Anaïs Nin’s A Spy in the House of Love and Irigarayan Feminine Divine

This paper examines female desire in Nin’s A Spy in the House of Love (1954) through Irigarayan concepts feminine divine, feminine jouissance, and sensible transcendental. Anaïs Nin’s erotic writing in her novels and diaries has been studied by many feminist scholars who examine the concepts of feminine sexual erotic body, the lesbian relationship, and the psychological issues; however, there is no reference to feminine divine in their studies of Nin’s novel which is going to be discussed in this study through Irigarayan theories. The study of Nin’s The Spy in the House of Love is an attempt to trace the signs of feminine desire through Irigarayan ‘feminine divine’ and ‘sensible transcendental’; however, it is shown that Nin’s female character, Sabina, is not successful in discovering her autonomous identity through her passionate desire, and she is not able to create a balance between her body and mind, the ideal world of art, music, and dreams and the real world in a relationship with men. Nin’s heroine cannot achieve her identity and the full measure of Irigarayan non-dual love because she relies merely on sexual passion and desire. Unlike Irigarayan feminine divine and sensible transcendental, Nin’s view of desire is vertical transcendence, erotic and ecstasy.

Fragmented Selves in Anaïs Nin’s A Spy in the House of Love and Irigarayan Non-Duality Within Duality

This study discusses feminine identity in Anaïs Nin’s A Spy in the House of Love (1954) through Irigarayan non-duality within duality of self/other and sensible/transcendental to show that there is no threshold and interval between the dualities of sensible and transcendental in the novel. Failure of main character’s feminine identity and her fragmented selves are resulted from her mere sensual relation with men. Unlike Irigarayan view of horizontal transcendental, Nin’s view of desire is vertical transcendence, erotic and ecstasy, which is basically sexual. Nin attempts to break away from patriarchal discourse in exploring the female sexual body as a creative power for awakening women’s feminine desire in accordance with Irigarayan ‘feminine divine’ and ‘female jouissance’. However, Nin’s heroine, Sabina, is not successful in discovering her autonomous self through her passionate desire, and she is not able to create a unity between her body and mind, the ideal world of art, music, and dreams and the real world, and a successful relationship with men. Sabina cannot achieve the full measure of Irigarayan non-dual love because she relies merely on sexual passion and desire.

Heteroglossia: Bakhtinian dialogism within a play's monologue

This study tries to expand the richness of Bakhtin's theory of novel by showing the reader that its thorough features could be traced back in a play rather than a novel, considering it more than what is usually the basis of "historical poetics" mainly in the form of a novel accentuating the constitution of a social ideology besides an individual one while gesturing dialogically in the interaction between representation in its textual form and particularities of its proper probable forces in their socio-historical stratifications within notions such as dialogism, intertextuality, heteroglossia and polyphony. To do so a successful Irish play of exuberance is invited to be served by a thinker from the past Soviet. Since the references are written in an artistic language, a language near to a poetic one tries to tinker rationality to irrationality. In the light of O’Halloran's eccentric nostalgia which tries to handle a play all in all monologically from the voice of just a single character, one may seem to be listening to the symphony of Bakhtin's polyphonic heteroglossia stratified within the architectonics of both authors' interillumination

Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase through evolution: A bioinformatic approach

Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) is the first entry enzyme of the phenylpropanoid pathway that converts phenylalanine to cinnamic acid which is the precursor of various secondary metabolites. PAL is recently formulated for Phenylketonuric patients in pegylated forms. Screening a PAL with the highest affinity to the substrate is of great importance for this purpose.  PAL exists in all higher plants and some fungi and few bacteria. Ancestors of land plants have been adopted by evolving metabolic pathways. A multi-gene family encodes PAL by gene duplication events in most plants. In this study, the taxonomic distribution and phylogeny of pal gene found in land plants, fungi and bacteria have been analyzed. It seems that the ancestor of plants acquired a pal gene via horizontal gene transfer in symbioses with bacteria and fungi. Gymnosperms have kept a diverse set of pal genes that arose from gene duplication events. In angiosperms, after the divergence of dicotyledons from monocots, pal genes were duplicated many times. The close paralogues of pal genes in some species indicate expansion of gene families after the divergence in plant pal gene evolution. Interestingly, some of the plant pals clustered by species a way that pals within one species are more closely related to each other than to homologs in the other species which indicates this duplication event occurred more recently.</p

Predicting the functionality of major intrinsic proteins: An in silico analysis in Musa

Major intrinsic proteins (MIPs) are tetrameric complexs with six transmembrane domains. MIPs which are involved in water and nutrient permeability have been called aquaporins and aquaglyceroporins respectivly. Four important subfamilies of MIPs are plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs), tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs), nodolin-26 like intrinsic proteins (NIPs) and small basic intrinsic proteins (SIPs). Musa sp. from the order Zingiberals is not only the largest supply of food for millions of people but also has tremendous therapeutic properties like ameliorating digestive and metabolic disorders. This species is sensitive to any kind of water deficit. Recently the genomic sequence of Musa acuminata has been determined. Besides the localization of MaMIP genes on the chromosomes and the localization of MaMIP proteins in subcellular compartments, the substrate selectivity of MaMIPs has been determined by dual NPA (Asparagine-Prolin-Alanine) motifs, the ar/R (aromatic/Arginine) selectivity filter and Froger’s position. MaPIP subfamilies were transporters of water, boron, carbon dioxide, hydrogen peroxide and urea. MaTIP subfamilies were transporters of water, hydrogen peroxide, urea and ammonia. MaNIP subfamily has been shown to be transporters of silicon, urea and boron. This functional prediction of the MaMIP roles provides the opportunity to genetically target these passive transporters for the improvement of the species trait.</p

Screening Salvia macrosiphon transcriptome for 4-coumarate CoA ligase enzyme coding genes

4-Coumarate CoA ligase (4CL) is one of the key enzymes in the phenylpropanoid pathway which converts cinnamic acid derivatives to active thioesters. Active thioesters are precursors of a vast number of secondary metabolites. Salvia macrosiphon as a valuable medicinal plant grows in Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan. This plant produces pharmacologically active metabolites including rosmarinic acid, flavonoids (apigenin, luteolin), sesquiterpenes and coumarins. Identification of genes encoding 4cl provides the opportunity to manipulate the biosynthetic pathways and mediate the carbon flux toward the corresponding metabolites. Mature wild type S. macrosiphon plants were collected in flowering and seed-bearing stages. In vitro cultures of S. macrosiphon were established on Murashige &amp; Skoog (1/2 MS) medium. To increase the possibility of finding 4cl isoforms in the transcriptome, cultures were elicited by chitosan. Since the genomic sequence of S. macrosiphon was not available, degenerate and CODEHOP primers were designed based on the identified 4CL protein sequences. Using the CODEHOP primers two isoforms of putative 4cl genes have been identified in all organs of the wild type plant. Degenerate primers could only amplify the same genes from roots and seed-containing capsules. This might be due to a higher expression level of the genes in these organs. No 4cl isoform have been detected from cultures which might be due to the lower abundance of the transcript at early stages of in vitro plantlets. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the two isoforms of 4cl genes from S. macrosiphon and Salvia miltiorrhiza have been evolved from a common ancestor.</p

Spasmolytic Effect of Black Bile-reducing Plants from Lamiaceae: the correlation between Traditional Iranian Medicine and Pharmacological and Phytochemical surveys

The roots of Traditional Iranian Medicine (TIM) go back to thousand years ago. Based on TIM, black bile, one of the four humors within the body, is the concentrated part of the blood representing a cold and dry quality. Black bile tends to deposit in tissues, leading to diseases such as spasm, which is a painful paralysis-like immobility condition. One of its possible causes is muscle dehydration, resembling the dryness caused by dominance of black bile. In TIM, several medicinal plants are claimed to be effective in the regulation of black bile; among them, the presence of the Lamiceae family is very notable. In this review, the relationship between spasm as one of the symptoms of increasing black bile in the body was discussed. Also, the compounds reported in the black-bile eliminating plants have been found in the literature. The majority of them were from monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes such as citral, carvacrol, fenchone and pulegone in the essential oil of black bile reducing plants. The main compounds properties of black bile reducing plants can be used to orient quantitative system pharmacology models in further studies. Please cite this article as: Fatemeh Rostaminejad, Shiva Hemmati, Parmis Badr. Spasmolytic Effect of Black Bile-reducing Plants from Lamiaceae: the correlation between Traditional Iranian Medicine and Pharmacological and Phytochemical surveys. Trends in Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2022;8(4):233-242. doi: 10.30476/TIPS.2022.96146.115

A Classic Case of Maple Syrup Urine Disease and a Novel Mutation in the BCKDHA Gene

Background: Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is an inherited branched-chain amino acid metabolic disorder caused by the deficiency in the branched-chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase (BCKD) complex. In MSUD, elevation of the branched-chain amino acids, such as alpha-keto acid and alpha-hydroxy acid, occurs due to the BCKDC gene deficiency, appearing in the blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid, which leads to neurological damage and mental retardation. MSUD phenotypically penetrates due to the mutations in the coding genes of four subunits of the BCKD complex, including the BCKDHA, BCKDHB, DBT, and DLD genes.Case report: We aimed to report the cases of three families whose children were affected by MSUD and presented with symptomatic features during the first week of birth, which were identified by mass spectrometry. DNA study was performed as a diagnosis panel containing four encoded BCKDC subunit genes.Conclusion: In the current study, DNA analysis and phenotypic manifestations indicated a novel mutation of c.143delT, p.L48Rfs*15 in the BCKDHA gene in a homozygous state, which is a causative mutation for the classic MSUD phenotype. Early diagnosis and neonatal screening are recommended for the accurate and effective treatment of this diseas

Root Cultures of Linum Species Section Syllinum as Rich Sources of 6-Methoxypodophyllotoxin

professor of Pharmacognosy, Tehran Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran on the occasion of his birthday Linum spp. from section Syllinum are promising for the production of aryltetralin lignans like podophyllotoxin (PTOX) and 6-methoxypodophyllotoxin (MPTOX). MPTOX is a PTOX congener that has cytotoxic activity comparable with PTOX. In this study root cultures of Linum Bungei from section Dasyllinum, L. strictum from section Linastrum, L. album, L. mucronatum ssp. mucronatum and L. nodiflorum from section Syllinum were established and their MPTOX levels were investigated in 1000 ml flasks. Root cultures of L. mucronatum ssp. mucronatum and L. nodiflorum were used to examine cell growth and production of MPTOX during a culture period of 36 days in 250 ml flasks. Considerable amounts of MPTOX in root cultures (1000 ml flasks) of L. album (6 mg/100 g DW), L. mucronatum ssp. mucronatum (770 mg/100 g DW) and L. nodiflorum (91 mg/100 g DW) were detected while it wasn&apos;t detected in root cultures of L. Bungei and L. strictum. In time course experiments, the maximum amount of MPTOX in L. nodiflorum root culture was at day 16 with 480 mg/ 100 g DW and the maximum amount of MPTOX in L. mucronatum ssp. mucronatum root culture was at day 12 with 130 mg/100 g DW. The results showed that root cultures of Linum species from section Syllinum are rich sources of MPTOX and since this lignan has remarkable cytotoxic activity, it can be used as a precursor for the production of antitumor agents