We present project updates of the next-generation infrared space mission SPICA (Space Infrared Tele- scope for Cosmology and Astrophysics) as of November 2015. SPICA is optimized for mid- and far-infrared astronomy with unprecedented sensitivity, which will be achieved with a cryogenically cooled (below 8 K), large (2.5 m) telescope. SPICA is expected to address a number of key questions in various fields of astrophysics, ranging from studies of the star-formation history in the universe to the formation and evolution of planetary systems. The international collaboration framework of SPICA has been revisited. SPICA under the new framework passed the Mission Definition Review by JAXA in 2015. A proposal under the new framework to ESA is being prepared. The target launch year in the new framework is 2027/28.

The small brown planthopper (SBPH), Laodelphax striatellus Fallén (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) is one of the major insect pest against rice, Oryza sativa L. in Korea. High density of SBPH could cause severe damage on rice plant by directly sucking and indirectly transmitting viral pathogens, Rice stripe virus and Rice streaked dwarf virus. As a preliminary study for de novo whole-genome sequencing of SBPH, we investigated 6 transcriptomes isolated from different developmental stages, sex, and tissue (egg, 1st ~ 3rd nymphs, 4th ~ 5th nymphs, female and male adults, salivary gland). Clean-sequence data of 19.3 Gb were obtained from total 47.8 Gb raw data after adaptor and quality trimming (Q30) and overlapped reads joining. As a suitable assembler, Bridger was selected based on the results of reference mapping (93.45%) and CEGMA completeness (95.97%). Finally, we obtained 158,207 reads (size range: 201 ~ 22,162 bp; Mean size: 1,048.04 bp; N50: 2,417 bp) after clustering the assembly results by CD-HIT-EST (similarity threshold: 99%). Based on these results, we are conducting further studies such as transcript expression pattern among different developmental stages and gene annotation.

We present the current status (as of August 2014) of SPICA (Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics), which is a mission optimized for mid- and far-infrared astronomy with a cryogenically cooled 3m-class telescope. SPICA is expected to achieve high spatial resolution and unprecedented sensitivity in the mid- and far-infrared, which will enable us to address a number of key problems in present-day astronomy, ranging from the star-formation history of the universe to the formation of planets. We have carried out the "Risk Mitigation Phase" activity, in which key technologies essential to the realization of the mission have been extensively developed. Consequently, technical risks for the success of the mission have been significantly mitigated. Along with these technical activities, the international collaboration framework of SPICA has been revisited, which resulted in la arger contribution from ESA than that in the original plan. To enable the ESA participation under the new framework, a SPICA proposal to ESA is under consideration as a medium-class mission under the framework of the ESA Cosmic Vision. The target launch year of SPICA under the new framework is the mid-2020s.

Next Generation Sequencing을 이용한 분석 서열을 기반으로 매미나방의 Microsatellite loci 탐색 및 marker 개발을 수행하였다. 매미나방의 Genomic DNA 서열 분석은 MiSeq Sequencer (Illumina)의 1/8 plate를 이용하여 실시하였다. 판독된 유전자 서열의 길이는 총 3,974,358,483 bp로 평균 248.58 bp로 구성된 총 15,988,036 개의 분석 단편이 확보되었으며, 이를 CLC workbench를 이용하여 총 367,397,618 bp로 조합하였다. 조합된 Genomic DNA 서열을 대상으로 반복서열길이 2~4 bp, 반복횟수 4회 이상의 조건으로 총 1,864 개의 Microsatellite loci를 탐색하였다. 이 중 반복횟수 6회 이상의 430 loci에 대한 marker 제작 가능성을 TM 55.5~56.5℃, GC contents 30% 이상, primer length 18~22 bp의 조건으로 Primer3을 이용하여 분석하였으며, 총 207 개의 marker를 제작하였다. 선별된 207개 marker 중 150개 마커에 대해 일반 올리고 primer set를 제작하여 PCR을 통한 유용성 평가를 실하였으며, 그 결과 총 29개의 마커에 대한 유효성이 확인되어 Genotyping 용 형광 dye인 FAM을 부착한 분석용 마커로 제작하였다. FAM을 부착한 마커에 대한 PCR 효율 검사를 통해 최종적으로 10개 마커를 선별하여 한국 4개 지역(Korea 1, Korea 22, Korea 26, Korea 31) 및 러시아(Vladivostok), 몽고(Shagaarnur) 각 1개 지역의 개체군을 대상으로 유전적 구조 분석을 수행하였다. 유전적 유사도를 평가하기 위하여 Fst Pairwise UPGMA tree를 분석한 결과, Korea 1과 러시아 개체군, Korea 22와 Korea 26 개체군의 유전적으로 유사도가 높은 것으로 나타났으며, Korea 31과 몽고 개체군은 유사도의 기부에 위치하는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 또한, Baysian Algorithm을 기반으로 한 유전적 구조 분석에서도 각 개체 및 개체군의 구조는 UPGMA tree 동일한 양상을 나타내는 것으로 확인되었다. 따라서, 현 연구를 통해 개발된 매미나방의 Microsatellite 마커는 한국을 비롯한 인근 지역의 지역적 개체군 분석을 가능하게 할 수 있을 것으로 판단되며, 결국 식물검역에서 매미나방의 유출 국가 및 지역에 대한 판별 분석에 유용할 수 있을 것이다.

Next Generation Sequencing을 이용한 분석 서열을 기반으로 매미나방의 Microsatellite loci 탐색 및 marker 개발을 수행하였다. 매미나방의 Genomic DNA 서열 분석은 MiSeq Sequencer (Illumina)의 1/8 plate를 이용하여 실시하였다. 판독 된 유전자 서열의 길이는 총 3,974,358,483 bp로 평균 248.58 bp로 구성된 총 15,988,036 개의 분석단편이 확보되었으며, 이를 CLC workbench를 이용하여 총 367,397,618 bp로 조합하였다. 조합된 Genomic DNA 서열을 대상으로 반복서열 길이 2~4 bp, 반복횟수 4회 이상의 조건으로 총 1,864 개의 Microsatellite loci를 탐 색하였다. 이 중 반복횟수 6회 이상의 430 loci에 대한 marker 제작 가능성을 TM 55.5~56.5℃, GC contents 30% 이상, primer length 18~22 bp의 조건으로 Primer3 을 이용하여 분석하였으며, 총 207 개의 marker를 제작하였다. 선별된 207개 marker 중 150개 마커에 대해 일반 올리고 primer set를 제작하여 PCR을 통한 유용 성 평가를 실하였으며, 그 결과 총 51개의 마커에 대한 유효성이 확인되어 Genotyping 용 형광 dye인 FAM을 부착한 분석용 마커로 제작하였다. 현재는 PCR 을 통한 결과만을 이용하여 유용성 평가를 실시하였다. 추후 분석용 마커를 이용하 여 Genotyping을 통한 유용성 평가를 수행할 예정이다. 주요 검역 해충으로 알려져 있는 매미나방의 Microsatellite 마커의 개발은 한국을 비롯한 인근 지역의 지역적 개체군 분석을 가능하게 할 수 있을 것으로 판단되며, 결국 식물검역에서 매미나방 의 유출 국가 및 지역에 대한 판별 분석에 유용할 수 있을 것이다.

㈜넥스컴스는 항공, 방산산업에서 주도적으로 일하던 젊은이들이 뜻을 모아 2003년 5월에 설립되었다. 넥스컴스는 회사가 설립된 이래로 수많은 업체 및 연구기관과의 연구·개발을 통하여 복합재료 시장이 요구하는 제품을 생산해 왔으며, 현재도 복합재료 관련 제품에 대한 문의 및 제안의 발길이 끊임없이 이어지고 있어 앞날이 기대되는 벤쳐기업이다. 우수한 기술력 및 풍부한 경험을 바탕으로 고객의 신뢰를 쌓아가고 있는 현재, 세계적 이슈인 신소재 사업에 활기를 불어 넣어줄 것이 틀림없다.

The rapid advances in next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have brought about huge improvement in sequencing throughput for affordable prices and revolutionized genomics researches. Nowadays, whole genome draft sequence for mid-sized genomes such as insects' can be obtained in a couple of months. And the gene space in action can be easily determined by whole transcriptome sequencing, even when the reference genome sequence is not available. In this workshop, experiences at Macrogen with NGS technology for whole genome sequencing and whole transcriptome sequencing will be presented focusing on insect researches, employing Illumina Hiseq2000 and/or Roche 454 platforms.

Chironomus riparius, a non-biting midge (Chironomidae, Diptera), is extensively used in aquatic ecotoxicological studies for assessing acute and sub-lethal toxicities of contaminated sediments and for water monitoring due to their widespread occurrence, short life-cycle, easy to be reared in the laboratory, physiological tolerance to various environmental conditions. To date, the endpoints used for monitoring such effects in C. riparius are based on a small number of specific biomarkers and measurements of organism level effects, such as survival and reproduction. Genomic-based techniques based on expression analysis of genes are important tools for investigating molecular level effects caused by exposure to environmental pollutants, which will provide the ability to detect mechanisms of action and subsequent adverse cellular level effects and associated with different types of toxicity. As a pre-requisite for genomic based ecotoxicological studies knowledge on the C. riparius transcriptome is important but despite its ecotoxicological importance, no large scale transcriptome analysis of C. riparius has been done so far. Therefore, to gain a better understanding of C. riparius transcriptome, we recently developed Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) sequencing project on C. riparius larvae using 454 pyrosequencing. Sequencing runs, using normalized cDNA collections from fourth instar larvae, yielded 20,020 expressed sequence tags, which were assembled into 8,565 contigs and 11,455 singletons. Sequence analysis was performed by BlastX search against the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) nucleotide (nr) and uniprot protein database. Based on the gene ontology classifications, 24% (E-value ≤1-5) of the sequences had known gene functions, 24% had unknown functions and 52% of sequences did not match any known sequences in the existing database. Sequence comparison revealed 81% of the genes have homologous genes among other insects belonging to the order Diptera providing tools for comparative genome analyses. Targeted searches using these annotations identified genes associated with essential metabolic pathways, signaling pathways, detoxification of toxic metabolites and stress response genes of ecotoxicological interest. The results obtained from this study would eventually make ecotoxicogenomics possible in a truly environmentally relevant species, C. riparius. Various C. riparius ecotoxicity studies using stress response genes developed from 454 sequencing will be presented in the conference.

With the advent of the genomics era powered by DNA sequencing technologies, life science is being transformed significantly and biological research and development have been accelerated. Environmental biology concerns the relationships among living organisms and their natural environment, which constitute the global biogeochemical cycle. As sustainability of the ecosystems depends on biodiversity, examining the structure and dynamics of the biotic constituents and fully grasping their genetic and metabolic capabilities are pivotal. The high-speed highthroughput next-generation sequencing can be applied to barcoding organisms either thriving or endangered and to decoding the whole genome information. Furthermore, diversity and the full gene complement of a microbial community can be elucidated and monitored through metagenomic approaches. With regard to human welfare, microbiomes of various human habitats such as gut, skin, mouth, stomach, and vagina, have been and are being scrutinized. To keep pace with the rapid increase of the sequencing capacity, various bioinformatic algorithms and software tools that even utilize supercomputers and cloud computing are being developed for processing and storage of massive data sets. Environmental genomics will be the major force in understanding the structure and function of ecosystems in nature as well as preserving, remediating, and bioprospecting them.