemical factors of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). To investigate the cell viability using trypan blue assay, BMSCs after third passage were treated with different concentration of MI at 12, 24 and 36 hours. Then the samples were treated with 160 and 1280 μ M of MI as selected concentrations for 36 hours to carry out further analysis including the proliferation ability via colony forming assay (CFA), publish doubling number (PDN) and the cells morphology. The level of Na+ and K+ was measured by flame photometer. In addition, the activity of ALP, LDH, AST, ALT as well as calcium concentration was evaluated using commercial kits. Data were evaluated using ANOVA, Tukey's test and p<0. 05 was considered significant. Although MI in low concentration had no toxic effects at high concentration reduced the viability of the cells. MI reduced nuclei diameter, cytoplasm area, electrolytes as well as the activity of HDL and ALT. On the other hand, MI caused an increase in the activity of ALP and intracellular Ca2+ level. High concentration of MI not only reduces cell viability via imbalance of electrolytes but also changed the cell morphology. In addition, we observed the elevation of aerobic metabolism via calcium dependent mechanism.

Induced mutagenesis causes an increase variation of some products with limited genetic resources. In this study, the antioxidant enzymes activity, biochemical properties and glycoside content of Stevia were assessed by EMS (chemical mutagen) based on two experiments as factorial with completely randomized design with three replications. The results of the first experiment showed that some properties of regenerated calli were influenced by different concentrations of EMS, different times of exposure and interactions of these two factors. Therefore, more EMS concentration and its duration of exposure indicated fewer regeneration rates and indices of the calcified masses. According to the second experiment, our data showed that EMS mutant activity was related to enzymatic activity and some biochemical properties of regenerated plants at a 1% significance level. Among the mutants, M10, M6, and M19 had the highest enzyme activity and M3 and M10 mutants with + 41. 4 and +26. 12% revealed the higher percentage of incremental changes in proline accumulation than the control sample. In addition, the highest amount of total protein was allocated to M16, M14 and M3 mutants (values of 0. 69, 0. 67 and 0. 58 mg/g tissue texture, respectively) over the control sample (0. 27 mg/ gram of tissue) and M8 mutant had the highest percentage of changes in the amount of stevioside (87. 3%) and rebaudioside A (58. 3%), respectively. Overall, significant changes were observed in the antioxidant activity and biochemical properties and the amount of sugary glycosides of regenerated plants that could be used to create plants with higher quality traits.

Saline soils and saline irrigation waters present potential hazards to canola production. Therefore, in this study in order to find indicators for salt tolerance, the changes of proline content and the activities of antioxidant enzymes were investigated in two canola genotypes (H308, H420) under various salt concentrations (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 mM). Results showed that compared to the control, salinity reduced seed germination and biomass of plants and caused the significant increase in proline content and lipid peroxidation in leaves of both genotypes. On the basis of growth parameters, H420 was more salt sensitive than H308. H308 accumulated higher proline contents and had higher antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, POX, APX, and CAT) than H420 especially at higher salinity levels. The activities of POX, APX, and CAT in H420 slightly increased in low salinity levels but in high salinity, their activities decreased and return to less or same level of the control. The differences in proline accumulation ability and the activities of antioxidative enzymes in leaves, at least in part, explained greater tolerance of H308 to salt stress than H420.

Glycyrrhiza is a genus of about 20 accepted species in the legume family (Fabaceae), with a distribution in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. Recently, about 30 species from the genus Glycyrrhiza have been found and used in traditional medicine for treating cancer. Different studies confirmed that down regulation of Non-metastatic protein (NM23), a metastasis suppressor gene is related to high metastatic potential. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Glycyrrhiza glabra extract on the expression of NM23 gene and against breast cancer (T47D) cell line. In this study, T47D cancer and MRC-5 normal cell lines were treated with different concentrations (0. 1, 0. 2, 0. 5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 mg/ml) of G. glabra extract after 24, 48, and 72 h. 3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazol-2yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) test was used to evaluate the effects of the extract toxicity against T47D cells. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was used to evaluate NM23 gene expression in T47D cells. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis revealed that 28 different compounds were found in the G. glabra water extract. Among the chemical constituents defined, the dominant constituents were Benzeneacetic acid, 4-hydroxy-, methyl ester (27. 35%), Thiophene, Tetrahydro-2-methyl-(11. 42%), Mome-Inositol (9. 91%), and 5-Tridecanone (4. 73%). The percent of cell toxicity revealed that the effect of toxicity is related to the time and dose. The mRNA levels of NM23 gene expression were significantly increased in the T47D cells treated with IC50 concentration of G. glabra (P < 0. 001, 30. 33 fold). This amount in sub-IC50 concentration of the extract was 5. 06 (p < 0. 01) fold, showing a positive effect of the extract in enhancing the NM23 expression as compared to the control groups after 72 h. The result showed that G. glabra has the potential to cure breast cancer by enhancing NM23 expression. Therefore, it is suggested that more researches are needed to find some effective combinations in the plant to design new and effective drugs to treat cancer.

Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers of the gastrointestinal tract in the world, which also has a high prevalence in Iran. ERCC2 gene is considered one of the major genes related to gastric cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between rs13181 polymorphism of ERCC2 gene. The polymorphism in the promoter region of ERCC2 gene can affect the activity of this gene and thus the susceptibility to gastric cancer. In this case-control study, 81 patients and 75 healthy individuals were recruited. Five ml of the peripheral blood of individuals were collected in EDTA-containing tubes. Genomic DNA was extracted using the Salting-out method and polymorphism was genotyped using the PCR-RFLP method. The prevalence of rs13181 (G>T) genotype and polymorphism allele were significantly different between patients with gastric cancer and control group (both p <0. 0001). The frequency of T allele in the gastric cancer group was 54% and in the control group was 18%, and this allele was significantly associated with the risk of gastric cancer (OR= 5, CI 95%=-0. 9611 to 0. 5138). Regarding the association of TT genotype with the studied disease, the results of this study introduce TT genotype as a protective factor in the development of disease (OR= 114, 95% CI= 6. 7909 to 1926. 2942). Our results confirmed the association between rs13181 polymorphism of ERCC2 gene and the increased risk of gastric cancer in Mazandaran province.