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Alternate bearing (AB) refers to the tendency of trees to have an irregular crop load from 1 year (ON) to the next year (OFF). Despite its economic importance, it is not fully understood how gene networks and their related metabolic pathways may influence the irregular bearing in olive trees. To unravel molecular mechanisms of this phenomenon in olive (cv. Conservalia), the whole transcriptome of leaves and buds from ON and OFF-trees was sequenced using Illumina next generation sequencing approach. The results indicated that expressed transcripts were involved in metabolism of carbohydrates, polyamins, phytohormones and polyphenol oxidase (POD) related to antioxidant system. Expression of POD was increased in leaf samples of ON- versus OFF-trees. The expression pattern of the greater number of genes was changed more in buds than in leaves. Up-regulation of gene homologues to the majority of enzymes that were involved in photorespiration metabolism pathway in buds of ON-trees was remarkable that may support the hypotheses of an increase in photorespiratory metabolism in these samples. The results indicated changes in expression pattern of homologous to those taking part of abscisic acid and cytokinin synthesis which are connected to photorespiration. Our data did not confirm expression of homologue (s) to those of chlorogenic acid metabolism, which has been addressed earlier that have a probable role in biennial bearing in olive. Current findings provide new candidate genes for further functional analysis, gene cloning and exploring of molecular basses of AB in olive.

Establishment of a core collection, of limited size and better representation of the whole germplasm phenotypic diversity, is fundamental for fruit tree breeding programs from an economic and management points of view. To achieve this goal with pomegranate fruit trees, 221 genotypes were evaluated for 25 morphological and pomological traits during two successive years. Using the maximization strategy in Power Core software, 12 out of 221 pomegranate genotypes were selected for the new core collection, reducing the population size to 5.42% of the entire collection. Variance difference (VD%) and mean difference (MD%) were calculated as 42.68% and 7.03% in core collection, respectively. This indicates an excellent diversity amongst genotypes within the core collection. The Shannon’s diversity index (H′) in the formed collection suggested that 19 out of 25 phenotypic variables were of high diversity. Results showed that core collection genotypes are equally presented in all three population groups formed by cluster analysis through the original collection. The current research is the first in using phenotypic data to establish a core collection of Iranian pomegranate germplasm. The formation of this core collection will be an effective step towards examining the diversity of the original population and breeding prospects.

Abstract. Aloe vera, nettle and dill are herbs that have been used in the poultry diet as feed additives to utilise their benefits in improving performance, immune response and health of broiler chickens. However, reactive and volatile properties of bioactive compounds in herbal extracts cause limitations on direct usage of them in the diet. The use of chitosan (CS) nanoparticles for the entrapment of active components has gained interest in the last few years due to its mucous adhesiveness, non-toxicity, biocompatibility and biodegradability. This study was an effort to evaluate effects of nanoencapsulated extracts of aloe vera, dill and nettle root used in diet on performance, carcass traits and serum immunoglobulin (IgM and IgY) concentrations in broiler chickens. Chitosan nanoparticles were prepared by using ionotropic gelation principle. After nanogel preparation of herbal extracts, a total of 240 Ross (308) broiler chicks were divided into eight treatments, with three replicates of 10 birds. The eight dietary treatments consisted of control (no additives), antibiotic (bacitracin 500 g t −1 ), non-encapsulated and nanoencapsulated extracts of aloe vera, dill and nettle root. In each experimental period, non-encapsulated (free extracts) and nanoencapsulated extracts of aloe vera, dill and nettle roots were added in amounts of 0.02, 0.025 and 0.05 % to starter, grower and finisher diets, respectively. Birds in different treatments received the same diets during the experimental periods. Results revealed that increasing both non-encapsulated and nanoencapsulated herbal extracts to 0.05 % in finisher diets improved body weight gain in the time period of 28-42 days and consequently the whole time from 1 to 42 days. However, in these periods, birds fed a diet containing nanoencapsulated dill extract had a significantly (P < 0.05) higher body weight gain compared with the antibiotic group, while non-encapsulated dill extract treatment was intermediate. The addition of nanoencapsulated nettle extract in diet significantly (P < 0.05) improved feed conversion efficiency in the 28-42-day period compared with the antibiotic group. In comparison with the antibiotic group, nanoencapsulation of dill extract could profoundly improve growth performance and can therefore be used as a substitute for antibiotics in the diet of broiler chickens.

The main purpose of cold storage of fruits and vegetables is to maintain their nutritional and sensory values during their long-term postharvest life (Aghdam et al., 2018). However, the high sensitivity of tropical and subtropical crops such as pomegranate fruits (Punica granatum L.) to low temperatures limits the applicability of cold storage (Sayyari et al., 2016). Storage of pomegranate fruits at a low temperature (5°C or lower) is limited by some disorders, for example, browning, scaled, and pitting as the main symptoms of chilling injury (CI) (Pareek et al., 2015). Therefore, in various trials, several treatments have been tested to enhance chilling tolerance and decrease CI symptoms in pomegranate fruits, including salicylic acid (Sayyari et al., 2009), salicyloyl chitosan (Sayyari et al., 2016),

High content of dietary and health beneficial compounds such as sugars, ascorbic acid, amino acids, anthocyanin, minerals, pectin, fibers, and above all polyphenolic flavonoids along with antioxidant activity is the most crucial reason of increasing the pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) production and consumption around the world (Palou et al., 2007;Pareek et al., 2015). Pomegranate is a non-climacteric fruit that does not ripen after picking up even with ethylene treatment (Elyatem & Kader, 1984). However, physiological and biochemical alterations are continued after harvesting and decreases the quality of harvested fruit. Due to this, the harvested