The toxicity of petroleum components is well described in the literature, especially with regard to mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. In some groups of animals, such as birds, oil exposure seems to alter blood parameters, while this relationship is poorly understood in rodents. The study aimed to investigate alterations in hematological profile in the wild rodent Calomys laucha exposed to crude oil contaminated soils. In this study, males specimens of Calomys laucha were exposed for 14 days to two soils contaminated by petroleum: (I) landfarming soil, coming from a bioremediation area of contaminated soil from a Petrochemical Complex through landfarming technique and (II) soil of a simulated oil spill in laboratory conditions. The animals were exposed individually in cages containing 1 kg soil with free access to food and water. Control animals were exposed to an artificial uncontaminated soil. At the end of the experiment, animals were anesthetized and blood was collected for hematological profile. The animals exposed to soil landfarming had significant reduction in the number of bands, segmented, eosinophils, monocytes, lymphocytes and increased red cell distribution width (RDW), while animals exposed to simulated soil spillage in laboratory had decreased number of bands, but an increase in the number of lymphocytes and platelets. These changes in hemostasis may indicate an early stage of the development of associated pathologies, while the hematological profile can be used as a crude oil exposure-related marker in wild rodents.

In this study, superfluous jute plants and jute stick were converted into upgraded animal feed by solid state fermentation (SSF) using a cellulolytic fungus, Pleurotus sajor-caju. Prior to fermentation, substrates were subjected to several pretreatments such as soaking with water overnight and alkali or lime pretreatment. SSF was carried out with 20 g of substrate in 100 ml conical flask and was incubated at 30oC for 8 weeks. In all treatments, the highest amount of reducing sugar, soluble protein as well as the cellulolytic activities of three enzymes viz. cellobiase, carboxymethyl cellulase and avicelase were obtained at 6th week of fermentation. Compared to raw, unsoaked substrates, soaking treatment alone could produce 10% more soluble protein in both substrates whereas reducing sugar increment was 5% and 6% in jute sticks and jute plants, respectively. From all treatments, combination of soaking and lime treatment in green jute plants yielded higher value than jute sticks in terms of reducing sugar, soluble protein and enzymatic activity. The radiation doses at 20, 30 and 40 kGy appeared to have no effect on sugar and protein accretion. During eight weeks of fermentation, relatively higher cellobiase activity was found compared to that of carboxymethyl cellulase and avicelase. The present investigation indicates that fungal conversion with pretreatment can turn these lignocellulosic agro-wastes to a nutritionally enriched animal feed by increasing the crude protein and reducing sugar content. However, further research is necessary to develop strategies for industrial scale production to overcome the crisis of nutritionally improved animal feed.

Boron (B) is essential for the plant growth and development, and its primary function is connected with formation of the cell wall. Moreover, boron toxicity is a shared problem in semiarid and arid regions. In this study, boron transporter protein (BOR1) sequences from some Poaceae species (Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare, Zea mays, Brachypodium distachyon, Oryza sativa subsp. japonica, Oryza sativa subsp. indica, Sorghum bicolor, Triticum aestivum) were evaluated by bioinformatics tools. Physicochemical analyses revealed that most of BOR1 proteins were basic character and had generally aliphatic amino acids. Analysis of the domains showed that transmembrane domains were identified constantly and three motifs were detected with 50 amino acids length. Also, the motif SPNPW EPGSYDHWTVAKDMFNVPPAYIFGAFIPATMVAGLYYFDHSVASQ was found most frequently with 25 repeats. The phylogenetic tree showed divergence into two main clusters. B. distachyon species were clustered separately. Finally, this study contributes to the new BOR1 protein characterization in grasses and create scientific base for in silico analysis in future.

Optimization of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) has become the main goal of contemporary reproductive medicine. The main aspiration of scientists working in the field is to use less intervention to achieve more, and, if possible, in a more cost-effective way. A number of directions have been under development, namely – various stimulation protocols, ART with no stimulation whatever, all aiming at a single goal – the chase for Moby Dick, or the perfect embryo. Comprehensive embryo selection resulting in reducing the number of transferred embryos is one of the main directions for optimization of the ART procedures. Both clinical and laboratory procedures are being constantly improved, and today there is a significant number of clinics that report success rates of 30% and even higher. Based on results achieved, and analyzing data from millions of ART procedures, researchers from different centers are seeking to develop prognostic models in order to further improve success rates. One of the greatest challenges remains the reduction of the incidence of multifetal pregnancy, and that can be achieved only through reducing the number of embryos per transfer and a rise in single embryo transfer (SET) numbers. This, however, depends on reliable methods for preliminary embryo selection, employing a growing number of morphological, biochemical, genetic and other characteristics of the embryo. A primary concern in developing prognostic models for in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcome is selecting the prognostic parameters to be included. A number of publications define the main criteria that have an impact on fertilization outcome on the side of the embryo, and for the ultimate outcome of the ART procedure – on the side of the maternal organism as a whole. In this review, some of the most important parameters are discussed, with particular focus on their application for development of IVF prognostic models.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of using different concentrations of ginger extract (Zingiber officinale) on performance and carcass characteristics of male broiler chickens. Three hundred one-day-old commercial male broilers (Cobb-500) were randomly allocated in 20 floor pens (15 chicks each). Animals of each pen were supplemented with five different concentrations of ginger and the experiment was performed in quadruplicate. The broilers were fed a wheat-soybean meal based diet containing different concentrations of ginger extract (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1%) supplemented to drinking water. Feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio were measured during 1 to 10, 11 to 21, 22 to 42 and 1 to 42 days of age. At 42 days of age, two birds from each pen were selected and after weighing and slaughtered were dissected manually. Carcass yield, liver, abdominal fat and gut weight is expressed as percentage of live body weight. The results showed that there is no significant difference in the feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio between the different treatments except the feed conversion ratio of the period 1 to 10 days of age (p<0.05). Also, different supplemented concentrations of ginger extract to drinking water of broilers influenced the carcass yield (p<0.05).

Effects of microwave irradiation (900 W) for 3, 5 and 7 min on the nutritive value of sorghum and wheat grains were evaluated by in vitro gas production technique. Gas volume was recorded at 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 96 h of incubation and kinetics of gas production were estimated using model: GP = A exp {– exp [1 + (be/A) (LAG – t)]}. Cumulative gas production at 24 h was used for estimation of metabolizable energy, net energy for lactation, short chain fatty acids, digestible organic matter and microbial protein. For sorghum grain, microwave irradiation increased cumulative gas production for most times of incubation linearly. Microwave treatments for 5 and 7 min increased the A fraction linearly in both cereal grain, whereas the maximum rate of gas production (b) decreased linearly only in wheat grain. Microwave treatments for 3, 5 and 7 min increased (P<0.05) metabolizable energy, net energy for lactation and short chain fatty acids content of sorghum grain, but not of wheat grain. It was concluded that microwave irradiation changed the gas production parameters resulting changed ruminal fermentation characteristics that can be considered in ration formulation.

Strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from various samples of matsun, yogurt and salted cheese from natural farms of Armenia were studied. They have high antimicrobial and probiotic activities, growth rate and differ by their resistance to enzymes. Supernatants of LAB retain bactericidal activity at рН 3.0-8.0 and inhibit growth of various microflora. The application of different methods of identification and LAB genotyping (API 50 CH, 16S rRNA sequencing, GS-PCR, RAPD PCR) showed that isolated LAB evidenced a 99.9% similarity with L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum and L. pentosus species and coccoid forms of Streptococcus and Enterococcus species. It can be concluded, that some strains of lactic acid bacteria, isolated from dairy products from natural farms of Armenia, can be properly used for biopreservation of some foodstuffs. On the basis of experimental data, the LAB can be used as basis for obtaining the new products of functional nutrition.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary cumin (Cuminum cyminum) powder (CP) as a feed additive on growth performance and disease resistance during first-feeding of Mozamique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus). Five isonitrogenous (40% crude protein) and isocaloric (18.9 kj g-1) diets were formulated to contain 0 (control), 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2.0% CP. In a 45-day feeding trial, 15 plastic tanks (21 L) were stocked with 40 fry (0.012 ± 0.001 g) each. After feeding experiment, fish were infected with Streptococcus iniae and mortalities were recorded. The second-order polynomial regression indicated that a dietary CP level of 1.14% provided the best survival rate challenge infection with S. iniae, growth performance and feed utilization. In conclusion, CP can be used as growth promoter to improve feed utilization and weight gain in tilapia fry, and it can be also used as an antimicrobial agent during first-feeding of O. mossambicus. Therefore, CP can be suggested as an alternative to antibiotics in controlling streptococcal disease in tilapia culture.

In the present study an efficient and easy method was followed for the isolation of DNA from meristem cylinder in five chewing sugarcane varieties, namely Amrita, Bomaby, Babulal (Co.527), Q83 and Misrimala. The quality and quantity of DNA were assured by visual estimation using agarose gel electrophoresis and UV spectrophotometry. The highest amount of DNA was retrieved from the Amrita (3250 ng/ml) and the lowest amount was attained from the variety Q83 (1450 ng/ml). The amount of recovered DNA was enough for PCR amplification and marker studies such as random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Using RAPD markers, bands obtained from fingerprinting (190 bp to 1200 bp) showed 73.5% polymorphism. The dendrogram, based on linkage distance using unweighted pair group method of arithmetic means (UPGMA), indicated segregation of the five chewing varieties of sugarcane into two main clusters. Amrita, Bombay and Misrimala were grouped in cluster 1 (C1) followed by subclusters. Babulal and Q83 were grouped in cluster 2 (C2). The results of the present investigation also revealed that the twenty RAPD primers were able to identify and classify the chewing sugarcane varieties based on their genetic relationship.

RNA interference (RNAi), an effective approach to sequence-specific gene knockdown is widely used for the investigation of regulation of gene expression in various cells. BCL11A (B cell lymphoma 11A) plays a vital role in the evolutionarily different globin gene switches of mammals. In the current study, siRNA complementary to BCL11A was used to inhibit the BCL11A gene expression in erythroleukemic K562 cells and the expression was evaluated through real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot analysis. On day 7 of cell culture, 1x106 K562 cells were transfected with lipofectamine containing BCL11A specific siRNA. GAPDH (Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) was used as the reference gene to confirm the relative expression level of BCL11A gene mRNA and BCL11A protein. After 48 h of transfection, BCL11A specific siRNA produced significantly reduction of BCL11A mRNA level in a dose-dependent manner. It also affects the level of BCL11A protein. BCL11A siRNAs were equally effective at reducing the expression level of BCL11A mRNA and protein.