Five-year monitoring of considerable changes in tyrosine phosphorylation motifs of the Helicobacter pylori cagA gene in Iran

CagA is a major virulence factor of Helicobacter pylori involved in host cell modulation. The C-terminal part of CagA containing the EPIYA motifs is highly variable and is important for the biological activity of the protein. The aim of this study was consideration of the changes in cagA tyrosine phosphorylation motifs (TPMs) of H. pylori. A set of 302 H. pylori DNA samples from the Iranian population from 2006 to 2011 was selected for the proposed study. The cagA gene and its TPMs were assessed by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and specific primers. The prevalence of the cagA gene in our study ranged from 91.43 % to 97.06 % (with an average of 95.03 %). Out of the cagA-positive samples, the prevalence of TPMs A and B increased from 12.5 % and 23.44 % to 71.2 % and 63.63 %, respectively. Also, the prevalence of samples infected with Western and East Asian types of H. pylori ranged from 64.06 % to 5.73 % for the Western type and 17.19 % to 51.59 % for the East Asian type. Overall, our results showed a high prevalence of the cagA gene. Also, it seems that cagA TPMs of H. pylori is undergoing a change from the Western type to the East Asian type in Iran.     

In silico analysis of quranic and prophetic medicinals plants for the treatment of infectious viral diseases including corona virus

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infection of the respiratory system caused by single standard RNA viruses named as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease appeared as a serious problem and the leading cause of death in human beings throughout the world. The main source of different phytochemicals are plants, which helps in the development of new drugs against various ailments. Islam is comprehensive religion and a complete code of life for Muslims. The teaching of Islam, according to the Holy Quran and Hadith are universal for the benefit of humanity. Islam believes that every ailment is from God and who made the disease definitely made its medication. There is a complete guideline with regard to taking measures against infectious diseases such as quarantine and seeking medicinal treatment. The research objective is to gather the knowledge of medicinal plants described in the Holy Quran or utilized by the Prophet (SAW) for the treatment of different ailments or advised to use them to boost immunity and strengthen the body. Scientists across the globe have found these plants beneficial for many diseases and have antiviral potential. In present study, the six plant species including Olea europaea, Nigella sativa, Allium Sativum, Allium cepa, Zingiber officinale and Cassia senna were selected which contain phytochemicals like Calcium Elenolate, Thymoquinone, S-Allylcysteine, Dipropyl Disulfide, Sesquiterpene, Monoterpene, Pelargonidin 3-Galactoside ion and Kaempferol. The phytochemicals monoterpene (from Zingiber officinale) shows best interaction with target proteins RdRP, 3CLPro, ACE2. Calcium Elonate (from olive) bonds with 3CLPro, ACE2 and Kemoferol and Pelargomidine (from Senna Makki) bonds with RdRP, ACE2. The ligands show a unique set of intersections i.e. hydrogen bonding, and alkyl interaction. These medicinal plants can be utilized immediately for the treatment of COVID-19 as their safety is already established. This treatment can enhance recovery when combined with other treatments. Furthermore, the screening of bioactive compounds or phytochemicals found in these plants can be utilized to design new therapeutic drug to treat COVID-19 pandemic.     

Do microbial protein elicitors PeaT1 obtained from Alternaria tenuissima and PeBL1 from Brevibacillus laterosporus enhance defense response against tomato aphid (Myzus persicae)?

Tomato aphid (Myzus persicae) is a destructive insect pest of tomato responsible for huge losses in the production as well in the vegetable industry. In the present in vitro study two protein elicitors, PeaT1 and PeBL1 were considered to study their efficacies to exhibit defense response against tomato aphid. Three different concentrations of both protein elicitors were applied on the tomato seedlings. After the application of PeaT1 and PeBL1, population growth rates of tomato aphid were decreased as compared to the control treatment. In host preference assay, the tomato aphid showed a preference to build a colony on the control as compared to the treated tomato plant, because tomato leaves provided hazardous surface for aphid after the formation of wax and trichome. The concentrations of protein showed significant (p < 0.05) results in life-history traits of the aphid. Jasmonic acid (JA), salicylic acid (SA) and ethylene (ET) showed significant accumulation in tomato seedlings treated with PeaT1 and PeBL1. Elicitors treated plants produced resistance against M. persicae. Our finding suggests that PeaT1 and PeBL1 have shown high potentials against the damage of M. persicae, and both elicitors could be used as novel biological tools against tomato aphid.     

Epidemiological evidence of mosquito-borne viruses among persons and vectors in Iran: A study from North to South

Arthropod-borne viruses are a group of the most important emerging pathogens. They cause a range of diseases in vertebrate hosts and threaten human health (Gan and Leo, 2014). The global distribution of arboviruses is associated with the vector which is strongly affected by changes in environmental conditions. Dengue virus (DENV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), which cause high annual infected cases and have an increasing geographic distribution, are transmitted by Aedes spp. mosquitoes, in particular Ae. albopictus and Ae. Aegypti (Presti et al., 2014; Higuera and Ramírez, 2018). Although, the main vector of dengue virus, Ae. aegypti, was not detected in Iran, other possible important vectors such as Ae. Albopictus and Ae. unilineatus were recorded (Doosti et al., 2016; Yaghoobi-Ershadi et al., 2017). West Nile virus (WNV), a member of the genus Flaviviruses, is one of the most widespread arboviruses (Chancey et al., 2015). The epidemiological evidence of WNV in different hosts in Iran was found (Bagheri et al., 2015), and the circulation of WNV in the main vector, Culex pipiens s.l. and Cx. pipiens, has been proved (Shahhosseini et al., 2017). Due to limited information on the situation of CHIKV, DENV and WNV in Iran, we performed a wide geographical investigation to determine the prevalence of IgG specific antibodies in human samples as well as the genome of WNV, CHIKV and DENV in mosquitoes.     

Testing reticulate evolution of four Vitis species from East Asia using restriction‐site associated DNA sequencing

Reticulate evolution is an important driving force of angiosperm evolution. It has been proposed as an important evolutionary process in Vitis L. subgenus Vitis. Events of natural hybridization and introgression of several taxa native to North America have been hypothesized and discussed. However, there is no convincing evidence of reticulate evolution reported for closely related Vitis taxa from East Asia. We aim to explore natural hybridization and introgression among four closely related Vitis taxa from East Asia (V. amurensis Ruprecht, V. romanetii Romanet du Caillaud, V. shenxiensis C. L. Li, and V. piasezkii Maximowicz) with the restriction‐site associated DNA sequencing technique. A total of 46 accessions, covering the potential morphological and geographic variation of each species, are sequenced. Our results show a complex evolutionary pattern of the four Vitis species. The phylogenetic inference suggests that V. amurensis is monophyletic, however, V. romanetii, V. shenxiensis, and V. piasezkii do not appear to be monophyletic. Significant signals of introgression in some accessions have been detected by population structure analyses. D‐statistics analysis and population structure analyses support the presence of introgression between V. shenxiensis/V. piasezkii and V. romanetii in sympatric populations, but a strong signal of admixture has not been recognized between distantly located populations. Our results provide strong evidence of reticulate evolution among V. romanetii, V. shenxiensis, and V. piasezkii.     

Speciation without Pre-Defined Fitness Functions

The forces promoting and constraining speciation are often studied in theoretical models because the process is hard to observe, replicate, and manipulate in real organisms. Most models analyzed to date include pre-defined functions influencing fitness, leaving open the question of how speciation might proceed without these built-in determinants. To consider the process of speciation without pre-defined functions, we employ the individual-based ecosystem simulation platform EcoSim. The environment is initially uniform across space, and an evolving behavioural model then determines how prey consume resources and how predators consume prey. Simulations including natural selection (i.e., an evolving behavioural model that influences survival and reproduction) frequently led to strong and distinct phenotypic/genotypic clusters between which hybridization was low. This speciation was the result of divergence between spatially-localized clusters in the behavioural model, an emergent property of evolving ecological interactions. By contrast, simulations without natural selection (i.e., behavioural model turned off) but with spatial isolation (i.e., limited dispersal) produced weaker and overlapping clusters. Simulations without natural selection or spatial isolation (i.e., behaviour model turned off and high dispersal) did not generate clusters. These results confirm the role of natural selection in speciation by showing its importance even in the absence of pre-defined fitness functions.