Colletotrichum acutatum J. H. Simmonds is an important fungal pathogen that causes anthracnose disease in crops. In this study, 59 C. acutatum isolates from regions in South Korea were collected and phenotypically compared. The average colony diameters of isolates from Gyeongsangbuk-do, Chungcheongbuk-do, and Gangwon-do were 4.36 cm, 4.24 cm, and 4.38 cm, respectively, following 6 days of growth on V8 juice agar. The average conidium concentrations of the isolates from each province were 14.43, 12.83, and 10.17 × 104/mL after 7 days of growth on V8A. Amplified fragment length polymorphism(AFLP) analysis using three primer pairs identified 5 polymorphic bands and 56 monomorphic bands. Two polymorphic bands were identified using the E-ACC/M-CTT primer pair, one polymorphic band was identified using the E-ACG/M-CTG primer pair, and two polymorphic bands were identified using the E-ACG/M-CTT primer pair. A dendrogram was constructed using the AFLP data, and four clusters were identified.

The multicolored Asian lady beetles (Harmonia axyridis) has characteristic color patterns, which show great variability within species. Up to now, it has been well known that main factors affected on individual color pattern variations in the population of H. axyridis are external, physical, and environmental characteristics. Indeed, there is as yet no evidence to indicate whether the variation is genetic or environmental factors. Also the factors which produce this variation are unknown in this species, although it is suspected that much of the variation is under genetic control. However, the genetic relationships among many of color types were investigated by observing the progeny of each particular pairs. It is worth mentioning a few particular breeding cases to illustrate certain facets of variability, and to indicate examples suitable for genetic analysis of the color pattern variation.

Background : Carotenoids are pigments that are found in plants, fruits, bacteria, and fungi. β -carotene and canthaxanthin are orange pigments among thousands of carotenoids that possess potent antioxidant activity. The objective of this study was to determine β-carotene and cantaxanthin in 55 Kimchi cabbage germplasm using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method. Method and Results : 55 Kimchi cabbage accessions were sown in plug trays in the end of August, 2016. All the tissue samples were freeze-dried for 1 week and ground into fine powder and stored at -20℃ until analysis. Crude carotenoids from freeze-dried materials (100 mg) were extracted using 1 ㎖ of 100% (v/v) hexane in 10 minutes by using sonication bath followed by centrifugation. The average β-carotene contents was 1.43 ㎎·㎏-1 and ranged from 0.76 (IT 120045) to 2.25 ㎎·㎏-1 (IT 100378). The average canthaxanthin content in the entire domain of sample was 0.59 ㎎·㎏-1 with a range between 0.36 (IT 32746) and 1.08 ㎎․㎏-1 (IT 100386). Canthaxanthin content was significantly positively correlated with β-carotene (r = 0.65**) and leaf length (r = 0.63**). However, canthaxanthin was negatively correlated with cotyledon color (r = -0.41**). Principal component analysis results of the first two components (PC1 and PC2) explained 44.53% of the point variability. Conclusion : The resources with the highest β-carotene and canthaxanthin content are IT 100378, 100386, 100391, and 110828. This study could be useful to select a potential sources of health beneficial carotenoids (β-carotene and canthaxanthin) in Kimchi cabbage germplasm in nutraceutical formulations and for further applications as a breeding material and other research activities.

Lettuce is an important annual leafy vegetable and bitterness is its potent flavor character. Lettuce germplasm differ their phenotypic characters and sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) contents which are important for consumer’s acceptance. This study was carried out to evaluate the phenotypic characters and SLs contents in one hundred lettuce germplasm in Jeonju, Korea. Twenty-three agro-morphological (16 qualitative and 7 quantitative) traits and two SLs (lactucin and lactucopicrin) contents were studied in these germplasm. Germplasm exhibited the variation in qualitative and quantitative characters. Average plant weight was 423.9 g with a range from 116.0 to 905.0 g. Lactucin content was varied from 19.7 (IT 294226) to 194.4 ㎍/g (IT 294298) with an average concentration of 84.7 ㎍/g. Lactucopicrin ranged from 82.5 (IT 300134) to 2228.6 ㎍/g (IT 294210) with an average concentration of 586.3 ㎍/g. Total SLs content was ranged from 120.1 (IT 300134) to 2286.6 (IT 294210) ㎍/g with the average concentration of 671.0 ㎍/g. Significant (p≤0.05) differences were found between crisp head and butter head germplasm for lactucin, lactucopicrin and total SLs content. Crisp head germplasm revealed the highest average lactucin (112.9 ㎍/g), lactucopicrin (734.8 ㎍/g) and total SLs content (847.7 ㎍/g). Crisp head and leafy type germplasm exhibited more total SLs content (847.7 and 744.7 ㎍/g, respectively) than cos (524.9 ㎍/g) and butter head type (519.4 ㎍/g). Principal component analyses of the quantitative traits indicated that the first principal component axis accounted more than 91% of the total variation. This study revealed the ample genetic variation in the agro-morphological traits and SLs contents to support the selection for improved lettuce varieties.

Mutant analysis is one of most optimized genome-wide approach towards acquiring utile phenotypes and defining related genes. Gamma-irradiation, an acknowledged way of mutant-generating method, was applied to gain sets of mutant line in Brachypodium distachyon. B. distachyon is a model plant, commonly used in genus of Gramineae for the research of structure genomics and functional genomics. B. distachyon contribute to rapid and easy analysis because of its small size and quick growth. Mutant population was generated by different doses of gamma-irradiation (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 Gy) in the gamma field phytotron. Distance from the source gives same irradiation duration for each plant. Plant growth parameters such as plant height, tiller number, leaf length & width, internode number & diameter, maturity and yield components (ear number biomass) were scored on M0 plants. Plant responses to different doses of radiation are evaluated and the effective radiation dosages to generate mutant using gamma-phytotron are suggested. Chronic irradiation using gamma-phytotron is useful tool to generate mutants for genomic variations such as SNP or INDEL as well as suitable for functional study of genes in Gramineae.

Acifluorfen-tolerant callus lines of Solanum ptycanthum were isolated by stepwise selection. Growth of the unselected line was completely inhibited at 0.5 uM. while some selected lines grew at 8 uM acifluorfen. Twenty-two of twenty-five acifluorfen-tolerant callus lines regenerated shoots. Many of the regenerated somaclones were variants, differing in leaf shape, leaf color, number of flower parts, flower color, and fertility. The acifluorfen tolerant S. ptycanthum callus lines differed.