Journal of Cell and Molecular Research

43-50

Authors: Sasan Mohsenzadeh, Kolsoum Abdolahi and Hassan Mohabatkar

Asafoetida is the dried latex exuded from the living underground rhizome or tap root of Ferula assafoetida. Antibacterial characteristic of asafoetida was shown using the circular zone diameter of bacterial growth inhibition by disk-diffusion method on two gram positive and three gram negative bacteria. Then, the bacterial genomic DNA damage, induced by F. assafoetida latex, was demonstrated using the comparison of random amplification of polymorphic DNA profiles generated by polymerase chain reaction of control and treated bacterial genomes. The results showed that the number of primers that produced bands in each bacterium were higher in control samples compared to those treated with asafoetida. This and the absence or presence of bands between controls and treatments confirm rearrangements and DNA damage in the priming binding sites of bacterial genome.

57-65

Authors: Soraya Abbasi Habashi, Farzaneh Sabouni, Ali Moghimi, Saeed Ansari Majd and Azita Parvaneh Tafreshi

Microglia, the sentries of the brain, is highly implicated in neurodegeneration as in neuroprotection. Chronic microglial activation endangers neuronal survival through the release of various potentially neurotoxic mediators including Nitric Oxide (NO). Thus, negative regulators of microglial activation have been considered as potential therapeutic candidates to target neurodegeneration, such as those in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and even in chronic epileptic syndromes. Bromelain, a mixture of cysteine proteases, derived from pineapple stem, has been reported to have anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. Neonatal rat primary microglial cells were isolated from the brain according to the Floden’s method. The purity of the cultures was determined by immunostaining with an OX-42 antibody which showed a purity greater than 95%.The activation profile of microglia was investigated by determining the effects of Bromelain (1, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 µg/ml) on the level of neurotoxin, NO, mitochondrial activity and morphological changes in treated microglia with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (1µg/ml), as an endotoxin. Our results showed that pretreatment of primary rat microglia with bomelain (30 µg/ml), decreased the production of NO induced by LPS (1µg/ml) treatment in a dose-dependent manner, which prevented the deramification of microglia and its phagocytic morphology. Moreover, bromelain does not show cytotoxicity at any of the applied doses, suggesting that the anti-inflammatory effects of bromelain are not due to the cell death. In conclusion, Bromelain reduces the NO synthesis in vitro by potentially exerting its anti-inflammatory effects. Bromelain naturally found in pineapple stem, can be considered as a useful agent for neuroprotection and alleviation of symptoms in neurodegenerative diseases.

75-80

Authors: Jalil Abbaspour, Ali Akbar Ehsanpour and Fariba Amini

Transgenic and non transgenic Nicotiana tabacum L (cultivar Wisconsin) containing Ri T-DNA were treated with 0, 0.2 and 0.4 mgL-1 GA3 in Murashig and Skoog medium. Some physiological parameters including shoot length, leaf area, number of auxiliary bud, fresh and dry weight, number and length of trichomes were measured. Shoot length, fresh weight and dry weight were increased but number of trichome did not change by GA3 treatment. Chlorophyll, carotenoid and anthocyanin pigments of leaf were decreased. Auxin and gibberellic acid content of leaf and root were also measured. Exogenous GA3 increased root auxin in the transgenic plants while it did not change in shoot. GA3 treatment increased gibberellin content in both of root and shoot.

1-11

Authors: Fatemeh Moosavi, Hassan Mohabatkar and Sasan Mohsenzadeh

The family, Flaviviridae includes viruses which cause several diseases including Dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, Murray Valley encephalitis, Tick-borne encephalitis, West Nile encephalitis, Yellow fever and Hepatitis C virus infection. Members of this family have monopartite, linear, single-stranded RNA genomes of positive polarity with 9.6-12.3 kb in length. Here, we analyzed the codon usage of 13 species of this family by using gene infinity package. Base analysis was performed by CAIcal server and amino acid composition was calculated by PseAAC web-server. The results showed that the highest number of A, G and C bases were seen in the RNA genome of Dengue virus 2, Tick borne encephalitis virus and Hepatitis C virus, respectively. Although the number of U bases used in RNA genomes was very close, the highest U nucleotide amount was 23.77% in Wesselsbron virus. The lowest number of C, G, U and A bases was seen in Bovine viral diarrhea virus, Dengue virus 2, Tick borne encephalitis virus and Hepatitis C virus, respectively. In this study, it was found that the complete genome of classical swine fever virus has a lower GC content and genome of Tick borne encephalitis virus, Hepatitis C virus and Powassan virus have the highest GC content among other examined species. We also classified the amino acids as rare (Phenylalanine, Cysteine, Histidine, Methionine, Asparagine, Glutamine, Tryptophan and Tyrosine), frequent (Alanine, Glutamic acid, Glycine, Leucine, Valine and Threonine), and intermediate (all others). The highest numbers of preferred codons exist in Wesselsbron virus and the lowest in West Nile virus.

19-24

Authors: Massoud Ranjbar, Zahra Hajmoradi and Roya Karamian

In the present paper, the cytogenetic study including meiotic chromosome number and behavior along with pollen viability were performed in 4 populations of Trigonella spruneriana Boiss. This is the first cytogenetic report of the taxon. All populations are diploid and possess 2n = 2x = 16 chromosome number, which is consistent with the proposed basic number of x = 8. In addition, some meiotic irregularities observed in different populations included chromosomes stickiness, B-chromosomes, chromosome bridges resulting from stickiness, the occurrence of laggard chromosomes, formation of micronuclei in tetrad cells and cytomixis. The highest and the lowest percentages of pollen viability were observed in populations SPR 658 and SPR 566, respectively.

31-37

Authors: Najme Javanmardi, Abdolreza Bagheri, Nasrin Moshtaghi, Ahmad Sharifi and Abbas Hemati Kakhki

Saffron (Crocus sativus) is the most valuable and indigenous crop in Iran. The stigmas of flower are used as a popular natural flavouring, colouring and medicinal agent. However, the market suffers from frauds in this plant such as mixing with safflower petals due to high profit. Identification of these frauds with conventional and biochemical methods is difficult and low sensitive. Therefore, application of molecular markers such as random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)/sequence characterized amplified regions (SCAR) is being considered as an alternative. In this study, DNA was extracted from dry stigmas of 5 Saffron accessions and dry petals of 7 safflower cultivars. RAPD reactions with ten 15-mer random primers resulted in two specific monomorphic bands (500 and 700 bp) for safflower, while they were absent in saffron accessions. PCR analysis with specific SCAR primers amplified two specific bands (414 and 589 bp) for safflowers in different combinations of saffron stigmas and safflower petals. This was the case with very low rates or 1% of safflower. Therefore, this method seems to be suitable for fraud identification of safflower petals in commercial saffron samples.