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Exact Tandem Repeats Analyzer 1.0 (E-TRA) combines sequence motif searches with keywords such as 'organs', 'tissues', 'cell lines' and 'development stages' for finding simple exact tandem repeats as well as non-simple repeats. E-TRA has several advanced repeat search parameters/options compared to other repeat finder programs as it not only accepts GenBank, FASTA and expressed sequence tags (EST) sequence files, but also does analysis of multiple files with multiple sequences. The minimum and maximum tandem repeat motif lengths that E-TRA finds vary from one to one thousand. Advanced user defined parameters/options let the researchers use different minimum motif repeats search criteria for varying motif lengths simultaneously. One of the most interesting features of genomes is the presence of relatively short tandem repeats (TRs). These repeated DNA sequences are found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, distributed almost at random throughout the genome. Some of the tandem repeats play important roles in the regulation of gene expression whereas others do not have any known biological function as yet. Nevertheless, they have proven to be very beneficial in DNA profiling and genetic linkage analysis studies. To demonstrate the use of E-TRA, we used 5,465,605 human EST sequences derived from 18,814,550 GenBank EST sequences. Our results indicated that 12.44% (679,800) of the human EST sequences contained simple and non-simple repeat string patterns varying from one to 126 nucleotides in length. The results also revealed that human organs, tissues, cell lines and different developmental stages differed in number of repeats as well as repeat composition, indicating that the distribution of expressed tandem repeats among tissues or organs are not random, thus differing from the un-transcribed repeats found in genomes.

Lathyrus sativus L. is considered one of the most promising calorie and protein sources for the vast, expanding populations living in drought-prone and marginalized areas of the world. This study was conducted to determine the β-N-oxalyl-L-2,3-diaminopropionic acid (β-ODAP), L-homoarginine, and asparagine content of a total of 173 Lathyrus sativus L. genotypes, of which 93 were collected under natural conditions in Antalya. The β-ODAP, L-homoarginine, and asparagine content of Lathyrus sativus L. genotypes ranged from 1.55 to 20.8 mg/g seeds, 1.35 to 11.64 mg/g seeds, and 0.59 to 5.22 mg/g seeds, respectively. ARTICLE HISTORY

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IntroductionResearchers in the food industry, academia, and medicine are increasingly interested in medicinal and aromatic plant species in the families Myrtaceae, Lauraceae, and Lamiaceae. Thyme (Thymus L.) is one of the most important genera in the family Lamiaceae. The number of species within this genus is still debatable but it includes about 400 species, many of which are native to the Mediterranean region (Morales, 2002). Based on morphological features, species in the genus Thymus were divided into 2 main subgenera, Thymus and Coridothymus, and 8 sections, which consisted of