Asian Journal of Biology

Establishment of cell lines from different tissues of different teleost fishes has remarkably increased. Development of fish cell lines has significantly contributed to recent advances in many research areas. Poecilia reticulata also known as guppy is a teleost fish which is widely used for ecotoxicological research. In this study to isolate fibroblast cell from caudal tissue of P. reticulata and to develop a cell line. For this purpose caudal tissue samples were collected from ten male P. reticulata under aseptic conditions. Primary culture was performed with tissue explant technique. Primary cells fed with L15 culture medium supplemented with FBS. To investigate the effects of different incubation temperature on proliferation rate of cells, seven different incubation temperatures (15°C, 20°C, 25°C, 28°C, 30°C, 32°C, 37°C) were assessed. Same experimental design was used for the effects of different FBS concentration (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) on proliferation rate of cells. Optimum growth rate was observed at 28°C temperature and 10% FBS concentration. Cells were subcultured succesfuly more than 60 times and this resulted in development of a cell line named as PSF. Cultured cells were also succesfuly cryopreserved. The revival rate of PSF cell line was up to %85-90 and this result could be admitted as a good when compared to other fish cell lines.

Aim: To study the morphological variability among Rubus ulmifolius Schott populations, a comparative analysis was undertaken in five wild populations grown under different climatic conditions in Tunisia.

Study Design: Morphological characterization using 10 quantitative traits concerning the morpho-metrical aspect of the shrub, the leaves and the inflorescences of 5 spontaneous populations of Rubus ulmifolius Schott.

Place and Duration of Study: The provinces of Beja, Bizerte and Jendouba, Tunisia in June 2011.

Methodology: Morphological traits were measured and evaluated separately on a representative population of shrub, leaf and inflorescence. For each site, we made fifteen individual measurements. A sample of one shrub, twenty adult leaves and four inflorescences per plant were evaluated and measured. Samples were collected from fifteen mother shrubs per population, that were separated from each other by more than 20 m to minimize the risk of sampling closely related individuals.

Results: The ANOVA analysis as well as mean comparison of the morphological traits revealed a significant (P < 0.01) diversity for the majority of examined descriptors except, the number of flowers NFL (P=0,142) and the number of leaflets NF (P=0,119) which were not significantly different within and among the populations. Furthermore, in the multivariate analysis, the populations were separated into three different groups through the discriminating variables: Height of the shrub, leaf dimensions, weight of dry matter, height and weight of the inflorescence.

Conclusion: The morphological variability exhibited by the Tunisian populations of Rubus ulmifolius Schott may be interpreted as relevant to the ecological plasticity and the physiological mechanisms. If Rubus morphology is partially due to environment, the divergences observed between these genetically differentiated populations suggest that the genetic systems that involve these phenotypes are under selection in the concerned environments. So adaptive morphological changes observed in these populations reveal probably the progress of evolutionary phenomena within Rubus ulmifolius Schott.

A study to determine the incidence of root-knot nematode (Melodogyne spp) in some selected vegetables was conducted in Nukkai Irrigation Field of Jalingo, Nigeria. Samples of Okra (Hibiscus esculentus), Spinach (Amaranthus spp) and Sorrel (Hisbiscus sabdariffa) were collected at 2-weeks old and at maturity (flowering stage). Their roots were cut off and nematodes (Melodogyne spp) were extracted using the Baermann method and identified using the female perineal pattern manual. The results showed that Melodogyne spp are incident in the study area as 248 (34.44%) stands out of the 720 stands studied were found to be infested by root-knot nematode. The results also showed that two Melodogyne spp, M.  javanica and M. incognita were discovered, and had a total number of 535 individuals. M. javanica (345) were predominantly higher than M. incognita (190). In all stages of sampling, Hibiscus esculentus proved to be more susceptible to infestion, followed by Amarantus spp while the least infested was Hibiscus sabdariffa and M. javanica appeared to be more abundant than M. incognita in the study area.

Aim: The objective of this work was the search for morphological and molecular markers useful for the analysis of genetic diversity of Origanum vulgare L. subsp. glandulosum in the northern region of Tunisia.

Study Design: The study of genetic diversity of Origanum vulgare L. subsp. glandulosum was assessed using RAPD- PCR, sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer, and eleven quantitative traits.

Place and Duration of Study: Five oregano populations were identified and collected in four governorates of Tunisia, Plant specimens of Origanum vulgare L. subsp. glandulosum were collected during the full flowering period in 2015 in their natural habitats.

Methodology: The five Tunisian Origanum vulgare L. subsp. glandulosum populations were first characterized and evaluated based on phenotypic characteristic and RAPD- PCR. We carried out PCR amplifications of the ITS1 region of the total cellular DNA extracted either from the seeds or fresh leaves of Origanum vulgare L. subsp. glandulosum.

Results: The studied populations were highly variable in all evaluated traits (P < 0.05). The dendrogram estimated for the morphological traits revealed two main clusters. In total, 30 individuals from 5 Origanum wild populations were assessed using RAPD - PCR method coupled with sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) and ITS (ITS1 + 5.8S + ITS2) rDNA regions. The separation of amplification products from the total ITS region shows a single band of 700 bp in the oregano populations. This result shows that all the Tunisian populations of Origanum vulgare L. subsp. glandulosum studied have a common genetic basis and they all belong to the same subspecies. The Principal components analysis and the dendrogram using RAPD markers grouped Origanum vulgare L. subsp. glandulosum populations into 2 main clusters. This classification brings together the geographically closest populations.

Conclusion: Tunisian Origanum vulgare L. subsp. glandulosum is growing wild in the mountains of North Africa. Therefore, it has been shown that it is possible to discriminate Tunisian oregano populations on the basis of their morphological and molecular characteristics that can be used as identification tools in breeding and biodiversity conservation programs.

The present paper deals with three species of Asteraceae: Anacyclus clavatus, Chamaemelum fuscatum and Tanacetum parthenium that have a wide range of uses in medicine and in industry. The detailed morphological characterization and the phenology are discussed. These species were characterized by inter-specific variations using 18 morphological characters and the study of phenological activities like vegetatif study, flowering time, fruiting time and seed formation for two consecutive years from 2009 till 2010.

The results of phenological study show that the 3 species studied have distinct phenologies. The longest phenological cycle is observed for Tanacetum parthenium. The results of the variance analysis showed significant differences to highly significant for the majority of the traits studied. The comparison of means reveals that Anacyclus clavatus and Chamaemelum fuscatum form a single group for most of the traits measured, while Tanacetum parthenium is clearly distinct from these two species. In addition, the principal component analysis confirms the results of the variance analysis and the comparison of means. It showed that Anacyclus clavatus and Chamaemelum fuscatum are divided into two overlapping groups, the group where Tanacetum parthenium is located is quite distant.