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Seventy-two sediments from four stations (Anzali, Tonekabon, Noshahr and Amirabad), located in Caspian Sea-Iranian coast were examined on the basis of P-fractionation in autumn and winter of 2013-2014. Several forms of the phosphorus in sediment were separated and extracted according to sequential extraction method. Then the extracted phosphorus in each fraction was determined by UV–Vis spectrophotometry. In addition, total concentrations of Ca, Fe and Al in sediment fractions were also measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy. In autumn the rank order of P-fractions was: Ca-P>Residual-P>BD-P>Al-P>loosely-P and in winter it was: Ca-P>BD-P>Residual-P>Al-P>loosely adsorbed-P. In both season the loosely adsorbed phosphorus (NH4Cl–P) represented < 1% of the sedimentary inorganic phosphorus, while the reductant phosphorus (BD–P) ranged from 2.7 to 4%. The calcium bound phosphorus (Ca-P or HCl–P) showed considerable contribution (89-91%) to the sedimentary inorganic P-loads. The metal oxide bound phosphorus (Al-P or NaOH–P) was 1.2-1.5% and Residual-P was 2.3-4.5%. Concentration of BD-P increased with increasing depth in all stations and the concentration of other fractions increased in most stations. Sampling seasons had significant effect on variance of most P-fractions and other sediment features. TP and BD-P were positively correlated with Fe_tot (p

The gene coding for beetle luciferase, the enzyme responsible for bioluminescence in over two thousand coleopteran species has, to date, only been characterized from one Palearctic species of Lampyridae. Here we report the characterization of the luciferase gene from a female beetle of an Iranian lampyrid species, Nyctophila cf. caucasica ( Coleoptera: Lampyridae). The luciferase gene was composed of seven exons, coding for 547 amino acids, separated by six introns spanning 1976 bp of genomic DNA. The deduced amino acid sequences of the luciferase gene of N. caucasica showed 98.9% homology to that of the Palearctic species Lampyris noctiluca. Analysis of the 810 bp upstream region of the luciferase gene revealed three TATA boxes and several other consensus transcriptional factor recognition sequences presenting evidence for a putative core promoter region conserved in Lampyrinae from -190 through to -155 upstream of the luciferase start codon. Along with the core promoter region the luciferase gene was compared with orthologous sequences from other lampyrid species and found to have greatest identity to Lampyris turkistanicus and Lampyris noctiluca. The significant sequence identity to the former is discussed in relation to taxonomic issues of Iranian lampyrids.