Recent Advances in Health Biotechnology During Pandemic

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which emerged in 2019, cut the epoch that will make profound fluctuates in the history of the world in social, economic, and scientific fields. Urgent needs in public health have brought with them innovative approaches, including diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. To exceed the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, various scientific authorities in the world have procreated advances in real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) based diagnostic tests, rapid diagnostic kits, the development of vaccines for immunization, and the purposing pharmaceuticals for treatment. Diagnosis, treatment, and immunization approaches put for- ward by scientific communities are cross-fed from the accrued knowledge of multidisciplinary sciences in health biotechnology. So much so that the pandemic, urgently prioritized in the world, is not only viral infections but also has been the pulsion in the development of novel approaches in many fields such as diagnosis, treatment, translational medicine, virology, mi- crobiology, immunology, functional nano- and bio-materials, bioinformatics, molecular biol- ogy, genetics, tissue engineering, biomedical devices, and artificial intelligence technologies. In this review, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of various scientific areas of health biotechnology are discussed

A new approach on species based conservation: Landscape genetics of relict endemic Dorystoechas hastata

Peyzaj genetiği yaklaşımı, popülasyon genetiği ve peyzaj ekolojisi konularının teorik ve analitik metotlarını dikkate alarak peyzaj ve çevresel özelliklerin popülasyonların genetik yapısını nasıl etkilediği hakkında bilgi üretmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bir türün genetik varyasyonunun bir peyzajdaki değişimlere nasıl tepki verdiğini anlamayı ve genetik çeşitliliğin peyzajlar arasında dağılımını sağlayan mikro evrimsel süreçleri inceleme olanağı sağlar. Bu çalışmanın amacı, peyzaj unsurlarının relikt endemik Dorystoechas hastata türü özelinde türün genetik yapısına olan etkisinin ortaya konulmasıdır. Bu kapsamda D. hastata türünün doğal yayılış gösterdiği Antalya ili Kemer-Kumluca-Korkuteli ilçelerinde bulunan alanlardan çeşitliliği temsil edecek şekilde belirlenen 15popülasyondan toplam 56 genotip çalışılmıştır. Alana ait uydu görüntüsü yardımıyla popülasyonlar arasındaki peyzaj unsurları (ArcGIS 10.1 yazılımı) belirlenmiş ve habitat bağlantısallığı (CONEFOR 2.6 yazılımı) ilgili indeksler (IIC, PC) ile ortaya konmuştur. Popülasyonların arasında genetik yapısının belirlenmesi ve çeşitliliğin ortaya konulmasında SRAP (Sequence Related Amplified Polymorphism) ve iPBS (interpprimer binding sites) moleküler markırlarından faydalanılmıştır.Elde edilen veriler POPGENE bilgisayar paket programında değerlendirilmiştir. Popülasyonlara ait belirlenen bağlantılılık değerleri popülasyon genetiği veri setinden elde edilen değerlerle Pearson korelasyon analizine tabi tutulmuştur. D.hastata popülasyonlarının tamamı birlikte ele alındığında (tüm allel frekansları üzerinden hesaplandığında) tür bazında ortalama allel sayısı (na)1.97 ortalama etkili allel sayısı (ne) 1.57, Nei’nin gen çeşitlilik indeksi (h) 0.3324, Shannon indeksi (Ho) 0.50, polimorfik lokus sayısı (np) 346 ve polimorfik lokus oranı (Ppoly) 92,9 olarak tahmin edilmiştir. Oldukça sınırlı bir alanda yayılış gösteren D. hastata türünde, genetik çeşitlilik indeksleri açısındanoldukça geniş bir çeşitlilik olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Sonuçlar D. hastata popülasyonlarının habitat bağlantılılık indeksleri arttıkça ortalama allel sayısı (r=-0,44), efektif alel sayısı (r=-0,44), Nei’nin gen çeşitliliği indeksi (r=-0,44) Shannon indekslerinin (r=-0,44) azaldığını ve FST değerinin ise arttığını (r=0,46), başka bir deyişle genetik farklılaşmanın azaldığını ortaya koymuştur. Elde edilen bu sonuçlar, D. hastata türünün çalışılan popülasyonları arasında ölçülen bağlantılılık indekslerinin popülasyonlarının genetik çeşitliliğinin belirlenmesinde birer gösterge ölçüt olarak kullanılabileceğine işaret etmektedir.Landscape genetic aims to provide information on how landscape and environmental features influence population genetic structure by combining theory and analytical methods of population genetics and landscape ecology. It provides information on how genetic structure of a given species responds to changes in a landscape and examines the microevolutionary processes driving the distribution of genetic variation across landscapes. The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of landscape features on genetic structure of a relict endemic species Dorystoechas hastata from Antalya, Turkey. The 56 genotypes representing 15 populations from natural habitats of the species from Kemer-Kumluca-Korkuteli districts of Antalya province were studied. Landscape elements among selected populations were determined with the satellite image of the area using ArcGIS 10.1 software. Habitat connectivity of the selected populations was determined by the related indexes (IIC, PC) using CONEFOR 2.6 software. The SRAP (Sequence Related Amplified Polymorphism) and iPBS (interprimer binding site) molecular marker systems were used to determine the variation in genetic structure within and among populations and the data were evaluated using POPGENE. Habitat connectivity values of populations were correlated with population genetics data set. When all the populations of D. hastata are considered together, the average number of alleles per species (na) was 1.97,the average effective alleles number (ne) was 1.57, Nei's gene diversity index (h) was 0.3324, Shannon index (Ho) was 0.50, the number of polymorphic loci (np) 346 and polymorphic locus ratio (Ppoly) was estimated to be 92.9.The results of Pearson correlation analysis between habitat connectivity indexs (IIC and PC) and population genetics data set showed that when population connectivity indexs was increased, the mean allele number (r =-0.44), the number of effective alleles (r=-0.44), Nei’s gene diversity index (r=-0,44), Shannon index (r=-0,44) were decreased and genetic differences of populations (FST) was increased, in other words genetic differentiation decreased. Results from the this study indicates that, the connectivity indexes measured among the D. hastata populations might be used as an indicator for the determination of the genetic diversity of the populations

Evaluation of bermudagrass [Cynodon (L.) Rich] accessions with different ploidy levels

Eastern Mediterranean is considered as a center of diversity of Cynodon spp. (Bermudagrass). Phylogenetic analysis from diploids to hexaploids can help our understanding underlying mechanism of polyploidization. Inter-primer binding site (iPBS) markers amplify highly polymorphic long terminal repeat retrotransposons. The objectives were to (1) investigate associations between ploidy level and genetic diversity based on iPBS markers and (2) correlate between similarity matrices of iPBS retrotransposon marker and four nuclear molecular marker systems for Cynodon accessions' genetic analyses. The samples included 40 bermudagrass genotypes with ploidy series ranging from diploids to hexaploids. The iPBS fragments were highly similar to the retrotransposons according to the BLAST search. The simple matching-based UPGMA analysis clustered the 44 genotypes into two subclusters with a mean similarity value of 0.57 but failed to produce a clear ploidy-based grouping. The similarity matrix of iPBS markers poorly associated (r < 0.35) with those of the four other nuclear marker systems. However, iPBS markers resulted in a higher discrimination power and PIC (0.78). Although disomic inheritance of simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers strongly indicated segmental allo-tetraploidy in previous studies, the iPBS-based phylogeny hinted that bermudagrass may have independently followed both auto- and allo-polyploidization, involving C. transvaalensis and C. dactylon