بیژن محمودی

The objective of this study was to identify known intergenic lncRNAs related to biological pathways of acidosis in Holstein calves using ruminal tissue. Two groups of healthy calves (N=3) and affected by acidosis (N=3) were compared. Paired-end sequencing method was performed using the Hiseq2500 illumine platform. Hisat2 software was used to align reads to the bovine reference genome and StringTie software package was used to assemble read files into transcripts. Using next generation sequencing, 1636 genes belonging to known intergenic lncRNAs were identified, of which 56 genes showed significant differential expression (P≤0.05). Neighbor genes of known intergenic lncRNAs were determined on bovine genome. Analysis of biological pathways and molecular function showed that five biological pathways were significantly (P≤0.05) enriched. These pathways were Apelin signaling pathway, Gap junction, Glucagon signaling pathway, Renin secretion, and AGE-RAGE signaling pathway. Moreover, two molecular functions including gap junction channel activity, and phosphatidyl inositol phospholipase C activity were significantly (P≤0.05) enriched. Some lncRNAs have different expression in healthy and acidosis samples, and the decreased pH acts as a stimulus to activate some biological signaling pathways. In conclusion, it was indicated that lncRNAs with differential expression between the control group and the group affected by acidosis are associated with pathways related to rumen energy metabolism and signaling. Identified differentially expressed lncRNAs could be used as prognostic in acidosis and biomarkers or promising candidates in animal breeding.

Assessing genetic biodiversity and population structure of minor populations through the information provided by neutral molecular markers, allows determination of their extinction risk and to design strategies for their management and conservation. Analysis of microsatellite loci is known to be highly informative in the reconstruction of the historical processes underlying the evolution and differentiation of animal populations. Iranian goat populations are recognized as an invaluable component of the world’s goat genetic resources. The aim of this work is to study the genetic status of Raeini goat population through the analysis of molecular data from 13 microsatellites markers. The mean expected heterozygosity across loci within populations ranged from 0.716 to 0.852. Genetic diversity measures revealed a good status of biodiversity in the Raeini goat population. The observed number of alleles ranged from 4 (ILSTS022) to 10 (BM121) with a total of 92 alleles and mean of 7.08 alleles across loci. The overall heterozygosity, PIC and Shannon index values were 0.808, 0.76 and 1.719 indicating high genetic diversity. Only 5 out of 13 loci were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The mean Fis was -0.016. Only 4 loci had positive Fis values and 9 loci had negative values. Genetic bottleneck hypotheses were also explored. Our data suggest that the Raeini goats have not experienced a genetic bottleneck in the recent past.

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of different levels of essential oils of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and cumin (Cuminum cyminum (on antioxidant status, lipid peroxidation and serum metabolites in broiler chickens for 42 days. 336 day-old male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were allocated to 7 treatments with 4 replications. Dietary treatments were included a corn-soybean based diet as control, and groups of containing 100, 200 and 300 part per million (ppm) of wormwood and cumin essential oils. At the end of experiment, two birds per each replicate were randomly selected, bled and then killed to determine antioxidant indexes and serum metabolites. Chemical analysis of worwood and cumin essential oils by gas chromatography–mass spectra (GC-MS) showed as the main constituents β-pinene (24.2%) and γ-terpinene (26.24%), respectively. Results showed that addition of 200 and 300 ppm of wormwood essential oil and 300 ppm of cumin essential oil significantly increased (P<0.05) glutathione peroxidase activity in liver and kidney when compared with the control group. Also, treatment of 200 ppm cumin essential oil significantly increased (P<0.05) glutathione peroxidase activity in kidney than control group. Chicks received 200 and 300 ppm cumin essential oil and 200 ppm wormwood essential oil in the diet, had higher (P<0.05) superoxide dismutase activity in liver than control group. There were no significant difference between experimental groups regarding liver and kidney catalase activity and liver superoxide dismutase activity (P>0.05). Adding 300 ppm wormwood and cumin essential oils significantly increased (P<0.05) total antioxidant capacity in serum compared with the control group. Supplementation of diet with wormwood and cumin essential oils, significantly decreased (P<0.05) malondialdehyde concentration in liver, kidney and serum, and significantly decreased serum cholesterol and LDL concentration. Serum HDL concentration significantly increased (P<0.05) than control group, but did not significant affect on other serum metabolites.In general, results indicated that addition of wormwood and cumin essential oils to diet, caused improvement body antioxidant system, increased serum HDL, and decreased serum cholesterol and LDL concentration in broiler chicks.