Journal of Sciences, Islamic Republic of Iran
Volume:16 Issue: 4, Autumn 2005

SFL1 and SFl2 (SETH Four Like) genes are two members of SETH4 gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana expressed in saprophytic tissues. In this study, expression of SFL1 and SFL2 genes were studied using Gateway Cloning Technology. Primers were designed for PCR amplification of promoter region of SFL1 (900 bp) and SFL2 (930 bp) genes having attB1 recombination sites using Kod Hi Fi DNA polymerase enzyme. Amplified fragments were cloned into pDON201 vector by BP reaction and then into destination vector pGKWFS7 containing GFP::GUS by LR reaction. Finally, pGKWFS7-SFL1 and pGKWFS7-SFL2 were introduced into Agrobacterium GV3101 strain as a binary vector. Plants then were transformed with the new constructs. GUS staining of transgenic plants with SFL1 promoter showed strong expression in seedling, stem, leaf, root, root hair, sepal, sillique and unevenly staining in petal. Plants transformed with SFL2 showed the same pattern of expression (except root and root hair) but relatively weaker than SFL1. No expression of either SFL1 or SFL2 was observed in pollen.

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to analyze genetic stability of the somatic embryogenesis-derived regenerants (R1-6) and mother plant in Iranian date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivar Khanizi. Total genomic DNA extracted from in vitro fresh leaves of regenerated plants and mother plant was amplified using 10-mer oligonucleotide Fermantas primers. Four primers of the set A to J primers were selected which revealed polymorphism and gave reproducible results. The genetic similarity between the mother plant and the callus-derived plantlets was ranged between 94% (for R1, R2) and 83% (for R5). Cluster analysis by the unweighted paired group method of arithmetic mean (UPGMA) showed a single large cluster at an estimated similarity coefficient (90.2%).

Due to widespread use of petroleum products, the number of petroleum-contaminated sites has abounded. Natural attenuation, which relies on in situ biodegradation of pollutants, has received a large amount of attention, especially for petroleum contamination. Therefore in this research two types of samples, natural and enriched, from two different sources, soil and water were chosen and oil degrading microorganisms were isolated using different gasoline containing mineral media supplemented with yeast extract and or glucose. Fifty-five isolated strains were selected according to their simultaneous good growth on mineral medium with oil and nutrient agar. Several micromorphological and biochemical characteristics of isolated oil-degrading strains were determined. 73% of them were gram negative, 42.5% oxidase negative, 40.7% catalase positive, 59% showed oxidative glucose metabolism. The dominant portion of the strains could possibly belong to the family Pseudomonadaceae, while an other dominant group was members of the Coryneform taxa. By checking the biodegradative ability of our selected oil-degrading strains on individual hydrocarbon derivatives we showed that 10% of our strains could decompose n-dodecane easily and very fast. The utilization of 1-dodecene, naphtalene, benzol, and cyclohexane, respectively seems to be characteristic for always less and less strains. The speed of growth of 1-dodecene was lower than other compounds.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) in humans is an X-chromosome-linked disorder and housekeeping enzyme، vital for the survival of every cell. It catalyses the oxidation of glucose-6-phosphate to 6-phospho gluconate in the first committed step of the pentose phosphate pathway، which provides cells with pentoses and reducing power in the form of NADPH. NADPH is required to protect the cells (via glutathione and catalase) against oxidative damage. In this paper we have analyzed the G6PD gene in 92 patients with history of favism. The extracted DNA was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) for known G6PD mutations such as; Mediterranean، Chatham and Cosenza. The results determined that، from the total 92 samples، 74 had G6PD Mediterranean (80. 42%) and 2 had G6PD Chatham (2. 17%)، and Cosenza mutation was not observed (17. 43%). G6PD Mediterranean was the most prevalent mutation in Iran and other countries in tropical and subtropical areas. The frequency of Chatham was low in the Sistan and Balochestan province in comparison with other provinces of Iran. In this paper we also try to document the commonly known mutations in patients with G6PD deficiency، with a history of favism.

With the aim of the secretion of human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) in Escherichia coli, hGM-CSF cDNA was fused in-frame next to the signal sequence of ST toxin (ST-I) of exteroxigenic E. coli, containing 53 or 19 amino acids of signal peptide. The fused STsig::hGM-CSF coding fragments were inserted into a T7-based expression plasmid. The recombinant plasmids were subjected to expression analysis of hGM-CSF in the BL21(DE3) strain of E. coli under IPTG induction. Based on the results obtained from the protein pattern of the recombinant E. coli under inducing condition, accumulation of the expressed target protein was detected in both cytoplasmic and periplasmic space.

Sediments of the Nezam-Abad area, south-east of Bam have been studied for the first time. Sedimentary facies are composed of thin-bedded clay, silt and fine grained sand interbedded with thin laminated limestone. Chemical analysis of X-Ray florescent indicates that more than 50% of sediments consist of silisium and aluminum oxide that can be used for reconstruction of environment. Ninety eight gastropod specimens were collected and two genera and one species of Discus sp., Goniobasis sp. and Hydrobia neglecta were introduced for the first time. Occurrence of lithofacies together with gastropod faunas and also absence of evaporate indicate a fresh water lake environment during Pleistocene to Recent time.

In this paper, we consider the determination methods of maximum entropy multivariate distributions with given prior under the constraints, that the marginal distributions or the marginals and covariance matrix are prescribed. Next, some numerical solutions are considered for the cases of unavailable closed form of solutions. Finally, these methods are illustrated via some numerical examples.

A colloidal synthesis of gold nanocrystals with different capping agents is reported. 1-Dodecanethiol (1), Dodecylamine (2), Tri-n-octylphosphine (3) (TOP) and Tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (4) (TOPO) were used as capping agents and the gold nanocrystals stability, size and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) were investigated.

If we try to estimate the parameters of the AR process {Xn} using the observed process {Xn+Zn} then these estimates will be badly biased and not consistent but we can minimize the damage using a robust estimation procedure such as GM-estimation. The question is does additive contamination affect estimates of “core” parameters in the infinite variance case to the same extent that it does in the finite variance case? We will see that if the contamination {Zn} has higher tails than the core process {Xn}, the estimation of parameters of the core process will not be greatly affected; that at least its consistency is preserved.