نشریه یافته های نوین در علوم زیستی
سال پنجم شماره 4 (پیاپی 18، زمستان 1397)

During a period from spring 2008 till fall 2010, Iranian Jerboa population abundance was estimated using distance (linear transect) and capture-recapture methods in the Mirabad plains near Shahreza city in Isfahan Province. In the study period, during the active time of the species except reproduction time, we tried to live-trap, mark, release and recapture individuals based on Schnabel method on different sampling occasions. Simultaneously, we also traversed line transects using motorcycle and spot-light by two observers in different habitat types. We tried to get uniform trapping nights in different lunar nights and different habitat types. The population abundance, using Schnabel and distance methods was estimated to be 226 and 402 individuals, respectively. With regard to the obtained results and species behavior, it seems that distance method yields more precise confidence limits of the estimation compared with capture-recapture method. However, capture-recapture method yields more precise estimates for closed populations because of its more limiting assumptions, but the confidence reliability of abundance estimation of a species depends on the species and its habitat selection behavior completely.

In this study, the morphology and organization of the retina of Caspian kutum and fish response to ambient light as retinomotor reaction was investigated. The Rutilus frisii subsp. kutum is an anadromous fish and important native fish specimen of Caspian Sea. The specimens were obtained from Shahid Ansari Teleost Reproduction and Culture center (Guilan province, Iran). For light and dark adaptation fish were left in dark and light at least 30 minute prior to death. The eye retina were dissected out and processed for histological and SEM studies. The eye retina of Caspian kutum like most vertebrates, was composed of ten layers. Two types of photoreceptor cells including rod and short single cone were identified. Sagittal and transverse retinal sections did not show any particular patterns of cone arrangement. The retinomotor response observed in adapted retina to light and dark conditions revealed that Caspian kutum strongly reacts to changing light conditions. A remarkable pigment index indicated kutum relied mostly on rod rather than cone vision. The movement of pigment granules and slight change of cone myoid showed that the fish could recognize colors.

Parkinson is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. Pain and emotional disorders due to Parkinson negatively affect the quality of the patient’s life. Biarum carduchrum is an antioxidant plant with some application in traditional medicine. The aim of this study is to evaluate the protective effects of Biarum carduchrum extract on pain and emotional disorders caused by 6-hydroxydopamine injection. Rats were randomly divided into 5 groups of 8 animals. The control group received normal saline. Parkinson's groups were subjected to the injection of 6- OHDA in the right anterior mid-brain (MFB). In third, fourth and fifth groups, rats received Biarum carduchrum extract at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg via gavage 7 days after induction of Parkinson for 14 days. On day 15th, behavioral tests including forced swimming test and tail flick were performed. Treatment of Parkinsonian rats with Biarum carduchrum extract at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg dramatically reduced the duration of immobility time in the forced swimming test. Rats treated by Biarum carduchrum extract at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg showed significantly increased resistance to pain compared with Parkinsonian rats. The results of this study show that the Biarum carduchrum extract improves depression and pain induced by Parkinson, which is probably related to its antioxidant effects.

Saline soils are widely spread in Iran. These intact soils are a great source for the isolation of new bacteria with highly functional metabolites in biotechnology. Actinomycete strains were isolated on starch casein agar and ISP2 with different concentrations of sodium chloride (0, 5 and 10%) from treated soil samples. Pure colonies were cultured on a casein glycerol medium. After complete growth, the plates were covered with a thin layer of Muller Hinton Agar (1%) containing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Active metabolites of selected strains were extracted and their antibacterial activities analyzed by agar well diffusion method. 38% of isolates produced antibiotics against the pathogen. The metabolites produced by act-2 and act-5 isolates, which had a more effective inhibition zone against MRSA, were extracted and anti MRSA activity of act-5 extract was shown. The antimicrobial activity of act-5 against other bacteria was also investigated and the bacterium was identified. In this study halophilic actinomycetes producing bioactive compounds were isolated from the saline soils of Qom and the anti-MRSA potential of their metabolites was investigated for the first time. The results of this study show the potential of saline soil actinomycetes for the production of useful metabolites.

The genus Ganoderma belongs to Polyporales, well-known for its medicinal properties and as a plant pathogen. The aim of this study was to identify the genetic variation between populations of two Ganoderma lucidum Karst. complex isolates using RAPD. For this purpose, four populations of G. resinaceum Boud. and eight populations of G. lucidum collected and purified during 2011-2012, were studied for the first time in Iran. Ten random primers were used for RAPD reaction. The result for RAPD-PCR studies of G. lucidum complex showed a wide range of diversity, as scores of 61.48 and 40.16 were estimated for the inter-specific diversity of G. lucidum and G. resinaceum, respectively. Cluster analysis confirmed the separation of two species populations in different clusters. In the analysis of genetic structure, two probable groups (K = 2) were identified in the studied germplasm which was also confirmed by the results of bar plot.

The aim of this research was to identify the plant species, introducing the flora and plant geographical distribution of Chaghalvandi area, Lorestan Province. This area, with 2000 hectares, is situated in the north of Lorestan Province, where the amount of annual precipitation is 481.79 mm and mean annual temperature is 15.32°C. Plant samples were collected from different parts of the area between 1500-2800 m during two growing seasons 2011-2012. The life form of plant species was determined using the Raunkiaer’s method. The position of this area, in terms of phytogeographical classification, was investigated on the basis of geographical distribution data and references. From 206 identified vascular plant species in Chaghalvandi area, 2 Pteridophytes, 183 dicotyledons and 21 monocotyledons were found to be present. These species belong to 55 families and 142 genera. The largest families in terms of the number of collected species were Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Lamiaceae with 14.07%, 11.16% and 10.68%, respectively. Therophytes, with 78 species (37.86%), was the most frequent life form observed. 102 species (49.51%) belonged to Irano-Turanian region; 12 taxa of them were endemics of Iran, among which the distribution of Cousinia khorramabadensis Bornm. Was limited to Lorestan Province.

Vegetation is one of the most important parts of natural ecosystems that in addition to express of the growth conditions, it also shows the influence of ecological factors on the environmental condition. Investigations of plant diversity of a country are necessary for studyingthe ecosystem, pasture, plant gene bank, agriculture and medicine. On the one hand, identification of plant species of different regions provide feasibility of doing of next studies in the different fields of biological science. In this research the flora of Tang sorkh region in the Kohgiloyeh county from Kohgiloyeh-va boyerahmad province has been investigated. The area of mentioned region is 5000 hectares and it is located in 30 kilometers from the east of Yasuj. Maximum altitude of the area was between 1800-2800 m. Our research has started by collecting the essential information of the region. The plants of region have been collected and prepared for studying. several floras were used for identification the specimens and they are preserved in Alzahra University herbarium (ALUH). This investigation showed that in the Tang sorkh region, there are 46 families, 145genera, 172 species that include 6/97% of phanerophytes, 5/23% chamephyts, 43/60%hemicryptophytes, 13/95% geophytes, 28/48% therophytes. Analyses shows that most of species of region belongs to the Iran-o-Turanian region which contanins 5/69% of region’s flora. 23 species are endemic to Iran, 20 of which are rare species, 30 species are medicinal plant, 22 of which are poison. Totaly about 172 species has identified. 20 species are recorded for the first time from this province.

The flowering process in plants proceeds through the induction of an inflorescence meristem triggered by several pathways. Many of the genes associated with these pathways encode transcription factors of the MADS domain family. The MADS-domain transcription factor APETALA1 (AP1) is a key regulator of flower development. The first step to understand the molecular mechanisms under the function of each gene in a plant is identification, sequencing and phylogeny analysis of that gene. For this purpose, total RNA was isolated from flower bud of garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) and was used for cDNA synthesis. The specific primers were designed based on nucleotide sequence alignment of AP1 homologus genes from plants of the same family Brassicaceae and were used in RT-PCR. After observing its electrophoretic pattern and ensuring the quality of PCR product, the amplicon was sent for sequencing. After receiving the results of sequencing, the sequence examined with BLAST, MUSCLE, Gene Runner and MEGA6 softwares. The results indicated amplification of 787 nucleotides fragment that named LsAP1 and was recorded by accession number KP070728 in NCBI database. The studies show high similarity and overlapping of gene bank sequences with LsAP1 illative protein. According to these results, LsAP1 may play a similar role as AP1 in flower induction and could act as a flower meristem identity gene in Lepidium sativum L.

Melissa officinalis is a medicinal plant belong to lamiacea family. This plant has been cultivated in many parts of the world due to its therapeutic effects. This study was conducted to improve antioxidant activities of proliferated shoots from tissue culture. The seeds of plant were cultured in MS hormone free medium in order to obtain seedlings. Then the shoots were transfer to MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/ L BAP.After 45 days salicylic acid (SA) was added to the medium at concentrations of 0, 50, 100 and 200 µM. The antioxidant activity and phenolics, flavonoids and rosmarinic acid content in proliferated shoots were evaluated 4,7,10 and 14 days after treatment. As a result the highest free radical scavenging and reducing power activity, as well as the highest value of total phenolic and rosmarinic acid were observed in shoots after 14 days of treatment with 100 µM salicylic acid. The elevated level of superoxide anion scavenging activity and total flavonoids were obtained from the shoots treated with 50 µM salicylic acid for 14 days. Over all treatment with100 µM salicylic acid for 14 days was better in order to antioxidant activity and compounds with recognized antioxidant activity.

Nowadays, the use of a wide range of medicinal herbs such as saffron and its aromatic compounds is increasingly being regarded as natural sources of antioxidant properties. In addition to saffron stigma, saffron petal is a rich herbal source of antioxidant compounds. The present study was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications to study some of the enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants of two species of wild saffron in Guilan Province compared with agronomic saffron (C. sativus). The results of this study showed that total phenol, flavonoids and anthocyanins in agronomic saffron were significantly higher than those in the other two species. The amount of flavonel in C. speciosus and the level of antioxidant activity (DPPH) in C. caspius were significantly higher than other species. The level of PPO activity in C. sativus and C. speciosus was significantly higher than that in C. caspius. However, there was no significant difference in the level of POD activity among the three studied species. Therefore, according to the results of this study, petals of different species of saffron are good sources of non-enzymatic and enzymatic antioxidants and can be used as an available natural antioxidant in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

In order to study the diverse effects of seed priming with 24-epibrassinolide (EBL) (0, 0.1, 1 mg/l) to increase tolerance of tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) to salinity (0, 70 and 140 mM NaCl), the experiments were conducted as factorial based on completely randomized design at greenhouse condition. Results showed that salt stress significantly decreased the growth of tomato plants. However, priming with EBL (1 mg/l) significantly decreased the negative effects of NaCl (particularly at 140 mM). At this case, EBL increased the fresh and dry weights (<2 folds), total chlorophyll (+72%), carotenoids (+ 2 folds), free proline (+3 folds), electrolyte leakage (-18.6%), Na+/K+ in the roots (-57.5%) and shoots (-62%) compared to salinity control. Generally, it could be concluded that priming with epibrassinolide resulted in enhanced salt tolerance in tomato plants via increment in free proline, photosynthetic pigments and decrease in electrolyte leakage and Na+/K+ ratio in the tissues.

DNA extraction from plant tissues often causes most problems. For example, unsuccessful removal secondary metabolites during extraction, such as phenolic compounds in aromatic and medicinal plants, cause to some mistakes in result of molecular experiments by using of the extracted DNA. Achillea wilhelmsii is a medicinal plant belong to Asteraceae family and native to Iran, there is little information about genomic data in this plant. Therefore, optimizing of the DNA extraction methods for obtaining suitable quality and quantity yield is necessary. In this study, two traditional DNA extraction methods (using fresh and herbarium leaf samples) and commercial DNA kit MAGNANTM in Yarrow have been compared. Results showed that DNA extracted from fresh leaves of yarrow according to Khanuja et al. (1999) was better than the other methods which mentioned in this research, because of the increased amount of extracted DNA and reduced harmful compounds such as RNA, polysaccharides, protein and secondary metabolites. To evaluate the quality of extracted DNA from herbarium specimens showed that, in spite of the high yielding DNA (10-50 fold ratio to the other methods), quality of this extract was low on agarose gel because of smear and broken down the molecules. It can be considered as a limitation of the extract in molecular experiments. Procedure of MAGNANTM DNA kit was appropriate for reducing time and cost of the extraction as well as low contamination to protein and RNA, but the process needs some modifications for yarrow to increase the amount of extracted DNA.

Epilobium minutiflorum belongs to the genus Epilobium with important medicinal properties. In this study, the natural variation of phytochemical compounds of E. minutiflorum at different altitudes has been investigated. Aerial parts of plants were collected at flowering stage from natural habitats at different altitudes of 2387, 2569 and 2813 masl. The plant extracts were obtained with 80% methanol and several phytochemical properties were measured. The properties included the total flavonoid content (TFL), total phenol (TPH), antioxidant capacity (AOX) and anthocyanin content (ACY) measured by the AlCl3, the Folin-Ciocalteu, the Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and the differential PH methods, respectively. In addition, phytochemical components were identified by the GC/MS method. The results of photometric analysis indicated that the population of Shemshak, located at the highest altitude showed the highest content of TFL, TPH and AOX with 30.39 mg/gr DW, 938.91 mg/gr DW and 77.77 mM/gr DW, respectively. The TFL, TPH and AOX values showed a positive correlation with altitude. The results of GC/MS analysis revealed the presence of 41 compounds in E. minutiflorum, which were separated into flavonoids, phenolic acid and its derivatives, steroids and terpenes groups. Shemshak population showed the highest value in all identified compounds. A positive correlation was also observed between altitude and 30 compounds identified by the GC/MS method including mainly flavonoids and phenolics. The results of this study indicated that environmental factors at higher altitudes may influence the elevation of the flavenols and phenol content in E. minutiflorum. The identification of these influential factors on phytochemical content at higher altitudes requires further studies.