Étude comparative de l’activité antispasmodique de l’extrait aqueux d’Ajuga iva L. et de l’ibuprofène chez les souris

Ajuga iva (L.) Schreber, utilisé dans la pharmacopée traditionnelle, pour des troubles gastro-intestinaux, le diabète et comme  hypocholestérolémiante. L’étude pharmacologique de l’extrait aqueux d’Ajuga iva (Lamiaceae) a été effectuée à l’aide de modèles animaux. L’évaluation de l’activité analgésique, montre que l’extrait aqueux à 0,4g/ L de cette plante induit une diminution du nombre de crampes abdominales dans le test de writhing provoqué par l’acide acétique à 1% Ajuga iva a un effet analgésique plus efficace que celui de l’ibuprofène, en effet ce dernier provoque une inhibition de la douleur de 77,53±3,80 % et celui de ,l’extrait aqueux d’Ajuga iva de 85,39±4,29 % pour la même concentration (200mg/kg). L’extrait aqueux d’Ajuga iva a des propriétés analgésiques qui justifient son usage traditionnel. Les effets  thérapeutiques sont induits par divers composés révélés lors du tri phyto chimique de cette plante (alcaloïdes, flavonoïdes, polyphénols, saponosides, et tanins catéchiques) qui constituent la base scientifique de l’utilisation thérapeutique traditionnelle de la plante étudiée.Mots- clés : Ajuga iva L., extrait aqueux, effet analgésique, ibuprofène, writhing test

Activité hypoglycémique de l’extrait aqueux d’Ajuga iva L. schreber chez les rats diabétiques induite par l’alloxane

Ajuga iva (L) schreber est utilisé en médecine traditionnelle dans le traitement du diabète. Le but de cette étude était d'évaluer l'activité l'hypoglycémique de l'extrait aqueux de la partie aérienne de cette plante sur un modèle animal. L’extrait a été préparé dans de l'eau bouillante et le filtrat aqueux a été lyophilisé et conservé. A iva est une plante capable d’induire une hypoglycémie chez les rats diabétiques. Alloxane a été administré en dose unique (150 mg poids corporel / kg) par injection intra-péritonéal. Des rats femelles Wistar (n = 30) pesant 200 ± 2g divisés en 5 groupes, ont reçu des doses différentes (0,05 g/mL, 0,10 g/mL, 0,15 g/mL) par voie orale. Cette opération est répétée tous les jours pendant 3 semaines. La glycémie a été déterminée par la méthode enzymatique colorimétrique par spectrophotométrie. Seul l’extrait aqueux à forte dose a diminuée le taux du glucose sanguins de 62, 96±7, 30% comparativement au groupe control. Dans la présente étude, le potentiel hypoglycémiant de A iva est démontré chez le rat. Ces résultats confirment l'utilisation de cette plante comme antidiabétique.Mots-clés : Ajuga iva, extrait aqueux, alloxane, activité hypoglycémique, diabète.Hypoglycemic Activity of the aqueous extract of Ajuga iva L. in diabetic rats induced by alloxanAjuga iva (L) schreber is used in traditional medicine in the treatment of diabetes, The purpose of this study was to evaluate hypoglycemic effect of the aqueous extract of aerial parts of this plant on animal model. The extract was prepared in boiling water and the aqueous filtrate was lyophilized and conserved. A iva is a plant capable of inducing hypoglycemia in diabetic rats. Alloxan was administered as a single dose (150 mg body weight / kg) injection intaperitoneal injection. Female Wistar rats (n = 30) weighing 200 ± 2g divided into 5 groups received different doses (0.05 GML-1, 0.10 GML-1, 0.15 g / mL) by oral route. This is repeated every day for three weeks. Blood glucose was determined by the enzymatic and colorimetric method by spectrophotometry. Only the aqueous extract high dose rate decreased blood glucose of 62, 96 ± 7, 30% compared with the control group. In the present study, the hypoglycemic potential of the A iva was demonstrated in rats. These results give support to the traditional use of this plant as antidiabetic herbal medicine.Keywords : Ajuga iva L, aqueous extract, alloxan, diabetes, hypoglycemic activity

Numerical study of eddy current by Finite Element Method for cracks detection in structures

In this paper, we try to use the finite element method of 2-D axisymmetry to solve problems in eddy current testing problems where the main idea is detecting crack's shape using the NDT-EC. Results are given for a simple eddy current problem using the finite element method as a tool to control cracks and defects in materials and eventually, to study their propagation as well as their shape classification. These latest can be described as the task of reconstructing the cracks and damage in a tube’s profile of an inspected specimen in order to estimate its material properties. This is accomplished by inverting eddy current probe impedance measurements which are recorded as a function of probe position. This approach has been used in the aircraft industry to control cracks. Besides, it makes it possible to highlight the defects of parts while preserving the integrity of the controlled products

Generation and exploitation of EST-derived SSR markers for assaying molecular diversity in durum wheat populations

Durum wheat [Triticum turgidum L. subsp. turgidum convar. durum (Desf.) MK] is an important cereal crop economically and nutritionally in the Central Asia and Caucasian, West Asia, and North Africa (CWANA) regions. Durum landraces and improved lines are largely grown in this region. Its genetic diversity has been studied using different molecular markers. The increasing availability of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in wheat (Triticum aestivum) and related cereals provides a valuable resource of non-anonymous DNA markers to study durum diversity. In this study, a set of 517,319 Triticum aestivum EST sequences was employed for the identification of wheat simple sequence repeats called microsatellites (W-eSSRs) with the help of a PERL5 script called MISA. In comparison, barley microsatellites (B-eSSRs) have been used to exploit their transferability to durum wheat. Newly developed W-eSSR markers were probed on the 115 recombinant inbred lines (RIL) of the International Triticeae Mapping Initiative (ITMI) population (Opata 85 × Synthetic 7984). The polymorphic eSSRs were mapped. To examine the potential of the two types of eSSRs markers, 12 W-eSSR markers and 13 B-eSSR markers were used to fingerprint 153 wheat genotypes. Our results indicate that: (1) B-eSSRs show a high level of transferability to wheat, (2) the developed W-eSSRs are significantly polymorphic than those derived from genomic regions, (3) new W-eSSRs were identified and integrated in the ITMI genetic linkage map and, (4) B-eSSR and W-eSSRs are providing additional markers for comparative mapping following gene introgressions from wild species and carrying out evolutionary studies

Atypical coordination of cortical oscillations in response to speech in autism.

Subjects with autism often show language difficulties, but it is unclear how they relate to neurophysiological anomalies of cortical speech processing. We used combined EEG and fMRI in 13 subjects with autism and 13 control participants and show that in autism, gamma and theta cortical activity do not engage synergistically in response to speech. Theta activity in left auditory cortex fails to track speech modulations, and to down-regulate gamma oscillations in the group with autism. This deficit predicts the severity of both verbal impairment and autism symptoms in the affected sample. Finally, we found that oscillation-based connectivity between auditory and other language cortices is altered in autism. These results suggest that the verbal disorder in autism could be associated with an altered balance of slow and fast auditory oscillations, and that this anomaly could compromise the mapping between sensory input and higher-level cognitive representations

Genome-Wide Distribution and Organization of Microsatellites in Plants: An Insight into Marker Development in Brachypodium

Plant genomes are complex and contain large amounts of repetitive DNA including microsatellites that are distributed across entire genomes. Whole genome sequences of several monocot and dicot plants that are available in the public domain provide an opportunity to study the origin, distribution and evolution of microsatellites, and also facilitate the development of new molecular markers. In the present investigation, a genome-wide analysis of microsatellite distribution in monocots (Brachypodium, sorghum and rice) and dicots (Arabidopsis, Medicago and Populus) was performed. A total of 797,863 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified in the whole genome sequences of six plant species. Characterization of these SSRs revealed that mono-nucleotide repeats were the most abundant repeats, and that the frequency of repeats decreased with increase in motif length both in monocots and dicots. However, the frequency of SSRs was higher in dicots than in monocots both for nuclear and chloroplast genomes. Interestingly, GC-rich repeats were the dominant repeats only in monocots, with the majority of them being present in the coding region. These coding GC-rich repeats were found to be involved in different biological processes, predominantly binding activities. In addition, a set of 22,879 SSR markers that were validated by e-PCR were developed and mapped on different chromosomes in Brachypodium for the first time, with a frequency of 101 SSR markers per Mb. Experimental validation of 55 markers showed successful amplification of 80% SSR markers in 16 Brachypodium accessions. An online database ‘BraMi’ (Brachypodium microsatellite markers) of these genome-wide SSR markers was developed and made available in the public domain. The observed differential patterns of SSR marker distribution would be useful for studying microsatellite evolution in a monocot–dicot system. SSR markers developed in this study would be helpful for genomic studies in Brachypodium and related grass species, especially for the map based cloning of the candidate gene(s)

Mining and validating grape (Vitis L.) ESTs to develop EST-SSR markers for genotyping and mapping

Grape expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are a new resource for developing simple sequence repeat (SSR) functional markers for genotyping and genetic mapping. An integrated pipeline including several computational tools for SSR identification and functional annotation was developed to identify 6,447 EST-SSR sequences from a total collection of 215,609 grape ESTs retrieved from NCBI. The 6,447 EST-SSRs were further reduced to 1,701 non-redundant sequences via clustering analysis, and 1,037 of them were successfully designed with primer pairs flanking the SSR motifs. From them, 150 pairs of primers were randomly selected for PCR amplification, polymorphism and heterozygosity analysis in V. vinifera cvs. Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon, and V. rotundifolia (muscadine grape) cvs. Summit and Noble, and 145 pairs of these primers yielded PCR products. Pairwise comparisons of loci between the parents Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon showed that 72 were homozygous in both cultivars, while 70 loci were heterozygous in at least one cultivar of the two. Muscadine parents Noble and Summit had 90 homozygous SSR loci in both parents and contained 50 heterozygous loci in at least one of the two. These EST-SSR functional markers are a useful addition for grape genotyping and genome mapping

The Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

BACKGROUND: Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.), a member of Arecaceae family, is one of the three major economically important woody palms--the two other palms being oil palm and coconut tree--and its fruit is a staple food among Middle East and North African nations, as well as many other tropical and subtropical regions. Here we report a complete sequence of the data palm chloroplast (cp) genome based on pyrosequencing. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: After extracting 369,022 cp sequencing reads from our whole-genome-shotgun data, we put together an assembly and validated it with intensive PCR-based verification, coupled with PCR product sequencing. The date palm cp genome is 158,462 bp in length and has a typical quadripartite structure of the large (LSC, 86,198 bp) and small single-copy (SSC, 17,712 bp) regions separated by a pair of inverted repeats (IRs, 27,276 bp). Similar to what has been found among most angiosperms, the date palm cp genome harbors 112 unique genes and 19 duplicated fragments in the IR regions. The junctions between LSC/IRs and SSC/IRs show different features of sequence expansion in evolution. We identified 78 SNPs as major intravarietal polymorphisms within the population of a specific cp genome, most of which were located in genes with vital functions. Based on RNA-sequencing data, we also found 18 polycistronic transcription units and three highly expression-biased genes--atpF, trnA-UGC, and rrn23. CONCLUSIONS: Unlike most monocots, date palm has a typical cp genome similar to that of tobacco--with little rearrangement and gene loss or gain. High-throughput sequencing technology facilitates the identification of intravarietal variations in cp genomes among different cultivars. Moreover, transcriptomic analysis of cp genes provides clues for uncovering regulatory mechanisms of transcription and translation in chloroplasts

Inflammatory Gene Regulatory Networks in Amnion Cells Following Cytokine Stimulation: Translational Systems Approach to Modeling Human Parturition

A majority of the studies examining the molecular regulation of human labor have been conducted using single gene approaches. While the technology to produce multi-dimensional datasets is readily available, the means for facile analysis of such data are limited. The objective of this study was to develop a systems approach to infer regulatory mechanisms governing global gene expression in cytokine-challenged cells in vitro, and to apply these methods to predict gene regulatory networks (GRNs) in intrauterine tissues during term parturition. To this end, microarray analysis was applied to human amnion mesenchymal cells (AMCs) stimulated with interleukin-1β, and differentially expressed transcripts were subjected to hierarchical clustering, temporal expression profiling, and motif enrichment analysis, from which a GRN was constructed. These methods were then applied to fetal membrane specimens collected in the absence or presence of spontaneous term labor. Analysis of cytokine-responsive genes in AMCs revealed a sterile immune response signature, with promoters enriched in response elements for several inflammation-associated transcription factors. In comparison to the fetal membrane dataset, there were 34 genes commonly upregulated, many of which were part of an acute inflammation gene expression signature. Binding motifs for nuclear factor-κB were prominent in the gene interaction and regulatory networks for both datasets; however, we found little evidence to support the utilization of pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) signaling. The tissue specimens were also enriched for transcripts governed by hypoxia-inducible factor. The approach presented here provides an uncomplicated means to infer global relationships among gene clusters involved in cellular responses to labor-associated signals