Efficacy of essential oils combination on performance,ileal bacterial counts,intestinal histology and immunocompetence of laying hens fed alternative lipid sources

This study was carried out to assess the effects of a blend of herbal essential oils (namely Thymus vulgaris, Mentha piperita, Rosmarinus offisinalis and Anethum graveolens) and different dietary lipid sources on the performance, ileal bacterial enumeration, intestinal histological alterations and immune responses in laying hens. For this purpose, a total of 150 laying hens were randomly allocated to six experimental treatments with five replicates of five birds each. Dietary treatments consisted of three levels of a mixture of essential oils (0, 100 and 200 mg/kg) and two sources of lipid (soybean oil and fish oil containing different ratios of n‐6 to n‐3 fatty acids) fed to the animals during an 80‐days feeding trial. Findings indicated that dietary administration of fish oil not only increased significantly the spleen relative weight (p < 0.01) and the antibody titre against Newcastle virus (p < 0.05) but also led to reductions in liver relative weight (p < 0.05) and feed conversion ratio (p < 0.05). Moreover, the mixture of herbal essential oils brought about declines in hepatic relative weight, heterophile to lymphocyte ratio (p < 0.05) and intestinal pathogen populations (p < 0.01). Mention must also be made of the improvements it made in spleen weight (p < 0.01), antibody titres against SRBC (p < 0.01) and Newcastle virus (p < 0.05), villus height to crypt depth ratio (p < 0.01), goblet cell numbers (p < 0.05), lamina propria lymphatic follicle diameters (p < 0.01) and feed conversion ratio (p = 0.06). It may be claimed that the enhancements observed in the performance of laying hens fed fish oil and 200 mg/kg of the blend of essential oils could have potentially been associated with improved intestinal health indices as well as cellular and humoral immune responses.     

Effects of water table management on soil salinity and alfalfa yield in a semi-arid climate

A lysimeter experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of water table management (WTM) on distribution of soil salinity and annual alfalfa (Medicago scutellata) yield. Subirrigations with three levels of water table namely, 0.5 (WT0.5), 0.7 (WT0.7), and 1.0 m (WT1.0) and a free drainage (FD) conventional irrigation treatment were selected for this study. All treatments were arranged in a complete randomized block design with three replicates. The results of this study indicated that the average soil electrical conductivity of the saturated extract (ECe) in the root zone gradually increased and exceeded the designated crop threshold value (4 dS/m) after the first forage harvest in subirrigated lysimeters. A higher salt accumulation was observed at the WT0.5 treatment. The average dry matter yield of annual alfalfa in WT0.5 and WT0.7 treatments was found to be 52 and 73% higher compared with the control treatment, respectively.     

Morphological evidences for onion-induced growth inhibition of Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes

The antifungal activity of onion (Allium cepa L.) on two important dermatophytes, Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes, with special reference to morphological aspects was studied. Growth of both fungi was found to be strongly inhibited by aqueous onion extract (AOE) as a dose-dependent manner. The extract showed fungicidal effect for both fungi at concentrations >3.12% (v/v). The fungus T. mentagrophytes was more affected by the onion as compared to T. rubrum at all concentrations used. Morphological effects of onion exposure were examined in correlation with fungal growth. Corresponding to the growth inhibition, light and electron microscopy observations revealed morphological anomalies in hyphal compartments. The results demonstrated that AOE targets the cell membrane of the fungi as breaking down of both inner and outer membranes with consequent extrution of materials into the surrounding medium. Cytoplasmic membranes and other membranous structures of organelles, such as nuclei and mitochondria, were also disrupted. In correlation to the fungal growth, morphological alterations occurred to a less content for T. rubrum compared with T. mentagrophytes. The hyphae of T. rubrum were found to be mainly affected by converting to resistant forms, i.e., chlamidospores as a consequence of phenotype switching response to AOE. Plasmolysis accompanied by an almost complete depletion and disorganization of cytoplasmic structures were found to be the final event which led to cell death. Ultrastructural evidences obtained from this study strongly support that morphological changes of T. rubrum and T. mentagrophytes caused by AOE are associated with its fungistatic and fungicidal activities. With respect to the morphological results and the preliminary data on fungal biochemistry, a mechanism of action by interacting of AOE with thiol (-SH) groups present in essential compartments of the fungal cells was postulated.     

Designing E1 deleted adenoviral vector by homologous recombination

BACKGROUND: Adenoviruses are used extensively to deliver genes into mammalian cells, particularly where there is a requirement for high-level expression of transgene products in cultured cells, or for use as recombinant viral vaccines or in gene therapy. In spite of their usefulness, the construction of adenoviral vectors (AdV) is a cumbersome and lengthy process that is not readily amenable to the generation of large collection of clones. METHODS: In this project, to delete E1 gene in adenovirus, an adenoviral plasmid containing lateral sites of E1 region of adenovirus was made and recombination in the 293A cells between the homologous region of this linearized plasmid and the adenovirus genome resulted in the formation of the complete adenoviral recombinant. RESULTS: This recombination resulted in loss of E1 region and we constructed a recombinant adenovirus type 5 vector that E1 gene was deleted by homologous recombination. CONCLUSION: Homologous recombination is more easy and fast technique in the production of AdV.     

Insight in to the Epilobium L. genus systematics by using multiple data sets and bioinformatic and phylogenetic approaches

Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution - The genus Epilobium of Family Onagraceae is taxonomically a difficult group due to frequent inter-specific hybridization and species morphological overlaps....     

A new look at the genus Crocus L. phylogeny and speciation: Insight from molecular data and chromosome geography

Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution - The genus Crocus of the family Iridaceae is a monophyletic genus with over 100 species. Due to the high degree of hybridization and the changes in the number...     

A bioinformatic insight into the genetic diversity within pomegranate cultivars: from nuclear to chloroplast genes

Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution - The pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an ancient fruit plant which has been consumed for its nutritional value and medicinal properties by mankind. Several...     

Genetic diversity and population structure in medicinal plant Melissa officinalis L. (Lamiaceae)

Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution - Melissa officinalis is an important medicinal plant and is extensively used by locals. This species is growing in different regions of Iran and forms several...     

Enzymatic solubilization of arabinoxylans from native, extruded, and high-shear-treated rye bran by different endo-xylanases and other hydrolyzing enzymes

The overall objective of this research was to find a new way to valorize rye bran, by producing a gellifier from the enzymatic solubilization of arabinoxylans (AX). The effects of three pure endo-xylanases from Aspergillus niger (Xyl-1), Talaromyces emersonii (Xyl-2), and Bacillus subtilis (Xyl-3) and of Grindamyl S100 (GS100), a commercial enzyme preparation containing a Xyl-1 type endo-xylanase, were tested on rye bran to study the solubilization of water-unextractable arabinoxylans (WUAX). Eight different extrusion-treated rye brans were also used as substrates to find the best physical treatment to facilitate enzymatic arabinoxylan (AX) solubilization. Arabinoxylans were better solubilized from the bran extruded at high temperature using Xyl-3. This enzyme was then tested in combination with pure (1,4)-beta-d-arabinoxylan arabinofuranohydrolase (AXH) and endo-beta-d-glucanase or ferulic acid esterase (FAE), from A. niger. Only beta-glucanase in combination with Xyl-3 improved the AX extraction, but it did not have a marked effect on the viscosity of the extracts. Xyl-3 was then tested on a high-shear-treated rye bran, and results were compared to those obtained with the high-temperature-extruded rye bran. The high-shear treatment did not improve the bran AX enzymatic solubilization. The combination of FAE with Xyl-1 or Xyl-3 did not improve the AX extraction from untreated and high-shear-treated rye bran. Finally, to study the gelation capacity of the enzymatically solubilized AX, the effect of the hydrogen peroxide/horseradish peroxidase (H(2)O(2)/POD) was tested on the Xyl-3 high-temperature-extruded bran extracts. Solubilized AX did not gel in the presence of the oxidizing system.     

Genetic variation for resistance to septoria tritici blotch in Iranian tetraploid wheat landraces

Septoria tritici blotch (STB), caused by Mycosphaerella graminicola has recently become one of the devastating diseases in Iran causing significant yield losses on most commercial bread and durum wheat cultivars. Iran is located in the Fertile Crescent, a region where wheat was historically domesticated; and, thus, landraces derived from this region are of considerable global interest for identification of new sources of resistance to various stresses. Here, we report on the resistance responses of 45 tetraploid wheat landraces collected from different provinces of Iran to eight M. graminicola isolates. In total 138 isolate-specific resistances were found among all interactions (n = 360). The highest number of specific resistances (30 out of 32 interactions) was found in wheat landraces collected from West Azarbaijan. In contrast, all landraces from Kordestan were highly susceptible to M. graminicola isolates and only one isolate-specific resistance was identified among 106 isolate-wheat interactions. Kermanshah landraces showed the highest resistance variation against different isolates. About 57 isolate-specific resistances were identified among 104 interactions. Ilam landraces were highly resistant to STB as 28 specific resistances were observed among 32 interactions. Markazi (n = 2) and Sistan-Baluchestan (n = 1) were susceptible to all isolates tested. Landraces from Lorestan were generally susceptible to isolates tested as 26 susceptible responses were observed out of 32 interactions. Our results indicate that landraces collected from the Fertile Crescent region may possess diverse effective resistance genes or valuable broad spectrum resistance genes, and that their identification is of interest and can be exploited in breeding programs.