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An effort was made to analyze metabolome and transcriptome profiles of Ferula persica via GC-MS and RNA-seq data. The analysis of the essential oils extracted from both flower and root tissues demonstrated the prominence of monoterpene constituents, while sesquiterpene compounds were present in the lower magnitudes. Considering transcriptome analysis, 2127 differentially expressed genes were found between root and flower: 396 transcripts were up-regulated in root, while 1731 exhibited an up-regulation pattern in flower. Out of 2127 transcripts, 86 were annotated as Terpene Synthases (TPSs), of which 83 TPSs were classified subsequently into five individual sub-families of TPS-a (33), TPS-b (42), TPS-c (2), TPSe-f (3), and TPS-g (3). Several transcription factor families were recognized among the differentially expressed genes, suggesting their direct or indirect regulatory roles for the biosynthesis of terpenoids in F. persica. Finally, according to our phylogenetic results, both F. assa-foetida and F. gummosa were placed in the same clade, while F. persica was lonely settled in one monophyletic clade, with the estimated divergence time of 2.99 Million Years Ago (MYA) between F. gummosa and F. assa-foetida, and 3.87 MYA between F. persica and two other Ferula species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs are endogenous noncoding RNA that play vital roles in all plant cellular metabolic processes by mediating target gene expression. To date, miRNAs in Taraxacum spp., which is an important industrial plant, have remained largely unknown. In the present study, 970 miRNAs from 399 families were identified in Taraxacum spp by conducting computational approaches. The most frequent miRNAs in Taraxacum spp was miR5021. According to the KEGG results, miR5021, miR838, and miR1533 are related to the terpene biosynthesis pathway, while miR5015b, and miR1436 are involved in the starch and sucrose biosynthesis pathways. Quantitative real-time PCR assay was performed to validate the expression levels of five predicted miRNAs and 3-Hydroxy-3- Methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase (HMGCR) and invertase as the target genes. Results indicated that the highest relative expression of miR1533 and miR1436 occurred in the flower, while the highest transcripts levels of miR5015b were observed in the stem. In addition, the higher relative expression level of the miR5021 and miR838 was consistent with the lower expression level of the HMGCR gene in all tissue, suggesting that miR5021 and miR838 are involved in regulating HMGCR gene expression. Since mevalonate pathway is the main source of isopentenyl pyrophosphate, which is used in the synthesis of rubber, miR5021 and miR838 play an important role in the production of rubber by regulating the expression of HMGCR enzyme. These findings will accelerate future perspective studies on the regulatory mechanisms of miRNAs in Taraxacum koksaghyz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant cells have enough capacity to produce many of secondary metabolites, similar to the whole plants. Elicitation is one of the most significant methods to increase the synthesis of secondary metabolites in the medicinal plants. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of three different hormones on alkaloids production in suspension culture of Papaver bracteatum Lindl., in order to identify the relationship between the alkaloid biosynthesis and gene expression. Inducible factors initiate BenzylIsoquinoline Alkaloids (BIAs) biosynthesis in Opium poppy. The current study investigated the accumulation of alkaloids content and Tyrosine/DopadeCarboxilase (TYDC), Berberine Bridge Enzyme (BBE), Salutardinol Acetyl Transferase (SAT), and Codeinone Reductase (COR) gene transcripts in suspension culture of P. bracteatum. Indole-3-Acetic Acid (IAA), Indole Butyric Acid (IBA) and Gibberellic Acid (GA) were used as hormonal elicitors in the suspension cultures with three different doses and two timings along with the control. This research showed the induction of morphine alkaloid in the suspension culture of P. bracteatum. Elicitation by 20 mg L-1 concentration of IAA after 48 h indicated significant increase in morphine amount. Comparison among genes revealed that the expression levels of COR dramatically increased while TYDC, BBE and SAT had no significant difference compared to the control. After elicitation by IAA, IBA, and GA, the highest levels of morphine were measured as 243.2, 207.2, and 178.1 mg g-1, respectively. The results demonstrated that timing had a significant effect on the hormonal elicitation: 48 h treatment could induce more morphine alkaloids compared to 24 hours treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artemisia annua L. is an important medicinal plant used as an original source of artemisinin for treating malaria. Although there is a wide distribution of A. annua in Hyrcanian Areas (Mazandaran, Guilan, and Golestan Provinces in N Iran), no considerable effort has been made for diversity assessment. In this study, morphological, phytochemical, and molecular characterization of A. annua accessions in this area were assessed using 4 quantitative characteristics (height, fresh weight, dry weight, and trichome density), artemisinin content, and 15 ISSR primers. Using these traits, a high level of morphological, phytochemical and molecular diversity was revealed among A. annua accessions in the provinces (populations) of Hyrcanian Areas. At inter-population level, the highest value of artemisinin was observed in Mazandaran Province. Moreover, significant correlation between artemisinin content and trichome density was observed that could be useful for indirect selection of artemisinin yield in different accessions of A. annua. In addition, fifteen ISSR primers generated a total number of 222 amplified bands, consisting of 177 and 45 polymorphic and monomorphic loci across the 60 accessions, respectively. These results indicate that ISSR-PCR is a reliable tool for fingerprinting A. annua at the intra-population level. Our results altogether are valid contributions for gene bank management and Artemisia annua breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low Molecular Weight Glutenin Subunits (LMW-GS), encoded by GLU-3 loci located on the short arm of homologous chromosomes of wheat, play an important role in the bread making quality. Some of the most important gens for quality are located on the D genome, which are interesting in wheat breeding programs. In addition to the bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), some species of Aegilops including Ae. cylindrica, Ae. tauschii, Ae. crassa, Ae. juvenalis, and Ae. vavilovi carry D genome. In this study, the phylogenetic relationship among Aegilops species with D genome and bread wheat has been studied based on the sequence of low molecular weight glutenins loci. The results indicated a great diversity for these loci. Presence of several numbers of common protein bands among species suggested a close relationship and high genetic flow among species. Three primers for the LMW-GS proteins were able to reveal the relationship between the species. The results showed a close relationship among bread wheat (T. astivum) and Ae. tauschii species. Ae. crassa species is more distant from bread wheat. Also, the results indicated a close relationship between the Ae. cylindrica, Ae. juvenalis, and Ae. vavilovi. A great diversity of LMW-GS in wild relatives and close relationship between these species and wheat suggest them as a potential source of genes for wheat breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) is a typical Mediterranean plant distributed throughout the world and has different commercial uses such as salad, forage, inulin production, and coffee substitute. Health promoting characteristics of inulin as a prebiotic compound led to its biosynthesis pathway discovery. Two enzymes, namely, 1-SST and 1-FFT, are involved in inulin biosynthesis during normal phase. By cold nights or other factors, 1- FEHs enzymes degrade inulin to fructosyl units. To compare the strength of function of these genes in a wild type genotype with root type cultivar (Orchies) of chicory at three stages, i.e. 60, 90, and 120 days after seed planting, relative expression of those genes along with their corresponding metabolites were assessed using RT-qPCR and HPLC. Expression results showed that, unlike Orchies cultivar, relative expression of 1-SST in wild type genotype was ascending, relative expression of 1-FFT was very low and constant and there were high levels of relative expression of 1-FEH I gene during growing season due to flowering initiation. Also, glucose and fructose concentrations were upward, as result of 1-SST and 1-FEH I enzymes activity in wild type genotype, respectively. Degree of Polymerization (DP) of produced inulin had almost no increase due to low function of 1-FFT enzyme in the wild type genotype (DP< 5), but Orchies cultivar produced inulin with DP> 10 as expression of 1-SST decreased during growing season. So, it is possible to make inulin pathway in root type chicory cultivars more efficient by expanding and overexpressing 1-SST function using such wild resources through backcross breeding or biotechnology methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chelidonium majus is a perennial plant of the Papaveraceae family. This plant has been known as a rich source of isoquinoline alkaloids, chelidonine, and berberine, which are pharmaceutically important for their anti-cancerous activities. In the current study, four extraction techniques were compared in terms of their yield potential for chelidonine and berberine. Afterwards, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with a photodiode array type of UV/VIS detector was used for the detection of chelidonine and berberine from leaves and roots of five ecotypes of C. majus during various ontogenetical stages. Based on our results, ultrasonic procedures and refluxing were the best techniques for extraction of these alkaloids. HPLC results inferred that chelidonine and berberine content of ecotypes belonging to the Northern provinces of Iran, i.e. Mazandaran (IBRCP1006619) and Gorgan (IBRCP1006625), were higher than the other ecotypes. Generally, the roots of the C. majus were the most suitable organ for extraction of chelidonine at the generative stage, while at the vegetative stage, leaves are the most suitable organ for extraction of berberine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant tissue culture technique could provide sterile and controllable condition in order to assay direct effect of different compounds on plant growth accurately. In this study, the effects of aqueous extracts prepared from roots and shoots of goosefoot (Chenopodium album L.), redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), and wormwood (Artemisia absinthium L.) were evaluated on the seed germination and growth criteria in tissue culture media. The fennel root extract, nearly without phenolic content and with low antioxidant activity, showed the most drastic allelopathic effect on goosefoot, especially at 100 mg mL-1 concentration, which might be due to the presence of some substance potentially useful for biological control of goosefoot, an invasive weed. Goosefoot was resistant to extract of fennel shoot, wormwood root, and shoot, while fennel and radish (Raphanus sativus L.), at high concentration (100 mg mL-1), were not resistant to the root and shoot extracts of both goosefoot and redroot pigweed. In response to allelopathic components, shoot:root ratio was increased, and more peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity were detected in roots. There was no direct relationship between allelopathic effects with total phenolic content and antioxidant activity. In conclusion, our results showed that allelopathic effects of extracts on growth and biochemical criteria depended on both the concentration levels and the plant parts from which the aqueous extract was derived. Therefore, tissue culture media is an accurate and suitable tool to screen plants resistant to allelopathic components of weeds, and to identify high allelopathic plants as potential bioherbicide and invasive plant controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salinity stress is a major limitation in wheat production. The lack of economically viable methods for screening salinity tolerance in the field is an obstacle to breeders. In this study, a population of 254 recombinant inbred lines (RILs), derived from a cross between two bread wheat cultivars, namely, Roshan × Sabalan, was assessed in glasshouse during the seedling phase in order to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for salinity-tolerance related traits. A genetic linkage map was constructed from 239 markers, namely, 225 Diversity Arrays Technology markers (DArTs) and 14 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) which spanned a total of 1,099.7 cM. A total of 31 QTLs for salinity tolerance were identified on 13 chromosomes, contributing more than 50% of the total phenotypic variation. The frequency of Roshan and Sabalan alleles were high at loci in different homeologous groups. Most of the detected QTLs were located on chromosomes 3B and 5B, among the 13 chromosomes. Two QTLs related to fresh weight and height of shoot were detected on 1A and 3A, which explained 18% and 12.9% of the total phenotypic variation, respectively. Roshan (salt tolerance) alleles were associated with an increase in all traits under both control and stress conditions. SSR markers gwm626 and gwm540 (on chromosomes 6B and 5B, respectively) were tightly linked with different QTLs under control and stress conditions, and explained 21.1% and 8.1% of the total phenotypic variance, respectively. Some of these QTLs mapped to genomic regions previously associated with salt tolerance in wheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, 120 accessions of Aegilops crassa collected from various geographical areas of Iran were analyzed with respect to genome size and protein markers. A flow cytometry survey of these accessions revealed that one hundred and thirteen of the accessions were tetraploid and seven were hexaploid. Moreover, these accessions revealed variations in high molecular weight glutenin subunit compositions. In most accessions, subunits showing electrophoretic mobility similar to that of Dy12 were present. Eleven allelic variants were observed in Glu-D1 locus with the highest (30.90%) and the lowest allele (0.5%) frequencies in 3+12 and 2+10 variants, respectively. Among 17 bands selected for MALDI-TOF-TOF-MS analysis only 6 bands were identified with high probability and 11 of them had no MS/MS data. The results showed that Iranian accessions of Ae. crassa formed an interesting source of favorable glutenin subunits that might be very desirable in breeding programs for improving bread wheat quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grapes are among the world most planted horticultural crops. Since the last century, attempts have been made to improve the quality of grapes in the world. Meanwhile, the necessity of having knowledge about the history of progenies families led to the link between genealogy and breeding. Considering some previous mislabeling, in order to find out the accuracy of the controlled crosses as well as determining the possible parents and genealogy of the hybrid progenies, 23 grapevine genotypes were studied by using 14 SSRs loci. These progenies included 12 promising lines selected from 22 crosses as well as their parents that included four seedless and seven seeded cultivars from Iranian Grape Breeding Program, The highest similarity between a female parent and its progenies, which was obtained from dice similarity coefficient and cluster analysis, was about 0.65, belonging to 'Alibaba' and its three progenies (S54, S55, S40). Results rejected any cross-selfing in female parents and also discriminated progenies from parents. Due to possible common genetic backgrounds in the parents, assigning progenies to their parents by cluster analysis or allele counting was impossible. Therefore, parentage analyses were done within likelihood based assignment approach using CERVUS 3.0 software. By this approach, true parents could be identified from candidate parents based on calculated positive and negative LOD scores. Also, by using this approach, genotyping errors, which were previously derived from low number of SSR loci or similarity in the parents' backgrounds, decreased in the final results. In addition, full sib and half sib relationships between S55 and S54 with S40 were obvious. Furthermore, wherever prevention of inbreeding depression is required, the results could be used to select convenient parents for backcrossing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]