Glucose-6-phosphate DEHYDROGENASE (G6PD) Deficiency is the most prevalent enzymopathy in mankind. It has sex-linked inheritance. This enzyme exists in all cells. G6PD deficiency increases the sensitivity of red blood cells to oxidative damage. G6PD deficiency was discovered in 1950 when some people suffered hemolytic anemia as a result of taking antimalarial drugs (primaquin). Most people with G6PD deficiency do not have any symptoms, till they are exposed to certain medications, Fava beans and infections; and then their red blood cells are hemolyzed. The degree of hemolysis changes according to the degree of enzyme deficiency and the oxidant agent exposure. G6PD deficiency has many different variants and Mediterranean variant is the most common mutation in the world. G6PD deficiency is considered a health problem worldwide, especially in Asia, Middle East and Mediterranean countries. In this article, we have reviewed the importance and function of G6PD enzyme, incidence rate of G6PD deficiency in the world and Iran, genetic and variants of this enzyme, clinical manifestation, diagnosis and treatment of the enzyme deficiency.

Fagus is one of the most abundant and economically important genera of woody plants in the North of Iran. Izozyme diversity of Fagus orientalis Lipsky was investigated in 14 Iranian beech populations originating from the major part of distribution range of this tree species in Hyrcanian zone (Southern coasts of Caspian Sea). Enzyme variation of beech populations was studied using 6 isozyme Loci at 3 systems including Menadion reductase (MNR), isocitrate DEHYDROGENASE (IDH) and malate DEHYDROGENASE (MDH) by starch gel electrophoresis. Among 15 observed alleles, 8 rare alleles (less than 5% of the allelic frequency) and 4 specific area alleles (observed in less than 5 populations) were detected Results indicated that all rare alleles are not specific area ones. Population Neka at elevation 900 m above from sea level, Kheirud at elevation 600 m and population Asalem at elevation 600 m showed the highest number of area specific alleles. Observation of some geographical trends in alleles MNR-A/B and MDH-A/C were due to important ecological differences among the studied populations (from East far to West far and from lowest to highest borders of beech forests in Iran).

Accurate protein function prediction is an important subject in bioinformatics, especially where sequentially and structurally similar proteins have different functions. Malate DEHYDROGENASE and L-LACTATE DEHYDROGENASE are two evolutionary related enzymes, which exist in a wide variety of organisms. These enzymes are sequentially and structurally similar and share common active site residues, spatial patterns and molecular mechanisms. Here, we study various features of the active site cavity of 229 PDB chain entries and try to classify them automatically by various classifiers including the support vector machine, k nearest neighbour and random forest methods. The results show that the support vector machine yields the highest predictive performance among mentioned classifiers. Despite very close and conserved patterns among Malate DEHYDROGENASEs and L-LACTATE DEHYDROGENASEs, the SVM predicts the function efficiently and achieves 0.973 Matthew's correlation coefficient and 0.987 F-score. The same approach can be used in other enzyme families for automatic discrimination between homologous enzymes with common active site elements, however, acting on different substrates.

Bioinformatic analysis plays an important role in the study of genes and the prediction of their function in response to stresses. Halophyte Aeluropus littoralis, a valuable genetic resource for identifying genes involved in plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. In this study, Phosphoglycerate DEHYDROGENASE (PGDH) gene as the first important enzyme in the synthesis of serine, was Isolated based on EST sequence from plant Aeluropus littoralis in salinity using by the RLMRACE method. By overlapping the 3’ and EST sequences, a 1506 bp fragment including the ORF region (1268 nucleotides) and 3’ UTR region (238 nucleotides) were obtained. The phylogenetic analysis of AlPGDH was done with other ortholog genes in different plants and its homologs were identified. Based on phylogram, the high degree of homology was observed between AlPGDH gene and other homologous genes from monocot cereals such as sorghum, foxtail millet and rice. The AtPGDH coexpression network analysis showed the important role of the PGDH gene in biosynthetic pathways, including amino acid synthesis, secondary metabolites synthesis and the pathway of glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, and its expression analysis indicated that the expression was increased in different stresses. The Phenotyping of the Arabidopsis knockout mutants for PGDH gene in NaCl and PEG stress condition indicated that the growth characteristics were significantly reduced in compared to the control plant, which could be confirmed the role of this gene in the response to salt and drought stress. The findings of this study reveal the functional characteristics of AlPGDH gene, phenotypic changes in AtPGDH mutant plants in exposure to salt and drought stress, and its possible role in increasing plant tolerance to stress.

Cellobiose DEHYDROGENASE (CDH; EC.1.1.5.1) is an extracellular enzyme that mainly produced by wood-degrading fungi. It oxidizes cellobiose to cellobionolactone using a wide spectrum of electron acceptors. The key roles of CDH in growth, metabolism, and some other important cellular processes such as cellulose degradation in fungi have been noted. Since the demands for finding new sources of CDH among different organisms have been dramatically increased, this study was focused on the presence of CDH in the genus Cladosporium as a well-known cellulolytic fungus. Twenty strains of Cladosporium isolated from soil samples from different geographical origin were evaluated for CDH-producing ability. The early screening of the fungus by zymogram method revealed the presence of CDH as an extracellular form in all of the examined isolates. Submerged cultivation of the best producer of CDH (selected from initial screening) on a specific medium showed the maximum amounts of enzyme produced in shaking cultures with pH 4.5 at 28?C for a 14-day period. The enzyme activity was determined in the range of 27.83 to 1284.84 unit/mg protein among the isolates. Our observations show that Cladosporium isolates with high CDH producing ability i.e. isolates No. 10 and No. 18 can be used as selective candidates for large-scale production of this industrially important enzyme in further research programs. This is the first documented report on the presence of CDH in the fungus Cladosporium.

Succinate DEHYDROGENASE (SDH) deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive neurometabolic disorder that causes brain insult, neurodevelopmental delay, exercise intolerance, and cardiomyopathy. A 25-month-old boy was referred to our neurometabolic center due to developmental regression after injecting the influenza vaccine when he was 10 months old. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed high signal changes in the brain white matter, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) detected a high succinate peak at 2. 4 parts per million (ppm). The evaluation of urine organic acids showed a significant elevated succinic acid and whole exome sequencing, confirming SDH. Treatment with a mitochondrial cocktail was initiated, and remarkable improvement was observed. SDH deficiency as a treatable neurometabolic disorder should be considered in any patients with developmental disorders, accompanied by hyperintensity in white matter (as similar to leukodystrophia). Further evaluation is recommended since outcomes depend on early diagnosis and treatment.

Background: Jaundice is affecting over 60-80 percent of neonates in the first week of life. Glucose-6-phosphate DEHYDROGENASE (G6PD) deficiency, which is an important cause of pathologic hyperbilirubinemia, can lead to hemolytic anemia, jaundice and kernicterus. The present study was performed to determine the prevalence of G6PD deficiency among icteric neonates in Shirvan, Iran.Methods: This descriptive, analytical study was performed by evaluating the medical records of neonates with jaundice, admitted to the neonatal ward of Imam Khomeini Hospital of Shirvan in 2012-2013. All neonates, who were evaluated in terms of G6PD, were included in this study. Data including the clinical signs and symptoms, laboratory test results and maternal history during pregnancy were recorded in the questionnaires. The patients were divided into two groups: with and without G6PD deficiency. The recorded data were compared between the two groups, using t-test and Chi-square test. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Among 452 admitted neonates, 16 (3.5%) presented with G6PD deficiency. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of birth weight, weight on admission, Coombs’ test results, hematocrit level, length of hospital stay and total bilirubin level. However, there was a significant difference between the two groups regarding reticulocyte count.Conclusion: Based on the findings, establishment of an early G6PD screening program, which can prevent further complications in neonates, seems essential, particularly in countries such as Iran where G6PD deficiency is highly prevalent.

Aim and Background: Rachycentron Canadum is one of the most important commercial species in the Persian Gulf. This study focuses on molecular investigation of mentioned species in order to find and introduce the genetic differentiations and also probable genotypes for monitoring and managing the genetic resources of populations in three major catch areas in the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea.Materials and methods: 120 individuals of this species were caught from the northern part of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. DNA extraction was performed from the dorsal part of the fin of 54 Individuals using Phenol-Chloroform method. Polymerase chain Reaction (PCR) was performed using a set of primers which designed based on NADH DEHYDROGENASE (ND2) gene.Results: The haplotype diversity from the populations of Bushehr 0. ± 0, Sistan Baluchestan 0. ± 0.3 and mean diversity was recorded 0. ± 0.015. Also haplotype diversity from the populations of Khuzestan and Hormozgan were 0. ± 0.04 and 0. ± 0.04 respectively and the mean diversity was recorded 0. ± 0.04. haplotype diversity from the populations of Khuzestan and Bushehr were 0. ± 0.04 and 0. ± 0 respectively and the mean diversity was recorded 0. ± 0.02.Discussion: The study showed that some haplotypes of the populations belonging to Khuzestan were setting in one clade with common ancestor compared with the other population (Bushehr, Hormozgan and Sistan population) shown in another clade indicating that restricted genetic flow between Khuzestan and other studied areas. This study confirmed that several factors including barriers (mangrove forests) and marine currents can have an effect on the population diversity of this species in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea.