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Common sage (Salvia officinalis) is one of the most important medicinal and aromatic plants and possesses anticancer, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. One of the essential oil components of the sage plant is monoterpene, 1,8-cineole, that is responsible for some of these effects. The effect of foliar application of chitosan (control, 0.0, 0.25 and 0.50 g/L) under different levels of water deficit (FC = 60, 75 and 100%) were investigated on the expression level of cineole synthase gene in the roots and accumulation of 1,8-cineole content in the leaves of the sage plants. The experiment was conducted as factorial based on completely randomized design with three replications. The level of gene expression was determined by real time PCR in plant roots and the 1,8-cineole content was identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in leaves. Results indicated that the expression of studied gene and 1,8-cineole content were strongly up-regulated with water deficit. Furthermore, foliar application of chitosan (specially in 0.5 g/L) effectively up-regulated the cineole synthase gene expression in roots and 1,8-cineole content in the shoots. Overall, water deficit stress was more effective than chitosan in the up regulation of cineole synthase gene and 1,8-cineole synthase content. The maximum level of cineole synthase gene expression and 1,8-cineole content were observed in mild drought stress and 0.5 g/L chitosan condition. Slight water deficit stress had no effect on gene expression but the final product was increased in shoots. For the first time, our results indicated that water deficit stress and chitosan could increase cineole synthase gene expression in the roots of common sage. Therefore, chitosan along with water deficit probably increase 1,8-cineole content in shoots, in part, through increasing the expression level of 1,8-cineole synthase gene in roots. 
 

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Wheat is one of the most important crops in the world and Iran, and wheat powdery mildew is one of the major wheat diseases that cause yield reduction. Transcription factors are good candidate genes for genetic manipulation to enhance plants stress tolerance. Recently, scientific reports have revealed that the G2-like members in plants are involved in response to pathogens. In order to identify the wheat G2-like members and predict their functions, information of the G2-like protein family was collected from databases such as TFDB and Ensembl. Then, members of this gene family in rice and Arabidopsis were used against proteins and genome of wheat. After removing the duplicate sequences, 83 gene loci encoding 136 protein transcripts were identified. The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the G2-like protein sequences in wheat with 6 known G2-like in other plants, which divided the family into 6 groups. Based on classification of this family, it could be suggested that groups I, II and V are involved in the processes of powdery mildew response, chloroplast development, and flowering time, respectively. Motif predictions of G2-like protein family illustrated that most members belonging to the same group contain similar motif combinations, which indicates the accurate grouping in the phylogenetic tree and the similar function of members of a group. Chromosomal mapping of the G2-likes in wheat showed that G2-likes are present on all chromosomes. The highest and lowest number of G2-like genes is present on chromosome 6B, and chromosomes D and 3A, respectively.

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Genetic diversity identification is an important step for plant breeding procedure. Triticum urartu as the A-genome donor of wheat, is a valuable source for wheat breeding due to its rich allelic diversity for important traits such as agronomic characteristics, protein quality and biotic stress tolerance. In this study, the genetic diversity and population structure of 85 T.urartu accessions collected from different geographic regions of Iran were investigated using ISSR markers. 16 ISSR primers generated 164 fragments which all were polymorphic. The average of polymorphism information content (PIC) and marker index (MI) were 0.44 and 4.53 respectively, revealed a high resolving power of ISSR primers. The dendrogram generated using the NJ algorithm based on Jaccard’s dissimilarity coefficient, classified all 85 accessions into two main groups which was confirmed by Structure analysis. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed a higher distribution of genetic diversity within populations (96%), than between them (4%) and according to the diversity indexes including number of effective alleles (Ne), Shannon’s index(I) and Nei’s gene diversity (He), there were an equal variation within seven investigated populations. The results showed a high amount of genetic variation among tested accessions, which provide further insights into conservation and future utilization of wild wheat resources. Besides, these results confirmed the efficiency of ISSR markers as reliable technique in estimating the genetic diversity and fingerprinting.

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In this study, ISSR marker was employed to measure the genetic diversity within and among 29 accessions of Ziziphora specie from different regions of Iran including Z. tenuior, Z. persica and Z. capitata from 19, 5 and 5 geographical region, respectively. A total of 154 bands were amplified, and 86.67%, 81.13% and 84% were polymorphic in Z. tenuior, Z. persica and Z. capitata, correspondingly. Average number of amplified bands for each primer in 29 accessions was 10.26, while average number of amplified bands for each primer in Z. tenuior, Z. persica and Z.capitata was 3.8, 7.6 and 6.8, respectively. The most Polymorphic information content among tenuior, persica and capitata species belonged to UBC-805 (0.46), UBC-811 (0.35) and UBC-824 (0.37) primers respectively. The results of cluster analysis indicated that the ISSR marker could easily separate the tenuior species from the other two species, persica and capitata, although it was unable to separate the latter two species. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that there is a significant differences within the samples. Indeed, 38% of the observed genetic diversity is related to genetic diversity between populations and 62% is related to genetic diversity within populations. The results of principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) demonstrated that the first two vectors explained an 80.3% of the total variance, which shows the high correlation of the selected primers. Therefore, with a smaller number of primers and, as a result, the cost, it is possible to separate the tenuior species from the other two species. Considering that the primers UBC-805, UBC-811 and UBC-812 in the tenuior species contained the most polymorphic information and marker index and also showed 100% polymorphism, they can be used as efficient primers to investigate genetic diversity in this species. Overall, high genetic diversity in the Ziziphora sp. plants were identified in this study, which can be useful in the management and maintenance of the germplasm of this plant.
 

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Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) as an important aromatic and medicinal plant is a rich source of the Diosgenin and Trigonelline. Genetic diversity analysis using reliable methods provides useful information for the crop breeding programs and conservation of genetic resource. In the present study, 40 Fenugreek genotypes were evaluated for genotypic diversity using two gene-targeted markers. Seven SCoT and ten CBDP primers amplified 78 and 93 fragments in which 65 and 78 were polymorphic, respectively. The average of polymorphism information content (PIC) for SCoT and CBDP Primers were 0.37 and 0.29 respectively, that showed a higher resolving power of SCoTs than CBDPs. The dendrogram generated using the UPGMA algorithm based on Dice distance coefficient, classified all 40 investigated samples into four main groups. Furthermore, these results were confirmed by principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed a higher distribution of genetic diversity within populations (66%), than between them (34%). Among all five investigated populations, the highest values of diversity indexes such as number of effective alleles (1.54), Shannon’s index (0.46) and Nei’s gene diversity (0.31) were estimated for population IV indicating the higher variation within this population than others. These results showed a high amounts of genetic variation among tested genotypes, which can be used in breeding programs. Moreover, the results revealed that these two gene-targeted markers are suitable and reliable techniques for DNA fingerprinting and genetic diversity investigations.