Annual Research & Review in Biology

Investigations included six traditional pear landraces (Pyrus communis L.): Aleksandra, Vodenka, Patlidjanka, Ljubichica, Tatlikuti and Crvenushka. The number of seeds per fruit, seed energy and total seed germination were investigated and statistically analysed (P = .05 and P = .01). Seed stratification encompassed pre-chilling by using three treatments: I treatment covers seed pre-chilling at -18°C for 24 hours; II treatment covers seed pre-chilling at +1°C for 2 weeks; III treatment covers seed pre-chilling at +8°C for 1 week. Only Patlidjanka belongs to the group with high seed number in the fruit. The other landraces produced low seed number like 2-3 seeds per fruit. The average number of all researched landraces is 3.67 seeds per fruit. The pear Tatlikuti showed a very high significant difference (P = .01). It was concluded that III treatment showed the highest seed energy at landraces Ljubichica 77.5% and Tatlikuti 75.0% and the lowest at Aleksandra 52.5%. There were significant differences (P = .05) between the applied treatments regarding seed energy. In II treatment, the total seed germination had the highest effect on Patlidjanka 87.75%. The values for germination seeds in the other landraces were in the range of 77.5% to 86.25%. Statistically, a significant difference was determined in the landraces Ljubichica and Crvenushka (P = .05), and there was high significant difference (P = .01) in the pear Aleksandra. The II and III treatments could be recommended as the most suitable to improve the pear seed germination.

Salmonella and Shigella species are the main health problem in various portions of the world. This study gave rise to detect and enumerate Salmonella and Shigella species with detection of virulence genes by PCR in randomly collected raw milk and dairy products (ice cream, cheese, yoghurt, rice with milk and cream) from different vendors of village and dairy farms in Mansoura Governorate, Egypt during October 2016. A total of 24 (9.6 %) isolates from 250 samples (raw milk and dairy products) were recognised as Salmonella6.4 % (16/250) and Shigella 3.2 % (8/250) species with their high prevalence in raw milk. Amongst serotypes of Salmonella species: S. Typhimurium 37.5 % (6/16), S. Enteritidis, S. Tsevie 18.75 % (3/16 each) and other serovars 25 % (4/16). Additionally, the identified Shigella species (8/250) were S. dysenteriae 50 % (4/8), S. flexneri 25 % (2/8) and S. sonnei 25 % (2/8). The average of total viable count of samples positive for Salmonella and Shigella in raw milk and dairy products was 4.47±0.97 log¹⁰ CFU/ml or gm and 4.27±1.01 log¹⁰ CFU/ml or gm, respectively.  Furthermore, polymerase chain reaction assay was applied for demonstration of the most common virulence associated genes of Salmonella species (invA) and Shigellaspecies (invC, ipaH, virA). The invA gene was present in all tested Salmonella isolates. The invC and ipaHgenes were present in all Shigella isolates, while virA gene was absent in all strains. This study recommended that appropriate hygienic measures, as well as continuous monitoring of Salmonella and Shigella infection, could help to control and prevent the emergence and spread of salmonellosis and shigellosis from milk and dairy products in Egypt.

Objectives: To delineate the mechanism of action of bioactive compounds extracted from the aerial parts of Thymus algeriensis collected from four mounts in Tunisia.

Materials and Methods: Essential oil phenolic content was measured, and its effect on the free radicals was investigated, along with their antibacterial potential following exposure to various doses.

Results: Our finding suggested that the essential oil of four populations contain a high amount of phenolic compounds. The antioxidant effect was detected with a low dose of Thymus samples. Whereas, T. algeriensis collected in the Orbata location exhibited the moderate antiradical effect. The exposure to thyme essential oils suppressed the bacteria strains growth. TJO and TJB exhibited the best antibacterial activities amongst all essential oil.

Conclusion: The volatile compounds and its antiradical and antibacterial effects support the effectiveness of Thyme towards several diseases.

Aim: The present work was carried out to study the genetic characteristics of the IGFBP-3 gene in buffaloes reared in Egypt, where it is considered as one of the important molecular markers for productivity traits like growth and immunity in livestock species. One-hundred animals were used in this research work.

Methods: The studied gene was amplified through polymerase chain reaction technique. Afterwards, the amplified fragment at 651-bp was digested with three different endonucleases; HaeIII, MspI, and TaqI. The genetic character of the IGFBP-3 gene was studied by using PCR-RFLP and nucleotide sequencing.

Results: The PCR products after the digestion with those restriction enzymes revealed that the presence of the following fragments: two fragments at 506- and 145-bp with MspI two fragments at 240- and 411-bp with TaqI; and eight fragments at 199-, 164-, 154-, 56-, 36-, 18-, 16- and 8-bp with HaeIII. The restriction digestion of the amplified fragments of the IGFBP-3 gene did not show a genetic polymorphism or nucleotide substitution where all restricted fragments yielded from the digestion with three restriction enzymes were of the same sizes. 

Conclusion:  Our findings indicated that the absence of the genetic polymorphism of the IGFBP-3 gene in Egyptian buffalo. Based on our results in addition to the significant effect of this gene on different productivity traits, the crossing between Egyptian buffalo with other breeds, particularly the Italian breed, is needed for more improvements of Egyptian buffalo's productivity where the Italian buffaloes characterized by high growth and fertility phenomena.

The present research was designed and conducted to study the effect of freezing-thawing and storage time on some specific human enzymes. The enzymes aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were analysed immediately  after sample collection, after undergoing freeze thaw at – 4°C, – 20°C and –70°C at day o and after 7 days of storage at – 4°C, – 20°C and –70°C. A total of 50 healthy males and 50 healthy females were used for the study and sample collection was by pooled serum. Our results show that there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) between AST, ALT, ALP and CPK levels obtained after freeze-thaw at – 4°C, – 20°C and –70°C at day 0 when compared with the control for both males and females. Also, no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) was seen in the levels of AST, ALT, ALP, CPK analysed after 7 day storage at – 4°C, – 20°C and –70°C in both males and females when compared with the control. However, there was a significant difference (p<0.05) in the levels of LDH obtained after freeze-thaw at – 4°C both at day 0 and after 7 days of storage. In conclusion, the results showed that the specific enzymes studied were most stable when stored at –70°C for 7 days assuming sample analysis is not carried out shortly after sample collection.