Transgenic chickens have been spotlighted as an highly potent bioreactor for their fecundity, short generation time, and eggs associated with mass production of protein. In this study, we generated transgenic chickens exhibiting oviduct specific expression of human growth hormone fused to human transferrin for oral administration. Gene of the modified growth hormone located at downstream ovalbumin promoter (∼3.6 kb) was introduced to stage X blastodermal cell employing retrovirus vector system. Several transgenic chickens were successfully generated. However, genomic analyses showed unexpected deletion within the transgene. The modification of the transgene seemed to occur during germ cell formation because the deletion was detected only from the sperm DNA of the G0 founder animal. There was no evidence of deletion in the somatic cell DNA samples of the same chicken. Consequently, same pattern of the deletion was confirmed in both somatic and germ cells of the G1 progeny.

한국의 풍뎅이붙이과(Histeridae)는 6아과 22속 53종이 현재까지 보고되어 있다. 본 연구 결과, Niponius osorioceps Lewis, 1885 두뿔풍뎅이붙이(신칭), Plegaderus (Plegaderus) marseuli Reitter, 1877 두가슴풍뎅이붙이(신칭), Trypeticus fagi (Lewis, 1884) 가슴각진풍뎅이붙이(신칭)의 3아과 (2미기록아과) 3미기록속의 3종을 한국미기록종으로 발견하였으며, 이들에 대한 간략한 기재와 중요한 형질 및 전자현미경사진을 함께 제시하고자 한다.

We recognize a new species, belonging to the genus Neopsephus Kishii 1990, from Is. Jeju. The novel species is closely allied to N. takasago Kishii 1990 known from Taiwan. This study provides the detailed morphological characteristics investigated by SEM and molecular data inferred from COI and 16S rRNA of mitochondria.

Mycetophagids, the family of primitive tenebrionoid beetles, are commonly fugivorous. They mainly feed and inhabit in the fruiting bodies of higher fungi, fungus-grown bark, and moldy vegetative materials. Some species are associated with a large variety of moldy substances and are found both outdoors in natural environments and indoors in association with a variety of stored products. They are not serious pests, and their presence is usually indicative of poor storage conditions and moldy produce. There are only five Mycetophagidae species previously recorded for Korea, Mycetophagus antennatus (Reitter 1879), M. ater (Reitter, 1879), M. hillerianus Reitter, 1874, Typhaea pallidula Reitter, 1874, and T. stercorea (Linnaeus 1758). In the course of this study, 60 specimens from 12 sites of Korean Mycetophagidae were examined. We reviewed taxonomically four genera and nine species in Korea. Among them, four species including Eulagius ussuriensis Nikitsky, 1988, Litargus japonicus Reitter, 1877, Mycetophagus irroratus (Reitter,1879), and Mycetophagus pustulosus (Reitter,1889) are newly recorded in Korea. We also obtained additional bionomic data for the seven species including their host fungi and habitat based on field observations and laboratoryrearing data in part.

Allomyrina dichotoma is a typical pet beetles in Korea. From 2010, similar symptoms of milky spore disease were found collectively in grubs of the species reared in insect farms. They shared a specific symptom that the skin of last instar larvae was changed softer with opaque white and infested grubs eventually died. To clarify the cause of the symptom, we collected the larvae of A. dichotoma from five farms and examined intestinal bacterial florae of them using pyrosequencing technique. From those results, a member of Paenibacillus was found only in the larvae showing the symptom of disease. Through PCR analysis using a Paenibacillus specific primer set, we obtained the partial 16S rRNA gene sequence and confirmed the microbe as Paenibacillus sp. For detailed characterizing, a whole guts was extracted from each larva showing the sign of the disease and incubated at 70℃ for 15 min to isolate spore forming bacteria. After then, each content of guts was cultured on MYPGPNAL agar medium (12.5 μg/ml of nalidixic acid) at 30℃. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis for six isolate showed that they were closely related to P. rigui (97.5~98.0% similarity) and to P. chinjuensis (95.9~96.6% similarity). Additional tests including API test and cellular fatty acid composition analysis were performed, but the strain couldn’t be identified at species level, suggesting it may represent novel species of the genus Paenibacillus.

This study was conducted to identify an insect species in Genus Ostrinia (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) that gave serious damage to the red bean, Vigna angularis. The species has ever been described as O. zaguliaevi in the previous presentation (Jung et al., 2010). Because, however, inconsistent information has been recognized for the species, we reviewed characteristics in morphological, molecular and sex pheromone levels, and host-range. Male genitalia had 3-lobed uncus and tibia of midleg showed massive type. The morphology indicated that the species might be one of O. zaguliaevi, O. scapulalis and O. zealis. Partial nucleotide sequences of cytochrome oxidase subunit Ⅰ(COⅠ) and Ⅱ genes were not identical with those of the 3 species in GenBank, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequence of COⅠ was not identical with that of O. zealis. In the 23 analyses that sex pheromones were checked, (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate, which was reported in the sex pheromone components of both O. zaguliaevi and O. zealis, was not detected at all. An intensive study in Japan has reported that the feeding habit of O. scapulalis is polyphagous, while that of O. zaguliaevi is monophagous (only in Petasites japonicus) (Ishikawa et al., 1999). After considering all these information, we concluded that it is reasonable to decide that the insect species in the red bean in Korea is O. scapulalis.

We tested the identification ability of DNA barcodes comparing with morphological data using the Korean butterflies. The 921 samples (4.6 samples per species) for 202 resident Korean species except migratory species were used. The obtained samples were morphologically identified based on wing patterns. In a result, genetic divergence to the nearest-neighbouring taxon varied from 0 to 28.2%, with an average of 13.4 per cent. The neighbour joining (NJ) tree profile showed that sequence data for 185 of the 202 species formed distinct barcode clusters. Thus, our results indicated that 91.6 percent of the species were possible to allow the reliable identification using DNA barcoding. The rest 17 species (8.4%) consist of following four cases: clustering separated from each species by less than 1% branch length (two species pairs), paraphyletic clustering (two species pairs and one triple species pair), polyphyletic clustering with sharing barcodes (three species pairs), and clustering separated from existing species by the deep branch divergence (four clusters). However, it was not easy to interpret these ambiguous cases only using our current taxonomic evidences. Therefore, we are performing integrative taxonomy on these cases using other additional evidences such as examination on male genitalia and analysis of other gene regions.

DNA barcoding is a strong species identification tool for all animal taxa, and can easily be conducted when materials are under DNA friendly conditions. In contract, a full-length (659 bp) sequencing has been limited for the degraded DNAs extracted from old museum specimens. The initial challenges to retrieve the authentic DNA fragments from old museum specimens were attempted by obtaining short sequences (<300 bp) with the cloning process after PCR, making it both expensive and time-consuming. In this study, we employed a modified method to analyze the full-length DNA barcoding regions in 31~52 year-old butterfly specimens (301 dried specimens of 39 species) using direct sequencing after PCR with two different methods: 1) the successful PCR rates of 0 to 5.6% using four universal primer sets were too low to obtain authentic sequences and the cross-contamination was detected in almost all successful amplicons; 2) the success rates of PCR using specie-specific overlapping primer sets were distinctly high, reaching up to 75% with 98% authentic and 2% non-specific sequences. Thus, the result showed the method that using species-specific primer set per species yields the most effective success rates of both PCR and sequencing from degraded DNA without incorrect sequences.

Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis (PCI) is a rare condition characterized by multiple intramural pockets of gas filled cysts in the intestinal wall. PCI is usually found incidentally on an imaging study. Many different causes of PCI have been suggested, including mechanical, pulmonary, and bacterial causes. Treatment is usually conservative, including oxygen and antibiotic therapy. We report on two cases of PCI, without symptoms, in a 62-year-old male and a 72-year-old male. Computed tomography showed numerous, small, round, and air densities on the sigmoid colon. Colonoscopy showed numerous, variable-sized, sessile polypoid, balloon-like distended, and protruding subepithelial masses covered with normal colonic mucosa on the sigmoid colon. We observed that when the cyst was stuck with a needle, the size of the cyst was reduced and showed a flat termination. Therefore, we made a diagnosis of PCI and report on the case with references.

In DNA barcoding, the DNA degradation of old museum specimens has been limited full-length (658bp) sequencing. The challenges associated with the retrieval and authentication of degraded DNA extracts from fossil and old museum specimens were principally limited to analyze the relatively short sequences (<300 bp). Furthermore, almost protocols in other to analyzed the degraded DNA contained the cloning process after PCR causing the time-consuming and the rising costs. To overcome these problematic circumstances, we tried a modified method to analyze full-length of DNA barcoding region in 30~60 year-old butterfly specimens (225 samples in 28 species), using direct sequencing after PCR with species-specific overlapping primer sets per each species. As a result, all of 28 species have been successfully analyzed, although 178 samples (79%) are completely generated barcoding sequences ranged from 640 to 658 bp and 47 samples (21%) are partially sequenced ranged from 100 to 500 bp. Thus, the result showed that the direct PCR sequencing using the overlapping primer sets per species appears to have great potential efficiency for analysis of degraded DNA without incorrect sequences.

A new genus, belonging to the tribe Hemicrepidini of subfamily Dendrometrinae, from Taiwan is established. The new genus is compared to their related eight genera occurring in Taiwan by cladistic analysis based on diagnostic characters used in generic level.

Histeridae is a family of beetles commonly known as clown beetles and hister beetles and approximately 3,900 species in 11 subfamily have been described to date. In Korea, up to days, 53 species of 22 genera of 6 subfamily of them have been recorded. They can be easily identified by their shortened elytra that leaves two of the seven tergites exposed, and their elbowed antennae with clubbed ends. Most members of hister beetles are predators and found in most kinds of decaying organic matter, such as droppings, decomposing bodies of animals, compost piles and other decaying plant materials. Some species are also used to control livestock pests that infest dung or to control house flies (Ôhara, 1994). Recently, we have collected several histerid species with Lindgren funner trap for the ecological research on the bark beetles. As a result of this study, we added three newly recorded species, Niponius osorioceps Lewis, 1885, Plegaderus (Plegaderus) marseuli Reitter, 1877 and Trypeticus fagi (Lewis, 1884) to Korean fauna. In this presentation, diagnosis and photographs of characters for each species are presented.

In traditional taxonomy on the family Cantharidae, color pattern of the body and the structure of the male genitalia have been often used as diagnostic characters in identification of the specific level. However, these characters caused the difficulty in identifying the female in case a species was described only by male specimens or has the several color types among individuals. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the species reality of Asiopodabrus fragiliformis which was often difficult to be identified due to individual variation in color pattern and lack of information of female, through searching for new morphological diagnostic characters as well as DNA barcoding analysis, including their closely relative species from Russia and Japan. The results showed that A. fragiliformis was represented as three clusters strongly supported by high value of boots trap (>99%) and over 3% branch length. The pairwise distances between species of Asiopodabrus were detected larger, ranged from 3.4–9.5%, than the intragroup distance ranged from 0–2.9% indicating presence of a barcoding gap. And then, the three clusters were respectively determined as A. fragiliformis, A. kurvatovi and a new species through the analysis of morphology and COI gene. Therefore, we suggest that the species delineation on polymorphic species and the female specimens of closely resembling species would be more exactly and effectively determined if DNA barcoding and the traditional taxonomy are used as complementary methods for identification.

DNA barcode is known to be successfully applied in identification on the members of Insecta. In recent studies, however, it was known that the DNA approach may fail in several taxa with following cases: (1) very recent speciation and hybridization, (2) recent diverged groups with complex gene histories, (3) the spread of maternally transmitted bacteria, (4) adding more than one geographical race and at least one congener, (5) different levels of dispersal. In this study, we taxonomically review on the Korean Hatchiana using the morphological data and DNA barcodes. In morphology, they are distinct from each other by the characteristics of body coloration, eye, pronotum, scutellum, and aedeagus. In molecular data, however, the interspecific sequence distance ranged from 0.0-3.4%. This result is caused by H. glochidiatus, of which the sequence divergence is 0.2-2.8% in H. rosinae, 0.8-2.6% in H. baekripoensis, and 0.0-3.3% in H. jirisanensis. Also, H. glochidiatus produces mixed-clusters with H. rosinae and H. jirisanensis in NJ phenogram. Through this presentation, therefore, we discuss on why the four Korean Hatchiana species distinct by morphological characters produce mixed-clusters in DNA barcoding.