شیوا شهسواری

The pomegranate fruit is one of the most important horticultural products due to the presence of polyphenolic, antioxidant and anti-fungal compounds. In the present study, morphological and phytochemical compounds diversity was investigated in eight Iranian commercial pomegranate cultivars. Fourteen morphological characters and 10 chemical compounds were measured. Based on PCA analysis the most variable morphological characteristics among Punica cultivars studied were the wood surface, the leaf tip, the leaf incision, growth power and rained condition. High-performance liquid chromatograms of chlorgenic acid, caffeic acid, Para Coumaric acid as well as titrable acidity, total soluble solid, total phenolic contents, antioxidant activity in juice and peel of cultivars differentiated the cultivars studied. Comparing the two UPGMA dendrograms of Punica cultivars based on morphological data and chemical contents indicated certain disagreement between them. The correlation between morphological and chemical compounds and geographical distances of Punica cultivars was not statistically significant by the Mantel test. These findings indicate that Punica cultivars studied differ in their genetic content, however, this genetic difference is not correlated with their geographical distance.

Punica granatum L. (pomegranate), is among important horticultural plants which is cultivated in many parts of the world and appreciated for its fruit value and medicinal properties. Several pomegranate cultivars are cultivated in Iran which differs in fruit characteristics and agronomical features. In spite of economic importance of pomegranate cultivars, limited knowledge is available on genetic and cytogenetic peculiarities of these cultivars. Therefore, we aimed to investigate cytogenetically twelve unreported cultivars and also compile all available data on chromosome pairing, chiasma frequency and meiotic irregularities in 88 cultivars and carry on a meta analysis. We found all cultivars to have 2n = 2x = 16 chromosome number, but significantly differed in all meiotic features studied. Most of meiotic features studied were significantly correlated while PCA analysis revealed that characters like chiasma frequency and distribution as well as ring bivalents are associated to each other and differentiated the cultivars which were distributed towards longitude. Similarly, characters related to meiotic irregularities such as chromosome stickiness and anaphase failure differentiated the cultivars which were distributed toward altitude. PCA plot placed pomegranate cultivars in three major groups due to meiotic difference. Data obtained can be used in future conservation and breeding of pomegranate.

Recurrent spontaneous abortion is one of the diseases that can lead to physical, psychological, and, economical problems for both individuals and society. Recently a few numbers of genetic polymorphisms in kinase insert domain-containing receptor (KDR) gene are examined that can endanger the life of the fetus in pregnant women.

The risk of KDR gene polymorphisms was investigated in Iranian women with idiopathic recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA).

A case controlled study was performed. One hundred idiopathic recurrent spontaneous abortion patients with at least two consecutive pregnancy losses before 20 weeks of gestational age with normal karyotypes were included in the study. Also, 100 healthy women with at least one natural pregnancy were studied as control group. Two functional SNPs located in KDR gene; rs1870377 (Q472H), and rs2305948 (V297I) as well as one tag SNP in the intron region (rs6838752) were genotyped by using PCR based restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. Haplotype frequency was determined for these three SNPs’ genotypes. Analysis of genetic STRUCTURE and K means clustering were performed to study genetic variation.

Functional SNP (rs1870377) was highly linked to tag SNP (rs6838752) (D´ value=0. 214; χ2 = 16.44, p<0. 001). K means clustering showed that k = 8 as the best fit for the optimal number of genetic subgroups in our studied materials. This result was in agreement with Neighbor Joining cluster analysis.

In our study, the allele and genotype frequencies were not associated with RSA between patient and control individuals. Inconsistent results in different populations with different allele frequencies among RSA patients and controls may be due to ethnic variation and used sample size.