abbasali emamjomeh

Flixweed is an annual or biennial herbaceous plant. The seeds of this plant are small, slightly elongated, and typically come in two colors that form inside the pod. A lack of synchronized care for the sorrel pods on the main stem leads to grain loss and a reduction in economic yield. The flowering process and the genes involved play a crucial role in coordinating the formation, growth, and maturation of Flixweed pods. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression patterns of genes involved in the flowering process of Flixweed—namely, LFY, TFL, AG, FLC, AP1, and MYB24—under different concentrations of gibberellin and auxin treatments. Thus, increasing or decreasing the expression of these genes can impact the rate of Flixweed grain loss. The results of the analysis of variance showed that the effects of auxin and gibberellin foliar application levels on the relative expression of the LFY, TFL, AG, FLC, AP1, and MYB24 genes were significant at the 1% probability level. Based on a comparison of the results, the mean relative expression levels of the LFY, TFL, AG, and MYB24 genes were influenced by treatments with gibberellic acid and auxin. The highest relative expression of FLC was observed with the application of 60 mg/L auxin. The lowest relative expression levels of LFY (2.9466), TFL (5.6466), AG (4.3066), and MYB24 (-1.6867) were observed with the application of 30 mg/L auxin. The lowest relative expression of FLC and AP1 genes was achieved with the foliar application of 15 mg/L auxin and 60 mg/L gibberellin, respectively.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important oilseed crop belonging to the Pedaliaceae family with high quality yield, which can be said to have originated in some developing countries in the world due to the need for labor, and high rural harvest. Sesame is an edible plant that contains odorless oil. In addition, it is also a good source of protein and fat for humans and pets.Crops are grown underwater in dry and semi-arid regions where water pressure is great. Furthermore, it is sensitive to the dry season, mainly in the vegetative stage in all growing districts, and its production potential is low in semi-arid areas due to water stress. Since much of Iran's land is located in arid and semi-arid areas, this has led breeders to enhance water or drought tolerance traits, which is one of the main goals of the program crop improvement. However, genotype × environment interaction poses a major challenge in studying quantitative traits because it reduces yield stability across different environments and also complicates the interpretation of genetic experiments, and makes prediction difficult. A stable genotype has performance that remains constant or little changed regardless of any changes in environmental conditions. Several stability analyzes have been proposed to determine the linear relationship between genotype and environment performance. Among these, Eberhart and Russell (1966) proposed a method in which the environmental index is the average performance of all inputs in an environment. Therefore, further research into sesame's genetic differences and breeding is needed to progress and stabilize its yield under different environments. These findings may be applicable in detecting how sesame genetic resources may be used to develop novel cultivars suited to dry settings or enhance remaining cultivars. In this regard to analyze genotype × environment interaction and determine the grain yield stability of 104 sesame genotypes in the tropics and subtropical climates of Iran, an alpha lattice design with two replications during 2019 in two stations, including Kerman and Jiroft were evaluated under two conditions, normal irrigation, and drought stress at the end of the season (irrigation interruption in 50% of flowering). Then, the univariate statistics of regression coefficient (bi), mean squares of deviation from regression (Sdi2), Shukla’sstability variance (σi2), Wricke’s ecovalence (Wi2), Environmental variance (Si2), determination coefficient values (R2) and coefficient of variability (C.V) were used to evaluate the stability of the grain yield of genotypes. Combined analysis of variance showed that the effects of genotype, environment × genotype and genotype × environment linear on grain yield were significant, suggesting that genotypes differ in response to changes in environment. In order to study the interactions of genotype × environment more precisely and to determine genotypes with stable and high yields, different stability parameters were calculated for each genotype. Calculating stability parameters showed that genotypes G14, G19, G42, G80, G46, G69, G44, and G43 were recognized as genotypes with stable yield and suitable adaptation, respectively. Different parametric and non-parametric stabilization procedures can be proposed to select drought-tolerant genotypes under different environmental conditions; these procedures can be used to identify the best genotypes under drought conditions. Therefore, yield stability analysis can be used in combination with parametric and non-parametric methods to evaluate and identify drought-tolerant genotypes. In this research, the studied genotypes indicated various environmental responses and proved a high genetic ability to adapt to water-deficient stress conditions. According to the findings of this research, the genotypes Jiroft local cultivar, Dezful local cultivar, TN78-84, SG90154-137, JL18 (82), SG90154-71, TN78-369, and, Halil had the best at adapting to environments with water stress. Therefore, according to the above analysis results, these genotypes can be introduced to low-water areas of Iran.

Yaghooti grape is the earliest ripening grape in Iran and has advantages such as good taste and high heat and drought resistance; but it has highly cluster density. Physiological alterations of Yaghooti grape in three growth stages, as well as the amount of accumulation of some physiological substances, under the three hormones gibberellic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, and abscisic acid. Abscisic acid hormone had the most positive effect on total chlorophyll and carotenoid levels. The average amount of total chlorophyll was equal to (25.51), (18.76) and (26.16) mg/ml in the pre-flowering, flowering, and post-flowering stages, respectively. Under three hormones, the protein level is greatly reduced by 70%, Gibberellin treatment in the third stage of cluster development caused a 26% increase in carbohydrate level. The guaiacol peroxidase increased under indole acetic acid, but other hormonal treatments decreased the amount of this enzyme in Yaghooti grapes. The biggest reduction was related to gibberellin treatment with nearly 80% of the control sample in the first and second stage of cluster development and 55% in the third stage. The amount of ascorbate peroxidase enzyme was accompanied by an upward trend under influence of abscisic acid. Also, all three hormones almost caused a decrease in catalase enzyme activity in all three developmental stages. Indole acetic acid increased the activity of polyphenol oxidase enzyme during stages. Gibberellin, apart from slightly increasing the activity of ascorbate peroxidase enzyme during flowering, strongly reduced the activity of three other enzymes during all stages.

Cold is one of the most important and primitive factors limiting plant growth, especially tropical and subtropical plants. Sugarcane is a tropical and subtropical plant that produces 70% of the total world's sugar. So its impact on the global economy is transparent and undeniable. The main problem with most sugarcane cultivars is their extreme sensitivity to cold, which reduces the yield, sugar content and quality of their syrup. The long-term meteorological statistics of Khuzestan province in the past years, show that temperatures below 0°C occur in the sugarcane cultivation and industries almost every year. This factor has a direct effect on reducing sugar production as well as reducing final income. Among the commercial varieties of sugarcane, “Saccharum officinarum var CP69-1062” cultivar has high yield and produces a lot of sugar, but its main problem is its sensitivity to cold and encountering with this stress, which may reduce the yield and content of sugar that can be extracted from it. In contrast, “Saccharum spontaneum” is a wild cultivar with high sucrose content and resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses such as cold stress. So, according to aforementioned, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of cold stress on morphological, physiological and biochemical traits of two sugarcane cultivars CP69-1062 (cold-sensitive) and S. spontaneum (cold-tolerant) under controlled conditions, to: (1) Reporting putative Cold-tolerance cultivars, Aiming to expand their production and use them in breeding programs such as backcross and producing new tolerant cultivars, (2) Reporting The most important traits affected under cold stress and (3) Reporting stable traits under normal and cold stress conditions.

The experiment was performed as factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three replications in the tissue Culture and biotechnology Laboratory and Research Greenhouse of Khuzestan Sugarcane Development Research and Training Institute, and cold chamber in the 2019-2020 crop year. To apply cold stress, sugarcane seedlings were placed in cold chamber and exposed to 0°C and -4°C for 24 hours. After the end of the stress period, sampling and analysis were immediately performed. Finally, morphological, physiological and biochemical traits of stressed and control samples such as malondialdehyde content (MDA), electrolyte leakage (EL), leaf pigments, catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), supraxide Dismutase (SOD), proline and total water soluble carbohydrates (Wsc) of the leaf were measured.

The first effects of cold stress were observed on photosynthesis pigments among all cultivars. However, the sensitive cultivar had a greater reduction compared to tolerant cultivar. Cold stress significantly increased electrolyte leakage (EL) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content from 25 to -4°C in all cultivars, particularly in sensitive cultivar. Moreover, proline content and total water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) of leaf showed significant increased under cold stress, particularly in tolerant cultivar. Under cold stress, Catalase (CAT) activity significantly decreased compared to control temperature, which was accompanied with negative correlation with proline content. In addition, Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Peroxidase (POD) and Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity was higher than control temperature in all cultivars, particularly in tolerant ones. The intensity of  these changes were less at -4°C due to intracellular freezing, ice crystals formation and the abolition of cellular metabolic activities. Phenotypicaly, at 0°C, the leaves of the tolerant cultivar showed little change in appearance in comparision with control temperature (25°C). On the other hand,  at -4°C the effects of seedling damage were clearly observed.

The results showed that both sensitive (S. officinarum var CP69-1062) and tolerant (S. spontaneum) cultivars had different morphological, physiological and biochemical responses under cold stress compared to control temperature and to each other, that this case indicates different genomic structure, genetic capacity, and their other characteristics in cold tolerance. In addition, S. spontaneum cultivar had better and more efficient defense mechanism than commercial variety CP69-1062 and thus, was more tolerant to cold stress. Finally the set of these physiological and biochemical changes in both sensitive and tolerant cultivars, is to maintain survival and yield under cold stress.

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a key cereal crop throughout the world and important model for plant genetics and biology. Establishment of an efficient transient gene expression system in maize facilitates plant functional genomics projects using gene silencing or heterologous protein overexpression strategies. The present study was aimed at optimizing an Agroinjection-mediated SCMV-based systemic heterologous gene expression system in maize.

Recombinant DNA encoding sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) containing the coding sequence of green fluorescent protein between the protein 1 (P1) and helper component‐proteinase (HC‐Pro) cistrons, in‐frame with the viral open reading frame, was introduced into the meristematic tissue, above the coleoptilar node, of maize seedlings via a direct Agroinoculation procedure. The efficiency of Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains EHA105 and GV3101 in delivering the recombinant vector into three and seven-day old seedlings of three maize varieties, including sweet corn (Iochief and Golden Bantam varieties) and dent corn (inbred line B73), was examined. Expression of GFP transgene in symptomatic Agroinoculated plants was assessed by confocal fluorescent microscopy and RT-PCR in comparison with controls.

Results of RT-PCR and confocal fluorescent microscopy revealed that: 1) A. tumefaciens GV3101 is significantly more successful in delivering the recombinant SCMV-based vector into maize plants than EHA105, 2) the percentage of GFP-expressing Golden Bantam plants is significantly higher than two other maize varieties, and 3) The effectiveness of growth stage of maize seedlings on the percentage of GFP expressing Agroinjected plants depends upon the interactions between Agrobacterium strain and maize genotype.

In conclusion, a combination of the Golden Bantam maize variety and A. tumefaciens strain GV3101 for direct Agroinjection of the SCMV-based vector into seedlings at the early two-leaf stage could be a fast and efficient system for investigating gene functions in maize.

Drought stress is alarmingly on the rise over the past decades. The growth regulators including salicylic acid (SA) and chitosan are being successfully used to protect plants against biotic and abiotic stresses. To investigate the effect of SA, chitosan and their combination on biochemical traits and cucurbitacin contents in Citrullus colocynthis (L.) under different levels of drought stress, four irrigation levels (control (100% Field capacity: FC), 75, 50 and 25% FC) along with three different treatments by administration of SA and chitosan (150 mg L-1), and their combinations were used. Drought stress significantly increased the amount of sugar, proline, lipid peroxidation and the activity of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) while decreased growth parameters, protein, leaf relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll and carotenoid contents. Although SA could increase some biochemical traits including sugar, chlorophyll and carotenoid contents only in severe level of drought stress, chitosan and the combined treatment exerted beneficial effects in almost all levels of irrigation. Furthermore, combination of SA and chitosan induced more protective effects compared to only chitosan treatment in increasing proline and the activities of SOD and CAT. Combined treatment was also effective in increasing cucurbitacin B, C and L contents but not cucurbitacin E. Combination of SA and chitosan showed the major impact on improving physiological parameters and cucurbitacin contents of C. colocynthis and therefore could be a potential candidate to protect the plant against adverse effects of drought stress.

The late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) protein family obtains a group of stress-induced hyper-hydrophilic proteins that accumulate in response to cellular dehydration. They are generally unstructured polypeptides without a well-defined three-dimensional structure and have been identified in a wide range of organisms from bacteria to higher plants. Herein, we made a phylogenetic and evolutionary analysis for LEA proteins in Poaceae. The full-length LEA protein sequences were acquired by performing the sequence search of sequenced hva1 against Poaceae species in the non-redundant protein database by a BlastX search tool. The sequences were aligned with the Clustal Omega tool. The MEME suite searched for conserved blocks among each LEA protein sequence. Also, the evolutionary relationship among the LEA protein sequences evaluates using the MEGA tool. The results display close sequence similarity not only into the species but also between species. The results demonstrated that LEA proteins cluster into two large subgroups. The overall average evolutionary difference in LEA protein sequence pairs estimated as 0.4022 amino acid substitutions per site from averaging over all sequence pairs. The LEA protein sequences contain a significant percentage of glycine residues but lack cysteine and tryptophan residues. The results indicate the occurrence of homologs in the subgroup before the divergence of the species. However, the expansion of the gene number in the Poaceae was approved by the duplication events in the preexisting genes rather than by the appearance of the altered LEA gene. Our data will provide novel insights for further studies of the Late Embryogenesis Abundant protein family in Poaceae.

Yaghouti grape of Sistan is an important fruit in Iran. Therefore, it is necessary some studies to evaluate different aspects related to early ripening in grape. This fruit can be harvested since first week of June. In this study, the genes related to signal transduction in early ripening were investigated, firstly; then two genes, MYBA and STE20, and GAPDH (as reference genes) were selected to more study. The expression of these genes were evaluated in different phenological growth stages and different early and late ripening genotypes of Sistan grape. The results indicated that expression of STE20 has been up-regulated highly in late-ripened genotypes (Fakhri and Cheshm-Gavi) during ripening stage. Also, there was significant difference between ripening and berry filling phenological growth stages as expression of STE20. On the other hand, this gene was down-regulated in early ripened Red-Yaghouti and White-Yaghouti genotypes. Also, the results indicated that expression of MYBA has up-regulated in early ripened Red-Yaghouti genotype of berry filling stage, while the expression of this gene was increased significantly in the late-ripened Chesm-Gavi genotype of ripening stage.

Drought stress is the most important factor in decreasing crop yield in most parts of the world. In order to investigate the effect of drought stress on some morphological and physiological traits of sesame plant, an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. In this experiment, the effects of different levels of drought stress (5%, 10%, 15%, and 25% field capacity) were investigated on the activity of antioxidant enzymes (catalase, polyphenol oxidase, ascorbate peroxidase, and peroxidase, some photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, carotenoid), some osmotic regulators including proline, and some morphological parameters (number of leaves, root length, stem height, plant height, leaf length, leaf width, dry weight of root, fresh weight of root, fresh weight of shoots, dry weight of shoots, fresh weight of plant, and dry weight of plant). After planting in pots, drought stress (5%, 10%, 15% and 25% of field capacity) was applied at seedling (four-leaf) stage and then the desired traits were measured. Statistical analyses showed that drought stress had a significant effect on all physiological and morphological features at 1% level. Morphological traits and photosynthetic pigments decreased with increasing drought stress (irrigation up to 5% of field capacity). Increasing drought stress levels increased root length in sesame. The highest root length (3.375 cm) was related to 5% of field capacity irrigation and the lowest root length (2.5 cm) was related to control (25% of field capacity irrigation). The highest levels of antioxidant enzymes and proline were also observed at the highest levels of drought stress (5% of field capacity irrigation). Based on the findings, the plant's growth measurements are recommended to be carried out at various developmental stages to find the effects of stress at each stage  so as to get an appropriate understanding of the effects of stress on the plant.

The Yaghoot grape of Sistan is the earliest grape cultivar in Iran and its product is harvested at the end of May. The early ripening in grape is a desirable trait, because the product will be harvested before starting the warm and dry 120-day winds so it can escape the Sistan heat season. In this study, the expression pattern of two genes, Chalcone Synthase and ABA-8′ Hydroxylase, as transcription factors involved in the early ripening process of Yaghooti grape cultivar were investigated during different developmental stages. The leaf samples related to early ripening cultivars Red and White Yaghooti and late cultivars Fakhri and Cheshm-e-gavi and Sangi intermediate cultivar  as control treatment were studied during two development stages of grape clusters (filling and ripening the berries) using Real-time PCR method. The results of the expression changes of the studied genes showed a meaningful expression pattern in early cultivars compared by late cultivars during differnet developmental stages in grape clusters. The findings indicated that the ABA-8′ Hydroxylase gene was a transcription factor involved in the early ripening of the Sistan Yaghooti grape cultivar, and the Chalcone Synthase gene are playing an important role in ripening and changing the color of the berries.

Today, nanosilver is one of the most commercialized nanomaterials. The demand for synthesis of Nanosilver through biocompatible routs due to wide biomedical application has increased. Use of plants and plant products as sustainable and renewable resources in the synthesis of nanoparticles is more advantageous over other biological routes. In this study, biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using aqueous extract of Withania somnifera as reducing agent is reported. Effect of parameters such as AgNO3 concentration, aqueous extract, pH and formation time were investigated and optimized by UV-visible spectroscopy in the synthesis of nanoparticles. At room temperature, the solution color started to change from pale yellow to dark brown due to the reduction of silver ion. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was applied for size and morphological analysis of nanoparticles. TEM result shows a spherical structure with an average size ranging from 24-35 nm for silver nanoparticles.

Soybean is considered as one of the best source of protein for the nutrition of humans and mammals, and also is cultivated as an economic source of both vegetable oil and protein. Soybean like other Leguminosae, contains low levels of S-amino acids (methionine and cysteine). Using an appropriate selectable marker can be effective in the regeneration of transgenic plants and increasing gene transfer rate. Glyphosate is a widely used non-selective herbicide with broad spectrum of weed control around the world. The aim of this study is constructing of two-genes construct consists of 11 kDa delta zein and EPSPS genes to improve the methionine content and induce resistance to glyphosate herbicide using Agrobacterium-mediated method in soybean. After experimental processes tissue culture, gene transformation and regeneration, plants produced by gene transformation showed glyphosate resistance at 3.5 mM concentration of glyphosate herbicide. Chlorophyll and shikimic acid content analysis also revealed that these two indexes in lines produce by gene transformation compared to wild type were significantly altered after glyphosate application. Complementary analyses are under progress.

Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) is one of the most important wheat infectious which its prevalence is increasing in Iran. NIa protein as a key protein in WSMV, plays important roles in viral replication and proteolytic digestion of viral polyprotein. Considering the critical role of NIa protein in viral infection, isolation, sequencing and determination of secondary and tertiary structure of this protein were the objectives of the present study. Also, the amino acids present in the NIa protein active site, which can be used as the targets for design and developement of new antiviral agents, were investigated. In this study, the gene encoding NIa protein was isolated from WSMV and its sequencing was done followed by cloning in pEST prokaryotic vector. The resulted nucleotide sequence was deposited in NCBI database with accession number MK335432. Investigation of physical and chemical properties showed that NIa protein is including 426 amino acids, 48.8 kD molecular weight and 8.81 PI. Prediction of secondary structure of NIa protein revealed that 53.29% of its structure composed of irregular loops, which was justified by the structural dirsorder of this protein. The results of the active site investigation of NIa protein based on homologous sequences alignment and three-dimensional structure of the protein showed a highly conserved site which was included of histidine, aspartic acid and cysteine amino acids.

In this research, the taxonomic status of the genus Dictyota in southern coastlines of Iran was studied. Taxonomy of the genus at species levels is complicated and difficult due to the high morphological plasticity in response to environmental conditions and overlapping of diagnostic characters. In this study, we combined morphological information with cytoplasmic barcoding data from DNA rbcL and psbA. We identified Dictyota acutiloba as new record and also confirmed the presence of Dictyota ciliolata in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Our studies showed D. ciliolata species has high inter-specific morphological diversity.

To evaluate genetic diversity between Sistan common wheat cultivars, it was used 10 SSRs primers associated to stem, leaf and yellow rusts resistance genes. The lowest (3) and highest (7) allele number were generated by 12C, SCS719 and Xgdm116 primers and Xgwm443 primer, respectively (4.55 allele per each primer). The highest genetic diversity (0.39) and MI (2.29) was related to Xgdm116 and Xgwm533 primers, respectively; also, the lowest genetic diversity (0.1) and MI (0.33) was related to Xcfd36 primer. Xgdm36 primer showed the highest Ne, Shannon diversity and Nei diversity (1.45, 0.63 and 0.44, respectively); on the other hand, Xcfd36 primer the lowest Ne, Shannon diversity and Nei diversity (1.18, 0.19 and 0.11, respectively). The highest polymorphic bands between wheat cultivars were related to Arg. Arg and Aflak showed the least diversity for resistance to yellow rust and leaf rust, respectively. Also, Arg had the highest diversity for three types of rusts. The Xgdm116, Xwmc810 and SCS719 primers had more effect on identification of wheat cultivars. Finally, Arg cultivar can be recommended as a donor parent in wheat breeding programs for rust resistance. To gain the highest heterosis, it can be suggested hybridization between Arg and Hirmand cultivars.

Promoter sequences are one of the key factors in directed gene expression. Different types of promoters can be used according to the type of tissue or expression levels desired. β-Conglycinin is one of the major storage proteins in soybean seed embryos and is produced in the seed development stage. The synthesis of storage proteins is primarily controlled at the transcriptional level and seed-specific expression has been shown to be conferred upon the promoter regions of many storage protein genes. In this research, a seed specific promoter (β-Conglycinin) of Iranian Glycin max was isolated from genomic DNA. Then, the promoter was cloned into pTZ57R/T and sequenced. Sequence analysis showed that the cloned promoter contained all of the typical conserved motifs such as TATA box, CAAT box as well as other previously identified seed-specific motifs such as SKn-1, RY repeats, G box. Finally, the β-Conglycinin promoter was cloned into pBI121 binary vector for further research.