Background: The Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF) gene encoding an extracellular matrix (ECM)-associated protein and as a member of the CCN family of proteins plays a major role in fibrosis, inflammation and connective tissue remodeling in a variety of diseases including cancer. The CCN proteins are multifunctional and are involved in cell proliferation, adhesion and cell development during pathogenesis. The purpose of our study was to determine the expression level of CTGF mRNA in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: paraffin embedded tissues from 122 patients with colorectal cancer and their matched normal colon tissues and 20 paraffin embedded normal tissues blocks from normal individual were collected from Taleghani and Shohada hospital in Tehran. The fold change of CTGF expression was analyzed by quantitative real time PCR method, using REST and Prism softwares. Also, LinReg PCR software was also used for the efficiency of primers. Results: We found that expression of CTGF gene in tumor tissue was significantly higher than in adjacent normal tissue (P<0. 0001, RQ>2). A Significant increase was also observed in the expression of this gene in right-sided colon cancer than left side. Conclusion: The findings indicated that the expression pattern of CTGF gene is significantly altered in the development of cancer from normal tissue. Thus, according to major role of CTGF gene in fibrosis, inflammation and connective tissue remodeling, it may be effective in various diseases process including cancer.

Background: Most of colorectal cancers (CRC) have originated from intestinal polyps.Evaluating of the expression level of genes that are involved in tumors growth and development, may consider as diagnostic factor of malignancy in the polyps. AXIN2 regulates the level of nuclear b-catenin in a negative-feedback loop there by being a negative regulator and target gene at the same time. The aims of current study were to examine the expression level of the AXIN2 in the colonic polyps and its linkage with the pathological features of the polyps.Methods: In the present analytical-descriptive study, the investigated population was chosen from the cases with colonic polyps that referred to the Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases Research Center, Taleghani Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from October 2014 to April 2015. Forty four biopsy polyp samples and 10 normal tissue samples were collected, as well as the demographic and clinical properties of the patients and the expression level of AXIN2 gene was quantified by Real-time PCR. The outcomes were analyzed by the ABI Prism 7500 Sequence Detection System (SDS) software, version 2.1.0 (Applied Biosystems Inc., Foster City, CA, USA) and GraphPad Prism, version 3 (GraphPad Software Inc., La Jolla, CA, USA) Also, the expression changes of the intended gene in target groups were compared with the normal tissues using the 2-DDCt equation.Results: The data showed enhanced level of the expression of AXIN2 gene in the colonic polyps in comparison to the normal tissues (RQ>2), which was significantly upper in adenoma polyps compared to the hyperplastic group (P=0.015). Also, unlike the rectum, the AXIN2 gene activity in colon area was higher than normal tissue.Conclusion: The results of the current study show that the expression pattern of AXIN2 gene, was markedly changed during the transformation of the normal tissue to polyp.The increased expression level of this gene could be applied as a diagnostic marker in dissociation of the adenoma polyps from hyperplastic ones. On the other hand, the location of the polyps modulates the AXIN2 gene function. Taking together, evaluating the changes of AXIN2, has a precise diagnostic value in the CRC related studies.

Identifying the constraining factors of production and yield gap is very important. Therefore; this research was performed to identify the production constraining factors of local rice cultivars. All management practices from nursery preparation to harvesting stages for 100 paddy fields of local rice cultivars were recorded through field studies, in Sari, from 2015-2016. In the CPA, the actual and calculated potential yield were 4495 and 5703 kg/ha, respectively and the gap was 1221 kg/ha. The yield gap caused by number of top-dressing variables was 324 kg/ha, equal to 27% of the total yield gap. The yield gap related to previous year of legumes cultivation was 218 kg ha-1, equal to 18% of the total yield variation. Among the 10 variables entered in the CPA model, the effects of top-dress fertilizer application and its application frequency and foliar application were remarkable, which could compensate a significant part of the yield gap (444 kg/ha, 37% of total) in the farmers’ fields by managing these variables. According to boundary line analysis (BLA) finding, actual yield mean on the basis of optimal limit related to 12 variables under study was 5369 kg/ha, with 881 kg/ha yield gap . Mean relative yield and relative yield gap for 12 variables (transplanting date, seedling age, number of seedlings per hill, planting density, nitrogen and phosphorous per hectare, nitrogen before transplanting, harvesting date, lodging problem, pest problem, diseases problem and weeds problem) were 83.64 and 16.35 kg/ha, respectively. Based on the finding, it can be stated that the model precision is appropriate and can be applied for both estimation of the quantity of yield gap and determining the portion of each restricting yield variables.

The treatment of plants by herbicide glyphosate can affect their resistance to disease. The effect of glyphosate on the expression of pathogenesis-related and resistance genes in transgenic potato infected with two strains of late blight pathogen, Phytophthora infestans was investigated. To do so, an optimal concentration of glyphosate (1. 8 mg/L) were been used on transgenic potato, Vesnianka cultivar. a high level of expression of pathogenesis-related genes (especially PR-2) and defense response genes (especially HSR-203j). In these plants, no signs of burn and infection were observed were observed in the potato leaves infected with pathogen, and treated by glyphosate. The results showed that treatment by glyphosate could help to induce the resistance to P. infestans by expressing genes encoding defense response proteins.

In this paper, the relative active tectonics of the Mordaq-Chai basin has been discussed according to the geomorphic indices using Global Mapper software. The calculated indices are as follows: stream length–gradient index (SL), hypsometric integral (Hi), ratio of valley floor width to valley height (Vf), index of drainage basin shape (Bs),index of mountain front sinuosity (Smf), asymmetry factor (AF), and transverse index of basin topographic symmetry (T). Using above indices results, led to calculation of relative tectonic activity index (Iat).The results show that the Mordaq-Chai basin’s relative tectonic activity index falls into two groups: the first one includes the areas around the Sahand volcano crater (upper part of sub-basin one) and the Goshayesh Valley (upper part of sub-basin three), both of which have high levels of relative tectonic activity. The second one includes high lands located at northern part of the Maragheh fault towards the Kordeh-Deh village (sub-basins one and two), the opening of the Mordaq-Chai river into the Malekan plain (from the Ekiz village to the Sheikh-o-eslam village in central of sub-basin 3) and the southern portion of the Sahand Volcano’s crest (central part of sub-basin one), which all have moderate levels of relative tectonic activity.