Tyrophagus putrescentiae (Tp) as a storage mite inhabitats in stored grains, hay, and straw at agricultural areas. T. putrescentiae stimulates an immune response and triggers inflammatory cytokines release, and thus it is a source of allergen that sensitize and induce allergic reactions. Also, T. putrescentiae has been reported to cause asthma and atopic disease by cross-reactivity with Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Dp). The study on T. putrescentiae in human monocytic THP-1 cells is not enough to understand cytokine expression and pathological mechanisms. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of T. putrescentiae extract (TpE) on production of inflammatory cytokines and expression of mRNA level in THP-1 cells. THP-1 cells are treated with TpE and supernatants were analyzed for the production of cytokines using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). mRNA level in the culture cells was measured by a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). As a result of this study, TpE significantly induced secretion of interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) in THP-1 cells in time- and dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that TpE may play a role in contributing to inflammatory disease through stimulation of immune cell. Further research of T. putrescentiae is needed to understand the elucidation of the pathogenic mechanism.

To investigate genes differentially expressed in the venom of social and solitary wasps, a comparative transcriptome analysis was conducted. Subtractive expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries specific to the venom gland and sac (gland/sac) of a social wasp species, Vespa tropica and a solitary hunting wasp species, Rhynchium brunneum, was constructed by suppression subtractive hybridization. In BLASTx analysis, 41% and 56% of the total ESTs showed statistically best-matched hits (E ≤ 10-4) in the libraries of V. tropica and R. brunneum, respectively. Although the functional category analysis did not show remarkable differences in the distribution of functional categories between the two venom gland/sac cDNA libraries, perhaps due to the lack of functional information on many of the venom components, there were groups of genes that are specific to either V. tropica or R. brunneum. Venom allergen 5 and serine protease were found to be social wasp-specific venom transcripts. In contrast, venom peptides, metalloendopeptidases, arginine kinase and dendrotoxin were observed in solitary wasp at much higher frequencies.

Early onset torsion dystonia is caused by mutations in DYT1 gene in humans. The molecular and cellular etiology underlying this disorder is not still understood yet. Because vertebrates have more than 4 homologs in their genomes, it is very hard to elucidate the exact in vivo functions of Torsin1A. Instead, Drosophila has only one homolog named Torsin. To investigate the in vivo functions of Torsin, we generated and characterized transgenic flies expressing coding regions of Drosophial Torsin (DTor) cDNA or double stranded inhibitory DNA constructs (RNAi). The transgenic expression of DTor cDNA or RNAi in all tissue induced significant changes in DTor proteins levels as well as ability of motor controls. In addition, DTor over-expressing flies showed increased resistance to H2O2 or paraquat. In the future study, we will found how those phenotypes were accomplished by performing various experiments.

Genus Litochila Momoi belonging to the tribe Hemigasterini is represented by eight species from Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan and India. Modern taxonomic revision of this genus was carried out by Kaur (1988). He and Chen (1996) enlarged the genus by adding one species, L. guizhouensis He & Chen from the oriental part of China. They provided a key to Chinese species and descriptions without including L. sinensis Kaur which was previously reported from Fujian, China by Kaur (1988). As a part of a large revisionary work of the subfamily Cryptinae, four species, L. nohirai (Uchida), L. carbonaria (Smith), L. jezonica (Uchida) and L. sinensis, are recognized from Korea. L. carbonaria. L. sinensis and L. jezonica are reported from Korea for the first time. The species L. guizhouensis is synonymized with L. sinensis. The distinction of females of two closely resembling species, L. carbonaria and L. jezonica, is possible by the number of flagellar segments, the shape of mesopleurum and second tergite, but males are difficult to identify. Momoi and Okamoto (1965) relied on the number of tyloids to identify them, and Kaur (1988) used the shape of postpetiole except for such character. However, our observations revealed these characters are not useful in relating these males, because many variations were found in these characters. Therefore, further DNA studies will be required to resolve this controversy.

Tribe Banchini isa cosmopolitan tribe comprising 228 species within 11 genera whereas only three genera (Banchus, Exetastes and Rynchobanchus) have been recorded from Korea. The species of this tribe is koinobiont endoparacitoid that parasitize exposed large caterpillars, especially those pupating in the ground. For this reason, tribe Banchini has very short ovipositor when compared with that of other tribe. It is easily distinguished from two other tribes by the nervellus which is intercepted far from the middle and by having large areolet and very short ovipositor. Genus Exetastes belonging to Banchini is a largest group with 150 worldwide species. The Eastern Palaearctic region is represented by 48 species, but only five species, E. albiger Kriechbaumer, E. fornicator (Fabricius), E. ichneumoniformis (Gravenhorst), E. ishikawensis (Uchida) and E. komarovi Kokujev have been reported from Korea. Exetastes is distinguished from two other genera by the presence of prepectal carina and by having pointed upper tooth of mandible. The objectives of this work is to review the genus Exetastes and to report two unrecorded species (E. longipes Uchida and E. sapponensis Uchida) from Korea. Here we provide the diagnosises and photographs of Korean Exetastes species.

Trombiculid mites are known to be the vector of tsutsugamushi disease by transmitting Orientia tsutsugamushi to human. Although the classification of trombiculid mites is necessary for vector surveillance, their classification by morphological observation is only possible at the larval stage and not easy because of similar shapes as well as tiny body sizes. Further the classification need the specimen production process, it takes much time and the accuracy of classification is changed according to the technology of the researcher. The internal transcribed spacers (ITS) regions of 8 trombiculid mite species were analyzed by amplification using tick common ITS primer sets. We designed molecular marker sets for the identification of five Leptotrombidium species, the lengths of marker L. orientale (1078 bp), L. pallidum (820 bp), L. palpale (1202 bp), L. scutellare (447 bp) and for L. zetum (621 bp) and three Neotrombicula species, the lengths of marker N. gardellai (264 bp), N. japonica (460 bp) and N. kwangneungensis (309 bp) based on alignment of ITS sequences. The markers will be helpful for exact classification of trombiculid mites. This study is the first report on molecular marker of ITS regions of trombiculid mites.

The little sized ant species, Vollenhovia emeryi Wheeler (Hymenoptera: Myrmicinae) is the only species belonging to genus Vollenhovia in South Korea, and it is endemic in East Asia encompassing Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan and has recently invaded into North America. In this species, the queen caste shows polymorphism in its wing form, the queen with normal wings called the long-winged (L) queen and short-winged (S) queen with aberrant small wings, and the two morphs are thought not to coexist in nature, however the morphology of workers and males of the two wing morphs are indistinguishable. We obtained a L gyne from a S colony that had been maintained in the laboratory. In addition, we compared the genome size of entire castes of the two wing morphs using flowcytometry. Our results confirm that the two wing morphs are obviously the same species, and moreover, the wing morph may be determinated by the epigenetical process.

Cicinela chinensis (Coleoptera : Cicindelidae) is usually distributed from Asian countries; Korea, Vietnam, China and Japan. In larval stage, they make hole on ground and eat small insects that pass over the hole, adult also predator on other small insects and they can move fast. They have regional morphological variation, usually variations were showed in elytral pattern and body colors. There are four subspecies, Cicindela chinensis chinensis, Cicindela chinensis flammifera, Cicindela chinensis japonica and Cicindela chinensis okinawana in Cicindela chinensis all of the world. Because of a lot of variation in elytra pattern and body color, identification of Cicindela chinensis is difficult. Therefore to know the distinct differences, comparison analysis by DNA sequence in COI gene was examined. In this paper COI comparison analysis of Cicindela chienesis from different location was examined. Also COI comparison analysis of species with different elytra pattern and body color collected in same location was done. Although they have different color pattern is same region, the result of COI sequence was same. Otherwise, although they have same color pattern in other regions, the result of COI sequence was different.

We investigated the prevalence of severe fever with thrombocytopenia- syndrome virus (SFTSV) and geographical distribution of ixodid ticks from 25 regions of the Korea during 2011-2012. We collected 25,940 ixodid ticks with 3 genera and 7 species using dry ice bait trap and flagging. Among them, Genus Haemaphysalis, Ixodes and Amblyomma counted 25,821 (99.5%), 118 (0.5%) and 1 (<0.0%). Genus Haemaphysalis consisted of 4 species, H. longicornis (90.4%), H. flava (9.2%), H. formosensis and H. hystricis (<0.1%). Genus Ixodes consisted of 2 species, I. nippoenesis (0.4%) and I. persulcatus (0.1%). Only one Amblyomma testudinarium was collected. The highly infested sites were grassland (50.1%) and mixed stand forest (20.3%). Minimum infection rate (MIR) of SFTSV in H. longicornis was 0.5% in Korea and this rate was similar to that in China (0.46%). Our results showed that H. longicornis is a major vector of SFTSV and its surveillance will be needed at high risk area.

We conducted a investigation for dispersal ability of Aedes albopictus, a dengue vector mosquito, using mark-release-recapture method in Korea. A certain number of fluorescence marked Ae. albopictus was released in four different habitats – urban (Cheonan), suburban (Jochiwon), port (Pyeongtaek), and airport (Cheongju), and sticky traps and BG-traps were used to recapture the mosquito in designated time period. In case of urban and suburban areas, 100 sticky traps were used in 3-week period for both regions, and 19 BG-traps and 15 BG-traps were used in 36-hour period for urban and suburban areas respectively. Using sticky trap, 21 from 1,300 released mosquitoes (1.62%) were recaptured in urban area; while in suburban area, only 2 individuals (0.1%) were recaptured. Most of them were recaptured within 100m from releasing point and about 40% were within 20m distance. When BG-traps were used, 35 from 900 released mosquitoes (3.8%) were recaptured in urban area; while 26 mosquitoes (2.8%) were recaptured in suburban area. The maximum distance of dispersal was 200m in urban and 100m in suburban area, while most of them were recaptured in 50 ~ 80m range. In case of port and airport area, 15 and 10 BG-traps were used respectively to recapture 1,000 released mosquitoes in 5-day period. In port area, 23 mosquitoes (2.3%) were recaptured; while 166 mosquitoes (16.6%) were recaptured in airport area. The maximum distance of dispersal was 130m in both areas; while most of them were recaptured in 50m range. In conclusion, Ae. albopictus has a narrow dispersal range compared to other mosquitoes, a typical characteristic of genus Aedes, and their dispersal ability is greatly affected by various environmental factors. These results can provide basic information for effective prevention of Ae. albopictus and overseas inflow of dengue fever.

Insects have a protective exoskeleton consisted with cuticle to adapt various environments and pathogens. Insect cuticle mainly composed of the polysaccharide chitin and numerous of cuticular proteins (CPs). CPs are important for insect cuticle formation, development, and growth because it produces proper combination of mechanical and physical properties of cuticle depend on the regions of an exoskeleton. The largest family of CPs contains a 28-residue motif known as the Rebers-Riddiford (R&R) consensus sequence. When sequences containing the R&R consensus are aligned, they fall into three groups based on sequence similarity, and these groups tend to correlate with the type of cuticle (soft or hard) from which the proteins are derived. Proteins with the RR-1 motif have been found primarily in soft cuticle, whereas many proteins from rigid cuticle have an extended region of similarity called RR-2. We recently reportedthat two major CPs, TcCPR18 and TcCPR27 belong to RR-2, are essential for formation of highly sclerotized modified-forewings (elytra) of a beetle. In this study, we performed functional genomics of TcCPR4, which encodes RR-1 motif. The transcript levels of TcCPR4 drastically increased in 3 d-old pupae at when adult cuticle synthesis appears to be begun. Immunohistochemical studies revealed that TcCPR4 protein was detected in the rigid cuticle of elyton and ventral abdomen but not in the flexible cuticle of hindwing and dorsal abdomen of T. castaneum adult. Furthermore, TcCPR4 protein was specifically present at basal side of the procuticle (near the epidermal cells) and vertical canals, whereas TcCPR27 protein was found entire procuticle. Injection of double-stranded RNA of TcCPR4 (dsTcCPR4) into late instar larvae had no effect on development and any types of molting such as larval-larval, larval-pupal or pupal-adult. Interestingly, depletion of both TcCPR4 and TcCPR27 transcripts could rescue the elytral cuticle defect and mortality produced by injection of dsTcCPR27 alone. Transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed that depletion of TcCPR4 had abnormal vertical canals in rigid adult cuticle while dsTcCPR27 injection showed less electron-dense-horizontal laminae and vertical canals. Surprisingly, co-injection of dsRNA for TcCPR4 and TcCPR27 exhibited more severe cuticle defect with thinner elytral cuticle and abnormal vertical canals and chtin laminae compared to those from insects treated with dsRNA for each gene. These results suggest that TcCPR4 as a RR-1 is essential structural component in the rigid cuticle of T. castaneum adult.

The Cerambycidae is a very diverse family in Chrysomeloidea (Insecta: Coleoptera), and the members are commonly called as longhorn beetles, long-horned beetles or longicorn beetles. The family is comprised of approximately 25,000 described species in nine subfamilies worldwide, and 311 species are known from Korean insect fauna. Most species are associated with woods and shrubs or live on herbaceous vegetation in open areas. Cerambycid larvae are primarily borers in deadwood. Some species develop in living trees and cause damage on host plants by boring heart wood and making galleries. As the results of four year field surveys (from 2010 to 2013) and literature review, host plants of 181 species of Korean Cerambycidae are revised, including thirteen new cerambycid-host associations, and more than 179 host plants species of 107 genera in 44 families are compiled. Among them, most common host plants are belonged to mainly four families: Ulmaceae, Pinaceae, Fagaceae and Betulaceae. Additionally, Acer tegmentosum Maxim. (Aceraceae) is newly recognized as a host plant of the Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora grabripennis (Motchulsky) in South Korea.

본 연구는 가공치즈에서 Staphylococcus aureus의 생장 을 예측하기 위한 수학적 모델을 개발하였다. 모짜렐라 슬라이스 치즈와 체다 슬라이스 치즈에 S. aureus 혼합균액 (ATCC13565, ATCC14458, ATCC23235, ATCC27664, NCCP10826) 0.1 ml (log CFU/g)을 접종한 후 4oC (1440 h), 15oC (288 h), 25oC (72 h), and 30oC (48 h)에 저장하면서 총 세균 수와 S. aureus 세균 수를 tryptic soy agar와 mannitol salt agar를 이용해 각각 확인하였다. S. aureus의 세균 수 를 Baranyi model로 분석하여 생장률(μmax; log CFU·g−1·h−1), 유도기(LPD; h), 초기 세균수(log CFU/g), 최대 생장 세균 수(log CFU/g)를 계산함으로써 1차 모델을 개발하였다. 또 한 저장온도와 S. aureus의 μmax, LPD의 관계를 분석하기 위해 square root model과 exponential decay model을 이용 하였고 이를 통해 2차모델을 개발하였으며 개발된 모델의 평균제곱근 편차(RMSE)를 계산하여 적합성을 검증하였다. 4oC에서는 모든 가공치즈에서 황색포도상구균의 생장이 관찰되지 않았으나 15oC, 25oC, 30oC에서는 모짜렐라 슬라이스와 체다 슬라이스 치즈에서 황색포도상구균이 생장 하였으며(R² = 0.785-0.996) 저장온도가 높아짐에 따라 생장률은 증가한 반면 유도기는 감소하였다(R² = 0.879-0.999). 또한 개발된 모델의 RMSE 값은 0.3500-0.5344로 적합하였다. 따라서 본 연구결과는 가공치즈에서 황색포도상구균의 생장 예측에 유용하게 사용될 것이다.

한국산 딱부리반날개속(Stenus Latreille)의 미기록 3종[Stenus (Stenus) latissimus latissimus Bernhauer, S. (S.) hammondi Puthz 및 S. (Hypostenus) dissimilis Sharp]을 보고한다. 성충 사진, 수컷의 생식기 및 9번째 복판 그림을 제시한다.

This study was carried out to evaluate the physical characteristics of total mixed rations (TMR) prepared in Korea for improving productive effectiveness of dairy and beef cattle. The 40 samples of commercial TMR for dairy and beef cattle in 6 municipals were collected and analyzed for chemical composition and physical properties. There were significant regional differences (p<0.05) in dry matter and crude protein contents of TMR for dairy and beef cattle. In roughage value index (RVI), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content, and physically effective NDF (peNDF)1.18 content, there were no regional differences in TMR for dairy cattle, but there were significant regional differences (p<0.05) in TMR for beef cattle. Thus the results from this study support that because RVI, NDF content, and peNDF content in TMR for dairy and beef cattle exceeded recommended ranges, a little adjustment in TMR for dairy cattle will be necessary to obtain optimal productivity.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is the major of outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria and one of the most potent microbial initiators of inflammation. From the previous study showed that exposure to a low dose of LPS renders animals tolerant to a lethal dose of LPS, and protects against the toxicity of various chemicals. However, the effects of LPS treatment in thioacetamide (TA) - induced liver injury remain largely unknown. Liver injury caused by various toxic chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride, alcohol, dimethylnitrosamine. Here, we induced rat liver injury by intraperitoneal injection of TA, a representative hepatic fibrosis inducer. In this study, we investigated the effects of LPS in TA group, LPS group, LPS/TA group and vehicle control group on Sprague-Dawely rats (five rats for each group). All rats at the end of the experiment were sacrificed, and liver and serum were obtained. Serological analysis and hematoxylin and eosin staining showed that LPS/TA co-treatment was associated with decrease of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) and totalbilirubin and fibrosis than in TA-treated rats. RT-PCR showed that the levels of IL-6 and Cox2 mRNA were lower in the liver of LPS/TA-cotreated rats than in TA-treated rats. There were no significant differences ALT, ALP, AST, total-bilirubin, IL-6 and Cox2 between vehicle control and LPS-treated rats. These results imply that LPS/TA cotreatment partially alleviates the TA-induced liver injury of rats by reducing inflammatory response.

Prostate cancer is a leading cause of death among the aging men. Surgical or radio therapy is effective when the cancer is confined to the prostate gland but once the cancer spreads beyond the pelvis, even chemotherapy and hormonal ablation therapy fails in curing this disease. Our previous studies have shown that β-glucan induces apoptosis in prostate cancer cells. Cellular viability of these cells treated with β-glucan was measured by MTT assay. β-glucan induced dose- and time-dependent inhibition of cell viability in LNCaP cancer cells. In flow cytometry analysis, β-glucan induced dose- and timedependent apoptotic activities in LNCaP cancer cells. In addition, increased of expression caspase-3, caspase-9, Bax, and cytochrome C but decreased of expression Bcl-2 was observed in LNCaP cells treated with β-glucan. These results suggest that β-glucan induces apoptosis in LNCaP human prostate cancer cells mediated mainly through the increased of expression caspase-3, -9, Bax, cytochrome C and decreased of expression Bcl-2.

Patients referred to the Veterinary Medical Center at Chungbuk National University were analyzed. This study aimed to provide information to clinicians in Korea on the factors affecting fracture incidence in patients adapted to Korean companion animal culture. Eighty cases showing- bone fractures were investigated from January, 2005 to De- cember, 2011. Fractures were mainly observed in miniature dogs such as Yorkshire terrier (12%), Poodle (12%), and Maltese (9%). Almost 50% of all cases were less than 1 year old. Total bone fractures in summer and fall constituted 62%. Fracture incidence was higher in male dogs (54%) than female dogs (46%). Hindlimb fracture (37%) was the most common. Distribution of limb fractures was higher in the femur (19), followed by the tibia/fibula (15), radius/ulna (13), humerus (11), and mandible (8). Pelvic fracture was observed in 19 cases. Simple fracture (84%) was the most common fracture type, followed by comminuted fracture (16%). Distal portion was the most common fracture site in long bones (67%), followed by middle (26%) and proxi- mal bones (7%). Fractures were mainly caused by traffic accidents (43%), whereas 28.5% of fractures were due to falling down. Plate & screw (26%) was the most common method of fracture repair, followed by intramedullary pin (24%), wire (11%), external skeletal fixation (10%), screw (9%), amputation (7%), cross pin (6%), IM pin and wire (5%), and rush pin (1%). Among 80 patients, 79%of pa- tients showed a good prognosis after surgery, whereas 13% patients did not experience a good result. This study shows that miniature dogs are prone to falling and fractures, espe- cially in the distal part of long bones.

Xylitol is a sugar alcohol with a variety of functions including bactericidal and anticariogenic effects. However, the cellular mechanisms underlying the role of xylitol in bone metabolism are not yet clarified. In our present study, we exploited the physiological role of xylitol on osteoclast dif-ferentiation in a co-culture system of osteoblastic and RAW 264.7 cells. Xylitol treatment of these co-cultures reduced the number of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)- positive multinucleated cells induced by 10 nM 1α,25(OH)2 D3 in a dose‐dependent manner. A cell viability test revea-led no marked cellular damage by up to 100 mM of xylitol. Exposure of osteoblastic cells to xylitol decreased RANKL, but not OPG, mRNA expression in the presence of 10-8 M 1α,25(OH)2D3 in a dose‐dependent manner. Furthermore, bone resorption activity, assessed on bone slices in the co- culture system, was found to be dramatically decreased with increasing xylitol concentrations. RANKL and OPG proteins were assayed by ELISA and the soluble RANKL (sRANKL) concentration was decreased with an increased xylitol con-centration. In contrast, OPG was unaltered by any xylitol con-centration in this assay. These results indicate that xylitol inhibits 1α,25(OH)2D3-induced osteoclastogenesis by reducing the sRANKL/OPG expression ratio in osteoblastic cells.

As veterinary medicine industry has grown up steadily, the government quality control of veterinary medicine in market has been performed since 1964. The result of post-market surveillance assay from 2009 to 2012 was analyzed in this study. The average violation rate of all veterinary medicines, was 3.2%, 2.8%, 2.8% and 1.4% in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively. The total average violation rate in the category of antibiotics, other drugs except antibiotics, biologics were 1.2%, 4.4% and 0.8%, respectively. The violations due to insufficiency of major active ingredient content occupied 76.7% among the total violations. The most frequent violated in antibiotics were ampicillin and tylosin, followed by sulfonamides, penicillins etc. In case of other drugs except antibiotics, vitamin A and glucocorticoids (dexamethasone and prednisolone) were violated frequently. The overall trend of violation rates gradually decreased from 2009 to 2012, suggesting that quality of veterinary medicines has improved according to Korea Veterinary Good Manufacturing Practice (KVGMP) system settled down in 1988.