Estimation of antigenotoxic properties of Ginger (Zingibe officinale) for DNA Damage after Exposure to Patulin in rats

Patulin, a known fungal poison, is an important pollutant in apples and products derived from apples and fodder. Ginger improved the liver function and prevents hepatotoxicity against many toxins and used in treatment of various diseases. The genetic toxicity of patulin in the liver of rats using the comet assay in vivo was investigated and effect of ginger (Zingibe officinale) on DNA damage induced by patulin. Five groups of adult male Sprague Dawley rats were used. The rats were given 3.75 mg kg-1 intraperitoneal (i.p) patulin. The rats were treated with ginger at a dose (100 mg kg-1) for four weeks and eight weeks. DNA damage was measured in the liver of rats using a standard genetic toxicity tests comet assay. Tail length and percentage of tail DNA within the comet increased significantly (p <0.05) in patulin group (p =0.01), (p =0.000) respectively, compared with control group a time-dependent manner, indicating an increase in DNA damage. The liver tissue showed signs of improvement in DNA damage after treating rats with ginger. In conclusion, these results indicate that patulin is genotoxic at the injected dose and that liver is an important target organ. Instead, ginger therapy can reduce DNA damage in liver cells from the toxicity caused by patulin

Detection of Genetic Relationship in the Tree of Life of Some Quail Through Molecular Markers Analyses

ABSTRACT Quail is an important and interesting group of galliform birds. The Common quail (Coturnix coturnix); the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica); the Panda quail (Coturnix japonica); the Dotted white quail (Coturnix japonica) and the Bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) were used in this study. PCR-RFLP and SDS-proteins were performed to reveal the genetic characterization and genetic relationship of the studied quails. Analysis of fragments generated by digestion of PCR product with restriction enzyme NlaIII recorded highly polymorphic restriction profiles. There is a wide intraspecific COI, SEMA3E and TLX genes variability among the studied quails. Protein bands varied from10 to 18 between quails with minimum number of bands were in the Dotted white quail (10 bands) and the maximum were in the Japanese quail (18 bands) as measured by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The Dotted white quail revealed the lowest similarity to the Bobwhite with a coefficient of 0.18 while The similarity coefficients between the Common quail and each one of the other quails were 0.67, 0.62, 0.45 and 0.42 for the Japanese, Panda, Dotted white and the Bobwhite quails, respectively. The results indicate that, PCR-RFLP and protein analyses are good techniques to evaluate genetic characterization and genetic relationship of these quails

A New Species of Mullet Chelon caeruleum (Family: Mugilidae) with Description of its Genetic Relationship to Some Mugilids

Chelon caeruleum sp. nov. is described as a new species of Chelon encountered in the Rashid coastal region of the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt. With this finding, the new species is the sixth member of the genus Chelon. Chelon caeruleum sp. nov. is distinguished from its congeners by the following characters: colouration of body is dark bluish grey dorsally and the sides are blue; head length 20.5 to 21.6% SL; head width 13 to 13.5% SL; pre-first dorsal fin length 50% SL; eye diameter 4.6 to 5.2% SL; postorbital length 10.7 to 11.1% SL; unbranched pyloric caeca are 2 short and 4 long; a pair of long (one longer than the other), spine-like neural postzygapophyse on the second vertebra. DNA of Chelon caeruleum sp. nov. and five mullet species (Mugil cephalus, Liza carinata, Liza ramada, Liza aurata, and Chelon labrosus) was extracted then amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced. The mtDNA cytochrome oxidase subunit I sequence analysis confirmed that Chelon caeruleum sp. nov. is distinct from other congeners of Chelon and it is a different species of Chelon which is new to science

Genetic and taxonomic relationships of five species of Rallidae (Aves: Gruiformes) based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I sequences

<div><p>ABSTRACT. This is the first study to detection the genetic relationship between Porphyrio alleni and four Rallidae species: Fulica atra, Gallinulla angulata, Gallinulla chloropus and Porphyrio porphyrio. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences were used as an effective marker in this study. DNA of Rallidae species were extracted, amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then sequenced. The results obtained from information based on COI sequences revealed that Gallinulla angulata and Gallinulla chloropus fall into two separate clades and they are not monophyletic. This suggests that, two moorhens could not be laid into the same genus. In addition, Porphyrio porphyrio was included in the same genus with Porphyrio alleni but they were situated in two different clades. Porphyrio alleni was more related to Gallinulla angulate, Gallinulla chloropus and Fulica atra than Porphyrio porphyrio. It was concluded that, the mitochondrial gene COI can aid in the differentiation of studied species and finding genetic relationships between them.</p></div