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"Askari, Hossein"
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Transcriptional responses of wheat roots inoculated with Arthrobacter nitroguajacolicus to salt stress
It is commonly accepted that bacteria actively interact with plant host and have beneficial effects on growth and adaptation and grant tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses. However, the mechanisms of plant growth promoting bacteria to communicate and adapt to the plant environment are not well characterized. Among the examined bacteria isolates from different saline soils,
Arthrobacter nitroguajacolicus
was selected as the best plant growth-promoting bacteria under salt stress. To study the effect of bacteria on wheat tolerance to salinity stress, bread wheat seeds were inoculated with
A
.
nitroguajacolicus
and grown under salt stress condition. Comparative transcriptome analysis of inoculated and un-inoculated wheat roots under salt stress showed up-regulation of 152 genes whereas 5 genes were significantly down-regulated. Many genes from phenylpropanoid, flavonoid and terpenoid porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism, stilbenoid, diarylheptanoid metabolism pathways were differentially expressed within inoculated roots under salt stress. Also, a considerable number of genes encoding secondary metabolites such as phenylpropanoids was detected. They are known to take part in lignin biosynthesis of the cell wall as well as antioxidants.
Journal Article
Isolation and characterization of a resistance Bacillus subtilis for soil stabilization and dust alleviation purposes
Dust poses environmental, geological, health, and economic concerns, and microorganisms can help mitigate these adverse consequences by improving soil properties. Microbial calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) has been found to be an efficient strategy for increasing soil strength, reducing soil porosity, and preventing erosion; however, severe environmental conditions such as pH and high temperatures may impede this process. To identify the best strain for MICP, 60 bacteria strains were obtained from arid soils using the enrichment culture technique. They were tested for the capacity of calcium carbonate deposition and biocement synthesis in stress environments. Phenotypic characterization indicated that the majority of the bacterial isolates were gram-positive and rod-shaped, with strong catalase and oxidase enzyme activity. Furthermore, MALDI-TOF MS identification revealed that the isolates were from the
Bacillus
and
Pseudomonas
genera. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to analyze the microstructures and composition of bacterial cement. The results represented that
B. subtilis
isolate S56 has a higher production yield and forms distinctive calcite crystals as a result of fast urease synthesis.
B. subtilis
isolate S56 can be applied in situ to reduce soil erosion and dust pollution. This study reveals the potential of the
B. subtilis
S56 strain for soil consolidation and dust prevention in harsh environments and has the prospect of promoting its application in desertification control and ecological restoration.
Journal Article
Risk sharing in finance : the Islamic finance alternative
The financial crisis of 2008 has motivated a number of academics, practitioners and policymakers to question the fundamental stability of the conventional financial system, a system predominantly based on debt financing and leveraging; with the embedded risk that the temptation of leveraging could become excessive, and this combined with the inherent asset-liability mismatch threatens the solvency of financial institutions and overall financial stability. An alternative to the conventional financial system is a system with no debt financing, only equity or direct asset financing; where there would be no \"risk shifting\" as happens with debt, only \"risk sharing\" as happens with equity or asset-financing. Financial institutions would be serving their traditional role as intermediaries between savers and investors but with no debt on their balance sheets, no opportunity to engage in leveraging and no predetermined interest rate payments as liabilities. Such a system has been suggested by a number of noted conventional economists over the last hundred years and it is the system whose basic principles have been advocated by Islam and to some extent by other Abrahamic religions. While a number of indicators point to rapid growth in the practice of Islamic finance, much of this growth, to our mind, has been superficial. Instead of developing a risk-sharing-friendly financial system, the practice of Islamic finance has become misaligned to replicating conventional finance. In this volume, the authors make an important attempt to develop the building blocks of an Islamic financial system and elaborate on its implementation as a comprehensive system. They make a convincing case for the world to shed its reliance on debt, interest and leveraging, and revamp the global financial system to rely more heavily on equity financing, genuine asset securitization linking the payoffs of financial securities to the underlying assets, and thus promoting wider risk sharing. --- Inside Flap.
Book
Maize growth response to different Bacillus strains isolated from a salt-marshland area under salinity stress
Maize (
Zea mays
) growth performance has been hindered due to the high soil salinity. Salinity is one of the most severe abiotic stresses that has led to growth imbalance and profitability of harvests in arid and semi-arid regions. Plants have taken advantage of salt-tolerant bacteria as plant growth-promoters to enhance growth and reduce the adverse effects of salinity through the regulation of some biochemical, physiological, and molecular features. Preferences for non-chemical, eco-friendly, and economical approaches have caused the inquiry of the
Bacillus
genus as a joint group of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria known to alleviate salt-stress impacts. In the present study, halotolerant
Bacillus
strains were isolated from salt-marshland soil and characterized for their physiological, molecular, and biochemical properties. Twenty-four bacterial isolates collected from high saline fields of salt marshland were analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS proteome analysis, which confirmed the taxonomic affiliation with
Bacillus cereus
,
Bacillus subtilis
,
Bacillus atrophaeus
, and
Bacillus thorngiensis
. Applying the isolates on maize plants as bio-inoculant bacteria obviously increased the growth parameters (
P
< 0.01). Pot experiments showed that isolates 74 and 90 were the most prominent strains to minimize the harmful effects of salinity. Its effects are heightening the potassium/sodium ratio and K-Na selectivity in shoots and roots measured by flame atomic absorption photometry (AAS). Accordingly,
Bacillus cereus
isolate 74 showed a maximum increase in dry weights of the shoot (133.89%), root (237.08%), length of the shoot (125%), and root (119.44%) compared to the control condition. Our findings suggest that bacteria isolated from marshland may be an economical and simple means to increase plant growth and resistance to high salinity soil conditions.
Journal Article
The gold standard anchored in Islamic finance
\"Askari and Krichene provide a comprehensive background for recent international financial crises--rapid expansion of interest-bearing debt and monetary expansion though the fractional reserve banking system. In this context, the authors provide an analysis of the experience and issues associated with international payments systems--the various forms of the gold standard, the Bretton Woods system and the present system of flexible exchange rates. The authors go on to examine the case for fixed exchange rates (gold standard and other interesting variations) anchored in Islamic finance. The message of this book is that the gold standard could provide a solution for addressing international financial instability if and only if it is anchored in 100% reserve banking, which is an essential pillar of Islamic finance. \"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Characterization of bacterial diversity between two coastal regions with heterogeneous soil texture
Studying microbial diversity and the effects of external factors on the microbiome could expand our understanding of environmental alterations. Silt and sand are mineral particles that form soil texture and even though most of the soils on earth contain a fraction of them and some other soils form almost by them, their effects on the microbiome remained to elucidate. In this study, the bacterial biodiversity of sand and silt clay soils was investigated. Furthermore, their effects on plant growth have been determined. Our data showed that biodiversity and biomass of microbiome are higher in silt-based soil. It is interesting that the
pseudomonas
genera only exist in silt-based soil while it is in the absence of sand-based soil. In contrast,
B. thuringiensis
could be found in sand-based soil while it is not found in silt texture. Our data also demonstrated that there are no significant changes in stress response between the two groups however, differential physiological changes in plants inoculated with silt and sand based bacterial isolates have been observed. This data could indicate that smaller size particles could contain more bacteria with higher biodiversity due to providing more surfaces for bacteria to grow.
Journal Article
Genome-wide patterns of population structure and association mapping of nut-related traits in Persian walnut populations from Iran using the Axiom J. regia 700K SNP array
Persian plateau (including Iran) is considered as one of the primary centers of origin of walnut. Sampling walnut trees originating from this arena and exploiting the capabilities of next-generation sequencing (NGS) can provide new insights into the degree of genetic variation across the walnut genome. The present study aimed to explore the population structure and genomic variation of an Iranian collection of Persian walnut (
Juglans regia
L.) and identify loci underlying the variation in nut and kernel related traits using the new Axiom
J. regia
700K SNP genotyping array. We genotyped a diversity panel including 95 walnut genotypes from eight Iranian provinces with a variety of climate zones. A majority of the SNPs (323,273, 53.03%) fell into the “Poly High Resolution” class of polymorphisms, which includes the highest quality variants. Genetic structure assessment, using several approaches, divided the Iranian walnut panel into four principal clusters, reflecting their geographic partitioning. We observed high genetic variation across all of the populations (H
O
= 0.34 and H
E
= 0.38). The overall level of genetic differentiation among populations was moderate (F
ST
= 0.07). However, the Semnan population showed high divergence from the other Iranian populations (on average F
ST
= 0.12), most likely due to its geographical isolation. Based on parentage analysis, the level of relatedness was very low among the Iranian walnuts examined, reflecting the geographical distance between the Iranian provinces considered in our study. Finally, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS), identifying 55 SNPs significantly associated with nut and kernel-related traits. In conclusion, by applying the novel Axiom
J. regia
700K SNP array we uncovered new unexplored genetic diversity and identified significant marker-trait associations for nut-related traits in Persian walnut that will be useful for future breeding programs in Iran and other countries.
Journal Article