The family, Flaviviridae includes viruses which cause several diseases including Dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, Murray Valley encephalitis, Tick-borne encephalitis, West Nile encephalitis, Yellow fever and Hepatitis C virus infection. Members of this family have monopartite, linear, single-stranded RNA genomes of positive polarity with 9.6-12.3 kb in length. Here, we analyzed the codon usage of 13 species of this family by using gene infinity package. Base analysis was performed by CAIcal server and amino acid composition was calculated by PseAAC web-server. The results showed that the highest number of A, G and C bases were seen in the RNA genome of Dengue virus 2, Tick borne encephalitis virus and Hepatitis C virus, respectively. Although the number of U bases used in RNA genomes was very close, the highest U nucleotide amount was 23.77% in Wesselsbron virus. The lowest number of C, G, U and A bases was seen in Bovine viral diarrhea virus, Dengue virus 2, Tick borne encephalitis virus and Hepatitis C virus, respectively. In this study, it was found that the complete genome of classical swine fever virus has a lower GC content and genome of Tick borne encephalitis virus, Hepatitis C virus and Powassan virus have the highest GC content among other examined species. We also classified the amino acids as rare (Phenylalanine, Cysteine, Histidine, Methionine, Asparagine, Glutamine, Tryptophan and Tyrosine), frequent (Alanine, Glutamic acid, Glycine, Leucine, Valine and Threonine), and intermediate (all others). The highest numbers of preferred codons exist in Wesselsbron virus and the lowest in West Nile virus.

Antioxidant activities protect the cell against oxidative agents that are constant metabolic by-products. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between harvesting time of Thymus transcaspicus and its antioxidant activities. The plant samples were harvested 5 times in different growth phases from 17 April to 22 July 2008, and its antioxidant activity was studied using the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 1,1- diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity, and β-carotene bleaching (BCB) assays. The results of FRAP assay indicated that the reduction activity of the plant was in the highest level in stage 5 of sampling. The result of DPPH assay showed that the crude extract of the plant was more capable of DPPH radical scavenging in stage 2. The highest level of gallic acid and quercetin in the crude extract of T. transcaspicus was determined as 85.29 ± 6.22 mg and 18.88 ± 0.9 mg in stage 2, respectively. Therefore, stage 2 was the optimum time to harvest the T. transcaspicus.

In the present paper, the cytogenetic study including meiotic chromosome number and behavior along with pollen viability were performed in 4 populations of Trigonella spruneriana Boiss. This is the first cytogenetic report of the taxon. All populations are diploid and possess 2n = 2x = 16 chromosome number, which is consistent with the proposed basic number of x = 8. In addition, some meiotic irregularities observed in different populations included chromosomes stickiness, B-chromosomes, chromosome bridges resulting from stickiness, the occurrence of laggard chromosomes, formation of micronuclei in tetrad cells and cytomixis. The highest and the lowest percentages of pollen viability were observed in populations SPR 658 and SPR 566, respectively.

Regeneration is a biological phenomenon, which takes place via two main mechanisms: first, dedifferentiation of mature cells followed by their differentiation into functional new cells and second, activation of endogenous somatic stem cells for regeneration of damaged or lost tissues. One of the best examples of healing process in mammals is the regeneration of damaged pinna in rabbits by blastema tissue. The aim of present study was to investigate culture requirements, proliferative properties and expression of some stemness factors in cells derived from regenerating blastema tissue obtained from rabbit pinna in vitro. The regenerating tissues were obtained from male New Zealand white rabbits by double punching of the pinna and cell culture conditions were set to derive and enrich the self renewing cells for further characterisation. The cells were subjected to survival and growth examinations in vitro, and expression of several stemness factors was studied in these cells using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results revealed that the derived cells are rather immortal, as they have been growing for more than 120 passages in culture up until this report. Furthermore, RT-PCR and flow cytometry analyses showed that these cells express a number of stemness related genes including Oct4 and Sox2. In conclusion, in this study, stem like cells were derived from blastema tissue of rabbit ears for the first time, showing great self renewing capacity, which provides a suitable in vitro model for regeneration studies. Moreover, they could be considered as a good source of stem like cells for future applications.

Nicotine is an alkaloid by high level of addictive property that can quickly assimilate from smoker’s lung. It passes from the placenta and gathers in the developing fetus. Our previous study showed that collagen type IV plays a critical role in basement membrane of different embryonic organs. In this study the effect of maternal nicotine was evaluated by collagen IV changes in lung of mice offspring during pre and postnatal period. Pregnant Balb/C mice were divided into 2 experimental and 2 control groups. Experimental group 1 received 3 mg/kg nicotine intrapritoneally from day 5 of gestation to last day of pregnancy. Experimental group 2 received the same amount of nicotine during the same gestational days as well as 2 first week after birth. The control groups received the same volume of normal saline during the same periods. At the end of exposure times, all newborns were anesthetized and their lungs were removed and immunohistochemical study for tracing collagen was carried out. Our results showed that collagen reaction in the bronchial basement membrane (BBM) and extra cellular matrix (ECM) of the lung parenchyma experienced a remarkable increase when compared to the control ones. Cell necrosis definition in lung parenchyma of the experimental group 2 was the other finding that our investigation revealed. These data indicate that maternal nicotine exposure may induce a noticeable collagen increase with a reasonable amount in BBM and ECM of respiratory system of next generation.

Saffron (Crocus sativus) is the most valuable and indigenous crop in Iran. The stigmas of flower are used as a popular natural flavouring, colouring and medicinal agent. However, the market suffers from frauds in this plant such as mixing with safflower petals due to high profit. Identification of these frauds with conventional and biochemical methods is difficult and low sensitive. Therefore, application of molecular markers such as random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)/sequence characterized amplified regions (SCAR) is being considered as an alternative. In this study, DNA was extracted from dry stigmas of 5 Saffron accessions and dry petals of 7 safflower cultivars. RAPD reactions with ten 15-mer random primers resulted in two specific monomorphic bands (500 and 700 bp) for safflower, while they were absent in saffron accessions. PCR analysis with specific SCAR primers amplified two specific bands (414 and 589 bp) for safflowers in different combinations of saffron stigmas and safflower petals. This was the case with very low rates or 1% of safflower. Therefore, this method seems to be suitable for fraud identification of safflower petals in commercial saffron samples.