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Folk Culture represents behavior, customs and traditions of people based on their material and spiritual needs. It reflects the context of people's life and their interaction with the natural environment. Vernacular architecture is formed by local people based on their interaction with the environment, their customs and local techniques. This research aims to find mutual relationships between vernacular rural architecture and oral literature or folklore of one of the varied ethnic cultures of Iran, the Azerbaijan region. Initially, more than 2500 verses, proverbs, puzzles, etc. in Azeri language were studied and those ones which have described and visualized the features of local rural vernacular architecture were analysed. Later, after field surveys of a number of stepped villages, the reflection of characteristics of the village such as villages' tissue, natural environment, common spaces, houses and details and structures, on the visualization of the verses is presented. As a conclusion, it seems that the spaces and details of houses as the heart of life has the most abundance in verses. The results of this research have represented the strong bonds between each space of the village, the flow of life and the folk culture linked to it that is visualized in oral literature. Therefore a comprehensive approach toward the folk culture can conserve the mutual relationships between people, their traditions, and their vernacular built environment. This research has a qualitative method based on the library study of Azeri folklore and field survey of stepped villages in Azerbaijan.

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Carnation is an ornamental plant of economic importance worldwide. Fusarium fungus is one of the critical infectious agents of Carnation in Mahallat city. Some species of Fusarium cause wilting and crown and root rot in carnation. In this study, 20 fungal isolates of Fusarium were isolated from diseased carnation plants and rhizosphere samples from Carnation greenhouses in Mahallat. The isolates were identified morphologically using Leslie and Summerell’s identification key. Amplification of the TEF-1α gene region was done using ef1 and ef2 primers. Amplified fragments were purified and sequenced, and the nucleotide sequences were introduced in the Fusarium ID database for molecular identification of isolates based on the TEF-1α gene. A phylogenetic tree was also drawn. The results showed that Fusarium isolates were categorized into five species: F14 was identified as Fusarium brachygibbosum morphologically and F. solani molecularly. F6 was morphologically and molecularly identified as F. solani, F10 identified as Fusarium culmorum. All crown and root isolates (F11, F12, F13, F15, F16, F17, F18, F9, and F20) were identified as F. oxysporum. The rhizosphere isolates of F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F7, F8, and F9 were identified as Fusarium proliferatum. This study shows that the use of the TEF-1α gene for molecular identification of Fusarium isolates is a relatively accurate, fast, and straightforward method for detecting species and can be used in plant pathological studies. Identifying the pathogen is the first step to controlling the disease.

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Fusarium infection in carnation is the most important limiting factor for carnation production. We isolated 38 fungal isolates from infected carnation plants collected from Mahallat, Iran, and 15 Fusarium species were identified morphologically. Isolates of J14, k5, and k72 were the most pathogenic isolates in pathogenicity test on White Liberty cultivar. Molecular identification of J14, k5, and k72 isolates was done based on Elongation Factor 1-alpha (EF1-α) gene. To investigate the effect of Trichoderma and some of its mutants on reducing the Fusarium infection, six wild type isolates were examined. The species of T. harzianum, T. virense, and T. ghanens showed more inhabitation potential and were chosen for induced mutation via gamma irradiation at 250 Gy. The number of 270 mutants were screened morphologically and 60 mutants were screened using dual culture against J14, k5, and k72. Morphological and molecular identification of J14, k5, and k72 isolates recognized them as F. oxysporum. Three mutants, i.e. ThM7(67.17%), TgM1 (59.45%), and TvM17(57.55%) showed the highest efficacy and were selected. Evaluation test of efficacy in greenhouse by mixture of T. harzianum, T. virense and T. ghanens (TW) and mixture of mutant isolates ThM7, TgM1, and TvM17 (TM) showed that biological method had higher ability to control Fusarium infection on carnation plants in greenhouse condition, and mutation had no adverse effects on plants. The results of this experiment proved that the use of mutation in the Trichoderma genome with the use of gamma radiation could be an effective way to achieve isolates with better performance in this bio-control agent.