The current review is on a book titled: Not by GENES Alone written by Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd. The review begins with an introduction to Human sciences in Iran and the world and different aspects are discussed. The role of biological factors and Genetics in shaping human behavior and culture is critiqued. Although this book is not a new book on this matter, it refers to the importance of culture and biological evolution. The authors describe the importance of culture for understanding the human behavior and the fact that culture is part of biology. The authors believe that to understand culture, the "population thinking" (thinking that the influence on a population is main cause of change in culture and not individual human being) is the key. GENES and environment interact together and both play a role in human behavior.

Rice, as one of the most important crops, has the smallest genome among cereals and is considered as a model plant for genetic studies. The small size of this plant’ s genome has led to comprehensive studies on it, resulting in a large amounts of data to be obtained. Properly collecting and storing these data and managing data from various experiments in a database for accessing researchers to them to avoid re-work and to compare their results with the results of other researchers is very important. To achieve these, bioinformatics can be great help. Therefore, the creation and development of specialized databases and the use of bioinformatics tools for data processing, efficient organization, analysis and visualization are necessary. In this paper, the MAJOR databases for studying gene expression at three levels, RNA, protein and metabolome in rice are reviewed and the characteristics of these databases for each level are discussed.

The fecundity performance in sheep has been interesting for producers due to its economical importance. The estimated heritability for this trait is low (less than 10%) in various reports. However, the genetic gain from direct selection of this trait is greater than expected from infinitesimal theory base. Segregation of MAJOR gene/GENES effective on prolificacy has been proposed as a main reason for this discrepancy. So far, mutations in some GENES, all belonging to transforming growth factor b (TGF b), segregated in these flocks have been detected. The mutated GENES in brief include: a) Booroola or Bone Morphogenetic Protein Receptor 1B (BMPR1-B) which is an autosomal gene with an additive effect on the ovulation rate and a partial dominance effect on litter size. b) Growth Differentiation Factor 9 (GDF9) which is another autosomal gene with an over-dominance effect so that homozygote mutant ewes are sterile. Eight mutations have been detected in this gene and the effect of each allele varies from 0.3 to 1.2 lambs per birth. c) Bone Morphogenetic Protein 15 (BMP15) is an overdominance sex-linked gene like GDF9. Ewes carrier for these fecundity GENES keep their superiority over non-carrier ones in the whole life. Having mutations in two GENES like BMP15 and BMPR-1B or BMP15 and GDF9 enhances the prolificacy compared to single mutation owners. To date, the presence of mutation in both BMP15 and GDF9 in Iranian sheep breeds have been confirmed. However, none of them are associated with a significant effect on prolificacy. The summation of single muations in each ewe might cause twining rate in these breeds. In this paper, we reviewd the history, mutations and the proposed action mechanism for these MAJOR GENES.

The objective of this review is to explore the current developments on MAJOR GENES working on prolific sheep breeds and the mechanism behind it, while identifying the future working points. Productivity is the ultimate goal of farm animal production and prolificacy is a key feature in determining productivity in farm animals. Ovulation rate in mammals is an intricate process involving genetics and endocrine pathways. Exceptional reproductive capabilities along with higher ovulation rates were observed in many breeds of sheep from different parts of the world since the discovery of Booroola Merino sheep. These naturally occurring mutations acting on prolificacy are found in chromosomes 5, 6, 11 and X but speculations are around about the presence of more mutations on these GENES or different GENES on multi ovulating sheep breeds. The exact control mechanism of multiple ovulations and multiple births in prolific sheep breeds is poorly understood. Over the years it has been repeatedly shown that gonadotropins and intra ovarian factors play vital and variety of roles. More specifically, follicular stimulating hormone regulation during folliculoGENESis could be a promise for the future studies. Among those intra ovarian factors, bone morphogenic protein system is one of the indispensable components, which exerts enormous enthusiasm among the scientific community towards manipulating ovarian folliculoGENESis. Rather surprisingly, biological and physiological roles of bone morphogenic protein subfamily are not thoroughly elucidated and contradictory findings among the mammals make further twists, which will be the gaps to be filled in the near future. Presence of a regulatory control loop between oocyte, granulosa and theca cells through transforming growth factor B (TGFB) superfamily is proposed here.

Background: The presence of different missense mutations in sheep breeds have shown that the bone morphogenetic protein receptor 1B (BMPR1B), bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) and growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9)GENES play a vital role in ovulation rate and prolificacy in ewes. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate BMPR1B, BMP15 and GDF9 gene mutations in prolific ewes of Iranian fat-tailed Lori-Bakhtiari sheep.Materials and Methods: In the present experimental study, genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood of 10prolific Lori-Bakhtiari ewes with at least two twinning records in the first four parities to identify point mutations of the BMPR1B, BMP15 and GDF9 GENES, using DNA sequencing.Results: The results obtained from DNA sequencing showed a new synonymous mutation (g.66496G>A) in exon 8of the BMPR1B gene, without any amino acid change. Sequencing of the BMP15 gene revealed a deletion of 3 bp (g.656_658delTTC) in exon 1, leading to an amino acid deletion (p.Leu19del). Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (G1: g.2118G>A, G2: g.3451T>C, G3: g.3457A>G and G4: g.3701G>A), were detected in exons 1 and 2 of the GDF9gene, two of which caused amino acid substitutions (G1: p.87Arg>His and G4: p.241Glu>Lys). These amino acid alterations are proposed to have a benign impact on structure and function of the GDF9 polypeptide sequence.Conclusion: Three MAJOR prolificacy GENES (BMPR1B, BMP15 and GDF9) were polymorphic in Lori-Bakhtiari sheep, although none of the MAJOR causative mutation was detected in this sheep type. Further studies using high throughput methods such as genome-wide association study (GWAS) and evaluation of other candidate GENES are necessary in the future.

The rice brown spot disease caused by Bipolaris oryzae is distributed in most of rice cultivated regions and some time causes economic recession. Plants are under attack by diverse pests and pathogens. They have evolved different mechanisms to survive against invaders. Similar to the other plants, rice employs structural and chemical barriers to defense against pathogens. The pathoGENESis- related proteins have crucial role in chemical defense. In this survey, the expression pattern of several resistance GENES (Thionin, Defensing, Allen oxide synthase, Proxidase) were considered in two rice cultivars under treatment of B. oryzae fungus, using Quantitative Real Time PCR. The Tarom and Khazar cultivars have been selected as susceptible and resistance cultivars, respectively. Results showed considerable increase in expression rate of all GENES in both genotypes after inoculation than that of control plant in every hours. Data analysis using T-student test program also showed that there are significant differences between Tarom and Khazar cultivars with the expression of mentioned GENES. The findings proves that Thionin, Defensin, Allen oxide synthase and Proxidase GENES play a prominent role in rice resistance to B. oryzae. This result can be an introduction to use of mentioned GENES for overexpression and generate resistant rice to destructive brown spot disease in breeding program.