The balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) has been used as food material and traditional medicine in Asia. Using 1,603 valid patents from 6 countries, we analyzed the patent trend based on year, countries, applicants, and technology. The technologies are categorized into 6 groups which include material, additives, manufacture, cultivation, breeding and seed. The technology competitiveness of countries were analyzed with quantitative factors such as cites per patent, patent impact index, patent family size and technology strength. In comparison with other countries in the patent index, South Korea shows an increasing trend in patent numbers and total leverage ability, although the individual technology is lower than Japan and USA. Our study provides information on technical trend to support the performance of new projects on balloon flower.

The rice recombinant inbred lines derived from Milyang23 and Gihobyeo cross were used in genetic mapping and QTL analysis studies. In this study, we developed a new 101 CAPS markers based on the SNPs in the whole genome region between these varieties. As a result, the total genetic distance and average distances were 1,696.97 cM and 3.64 cM, respectively. In comparison to the distance of the previous genetic map constructed based on 365 DNA markers, the new genetic map was found to have a decreased distance. The map was applied for the detection of QTLs on all seven traits relevant to diameter of stem internode, length of culms, length of panicles and the number of panicles including the correlation analysis between each trait. The QTLs results were similar to the report in previous studies, whereas the distance between the markers was narrowed and accuracy increased with the addition of 101 CAPS markers. A total of 9 new QTLs were detected for stem internode traits. Among them, qI1D-6 had higher LOD of 5.1 and phenotype variation of 50.92%. In this experiment, a molecular map was constructed with CAPS markers using next generation sequencing showing high accuracy for markers and QTLs. In the future, developing more accurate QTL information on stem internode diameters with various agriculturally important traits will be possible for further rice breeding.

Perilla is a annual herb plant of the mint family, Laminaceae and mainly cultivated in eastern Asia, i.e. Korea, China and Japan. In response to an increased interest for healthy supplement food from the public, people are focusing on the properties of perilla. The applicable parts of perilla plants are the leaves and seeds. Perilla has been cultivated as a source of unsaturated fatty acid oil. But in spite of advantage of the important nutritional traits the genome or molecular studies on perilla remains largely unknown. Sequence comparisons of chloroplast (cp) genomes or nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) are of great important to provide a evidence for taxonomic studies or species identification or understanding mechanisms that underlie the evolution of perilla species. So, we tried to study a structural analysis of perilla genome and 45s nrDNA using 9 species (3 Diploid; Perilla B-17, P. hirtella, P. setoyensis / 6 Tetraploid; YCPL 285, YCPL 170, YCPL 205-1, YCPL 181-1, YCPL 177-1, YCPL 207-1). The complete cp genome and nrDNA of 9 perilla species were determined using Illumina sequencing technology and analyzed on the variance in base level between perilla B-17 and salvia miltiorrhiza. Total chloroplast genome size of perilla B-17 as a reference was 152,589 bp in length. We also identified an slightly overlapped intergenic regions between salvia miltiorrhiza and B-17. The results above will contribute to growing of molecular or genome structure and functional genomics of perilla available in studying perilla biology. For further study, we will look for genetic diversity of perilla species.

The next-generation sequencing(NGS) technology is being used for more effective genetic mapping. In previous study, we obtained 60x coverage of sequence from Milyang23 and Gihobyeo on average comparing with Nipponbare reference genome. Also, we developed new derived cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence(dCAPS) markers based on the single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) in coding region sequence(CDS) between these varieties. Totally, 1,726,798 SNPs between Milyang23 and Gihobyeo were detected. Among them, 146 SNP were selected for making dCAPS markers and located on genetic map with previously reported 219 PCR-based DNA markers. The map was applied to the detection of quantitative trait loci(QTLs) for stem internode diameters, culm length and panicle length within MGRIL population, and six QTLs with relatively high LOD score were found at three chromosomes; culm length and stem diameter including the first internode diameter, third and fourth internode diameter. This study showed that the NGS allowed the rapid discovery of a large number of SNPs for dCAPS marker. So, we tried to find out more single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) which were located on the whole genome sequence, such as un-translated region(UTR), intron, Inter-region and coding region sequence(CDS) between Milyang23 and Gihobyeo varieties. And we collected phenotypic information about culm length, panicle length, four stem internode diameters and panicle number in rice MGRIL population for QTLs. Furthermore, results of QTL analysis described above will shows relevance of molecular markers in mapping genes for useful breeding.