Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is renowned as the most expensive spice in the world. This perennial species belongs to Iridaceae family. Germplasm collection and preservation are one of the main priorities for a better and successful crop improvement. In this study, preliminary evaluation of morphological and molecular diversity among 29 accessions of saffron from Iran was investigated. Several important traits such as length and number of leaves, leaves surface, fresh and dry weight of leaves were measured. RAPD markers using 17 primers were also used to evaluate molecular divergence among the accessions. Simple correlation analysis among morphological traits showed significant positive correlations in most characters, but negative correlations between emergence time and other characters. Cluster analyses based on morphological and molecular data produced dissimilar groups in due to data type. In both dendrograms three distinct groups were resulted and the most of the accessions were placed in the first cluster. Also, the groupings showed no association between diversity patterns and geographical origins. In molecular analysis, out of 17 primers that produced 108 polymorphic bands, 12 primers showed complete polymorphism. The maximum and minimum genetic similarities were 0.98 and 0.42, respectively. This results support abilities of these approaches as economical and quick technique to determination of diversity among saffron accessions.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the wireless use of electromagnetic fields to transfer necessary information, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to various objects. This paper presents a survey to study the role of different factors influencing on RFID implementation in after sales services in auto industry. The study designs a questionnaire and distributes it among 20 managers who work for after sales services in auto industry located in city of Tehran, Iran. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.74, which is well above the minimum acceptable level. Using the existing literature as well as a survey with experts, the study has detected four important factors including management, technical, economic and environmental factors. We also weight all factors and sub-factors using Shannon entropy method.

Crocus, a genus of Iridaceae is mostly grown in areas with Mediterranean environment as the best region. Saffron (C. sativus) is a perennial plant and is cultivated as an industrial crop in several regions of Iran. In this research, five accessions of cultivated Saffron from five areas in Khorasan, and Esfahan including Gonabad, Ferdows, Torbat-e-Heyidariye, Estahbanat, Gopayegan were used. Other nine species of saffron were grown naturally in Iran; so we collected two wild species (C. caspius and C. speciosus) from north of Iran (Gilan Province). RAPD markers were used to classify these species and to find their relationships. In the results of this study, the cluster analysis showed two distinct groups. Also, the maximum similarity was seen between C. caspius and C. speciosus (0.82) and the minimum was between Estahbanat, Ferdows accessions and C. speciosus (0.33). Finally, this method as a convenience procedure could be used to separate different accessions and species of Crocus as well.

Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is one of the important medicinal plant species. In order to produce an autotetraploid population of basil (Ocimum basilicum) by colchicine, different concentrations (0.00, 0.05, 0.10, 0.20, 0.50 and 0.75%) and four treatment methods were examined (seed, the growing point of seedlings at the emergence of cotyledone leaves stage and emergence of true two type leaves stage, and root treatment) to determine the best treatment for the induction of tetraploid plants. Autotetraploid plants were produced only by treatment of growing point of seedlings, at the emergence of cotyledone leaves stage, and treatment with 0.5% proved to be the most effective in producing autotetraploids. The induced tetraploids in basil was accompanied by larger stomata and pollen grains, increase in chloroplast number in guard cells and decrease in stomata density, compared to diploid control plants. In order to distinguish the induced colchicine tetraploid plants from the diploids, morphological changes and techniques as stomata size, number of chloroplasts per guard cell, pollen grain diameter and flow cytometry were considered and proved that these methods are suitable, quick and easy methods for identification the ploidy level of Ocimum basilicum in various stages of the plant development of these species and among this methods flow cytometry as found to be the most efficient method for detecting induced changes in ploidy level.

Fifty genotypes of Aloe vera were collected from the main areas of cultivation in Iran and evaluated to determine their level of diversity. The characters investigated were: number of plant leaves, mature leaf length, mature leaf width, mature leaf weight, length of the largest leaf, width of the largest leaf, weight of the largest leaf, number of tillers, and aloenin content. Pearson's coefficients showed that the height of a plant was positively correlated with the width of a plant and with the number of leaves (r = 0.452 and r = 0.409, respectively); while there was a negative correlation between the width of a plant and the width of the largest leaf (r = -0.90). An evaluation of their phytomedical constituents by HPLC showed that all samples were rich in aloenin, with recorded values higher than the phytomedical grade. Statistical analysis showed that the aloenin content of genotype 39, from Hormozgan, was at least twice as high as in all other genotypes. Cluster analysis based on ten morphological traits and aloenin contents arranged the 50 genotypes into three main Groups. Genotypes in Group A had the highest aloenin contents and botanical potential, which could be considered for future breeding programmes. The distribution of aloe genotypes provided useful information for future collections and for genetic resource management in these sites of origin.

This experiment was conducted at the Institute of National Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Iran to evaluate the effect of different amount of fertilizers on the leaf and plant characteristics as well as yield of Aloe vera. There were 6 different treatments viz., T-1 = 100% soil (control), T-2 = 100 PK (50% P + 50% K), T-3 = 50% K + 50% soil, T-4 = 50% N + 50% soil, T-5 = 150% NPK (50% N + 50% P + 50% K, T-6 = 50% P + 50% soil. It was observed that the plant produced highest mature leaf length and number of tillers plant (-1) and maximum leaf weight, as well as weight of largest leaves with application of 50% P+ 50% K (T-2). Different plant characters such as mature leaf breadth and breadth of the largest leaf was also found to be highest with T-5 treatment over control (100% soil). The number of leaves was also significantly affected by different fertilizer treatments where maximum effect was noticed at early stages with T-4 (50% N). It was revealed that T-3 had a little effect on number of leaves of A. vera over chemical fertilizer.

A collection of new and obsolete Iranian bread wheat cultivars were characterized for gliadins using acid polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (A-PAGE). Extensive polymorphism (H) = 0.734 in gliadin patterns was found. A total of 26 band patterns including 13, 8 and 5 different mobility bands were identified, in the zones of ω-, β + γ- and α-gliadins, respectively. There were a few patterns specific to each region and some were common among all the regions. Patterns of α-gliadin C, β + γ-gliadins A, and ω-gliadins H, C and E patterns were significantly higher in temperate and tropical zones. β + γ-gliadin C and ω-gliadin Q were significantly higher in Caspian-cold regions. Variation was observed in gliadins patterns of cultivars grown in different regions in Iran. Individual cultivars showed unique gliadin fingerprints. There were larger variation in ω - and γ + β-gliadins than in α-gliadins. These results may provide complementary information for relating genetic diversity, and quality characterization of Iranian wheat cultivars.

Induction of autotetraploidy in dragonhead (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) had a significant effect on its essential oil content and compositions. The seedlings of dragonhead were treated with colchicine by applying dropping method in the stage of emergence of two true leaves. Ploidy level in the treated plants was estimated by flow cytometric analysis. The essential oils of both tetraploid plants and diploid parents were extracted by hydro distillation technique and were analyzed by capillary GC and GC-MS. The essential oil content of herb was increased 27.5 % in tetraploid plants. 30 components were identified in the oils of both diploid and tetraploid plants. The major components of the oil of diploid plants were geranyl acetate (40.4 %), geraniol (16. 3%), Z-citral (14.1 %), E-citral (9.9 %), nerol (5.8 %). and neryl acetate (5.4 %), While the main components of the oil of tetraploid plants were geranyl acetate (36.3 %), geraniol (19.5 %), Z-citral (15.4 %), E-citral (9.1 %), nerol (5.5 %) and neryl acetate (4.7%).

Allelopathy is a detriment or beneficial effect, direct or indirect, that affects growth and development of plants via chemical compounds production. Saffron is a cultivated perennial plant from the Iridaceae family which is present in a field for many years. It is believed that yield decreasing of own and the cultures in rotation are as a result of increasing in allelopathic effects. In order to evaluate the allelopathic effects of saffron corm extract, an experiment in completely randomized design with 4 treatments in 4 replications was carried out. Experimental treatments were 0, 15, 35 and 50% of corm extract. After 10 days, root and seedling length, fresh and dry weight were measured and the percentage and the rate of germination were calculated. Data were analyzed with SPSS software. The results showed that by increasing extract concentration (35, 50) percentage, the percentage and the rate of germination, root length, seedling length, fresh weight and dry weight decreased dramatically.

Pepper (Capsicum spp.) is an important vegetable with various applications in medicinal, herbal, and cosmetic industries. The successful breeding programs for production of new cultivars are highly dependent on the availability of the genetic diversity. In this study, RAPD markers were used to determine the genetic diversity among 39 capsicum genotypes, collected from various regions of Iran and other countries. Initially, one hundred random primers were tested on the genomic DNAs to detected polymorphism among genotypes, revealing a considerable level of polymorphism with 21 primers. In total, 246 bands were produced, among them, 181 were polymorphic. The highest and the lowest level of polymorphism were detected by primers C-11 and A-07 respectively. Cluster analysis of genotypes was carried out based on polymorphic bands using Jacqard's similarity coefficient and UPGMA methods, revealing the highest genetic similarity (84%) between two bell-types. In cluster analysis based on RAPD markers at the similarity level of 61%, eight distinct groups were identified and dendrogram separated bell pepper from the chilli and ornament types. The results indicated that RAPD marker system is a suitable and efficient technique to evaluate genetic diversity in capsicum genotypes. Knowledge of wide genetic diversity observed in Capsicum spp. provides information that is important in the management of germplasm resources for future breeding programs.

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs), highly dispersed nucleotide sequences in genomes, were used for germplasm analysis and estimation of the genetic relationship of the D-genome among 52 accessions of T. aestivum (AABBDD), Ae. tauschii (DtDt), Ae. cylindrica (CCDcDc) and Ae. crassa (MMDcr1Dcr1), collected from 13 different sites in Iran. A set of 21 microsatellite primers, from various locations on the seven D-genome chromosomes, revealed a high level of polymorphism. A total of 273 alleles were detected across all four species and the number of alleles per each microsatellite marker varied from 3 to 27. The highest genetic diversity occurred in Ae. tauschii followed by Ae. crassa, and the genetic distance was the smallest between Ae. tauschii and Ae. cylindrica. Data obtained in this study supports the view that genetic variability in the D-genome of hexaploid wheat is less than in Ae. tauschii. The highest number of unique alleles was observed within Ae. crassa accessions, indicating this species as a great potential source of novel genes for bread wheat improvement. Knowledge of genetic diversity in Aegilops species provides different levels of information which is important in the management of germplasm resources.

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was used to characterize genetic diversity of 26 Cyclamen persicum and Cyclamen com accessions. Eighty-four arbitrary primers tested, among which nine primers showed reliable polymorphic banding patterns and yielded 104 polymorphic markers. Jaccard's similarity coefficient among accessions ranged from 0.99 to 0.08. At a similarity of 68%, accessions were divided into three clusters. The cophenetic correlation coefficient between the similarity matrix and the dendrogram was relatively high (r=0.9) showing the goodness of fit of the dendrogram. The RAPD analysis offered a rapid and reliable tool for the estimation of inter- and intra-specific variability in cyclamens. The wide genetic variation observed for cyclamens within Iran guarantees a promising future of breeding.

A ω-gliadin gene at the Gli-Dt1 locus of Triticum tauschii accession AUS18913 was isolated using PCR primers, designed from published sequences of ω-gliadin genes of bread wheat cv Cheyenne, and deduced sequences of the N-terminal amino acids of ω-gliadin proteins. Further, the derived protein was isolated from A-PAGE and was sequenced. The protein sequence contained a signal peptide of 19 amino acids followed by a short N-terminal sequence of 11 amino acids, a central repetitive domain that covers approximately 90% of the sequence and a short C-terminal domain of 12 amino acids. The sequence comparison with other ω-gliadins showed a high level of similarities between them. Further analysis of the ω-gliadins using A-PAGE revealed that there are three ω-gliadin proteins in AUS18913 accession. Comparison of N-terminal sequences of these proteins revealed that two of these proteins have very high homologies with ω-gliadins of Cheyenne while the third one was significantly different.