Snail is one of the worst causes of food allergy. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the major and minor allergens of the local marine snail (Cerithidea obtusa) and subsequently to investigate the impacts of heat treatment on the IgE-binding activity of snail allergens. Proteins from raw and heat-treated snails (boiled, roasted and fried) were extracted and then resolved by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Immunoblotting of all extracts were then performed using sera from patients with snail allergy. The results showed that the raw extract contains numerous protein bands between 12 to>250 kDa. Some thermostable proteins, predominantly the 33 and 42 kDa bands, remained detected in all cooked extracts with decreasing intensities from boiled to roasted to fried extracts, while the majority of thermolabile bands denatured after heating. Boiled snail had more protein bands compared to roasted and fried snails. Immunoblotting of raw extract demostrated 19 IgE-binding bands ranging from 15 to 240 kDa. The thermostable bands of 33 and 42 kDa and a thermolabile of 30 kDa band were identified as the major allergens of this snail. The cooked extracts yielded less allergenic bands. The boiled extract yielded approximately 14 IgE-binding bands with some smeared bands at high molecular weight regions. The roasted extract had lesser IgE-binding bands and the majority appeared as smears, while the IgE-reactivity in the fried extract was less visible and appeared as weak smears. This study indicated that both raw and cooked snails played a crucial role in snail allergenicity, as this species of snail contains both thermostable and thermolabile major allergens. The degree of snail allergenicity was revealed in the order: raw> boiled > roasted> fried. Thus, the results would facilitate in the development of effective diagnosis and management strategies of snail allergy in this country.

Background: “ Cerithidea cingulata” is reported from south of Iran, may act as intermediate host of Heterophyes heterophyes and cercaria dermatitis. As parasitological aspects of this brackish snail were not studied in Iran, this study was conducted in 2016, in Hormoz Strait, south of Iran. Methods: Totally 402 snails were collected from 36 locations of three main regions in Hormozgan Province, Iran in 2015. In each location, one square meter was checked, and snails were collected for parasitological study. Snails were crashed and cercariae were studied using light microscope, in some cases natural red staining was used for better resolution. Results: Mean length of snails was about 20. 33 mm, width 5. 57 mm. The aperture length was 5. 10 and spire was 15. 22. Important founded cercaria was cysticercus cercariae, echinostoma cercaria, furcocercus cercaria, furcocystocercous cercaria, gastrostomy cercaria, gymnocephalus cercaria, monostome cercaria, pelurolophocercus cercaria and xiphidiocercaria. Conclusion: The presence of this snail is reported from Persian Gulf to western Pacific in China. Our study showed a pattern of infection in local area and was compatible with other studies. Importance of C. cingulata as intermediate host of some medically important disease should be considered and other complementary molecular studies for exact identification of cercaria are necessary.

Background: Despite sharing common evolutionary features, Viperidae species including Echis carinatus and Macrovipera lebetina possess venoms with different proportions of toxic agents, thereby causing clinical effects with potentially variable severity. This study was an effort to differentiate the clinical effects and outcomes of E. c. sochureki and M. l. obtusa victims. Method: In this prospective cross-sectional study, snakebite patients treated at a reference poisoning center in northeast of Iran in 2012 were enrolled. The features of snakebite event, demographic and clinical data of patients were recorded in checklists. Results: Twenty-seven patients (63% male) with mean age of 34. 8 ± 18. 1 years were included. The offending snakes were recorded as "E. c. sochureki" in 63%, "M. l. obtusa" in 25. 9% and "unknown" in 11. 1% of cases. The most common clinical findings were fang mark in 100%, local pain in 81. 5% and local edema in 74% of patients. Although the victims of both species showed classic features of viper envenoming syndrome including marked local effect and hemostatic disturbances, the victims of M. l. obtusa had significantly higher creatine kinase levels (P = 0. 031) and lower platelet counts (P = 0. 043), whereas marked edema (> 15cm) was significantly more common in E. c. sochureki victims (P = 0. 028). Envenomation severity, other clinical effects and outcomes did not differ between the two species. Patients with delayed presentation to hospital had greater envenomation severity and edema extent and higher rate of coagulopathy. Conclusion: Species-specific description of clinical effects following snakebite envenoming is useful for syndromic approach to human victims. The clinical envenoming syndromes by E. c. sochureki and M. l. obtusa show many common similarities despite the difference in severity of some effects. The delay in hospital admission and antivenom therapy is a risk for increased severity of envenomation and development of poorer clinical outcomes.

In this study molecular identification of four species of Gastropoda have been studied based on mitochondrial genes, COI and 16S rRNA in the present work for the first time in the northern rocky coastal zones of Persian Gulf during years 2013 and 2014. Planaxis sulcatus، Cerithidea cingulata، Siphonaria savignyi and Onchidium peronii Identified. After morphological identification, DNA extraction, amplifying partial of cytochrome oxidase COI and 16S rRNA and sequencing procedure were done in the laboratory. In this study 6 COI and 3 16S rRNA sequencing belonging to these species were measured and reported for the first time. Also, phylogeny analyses with drawing phylogeny trees of Maximum Likelihood and Maximum Parsimony were done using MEGA6 and PAUP softwares. The result showed that molecular and morphological studies have the same results for this species. Also sequences from both COI and 16S rRNA did not show difference in identification and topology of phylogeny trees.

Despite numerous studies, the genus Laurencia J. V. Lamouroux (Ceramiales, Rhodomelaceae) is still one of the most complex genera of Rhodophyta. In recent years some species of the genus have been transferred to other genera. However some species of this genus have only been introduced based on morphological characters from south of Iran, but modern molecular studies combined with morphological and anatomical studies can resolve most problems of this complicated groups of organisms. In this study Laurencia obtusa var. mollissima, L. obtusa var. compactaand L. dendroidea are reported for the first time from Bandar-Lengeh, Hengam and Qeshm Islands respectively in southern coastlines of Iran. Morpho-anatomical studies revealed the typical characteristics of the genus Laurencia, including four pericentral cells per each axial segment, presence of corpse en cerise per superficial cortical cell, parallel arrangement of tetrasporangia, presence of secondary pit connections and other specific features of this genus.

The genus Laurencia (Rhodomelaceae), a complex group, has 285 species and infraspecific names. Identification and taxonomy of these taxa, mainly has been based on flexible morphological characters which have led to a complicated taxonomy in this group. Nowadays, taxonomical study of this group has changed a lot by using reproductive characters, anatomical differences and modern molecular studies. In this study, the samples have been collected from some areas of the Persian Gulf coasts and islands of Hormozgan province (southern Iran). Afterward, their anatomical, reproductive and chemical properties have been examined. The outcomes revealed that, the Folin-Ciocalteau method can be utilized as a taxonomical character in ultimate identification and the confirmation among species and varieties of this genus. It became clear that, there is a meaningful difference between two samples which were under study due to measuring the amount of polyphenols and finally, L. obtusa var. mollissima was separated from type variety of L. obtusa.

Present survey was performed for diagnosis of frequency of contracaecum sp. larval stage on Parishan lake. Fish capturing was done in both warm seasons (spring and summer) and cold seasons (autumn and winter) of year and captured fish was transferred to parasitology laboratory of veterinary medicine faculty of Islamic Azad University, Kazerun Branch. Totally, One hundred and seventy fish was examined including five species: Barbus luteas, Capoeta barroisi persica, Garra ruffa obtusa, Chalcalburnus sellal and Cyprinion macrostomus tenairidias. The result showed that the mean of infection in Barbus luteas was 6±3.11 and 2±0.91, in Capoeta barroisi persica was 3.2±8.666 and 1.5±5.44, in Garra ruffa obtus was 6.833±3.368 and 2±0.732, in Chalcolburnus sellall was 9.5±2.724 and 2±0.733, in Cyprinion macrostomus tenairidias was 5±2.301 and 2.5±1.08 in hot and cold seasons respectively. Also the highest and lowest number of parasites among fish species realated Chalcalburnus sellal and Garra ruffa obtusa. Parasite frequency in all over of warm seasons was more than cold seasons.

Biospheric reserve is an advanced feature of natural hierarchy with the aim of protecting biological diversity. Nine (9) biospheric reserves have been identified in Iran where Harra Biosphere Reserve in Hormozgan Province is one of the Iranian reserves located in the southern coastal regions, taking within itself a tidal region with the surroundings of this reserve 30 individual kinds of Gastropods from 28 genera and 22 families have been identified where one species of Assminiea genus from family Assiminaedae has been identified for the first time in the global scale. This species are as followed: Selia bandorensis, Milrella blanda, Cyclostrema suprenum, Cerithium cerithium, Iravadia quadrasi,. Lucfdinella' densilabrum, Littoraria intermedia, Granulina oodes, Cerithidea singulata. Stocsicia annulata, Stenothyra arabica, psedominolia nedyma, Cyclostrema ocrinium. The most abundance has been observed in the species of Iravadia quadrasi, Stenothyra arabica and Littoraria intermedia.

The species diversity and dominance of intertidal mollusks in the Boushehr city coasts were investigated from March 2002 till February 2002 to demonstrate the impacts of urban sewages effluent on this marine habitat. Sampling was carried out seasonally in 8 intertidal stations of which seven satiations were under urban sewage effluent and the 8th station was our reference for not being under urban sewage effluent. For this purpose, 1056 samples were collected by a 50×50(cm) quadrate from hard bottoms and a core sampler from soft bottoms. The results showed high pollution and very low diversity in the coasts that were under urban effluent. But we saw high value of diversity in the reference station. In this investigation we introduced the Planaxis sulcatus and Cerithidea cingulata, two marine gastropods as polluted areas indicators as they showed high degree of tolerance against high amounts of organic pollution and they had a high density in this study.

In order to investigate the effects of Boushehr municipal wastewater on the structural diversity and dominance of Gastropods' colonies in intertidal zones, to understand the species of the biological indices, and finally to assess the impacts of the sewage, samples were taken from 7 stations affected by the sewage and from one station without any sewage pollutants (reference station), from March 2002 to February 2003. For the purposes of this study, 1056 benthos were collected, separated, fixed, and then identified. Samples were taken using a 50x50 cm quadrate, a scraper in rocky beds, and a core sampler in sandy beaches to a depth of 5 cm. In this study, 25 species relating to 16 families of gastropods were identified. An important finding was that the species Planaxis sulcatus and Cerithidea cingulata were identified as the biological indices of the polluted areas. The results of this study revealed high pollution in these coasts due to organic materials resulting from the sewage disposal.