The presence of sibling vole species (Microtus) in the most common forests and open landscapes in south-eastern part of Thrace (Balkan Peninsula) of contemporary territories of Bulgaria and Turkey was studied. Only the southern vole (Microtus levis) was found in the investigated region. In his northern part, the Southern vole is associated with semi dry, upland habitats such as deserted and overgrown with wild vegetation vines near sparse forests and large agricultural fields under autumn crops with adjacent non-arable lands with shrub vegetation. In the southern part, it is presented in open landscape related to water areas (meadows near rivers and wetlands). On the basis of trapping the Southern vole is a common species in the north part of Strandzha region. The established craniological characteristics of the Southern vole from investigated region, which can be considered as a zoogeographical crossroads, with a late Pleistocene connection between the Balkan Peninsula and the mammalian fauna of Anatolian peninsula, enriched the knowledge about its craniological variation in Europe.

Effects of three alkaline treatments: NaOH, NaHCO3 and wood ash on the crude protein (CP), condensed tannin (CT), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), in vitro gas production kinetics and dry matter (DM) digestibility of sorghum grain were determined. The NaOH (2% w/v), NaHCO3 (2% w/v) and wood ash (5% w/v) treatments were completed by soaking of sorghum grain with treatment solutions in the proportion of 1 L of solution to 1 kg of grain for 12 h. Gas production was measured at 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 96 h post incubation. Alkaline treatment decreased significantly the CT (P<0.001) and NDF content (P<0.05) of sorghum grain, where it had no effect on the CP content. Treated grain with wood ash extract showed the highest (P<0.05) maximum gas production (A), and NaOH treatment trended (P<0.06) to the fastest fractional fermentation rate. Fractional rate of gas production and cumulative gas production overall incubation times except of 48 h (P<0.05) were not changed by NaHCO3 and wood ash treatment. Maximum (P<0.01) in vitro DM digestibility of alkaline treatment of sorghum grain was observed by NaOH. Cumulative volatile fatty acids concentration was increased (P<0.01) at 4h for NaOH treated compared to untreated sorghum and then decreased (P<0.001) at 48 h post incubation. Alkaline treatment of sorghum grain may become attractive due to raise in nutritive values of sorghum and hide the negative effects of its tannin in the future if the costs of other processing continue to rise.

Phytoadditives have gained increasing interest as feed additives for fish. The aim of the present study was to determine whether selected dietary phytoadditive can influence the bioavailability of several trace elements (Cu, Mn and Zn), which play an important role in the physiological processes. The experiments were carried out at a commercial trout farm. A total of 420 juvenile rainbow trout (mean weight ± SD = 10.79 ± 0.57), Oncorhynchus mykiss, were randomly allocated into four different treatments with three replicates each. Fish were kept in raceways (3X0.8X0.4 m) at 10±1°C with a natural photoperiod. Proper amount of carvacrol was sprayed on 1 kg of commercial trout diet to prepare four diets with 0 (Control, C0), 1 (C1), 3 (C3) and 5 (C5) carvacrol g/kg diet. Fish were fed to apparent satiation three times per day. The feeding trial lasted four weeks. Then, in different type of fish tissues (muscle, liver and pyloric caeca) from fish fed with diets enriched in carvacrol, beneficial elements (Cu, Mn and Zn) were analysed by atomic adsorption spectrophotometer. Results showed that the levels of Cu, Zn and Mn were especially significantly increase by C1 diet in all tissues (muscle, liver and pyloric caeca) except muscle and pyloric caeca Zn. The results of this experiment indicate that the carvacrol had the ability to potentiate the trace element retention. Although bioaccumulations of Cu, Zn and Mn in the muscle, liver and pyloric caeca are well demonstrated, the exact mechanisms of phytoadditives are still only partially understood. More investigations are required to detail the mechanisms involved in phytoadditives this enhancement.

Beta-amylase (β-amylase, EC 3.2.1.2) is an enzyme that catalyses hydrolysis of glucosidic bonds in polysaccharides. In this study, we analyzed protein sequence of predicted beta-amylase 7-like protein in Brachypodium distachyon. pI (isoelectric point) value was found as 5.23 in acidic character, while the instability index (II) was found as 50.28 with accepted unstable protein. The prediction of subcellular localization was revealed that the protein may reside in chloroplast by using CELLO v.2.5. The 3D structure of protein was performed using comparative homology modeling with SWISS-MODEL. The accuracy of the predicted 3D structure was checked using Ramachandran plot analysis showed that 95.4% in favored region. The results of our study contribute to understanding of β-amylase protein structure in grass species and will be scientific base for 3D modeling of beta-amylase proteins in further studies.

The aim of this study was to determine genetic diversity and relationships among the salt-tolerant rice landraces cultivated in the coastal districts of Bangladesh. DNA extracted from seedlings of nine salt-tolerant local rice landraces and three established salt-tolerant rice varieties was subjected to random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis using a number of random decamer primers. Polymorphic bands generated with five primers were scored and used for determining polymorphic information contents (PIC) and in deriving a dendrogram using the Jaccard similarity coefficient-based unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA). The five primers generated 84 reproducible bands of the size range 0.24-1.90 kbp and 73% of the bands were polymorphic. The UPGMA dendrogram showed five major clusters at genetic similarity of 0.55. The PIC values ranged from 0.71 to 0.90 with an average of 0.85. The pair-wise similarity index values ranged 28.8-97.1% among the twelve genotypes. The three established rice verities formed a single cluster and the local landraces formed four clusters. Our result revealed high level of genetic diversity among the local rice landraces. The RAPD markers identified could be useful in developing high-yield salt-tolerant rice strains with improved grain quality.

The present work aims to characterize the bacterial diversity of the rhizosphere system of Nymphaea pubescens and the sediment system where it grows naturally. Heavy metal content in the sediment and Nymphea plant from the selected wetland system were also studied. Results of the current study showed that the concentration of copper, zinc and lead in the sediment ranged from 43 to 182 mg/Kg, from 331 to 1382 mg/Kg and from 121 to 1253 mg/Kg, respectively. Cadmium concentration in sediment samples was found to be zero and the order of abundance of heavy metals in the sediment samples was Zn>Pb>Cu>Cd. The abundance patterns of heavy metals in leaf, petiole and root were Cd>Cu>Pb>Zn. Microbial load in rhizosphere of Nymphea pubescens ranged from 93×102 to 69×103 and that of sediment was 62×102 to 125×103. Bacterial load in rhizosphere was higher than that of growing sediment. Four bacterial genera were identified from the rhizosphere of Nymphaea pubescens which include Acinetobacter, Alcaligens, Listeria and Staphylococcus. Acinetobacter, Alcaligens and Listeria are the three bacterial genera isolated from sediment samples. Copper resistance studies of the 14 bacterial isolates from rhizosphere and 7 strains from sediment samples revealed that most of them showed low resistance (<100 μg/ml) and very few isolates showed high resistance of 400-500 μg/ml.

Town settlements have different load level by emissions originated mostly from transport, industry and heating system. Their environmental and climate conditions are more or less changed that effect to growth, physiology and vigor of woody plants at the city public vegetation areas. Our study on determining the impact of urban environment on the tree health status was focused on the quantities of nutrients and main components of the pigment complex – chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids. Leaves of Acer platanoides L., Aesculus hippocastanum L. and Betula pendula Roth. were sampled from urban areas with different type of anthropogenic pressure in the town of Plovdiv (Bulgaria). Concentrations of the elements Ca, K, Mg, N, Na, P, and S were analyzed by ICP-MS. Health condition of trees in the city parks and suburban areas was acceptable, but in the central part and close to the industrial area it was non-satisfactory. This preliminary research pointed ecophysiological tools as useful to develop new criteria for sustainable urban arboriculture, including species selection (based on stress tolerance criteria), nursery hardening and preconditioning, and care after planting.

Nematode glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) amino acid sequences are very highly conserved (68-99% identity) and are also very similar to those of the bovine and human enzymes (54-60% identity). The residues involved in binding nucleotides or substrates are completely conserved and tend to be located in highly conserved regions of the sequence. Based on the strong homology between the bovine, Teladorsagia circumcincta and Haemonchus contortus GDH sequences, models of the structure of the T. circumcincta and H. contortus monomers were constructed. The structure of the T. circumcincta monomer obtained using SWISS-MODEL was very similar to that of the bovine enzyme monomer and the backbone of the polypetide deviated very little from that of the bovine enzyme monomer. Despite the sequence differences between the bovine and T. circumcincta enzymes, the relative positions and orientations of the residues involved in ligand binding were very similar. The reported Km for NADP+ of T. circumcincta is about 35 and times that of the bovine enzyme, whereas the Kms of the two enzymes for glutamate, alpha-ketoglutarate and NAD(P)H are much more similar. The residue corresponding to S267 of the bovine enzyme is involved in binding the 2′-phosphate of NADP+ and is replaced in the T. circumcincta and H. contortus sequences by a tryptophan. The partial occlusion of the NAD(P)-binding site by the tryptophan sidechain and the loss of at least one potential H-bond provided by the serine may explain the lower affinity of the T. circumcincta for NADP+.

In this work, the effects of the elicitors methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and yeast extract (YE) on the growth and solasodine production of Solanum hainanense cells were investigated. The results showed that various concentrations of MeJA (50-250 µM) and YE (1-4 g/L) have different eliciting influences. The increase of solasodine content induced by the elicitation of 3 g/L of YE and 50 µM of MeJA at the beginning of cell culture was about 1.9- and 1.3-fold, respectively, as compared with that of the non-elicitated cells. In general, YE (biotic elicitor) was more effective in enhancing solasodine production than MeJA (abiotic elicitor).

Leuconostoc mesenteroides NRRL B-1149 was evaluated for its probiotic properties. It displayed in vitro cell surface traits in terms of hydrophobicity, autoaggregation property and cell adhesive capacity on HeLa, murine macrophage and HT29 cell lines, which revealed its capability to adhere and colonize the intestine. The tolerance to various biological barriers such as lysozyme (100 μg/ml), gastric juice (pH 3.0) and bile salts (0.5%, w/v) with 92%, 61.6% and 219% growth, respectively, confirmed its ability to survive in extreme conditions of digestive tract. It showed bile salts hydrolase activity signifying its ability to deconjugate bile salts. The whole cells of Leuconostoc mesenteroides B-1149 showed β-galactosidase activity with 94 Miller units displaying its importance in lactose utilization. The effect of dextran from Leuconostoc mesenteroides B-1149 having α-(1,6) linear glycosidic linkages and α-(1,3) branching was evaluated against cervical cancer (HeLa) and colon cancer (HT29) cell lines. The dextran from L. mesenteroides B-1149 (100 μg/ml) showed 25% inhibition of HeLa cell lines and 1000 μg/ml dextran displayed 40% inhibition of HT29 cell lines. The effect of dextran on murine monocyte-macrophage line (J774A.1) showed increase in growth of macrophages confirming its biocompatible nature.

The optimal conditions for the production of xylanase and peroxidase from Streptomyces sp. K37 were investigated. The production of xylanase and peroxidase increased during the growth phase of the cultures after 72 hours. This indicates that the productions of such enzymes are wholly growth associated in these organisms. The optimum pH for xylanase and peroxidase production from Streptomyces sp. K37 occurred at pH 8.0 and pH 7.0. The optimum temperature for xylanase and peroxidase production by Streptomyces sp. K37 occurred at 50°C and 40°C respectively. Oat spelt xylan was the best carbon source for the production of xylanase and peroxidase from Streptomyces sp. K37. The optimum concentration of ball milled straw for the production of xylanase from Streptomyces sp. K37 was 1.0%, while the concentration for the production of peroxidase was 0.20%. The optimal concentration of yeast extract and casamino acid for the production of xylanase and peroxidase from Streptomyces sp. K37 was found to be 0.2%.