Zinc oxide nanoparticles: Biosynthesis, characterization, antifungal and cytotoxic activity.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are multifunctional oxide metal nanoparticles that have been considered by many due to their unique properties including UV filtration, semiconducting, antimicrobial, antifungal, and photocatalytic activity. In the present study, ZnO-NPs have been synthesized from Zn(SO)·7HO through the use of "green synthesis" method that utilizes Prosopis farcta aqueous extract. The characterization of synthesized ZnO-NPs have been performed by UV-Vis absorption, Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman, Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX).

Genetic Mapping and Validation of Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) for the Grain Appearance and Quality Traits in Rice ( L.) by Using Recombinant Inbred Line (RIL) Population.

Rice grain shape and nutritional quality traits have high economic value for commercial production of rice and largely determine the market price, besides influencing the global food demand for high-quality rice. In order to understand the genetic components of grain appearance traits in paddy, brown, and head rice, 15 traits were evaluated by using 157 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between two Iranian rice cultivars Ali-Kazemi (A) and Kadous (K). A significant variation was observed and showed transgressive segregation among the RILs.