Pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular failure in broiler chickens reared at high altitude is affected by dietary source of n‐6 and n‐3 fatty acids

The present study evaluated the development of pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular failure in broiler chickens reared at high altitude (2100 m) as affected by dietary intake of n‐3 and n‐6 fatty acid sources. Flax oil and soy oil were used as sources of n‐3 and n‐6 fatty acids, respectively, either with or without α‐tocopheryl acetate. A total of 192 day‐old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were used in a completely randomized design using isoenergetic and isonitrogenous experimental diets. Results showed that dietary flax oil significantly (p < 0.05) improved feed conversion ratio during 21–42 days of age. However, body weight gain did not significantly differ among the experimental groups in entire trial. Birds received flax oil had significantly higher serum concentration of nitric oxide (NO) but they had lower serum concentration of malondialdehyde when compared with their counterparts fed with soy oil. Liver and abdominal fat weights were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced by substitution of soy oil for flax oil. The right‐to‐total ventricle weight ratio (RV/TV) and mortality from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) were significantly (p < 0.05) decreased in birds that received flax oil. In conclusion, n‐3 fatty acids could significantly reduce RV:TV and PAH mortality in birds by increasing circulatory level of NO and suppressing hepatic lipogenesis.     

Comparison of different models for estimation of genetic parameters of early growth traits in the Mehraban sheep.

Genetic parameters for birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW) and pre-weaning daily gain (PWDG) in Iranian Mehraban sheep were estimated using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedure. Six different animal models were fitted, differentiated by including or excluding maternal effects, with and without covariance between maternal and direct genetic effects. The estimates for direct heritability ranged from 0.26 to 0.53, 0.18 to 0.32 and 0.15 to 0.33 for BW, WW and PWDG respectively. The estimates were substantially higher when maternal effects, either genetic or environmental, were ignored in the model. The results of this study show that full models with maternal genetic and environmental effects gave the most accurate estimates for early growth traits.     

Effect of parental genotypes and colchicine treatment on the androgenic response of wheat F1 hybrids

The effect of the parental genotypes and colchicine treatment on the androgenic response of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) F1 hybrids was studied. For this, anthers from three F1 hybrids and their parents were cultured on W14 initiation medium and W14 supplemented with 0.03% colchicine. The number of responding anthers, microspore‐derived structures/100 anthers, green plants/embryos cultured, green plants/100 anthers and albino plants/100 anthers were recorded. It was observed that embryo formation and plant regeneration ability were genetically controlled and genotype dependent. In both treatments the variety Kavkaz had a significantly higher percentage of responding anthers, microspore‐derived structures and green plants/100 anthers than the other genotypes. On the other hand, the variety Myconos also demonstrated high microspore‐derived structure production and green plant regeneration when treated with colchicine. The good response observed in these two varieties indicates the importance of colchicine treatment only for certain genotypes. Green plant production capacity of the hybrids was intermediate to that of the parental varieties. As one parent with a high or even an intermediate response to anther culture could lead to the production of sufficient (for breeding purposes) green plants from the F₁ hybrids, it was concluded that screening the inbred lines for the response to anther culture with and without colchicine treatment could contribute to utilization of breeding material with a low response to anther culture via the proper hybrid combinations.     

Analysis of genetic diversity among some Persian walnut genotypes (Juglans regia L.) using morphological traits and SSRs markers

There is a high diversity among cultivated walnut trees in Iran due to its long time of seed propagation and vast area of cultivation. In this study some morphological characters as well as Simple Sequence Repeat (SSRs) markers were used to analyze the genetic diversity and relationships among 31 Iranian walnut genotypes along with four foreign cultivars. The nut weight ranged from 7.52 to 17.73 g, kernel weight from 4.00 to 9.83 g, and kernel percentage ratio from 38.78 to 67.05% among studied genotypes. In SSRs analysis, nine primer pairs were tested that produced 39 alleles ranging from 2 to 8, with a mean value of 5.10 allele per primer. The Iranian genotypes showed relatively high diversity both for their SSRs loci and morphological traits. Although the foreign cultivars (‘Serr’, ‘Vina’, ‘Franquette’ and ‘Lara’) clustered with each other, they also laid close and within the Iranian genotype. The results of the study provided us with valuable diversity among our genotypes which could be used for breeding studies and also showed the power of genetic markers for analysis and evaluation of this diversity.     

Preparation of carboxymethyl cellulose superabsorbents from waste textiles

Production of superabsorbent polymers from cotton and viscose waste textiles was investigated. The cellulose wastes were carboxymethylated, crosslinked by divinylsulfone, and then converted to superabsorbent material using air-drying, freeze-drying, or air-drying after phase inversion. The separation of cellulose from synthetic polymers in the textile (polyester) was carried out by direct dissolution of cellulose in N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO), or separation by dissolution in water after carboxymethylation of the textiles. The progress of the carboxymethylation reaction was evaluated by measurement of the degree of substitution (DS) of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). The DS values of 0.50–0.86 confirmed the prosperous substitution of hydrophilic carboxymethyl groups into the cellulosic chains. The water binding capacity and the swelling rate of the superabsorbents prepared under different conditions were measured. Under the best condition the superabsorbent obtained from waste textiles showed an ultimate water binding capacity of 541 g/g which was notably higher than that of the reference superabsorbent derived from cotton linter (470 g/g). The amount of absorbed water by this product exceeded that of the reference sample after 60 min immersion.     

Metabolomics-Based Study of Logarithmic and Stationary Phases of Promastigotes in Leishmania major by 1H NMR Spectroscopy

Background:

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of the most important parasitic diseases in humans. In this disease, one of the responsible organisms is Leishmania major, which is transmitted by sandfly vector. There are specific differences in biochemical profiles and metabolite pathways in logarithmic and stationary phases of Leishmania parasites. In the present study, ¹H NMR spectroscopy was used to examine the metabolites outliers in the logarithmic and stationary phases of promastigotes in L. major to enlighten more about the transmission mechanism in metacyclogenesis of L. major.

Methods:

Promastigote was cultured, logarithmic and stationary phases were separated by the peanut agglutinin, and cell metabolites were extracted. ¹H NMR spectroscopy was applied, and outliers were analyzed using principal component analysis.

Results:

The most altered metabolites in stationary and logarithmic phases were limited to citraconic acid, isopropylmalic acid, L-leucine, ornithine, caprylic acid, capric acid, and acetic acid.

Conclusion:

¹H NMR spectroscopy could play an important role in the characterization of metabolites in biochemical pathways during a metacyclogenesis process. These metabolites and their pathways can help in exploiting a transmission mechanism in metacyclogenesis, and outcoming data might be used in the metabolic network reconstruction of L. major modeling. Key Words: Leishmania major, Metabolomics, Principal component analysis     

Preventing Effects of Nano-Selenium Particles on Serum Concentration of Blood Urea Nitrogen,Creatinine, and Total Protein During Intense Exercise in Donkey

The present study was aimed to determine the effects of oral administration of selenium nanoparticles (Se NPs) on blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, and total protein changes during intense exercise in donkey. Eight female donkeys, 2-5 years of age, weighing 130-190 kg, were randomly divided in two groups: treated and control groups receiving Se NPs 0.5 mg/kg and normal saline for 10 consecutive days, respectively. Blood samples were taken at the beginning of the experiment (before supplementation), closely after Se NPs supplementation (before exercise), and at 2-, 24-, and 72-hour postexercise recovery times. Results showed that serum selenium concentration was significantly increased in response to Se NPs supplementation and intense exercise. Creatinine concentration of both groups was significantly increased at 2-hour postexercise recovery time and sharply decreased in treated group at 72-hour postexercise recovery time (P < .05). A similar pattern was obtained for BUN changes in control group; as such its concentration was significantly increased at 2-hour postexercise recovery time in comparison with the Se NPs-supplemented group (P < .05). These findings may explain the positive effects of Se NPs supplementation on serum BUN and creatinine changes in response to intense exercise in donkey. The positive effect of Se NPs might be related to the incorporation of Se into proteins such as selenocysteine and its preventive role on tissue oxidative damages.     

Genetic identity and relationships of Iranian apple (Malus?×?domestica Borkh.) cultivars and landraces, wild Malus species and representative old apple cultivars based on simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker analysis

In order to shed light on the role of Iran in apple evolution and domestication, we chose to investigate the relationships of a collection of 159 accessions of wild and domesticated apples including Iranian indigenous apple cultivars and landraces, selected wild species, and old apple scion and rootstock cultivars from different parts of the world. The majority of the wild species belonged to M. sieversii, which is widely believed to be the main maternal wild ancestor of domestic apples, from Kazakhstan and M. orientalis, which is one of the probable minor ancestors of domestic apples, from Turkey and Russia located on the east and west of Iran, respectively. The accessions were assigned into six arbitrary populations for the purpose of generating information on genetic parameters. Nine simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci selected from previous studies in apple were screened over DNA extracted from all the accessions. Results showed that all SSR loci displayed a very high degree of polymorphism with 11–25 alleles per locus. In total, there were 153 alleles across all loci with an average of 17 alleles per locus. The SSR allelic data were then used for estimation of population genetic parameters, including genetic variation statistics, F-statistics, gene flow, genetic identity, genetic distance and then cluster analysis using POPGENE 1.32 software. The F-statistics and gene flow in particular, showed that there was more intra-population than between population variation. The genetic identity and genetic distance estimates, and the dendrogram generated from the un-weighted pair group arithmetic average (UPGMA) method of cluster analysis showed that the Iranian cultivars and landraces were more closely related to M. sieversii from Central Asia (east of Iran) and M. orientalis native to Turkey and Russia than to other accessions of Malus species. Also, the old apple cultivars from different parts of the world have a closer genetic relationship to M. sieversii, M. orientalis and the Iranian apples, than to other wild species. Based on these results, we suggest that the Iranian apples may occupy an intermediate position between the domesticated varieties and wild species. We propose that Iran could be one of the major players in apples’ domestication and transfer from Central Asia to the western countries.