ARID1A regulates E-cadherin expression in colorectal cancer cells: a promising candidate therapeutic target

Molecular Biology Reports - Metastasis is a major cause of death in Colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, and the Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been known to be a crucial event in...     

Length‐weight relationships of fish species in Kordan River (Namak Lake basin), Iran

Length‐weight relationships were estimated for three little‐known species in Kordan River, in the Namak Lake Basin, Iran. For all species the estimated length‐weight relationship parameters fell within normal distributions and predicted ranges.     

Establishment of callus and cell suspension culture of Scrophularia striata Boiss.: an in vitro approach for acteoside production

In the present study, a protocol was optimized for establishment of callus and cell suspension culture of Scrophularia striata Boiss. as a strategy to obtain an in vitro acteoside producing cell line for the first time. The effects of growth regulators were analyzed to optimize the biomass growth and acteoside production. The stem explant of S. striata was optimum for callus induction. Modified Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l naphthalene acetic acid + 2.0 mg/l benzyl adenine was the most favorable medium for callus formation with the highest induction rate (100 %), the best callus growth and the highest acteoside content (1.6 μg/g fresh weight). Incompact and rapid growing suspension cells were established in the liquid medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l naphthalene acetic acid + 2.0 mg/l benzyl adenine. The optimum time of subculture was found to 17–20 days. Acteoside content in the cell suspension was high during exponential growth phase and decreased subsequently at the stationary phase. The maximum content of acteoside (about 14.25 μg/g cell fresh weight) was observed on the 17th day of the cultivation cycle. This study provided an efficient way to further regulation of phenylethanoid glycoside biosynthesis and production of valuable acteoside, a phenylethanoid glycoside, on scale-up in S. striata cell suspension culture.     

Programmed cell death 1 (PDCD1) gene haplotypes and susceptibility of patients to basal cell carcinoma

Molecular Biology Reports - Programmed death-1 (PD-1), as an immunoinhibitory receptor encoded by programmed cell death-1 (PDCD1) gene, has a pivotal role in tolerance to self-antigens. Mutations...     

Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles associated with bacterial meningitis among children: a referral hospital-based study in Iran

Bacterial meningitis continues to be associated with high morbidity and mortality rate worldwide, especially in the pediatric age group. This study was performed to identify the microbial etiologies of meningitis among 31 children, who were admitted in the Emergency Ward of a referral pediatric hospital in Iran. Culture identification showed that Streptococcus pneumoniae (12 subjects), Haemophilus influenzae (11 subjects) were the most common bacteria, followed by Escherichia coli (7 cases) and Neisseria meningitidis (only one case). Antibiotic susceptibility tests revealed that vancomycin had the best effect on S. pneumoniae in comparison with other antibiotics, whereas H. influenzae and E. coli were more susceptible to ceftriaxone, ceftazidime, and ceftizoxime than other antibiotics. In conclusion, despite the advances in antibiotic therapy and vaccine development, bacterial meningitis still is a health problem. S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, and N. meningitidis are the main sources of bacterial meningitis, but other organisms such as E. coli should also be suspected, when a case is admitted to a referral pediatric hospital.     

Construction and functional analysis of pathogen-inducible synthetic promoters in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Brassica napus</Emphasis>

In this study, we selected two known pathogen-inducible cis-acting elements, F and E17, to construct synthetic pathogen-inducible promoters for analysis in transformed canola (Brassica napus L.). The synthetic promoter approach was used, which involved the insertion of dimers and combining two cis-acting elements (E17 and F) upstream of the minimal CaMV 35S promoter. Canola plants were transformed by three constructs, pGEE, pGFF, pGFFEE containing synthetic promoters (SP), SP-EE, SP-FF and SP-FFEE, respectively. Analyses of histochemical and fluorometric GUS expression indicated that synthetic promoters responded to fungal elicitors and phytohormone treatments. The SP-FF promoter showed high responses against methyl jasmonate and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, while SP-EE demonstrated inducibility only in response to salicylic acid and Rhizoctonia solani. The SP-EE promoter similar to SP-FFEE, did not respond to S. sclerotiorum and methyl jasmonate. However, SP-FFEE was highly induced by R. solani elicitors and showed that the level of GUS expression was greater than that by either of E17 or F elements alone. These three synthetic promoters did not activate the expression of the reporter gene in response to cold, heat, UV and wounding.     

Improving drought stress tolerance in fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) by exogenous melatonin

Abstract

The present study was conducted to determine the changes which occurred in the water-stressed fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-gracum L.) in response to melatonin treatment. Fenugreek is a valuable medicinal plant which contains trigonelline that plays an osmoregulatory role in abiotic stress. To this end, the effects of three levels of water deficit in the first experiment and four concentrations of melatonin in the second experiment were investigated on the physiological and biochemical responses. The findings of the first experiment demonstrated that water deficit decreased the weight and length of fenugreek shoots as well as pigments contents, and catalase activity. In addition, such a deficit led to an increase in proline, trigonelline, melatonin and enhanced the activity of other antioxidant enzymes. Finally, the hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde concentrations increased under severe stress. The results of the second experiment indicated that melatonin treatment significantly reduced chlorophyll degradation. Furthermore, the activities of the ROS scavenging enzymes were increased by melatonin. Moreover, exogenous melatonin led to an increase in endogenous melatonin and trigonelline whereas it led to a decrease in proline content. These results revealed that fenugreek tolerated water deficit by increasing the endogenous melatonin and trigonelline, as well as the general physiological responses.     

Polarization Controlling of Multi Resonant Graphene-Based Microstrip Antenna

Plasmonics - In this paper, a graphene-based patch antenna is proposed. The antenna structure is designed so that each of the various antenna sections affected by chemical potential changes can...