Prolonged Water Deficit Stress and Methyl Jasmonate-Mediated Changes in Metabolite Profile, Flavonoid Concentrations and Antioxidant Activity in Peppermint (Mentha × piperita L.)

Peppermint (Mentha × piperita L.) infusion is one of the main important sources of antioxidants. This antioxidant property can be enhanced by using elicitors and inducing abiotic stress. This study was conducted to evaluate the foliar application of Methyl Jasmonate (50 µM) and water deficit stress (no stress, mild stress and moderate stress as 100, 75 and 50% of field capacity, respectively) and their interactions on cultivated peppermint on plant growth, secondary metabolite and antioxidant capacity of infusions made under different treatment. Water deficit stress treatments increased flavonoid contents and total phenolic as well as antioxidant capacity significantly. Some phenolic compound such as luteolin, naringenin, coumaric acid, and quercetin were detected only in some drought and Methyl Jasmonate treatments. Also, fewer amino acids such as L-serine, Threonine, 4-aminobutiric acid, 5-oxo-L-proline and unsaturated fatty acids were identified. Also, foliar application of 50 µM Methyl Jasmonate treatment improved plant growth parameters and metabolite profile such as carbohydrates and amino acids in non-stress and stress conditions. Therefore, inducing water stress and applying MeJA is recommended to enhance the biologic properties of peppermint and improve bioactive compounds and the antioxidant capacity of peppermint infusions

Investigation of the Physiological and Biochemical Responses of Echinacea purpurea under Salinity Stress

Echinacea purpurea is an important medicinal plant that contains valuable medicinal compounds that have a tremendous effect on stimulating the body’s immune system to fight off viral and bacterial agents. To evaluate salinity stress tolerance in Echinacea purpurea, an experiment was conducted using a diverse population. The seeds used in this experiment were the result of selecting superior genotypes in terms of chicoric acid content and drought tolerance. Considering the medicinal value of Echinacea purpurea and the high area of saline soils in Iran, the purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of cultivating this plant in saline soils. In this experiment, salinity stress at two levels of 0 and 60 mM of NaCl started when the plant was at the six-leaf stage and continued for 14 days. The results showed a significant decrease in the amounts of photosynthetic pigments and potassium under salinity stress. Under saline conditions, the amount of sodium ions in the shoots, ion leakage, and total phenols increased, but there was no significant change in the amount of proline, antioxidant capacity, and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. It seems that among the genotypes under salinity stress, based on the results obtained under stress, Genotypes 34, 46, 90, 89, 79, and 165 have high levels of proline and phenolic compounds, and strong antioxidant properties. These genotypes were in a better position in terms of these parameters and were placed in a separate cluster in cluster analysis, so these can be selected as tolerant genotypes

High resolution melting curve analysis revealed SNPs in major cannabinoid genes associated with drug and non-drug types of cannabis

Cannabis sativa L. has a long history of cultivation as food, fibre, medicine and recreational drugs. Production of high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) plants for narcotic use (drug type) is illegal and under control in most countries. In contrast, cultivation of low THC plants (fibre type, also known as ‘industrial hemp’) is promoted in many countries. The determination of C. sativa L. chemotypes is based on the major cannabinoids content, THC, cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN). The THC:CBD content ratio is a candidate marker for differentiation of the fibre and drug type of cannabis. The ability to accurately characterize the cannabinoid chemical phenotype (chemotype) is crucial for the development of specific C. sativa cultivars for pharmacological, hemp fibre or seed end-use. High resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis is used as a rapid and effective mechanism for detection of single-nucleotide polymorphisms in plants. In this report, we developed a HRM protocol for differentiation of drug and non-drug cannabis plants. According to the results, HRM analysis based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms in THCAS gene is an accurate method to differentiate the drug type of cannabis which could be used for the control of legal and illegal cannabis cultivation

Study of genetic variation in some Iranian saffron accessions using molecular markers of RAPD and ISSR

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is one of the most valuable medicinal and spice herbs in the world. In spite of the ancient cultivation history in Iran, there are limited breeding studies on the plant due to its vegetative reproduction. In order to evaluation genetic diversity of Iranian saffron germplasm, sixty-five different saffron accessions from the main cultivation areas in Khorasan including Torbat heidarieh, Gonabad, Mahvelat, Ghaenat and Ferdows were collected and were studied by molecular markers. The used RAPD and ISSR primers produced 43 and 122 polymorphic markers loci, respectively, and totally 165 markers with average of 7.5 markers by each primer, totally. Diversity index ranged from 0.36 to 0.7 with average of 0.23. Also, marker index with the average of 0.16 varied in the range of 0.2 to 0.7. The accessions from Ghaenat and Mahvelat had the maximum (83.03%) and the minimum (52.73%) polymorphism, respectively. Grouping the studied saffron accessions using cluster analysis displayed four distinct groups which had little correspondence to their collection areas, while clustering for the main cultivation areas had relatively good correspondence to their geographical distances. So, it is expected to have nearly approaching improvements of qualitative and quantitative yields via the selection of superior clones of saffron. Key words: Saffron, Molecular variation, Germplasm, RAPD, ISSR, Khorasan region, clustering

Evaluation of Drought Tolerance in Rice Varieties using Yield-based Indices at Vegetative and Reproductive Stage

To evaluate drought tolerance of rice genotypes in vegetative and reproductive stages, an experiment was conducted in split plot design based on RCBD with two replications on research field of Rice Research Institute in 2008. Three levels of drought stress including normal irrigation (control), drought stress in vegetative and reproductive stages as main factor and 26 rice genotypes as sub-factor were applied. In this study, on the basis of yield performance in stressed and non-stressed environments, indices of mean productivity (MP), stress tolerance (TOL), geometric mean productivity (GMP), harmonic mean (HM), stress susceptibility index (SSI), tolerance index (STI) and drought response index (DRI) were calculated. Analysis of variance for all indices showed  significant difference among the genotypes at 0.01 probability level , which implies to exist genetic variation among genotypes. The index that select the genotypes which led to  yield elevation under both normal and stress conditions, was considered as the best index. Accordingly, indices of STI and GMP were found to be the best indices for drought resistance selection. Regarding these criteria, the entries of Kadous, Sahel, Nemat, Danial and Line 8 were considered as the most tolerant genotypes. Results of principle component analysis displayed that varieties of Danial, Nemat and Sahel were tolerant and Line 30 and Domsiah were sensitive at both growth stage of rice

Midazolam versus Neostigmineadding to Lidocaine in Post Operation Pain in Colporrhaphy Surgery in Spinal Anesthesia

Objective: To compare the effect of intrathecal midazolam versus neostigmine added to lidocaine on the duration of sensory block and the duration of postoperative pain relief in women undergoing colporaphy in spinal anesthesia. Materials and methods: In this double blind clinical trial we evaluated 60women (ASA) I,II that were candidate to elective colporaphy. The patients were randomly divided in three groups ,first group(midazolam group)received hyperbaric lidocaine and 1mg midazolam(0.5cc),second group ( neostigmine group) received hyperbaric lidocaine  and 50µg midazolam(0.5cc) and third group were considered as control and received hyperbaric lidocaine plus normal saline(0.5cc).VAS  pain score 4,12 and 24 hours after surgery and duration of  analgesia in tree groups were compared. Results: The duration of sensory block in the midazolam group was 98.4±18.2minuts, 74.5±32.6 in neostigmine and 64.5±9.9 in control group and difference between three groups was significant (p=0.001). Postoperative pain scores in midazolam group was 1.5±1.3, in neostigmine group was 2.4±1.6 and in control group was 3.5±2.7 and difference between three groups was significant (P=0.009). Conclusion: Midazolam & neostigmine added to lidocaine 5% prolonged postoperative analgesia in colporrhaphy surgery in spinal anesthesia but midazolam was more effective than neostigmine.

Comparative performance of transcriptome assembly programs for saffron (Crocus sativus L.)

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) belonging to Iridaceae family as a source of apocarotenoids is one of the most valuable spices and medicinal plants in the world. Because of the large size and high complexity of saffron genome, its sequencing remains a challenge. The arrival of next-generation sequencing technologies (NGS) has allowed the rapid and efficient development for RNA sequencing. De novo assembly of transcriptome from short-read RNA-Seq data provides a great resource for the study of species without a reference genome. De novo assembly of the transcriptome has some unique challenges, particularly in the case of plants, which possess a large amount of paralogs, orthologs, homoeologs and isoforms. In this research, we attempted to compare the performance of de novo assembly tools including BinPacker, Bridger, Oases-Velvet and Trinity through consideration of a quality metrics such as N50 length, the total number of contigs and alignment scores. The results of these analyses revealed that assembly using Bridger had a superior performance for saffron transcriptome, Oases suffered from relatively high chimera rates and redundancies which causes genes family with high similarity assembled into one transcript, Trinity performs worse than Bridger in the increase of false positives. Our comparison study will assist researchers in selecting a well-suited assembler and offer essential information for the improvement of existing assemblers

Unraveling the transcriptional regulators of polyphenolic variation in Thymus daenensis Celak

Due to its economic value and antioxidant phenolic compositions, there is a growing interest for Thymus daenensis in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. The current study was motivated by the paucity of studies on the molecular regulation of polyphenols and flavonoids in T. daenensis. From breeding materials, we selected and explored the transcriptome profiles of two chemotypes (‘Zagheh-11’ and ‘Malayer-21’). Tandem mass spectrometry identified 14 phenolic and flavonoid compounds in T. daenensis. Quantitative HPLC-PDA also revealed that ‘Zagheh-11’ contains higher amounts of flavonoids (luteolin, apigenin, kaempferol, quercetin, and catechin derivatives), while ‘Malayer-21’ was a rich source of rosmarinic acid. RNA-seq data mining indicated that 1840 unigenes have differential expression (DE) patterns between these chemotypes. Mapping of unigenes in flavonoids and phenylpropanoids pathways identified a total of 74% and 45% of structural genes, respectively. Four out of 15 DE unigenes in the aforementioned pathways played a key role in the metabolic divergence of these genotypes. RNA-seq and qRT-PCR indicated that the richness of flavonoids in ‘Zagheh-11’ was driven by higher expression of chalcone isomerase (CHI) and flavonoid 3′-hydroxlase (F3′H). In contrast, overexpression of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and rosmarinic acid synthase (RAS) coincided with enhanced accumulation of rosmarinic acid in ‘Malayer-21’. To further understanding of these four key genes, we performed bioinformatic and structural analysis on their complete coding sequences. These findings should improve knowledge on how specialized metabolites are governed by transcriptional regulators and which are suitable for targeted metabolic engineering.Peer reviewe

Assessment of Drought Tolerance Indices and their Relation with ISSR Markers in Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Water stress is one of the most important environmental abiotic stress that reduced crop yield especially in arid and semi arid regions of the world. In order to identifying drought tolerance, 39 cultivars of spring, facultative and winter type wheat varieties were planted as subplots within the irrigation plots (main plots) in a randomized complete block design with three replications in a research filed of Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Iran. In 2/3 continuous irrigation stress level, based on stress susceptibility, geometric mean productivity and harmonic indices, Sepahan, Karaj 3, Bahar and Yavaroos were known as the best varieties; and in 1/3 continuous irrigation stress level, based on the mentioned indices, Hirmand, Bahar, Yavaroos and Marvdasht were the best one. According to biplot resulted from principle coordinate analysis, in 2/3 continuous irrigation Moghan 1, Golestan, Kavir, Maroon, Karkheh, Chanaab, 10, 6, Bahar and Sepahan; and in 1/3 continuous irrigation Golestan, 10, Niknejad, Maroon, Darab, Falat, Arta, Marvdasht, Bahar and Hirmand were identified as the most tolerant cultivars. According to multiple regression analysis in subject of agronomic traits, 43, 33 and 25 informative ISSR markers identified in control, 2/3 and 1/3 continuous irrigation conditions, respectively. Also among these markers, there were significant relationship between P12L3 and P21L3 markers with plant height and spike length; P4L1 and P22L1 markers with flag leaf length; P19L4 markers and number of node; P30L4 markers and awn length; P10L1 and P22L1 with peduncle to plant height ratio in all of stress and non-stress conditions