Cystic echinococcosis is a zoonotic infection of humans and domestic animals caused by the larval stages of the cestode Echinococcus granulosus. Cystic echinococcosis is one of the most important zoonotic diseases in Iran, where human cases are frequently reported from different regions of the country. The objective of this study was to determine the sero-epidemiological and surgical cases of human hydatidosis in the Yasuj district, a region in southwest of Iran. Serum samples were taken from 500 individuals attending Yasuj health centers. Anti-hydatid cyst antibody was checked by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), using antigen B. Moreover, retrospective studies were carried out using local hospital records of CE patients between 1997 and 2006. Results of the sero-epidemiological study showed that 36 out of 500 cases (7.2%) have antibody against hydatid cyst. Of these 36 cases, 49.6% were women and 50.4% were men. The highest rate of infection was recorded in individuals aged between 30 and 39 years. Hospital records showed that during the 10 years, 105 cases of hydatidosis were admitted in Yasuj hospitals. Of all cases, 70 (66.7%) were women and 35 (33.3%) were men. Hepatic cyst was recorded in 81% of the cases where nephrotic cysts were the second most prevalent ones. Recurrence of the disease was noted in 14.3% of all cases. Results of this study demonstrated that hydatidosis is an important endemic disease, with a nearly constant prevalence rate during the last 10 years, in Yasuj district in Iran. Further studies are needed to investigate the reasons for high rate of surgical cases in housewives and striking prevalence of hydatidosis in a specific (30-40 years) age group.

Mohammadi, R., Roostaei, M., Ansari, Aghaee, M. and Amri, M. 2010. Relationships of phenotypic stability measures for genotypes of three cereal crops. Can. J. Plant Sci. 90: 819Á830. Multi-environment trial (MET) data are required to obtain stability performance parameters as selection tools for effective genotype evaluation. The main objective of this study was to investigate the interrelationships among nine phenotypic stability methods using grain yield from three sets of cereal experiments [15 durum wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum) genotypes )12 environments; 20 bread wheat (T. aestivum L.) genotypes)18 environments; and 13 barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genotypes )18 environments]. The experiments were conducted in representative rain-fed areas of Iran in collaboration with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The combined ANOVA for environments (E), genotypes (G) and G )E interaction was highly significant (PB0.01) for each set of data, suggesting differential genotypic responses and the need for stability analysis. The inter-relationships among the parameters and their association with mean yield based on Spearman's rank correlation were determined in each of the three cereal experiments. Highly significant correlations were found between several of the stability measures indicating that several of the statistics probably measure similar aspects of phenotypic stability for these crop species. The AMMI stability value (ASV), variance of regression deviation (S 2 di ) and Wricke's ecovalence (W 2 i ) were consistently and highly correlated with each other over these crops and, therefore, could be used if selection is to be based primarily on stability. The superiority index (Pi) and geometric adaptability index (GAI), which are related to the dynamic concept of stability showed significant correlation with mean yield over these crops, suggesting P i and GAI would be the best methods for ranking genotypes across environments. The coefficient of variation (CV), regression coefficient (b i ), yield reliability index (I i ), and environmental variance (S 2 x ) showed inconsistent relationships with either the static or dynamic concepts of stability over these crops. The correlation analysis provided a good description of static and dynamic concepts of stability for interpreting the G)E interaction and verified that the groups of stability methods (dynamic vs. static) discriminated genotypes in different fashions in these crops.Key words: Rank correlation, phenotypic stability measures, dynamic and static stability Mohammadi, R., Roostaei, M., Ansari, Aghaee, M. et Amri, M. 2010. Liens entre la mesure de la stabilite´du phe´notype et le ge´notype de trois cereals. Can. J. Plant Sci. 90: 819Á830. On a besoin de donne´es multi-environnementales pour e´tablir les parame`tres de la stabilite´qui serviront de moyen de se´lection en vue d'une e´valuation efficace du ge´notype. Cette e´tude avait pour principal objectif d'examiner les relations entre neuf me´thodes d'analyse de...

Septoria tritici blotch (STB), caused by Mycosphaerella graminicola has recently become one of the devastating diseases in Iran causing significant yield losses on most commercial bread and durum wheat cultivars. Iran is located in the Fertile Crescent, a region where wheat was historically domesticated; and, thus, landraces derived from this region are of considerable global interest for identification of new sources of resistance to various stresses. Here, we report on the resistance responses of 45 tetraploid wheat landraces collected from different provinces of Iran to eight M. graminicola isolates. In total 138 isolate-specific resistances were found among all interactions (n=360). The highest number of specific resistances (30 out of 32 interactions) was found in wheat landraces collected from West Azarbaijan. In contrast, all landraces from Kordestan were highly susceptible to M. graminicola isolates and only one isolate-specific resistance was identified among 106 isolate-wheat interactions. Kermanshah landraces showed the highest resistance variation against different isolates. About 57 isolate-specific resistances were identified among 104 interactions. Ilam landraces were highly resistant to STB as 28 specific resistances were observed among 32 interactions. Markazi (n=2) and Sistan-Baluchestan (n=1) were susceptible to all isolates tested. Landraces from Lorestan were generally susceptible to isolates tested as 26 susceptible responses were observed out of 32 interactions. Our results indicate that landraces collected from the Fertile Crescent region may possess diverse effective resistance genes or valuable broad spectrum resistance genes, and that their identification is of interest and can be exploited in breeding programs.

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Pulsed field gel electrophoresis enables separation of fungal chromosomes up to several megabases and is a worthwhile tool for fungal karyotyping. The germ tube burst method is a technique to separate fungal chromosomes of any size for chromosome number determination as well as in situ hybridization. Here we provide detailed protocols for both complementary methods that have many applications in fungal biology including chromosome size and chromosome number polymorphisms, and in situ localization of genes on chromosomes.