hamid asghari

In the last month of 2019, an unknown virus appeared in Wuhan, China. Sequencing studies have shown that the virus is a new member of the coronavirus family, which mostly causes a respiratory disease with pneumonia-like symptoms. The new coronavirus consists of 25 proteins, including 4 important structural proteins and 15 non-structural proteins. Spike protein is one of the most important structural proteins on the surface of the virus; It is highly glycosylated and plays a key role in the virus binding to the host cells. The binding of glycans to proteins affects their structure and function in two ways; They lead to proper protein folding, and can play an important role in protein interactions, and also, by covering the surface of the protein, it causes the virus to escape from the immune system. So it is obvious that the study of glycan structures becomes more important when either a vaccine is going to be designed or glycan structures have important roles in the folding, activity, and interaction of a protein. Therefore, since the spike protein is a non-functional structural protein, the study of glycan structures is important for two goals of vaccine design and investigating the role of glycans in protein interactions. In this article, we are going to review the most important findings on spike protein glycosylation and compare the amount of glycosylation in different viruses, indicating the importance of glycan structures in designing an effective vaccine.

Seed pre-treatment with ultrasound wave is a bio-physical method of seed priming, seed imbibition with water is also a way to improve germination, so in order to investigate the effect of ultrasound pretreatment and 4 imbibition hours' time (0, 3, 6 and 9 hour) on germination and biochemical feature of Echinacea purpureaL., A completely randomized design experiment with 8 treatment and 3 replications was conducted. Treatments including 4 imbibition time (I) and ultra-sonic wave (W) with this arrangement (I0W0, IW, I3W0, I3W, I6W0, I6W, I9W0 and I9W). The results of analyses of variance showed that the effect of imbibition times and ultrasonic wave on total characteristics was significant. Ultra-sonic wave and imbibition times in most treatment increased germination percentage then to control. The highest and lowest amount of germination percentage respectively in I6W and control (I0W0) with means of 97.3 and 84% observed. The highest amount of solution protein in treatments I6W and I9W with average of 43.2 mgg-1 FW and the lowest amount of it in control with average of 27 mgg-1 FW was observed. Ultra-sonic wave and imbibition times in total treatment could show higher amount of total sugar then to control. The highest amount of starch in control and I0W treatment with average of 5.8 mgg-1 FW and the lowest amount of it in treatment IW6 with average of 3.02 mgg-1 FW observed, and the end imbibition with ultra-sonic wave could improve germination percent and germination rate in Echinacea purpurea seeds.

Degradation of agricultural ecosystems and the nutritional elements imbalance in the soil are the most important reasons for decreasing yield of Pistachio in Iran. Therefore, it is needed to research on effectiveness of biological manures on the growth and yield of Pistachio. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of triple super phosphate (at the rates of 0, 1 and 2 g kg-1) and Barvar-2 bio-fertilizer (at the rates of 0, and 2.5 g kg-1) on the growth of pistachio seedling and uptake of nitrogen and phosphorus. The experiment was designed in a factorial form as randomized complete blocks with three replications in Damqan city. The results indicated that Barvar-2 bio-fertilizer application increased significantly (p≤0.01) dry weight(up to 21%), the concentration of nitrogen (up to 93%) and phosphorus (up to 41%) in shoots, seedling height (up to 14%) and root length (up to 9%), in different rates of triple super phosphate application. However, seedling height, shoot phosphorus and dry weight decreased significantly in the highest rate of triple super phosphate application (2 g kg-1). In addition, the application of both treatments had not significant effect on pH values. It is concluded that severe application of P chemical fertilizers causes a decrease on effectiveness of Barvar-2 bio-fertilizer. Finally, in order to improve the growth of pistachio seedlings, the application of Barvar-2 bio-fertilizer, alone or with very low amount of P chemical fertilizer is recommended.