Chelidonium majus is a traditional medicinal plant, which commonly known as a rich resource for the major benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs), including morphine, sanguinarine, and berberine. To understand the biosynthesis of C . majus BIAs, we performed de novo transcriptome sequencing of its leaf and root tissues using Illumina technology. Following comprehensive evaluation of de novo transcriptome assemblies produced with five programs including Trinity, Bridger, BinPacker, IDBA-tran, and Velvet/Oases using a series of k-mer sizes (from 25 to 91), BinPacker was found to produce the best assembly using a k-mer of 25. This study reports the results of differential gene expression (DGE), functional annotation, gene ontology (GO) analysis, classification of transcription factor (TF)s, and SSR and miRNA discovery. Our DGE analysis identified 6,028 transcripts that were up-regulated in the leaf, and 4,722 transcripts that were up-regulated in the root. Further investigations showed that most of the genes involved in the BIA biosynthetic pathway are significantly expressed in the root compared to the leaf. GO analysis showed that the predominant GO domain is “cellular component”, while TF analysis found bHLH to be the most highly represented TF family. Our study further identified 10 SSRs, out of a total of 39,841, that showed linkage to five unigenes encoding enzymes in the BIA pathway, and 10 conserved miRNAs that were previously not detected in this plant. The comprehensive transcriptome information presented herein provides a foundation for further explorations on study of the molecular mechanisms of BIA synthesis in C . majus .

Taenia saginata can cause severe health and economic problems particularly in areas where it is endemic. The disease caused by this cestode is related to poor sanitary conditions, inadequate hygiene, open defecation, inadequately cooked beef, and poverty. A 35-year old man found yellowish white tapeworm proglottids moving in his feces and consulted with the Department of Emergency, Shahid Rajaei hospital, Karaj, Iran. He complained of lower abdominal discomfort, anal itching, and something moving in the stomach. He was given wrong prescription. The patient had the history of eating undercooked beef. Herein we report a case of T. saginata infection based on an adult tapeworm recovery from the infection. The specific identification of the worm was based on standard procedures. Three months after expelling the tapeworm, the man felt better and returned to his normal life.

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