alireza forouzan

The occurrence of planned cell death or apoptosis as a protected method is controlled by a number of genes that used to remove unnecessary cells. This cellular event is involved in immune and disease-related systems. Apoptosis is a cellular regulatory mechanism that balances the effects of cell proliferation and cell death. In the path of apoptosis, many genes and molecules are involved. Recently, developments using the RNAseq technique have shown that microRNAs play an important role in regulating planned cell death or apoptosis. The purpose of this study was to identify key genes and micro-RNAs affecting the apoptosis pathway in Androctonus crassicauda scorpions.

In this study, after transcriptome sequencing of venom glands of A. crassicauda scorpions using Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform and transcriptome assembly using Trinity software, the most important transcripts of the scorpion venom gland involved in apoptosis were identified using the KEGG database. Drawing of the apoptosis gene network with String software, analyzing the network of protein interactions and identifying key genes using cytoscape software and investigating the ontology of genes by the WebGestalt database were done. In addition, after identifying the scorpion microRNAs using homogeneous searches, the MRTarBase, TarBase, miRecords, and MirNet software programs were utilized to prediction of target genes and drawing a protein-microRNA interaction network.

Three pathways associated with apoptosis were identified, and 103 proteins were extracted from those. The results of protein network analysis revealed that 30 key genes involved in apoptosis were identified that according to obtained results, the most effective key genes involved in apoptosis are Akt1, bsk, Jra, Dronc, and rl. The results of statistical analysis of protein-microRNA interaction network also showed that mir-7-5p microRNA has the highest value.

The results of this study showed that microRNAs play an essential role in the regulation of many genes in the apoptosis pathway and can be used to regulate the expression of genes.

Study on ecology and biology of scorpions is very limited and the basis of this information the country, Iran, is the identification of habitats, and morphology of scorpions in different regions of Orthochirus species are widely distributed in the world. So far, 17 species have been identified throughout the world, of which 7 species have been found in different regions of Iran. In this study, Orthochirus specimens were collected from different regions of Khuzestan province and evaluated based on 27 morphometric values and 18 morphometric ratios. Four species, O. iranis, O. zagrosensis, O. farzanpay, and O. stackwelli were identified from different regions of Khuzestan province. Orthochirus. iranis and O. stackwelli had the most (41.6%) and the least (13.8%) frequencies, respectively, in the various regions of the province. The results of morphological studies and statistical analyzes on morphometric showed the complete separation of four types. Differences of species were confirmed based on the characteristics and ratios of the fourth segment of metasoma, carapace and telson sizes, the position of the median eyes, and pedipalp chela length and movable finger. The result of cluster analysis indicated that O. stackwell is morphologically distinct from other groups and had the most similarities between O. iranis and O. zagrosensis.

Arthropoda hemocytes are an important indicator of the safety of arthropoda against pathogens and parasitoids. Morphological characterization of hemocytes, is the first step to investigate the involvement of hemocytes in scorpion immunity and specific functions of cells. Due to limited researches on the biology of scorpion in this research the hemocytes of Mesobuthus eupeus were examined using light microscopy. Giemsa staining was used to identify these cells. Five identified types of hemocytes in this scorpion were; Prohemocyte, plasmatocyte granulocytes, spherulocytes, and oenocytoids. Two cell types are very common, plasmatocytes and granulocytes, Plasmatocytes constitute 70.2–81.2%, followed by granulocytes with 18.6–29.7% of the total cell population. Prohomocyte with 5-7 μm was the smallest and plasmocytes (12.25- 75.2 μm) were reported to be the largest hemolymph of Mesobuthus eupeus. Identification of blood cells of this scorpion for the first time and can provide a study of the immunity of scorpion against pathogens and its resistance to environmental conditions

Scorpions (order: Scorpiones) are widely distributed predatory arachnids and highly resistant to environmental conditions. Some factors such as microorganisms of internal cavity of scorpions may affect their biology. In addition, microbial communities of gut effect on immunity system and nutrition in arthropoda. However, few data are availablefor the microbiota diversity of scorpion gut. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the microbial diversity of scorpions related to the Buthidae family which is considered as the most important scorpions from south-west of Iran by chemical test and sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene. To this aim, both gram positive and negative bacteria were detected from the gut of Androctonus crassicuda, Hottentota schach and Mesobuthus epeus. The staphylococcus saprophyticus, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus firmus, Corynebacterium variabilis, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas oryzihabitans, Enterobacter aerogenes, Pantoe aagglomerans, Serrati aureilytica, staphylococcus gallinarum were isolated from the gut of scorpion. The isolated bacteria may have symbiotic or pathogenic relationships with scorpions. The present study was first considered the gut of buthide scorpion of Iran and can provide a reference for future studies on the digestive system microbiota from other scorpions by determining the role of these bacteria in the biology of scorpion.