The role of iron nanoparticles on morpho-physiological traits and genes expression (IRT1 and CAT) in rue (Ruta graveolens).

The iron nanoparticles with different physic-chemical properties induce inconsistent effects on various studied plant species. Thus, the effect of ferric oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles was compared with Fe2O3 microparticles and FeSO4complexes of EDTA for major physiological and gene expression in Rue (Ruta graveolens). Iron root content increased as Fe-MPs + EDTA ˂˂ Fe-NPs + EDTA˂ FeSO4 + EDTA. The shoot's iron remained unchanged or slightly increased under most of FeSO4 and Fe-MPs + EDTA treatments. Under Fe-NPs + EDTA treatment, 50 and 250 µM concentration decreased on shoot iron by 23.2% and 19.4% compared to control, respectively. But the shoot iron at 500 µM NPs was 28.2% higher than that of the control. A 46-58 fold lower Fe translocation was observed under Fe-NPs + EDTA than Fe-MPs + EDTA. The effect of Fe-NPs + EDTA was more significant on plant fresh and dry mass than the control. All treatments showed an increase in anthocyanin by 19-84% in leaves compared to the control. The Fe-NPs + EDTA and MPs + EDTA induced similar effects on enhanced growth parameters, total chlorophyll, catalase enzyme activity, gene, and reduced chlorophyll a/b and oxidants. Catalase enzyme activity in FeSO4 and MPs + EDTA was similar, and in Fe-NPs + EDTA treatments were influenced by coarse and fine regulation mechanisms, respectively. Iron MPs + EDTA had a more negative effect on IRT1 relative gene expression in roots as compared to other iron forms. The IRT1 relative gene expression in shoots was positively affected by 31-81% under all treatment types (except control and 250 µM Fe-NPs + EDTA, and 250 µM MPs + EDTA). These results could reveal the potential mechanism of plant response to nanoparticles.

Production of a new mucilage compound in Lepidium sativum callus by optimizing in vitro growth conditions.

The mucilage in Lepidium sativum L. is considered a biologically active compound with diverse medicinal properties. Different explants (hypocotyls and leaf) were transferred to Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with twelve different plant growth regulator combinations under two different incubations (light and dark). The best mucilage production from callus (36.76% g g-1 dry weight) was obtained in the MS medium supplemented with 1 mg L-1 of 2, 4-D and 2 mg L-1 of BAP under the light condition. The mucilage produced by callus culture was nearly three times more than the mucilage yield of the seeds. The glucose, arabinose + mannose and galactose were 43.4 (mg g-1 DW), 195.3 (mg g-1 DW) and 86.2 (mg g-1 DW) in the mucilage originated from seed, callus leaf and callus hypocotyl, respectively. The present study proposes an efficient method for producing large scales of mucilage with a favorable sugar aimed at food or pharmaceutical industries.

Molecular insights of genetic variation in milk thistle (Silybum marianum [L.] Gaertn.) populations collected from southwest Iran.

Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is among the world's popular medicinal plants. Start Codon Targeted (SCoT) marker system was utilized to investigate the genetic variability of 80 S. marianum genotypes from eight populations in Iran. SCoT marker produced 255 amplicons and 84.03% polymorphism was generated. The SCoT marker system's polymorphism information content value was 0.43. The primers' resolving power values were between 4.18 and 7.84. The percentage of polymorphic bands was between 33.3 and 100%. The Nei's gene diversity (h) was 0.19-1.30 with an average 0.72. The Shannon's index (I) ranged from 0.29 to 1.38 with an average value of 0.83. The average gene flow (0.37) demonstrated a high genetic variation among the studied populations. The variation of 42% was displayed by the molecular variance analysis among the populations while a recorded variation of 58% was made within the populations. Current investigation suggested that SCoT marker system could effectively evaluate milk thistle genotypes genetic diversity.