Search

The discovery of the phenomenon of gene silencing in 1990s opened new doors to biotechnology and plant breeding in order to supply food security. Food Security, as defined by FAO, it exists when all people, at all times, have economic access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life. Due to the need to ensure food security and also gene silencing potentials, research in this field began with astonishing speed and even it still continues. In this field, miRNA-associated gene silencing especially attracted the attention of scientists in order to decrypt the genes involved in process such as plant growth and development, metabolism, signal transduction, response against environmental stresses, nodule development in legumes and inducement male sterility. In addition, miRNA found a lot of applications in plant biotechnology like miRNA-based molecular markers and miRNA-based molecular breeding for plants improvement. Given to the growing importance of plant miRNAs (Phyto-miRNAs) in biotechnology and expansion of their applications in molecular breeding, it is necessary to review miRNA in an up-to-date schema. In this study, it was presented both the necessary foundations of miRNAs and their important uses in plant sciences, such as molecular markers and metabolic engineering. As a result, we hope to expand the use of artificial miRNAs in plants engineering., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Medicinal plants, are known to produce a wide range of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) applied as insecticides, drugs, dyes and toxins in agriculture, medicine, industry and bio-warfare plus bio-terrorism, respectively. However, production of PSMs is usually in small quantities, so we need to find novel ways to increase both quantity and quality of them. Fortunately, biotechnology suggests several options through which secondary metabolism in plants can be engineered in innovative ways to: 1) over-produce the useful metabolites, 2) down-produce the toxic metabolites, 3) produce the new metabolites. Among the ways, RNA interference (RNAi) technology which involves gene-specific regulation by small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) have been recently emerged as a promising tool for plant biotechnologist, not only to decipher the function of plant genes, but also for development of the plants with improved and novel traits through manipulation of both desirable and undesirable genes. Among sncRNAs, miRNAs have been recorded various regulatory roles in plants such as development, signal transduction, response to environmental stresses, metabolism. Certainly, the use of miRNAs in metabolic engineering requires identification of miRNAs involved in metabolites biosynthesis, understanding of the biosynthetic pathways, as well as the identification of key points of the pathways in which the miRNAs have their own effect. Thus, we firstly consider these three issues on metabolic engineering of medicinal plants. Our review shows, application of miRNAs can open a novel perspective to metabolic engineering of medicinal plants., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aegilops tauschii is the diploid progenitor of the bread wheat D-genome. It originated from Iran and is a source of abiotic stress tolerance genes. However, little is known about the molecular events of salinity tolerance in Ae. tauschii. This study investigates the leaf transcriptional changes associated with long-term salt stress. Total RNA extracted from leaf tissues of control and salt-treated samples was sequenced using the Illumina technology, and more than 98 million high-quality reads were assembled into 255,446 unigenes with an average length of 1398 bp and an N50 of 2269 bp. Functional annotation of the unigenes showed that 93,742 (36.69%) had at least a significant BLAST hit in the SwissProt database, while 174,079 (68.14%) showed significant similarity to proteins in the NCBI nr database. Differential expression analysis identified 4506 salt stress-responsive unigenes. Bioinformatic analysis of the differentially expressed unigenes (DEUs) revealed a number of biological processes and pathways involved in the establishment of ion homeostasis, signaling processes, carbohydrate metabolism, and post-translational modifications. Fine regulation of starch and sucrose content may be important features involved in salt tolerance in Ae. tauschii. Moreover, 82% of DEUs mapped to the D-subgenome, including known QTL for salt tolerance, and these DEUs showed similar salt stress responses in other accessions of Ae. tauschii. These results could provide fundamental insight into the regulatory process underlying salt tolerance in Ae. tauschii and wheat and facilitate identification of genes involved in their salt tolerance mechanisms.

Artemisinin, an effective anti-malarial drug is synthesized in the specialized 10-celled biseriate glandular trichomes of some Artemisia species. In order to have an insight into artemisinin biosynthesis in species other than A. annua, five species with different artemisinin contents were investigated for the expression of key genes that influence artemisinin content. The least relative expression of the examined terpene synthase genes accompanied with very low glandular trichome density (4 No. mm -2 ) and absence of artemisinin content in A. khorassanica (S2) underscored the vast metabolic capacity of glandular trichomes. A. deserti (S4) with artemisinin content of 5.13 mg g -1 DW had a very high expression of Aa-ALDH1 and Aa-CYP71AV1 and low expression of Aa-DBR2. It is possible to develop plants with high artemisinin synthesis ability by downregulating Aa-ORA in S4, which may result in the reduction of Aa-ALDH1 and Aa-CYP71AV1 genes expression and effectively change the metabolic flux to favor more of artemisinin production than artemisinic acid. Based on the results, the Aa-ABCG6 transporter may be involved in trichome development. S4 had high transcript levels and larger glandular trichomes (3.46 fold) than A. annua found in Iran (S1), which may be due to the presence of more 2C-DNA (3.48 fold) in S4 than S1.

Here, a comprehensive endeavor is made to simultaneously scrutinize spatiotemporal oscillations of three imperative morphinan alkaloids (i.e. thebaine, codeine, and morphine) alongside dynamic transcriptional patterns of TYDC, SalAT, COR, T6ODM, and CODM genes in different tissues of Papaver somniferum (i.e. root, bottom part of stem, upper part of stem, leaf, capsule wall, and capsule content) over five distinguished ontogenic stages (i.e. rosette, bud initiation, pendulous bud, flowering, and lancing). Apart from bottom stem and leaf, the maximum thebaine content occurred in lancing stage, while its minimum content did not follow a systematic rhythm, either among six tissues or five various sampling times. Regarding codeine, excepting upper stem, the highest ratios of codeine were observed at flowering and lacing stages, while negligible amounts were overall detected at early stages of plant growth like rosette. Considering morphine, apart from upper stem, it appears that late ontogeneic times including lancing and flowering are the most appropriate phases to achieve high amounts of morphine, while at early stages the aforesaid alkaloid possessed lower accumulation. Furthermore, all the five genes under study, overall, exhibited a variety of transcript levels either among six tissues or five various sampling times. Interestingly, a connection occurred between transcript ratio of SalAT and thebaine content, suggesting that thebaine biosynthesis is coordinated tightly by the enzymatic function of SalAT enzyme. Meanwhile, despite low magnitudes of T6ODM and CODM transcripts in the root-harvested samples at pendulous bud and flowering stages, both codeine and morphine were surprisingly in acceptable quantities, plausibly owing to the translocation of both alkaloids from the producing (source) tissues to the roots (sink), known as a phenomenon of 'source-to-sink transportation'. The results, altogether, could provide us enough information in acquiring new insights towards potential impacts of spatiotemporal oscillations on the magnitudes of all the above-mentioned alkaloids alongside transcription ratios of the key genes in opium poppy.

To reveal the integrative biochemical networks of wheat leaves in response to water deficient conditions, proteomics and metabolomics were applied to two spring-wheat cultivars (Bahar, drought-susceptible; Kavir, drought-tolerant). Drought stress induced detrimental effects on Bahar leaf proteome, resulting in a severe decrease of total protein content, with impairments mainly in photosynthetic proteins and in enzymes involved in sugar and nitrogen metabolism, as well as in the capacity of detoxifying harmful molecules. On the contrary, only minor perturbations were observed at the protein level in Kavir stressed leaves. Metabolome analysis indicated amino acids, organic acids, and sugars as the main metabolites changed in abundance upon water deficiency. In particular, Bahar cv showed increased levels in proline, methionine, arginine, lysine, aromatic and branched chain amino acids. Tryptophan accumulation via shikimate pathway seems to sustain auxin production (indoleacrylic acid), whereas glutamate reduction is reasonably linked to polyamine (spermine) synthesis. Kavir metabolome was affected by drought stress to a less extent with only two pathways significantly changed, one of them being purine metabolism. These results comprehensively provide a framework for better understanding the mechanisms that govern plant cell response to drought stress, with insights into molecules that can be used for crop improvement projects.

Ferula gummosa is a well-known medicinal and industrial plant for its oleo-gum-resin named galbanum. So far, there is no information about the role of miRNAs on the production of terpenes as the major secondary metabolite of galbanum. In the present study, RNA-seq data on the root and flower of the plant were used to predict miRNAs and their targets using computational approaches. Additionally, biological network analyses were used to unravel the direct or indirect regulatory effects of miRNAs on the targets involved in terpene biosynthesis. For the first time, 220 miRNAs from 94 families have been reported in F. gummosa. miR5658, miR1533, miR5021, miR414, and miR1436 are the top five miRNAs with high abundance. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of the identified targets showed that in the biological process category, the miRNA-regulated genes were highly involved in transcription. According to the KEGG and PlantCyc results, six miRNAs from five miRNA families including miR2919, miR5251, miR838, miR5021, and miR5658 were found to be related to the pathway of terpene biosynthesis. Moreover, network analysis showed that three terpene-regulating TFs namely SPL7, SPL11, and ATHB13 are putatively regulated by three miRNAs including miR1533, miR5021, and miR5658 respectively. Differential gene expression results showed that the expression levels of these miRNAs are negatively correlated to the expression levels of both TFs and their co-expressed terpene biosynthesis genes., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ferula gummosa Boiss. is an industrial and pharmaceutical plant that has been highly recognized for its valuable oleo-gum-resin, namely galbanum. Despite the fabulous value of galbanum, very little information on the genetic and biochemical mechanisms of its production existed. In the present study, the oleo-gum-resin and four organs (root, flower, stem, and leaf) of F. gummosa were assessed in terms of metabolic compositions and the expression of genes involved in their biosynthetic pathways. Results showed that the most accumulation of resin and essential oils were occurred in the roots (13.99 mg/g) and flowers (6.01 mg/g), respectively. While the most dominant compound of the resin was β-amyrin from triterpenes, the most abundant compounds of the essential oils were α-pinene and β-pinene from monoterpenes and α-eudesmol and germacrene-D from sesquiterpenes. Transcriptome analysis was performed by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) for the plant roots and flowers. Differential gene expression analysis showed that 1172 unigenes were differential between two organs that 934 (79.6%) of them were up-regulated in the flowers and 238 (20.4%) unigenes were up-regulated in the roots (FDR ≤0.001). The most important up-regulated unigenes in the roots were involved in the biosynthesis of the major components of galbanum, including myrcene, germacrene-D, α-terpineol, and β-amyrin. The results obtained by RNA-Seq were confirmed by qPCR. These analyses showed that different organs of F. gummosa are involved in the production of oleo-gum-resin, but the roots are more active than other organs in terms of the biosynthesis of triterpenes and some mono- and sesquiterpenes. This study provides rich molecular and biochemical resources for further studies on molecular genetics and functional genomics of oleo-gum-resin production in F. gummosa.

Iran supports a great share of exotic and/or endemic plant genera and species. The genus Fritillaria (Liliaceae) is a precious part of this botanical richness with 19 species, of which 10 are endemic to the country. However, signs are mounting that the country is truly at a crossroads when it comes to preservation of this national wealth. In this regard, an effective conservation strategy should thoroughly consider the classification of Fritillaria , as conservation practices are compromised by knowledge gaps in systematics and taxonomy. As published studies on Fritillaria in Iran have been sporadic and limited in scope, the aim of this review is to provide information necessary to help bridge these information gaps. Our objective is to facilitate increased understanding of the geographic, taxonomic, cytogenetic and phylogenetic status of Iranian Fritillaria , which is vital to meeting the goal of sustainable conservation of the genus in Iran and neighboring areas.

Eggplant ( Solanum melongena L.) is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world. The eggplant glycoalkaloids (GAs) are toxic secondary metabolites that may have detrimental effects on human health, particularly if the magnitudes of GAs are higher than the recommended food safety level (200 mg per kg of fresh mass). In this study, the content of solasonine compound and the expression patterns of solasodine galactosyltransferase ( SGT1 ) gene were assessed in different tissues (mature leaves, flower buds, young, mature, and physiologically ripe fruits) of two Iranian eggplant genotypes (D1 and J10) under field conditions. The maximum mass fraction of solasonine in D1 was detected in flower buds (135.63 µg/g), followed by leaf (113.29 µg/g), physiologically ripe fruit (74.74 µg/g), young fruit (61.33 µg/g), and mature fruit (21.55 µg/g). Comparing both genotypes, the genotype of bitter fruits (J10) contained higher mass fraction of solasonine, as one of the main factors for producing bitter flavour of the plant. Regarding the expression profiles of SGT1 , in both genotypes, the activity of the gene was increased nearly parallel with the concentration of solasonine. In the J10 genotype, transcript level of the gene was significantly higher than the genotype of sweet fruits (D1). Although both D1 and J10 genotypes are possibly recommendable for human food consumption, D1 is more suitable for daily diet.

The population genetic structure of 278 Venturia inaequalis isolates, collected from different apple cultivars of eighteen different provinces in Iran, was investigated using 22 polymorphic microsatellite markers. Analysis of molecular variation, Bayesian clustering and Nei's genetic distance analyses based on 88 microsatellite alleles indicated substantial levels of gene flow among the collection sites. Ninety three percent of the variation was observed among the individuals within the populations and only 7% variation was observed among the populations. Structure analysis grouped the isolates into two populations. Maximum number of pathogen genotypes (44) was observed in the North of Iran that grows various different apple cultivars. Investigation on the variation of the pathogen on different cultivars in the North of Iran suggested a significant differentiation of the pathogen populations between wild apple and commercial cultivars. During sampling, varying ranges of scab infection were observed on various apple cultivars in forests, monoculture and mix orchards. Wild type apple (Malus orientalis) along the Caspian Sea Coast had the most infection in comparison with the Iranian endemic and commercial cultivars. Based on the genetic analysis and host tracking scenario of the pathogen, it was presumed that Iran could potentially be the center of origin of V. inaequalis, which requires further detailed studies with isolates collected from different parts of central Asia and world for confirmation., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Key Message: Environmental cues have synergistic or antagonistic regulatory roles on transcription activity and taxanes accumulation in yew, though DBAT activity is less influenced, could be accordingly a rate-limiting enzyme. The current work was undertaken to elucidate the consequences of some environmental cues (i.e., day length, temperature, sunlight and relative humidity) on the expression patterns of TXS, DBAT, BAPT and DBTNBT genes contributed to the taxol biosynthetic pathway along with the accumulation of some taxanes in needles and stems of Taxus baccata over year 2013-2014. In both tissues, light intensity and temperature correlated with the production of 10-DAB III and total taxanes, and TXS activity, while a lack of significant association was deduced for day length and relative humidity. Furthermore, in both tissues, a weak correlation was observed between BAC III and light intensity, temperature, day length and relative humidity, and the corresponding gene, DBAT. Surprisingly, DBAT activity was not co-induced with TXS in both tissues, and remained expressed at basal levels over year, supporting that the conversion of 10-DAB III into BAC III could presumably be a rate limiting step in the taxol biosynthetic pathway. Similar to BAC III, no strong correlation was detected between production of taxol in both tissues and all the meteorological data, while the corresponding genes BAPT and DBTNBT, in some cases, exhibited significant correlated results. Notably, despite higher activities of BAPT and DBTNBT in both tissues over year, taxol production was still in small quantities, probably owing to the low amounts of its precursors rather than low volumes of BAPT and DBTNBT transcripts. The results, altogether, could provide us new insights towards the potential regulatory roles of environmental cues on the production of taxanes in yew trees.

Papaver bracteatum, a perennial species, has been known as a rich source of thebaine and a potential alternative to Papaver somniferum for the production of codeine and some semisynthetic antagonist drugs. In this study, ion mobility spectrum (IMS) of the root, leaf, bottom part of stem, upper part of stem, capsule wall, petal, and capsule content during developmental stages of P. bracteatum including annual rosette, perennial rosette, bud initiation, pendulous bud, preflowering, and lancing were investigated. The IMS revealed thebaine, papaverine, and noscapine as the major components of the extracted alkaloids. Based on the results of the study it appears that, at least in part, there is a competition among the biosynthesis pathways of papaverine, noscapine, and morphinan alkaloids from a common source. Root and capsule wall were the most potent organs for extraction of thebaine, while lancing stage was the best developmental stage for thebaine exploitation. However, it seems that total biomass of root and capsule wall plays a key role in the final selection of favorite organ. Although papaverine and noscapine in the stem at preflowering stage had the most quantity, significant amounts were found in the capsule wall. In general, total alkaloid content of leaf was lower than the other plant parts., (© 2016 Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta AG, Zürich.)

Malaria is currently one of the most important causes of mortality in developing countries. High resistance to available antimalarial drugs has been reported frequently, thus it is crucial to focus on the discovery of new antimalarial drugs. Artemisinin, an effective antimalarial medication, is isolated from various Artemisia species. To identify the Artemisia species producing high quantity of artemisinin, eight species of Artemisia were screened with the genetic sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) marker for higher quantity of artemisinin. The DNA band corresponding to SCAR marker was cloned into pGEM®-T Easy vector and sequenced. The content of artemisinin in tested species was also measured using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) assay. The primers designed for high-artemisinin SCAR marker could amplify a specific band of approximately 1000 bp which was present in two Artemisia annua and Artemisia absinthium species. These SCAR marker sequences for two selected species were submitted into the GenBank databases under KC337116 and KC465952 accession numbers. HPLC analysis indicated that two selected Artemisia species, genetically recognized as high-artemisinin yielding plants, had higher artemisinin content in comparison to other examined species. Therefore, in this study, we propose developed SCAR marker as a complementary tool for confidently detection of high-artemisinin content in Artemisia species.

For the first time, prediction accuracies of some supervised and unsupervised algorithms were evaluated in an SSR-based DNA fingerprinting study of a pea collection containing 20 cultivars and 57 wild samples. In general, according to the 10 attribute weighting models, the SSR alleles of PEAPHTAP-2 and PSBLOX13.2-1 were the two most important attributes to generate discrimination among eight different species and subspecies of genus Pisum. In addition, K-Medoids unsupervised clustering run on Chi squared dataset exhibited the best prediction accuracy (83.12%), while the lowest accuracy (25.97%) gained as K-Means model ran on FCdb database. Irrespective of some fluctuations, the overall accuracies of tree induction models were significantly high for many algorithms, and the attributes PSBLOX13.2-3 and PEAPHTAP could successfully detach Pisum fulvum accessions and cultivars from the others when two selected decision trees were taken into account. Meanwhile, the other used supervised algorithms exhibited overall reliable accuracies, even though in some rare cases, they gave us low amounts of accuracies. Our results, altogether, demonstrate promising applications of both supervised and unsupervised algorithms to provide suitable data mining tools regarding accurate fingerprinting of different species and subspecies of genus Pisum, as a fundamental priority task in breeding programs of the crop., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Artemisinin is the most effective antimalarial drug that is derived from Artemisia annua. Amorpha-4,11-diene synthase (ADS) controls the first committed step in artemisinin biosynthesis. The ADS gene expression is regulated by transcription factors which bind to the cis-acting elements on the ADS promoter and are probably responsible for the ADS gene expression difference in the Artemisia species. To identify the elements that are significantly involved in ADS gene expression, the ADS gene promoter of the seven Artemisia species was isolated and comparative analysis was performed on the ADS promoter sequences of these species. Results revealed that some of the cis-elements were unique or in terms of number were more in the high artemisinin producer species, A. annua, than the other species. We have reported that the light-responsive elements, W-box, CAAT-box, 5'-UTR py-rich stretch, TATA-box sequence and tandem repeat sequences have been identified as important factors in the increased expression of ADS gene.

To gain a better understanding of cold acclimation process in wheat, we applied a 2-DE based proteomic approach to discover changes in proteome profile of a diploid wild wheat (Triticum urartu L.) during prolonged cold stress treatment. To this end, plants were grown in pots and the growing seedlings (4-leaf stage) were exposed to cold stress. After 4 weeks of cold acclimation (4-6 °C) and subsequent treatment for 12 h at -2 °C, samples were collected from control and stressed plants and were subjected to proteome pattern analysis. Among approximately 450 reproducible protein spots displayed in each given 2-DE gels, 34 proteins changed significantly in abundance in response to cold stress. Among them, 25 and 9 proteins were up and down-regulated under stress condition, respectively. Analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight/time of flight mass spectrometry coupled with non-redundant protein database search allowed the identification of 20 cold-induced proteins. Integrated proteomic and database survey resulted in identification of several cold stress related proteins such as pathogenesis related protein, cold regulated protein, cold-responsive LEA/RAB-related COR protein, oxygen-evolving enhancer protein and oxalate oxidase. The presumed functions of the identified proteins were mostly related to cold acclimation, oxidative stress and photosynthesis. The possible implications of differentially accumulated proteins in acquiring systemic tolerance to freezing stress following exposure to prolonged low temperature will be discussed.

The Iranian cave barb (Iranocypris typhlops Bruun & Kaiser, 1944) is a rare and endemic species of the family Cyprinidae known from a single locality in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran. This species is "Vulnerable" according to the IUCN Red List and is one of the top four threatened freshwater fish species in Iran. Yet, the taxonomic position of I. typhlops is uncertain. We examined phylogenetic relationships of this species with other species of the family Cyprinidae based on the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Our results show that I. typhlops is monophyletic and is sister taxon of a cluster formed by Garra rufa (Heckel, 1843) and Garra barreimiae (Fowler & Steinitz, 1956) within a clade that includes other species of the genus Garra. Based on previous molecular and morphological studies, as well as our new results, we recommend that I. typhlops should be transferred to the genus Garra Hamilton, 1822.

This study was carried out to evaluate the genetic effect of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) conferring drought tolerance in wheat. A population of 120 F(2) individuals from the cross between the drought-tolerant S-78-11 and drought-sensitive Tajan cultivars were analyzed for their segregation under drought stress conditions. The relative water content under drought stress conditions exhibited continuous variation, indicating the minor gene effects on the trait. Single-marker analysis (SMA) was carried out to detect the main QTL association with drought tolerance. The SMA results revealed that the simple sequence repeat markers GWM182 and GWM292 on chromosome 5D and GWM410 on chromosome 5A exhibited significant association with drought tolerance, accounting for 30, 22, and 21% of the total variation, respectively. The 3 genetic loci, especially GWM182, can be used in marker-assisted selection methods in drought tolerance breeding in wheat.

Isoprenoids or terpenoids are synthesized by two important units' including dimethylallyl diphosphate and isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP). Plants use two different methods for formation of IPP, which is a cytosolic and a plastidial method. The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR, EC 1.1.1.34) catalyzes the conversion of HMG-CoA to mevalonate, which is the first stage in the cytosolic pathway for biosynthesis of isoprenoid in plants. In this study, a total of fifty HMGR protein sequences from Gramineae and three animal samples including human, mouse and fruit fly were aligned and analyzed by computational tools to predict the protein properties, such as molecular mass, pI, signal peptide, transmembrane and conserved domains, secondary and spatial structures. Sequence comparison analysis revealed that there is high identity between plants and animals. Three catalytic regions including L domain, N domain and S domain were detected by structural modeling of HMGR. The tertiary structure model of Oryza sativa HMGR (Accession Number: NP_001063541) was further checked by PROCHECK algorithm, and showed that 90.3 % of the amino acid residues were located in the most favored regions in Ramachandran plot, indicating that the simulated three-dimensional structure was reliable. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that there is a relationship among species of Gramineae and other organisms. According to these results, HMGRs should be derived from a common ancestor.

Drought is one of the major factors limiting the yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) particularly during grain filling. Under terminal drought condition, remobilization of pre-stored carbohydrates in wheat stem to grain has a major contribution in yield. To determine the molecular mechanism of stem reserve utilization under drought condition, we compared stem proteome patterns of two contrasting wheat landraces (N49 and N14) under a progressive post-anthesis drought stress, during which period N49 peduncle showed remarkably higher stem reserves remobilization efficiency compared to N14. Out of 830 protein spots reproducibly detected and analyzed on two-dimensional electrophoresis gels, 135 spots showed significant changes in at least one landrace. The highest number of differentially expressed proteins was observed in landrace N49 at 20days after anthesis when active remobilization of dry matter was observed, suggesting a possible involvement of these proteins in effective stem reserve remobilization of N49. The identification of 82 of differentially expressed proteins using mass spectrometry revealed a coordinated expression of proteins involved in leaf senescence, oxidative stress defense, signal transduction, metabolisms and photosynthesis which might enable N49 to efficiently remobilized its stem reserves compared to N14. The up-regulation of several senescence-associated proteins and breakdown of photosynthetic proteins in N49 might reflect the fact that N49 increased carbon remobilization from the stem to the grains by enhancing senescence. Furthermore, the up-regulation of several oxidative stress defense proteins in N49 might suggest a more effective protection against oxidative stress during senescence in order to protect stem cells from premature cell death. Our results suggest that wheat plant might response to soil drying by efficiently remobilize assimilates from stem to grain through coordinated gene expression., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The different species of the genus Satureja are known as "Marze Kohi" in Iran. Herbal drugs of these plants have long been used in traditional medicine, and some species are currently used in food and pharmaceutical industries. In the present work, the genetic diversity and affinities of several Satureja species were studied based on Selectively Amplified Microsatellite Polymorphic Loci (SAMPL) using five primer combinations. A total of 515 polymorphic DNA fragments were amplified, with a mean of 103 bands per assay. Among the species the maximum distance was observed between S. hortensis and S. Isophylla, while the maximum degree of similarity was obtained between S. rechingeri and S. khuzistanica. Cluster analysis was performed for all SAMPL data using the neighbor-joining method. All species for which multiple accessions were sampled were monophyletic with maximum bootstrap support. The investigated species were clustered in three main groups. In general, the relationships among Satureja species revealed by the cluster analysis were somewhat congruent with their geographical distributions., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Crop adaptation to abiotic stresses requires alterations in expression of a large number of stress protection genes and their regulators, including transcription factors. In this study, the expression levels of ten MYB transcription factor genes from wheat (Triticum aestivum) were examined in two recombinant inbred lines contrasting in their salt tolerance in response to salt or drought stress. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that four MYB genes were consistently up-regulated in the seedling roots of both genotypes under short-term salt treatment. Three MYB genes were found to be up-regulated in both genotypes under long-term salt stress. One MYB gene was up-regulated in both genotypes under both short- and long-term salt stress. Of these salt up-regulated MYB genes, one MYB gene (TaMYBsdu1) was markedly up-regulated in the leaf and root of wheat under long-term drought stress. In addition, TaMYBsdu1 showed higher expression levels in the salt-tolerant genotype than in the susceptible genotype under salt stress. These data suggest that TaMYBsdu1 is a potentially important regulator involved in wheat adaptation to both salt and drought stresses.

We developed and characterized 13 microsatellite markers from the water mite Hygrobates fluviatilis. The genotypes of 32 diploid females were assessed, and all of the loci were polymorphic. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to 21, and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.063 to 0.813. These microsatellite markers are the first published for water mites and will contribute to research on the population structure of this widespread species., (© 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

Mineral deficiency limits crop production in most soils and in Asia alone, about 50% of rice lands are phosphorous deficient. In an attempt to determine the mechanism of rice adaptation to phosphorous deficiency, changes in proteome patterns associated with phosphorous deficiency have been investigated. We analyzed the parental line Nipponbare in comparison to its near isogenic line (NIL6-4) carrying a major phosphorous uptake QTL (Pup1) on chromosome 12. Using 2-DE, the proteome pattern of roots grown under 1 and 100 microM phosphorous were compared. Out of 669 proteins reproducibly detected on root 2-DE gels, 32 proteins showed significant changes in the two genotypes. Of them, 17 proteins showed different responses in two genotypes under stress condition. MS resulted in identification of 26 proteins involved in major phosphorous deficiency adaptation pathways including reactive oxygen scavenging, citric acid cycle, signal transduction, and plant defense responses as well as proteins with unknown function. Our results highlighted a coordinated response in NIL in response to phosphorous deficiency which may confer higher adaptation to nutrient deficiency.

Thirty two accessions of Aegilops tauschii were used to assess its genetic diversity by morphological and AFLP data and to evaluate relationship between morphological and AFLP markers. Thirty AFLP primer combinations led to the amplification of fragments ranging from 50 to 500 bp of which, 97 were polymorphic across the 32 accessions. Although both AFLP and morphological data classified accessions in two groups, one possessing subsp. tauschii accessions and the other contained all accessions of subsp. strangulata with some accessions from the subsp. tauschii. This may be explained by intermediate and hybrid forms between these two subspecies. Comparison of UPGMA dendrograms of morphological and AFLP markers using the cophenetic correlation indicated a non significant correlation (r = 0.37). Nevertheless, AFLP and selected morphological characters appear as useful and complementary techniques for evaluation of genetic diversity in subspecies of A. tauschii.

Genetic variation of 28 populations of jointed goatgrass (Aegilops cylindrica Host.), collected from different parts of Iran, were evaluated using both RAPD-PCR and SDS-PAGE of seed proteins. The diversity within and between populations for the three-band High Molecular Weight (HMW) subunits of glutenin pattern were extremely low. Out of 15 screened primers of RAPD, 14 primers generated 133 reproducible fragments which among them 92 fragments were polymorphic (69%). Genetic similarity calculated from the RAPD data ranged from 0.64 to 0.98. A dendrogram was prepared on the basis of a similarity matrix using the UPGMA algorithm and separated the 28 populations into two groups. Confusion can happen between populations with the same origin as well as between populations of very diverse geographical origins. Our results show that compare to seed storage protein, RAPD is suitable for genetic diversity assessment in Ae. cylindrica populations.

Principal component and cluster analyses were used to evaluate the pattern of morphological variation in 122 accessions of Aegilops crassa for 14 quantitative characters. With the principal component analysis, the first five principal components with eigenvalues more than 1 contributed 69.5% of the variability amongst accessions, whereas PC6 to PC14 were less than unity. Plant height, stem diameter, spike length and number of spikelets per spike were the most important characters in the first principal component. The germplasm was grouped into five clusters using cluster analysis. Although each cluster had some specific characteristics of its own, but clusters were not clearly separated when plotted by the first two principal components. Mahalanobis distances (D2) determined that plant height, stem diameter, spike length, number of spikelets per spike, node width, seed length, seed width and flowering date characters as the most important characters in differentiating the accessions. The morphological variation of Aegilops crassa accessions obtained in this study provides useful information for the future collection and makes these genetic resources more accessible to breeders.

Background: Damask roses (Rosa damascena Mill.) are mainly used for essential oil production. Previous studies have indicated that all production material in Bulgaria and Turkey consists of only one genotype. Nine polymorphic microsatellite markers were used to analyze the genetic diversity of 40 accessions of R. damascena collected across major and minor rose oil production areas in Iran., Results: All microsatellite markers showed a high level of polymorphism (5-15 alleles per microsatellite marker, with an average of 9.11 alleles per locus). Cluster analysis of genetic similarities revealed that these microsatellites identified a total of nine different genotypes. The genotype from Isfahan province, which is the major production area, was by far the most common genotype (27/40 accessions). It was identical to the Bulgarian genotype. Other genotypes (each represented by 1-4 accessions) were collected from minor production areas in several provinces, notably in the mountainous Northwest of Iran., Conclusion: This is the first study that uncovered genetic diversity within Damask rose. Our results will guide new collection activities to establish larger collections and manage the Iranian Damask rose genetic resources. The genotypes identified here may be directly useful for breeding.