Effects of dietary myrcene administration on antioxidant gene responses in common carp (Cyprinus carpio), exposed to copper sulphate

In the present study, common carp (Cyprinus carpio) were fed with diet supplemented with 0% (M0) or 0.5% (M0.5) myrcene for 6 week and exposed to ambient copper (0.2 mg/L) for further 2 weeks. Gene expressions of superoxide dismutase (sod), catalase (cat), glutathione peroxidase (gpx), glutathione reductase (gr) and glutathione S‐transferase (gst) were assayed in the fish brain and kidney, and thiobarbituric reactive substance (TBARS) levels were determined in blood plasma. The results showed that there was no significant difference in TBARS levels between the M0 and M0.5 treatments, before the copper exposure; however, the M0 had significantly higher TBARS levels compared to the M0.5, after the copper exposure. The antioxidant genes showed different patterns in the fish brain and kidney. The genes were up‐regulated in the fish brain by dietary myrcene and copper exposure. However, in the fish kidney, the M0.5 treatment showed no change in sod, cat, gpx before and after the copper exposure. The results suggest that myrcene is capable to induce antioxidant enzymes that prepare the fish for a further oxidative condition (i.e. copper exposure). Dietary myrcene at 0.5% level is suggested for common carp before treatment with copper sulphate.     

The Preference of the Omnivorous–Macrophagous, Tilapia zillii (Gervais), to Consume a Natural Free-floating Fern, Azolla pinnata

Free‐floating macrophytes are often common in standing water bodies. Fishponds are suitable medium for Azolla growth; however, it rapidly self‐propagates and doubles its biomass in a few days and could strongly influence nutrient dynamics. The preference of Tilapia zillii (Gervais) to consume the free‐floating plant, Azolla pinnata, was tested in two experiments. In the first experiment, fish with different initial body weights (2–3 g, 7–10 g, 15–20 g, and 50–60 g) were randomly distributed at a rate of 150 ± 5 g/100‐L aquarium and fed fresh A. pinnata for 8 wk. A known weight of fresh plant was given to fish; after 24 h, Azolla remaining in aquaria was collected, dried with tissue paper, and reweighed to determine amount consumed. In the second experiment, fish were fed one of five diets containing different levels of dry Azolla meal as replacements of the control diet (20% crude protein) at levels of 0 (control), 25, 50, 75, or 100% for 13 wk. Growth retardation and weight loss were observed in all fish sizes fed fresh Azolla, and the mortality rates were 53.3–56.7%. The consumption of fresh Azolla decreased over time up to the eighth week; otherwise, Azolla consumption was fish size dependent. Whole‐body contents of crude protein decreased significantly, while total lipids and ash contents increased significantly with increasing fish size. In the second experiment, fish growth was reduced when the level of dry Azolla meal in the diet exceeds 25%. The mortality rate increased significantly with increasing Azolla level in the diet. Carcass composition showed increases in moisture and ash contents and decreases in dry matter, crude protein, and total lipids with the increase of Azolla level in the diets. Amount of diet consumed decreased, while feed conversion ratio increased significantly with the increase in dry Azolla level in the diet. Moreover, protein efficiency ratio, protein productive value, and energy utilization decreased significantly with the increase in dry Azolla level in the diet. It could be concluded that the preference of T. zillii to consume Azolla plants inhabiting water bodies is limited, but it could partially consume the dry Azolla meal at low and moderate levels. The optimum inclusion level of dry Azolla meal should be no more than 25% in T. zillii diet.     

Herbaceous species diversity in relation to fire severity in Zagros oak forests,Iran

Zagros forests are mainly covered byQuercus brantii L. coppices and oak sprout clumps occupy the forest area like patches. We investigated post-fire herbaceous diversity in the first growing season after fire. For this purpose neighboring burned and unburned areas were selected with the same plant species and ecological conditions. The data were collected from areas subjected to different fire severities. Overall 6 treatments were considered with respect to fire severity and the mi-crosites of inside and outside of oak sprout clumps including： unburned inside and outside of sprout clumps （Ni and No）, inside of sprout clumps that burned with high fire severity （H）, inside of sprout clumps that burned with moderate fire severity （M）, outside of sprout clumps that burned with low fire severity （OH and OM）. Different herbaceous com-position was observed in the unburned inside and outside of oak sprout clumps. The species diversity and richness were increased in treatments burned with low and moderate fire severity. However, in treatment burned with high fire severity （H）, herbaceous cover was reduced, even-ness was increased, and richness and diversity were not significantly changed. We concluded that besides the microsites conditions in forest, fire severity is an inseparable part of the ecological effect of fire on her-baceous composition.     

Rates of inbreeding and genetic diversity in Iranian Holstein Cattle

The accumulation of inbreeding and the loss of genetic diversity is a potential problem in Holstein dairy cattle. The goal of this study was to estimate inbreeding levels and other measures of genetic diversity, using pedigree information from Iranian Holstein cattle. Edited pedigree included 1 048 572 animals. The average number of discrete generation equivalents and pedigree completeness index reached 13.4 and 90%, respectively. The rate of inbreeding was 0.3% per year. Effective number of founders, founder genomes, non‐founders and ancestors of animals born between 2003 and 2011 were 503, 15.6, 16.1 and 25.7, respectively. It was proven that the unequal founder contributions as well as bottlenecks and genetic drift were important reasons for the loss of genetic diversity in the population. The top 10 ancestors with the highest marginal genetic contributions to animals born between 2003 and 2011 and with the highest contributions to inbreeding were 48.20% and 63.94%, respectively. Analyses revealed that the most important cause of genetic diversity loss was genetic drift accumulated over non‐founder generations, which occurred due to small effective population size. Therefore, it seems that managing selection and mating decisions are controlling future co‐ancestry and inbreeding, which would lead to better handling of the effective population size.     

Dietary curcumin nanoparticles promoted the performance,antioxidant activity,and humoral immunity,and modulated the hepatic and intestinal histology of Nile tilapia fingerlings

Fish Physiology and Biochemistry - The current study investigated the effects of dietary curcumin nanoparticles (C-NPs) on the performance, hemato-biochemical profile, digestive enzymes activities,...     

Morphological and molecular characterisation of Longidorus sabalanicus n. sp. (Nematoda: Longidoridae) from Iran

European Journal of Plant Pathology - The effects of three biological control agents (BCAs) including Funneliformis mosseae BEG12 (FM) as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), Bacillus velezensis...     

Comparing analgesic effects of a topical herbal mixed medicine with salicylate in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis is the most common cause of disability among people and it is a common disease of joints that can lead to cartilage damage. In this study the analgesic effects of a herbal ointment containing cinnamon, ginger, mastic (Saghez) and sesame oil is compared with Salicylate ointment in patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis. It was a double-blind randomized controlled trail study. Patients with diagnosed arthritis were involved in the study and they were divided in two groups via block randomization method. For six weeks, twice a day, intervention group applied herbal ointment and control group used Salicylate ointment. The severity of pain, morning stiffness and limited motion were measured using Visual Analog Pain Scale. In order to analyze the trends of these three indexes, repeated measurement test was used. Ninety two participates with the mean age of 52.2 (+/- 12.4) years and with the mean disease period of 30.45 (+/- 30.3) months were involved in the study. There was no significant difference between two groups regarding the distribution of sex, weight, height, BMI and the duration of illness. No statistical difference was observed between two groups regarding pain relief, morning stiffness and limited motion; nevertheless in repeated measurements during second, forth and sixth weeks in both groups the decreasing trend of these three indexes had been statistically significant (p < 0.0001). It seems that using this herbal combination is clinically effective for patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis in order to decrease their pain, morning stiffness and limited motion; its effect is comparable with Salicylate ointment.     

Production of monoclonal antibody against recombinant bovine sex-determining region Y (SRY) and their preferential binding to Y chromosome-bearing sperm

Separation of X and Y chromosome-bearing sperm is an appropriate method for the selection of desired sex of offspring to increase the profit in livestock industries. The purpose of this study was the production of a monoclonal antibody against recombinant bovine sex-determining region Y protein for separation Y sperm. The hybridoma cells from splenocytes of immunized female's balb/C mice and Sp2/0 cells were made. The binding affinity of our monoclonal antibody (mAbSRY2) was compared with mouse monoclonal SRY-15. The Western blot method indicated that mAbSRY2 successfully detected the rbSRY protein. The specificity and sensitivity of mAbSRY2 is comparable to SRY-15 commercially ones. The SRY gene in 100% of bull semen contains the Y chromosome that had the strongest binding affinity to mAbSRY2 was synthesized. In other words, the binding affinity of semen contains the X sperms near the negative control. In general, this immunological method can help to separate X from Y sperms. However, the mAbSRY2 is bind to Y-bearing sexed sperm, but in the future; the sexed sperms need to apply in farms.