مجله پژوهش های سلولی مولکولی (زیست شناسی ایران)
سال سی و چهارم شماره 1 (بهار 1400)

The development of microbial resistance to antibiotics has led researchers to study the new material from the new resources. Lichens are considered as one of the sources of new biomaterials of natural origin. In this study, the antibacterial activity of two native lichens from Iran was evaluated. Acetonic extract of Candelariella rhodax and Protoparmeliopsis muralis were prepared using a Soxhlet extraction. The antibacterial activities of the extracts were investigated on some Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria using the Muller Hinton agar and Carbenicillin and Azithromycin as standard antibiotics by Kirby’s method. Minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration of the extracts was determined. Extract of Candelariella rhodax showed significant sensitivity on some Gram-positive bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis and Micrococcus luteus. The results are published for the first time. Extract of P. muralis showed inhibitory effect on Gram-positive bacteria B. cereus, B. subtilis, M. luteus and .S aureus. The results of this research demonstrate the antibacterial effects of both native lichens. So acetonic extract the lichens can be used for further studies.

Different morphological forms and growth patterns of filamentous fungi as (mycelia, clumps, and pellets) have been observed in industrial processes. The aim of this study was to optimize and investigate the growth and morphology of Pleurotus ostreatus for fungal pellets formation by modifying various cultivation conditions. Factors such as types of fungal culture media (Kirk’s and Malt extract mediums), temperature (25, 28, 32°C), pH (4.5, 5.5, 6.5), cultivation agitation rate (100–130-150rpm), type of carbon sources, levels of fungal inoculum, the presence of additive agents and trace metals were screened for their effect to formulate two types of pellets (simple and complex (hybrid)). Also activity of two ligninolytic enzymes (laccase, manganese peroxidase) was evaluated in both the simple and complex pellets in modified Kirk’s medium. Among all various factors, pH, agitation rate, preparation of fungal inoculum and appropriate time for adding the carbon sources were detected as the most influential factors. According to the results uniform pellets were formed only at pH 5.5 for both types of pellets. Fungal pellets size showed an inverse correlation with the agitation rate of culture. Moreover the formation of pellets remained unaffected by additive agents except with peptone. Measuring the enzymatic activity (laccase and manganese peroxidase) of fungal pellets also revealed that complex pellets have more capability to secrete remarkable amounts of such lignin-degrading enzymes in compared to simple pellets. Based on evidences, fungal pellets of P. ostreatus almost can be formed directly from hyphae and spore aggregation may not be an essential step.

Rice is the main food for more than half of the world population. Due to the high water requirement of rice and the shortage of water resources, drought is always one of the limiting factors for cultivation of this plant. So, this research was conducted to investigate the genetic diversity and the association mapping of 23 morphological traits of the ISSR, IRAP and iPBS molecular markers using 112 rice genotypes. The results of multivariate regression showed that, 137 and 120 allele types were significantly associated with at least one of the studied traits under non-stress and drought stress conditions, respectively. The explanatory factor of total awareness indicators in control condition was 0.98 to 0.22% and under drought stress condition it 0.89 to 0.25%. Under stress-free condition, iPBS2224-6 allele for flag leaf length (0.98) and under stress condition of ISSR16-6 allele for total weight of panicle (0.89) had the highest explanatory factor as header marker. A considerable amount of morphological changes were justified using ISSR22 initiator with the highest polymorphic content (PIC) of 0.49%, effective alleles number of 1.88, genetic diversity index of 46.0 and Shannon index of 0.66. Marker index varied from 5.47 to 0.50. These results indicate that markers that highly associated with morphological traits can be used to identify continuous knowledge indicators with important traits of rice genotypes, especially in drought stress conditions.

Keratoconus is an asymmetric condition of corneal thinning that typically occurs in early adulthood and has an estimated prevalence of about 1/2,000 human population. Aimed at revealing alterations in the abundances of tear proteins between two groups of patients and controls, measurements of peptides derived from proteolytic digestion of proteins was performed using one-dimensional gel electrophoresis and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry strategy. The results of statistical analysis showed that 42 proteins represented differential expression, of those 28 and 14 proteins indicated decreament and increament in their levels of expression, respectively. Based on the bioinformatics analyses of the differentially expressed tear proteins like gene ontology biological processes, the most affected underlying processes include: cellular processes (27.1%), metabolic processes (20/2%), biological regulation (11/6%), cellular compartment organization (9/3%) and response to stimuli (9/3%). Moreover, gene ontology analysis associated with the cellular localization of this protein subset indicated that a large number of these proteins belonge to the intracellular space. Such proteomic studies can enhance our basic knowledge of biological processes and give rise to a deeper understanding of the disease underlying mechanisms as well as in clinical research to identify potential biomarkers for disease and as drug targets.

Golpar, Heracleum persicum Desf. Ex Fischer Belongs to Apiaceae Family that broadly in traditional medicine it is used as a spice and food flavor, pickles agent and has anti-worm, carminative, appetizer, and diuretic properties. This investigation aimed to study on essential oil composition and antifungal effect of three populations of H. persicum Desf. Ex Fischer from Northwest of Iran. In the present study seeds of plant harvested from Meshkin Shahr, Marmishu, and Aynalu. Essential oil (EO) were extracted by Clevenger apparatus with hydrodistillation method and compounds were identified using GC-MS instrument. Antifungal property of EO was also determined through the mycelial growth inhibition (MGI) index by a Poison Food Technique. Overall, 40 compounds were identified among them Hexyl butyrate (38.77 to 43.27%), n-octyl acetate (13.92 to 28.09 %), Hexyl methyl butyrate (3.95 to 8.01%) and n-Hexyl hexanat (5.14 to 6.97 %) were the major components. Antifungal effect of the EOs was also determined through the culture medium poisoning method and evaluated based on mycelial growth inhibition (MGI) index. The results showed that the Golpar essential oil inhibited mycelial growth of Penicillium expansum, Aspergillus niger and Botrytis cinerea. Also, in concentrations of 200 and 300 ppm, mycelial growth of B. cinerea was completely inhibited. The results of this study showed that essential oils in populations Golpar due to having high percentage oxygenated terpenoid compounds, showed inhibitory effect on studied fungi.

The agriculture contribute to 50-60 % of global methane emission and ruminants have a key role in this contribution. Methane has an important role in global warming and it's global warming potential is 25 times greater than CO2. Furthermore, methane is the second most abundant global anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. The present study aimed to perform genome wide association study to identify genome regions affecting the predicated methane production based on the concentrations of volatile fatty acids of rumen in Iranian Holstein cattle. One-hundred and fifty hair and rumen digesta samples were sampled using the two-tailed strategy based on breeding values of milk. After the measurement of the concentration of volatile fatty acids of rumen, methane emission of each animal was predicated according to these acids. DNA of animals was genotyped using GGP-LD v4 SNP panel (contains 30108 SNPs). Fourteen significant SNPs associated with methane emission trait located on 1, 2, 6, 10, 15, 17 and 18 chromosome were identified. Using annotating some quantitative trait locus (QTLs) were discovered around some of these SNPs. The results showed a genetic selection potential to mitigate methane emission per animal. Since genetic improvements are heritable, cumulative, and permanent, this improvement would be permanent and beneficial.

Glomerulonephritis is acute inflammation of the kidney, caused by an immune response. In the many of inflammatory diseases, the inflammasome plays key role. The inflammasomes are innate immune system receptors and sensors that regulate the activation of caspase-1 and induce inflammation. NLRP3 inflammasome pathway is a main pathway during inflammatory responses. The IL-18 and P2RX7 genes are respectively, an inflammatory factor and membrane receptor. The aim of this study is evaluation of IL-18 and P2RX7 genes expression in the glomerulonephritis patients and healthy individuals (control group) to determine the role of inflammasome in glomerulonephritis. Therefore, the blood samples of both groups (each group contains 28 samples) were collected. then the expression of the IL-18 and P2RX7 genes was studied by Real-Time PCR technique. The results indicated that expression of P2RX7 gene decreased at about 70% in comparison with the control group. In contrast, expression of IL-18 gene increased at about 5 fold in comparison with control. This study revealed that the IL-18 gene has a critical role in the inflammatory response of glomerulonephritis but its signaling pathway is independence from P2RX7 pathway.

Soil contamination by industrial pollutants has associated with increasing risks for human, the environment and other living organisms. Cyanide is considered as one of the most toxic and dangerous pollutants used for the extraction of gold. One of the most cost-effective methods to eliminate cyanide from the environment and soil is "Phytoremediation". In this research, the Physiological and biochemical responses as well as remediation, and resistance of Sorghum bicolor to different cyanide treatments were investigated Accordingly, the effluent from the gold mining was prepared from Mouteh gold mining of Isfahan and this soil was mixed with normal soil to prepare different concentrations of contaminated soil. Cyanide changes in soil, total protein content, proline and morphometric Stem length, leaf, plant length and stem diameter changes of the plants were measured after completing the vegetative phase of the plant. Plant could absorb cyanide of contaminated soils, Total protein and proline content of the plant were enhanced with increasing cyanide content. Raising the cyanide contaminated soil resulted in promoted protein and proline content in treated plants,reduced cyanide concentration in soil and increased cyanide absorption by plant Sorghum. Plant could tolerate 12.69 g/kg of cyanide. Reduction of soil cyanide as well as its accumulation in plant and morphometric changes showed that phytoremediation is an appropriate method for the remediation of cyanide contaminated soils. Therefore, Sorghum bicolor can be a useful phytoremediation plant for removing cyanide from soils contaminated with these type of pollutants.

A factorial experiment (based on completely randomized design) with three replications was conducted in greenhouse to investigate the effect of soil Zn deficiency on the genes expression of antioxidant enzymes catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) in Zn-efficient and -inefficient bread wheat cultivars. Bayat and Niknejad (Zn-efficient) and Hirmand and Karaj 1 (Zn-inefficient) cultivars were grown under soil Zn deficiency and normal conditions. The expression levels of three above-mentioned genes were measured using Real time PCR technique in leaf and root tissues of the cultivars at two growth stages: one month after germination (vegetative) and 30% of heading (reproductive). The results of variance analysis and mean comparison of treatments showed that the highest rate of CAT expression (5.74 fold) observed in Zn-efficient cultivars (Bayat and Niknejad) at reproductive stage under soil Zn deficiency conditions. Moreover, the expression levels of CAT and APX in leaves of Zn-efficient cultivars were more than those of inefficient cultivars under soil Zn deficiency. The highest expression level of PPO (5.62 fold) was obtained in the leaves of Bayat (Zn-efficient) cultivar under Zn deficiency conditions. Therefore, the results of the current study proposed the possible roles of the genes encoding three studied antioxidant enzymes in tolerance of Zn-efficient bread wheat cultivars against soil Zn deficiency.

Dynamic behavior of biological membranes is involved in many processes within the cells and organelles like transport in the Golgi apparatus, endoplasmic reticulum and mechanisms of shaping used by cytoskeleton. Among different dynamic procedures and shape transformations of membranes, formation of tubular structures called tether is well-known. Tethers are involved in many cellular processes such as inter, intracellular transport and cell-cell adhesion. Tubular networks are also observed in the Golgi apparatus, the smooth part of the Endoplasmic reticulum and the inner membrane of the Mitochondrion. Membrane tubes can be formed by in vitro experiments. Tethers are also extracted from synthetic vesicles using different techniques such as optical tweezer and hydrodynamic flow. In this paper, the dynamic behavior of a bilayer membrane in tether extension process is studied using a mathematical model based on the mechanical properties of the bilayer membrane. A fluid bilayer membrane is utilized in this model consisting of two monolayers sliding on each other. The bending and stretching energies in addition to dissipations due to the fluidity of each monolayer and the inter-monolayer drag are defined for the bilayer membrane. The dynamic behavior of the bilayer membranes in the tether extension process is studied. The tether is extruded by a constant pulling rate and the dynamic pulling force is measured. The effect of the pulling rate and the surface tension on the dynamic pulling force is investigated. These two parameters have a great effect on the dynamic pulling force and the steady state of the process.

Aneuploidies following in vitro culture is one of the challenges for application of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). There are reports that indicate more sensitivity of aneuploid cells to some anticancer drugs and probability of reduction of aneuploidy rate.Mosaic hESCs was obtained by mixing of normal hESCs and trisomic hESCs for chromosomes 12 and 17. The effect of 3 anticancer drugs, Bortezomib, Paclitaxel (Taxol) and Lapatinib on chromosomal status was studied by karyotyping. Stemness characterization was performed using alkaline phosphatase test and expression analysis of pluripotency genes using Real Time PCR. All treated groups were compared with controls. When cells treated with 0.01 μM of Bortezomib and 0.2 μM of Lapatinib for 24 hours, there was no significant difference between treated and the control groups. Paclitaxel treatment for 28 hours showed the most viability with no significant difference from control whilst shorter and longer exposure periods were cytotoxic. Treated and control groups did not have significant difference in karyotype and pluripotency genes expression. Aneuploid cells became dominant population in all of treated and control groups. All treated groups were alkaline phosphatase-positive.Mentioned treatments did not affect pluripotency. Insensitivity of aneuploid cells to treated anticancer drugs could be due to specific characters of each cell line and proliferation dominance of cells with trisomies 12 and 17.

Reduction in crops yield due to global warming threatens food security. Response of plants to heat stress is a complex prosses. MicroRNAs play an essential role in heat stress response regulatory network with post-translational modification of transcript, specially transcription factors. Lentil is one of the most important legumes cultivated in Iran. The role of microRNAs, in response to biotic and abiotic stresses in lentil plant, has not been studied so far. In this study, in order to identify conserved miRNAs and their target genes in lentil under heat stress, the total RNA was extracted using Trizol reagent and the RNA samples were sequenced. Then, transcripts which did not code any protein were examined to identification of miRNA precursors. Finally, seven miRNAs were identified which belonged to six conserved miRNA families including miR408, miR172, miR169, miR167, miR166 and miR156 that miR408, miR169 and miR166 were downregulated and miR156 was upregulated in response to heat stress. Study of these miRNAs targets showed that, most of these miRNAs involved in regulation of heat stress-responsive transcription factors including of HSF, NF-Y subunits, ARR-B, WRKY, MYB, AP2 and C3H. This result can help to better understanding of gene expression regulatory network in response to heat stress.