Journal of Plant Research
Year:2018 | Volume:31 | Issue:3|Papers Count:20

Marbareh river is one of the tributaries of Sezar and Dez rivers which is used for irrigating the agricultural lands of villages around the cities of Azana and Dorud. In this research, Diatom flora of Marbareh river was investigated for the first time. Sampling was done from rocks and sediments of the river seasonally from July 2013 till June 2014. Navicula, Cymbella, Nitzschia, Gomphonema and Diatoma occurred in all sites during the sampling period. It is in the case that some other genera such as Cymbopleura, Gyrosigma, Stauroneis, Meridion, Didymosphenia and Ulnaria were observed seasonally. Totally, 30 species were identified which belong to pennate diatoms. Comparing the diatom flora of Marbareh river with those of other Iranian waterbodies Iran showed that some species like Diatoma vulgaris, Diatoma moniliformis, Gomphonema olivaceum, Cocconeis placentula var. lineata, Gomphonema parvulum and Ulnaria ulna are widespread in Iran. However, more research work should be done to reveal the distribution pattern of other species.

Grazing is an effective factor on many aspects of plant species and communities. This anthropogenic factor, which became a destructive operant in Iran due to mismatch to range capacity, can affect the individuals of a plant species and thus, alter its spatial distribution. In the current study, the effect of short term exclosure on geographical distribution of two cool season grasses (Bromus tomentellus and Agropyron trichophorum) investigated using historical presence data. To do so, SRE modeling method (which is a presence-only model) was used to generate distribution maps before and after applying the exclosure. Presence coordinates of each species determined from 98 permanent exclosures. The number of B. tomentellus presence spots were 31 and 37 points before and after applying exclosures; respectively. The number of A. trichophorum presence spots were 16 and 25 points before and after applying exclosures; respectively. 19 bioclimatic variables used as environmental variables. The results indicated that the area of suitable climatic habitat of B. tomentellus before applying the exclosure (125868 ha) was considerably more than A. trichophorum (32515 ha). Nonetheless, applying the exclosure caused a 58% increase in suitable habitat of A. trichophorum versus 9% increase for B. tomentellus; which suggest that the grazing had a higher relative influence on A. trichophorum and removing the grazing pressure capacitated this species to retrieve its habitats. It should be emphasized that B. tomentellus should be considered as a more tolerant species to climatic conditions due to its prevalent distribution.

Drought causes osmotic imbalance and inhibits plant growth and productivity. Salicylic acid (SA) is an endogenous growth regulator with phenolic nature, which participates in the regulation of physiological processes in plants. SA is an important plant growth regulator because of its promoting role in plant growth and development under environmental stresses. In this research, we used two concentrations of salicylic acid (0. 5 mM and 1 mM) for three accessions of saffron under drought stress in order to study drought resistance improvement. The results showed that fresh weight (FW) reduced in three accessions of saffron under drought stress. Foliar spray of salicylic acid increased FW in three accessions under severe stresses (PEG 10% and 20%). Under drought stress, content of MDA and H2O2 and antioxidant enzymes (CAT, PPO, SOD and POX) activities increased while SA reduced these parameters. Due to foliar spray of SA and decreased parameters of stress (MDA and H2O2), we can conclude that the use of SA decrease the effects of stress and improve the plants growth. According to our results, among the examined accessions of saffron, Aryanshahr accession had the lowest level of damage in FW and also, antioxidant enzymes in this accession have increased gradually and moderately. So, we can say that, this accession compared to the others, has a more effective mechanism against drought stress but salicylic acid has the same effect in all the three accessions.

Age, stage of plant development, and vegetative and reproductive growth stage at harvesting time are effective and important factors in determining the content of secondary metabolites in medicinal plants. In the present study, the variation of essential oil in Artemisia absinthium L. was studied. Sampling of cultivated plants was carried out from the plants grown in the field of Agricultural Research and Education Center of Hamadan province at three phonological stages of five years old plants (vegetative, beginning of flowering, full flowering) and vegetative stage of one year old plants picked in the early morning. The essential oil was extracted by Clevenger's apparatus and essential oil was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. A total of 40 different components were identified. The main component of essential oil in all samples was (z)-B-Ocimene oxide. The amount of (z)-B-Ocimene oxide in a one-year plants, a fiveyears plants at vegetative stage, a five-years old plant at the beginning of flowering stage and five years old at the stage of full flowering were 76. 53%, 47. 84%, 66. 59% and 52. 93%, respectively. Among the other dominant components of the plant, carvacrol and sabinene can be mentioned wich the highest level of carvacrol (7. 27%) was observed in vegetative stage and Sabinene (4. 44%) at full flowering stage of five years old plants.

This study aimed to introduce and investigate the rangeland plants of Stipagrostis plumosa, Calotropis procera L. and Medicago sativa remediation of contaminated soils with heavy metal of Pb in the greenhouse condition under treatments of urban waste compost and biochar at three levels (0, 1 and 2 percentage) in a completely randomized design with 5 replications. The soil used in this study was collected from the petroleumcontaminated traditional Pazanan. After six-month, aerial and underground parts of plant have collected and some important characteristics of soil, morphological properties of plant and some elements have been examined. ICP-OES is used for Pb measurement. Translocation factor, remediation factor and biological aggregation factor measured for the assessment of plants remediation potential. The results showed that C. procera and St. plumosa absorb and extract Pb through phyto-extraction from petroleum contaminated soils. C. procera had the most RF (0. 08) for lead under biochar 1 and 2 percentage treatment, while the least amount of RF (0. 02) found for St. plumosa in control samples. Therefore, according to the current results; C. procera L has good potential to apply for phytoremediation in petroleum contaminated soils.

Grape (Vitis vinifera L. ) contains a variety of antioxidant compounds that are very useful for humans. Salicylic acid (SA) as similar-hormone has been increasing of antioxidant compound at some plant. In the present study were used two Shahani and Fakhri cultivars of grape in two unripe and ripe stages of berries, and from three concentrations (0 (control), 0. 1 and 1 mM) of salicylic acid as a spray on the leaves and fruits. Tissues studied were leaves, flesh, seed and skin of grape. Also, antioxidant activity by using of β-carotene-linoleic acid system, resveratrol and total phenol content were measured. Results showed that total phenol content changes by treated of salicylic acid depending on the tissues and cultivar was highly variable and did not follow any particular order. Salicylic acid treatment in most tissues in the unripe-stages of 0. 1mM concentration and in ripe stages of 1mM concentration had more increase effective on the antioxidant activity. Changes of resveratrol content as showed that to Shahani cultivar rather than Fakhri cultivar has higher resveratrol and the effect of increasing salicylic acids of 0. 1 mM concentrations on resveratrol content in leaves and fruit skin is greater. In general, the results show an increase in the antioxidant properties of skin, flesh and seeds grape varieties studied were treated with salicylic acid.

In order to investigate the application of numerical indices to the evaluation of Rarefaction and Jackknife species richness in assessing the diversity of oak forests in Baneh, Kurdistan Province, three treatmentswith vegetationnamely: the undisturbed, moderately disturbed, and highly disturbed due to anthropogenic factors were selected. Three forest patches with similar physiographic conditions of each treatment were selected and three 400m2 plots were taken in each patch to record the floristic information. Type and abundance of understory species in 5 micro plots with 1. 5×1. 5 m dimensions were recorded in each sample. The results of Margalef indexthat were obtained using the data fromherbaceous plants for undisturbed, moderately disturbed and highly disturbed were, 6. 254, 4. 803, and 2, respectively. The results of menhinick index for three treatments were, 1. 628, 1. 263, and 0. 794 respectively. The results of number of species were, 41. 56, 32. 11, and 18. 33 respectively. Rarefaction and jackknife methods were used to compare the richness of the three treatments. The results of Rarefaction method that were obtained using the data fromherbaceous plants for undisturbed, moderately disturbed and highly disturbed were, 40. 56, 30. 99, and 17. 96, respectively. Jackknife method estimated the richness of herbaceous species on 9 plots in each forest area to be equal to 149, 143. 7, and 98. 11, respectively. Generally, regarding to largeness of the forest ecosystems and impossibility of sufficient sampling in one hand and differences of the number of individuals which recorded in each sample due to different woody and herbaceous densityin the other hand, Rarefaction and Jackknife methods estimate the species richnessmore accurately which can apply in the more accurately management and program of the forest ecosystem conservation specially in the Oak forest of Zagros region.

In this study the effect different concentration of heavy metal cadmium (0, 5, 10 and 20 μ M) on two microalgea, Anabaena sp. were examined. After cadmium treatment, all samples with three replication were transferred to culture room with temperature of 28± 1 ° C, light intensity of 2500 lux and duration of 16 hours light and 8 hours darkness with aeration condition. The results showed that with increasing cadmium concentration up to 20μ M in microalgea Anabaena sp. The content of pigments (chorophyll a, β-carotene, phycobiliproteins) and total protein were significantly reduced compare to control. Malondialdehyde (MDA) content as a product of oxidative stress and Enzyme activity of peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and superoxid desmutase (SOD) significantly increased. According to the results, microalgae Anabaena sp. in short-term stress of metal cadmium low concentrations used in this study are sensitive.

Salt stress is one of the most serious environmental factors limiting the productivity of wheat plants. It is demonstrated associative relationship is one of the ways to decrease the detrimental effects of the saline condition. This study was carried out to determine the suitable bacteria strains and concentrations in 4 Iranian cultivars wheat (Sardari, Chamran, Shole and Roshan). Experiment was established as factorial on completely randomized design with three replicate to investigate effects of two levels of salinity (0 and 200 mM) and five concentrations (0, 105, 106, 107 and 108 CFU ml-1) of both bacteria strains (Sp7 & Sp245) on some growth and biochemical indexes of wheat cultivars. Results showed dry weight, K+ content and chlorophyll a and b reduced with salinity while Na+ content, Na+/K+ ratio and antioxidant enzyme activities (Catalase, Ascorbate peroxidase, Phenylalanine and Tyrosine ammonia lyase), in most cases, significantly increased. The best associative relationship of both strains mainly was seen in 106 and 107 CFU ml-1 concentrations. At saline condition, Sp245 considerably improved root indexes whereas positives effects of sp7 mostly were observed in shoot indexes. Altogether, reduction in unfavorable effects of salinity on Sardari and Chamran cultivars after inoculation with Sp7 strain were markedly higher than Sp245 strain performance.

Present study deal with to ability of two Eucalyptus species (Eucalyptus Microtheca, Eucalyptus camaldulensis) for Pb and Cu absorption from pollutant soil. To design a test, the 6-months seedlings of Eucalyptus were selected from seedling with similar quality. To heavy metals test, three treatments of Cu (5, 10, 20 mm) using CuSO4 and three treatments of Pb (50, 100, 200 mm) using Pb(NO3)2 were choosing to adding soil (loam) pots. Then sampling were done from leave, root and stem of two species in 3 repeat. Dry acid digestion method was used to prepare the samples. The concentrations of heavy metals in the samples were analyzed using ICP-OES. Results between two species showed that totally there is no significant difference between two species (Eucalyptus Microtheca, Eucalyptus camaldulensis) in Pb and Cu absorption. But result of comparing between different concentrations and organs indicated roots showed better function and in this regard E. camaldulensis illustrated better results. As Maximum Pb absorbtion in root of two species (E. camaldulensis and Eucalyptus Microtheca) are 4323. 3, 3226 mg/kg respectively and Maximum Cu absorbtion in root of two species are 1382/2, 846 mg/kg respectivel. Also, there is significant difference between absorption and threshold limit in two species that showed this species has a good ability for phytoremediation and removal pollutant from soil.

Calendula officinalis is a medicinal plant and widely used for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal and etc properties. Oleanolic acid is an important bioactive compounds which found in C. officinalis. Hairy root cultures are characterized by high growth rate and ability to synthesize secondary metabolites. Some factors are effective on the production of hairy roots. So this experiment was performed to select the best strain of Agrobacterium rhizogenes, culture medium and light condition for production of hairy roots. Highest (43/4%) and the lowest (13/69%) of hairy root production were obtained by MSU and 2656 strains respectively. The Average production of hairy roots in ½ B5 culture medium, 35/84% and in ½ MS culture medium was 25/67%. So it seems that the ½ B5 medium is better culture medium. There was no significant difference between light and dark condition for production of hairy roots. The branches (6-7cm) from A1 clone of hairy roots were cultured in ½ B5, ¼ B5, ½ MS and ¼ MS culture media, in both liquid and solid media, and the branches were treated by three concentrations of auxin (IAA) (0, 5. 0 and 1 mg/l). After two months, Hairy roots have highest growth in the ½ B5 culture medium with 1mg/l of IAA. The effect of three levels of methyl jasmonate elicitor (0, 500 and 100mM) on amount of oleanolic acid was investigated in normal roots and hairy roots and determined by HPLC. Methyl jasmonate at 500mM, increased oleanolic acid production but at 100mM concentration, this compound was reduced.

Sclerotinia is important fungal disease of sunflower in Iran that affects its yield. So, evaluation of phenotypic and molecular reaction of genotypes to agent of disease is particular importance to producing resistant hybrid cultivars. In this study, biochemical and enzymatic changes of sunflower lines (C39 and C100) were studied during different times after inoculation of the lines with Sclerotinia fungal isolates (SSU107 and SSKH41) under controlled conditions as a factorial based on completely randomized design (CRD). For this purpose, characteristics such as lipids peroxidation and accumulation of malon dialdehyde (MDA), antioxidant enzymes' activity like catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) were studied. The results showed that Sclerotinia disease increased the biochemical and enzymatic changes of the plants infected with fungal isolates. Resistant and susceptible lines also showed a different response to the disease, so that the accumulation of MDA in resistant lines decreased, the least of which was observed in resistant line C39 inoculated with SSU107. In addition ascorbate peroxidase and guaiacol peroxidase enzymes' activities were more in resistant and susceptible lines, respectively. So, the APX enzymatic activity increased in the line C39 and the GPX enzymatic activity increased in the line C100 after inoculation with SSU107 fungal isolate. According to the results of this study, the line C39 showed good partial resistance, because of the lowest level of lipid peroxidation and the highest enzymatic activities that causes resistance mechanism of plant against pathogens. The founding of this study can be useful in sunflower breeding programs for producing cultivars resistance to Sclerotinia disease.

Air pollution could affect growth and quality of the urban landscape trees in addition to residents' health. Planting of tolerant plants have significant influence on improvement of the urban air quality and can reduce harmful environmental pollutants damages. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of air pollution on plant chemical factors in box elder (Acer negundo) in Urmia. The study consists of five different gardens with different degrees of air pollution. Almost five even age plants in each garden were samples. Leaf samples from each tree of outer branches and in low, middle and high height of crown sections were collected. Then carbohydrates, proline, the main and secondary pigments contents were measured. Morphological parameters such as diameter at breast height, height and crown diameter in order to define correlation with chemical factors were recorded. Also their relationship with the level of air pollutants was investigated. The results indicated that carbohydrates and proline amounts of box elder species have a significant difference among studied areas and have been increased with air pollution degree. While pigment contents was lower in polluted region compared to control. No significant correlation between plant chemical and morphological parameters on one hand and significant correlation between plant chemical factors and air pollutants indicates that only pollutants have an effect on plant chemistry characteristics and dimension of box elder trees not effective. Based on the results, box elder can be a resistant species in urban green space because of carbohydrates and proline storage in polluted area.

Chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and chlorophyll content are the most important factors for determining photosynthesis capacity in plant. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted to compare the resistance to different levels of drought stress, to evaluate the most important physiological indices and assess the function of photocystem II using chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, chlorophyll content (chlorophyll a, b and a + b) and carotenoids. The experiment was performed with two factors incloding; water tintions 30, 60 and 100% crop capacity (FC) and cultivers G-18 and ghafar cultivers in the form of the factorial arrangement in a randomized complete block design with three replications in the greenhouse of the University of Guilan. Comparison of mean values showed that severe drought stress reduced the amount of chlorophyll content, Fv/Fm, Fv and, in contrast, increased the amount of fluorescence and Y (NPQ). The highest Fv/Fm ratio was observed in the control plants and in the G-18 cultiver with the mean 0. 78 percent, while the highest reduction in Fv/Fm ratio in severe stress was obtained for the G-18 cultivar compered to the control. In general, the interaction of drought and cultivar was significant for all traits except F0. Also, Pearson correlation between total chlorophyll and Fv/Fm showed a positive and significant correlation (R = 0. 86 **) in Ghaffar cultivar, but was not significant in G-18. Therefore, it can be concluded that Ghaffar cultivar can tolerate relatively high levels of drought by making changes in some physiological characteristics with better performance.

Salvia Leriifolia Benth. (Lamiaceae) is a medicinal plant with analgesic, antiinflammatory, anti-diabetes and antioxidant properties. The use of elicitors such as chitosan in the tissue culture is one of the main methods for increasing the production of secondary metabolites. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different concentrations of chitosan (10, 50 and 100 mg/L) on micropropagation, secondary metabolites and antioxidant activity of S. leriifolia in in vitro condition. For this purpose, apical buds were cultivated in two MS culture medium contain 2 mg/L BAP 0. 5 mg/L IBA with different concentrations of chitosan. After 30 days, micropropagation and biochemical parameters were investigated. The results showed that the highest stem length, stemming and leaf number were observed in both media under the influence of the concentration of 10 mg/L of chitosan. The highest levels of phenol and flavonoid were observed at the concentration of 50 mg/L of chitosan. The highest antioxidant activity was observed at the concentration of 50 mg/L of chitosan. The amount of phenolic acids, such as gallic acid, caffeic acid, benzoic acid and rosmarinic acid, was significantly increased by the different concentrations of chitosan, so that the highest amount was observed under the influence of 50 mg/L of chitosan. In general, by optimizing the chitosan concentration, it is possible to improve secondary metabolites production, including phenolic acids, and antioxidant properties of S. leriifolia.

Today, silvicultural studies of intact forest stand have gained considerable importance so that knowledge of such stands structural characteristics can be applied as a pattern for managed stands. The aim of this study was to evaluate the silvicultural characteristics of a mixed beech stand in district one of Shast-Kalateh Forest in Gorgan. All living trees with a diameter at breast height ≥ 7. 5 cm including; species, total height, trunk height, crown height, crown diameter, and the distance between the individual stems were measured. The results showed that beech allocated the highest number, basal area and volume per hectare to itself, being 116n. ha, 17. 2m2 and 263. 3m3, respectively. Also, the maximum mean diameter, area, and crown volume corresponded to beech stem, whereas the minimum values of the above-mentioned characteristics were pertaining to the other species. The studied forest had 3 layers, an unregularly uneven-aged structure and dominant type (Fagus orientalis-Carpinus betulus). The distribution of height frequency in diameter classes showed that hornbeam curve was higher than that of beech in lower diameter classes. While, beyond 35cm< diameter beech curve height surpasses that of hornbeam. The results of the research likewise displayed that the stand trees had a stable regarding to height/DBH ratio. It can be overally concluded that gaining knowledged on a stand's silvicultural characteristics can bring about positive results for forest manager and experts since the mentioned characteristics are variable in terms of time and spatial.

Wild almond (Amygdalus scoparia Spach. ), with a wide distribution in Iran, is a medicinally and ecologically important plant species. The species is exposure to genetic erosion, so it should be considered for reclamation. Vegetative propagation of selected trees depends on optimization of various methods such as micropropagation. In this study, effects of different genotypes, culture medium and application of plant growth regulators on micropropagation characteristics (number of buds and shoots, shoot length and leaf freshness) of A. scoparia were investigated. Results showed that sampling date and different genotypes had significant effects on all characteristics studied. The best sampling date for the highest shoot and lateral axillary bud production was 10 days after application of the plant growth regulator. Different genotypes significantly varied in axillary bud production. As an overall conclusion, different stands of wild almond responded differently to micropropagation. Therefore, presenting a unique culturing medium with similar effects on different genotypes needs more investigation. Application of plant growth regulators on target plants before sampling could alleviates the problem. However, genotype number one was relatively better based on number of buds and shoot length. DKW culturing medium was better than MS medium for propagation of wild almond.

Identification of plant species in every area is of great importance, as the floristic list acts as a beneficial certificate for the potentials of the region. Given the importance of identifying the flora, this study was set out to assess the flora, life forms, geographical distribution, and medicinal plants under threat in Chaharbagh summer rangelands in Golestan Province. First, the plant species of the area were collected and then identified by the available plant identification guides. Then, Persian names, plang family, life span, life forms. Threat of extinction and chorotype of each plant sample was determined according to the available resources. In total, 184 plant species belonging to 37 family and 106 plant genus were identified. Largest plant families were in order Poaceae (by 33 cases and 17. 93%), Asteracese (by 31 cases, and 16. 84%), Lamiaceae (by 22 cases and 11. 95%) and Fabaceae (by 19 cases and 10. 32%). In terms of life form, hemicryptophytes (by 82 species and 44. 5%), therophytes (by 48 species and 27%), Chamaephytes (by 28 cases and 15%), Cryptophytes (by 9 species and 5%), geophytes (by 9 species and 5%), and phanerophytes (by 7 species and 4%) were the most abundant cases. Geographical distribution of the area was mainly recognized as Irano-Turani (57. 6%). The threat status also indicated that none of the plant species exists in the range of threatened species. Only one species was recognized in the domain of vulnerable plants (0. 6%), and 14 species in the domain with less threat (slightly vulnerable), and there was not sufficient information for five cases. Our evaluations also showed that most of the plants in the area are permanent which indicate the adaptation to the edaphic and climatic conditions of the area.

In this study, the flora of theFaryab region, in 76 Km of the kahnug city in South of kerman province investigated. This region is a mountainous area with some small plains and short hills that cover a surface of ca. 16000 hectares. The annual precipitation in the region is about 180mm and its elevation varies from 636 to 1196 meter above of the sea level (mean is 916 m). The results showed that there were 186 plant species belonging to 135 genera and 43families of higher vascular plants (40 families were dicotyledones, 3 families were monocotyledons, The family Asteraceae with 25 genera and 31 species was the largest family and the genus Astragalus (Fabaceae) with 6 species was the largest genus in the region, respectively. The genera Tamarix with 5 species, Convolvolusand Nepeta each with 5 species, and Echinops, Eragrostis and Salvia each with 3 species are the other large genera in the flora of Faryab region. . Survey of the life form of the plants showed that 12/22%of the species were phanerophytes, 16/84% were chamaephytes, 30/64% were hemicryptophytes8/06% were geophytes and 32/24%were therophytes. The dominance of hemicryptophytes and therophytes (totally 62/88, ) indicates the severe conditions of the area which is characteristics of the mountainous regions. Phytogeographically, 41/4%of the species belonged to the IranoTuranian region, 15/62%were Sahra Sandy and 34/4% belonged to the IranoTuranian and Sahra Sandy regions. and 8/58% belonged to the other regions. Also, 18 species were endemic for the flora of Iran, and, 9 species were rare.

Pathogenesis of many bacteria in humans as well as their resistance to anti-bacterial substances has increased the need to find anti-microbial agents. Recently, efforts have been made to replace the synthetic drugs by medicinal plants. Therefore, in this experiment the antibacterial effects of hydro-alcoholic extract of Plantago major and Astragalus hamosus on some gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria were studied. The factorial experiment was conducted based on completely randomized design with three replications and three main agents including plants in two levels (Plantago major and Astragalus hamosus), bacteria in four levels (Shigella flexneri, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus pyogenes and Haemophilus influenza) and anti-bacterial substance in six levels (the antibiotic Penicillin, the antibiotic Erythromycin, concentrations 0, 25, 50 and 75 mg/ml of extract). Analysis of variance showed that the type of plants, bacterial species and antibacterial agents had a significant effect on the zone of inhibition (p ≤ 0. 01). Comparison of means showed that although inhibitory effects of different concentrations of extracts were less than two antibiotics Penicillin and Erythromycin, their effects were significantly higher than the control (distilled water). The results showed less impact of Astragalus hamosus extract compared with Plantago major, however, Increasing in extract concentration increased the zone of inhibition, especially in Enterococcus faecalis and Streptococcus pyogenes. The effect of Plantago major extract (75 mg/ml) on Enterococcus faecalis and Streptococcus pyogenes was equal with Erythromycin and 76% Penicillin, respectively.