نشریه زیست شناسی کاربردی
سال سی و ششم شماره 3 (پاییز 1402)

Today, antibiotic resistance of staphylococcal infection has become a major problem both in hospitals and in the community. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression level of norB gene in quinolone-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from clinical samples in Qom city. Staphylococcus aureus isolates were obtained from different clinical samples by standard biochemical and culture methods. In the following, the presence of femA genes as a molecular diagnosis of Staphylococcus aureus, norB as a target gene and rpoD as a reference gene were investigated using Multiplex PCR technique. The pattern of antibiotic resistance was determined using the standard disk diffusion method and the minimum inhibitory concentration of the ciprofloxacin antibiotic of the isolated strains was determined by the microdilution method. The expression level of norB gene was determined using Real-Time PCR method. A total of 82 isolates were obtained from 240 clinical samples using standard biochimical and culture methods. Multiplex PCR technique had shown that genes femA, norB, rpoD are simultaneously present in 40 isolates (48/78%). Also, after analyzing the antibiotic pattern, 26 strains were resistant to ciprofloxacin. The results of the Real-Time PCR technique indicated an increase in norB gene expression among ciprofloxacin resistant strains. According to the results obtained, the norB efflux pump plays an essential role in creating resistance to ciprofloxacin, and investigating the presence of this gene can be important in suggesting a treatment model.

Polianthes tuberosa L. is one of the ornamental plants and is one of the important cut flowers in tropical and semi-tropical regions. Vitamins in small amounts are necessary for the normal growth and development of tissues in the plant. The existence of this group of materials for plant growth has been proven in tissue culture and some of them in greenhouse plants. For this purpose, in the present study, the effect of vitamins A, B, C and E on the morphological, physiological and biochemical traits of tuberosa flower was investigated. The vitamins used in this study included vitamin B,, C ,, E (alpha tocopherol) and A at three levels of 50, 100 and 150 mg/liter and during three stages ( 30, 40 and 50 days after planting) and were applied to the plants as a foliar spray. The results of comparing the average data showed that the highest length of inflorescence, diameter of flower and wet weight of shoot organ were related to the treatment of ascorbic acid (100 mg/liter). The highest amount of root length of bulbs and essential oil was obtained in the concentration of 50 mg/liter of ascorbic acid, and the highest amount of leaf protein and life expectancy was obtained in the concentration of 150 mg/liter of ascorbic acid. Also, the highest number of florets and reducing sugars were related to the concentration of 100 mg/liter of thiamine and the highest activity of ascorbate peroxidase enzyme was related to the concentration of 150 mg/liter of thiamine.

Among freshwater invertebrates, leeches are one of the main groups of the world's most widely distributed water resources communities, found in almost all types of freshwater habitats. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different blood treatments on the reproduction parameters of Caspian leeches, has been done with three repetitions in the year 2019.

In each replication, 10 progenitors were bred over a 5 month period, and once they were fed with blood treatments. At the end of the period, the number of cocoons and larvae were counted and the length, weight and diameter characteristics of the cocoons were measured.

The results showed that in the growth parameters, including the final weight of the generators, the percentage of body weight gain and the specific growth coefficient in chicken (3.06، 461.5، 0.086) and horse (5.22، 857.2، 0.113) treatments were the lowest and highest, respectively (p<0.05). The results of the parameters of reproduction including weight, diameter and length of cocoons in different treatments showed that in chicken (0.205، 0.6، 0.6) and horse (0.785،1.16، 1.5) treatments were the lowest and highest values, respectively (p<0.05). The amount of protein that can be absorbed has also been shown to be almost standard in cow and horse blood.

Based on the results of this experiment and according to the studied parameters, horse and cow blood had the best performance and sheep and chicken treatments are not suitable for the reproduction of Caspian leeches.

Identifying the species of sturgeons, the non-mixing of multi-species caviar in products made from sturgeons' caviar is one of the most important challenges in the legal and international trade of this product. One of the ways to identify the original caviar and correctly label caviar products is the use of barcodes and especially molecular barcode tracking.

In this research, fin tissue samples of Russian and Persian sturgeon, Ship, Sterlet, stellate and Siberian sturgeon, as well as their caviar samples, were used to investigate species identification markers of Caspian Sea sturgeons. DNA extraction was performed from three caviar eggs of each species and pure sturgeons fin tissue, and two types of primers were selected based on mitochondrial genes.

sturgeon's marker amplified a 138 new nucleotide fragment using PCR method in all species based on COI gene, but the species-specific marker amplified different sized fragments based on D-loop gene. These fragments were reproduced in both caviar and fin tissue of sturgeons. The overall results showed that the amplified fragment of the sturgeon's marker and the species-specific marker in pure sturgeons can indicate the pure fish species.

The study of fish in aquatic ecosystems is important from many aspects, including ecology, behavior, protection, and management of water resources, exploitation of reserves, and their cultivation the genus Acanthopagrus includes species with high economic importance and many challenges in their classification. The reason for this is the morphological similarity between a large number of their species. The purpose of this study is to investigate the morphological diversity of 5 species of Acanthopagrus fishes using traditional morphometry, truss system and geometric morphometry in the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. In the present study, in traditional morphometry17 morphometric charactris and 10 meristic charactris were measured . In the geometric method, 17 landmarks were placed on the images, and then morphological differences between species were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) and canonical variate analysis (CVA). In the traditional approach,morphometric charactris show the separation of A. arabicus species from two species, A. bifasciatus and A. catenula, meristic charactris performed much better than quantitative charactris and separated most of the species from each other. The number of lateral line scales and the number of scales above the lateral line showed the greatest role in the separation of the members of this genus. Also, the truss approach separated A. catenula and A. bifasciatus species from other species. The geometric method shows the separation of two species, A. arabicus and A. sheim.

The relatively stable conditions of caves, such as humidity and minimal variation of temperature, provide a suitable place to reproduce, exploit food, and avoid extreme temperatures in some animals, including anurans, which are considered trogloxenes or accidental cave dwellers. Anurans are opportunistic predators that feed upon numerous food resources that are more abundant in their environment. The diet of variable toads was investigated and compared between specimens collected inside and outside the caves. Using the stomach flushing technique, a total of 37 specimens of variable toads were flushed, and 469 food items were identified to order or family ranks. Examination of the stomach contents of toads demonstrated that the diet of two groups mainly consist of terrestrial insects. The toads outside the cave had a more variable and abundant diet than the specimens examined within the caves, with orders Hymenoptera (44.89%) and Coleoptera (30.38%) as the first and second highest rank of abundance. Coleoptera (48.45%) and Hymenoptera (13.40%) were the most abundant food items among specimens collected from the caves. Greater variety of food items of toads outside the caves compared to the toads within the caves is a reflection of invertebrate communities in both environments. The less diversity and abundance of food items in the cave habitat implies a more intense food competition in the cave's unique environment with low energy resources. The presence of different size preys among the food items also, indicates an opportunistic feeding in this toad.

The main challenge of primordial germ cells (PGC) is their lack of proliferation and self-renewal in the culture medium. One method for inducing the pluripotency of PGC cells is to manipulate intracellular signaling pathways such as TGF-β, and the use of growth factors and small molecules is one of the ways to achieve this goal.

Chicken gonadal PGC cells were cultured and incubated with a concentration of 50,000 cells per well in a 24-well plate coated with Matrigel. The experimental groups included four groups: control (basic medium for PGCs culture), treatment with small molecule IDE1 (100 nM; Stemgent, USA, 04-0026), treatment with growth factor A Activin (25 ng/ml; R&D Systems, 338-AC) and treatment with SB431542 (10 µM; Cayman Chemical, 13031) with three replicates from each group. In order to check the amount of cell proliferation, PGC cells were counted in time intervals of 7, 14, 21 days after the treatment with a hemocytometer. The activity of TGF/ẞ signaling pathway was evaluated by examining the expression of SMAD2, SMAD3 and LFTTY1 genes by qRT-PCR method.

The effect of Activin A and IDE1 led to an increase in the proliferation of PGCs cells to more than 4 times compared to the control group, and in contrast to the SB431542 group, it led to a decrease in cell proliferation.

Salinity stress is one of the most important abiotic stresses in the world that influence the plant growth and productivity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of salinity stress (0, 75 and 150 mM) and foliar application of nano TiO2 and ZnO (0, 2 and 4 mg L-1)on the growth and some physiological and biochemical traits of Matricaria chamomilla.

Salinity stress was applied in 3-4 leaf stage of plant under hydroponic conditions. The foliar spraying with nanoparticle was done simultaneously with the initiation of salinity stress. 38 days after second foliar treatment, the plants were harvested to study the desired traits.

The highest flower dry weight was obtained in the NaCl0 × both concentrations of nano ZnO and TiO2. The highest concentration of chlorophyll a (20-50 %) was obtained in NaCl0 × both levels of ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles and NaCl75mM × 4 mgL-1 nano ZnO. 150 mM salinity increased malondialdehyde and proline content in plant. The results showed that the foliar treatment of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles improved elemental content, yield and protein content of the plant under no-salinity, and 75 mM NaCl salinity conditions.

The awareness of the distribution of species is very important in their conservation. Of 35 species lizards of the genus Darevskia Arribas, 1997 (Lacertidae), ten species are documented from Iran. The Azerbaijani lizard D. raddei (Boettger, 1892) include three recognized subspecies D. r. chaldoranensis, D. r. vanensis and D. r. raddei; Darevskia r. raddei is distributed in Ardabil, East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan Provinces. In the study, used the Maximum Entropy approach based on climatic variables, modeled the potential distribution areas and determined the suitable habitats in the Last Interglacial (LIG), and mid-Holocene (MH), the contemporary as well as predicated distribution in the future (2080) under the representative concentration pathway scenarios (RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5) of greenhouse gas concentration levels for the subspecies. Precipitation of the warmest quarter of the year, mean temperature of the coldest quarter of the year and seasonal temperature were the most important factors in simulated the distribution pattern of the subspecies in the LIG and MH respectively. Mean temperature of the coldest quarter of the year, seasonal temperature, and isothermality variables constructed important contributions to the contemporary distribution it. Precipitation of the warmest quarter of the year, precipitation of the coldest quarter of the year and isothermality were the most important factors affecting species distribution for the future. It seems over time, climatic change has been responsible for destruction of habitats the subspecies, although human activity in the fragmentation, destruction and change of habitats cannot be ignored.

Limited access to water or the presence of pollutants in the source has a significant effect on the health and productivity of animals.

240 laying hens were tested completely randomly with 4 treatments and 5 repetitions. Experimental treatments include treatment 1: hens with free access to drinking water, treatment 2: hens with free access to water + low concentration of chemicals, treatment 3: hens with free access to drinking water + high concentration of chemicals, treatment 4: hens access to water every night + low concentration of chemicals and 50% limitation in average daily water consumption, treatment 5: hens access to water every night + high concentration of chemicals and 50% limitation in average daily water consumption.

The performance indexes were significantly affected by the effect of the treatments. Egg white and shell weight, specific gravity, egg shell shape and thickness index, corticosterone, aspartate aminotransferase enzyme, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chlorine and blood calcium index as well as the number of white blood cells, number of red blood cells, hemoglobin and hematocrit were not affected by experimental treatments.