Genetic background and phylogenetic relationships among 20 Korean wheat cultivars were assessed using microsatellites after amplifying with 13 SSR primer pairs. Average allele number per primer pair was 3.36. Genetic similarities for every pair of cultivars ranged from 0.42 to 0.97, with 0.69 of overall average. Korean cultivars were divided into two major groups based on microsatellite DNA polymorphisms. Group I consisted of relatively old cultivars developed until 1970s, and group II contained the recent cultivars developed during 1980s and 1990s. Amongst old elite cultivars/lines, ‘Yukseung 3’, ‘Norin 12’ and ‘Norin 72’ contributed most to the genetic background of cultivars belonging to group I, and ‘Norin 4’, ‘Norin 12’, ‘Norin 43’ and ‘Norin 72’ to group II, respectively. The phylogenetic relationship of Korean wheat cultivars was in accordance with the genealogical data of each cultivar. The genetic background of each cultivar was assessed from the point of breeding and germplasm management such as variety identification and duplicated accessions for assisting in developing a system for the registration of new variety based on the molecular characterization in future.

This study was conducted to investigate the possibility that oil seed rape could be used as a forage fodder crop and to select the most suitable variety of forage rape at the southern area of Korea, Two varieties of oil seed rape currently grown for oil production and six introduced varieties of forage rape with relatively high yield and high nutritional value were grown at the same condition and their nutritional value were observed in Spring. Generally, rape was considered as a useful forage fodder crop with high content of crude protein and low contents of NDF, ADF, hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin. Differences in mean values of the above characters between two groups of rape were not statistically significant. Velox showed significantly higher content of crude protein and significantly lower contents of NDF, ADF, hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin compared with other varieties of forage rape in spring. Rape was relatively high in IVDMD compared with other forage fodder crops, and forage rape was more or less in IVDMD and DDMW than oil seed rape. Velox was the highest in IVDMD and DDMW among the varieties of forage rape in Spring, in this experiment.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of herbicides on weed control, growth characteristics and yield in flax, after direct seeding it to the field, the herbicides treated had no effect on the emergence period. The major weeds were decreased some what more with mecoprop-wp, herbicide than the other herbicides and by hand weeding. Mecoprop-wp and simazin-wp were had no injury but sethoxydim-EC and 2.4-D-wp were slighthy harmful for the flax with recommended concentration, On the other hand, all herbicides were harmful in the double dosage level

New thornless cultivar of castor aralia(Kalopanax septemlobus Koidz.) was developed and selected in Cheongsong, Prov. of GyeongSangbuk-do during the period from 1994 to 1999 by Korea Forest Research Institute(KFRI). The new thornless cultivar, "Cheongsong II" is characterized by a thinner outer-bark and soft, wider leaves, and is particularly characterized by thornless stems. This cultivar has a thinner outer-bark(8.82mm) when compared with thorned type trees(13.95mm). It also has a larger leaves than does thorned type trees. Consequently, the new thornless cultivar, "Cheongsong II" is defined to have thinner bark and longer and wider leaves than do other thorned type trees. thorned type trees.

We characterized the resistances such as to waterlogging, Phytophythora and viruses in hybrids between Italian and Korean mother lines and screened them for complex resistances and agronomic traits to select elite multi-resistant lines for hybrid breeding. Resistance to waterlogging was selectable due to diversity of the resistance. Phytophythora resistance introduced from Italian lines could also be combined with resistance to other diseases and restoration abilities from cytoplasmic male sterility that has been maintained in Korean varieties.

Co-segregation of male fertility with DNA markers selected by RAPD analysis as being potentially linked to the restorer gene (Rf) for Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) was analyzed using segregating F2 population. One RAPD marker directly linked to the Rf locus was identified. Amplification of OPT-02/570 using the STS primers generated a monomorphic band of each fertile plants randomly selected F2 progenies. From these results, this specific marker would be strongly linked to be restoring gene. The use of STS marker is effective in overcoming the reliability of the RAPD phenotype and improving their utility for MAS, co-dominant STS markers are especially very useful.

Frequent occurrence of off-type plants in a given cultivar has been a serious problem in both breeder's and farmer's fields. An experiment was designed to examine the differences in rate of occurrence of off-type plants among Tongil-type cultivars (high yielding cultivars derived from indica/japonica hybridization) from which the possible cause of higher occurrence of off-type plant in a specific cultivar was deduced. Among five Tongil-type cultivars examined for morphological variant in the field, only one cultivar, Dasanbyeo, had off-type plants. When analyzed with SSR markers, off-type plants showed different band patterns from original cultivar, having several extra bands in addition to cultivar-specific band, suggesting that off-type plants were originated from Dasanbyeo, rather than originated from mixing or mishandling of seed materials with other cultivars. The possible cause of off-type occurrence seems to be natural pollination with other cuItivars adjacent to the original cultivar during seed multiplication. This was supported from the observation that self-crossed progeny of the off type plants showed a wide range of variation of agronomic traits which could not be observed when there was a smaller introduction of genes to the fixed germplasm as happened in the case of cultivar mutation. Another evidence supported this idea that Dasanbyeo showed much of difference in floral organ and behavior to other cultivar to be subjected to higher out-crossing than other cultivars examined.

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) accumulate in the leaves of barley during cold acclimation, where they may inhibit ice recrystallization and produce freezing resistance of the plant. Four parental diallel crosses of the barley varieties were used to determine the heritability of AFPs and the relationship between the accumulation level of AFPs and freezing resistance. The concentration of apoplastic proteins in the cold-acclimated leaves was increased in the mean by four-fold over as compared with that of nonacclimated. The diallel cross analyses revealed that the gene of Sacheon 6 was dominant and those of Reno and Dongbori 1 were recessive. The AFPs had high narrow-sense heritabilities. The general combining ability effects of Reno and Dongbori 1 were much higher than the other parents. The bands of 32-kD for GLP, 35-& 28-kD for CLP and 25-, 22- & 16-kD for TLP were observed in the apoplastic extracts from cold-acclimated plants, but there were no clear differences between the parents and Fl hybrids. The concentrations of AFPs were significantly correlated with the degree of freezing resistance, indicating that the concentration of AFPs in the plant is the very important factor for freezing resistance.

Activate charcoal (AC) can be utilized as a soil conditioner in agricultural crop areas. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of AC on growth and yield of Zingiber mioga ROSC as affected by different amounts of AC. The results obtained are summarized as follows. Growth characteristics including plant height and leaf length were the highest when activated charcoal added with 10-30%, suggesting that optimum amount of activated charcoal was ranged from 10 to 30%. Growth and enlargement of the root were improved by 10% AC with higher rhizome length and weight.

Many higher fungi were collected at Mt.Sunun, Mt.Kangchon and Mt.Moak from June, 1991 to April, 2003. They were identified and surveyed with references. According to the result, Cordyceps clavata, C. cocciniocapite, C. ryougamimontanna, C. tuberculate J. moelleri and C. yakushimensis are unrecorded species to Korea. They were designed Korean common names by authors. Common names: Cordyceps clavata, C. cocciniocapite, C. ryougamimontanna, C. tuberculate f moelleri, C. yakushimensis, unrecorded species, common names.