Plant growth-promoting actinobacteria: a new strategy for enhancing sustainable production and protection of grain legumes

Grain legumes are a cost-effective alternative for the animal protein in improving the diets of the poor in South-East Asia and Africa. Legumes, through symbiotic nitrogen fixation, meet a major part of their own N demand and partially benefit the following crops of the system by enriching soil. In realization of this sustainability advantage and to promote pulse production, United Nations had declared 2016 as the “International Year of pulses”. Grain legumes are frequently subjected to both abiotic and biotic stresses resulting in severe yield losses. Global yields of legumes have been stagnant for the past five decades in spite of adopting various conventional and molecular breeding approaches. Furthermore, the increasing costs and negative effects of pesticides and fertilizers for crop production necessitate the use of biological options of crop production and protection. The use of plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria for improving soil and plant health has become one of the attractive strategies for developing sustainable agricultural systems due to their eco-friendliness, low production cost and minimizing consumption of non-renewable resources. This review emphasizes on how the PGP actinobacteria and their metabolites can be used effectively in enhancing the yield and controlling the pests and pathogens of grain legumes

Increased Nuchal Translucency and Pregnancy Outcome

Background: To study the outcome of cases with nuchal translucency (NT) ≥ 95th centile in the first trimester of pregnancy.Methods: This cross sectional study was performed at Iranian Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) between January 2009 and December 2011. Totally, 186 cases with NT≥ 95th centile who attended for the first trimester screening were studied. All cases with increased NT including those with normal karyotype were followed up with anomaly scan at 18-22 weeks and fetal echocardiography at 22-24 weeks. Pregnancy outcome was extracted from delivery records and pediatrics notes and telephone interviews.Results: Of screened cases, 186 fetuses had an NT≥95th centile, of them 19.8% were abnormal karyotype, including 29 cases of trisomy 21, three of trisomy 18, two of trisomy 13, three of Turner syndrome. 77.8% did not show any abnormalities on follow-up examinations. 4.6% of cases were found to have malformation antenatally and 4% cases postnatally. 11.4% women elected termination of pregnancy without further follow up. There were 4.6% fetal loss and 1.3% hydrops fetalis.Conclusion: In this unselected population, the study showed one out of four fetuses with enlarged NT had an adverse pregnancy outcome (miscarriage, fetal loss, and fetal abnormalities), however the chance of having a normal child after exclusion of chromosomal abnormalities and adverse pregnancy outcome was 95%

The effect of Teucrium Orientale on Oxidative Stress marker and Liver Function Enzymes in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats

Abstract Background & aim: Diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from perturbation in insulin secretion, action or both. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of methanol extract of Teucrium orientale on blood glucose and liver damage markers in streptozotocin diabetic rats. Methods: In this experimental research 32 male albino Wistar rats, with body weights of 200 – 240 g were randomly allocated into four groups with 8 rats per each. Control group (normal rats), diabetic rats (received STZ in single dose 60 mg/kg bw, intraperitoneal way and without receive extract), treated normal rats (received T. orientale 200 mg/kg bw, oral gavage) diabetic treated rats (received STZ in single dose 60 mg/kg bw, intraperitoneal way and received T. orientale 200 mg/kg bw, oral gavage). Afterwards 21 days, blood glucose, malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver and the activity of the liver enzymes (ALT ،AST،ALP( were evaluated. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software via the one-way ANOVA. Resulths: This study demonstrated that sSerum levels of glucose in T. orientale treated diabetic group (222 ± 9.8) were significantly lowerdecreased than in comparison with diabetic ratsgroup (572 ± 8) (P < 0.01).The MDA level in T. orientale treated diabetic group (1.01 ± 0.04) were significantly decreased in comparison with diabetic rats (1.25± 0.54) (P < 0.05). The ALT, AST and ALP levels in T. orientale treated diabetic group were also significantly decreased compared with diabetic rats (P < 0.01). Conclusion: Methanol extract of T. orientale had antidiabetic effects and consequently might alleviate the liver damage caused by streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus. Keywords: Diabetes, Teucrium orientale, ALT, AST, ALPLiver enzymes, streptozotoci