عباس عالم زاده

Salinity stress is a main restricting factor for plants’ growth and development, resulting from climate change. The ornamental tobacco (Nicotiana alata) from the Solanaceae family is a bedding plant with attractive flowers suitable for semi-arid and arid lands. In order to obtain salt tolerance, the Na+/H+ antiporter gene was transferred from the halophyte eelgrass (Z. marina) grown in saltwater lake Urmia to N. alata. For gene transformation, leaf explants were immersed in liquid medium containing Agrobacterium tumefaciens containing the vacuolar gene ZmNHX1. The explants were subcultured on MS medium supplemented with 1 mg L-1 benzyl amino purine, 0.1 mg L−1 naphthalene acetic acid, 200 mg L-1 cefotaxime and 10 mg L-1 kanamycin. After regeneration, salinity stress was applied by 0, 210, 230 and 240 mM NaCl in a completely randomized design with three replications. For the first time, vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter gene ZmNHX1 was successfully transferred to ornamental tobacco. Compared to the wild type plants, the transgenic plants showed higher content of leaf chlorophyll, leaf carotenoid, fresh weight and dry weight of the whole plant, leaf proline content and leaf catalase activity. After salinity stress, the T revealed greater chlorophyll, carotenoid, anthocyanin, K+: Na+ ratio, fresh weight, dry weight, proline amount, catalase and ascorbate peroxidase activity. The T also demonstrated a lower decline in relative water content and a lesser increase of leaves electrolyte leakage, compared to the WT. The stable expression of ZmNHX1 obtained from eelgrass confer salinity stress tolerance in ornamental tobacco providing a new window for cultivation of this species in areas exposed to salinity stress and the resulting transgenic ornamental tobacco is suggested for garden flower cultivation in areas exposed to salinity stress.

Drought is a severe abiotic stress factor that significantly impacts rice production globally. The investigation of drought stress response components, particularly in plant roots, holds great importance. Recent evidence highlights the critical role played by long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the response to abiotic stress. In this study, we identified drought stress-induced lncRNAs in the root tip region of rice using transcriptome sequencing analysis performed on seedlings of a sensitive rice genotype (IR64) under drought and control conditions. We identified a total of 358 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNA), more than 60% of which were in intergenic regions. Our results demonstrated that DElncRNAs can directly or indirectly regulate 710 and 7535 mRNAs in cis and trans, respectively. Additionally, the target genes of DElncRNAs were involved in drought resistance genes, lateral root growth, and genes affecting auxin transport. We also identified 24 conserved sequence motifs in the upstream regions of DElncRNAs and differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs) motifs through a search and functional analysis of these motifs indicated their involvement in regulation of transcription, translation, and the transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway. Finally, we constructed a network of DElncRNAs and DEmRNAs. Our functional analysis of the top 10 hub lncRNAs in the network demonstrated their involvement in growth processes, cellular responses to stimuli, and signaling pathways. These results offer a comprehensive perspective on potentially functional lncRNAs and provide insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying drought resistance in the root tip region of rice.

The world's population is increasing, and the area of suitable agricultural land is not enough to supply food. Considering the nutritional value of wheat and its role in the food supply, poor soils and salty waters must be used for agriculture to solve the problem of food shortage in the world, so the use of salty waters for irrigation is inevitable in these conditions. Recently, special attention has been paid to the use of growth-promoting bacteria to moderate the effects of salinity. Microbial inoculation is better than other methods to reduce salinity stress because it minimizes production costs and environmental damage. This research was performed to investigate the effect of B. amyloliquefaciens inoculation on proline content, catalase (CAT), guaiacol peroxidase (GPx) activities, and protein expression in control and treatment plants. A factorial experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with three replications in the greenhouse of the School of Agriculture, Shiraz University, to investigate the effect of Bacillus bacteria (PGPR). The first factor was salinity levels (0 and 200 MM), the second factor was an application of bacteria (inoculated and non-inoculated), and the third factor was wheat genotypes (susceptible and resistant). The suspension containing Bacillus bacteria was injected into the soil during the application of salt stress. Twenty-four hours after salinity treatment, the leaves were sampled and used for all laboratory tests, such as measuring the activity of peroxidase enzymes, the amount of proline, and protein concentration. The data were analyzed using SAS software, and protein band pattern comparison was made by the SDS PAGE method. The results showed that using bacteria under salt stress increased the proline and catalase enzyme activity in both sensitive and resistant genotypes. Nevertheless, the peroxidase enzyme did not increase under stress conditions in the resistant cultivar. It also increased the amount of total protein in the susceptible variety. The effect of bacteria on the one Hundred-Seeds weight was not significant, but since the weight of one hundred seeds is one of the growth parameters that hardly changes, the slightest change in it can be effective, which was observed in this project. Finally, applying this bacterium caused changes in the pattern of protein bands in susceptible and resistant cultivars under salinity stress and non-stress conditions. These changes included the removal of the protein band or its higher expression in different stress conditions compared to normal conditions. The plant inoculation by bacteria and its use several times in the roots region of sensitive and resistant wheat has positively affected biochemical properties. Applying these types of bacteria without harming the environment can be a practical method to control salinity stress and maintain optimal yield in salt soils. Control the signals received by the bacteria from the plant and the effects of the bacteria on the growth of the plant by manipulating the bacteria. It can be used as a suitable alternative to the complex and time-consuming methods of gene transfer to the plant.

Salinity stress is one of the most important factors causing yield loss in crop worldwide. In order to improve salt tolerance in crop, it is important to understand salt-tolerance mechanism. Ongoing researches have been directed toward understanding the effects of salt stress, with the eventual goal of discovering molecular and cellular mechanisms used by stress-tolerant species and the elements that might contribute to enhanced salt tolerance to sensitive plants. An active process of cellular suicide termed programmed cell death (PCD) is crucial for development and immune responses in eukaryotes. In plants, PCD is involved in plant development and survival. Recent studies have revealed that diverse environmental stresses, such as salt stress, nutrient starvation and drought, are able to induce PCD in plant root tips. This findings indicate that this active process is highly conserved and has vital roles in development and response to external stimuli. PCD plays an important role in adapting to environmental stress. Understanding the molecular basis of PCD mechanism makes possible genetically manipulation of plants to improve environmental stress tolerance. BAX inhibitor-1 (BI-1) located in the Endoplasmic reticulum(ER) was found to be a key cell death attenuator in eukaryotes.

In this study, the potential role of a gene which encodes BAX Inhibitor 1-like protein (BI_85) in salt tolerance was evaluated using bioinformatics and experimental approaches such as promoter and gene regulatory network analysis, as well as Real-Time PCR. Two salt-tolerant (Arg) and salt-sensitive (Alamut) cultivated wheat genotypes and Aegilops crassa, as a wild wheat relative, were materials used in this experiment. Seeds imbibing in the dark for 24h at 4°c germinated for 3d at 25°C and were grown hydroponically in half-strength Hoagland solution circulated by air pumps in a stabilized greenhouse at 25oC, with a 16h light/8h dark photoperiod. To distinguish salt stress response from developmental changes in gene expression, an experiment was designed to monitor changes in transcripts in the absence of stress. Three-week-old seedlings were treated with a 0 and 150-mM NaCl solutions in combination with Hoagland solution. Sampling was carried out after treatment at 0h, 12h, and 3w. RNA extraction (Denazist, Mashhad, Iran, S-1020-1) and cDNA synthesis (Fermentas, Ontario, Canada, EP0441) were carried out for real-time RT-PCR according to the manufacturer’s instruction. Normalization of the target gene (BI_85) was carried out based on Actin reference gene. The Pfaffl formula (ratio=2-ΔΔCt) was used to calculate relative expression. Building a network using Pathway studio software was carried to discover another components that have relationships with differentially expression gene (BI-1), which probably are involved in stress-related responses.

BAX Inhibitor was shown to be part of an interaction network that included 26 relationships. For example TED4 which has a relationship with BAX Inhibitor like-1 is implicated in salt acclimation signaling. Some evidence has been offered for the hypothesis that BI-1 probably can be used as a pore or ion channel in the endoplasmic reticulum for calcium handling. The Salt Overly Sensitive (SOS) signaling pathway is a well-recognized signaling pathway known to be essential for acquisition of ion homeostasis. In response to salt stress, a calcium signal activates the SOS pathway by binding to the calcium binding proteins, SOS3 and SCaBP8/CBL10, which in turn activate the protein kinase protein kinase SOS2 to regulate the plasma membrane Na+/H+ antiporter SOS1. According to the regulatory network, this gene may act upstream of the SOS signaling pathway. Promoter analysis were applied using plantcare database to shed light on underlying regulatory mechanism of the BI_85 expression. According to promoter analysis, the presence of stress-responsive regulatory elements such as ABRE (abscisic acid responsive element), LTR (low-temperature responsive element), MBS (MYB binding site involved in drought-inducibility), CGTCA-motif (MeJA- responsive element), TGACG-motif (MeJA- responsive element), ERE (ethylene-responsive element), and GT-1 motif (salt responsive element) in the promoter confirms the role of this gene in environmental stresses tolerance including salinity. It was also figured out that the expression patterns of BI_85 was significantly different between susceptible and salt resistant cultivars in response to salt stress. In more details, after 12h, salt stress induced BI-1 expression in the shoots of Arg and roots of Ae. crassa and reduced it in shoots of Alamut. After 3 weeks, salt stress induced BI-1 expression in the shoots of Arg and reduced it in shoots of Alamut and Ae. crassa.

According to bioinformatics and experimental results, it can be concluded that BI_85 can contribute to salt tolerance in wheat and can be used for genetic manipulation to improve tolerance to stress.

The recognition of pathways involved in salt tolerance mechanisms is one of the interesting topics in plant sciences and the new data-mining techniques provide a new insight for researchers. In this research, various attribute weighting and decision tree (DT) algorithms were executed to discover biochemical markers linked to salinity tolerance. In this regard, to assess some biochemical markers such as protein, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, proline, sodium and potassium in wheat and its wild relative Aegilops crassa, a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications. The factors in the study were genotypes (Arg (salt tolerance) and Alamout (salt sensitive), and a wild relative (Ae. crassa)) and salinity (sodium chloride 0 mM and 150 mM). According to these approaches, proline, superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase can be used as biochemical markers to screen wheat genotypes for salt tolerance. Feature selection and decision tree results showed that hierarchy combination of proline, superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase can be used as biochemical markers for selection of salinity tolerant wheat. The DT Parallel Gain Ratio model when run on the Info Gain Ratiodataset and the DT Gain Ratiomodel when run on the Ruledataset were the best model in distinguishing sensitive and tolerant genotypes with 97.5% and 91.67% performances, respectively. Overall, the results showed that combining bioinformatics, and laboratory studies can lead to identifying pathways associated with salinity and provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underpinning stress tolerance.

Functional genomics7T 7Thelps7T 7Tto7T 7Tunderstand the7T 7Tkey7T 7Tmechanisms involved in7T 7Tsalt stress7T 7Ttolerance7T and 7Tallows the possibility of7T 7Ttargeted7T 7Tgenetic7T 7Tmanipulation7T 7Tto improve7T 7Tcrop tolerance to7T 7Tsalinity7T. The goal of this study was to identify new genes related to salt stress and functional analysis based on expressed sequence tags (EST). Therefore, two EST libraries under control and salt stressed conditions were downloaded from Harvard and Graingenes databanks. EGassembler, NCBI BLAST, MaxPlanck and IDEG6 software tools were applied for clustering and assembling EST sequences, determination of proteins related to unigenes (contigs and singletons), functional categories and statistics test, respectively. Results showed that twenty functional categories are significantly different between control and stress conditions. Most of contigs and singletons fell into protein and RNA categories whereas CHO metabolism and TCA and organic transformation had the minimum of numbers of contigs and singletons in both control and salt stressed conditions. Percentage of unigenes in mitochondrial electron transport/ATP synthesis, Lipid metabolism, redox, protein, RNA, DNA, and cell categories were significantly higher in stress condition compared with control condition. Therefore, these functional categories 7Tcould be involved in7T 7Tthe mechanism of7T 7Tresponse7T 7Tto salt stress. 7TTwo hundred and seventy-one genes were differentially expressed that grouped into 23 functional categories. The wheat genes identified in this study can be considered as candidates genes to improve salt tolerance through genetic manipulation.

Plasma membrane proton pump (H+-ATPase) has important roles in various physiological processes. Hence, the expression pattern of the gene which encodes a plasma membrane proton pump was surveyed in the shoots of resistant and sensitive wheat cultivars and its wild relative, Aegilops crassa under salinity stress. Salinity stress induced by adding 150 mM NaCl to the basic solution and sampling was performed in three intervals: 0, 12 h and 3 weeks after applying salinity treatment. A quantitative PCR technique was used to study the relative expression of the gene of interest and a gene encoding actin was used as the reference gene to normalize the samples. The results showed that the expression level of the gene encoding plasma membrane proton pump significantly increased in response to salt stress after 3 weeks in comparison to 12 h after applying salinity treatment. It also revealed that the expression level of the gene was significantly higher in the resistant cultivar, Arg, than sensitive cultivar and Aegilops crassa. It revealed that the expression level of the gene was not significantly different in sensitive cultivar under salinity treatment in different times after salinity treatment. The bioinformatics analysis of promoter region of the gene encoding plasma membrane proton pump showed that various motifs within this region involved in response to abiotic stress and light. Overall, bioinformatics and laboratory studies revealed that gene encoding a plasma membrane proton pump plays a role in induction of salinity tolerance.

This study was carried out to identify new salt induced genes from wheat involved in salt stress tolerance using EST analysis and study the role of gene encoding BAX Inhibitor 1-like protein (BI-85) in response to salt stress. Using EST analysis, it is also cleared that BI-85 is one of the salt induced genes whose expression increased under salt stress condition. Hence, this gene was selected to determine its expression pattern in response to salinity stress in tolerant (Arg) and sensitive (Alamout) genotypes of wheat and its wild relative, Aegilops crassa (DD). Gene expression analysis at 0, 12 hours and 3 weeks after salt treatment using Real-time PCR revealed that the expression of BI_85 gene under salt stress in the root was markedly greater in Aegilops crassa compared with salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive cultivated genotypes although its expression was not significantly different between the three genotypes under unstressed conditions. Twelve hours after salt treatment, in Aegilops crassa the expression of BI-85 significantly increased in comparison with before treatment and its expression level was dramatically decreased after 3 weeks in these genotypes while the expression level of this gene was not different before and after salt treatment in cultivated genotypes. It looks there are some signal transduction pathways only in tolerant genotypes that increased salt tolerance in these genotypes and the product of BI-85 gene plays a critical role in these pathways and the protein encoded by this gene may contribute to a negative feedback regulation of BI-85 expression.

this study was carried out to detect the presence of genetically modified maize in imported into Iran using molecular approaches. Five samples of imported maize from Argentina in the second half of 2010 were obtained from Bandar Imam Khomeini custom. Using specific primers for CaMV 35S promoter and nos terminator, PCR was performed. In this study Invertase gene of maize was used as internal control. The results showed that maize samples imported from Argentina were genetically modified and they have regulatory regions of CaMV 35S and nos in their genome. The shipment was not labled and there was no indication in the accompanying documents that the shipment “may contain living modified organisms”.

This study was conducted to evaluate the public attitudes towards Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Bushehr city in south-west Iran. For this purpose, 295 questionnaires with 39 items were randomly distributed among people in Bushehr in 2009. These questionnaires had three parts including personal information, perception levels and public attitudes in the field of GMOs. Results showed that education level and age were the most influential factors on the public perceptions about these organisms. The results also showed that the public awareness about GMOs is limited. Only 3% had enough knowledge and around 25 percentages had no information in this filed. Nevertheless, less than 33% of participants were disagreed with the conception of GMOs. Participants with 18-25 years old and people with more than 45 years old were the most and the least knowledgeable group of people about GMOs, respectively. Around 45% of people had previous exposure and had studied at various levels about these organisms. Based on our results, 34% and 40% of participants had no information whatsoever about the application of biotechnology in plant and animal sciences, respectively.

With the advent of genetic engineering techniques, GMOs appeared on the market in the world. Foods drive from GMOs are of higher quality and their production is cheaper. Informed trade of GMOs in international market and importation of GMOs with the consent of the importing country is emphasized in Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and several other national, regional and international instruments. Therefore, rapid, cheap and sensitive methods for detecting and monitoring GMOs are required. One of the important factors to confirm transformation is the diagnosis of genetic elements transferred to transgenic organisms. To date, two groups of techniques are used for detection of GMOs: the PCR-based and non-PCR based techniques. Although there are more advanced non-PCR-based techniques for the detection of GMO, but since the required equipment is expensive and the detailed analysis is not necessary, the PCR-based GMO detection techniques such as multiplex PCR, real time PCR, NASBA and LAMP seems to be more sufficient for developing countries. These methods have been more recently used due to their high efficiency, low cost and availability.

To develop genetically modified organisms in different societies it necessary to evaluate the public views in this regard. So in this research, public attitude towards genetically modified organisms and biosafety was evaluated in the East Azarbayjan province in April 2009. This research was conducted using questionnaires containing 39 questions on the 250 people from the East Azarbayjan. Our results show that many participants didn’t know anything about genetically modified organisms. Most of people agreed with the producing and consuming of these organisms and they believed this is necessary to use them in agriculture. Near to %90 of people agreed with the producing of transgenic plants and %76 agreed with transgenic animals. The knowledge of participants in biosafety was less than our estimation. Close to %85 of people were not familiar with regulatory systems for genetically modified organisms. According to these results, we conclude that public perception of the East Azarbayjan about genetically modified organisms were positive and with increasing the knowledge of people about these organisms it is possible to eliminate the present ambiguities and doubts about this issue.

The purpose of this article is to assess public views, knowledge and influencing factors on the consumer acceptance of GMO crops in Khorasan Razavi Province. In order to assess a more diverse cultural and geographical spectrum, a questionnaire survey with 39 items was conducted on 320 people from 3 cities in Khorasan Razavi Province (Mashhad, Nyshabor and Sabzevar) in fall 2008. We examined the consumer acceptance of biotechnology by modeling their views about the potential of biotechnology to improve the quality of life. The results indicated that participants had a complex mental picture of plant biotechnology, including environmental consequences, socio-economic and value-driven issues. Data analysis indicated that in general, public knowledge level about this technology was low. But, public attitude towards this technology was positive and the majority of participants agreed with the production and consumption of these products in Iran. Also young, male and educated people showed more tendency to consume GMO crops compared to other groups of people. Over all, the results of this survey indicated that there is a direct relationship between public knowledge level and the acceptance of this technology. Consequently, the progress of this technology in Khorasan Razavi Province needs to prepare a suitable ground for improving public knowledge level in this content in order to make a rational judgment about the risks and benefits of this technology.

The acceptance of a new technology by consumers is the most critical stage in the development of that technology. This study investigated perception and attitude towards genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and biosafety in Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiary Province. A questionnaire containing personal information with 39 questions was prepared and distributed among participants in 1387. The results indicated that education level, education field and job had the highest impact on public perception of GMO and biosafety. Around 30% of respondents had no information about GMO and close to 33% of them disagreed with the production of these organisms. Around 60% of respondents agreed with biotechnology and transgenic plants and believed that they are necessary for modern agriculture. Near to 17% of participants had no information about biosafety and close to 33% of respondents had a little information about biosafty. More than 90 % of respondents were not familiar with biosafety regulations for controlling the risk of GMOs. Results indicated that mass media were not active in this field and they should play more effective role in this area to improve public perception about GMO and development the public acceptability of GMO.

To develop genetically modified organisms in different societies it is necessary to evaluate the public views about genetically modified organisms. So in this research public attitude towards genetically modified organisms and biosafety was evaluated in Ardebil Province in April 2009. This research was done using questionnaires containing 39 questions on the 250 people of Ardebil. According to the results only a few participants didn’t know anything about genetically modified organisms. Most of people agreed with the producing and consuming of these organisms and they believed this is necessary to use them in agriculture. Near to 92% of people agreed with the producing of transgenic plants and 72% agreed with transgenic animals. The knowledge of participants in biosafety was more than our estimate. Close to 85% of people were not familiar with regulatory procedures of prereleasing and pre-commercialization of genetically modified organisms. According to these results, we conclude that public perception of Ardebil about genetically modified organisms were positive recommend that with increasing the knowledge of people about these organisms the acceptance will be further improved.