Gholamreza Salehi Jouzani

• Professor
• Principal Investigator at Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran

This review explores the diverse applications of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) beyond its traditional role as a bioinsecticide. Bt produces a variety of compounds with distinct chemical structures and biological activities. These include antimicrobial agents effective against plant pathogens and bioactive compounds that promote plant growth through t...

Bacillus cereus group produces diverse antimicrobial compounds through different metabolic pathways, including amino acid‐based compounds, sugar derivatives, volatile and miscellaneous compounds. These antimicrobial compounds exhibit antibacterial and antifungal activities against various plant pathogens, promoting plant growth and enhancing tolera...

Rice straw burning annually (millions of tons) leads to greenhouse gas emissions, and an alternative solution is producing humic acid with high added-value. This study aimed to examine the influence of a microbial consortium and other additives (chicken manure, urea, olive mill waste, zeolite, and biochar) on the composting process of rice straw an...

The wide application of diesel engines globally and the resulting exhaust emissions have been the driving force behind producing eco-friendly alternatives to fossil diesel. Biodiesel derived from triglycerides is a promising replacement for fossil diesel due to less contribution to greenhouse gases and other harmful emissions. Transesterification i...

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and its products are commonly used to control insect pests. The main issue with these bacteria is their limited field stability. These constraints fueled interest in using several molecular, biological, and biotechnological techniques to develop new recombinant Bt toxins with a broader insect spectrum, improved environme...

Management of agricultural waste like rice straw is essential in reducing environmental pollution and also creating added value. For this purpose, microorganisms with high hydrolytic activities were isolated from a simulated composting process. The effects of different materials, including rice straw, chicken manure, urea, olive pomace, and two gro...

Every year, many agricultural wastes such as rice straw are produced in different countries that need to be managed and converted into valuable materials. The present study was planned to design a bioprocess for fast production of enriched biocompost from rice straw (RS) as an available lignocellulosic biomass. Three native bacterial strains (MC: 1...

The objective of the present study was to evaluate possible interactions between two potential plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB): Azospirillum oryzae strain NBT506 and Bacillus velezensis strain UTB96. To do this, the growth kinetic, biofilm formation, motility, surfactin production, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production, phosphate solubilizat...

Among predatory bacteria, Bdellovibrio and Like Organisms (BALOs) have a high potential for application as biocontrol agents. The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize native BALO strains from different water and soil samples in Iran. Nineteen BALO strains were obtained from the samples using Escherichia coli as prey. Analysis of...

Crude protein fractions from Mirabilis jalapa of northern Iran containing Mirabilis Antiviral Protein (MAP) reduced the systemic accumulation of a plant RNA virus in Nicotiana benthamiana. A MAP gene was amplified by RT-PCR from total RNAs isolated from these Iranian M. jalapa plants (MAP-Tehran) without the 5´-end signal peptide sequence, to set u...

The diverse chemical, biological, and microbial properties of litter and organic matter (OM) in forest soil along an altitudinal gradient are potentially important for nutrient cycling. In the present study, we sought to evaluate soil chemical, biological, microbial, and enzymatic characteristics at four altitude levels (0, 500, 1,000, and 1,500 m)...

Botryotrichum iranicum (Chaetomiaceae) and Trematosphaeria magenta (Trematosphaeriaceae) are newly described from soils of Hyrcanian forests in the Mazandaran Province, Iran. Both species were distinguished from their closest known species based on multi-locus phylogenetic analysis and morphological characteristics. Botryotrichum iranicum is charac...

The appropriate processing of various plant biomass residues into biofuels could address the world’s insatiable appetite for energy. To achieve such a goal, an efficient and ecofriendly pretreatment method to break the lignocellulosic materials into fermentable sugars is pivotal. Among various candidate methods, anaerobic gut fungi could provide ec...

Currently, the modern world is facing with a major challenge regarding the production of renewable energy for phasing out fossil fuels. Lignocellulosic biomass can potentially be used as a substrate for the production of a diverse range of different biofuels such as bioethanol while not triggering food vs. fuel debate. Generally, the bioethanol pro...

Among many alternatives, biodiesel is considered as one of the most promising biofuels for phasing out fossil-derived fuels and mitigating their adverse ecological impacts. However, conventional alkali- or acid-catalyzed transesterification of plant oils triggers food security, economic, and even environmental (e.g., land-use change and greenhouse...

The objective of the present study was to evaluate how altitudinal gradients shape the composition of soil bacterial and fungal communities, humus forms and soil properties across six altitude levels in Hyrcanian forests. Soil microbiomes were characterized by sequencing amplicons of selected molecular markers. Soil chemistry and plant mycorrhizal...

Liquid biofuels are known as suitable alternatives to fossil fuels whose growing utilization has already endangered both the environment and public health. Nevertheless, first-generation biofuels have been extensively criticized for their unfavorable impacts on sustainable supply of food and feed. In light of that, higher generations of biofuels ha...

Fossil fuels and chemical pesticides could probably be blamed for future human downfall. Therefore, the global dependence on fossil fuels must be reduced immediately due to climate change, environmental issues, and health complications. The latter two negative effects could also be rendered by chemical pesticides. Among renewable energy alternative...

Today, one of the most important global issues is the emissions of harmful gases from combustion of fossil fuels such as petrodiesel. Detrimental impacts of fossil fuel combustion on human health and ecosystem quality have attracted considerable attention in the past two decades. Accordingly, researchers have shown an increasing interest in the pro...

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) produces crystalline proteins that are toxic to various insect species. In this study, Bt strains were isolated from the soils of some areas of Fars province and their toxicity on larva of Plodia interpunctella (Hubner) was investigated. For this purpose, 110 strains were isolated from the soils of Shiraz, Marvdasht, Fas...

Olive agro-industry is a chemical- and energy-intensive agricultural activity and given its large scale globally is faced with serious challenges from the sustainability perspective. On the other hand, different by-products and residues generated are not generally used and end up as wastes. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to design and imple...

The objective of the present study was to isolate and characterize of fungal species from Persian oak trees rhizosphere in Zagros forests, Ilam provience. To do this, sampling was performed from different regions of Zagros oak forests in Ilam province during 2014-2015. The serial dilutions of soil suspensions were cultured on WA (2% water agar), PD...

The Egyptian cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval) , is known as an important and highly polyphagous pest species worldwide. The objective of the present study was to evaluate synergistic effects of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki and NucleoPolyhedroVirus (SpliMNPV) on the 5-day-old larvae (2 nd instars) of S. littoralis under l...

Alnus subcordata (Caucasian Alder, Betulaceae) is known as one of the most important tree species in wood industry with high nitrogen fixation capability and high rate of biomass production. In recent years, a disease symptom with the characteristics of alder bacterial leaf spot has been reported from the forests in Mazandaran province, Iran. To ch...

The Egyptian cotton leafworm is a polyphagous pest with a broad range of hosts causing annually significant damage to agricultural crops. It has been found that no all strain of Bacillus thuringiesis are effective on this pest and small numbers of the isolates are effective due to the contents of their crystalline proteins. The aim of the present s...

The objectives of the present study were to identify composition of fungal communities associated with healthy and declined oak trees and seedlings in Ilam Province, Iran, and to evaluate their role in occurrence of the oak decline. Fungal isolates were obtained from branches of healthy and declining Persian oak trees and seedlings in Ilam province...

The oak decline is known as one of the most destructive complex diseases causing high economic losses around the world, especially in Iran. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the possible role of bacteria as causative agents of oak decline in the Zagros forests of Iran. To do this, stem, root and leaf samples were taken from...

In this study, a new endophyte species within the genus Deniquelata (Didymosphaeriaceae) was isolated from the branches of Persian oak trees (Quercus brantii) in Zagros forests, Iran. The maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses of 18S, 28S and ITS, rDNA sequence data revealed that the isolates were distinct from other species of the Deniquelata. Ba...

Co-inoculation of plant growth promoting bacteria and biological control agents, is a strategy to improve health, yield and quality of crop production. The objective of the present study was to evaluate interactions of two bacterial strains, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens UTB96 and Azospirillum oryzae NBT506, on growth promotion of wheat and control of...

Biodiesel is being considered as a renewable fuel candidate to completely or partially replace fossil diesel. The most important challenge in development of different generations of biodiesel is input cost, low oil yield in the sources, and lack of efficient technologies for biodiesel production. Recent developments in next-generation sequencing te...

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the probiotic effects of different concentrations of four selected native Lactobacillus strains on laying performance and egg quality parameters of quails. To do this, a six-week farm trial was performed in completely randomized design with seven different probiotic treatments of four replicates ea...

Biodiesel has huge potentials as a green and technologically feasible alternative to fossil diesel. However, biodiesel production from edible oil crops has been widely criticized while nonedible oil plants are associated with some serious disadvantages, such as high cost, low oil yield, and unsuitable oil composition. The next generation sequencing...

Complete genome sequences of five fig badnavirus-1 (FBV-1) isolates from different geographic origins in Iran were obtained from infected fig plants using conventional sequencing of overlapping PCR fragment with appropriate primers. Phylogenetic analysis of these five Iranian isolates as well as the one previously sequenced USA isolate indicated th...

Key message: Two new efficient, fast and low-cost metagenomic DNA extraction methods were developed for different Persian oak tissues (leaf, stem, root, and rhizospheric) and soil samples. Context: The new “omics” studies on the genus Quercus are of importance to help finding efficient strategies for overcoming environmental challenges, and to do t...

Biogas production from wastes and residues is classified among the versatile, energy-efficient, and environmentally beneficial strategies considered to gradually replace fossil fuels in the future. Nevertheless, biogas production from different resources is faced with many technical, efficiency, and cost challenges, and therefore, optimization of t...

In this study, pathogenicity of three virus isolates, Spodoptera littoralis NPV, Helicoverpa armigera NPV, Spodoptera litura NPV was evaluated in three different concentrations of 6× 102, 6× 104, 6×106 OBml-1 on 5-day-old larvae of Egyptian cotton leafworm, S. littoralis at 25 ˚C on artificial diet. The highest larval duration was observed in conc...

Bdellovibrio, δ-proteobacteria, including B. bacteriovorus (Bba) and B. exovorus (Bex), are obligate predators of other Gram-negative bacteria. While Bba grows in the periplasm of the prey cell, Bex grows externally. We have analyzed and compared the transport proteins of these 2 organisms based on the current contents of the Transporter Classifica...

The current research based on greenhouse experiment evaluates the impact of the Lactobacillus strains (Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus paralimentaris, Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus pentosus, and Lactobacillus buchneri) previously isolated from maize silage on the Fusarium verticillioides-infected maize plants. The growth parameters...

The objective of the present study was to isolate and characterize effective lactic acid bacteria (LABs) strains from corn silages of different regions of Iran, and evaluate their efficiency on quality and durability of corn silage. Isolation and characterization of Lactobacillus strains was performed from corn silages of 3 different regions, in...

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the probiotic effects of different concentrations of four selected native Lactobacillus strains on the growth performance and serum biochemical parameters of Japanese quails. A completely randomized design (CRD) was applied, including seven probiotic treatments with four replicates of 20 quails eac...

Ensilage provides an effective means of conserving summer-grown green forage to supply as winter feed to ruminants. The fermentation process involved in the ensilage process relies on lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Here, 16S ribosomal DNA amplicon pyrosequencing was used to follow the dynamic behaviour of the LAB community during the ensilage of maize...

Fig. S1. Organic matter (OM) content of maize silage produced from biomass grown at three contrasting sites. The silages were sampled at 0, 3, 6, 14, 21 and 32 days post‐ensilage. Data are based on a dry matter content basis. Fig. S2. Rarefaction analysis. The curves plot the number of detected OTUs as a function of the number of sampled reads. F...

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is known as the most successful microbial insecticide against different orders of insect pests in agriculture and medicine. Moreover, Bt toxin genes also have been efficiently used to enhance resistance to insect pests in genetically modified crops. In light of the scientific advantages of new molecular biology technolog...

Assessment of eighty Fusarium proliferatum isolates obtained from maize, rice, sugarcane and onion using AFLP molecular marker separated the isolates into four distinct clusters according to their host’s. Isolates recovered from rice clustered in a distinct group. Isolates from sugarcane grouped in two distinct groups and isolates recovered from ma...

The objective of the present study was to evaluate efficiency of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) biosynthesis using Descurainia sophia as a novel biological resource. The resulting synthesized Ag-NPs were characterized using UV visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The UV–Vis spe...

It is known that there is correlation between biofilm formation and antagonistic activities of Bacillus subtilis strains; but, the mechanism of this correlation is not clear. So, the effect of the plant pathogen (Fusarium culmorum) on the biofilm formation in a B. subtilis strain with high antagonistic and biofilm formation activities was studied....

Lactobacillus strains commonly used as probiotics which possess some properties such as resistance to gastric acidity and bile salts, production of antimicrobial compounds, the ability to modulate immune responses, and adhesion to gut tissues. This study aimed to isolate, identify, production and characterization of the probiotic strains. Total of...

Fig badnavirus 1 (FBV-1) and mulberry badnavirus-1 (MBV-1) are two closely related badnaviruses which were recently identified in fig and mulberry plants. Thirty-six fig and 27 mulberry orchards were surveyed to determine the presence and incidence of FBV-1 and MBV-1 in four provinces of Iran. A total of 81 fig and 70 mulberry asymptomatic and symp...

A systematic optimization process for simple and eco-friendly extracellular biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles by a native thermophilic Ureibacillus thermosphaericus strain thermo-BF isolated from geothermal hot springs has been presented. Biosynthesis reactions were conducted using the culture supernatant at different temperatures (60–80 °C) and p...

The present study was set to develop a robust and economic biorefinery process for continuous co-production of ethanol and xylitol from rice straw in a membrane bioreactor. Acid pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, detoxification, yeast strains selection, single and co-culture batch fermentation, and finally continuous co-fermentation were optimized...

One of the major obstacles of Bt production as a biopesticide is its expensive bioprocess and fermentation. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to optimize growth condition and develop a low-cost bioprocess for mass production of a native coleopteran-effective Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strain (KH4) based on agricultural wastes, at i...

Recently, lignocellulosic biomass as the most abundant renewable resource has been widely considered for bioalcohols production. However, the complex structure of lignocelluloses requires a multi-step process which is costly and time consuming. Although, several bioprocessing approaches have been developed for pretreatment, saccharification and fer...

Tissue-specific expression of recombinant proteins in transgenic plants is of particular importance. Production of tissue-specific transplastomic plants is challenging due to lack of tissue-specific promoter in the plastome. The objective of the present study was to produce a transgenic platform enhancing tissue-specific transgene expression in the...

Background: Populations of Magnaporthe, the causal agent of rice blast disease, are pathotypically and genetically diverse and therefore their interaction with different rice cultivars and also antagonistic microorganisms are very complicated.

Streptomyces commonly produce ectoines as compatible solutes to prevent osmotic stresses. Fine structure of the genes producing ectoine (ectC) and hydroxyectoine (ectD) enzymes in Streptomyces rimosus C-2012 as a slightly halophilic bacterium is reported in this study. Deduced amino acid sequences of ectC and ectD genes from strain C-2012 and some...

The aim of the present study was to isolate and identify native lactic acid bacteria from corn silages of three different climatic regions, evaluate their effect on silage quality, and finally introduce new commercial formulations to enhance quality and durability of silages. To do this, corn samples were collected from the fields of Isfahan, Gorga...

The objective of the present study was to isolate, identify and characterize new LAB strains with high probiotic potentials from Iranian (Isfahan) indigenous chickens. From 90 isolated LABs, 11 isolates had high growth rate under different stress conditions, including acid (pH 2.5), bile (0.5% oxgall), salt (6-15%) and temperatures 15 and 45°C, and...

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the interactions between wheat genotypes and C. septempunctata to control greenbug using real- time PCR. Three wheat genotypes including an ancient wheat species (Einkorn) and two Iranian wheat genotypes, Ommid and Moghan2 were used as highly resistant, semi-resistant and susceptible genotypes. Adu...

The objective of the current study was to evaluate the impact of wheat resistance on digestibility of Schizaphis graminum (Rondani) in the Coccinella septempunctata L. gut. Four wheat genotypes including an ancient wheat species (Einkorn) and three Iranian wheat genotypes (Azadi, Ommid, and Moghan2) were used. Einkorn was found to be a highly resis...

Background: Silymarin, extracted from the seeds of milk thistle (Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn) is mostly used for liver disease treatment. Hairy root cultures derived from S. marianum are able to produce silymarin. Objective: Elicitation of hairy root cultures is an important strategy for improving the production of secondary metabolites. The elici...

Streptomyces strain C-2012 is a salt tolerant biocontrol PGPR that has been isolated from Iranian soil. The main aim of current study was finding strain C-2012 taxonomic position and to find the genes which are potentially involved in salt tolerance phenotype. Strain C-2012 chemotaxonomic, morphological and molecular characteristics indicate that t...

Wheat root and crown rot caused by Fusarium culmorum is known as one of the most common diseases among wheat diseases in Iran. Recently, application of new resistant cultivars and biological control by antagonistic bacteria, such as phlD+ (a key biocontrol gene) fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. have received much attention. An important scientific gap...

The objective of the present study was to enhance silymarin production in hairy root cultures of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn using fungal elicitors. The effects of different concentrations of the fungal elicitors (0, 10 and 20 mg/50 ml culture), including Fusarium proliferatum, Aspergillus niger, and Rhizoctonia solani, were studied on silymarin p...

During the composing process, microorganisms involved in degradation of agricultural and municipal waste are of great importance. Therefore, identification of beneficial microorganisms could play an important role in improving the quality of the produced compost. Bacteria play an effective role in degradation of organic matter, So the objective of...

The bacteria Erwinia amylovora is the causal agent of fire blight disease in Maloideae fruit trees. In order to the evaluation of strains pathogenic intensity with genetic characterizations, in this research genetic diversity of three gene clusters including hrp, ams and dsp, interfering the pathogenicity were compared using PCR-RFLP marker. Moreov...

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using ARB software package. ##Assembly-Data-START## Assembly Method :: Chromas v. 2.33 Sequencing Technology :: Sanger dideoxy sequencing ##Assembly-Data-END##

Biological parameters of Schizaphis graminum (Rondani) reared on an ancient wheat species (Einkorn) from England and five Iranian wheat genotypes (Azadi, Ommid, Marvdasht, Pishtaz and Moghan 2) were studied under controlled conditions at 22 ± 1°C, 65 ± 5% RH, 16:8 (L:D) h. The lowest rm value (0.261± 0.002 females/female/day) and net reproductive r...

Ureibacillus thermosphaericus strain Thermo-BF is an aerobic, thermophilic bacillus which has been characterized to biosynthesize gold nanoparticles. Here we present the draft genome sequence of Ureibacillus thermosphaericus strain Thermo-BF which consists of a 2,864,162-bp chromosome. This is the first report of a shotgun sequenced draft genome of...

Plant diseases have a significant impact on the yield and quality of crops. Many strategies have been developed to combat plant diseases, including the transfer of resistance genes to crops by conventional breeding. However, resistance genes can only be introgressed from sexually-compatible species, so breeders need alternative measures to introduc...

To introduce genetic resistance against alfalfa weevil (Hypera postica), leaves and petiole explants of three commercial alfalfa genotypes, including Km-27, Kk-14 and Syn-18 were transformed with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains GV101, LBA4404 and AGL01. All the Agrobacterium strains used harbored the recombinant binary vector pBI121 containing a...

Previous researches demonstrated contrast response of apple and pear to systemic acquired resistance trigger by salicylic acid (SA) against fire blight disease. This research was conducted to reveal how SA causes these responses, considering bi-lateral role of SA on catalase activity and SAR activation. At first, effects of SA were studied on catal...

A screening strategy was developed to assess the potential of some Iranian native Bacillus sp. isolates collected from the rice rhizosphere and phyllosphere to control six pathotypes of the fungus Rhizoctonia solani using a hierarchical combination of different assays. Of 704 bacterial isolates tested, 240 (22% from the phyllosphere and 38% from th...

Witches' broom disease of lime (WBDL) associated with 'Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia' presence, is responsible for ma-jor losses of Mexican lime trees (Citrus aurantifolia L.). Iranian witches' broom disease of lime Network (IWBDLN) comprises of 10 mega projectswhich have been carried out since 2008 with the contribution of 15 different natio...

Plant diseases have a significant impact on the yield and quality of crops. Many strategies have been developed to combat plant diseases, including the transfer of resistance genes to crops by conventional breeding. However, resistance genes can only be introgressed from sexually-compatible species, so breeders need alternative measures to introduc...

Thirty Iranian native Bacillus sp. strains collected from the rhizosphere of various hosts in different regions of the country were studied. 16S rRNA identification and phylogenetic analysis was carried out and secondary metabolites of volatile components, protease activity, biofilm formation and antagonistic activity against Fusarium culmorum in g...

Current biomass sources for energy production in Iran include sewerage as well as agricultural, animal, food industry and municipal solid wastes, and are anticipated to account for about 14% of national energy consumption in near future. However, due to the considerable progress made in genetic engineering of various plants in Iran during the last...

The microflora of Ramsar geothermal hot springs located in Mazandaran province, Iran was screened for native thermophilic bacteria that are capable of biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles. One isolate identified as “Ureibacillus thermosphaericus” showed high potential for silver nanoparticle biosynthesis with extracellular mechanism and selected fo...

Parasitic Nematodes cause numerous diseases in human beings, animals and plants placing major burdens on agricultural production and global health. Common management methods used include planting resistant crop varieties, rotating crops, incorporating soil amendments, soil solarization and applying nematicides. Biological control is other recently...