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Medicinal plants can be candidate as a common alternative for cancer treatment according to natural landscaping and native plants in each country. The aim of this study was the evaluations of cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest induction by using seven leaves extracts of Catharanthus roseus, Calystegia sepium, Berberis integerrima, Mahonia fortunei, Melia azedarach, Plantago major, Betula pendula and one bulb extract of Narcissus tazetta. Extracts were assessed on three cancer cell lines including MCF-7 breast cancer cells, A431 epidermal cell line, and U87-MG glioma cell line that were compared to HGF-1 as normal cells. According to analysis of MTT, methanolic extract of C. sepium leaves increased significantly the rate of cell death in all cancer cell lines when compared to HGF-1 as normal cells. Among different extracts, methanolic extract of C. roseus leaves and methanolic extract of C. sepium leaves indicated a crucial role in apoptosis of cancer cells according to evidences from MTT assay, cell cycle analysis, and apoptosis assay. Doxorubicin has been used as standard drug to compare with IC50 s of different extracts. In addition, the encapsulation of methanolic and ethanolic extracts in small unilamellar vesicles form (SUV) increased the cytotoxicity on cancer cell lines and normal cells. Our results indicated that different extracts can differently affect the cytotoxicity rate in variety of cancer cell lines.

Cold stress changes the molecular and physiological responses in wheat genotypes according to their genetic potential and duration of stress. Cold stress (6 °C) has been applied in time series of 9 days (1, 3, 6, and 9 days) and evaluated the morpho-physiological responses and genes involved in fatty acid metabolisms such as desaturases and lipid transfer protein by real-time PCR technique in two cultivars of wheat, including MV-17 (cold-tolerant) and Kuhdasht (cold-sensitive). Results indicated that cold stress had a significant effect on morpho-physiological traits in MV-17 when compared with Kuhdasht. Moreover, cold stress for a long period of time could induce more bioactive compounds like hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde in MV-17 cultivar than in Kuhdasht. The contents of proline and glycine betaine as osmoregulators increased during times after cold exposure in both cultivars, but ascorbic acids as an antioxidant significantly increased in MV-17 cultivar during prolonged cold treatments. Meanwhile, fatty acid desaturase and lipid transfer genes are involved in fatty acid biosynthesis and lipid changes and differently expressed in cold stress. The fatty acid desaturase 2 (FAD2) leads to lipid unsaturation and its transcript significantly increased in MV-17 cultivar, but it was non-significant in Kuhdasht cultivar. With prolonged cold exposure, fatty acid desaturase 3 (FAD3) and lipid transfer protein 1 (LTP1) gene expression increased and showed the similar trend in both cultivars, while stearoyl-acyl carrier protein desaturases (SAD1) reached to maximum level after 6 days of cold exposure. We found that MV-17 cultivar could be resistant to cold stress during prolonged exposure to 6 °C by the increase in the contents of osmolytes, antioxidant, and fatty acid desaturases especially FAD2 in comparison with Kuhdasht cultivar.

Biotic and abiotic stresses cause special defense reactions in plant organs, which after a series of reactions, these stresses produce secondary metabolites. The effect of ultraviolet radiation on the expression of key genes involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites (Phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMG-CoA reductase), GPP synthases, Deoxyribonino heptulosinate 7-phosphate synthase (DAHP), and Deoxy Xylose Phosphate Synthase (DXS)), and the association of these genes with different amounts of secondary metabolites (phenol, terpene, flavonoids, anthocyanins, alkaloids, lycopene, and beta-carotene) was investigated in this study. The results of this study showed that the application of UV-B stress significantly increased the expression of GPPs, HMG-CoA reductase, DXS, DAHPs, and PAL genes compared to the control plants. The expression of two key genes involved in the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids, including DAHPs and PAL, increased with UV-B stress, and the highest expression was related to the PAL gene. The results revealed that UV-B stress caused a significant increase in total levels of terpenoids, phenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, alkaloids, beta-carotene, and lycopene. The highest relative expression of all genes was obtained in treatment A (UV-B radiation for 1 h), while in treatment B (UV-B radiation for 2 h), no significant changes were observed in the expression of the genes.

Salinity stress is the most important and common environmental stresses throughout the world, including Iran. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of several important genes involved in the salinity tolerance of the rice cultivars differing in salt sensitivity. In this research, the expression of four mitochondrial genes, H2O2, malondialdehyde (MDA), proline, sodium, potassium and superoxide dismutase (SOD), was measured in Iranian rice cultivars and two well-known international varieties as checks in response to 100 mM salt stress. The results show that the activity of SOD in the tolerant cultivars is much higher than in the susceptible ones under saline conditions (100 mM NaCl). The study of the gene expression in the tolerant and sensitive cultivars also showed that the expression of the genes increased in the early hours of the stress, with the exception of the OsGR1. Moreover, the amount of the expression in the tolerant cultivars was far more than the susceptible ones. The result of this study showed that the function of a set of antioxidant enzymes can lead to detoxification of the reactive oxygen species, so in order to better understand ROS scavengers, a comprehensive study on the antioxidant system should be conducted.

Knowledge of genetic diversity could aid in providing useful information in the selection of material for breeding such as hybridization programs and quantitative trait loci mapping. The present study was conducted to evaluate salinity tolerance of Iranian rice varieties. This research was carried out in three separate experiments (control, 6 and 12 dS m−1 NaCl) each based on completely randomized design with 44 rice varieties and three replications. Fourteen days after salt treatments, root and shoot fresh and dry weight, Na+ and K+ concentration, Na+/K+ ratio, root and shoot length, biomass gain, total fresh weight, root/shoot length ratio and shoot/root weight ratio were measured. The varieties were also genotyped for 12 closely linked microsatellite markers to SalTol. Haplotype and association analysis was conducted using these SSR markers for identification of loci related to salt tolerance. The tolerance scores under salinity stress showed that the varieties FL478, Hassani, Gharib, Shahpasand, Nemat, Domzard, Ghasroddashti, Ahlamitarom, Hassansaraee and Binam with more biomass, root and shoot lengths, and low Na+/K+ ratio were tolerant to salinity stress. Association analysis was indicated that there are some informative markers on chromosome 1 in the local and improved Iranian rice varieties genetic background including RM8094, RM1287, AP3206 and RM3412 explaining considerable percentage of the salt tolerance-related traits. These informative markers can be used in future breeding programs such as marker-assisted selection.

The goal of this survey is to evaluate the anti-proliferative effects of the hydroalcholic extract of Blepharis persica seeds and its synergic effect on doxorubicin (DOX) in human colon cancer (HT-29) and gastric cancer cell (AGS) lines. 70% Ethanol was used for extraction of B. persica seed. Aluminum–chloride colorimetric and Folin–Ciocalteu reagent methods were used to measure total flavonoid and total phenolic contents of the extract respectively. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of the B. persica extract was performed on GC-MS equipment after silylation. HT-29, AGS, and human fibroblast (SKM) cell lines were treated by different concentration of the B. persica extract, (DOX) and the combination of extraction and DOX. The cytotoxicity was measured using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay while the apoptosis induction was monitored using flowcytometry by annexin-V FITC/PI double-staining. The changes in expression levels of BAX and BCL-2 were determined using Real-Time RT-qPCR. GC-MS analysis of the hydroalcoholic extract from B. persica seeds revealed 24 major components. The MTT assay revealed the cytotoxicity against three cell lines and also it was shown that 125 ng/mL of DOX and 0.625 mg/mL of B. persica extract had synergistic behavior against HT29 cell line. These results showed B. persica extract induced apoptosis in AGS and HT29 cells and its extract caused dose-dependent increase in up-regulation of BAX level (p

Changes in the antioxidant enzymes, lipid peroxidation, sodium and potassium, chlorophyll, H2O2 and proline content were monitored in the leaves of 42 rice varieties which were not yet well-documented for the salinity tolerance under different salinity levels. The tolerant varieties (FL478, Hassani, Shahpasand, Gharib and Nemat) showed signs of tolerance (lower Na+/K+ ratio, high proline accumulation, less membrane damage, lower H2O2 production, and higher superoxide dismutase and catalase activity) very well. The positive relationship between the level of salt tolerance and the amount of proline accumulation in the rice varieties support the important role of proline under the salt stress. The varieties were genotyped for 12 microsatellite markers that were closely linked to SalTol QTL. The results of association analysis indicated that RM1287, RM8094, RM3412 and AP3206 markers had the high value of R2 for the regression models of the studied traits. It shows the important role of SalTol in controlling physio-biochemical traits. The results can be used in the future marker assisted selection (MAS) directly, if the results are confirmed.

For fast and easy isolation of inhibitor-free genomic DNA even from the toughest plant leaf samples, including those high in polyphenols and polysaccharides, a protocol has been developed. To prevent the solubility of polysaccharides in the DNA extract, high salt concentration (1.4 M) was used in the extraction buffer. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used for the removal of polyphenols as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) inhibitors. Proteins like various enzymes were degraded by proteinase K and removed by centrifugation from plant extracts during the isolation process resulting in pure DNA and RNA ready to use in downstream applications including PCR, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), ligation, restriction and sequencing. This protocol yielded a high molecular weight DNA and RNA isolated from leaves and roots of recalcitrant plants which was free from contamination and color. The average yields of total RNA from roots and shoot of Betula and Grape ranged from 285 to 364 ng/µl with A260/A280 between 1.9 and 2.08. The RNA isolated with this protocol was verified to be suitable for PCR, quantitative real-time PCR, semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, cDNA synthesis and expression analysis. This protocol shown here is reproducible and can be used for a broad spectrum of plant species which have polyphenols and polysaccharide compounds.