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The environmental conditions which the parent plant has undergone during seed development can affect many properties of the seeds such as degree of dormancy, weight and the amount of their compounds. In this study, mature pistachio seeds of Ahmadaghaei cultivar, collected from the two cities of Rafsanjan and Shahrbabak located in Kerman Province (Iran), were compared. It was found that the seeds collected from Shahrbabak being a cooler and wetter region had a longer dormancy, although the water content of the two seed series were similar. Dehydrin proteins generally play a role in protecting plant cells against dehydration stress. Dehydrin contents of the cotyledons and embryonic axes of the two seed series were compared by western blot method using an antibody against the conserved K segment in dehydrin proteins. It was found that the cotyledons had five dehydrin versions with molecular weights of 23, 25, 32, 39 and 48 kDa, the expression of which not being influenced by environmental factors. It was found that the embryonic axes had seven other versions of dehydrin with weights of 17, 19, 20, 28, 67, 77 and 98 kDa in addition to those five versions. This shows higher protection of embryonic axes compared with the cotyledons. The 25 and 28 kDa versions had higher expression levels in embryonic axes of Shahrbabak seeds, while the 39 kDa version had a higher expression level in embryonic axes of Rafsanjan seeds.
 

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Sexual dimorphism in the ratio of digits length is a morphological feature resulted from the interaction between sex hormones and prenatal Hox genes, the latter is known to control the development of both limbs and genitals. The status of this trend and ratios have been investigated in various animal groups, including humans, other mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. In this study, the body length and sexual dimorphism in the second-to-fourth, second-to-third and third-to-fourth digit lengths ratios (i.e., 2D:3D, 2D:4D, 3D:4D) of left fore and hind limbs were investigated in 54 specimens of toads collected from the northern Iran, including Bufo viridis (16 males and 19 females) and Pelobates syriacus (10 males and 9 females). In addition, the body length of the studied specimens were recorded. The results showed that the average body length (SVL) of female individuals of Pelobates syriacus was higher than those in males, which was found to be statistically significant (P≤0.05). Meanwhile, the average body length (SVL) of female individuals of Bufo viridis was found to be higher than those in males, however, the difference was not statistically significant. No sexual dimorphism was detected in the second-to-fourth, second-to-third and third-to-fourth digit lengths ratios of left fore and hind limbs between the male and female undividuals of Bufo viridis. However, the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) in Pelobates syriacus species were found to be significantly different (P=0.040) between the male and female individuals, as the ratio was higher in males than females. Therefore, it could be concluded that the sexual dimorphism in 2D:4D of Pelobates syriacus species is consistent with those in most amphibians and diapsids.

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Finger length ratios are organized during embryonic development of fingers as they exposed to sex steroid hormones, and may show varying degrees of sexual dimorphism between males and females in different animal groups. Among all the finger length ratios calculated in a sample, the ratio between the second to fourth fingers (2D: 4D) is the most important one. In this study, the 2D:4D ratios in both sides of the body (right and left) in all limbs were investigated to determine if sexual dimorphism is present in the 2D: 4D ratios in 44 specimens studied (20 males and 24 females) of Acanthodactylus blanfordi. Other morphological traits of the two sexes were also examined (23 metric and meristic traits), as a result, sexual dimorphism was observed in five metric and meristic morphological traits. In terms of the ratio of the size of the fingers and toes, sexual dimorphism in the length of the fingers was observed only in 2D: 4D on the right side of the body in forelimbs and hindlimbs. The value of this trait was higher in males than females and this difference was statistically significant P ≤0.05).
 
 

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Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most important crops and a known host of broomrapes. The species of genus Orobanche are biotic stress factors restricting plant growth and crop production. Some natural compounds and chemicals affect this biological relationship. Therefore, in the present study, the effect of gallic acid and kiwi fruit extract on the biological relationship between broomrape and tomato plant was investigated. To this end, first, the symbiotic effect of the broomrape species, Orobanche aegytica, on growth parameters of tomato plant and the amount of soluble sugar and photosynthetic pigments were evaluated. Then, the effect of concentrations of gallic acid and kiwi fruit extract at different levels on this biological relationship was investigated by measuring the growth parameters of tomato and broomrape, photosynthetic pigments and the amount of soluble sugar in tomatoes. The results demonstrated that the broomrapes reduced the fresh weight and dry weight of the stem, leaves and roots of tomato, diminished the leaf area of the host plant, and decreased the amount of photosynthetic pigments and its soluble sugar content. Gallic acid treatment and kiwi fruit extract lessened the growth parameters of the broomrape species and its overall growth, in addition to increasing the growth of tomato plants. This process could be associated with the constraint of the biological relationship between the parasite and the host, as the soluble sugar content as well as the amount of the photosynthetic pigments of tomato plants were increased and the tomato plants remained highly resistant.