22 research outputs found

    Of the importance of a leaf: the ethnobotany of sarma in Turkey and the Balkans

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    BACKGROUND: Sarma - cooked leaves rolled around a filling made from rice and/or minced meat, possibly vegetables and seasoning plants - represents one of the most widespread feasting dishes of the Middle Eastern and South-Eastern European cuisines. Although cabbage and grape vine sarma is well-known worldwide, the use of alternative plant leaves remains largely unexplored. The aim of this research was to document all of the botanical taxa whose leaves are used for preparing sarma in the folk cuisines of Turkey and the Balkans. Methods: Field studies were conducted during broader ethnobotanical surveys, as well as during ad-hoc investigations between the years 2011 and 2014 that included diverse rural communities in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. Primary ethnobotanical and folkloric literatures in each country were also considered. Results: Eighty-seven botanical taxa, mainly wild, belonging to 50 genera and 27 families, were found to represent the bio-cultural heritage of sarma in Turkey and the Balkans. The greatest plant biodiversity in sarma was found in Turkey and, to less extent, in Bulgaria and Romania. The most commonly used leaves for preparing sarma were those of cabbage (both fresh and lacto-fermented), grape vine, beet, dock, sorrel, horseradish, lime tree, bean, and spinach. In a few cases, the leaves of endemic species (Centaurea haradjianii, Rumex gracilescens, and R. olympicus in Turkey) were recorded. Other uncommon sarma preparations were based on lightly toxic taxa, such as potato leaves in NE Albania, leaves of Arum, Convolvulus, and Smilax species in Turkey, of Phytolacca americana in Macedonia, and of Tussilago farfara in diverse countries. Moreover, the use of leaves of the introduced species Reynoutria japonica in Romania, Colocasia esculenta in Turkey, and Phytolacca americana in Macedonia shows the dynamic nature of folk cuisines. Conclusion: The rich ethnobotanical diversity of sarma confirms the urgent need to record folk culinary plant knowledge. The results presented here can be implemented into initiatives aimed at re-evaluating folk cuisines and niche food markets based on local neglected ingredients, and possibly also to foster trajectories of the avant-garde cuisines inspired by ethnobotanical knowledge

    Functional specialization of Arf paralogs in nodules of model legume, Medicago truncatula

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    ADP-ribosylation factors (Arf), a family of small GTP-binding proteins, play essential role in the regulation of housekeeping functions such as cellular trafficking in yeast, mammalian, and plants. Although this family of genes are strictly conserved both functionally and sequentially throughout Eukaryotae, putative lineage-specific members of these genes have been reported to be sub-or neofunctionalized in plant kingdom. In this study, we investigated the possible lineage-specific functional evolution of four Arf1 paralogous genes in the development and maintenance of nodular structures of Medicago truncatula. Even though all of MtArf1 paralogs were shown to have certain amount of expression in every tissue of M. truncatula, the expression of these Arf1 paralogs was significantly variable and higher in nodular tissues. To better gage the functional evolution of paralogous genes, the spatiotemporal expressional profiles of MtArf1 paralog genes have been investigated by measuring the level of variation in the amount of the transcripts during nodule formation immediately after the infection of roots of Medicago plants with Sinorhizobium melliloti. Of these previously described genes, MtrGB13597775, solely expressed at 72 hpi (hour post inoculation) and the expression level of MtrGB27524313 significantly hiked in the nodules at 6 dpi (days post inoculation) hinting possible subfunctionalization of Arf paralogs. To get more evidence about the possibility of nodule-specific functionilization of MtArf1 paralogs, the level of expression of these genes was also checked at protein level by Western blot analyses. Arf1 protein level was much higher in the infected roots and nodules in comparison to shoots. The findings in this study could suggest that Arf1 genes likely to play an important role in the nodule formation and maintenance in M. truncatula and the possibility of functional specialization of the duplicated Arf genes. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

    The identification of genes associated with Pb and Cd response mechanism in Brassica juncea L. by using Arabidopsis expression array

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    Heavy metals are significant inorganic environmental pollutants. Brassica juncea, frequently used as model for phytoremediation studies, can (hyper)accumulate some heavy metals with well-developed root system. Even though the elucidation of the differentially expressed genes in response to heavy metals is important for the improvement of phytoremediation capacity of plants, there has been limited number of reports about detailed functional characterization of these genes. In this study, 50 ?M Pb(NO3)2 and 25 ?M CdSO4 were applied separately to 31 days-old Brassica juncea (var. P78) plants for 24 h to identify the putative genes associated with lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) stress. The metal content analyses indicated that B. juncea (var. P78) is lead and cadmium hyperaccumulator. To reveal molecular mechanisms responsible for metal metabolism, the differentially expressed genes in the roots of Pb-treated plants were investigated by using the microarray chips of Arabidopsis thaliana probes (Affymetrix-The GeneChip® Arabidopsis ATH1 Genome Array). Out of 183 differentially expressed genes in response to Pb stress, only 20 of the up-regulated and 18 of the down-regulated genes were statistically significant at p < 0.05. Since most of 38 genes differentially expressed under Pb stress were interspecifically very well conserved, we concluded that the use of interspecific hybridization approaches for global gene expression profiling would be limited. The interspecific usability of the probes was further tested by determining the level of conservation between Arabidopsis microarray oligo and Brassica spp. sequences. The microarray results were validated by quantifying the level of expression of six important genes, which are likely to play a role in Pb metabolism, through quantitative RT-PCR. To further pinpoint the possible role of Pb stress-response genes, the expression of these genes at different tissues of the plants after Pb and Cd treatments were measured. In conclusion, the described genes are likely to be associated with Pb and Cd stress metabolism and provide potential targets for the improvement of phytoremediation capacity in plants. © 2017 Elsevier B.V

    The correlation between corneal hysteresis and intraocular pressure in primary open-angle glaucoma and nomal tension glaucoma

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    Amaç: Primer Açık Açılı Glokom (PAAG) ve Normal Tansiyonlu Gokom (NTG) hastalarında göz içi basıncı (GİB) ve korneal histerezis (KH) ilişkisinin karşılaştırılması. Gereç ve Yöntem: Çalışma; yeni teşhis edilmiş primer açık açılı glokomu olan hastalarla (Grup I), yeni teşhis edilmiş normal tansiyonlu glokom hastaları (Grup II) dahil edillerek prospektif olarak gerçekleştirildi. Oküler cerrahi geçirenler, sistemik bağ dokusu hastalığı olan hastalar ile +/-3 dioptri üzerinde kırma kusuru olan hastalar çalışma kapsamı dışında tutuldu. Hastaların göz içi basınçları (GİB) ve korneal histerezisleri (KH) Oküler Response Analyzer (ORA) ile ölçüldü, sonuçlar karşılaştırmalı olarak değerlendirildi. Bulgular: Grup 1 de 28, Grup 2 de 20 hasta vardı. Grup I de ortalama GİB 27.51±7.57 mmHg ve ortalama KH 8.83±1.97 mmHg ve MKK 568.50±25.78 mm olarak bulundu. Grup II de ortalama GİB 17.83±2.88 mmHg ve ortalama KH 9.43±1.04 mmHG ve MKK 550.71±33.84 mm olarak bulunmuştur. Sonuç: İki grupda GİB-KH arasında PAAG da %90, NTG da %54 de varan negatif yönde bir korelasyonun varlığı tespit edildi. Azalmış KH in glokom için bir risk faktörü olabileceği düşünüldü.Purpose: To evaluate the correlation between intraocular pressure (IOP) and corneal hysteresis (CH) in cases patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and normaltension glaucoma (NTG). Materials and Methods: The This prospective study was prospectively realised by included 28 newly -diagnosed POAG patientscases (group I), and 24 newly -diagnosed normaltension glaucoma patientscases (group II). The patients who had a history of previous ocular surgery before or who had connective tissue disorders, and over +/-3 dioptric refractive error were excluded. The IOP and CH were measured by Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA) and the resutsresults were compared and discussed. Results: There were 28 cases patients in group 1 and 20 cases in group 2. The mean IOP was 27b51±7.57 mmHg, mean CH was 8.83±1.97 mmHg, and central corneal thickness (CCT) was 568.50±25.78 mm in group 1. The mean IOP was 17.83±2.88 mmHg, mean CH was 9.43±1.04 mmHg, and CCT was 550.71±33.84 mm in group 2. Conclusion: It has been detected that, there was a negative correlation up to 90% in POAG and 54% in NTG between IOP and CH in both groups. We consider iIncreased CH could be a risk factor for glaucoma
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