UDP-glucose 4-epimerase (UGE) catalyzes the reversible conversion of UDP-glucose to UDP-galactose. To understand the biological function of UGE from Brassica rapa, the gene hereinafter referred to as was cloned and overexpressed into Japonica rice cv. Gopum. Transcriptional profiling showed that the is specific to stem of rice plant. Morphological evaluation of the overexpression lines revealed altered phenotype characters particularly in panicle length, number of productive tillers and filled spikelets which account for an increase in yield. This remarkable agronomic performance was ascribed to higher photosynthetic rate complemented with higher CO2 assimilation. Interestingly, BrUGE1 did not only improve plant fitness under optimal condition but also under water deficit stress. The enhanced drought tolerance may be due to the induction of soluble sugar which may act as osmolyte to compensate dehydration during drought stress.

Increasing demand on cereal grains to meet the population growth requires more production of rice as well as other cereals, which is supposed to rise up to 40% until 2030. Grain size and shape are critical factors determining grain yield. Several genes on grain shape and size have been reported, and of them, seven cloned genes were chosen for haplotype analysis, such as GS3, GW2, qSW5, GS6, GW8, GS5, and TGW6. We genotyped 218 rice varieties which had diverse grain size and shape originating from 25 countries. As for GS3 and qSW5, PCR markers were developed for point mutation and deletion, respectively. For the other five genes in which functional SNPs were reported, we designed primer sets to distinguish a fuctional allele for each gene. GW2 and TGW6 had two alleles, while the other five genes displayed three alleles which were evenly distributed throughout the population. Analysis on the relationship between haplotype of the genes and grain phenotype is in progress. We expect that desirable allelic combination of genes would assure the optimal grain size and shape for higher grain yield and market quality. This work was supported by a grant from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (Plant Molecular Breeding Center No.PJ009076), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

Since global climate changes drastically, pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is expected to pose serious problems in rice production. CBL-interacting serine/threonine protein kinases (CIPKs) have been implicated to play important role in regulating various abiotic stresses such as cold, salinity and drought. In this study, to understand the function of this gene under pre-harvest sprouting in rice, a cDNA clone encoding CBL-interacting protein kinase 15 (CIPK15) was isolated from rice flowers. This gene is 2,818 bp long with 1,332 bp coding region that encodes a polypeptide of 443 amino acids. We constructed a recombinant vector carrying the OsCIPK15 under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter and Tnos terminator and transformed into rice using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Insertion of the gene was verified in transformants using HPT resistance test and genomic PCR. Transcriptional profiling using tissues of wild type, Gopum, revealed expression of the gene in whole plant tissues with level of expression highest in the seeds suggesting possible role in dormancy. Comparative expression analysis of the gene in transgenic and wild type through semi-quantitative RT-PCR and real-time PCR showed higher expression in transgenic rice lines. Moreover, screening in the mist chamber showed overexpression lines that were resistant to the PHS. This result suggests the involvement of OsCIPK15 in the regulation of pre-harvest sprouting.

Recent climate changes due to global warming are gradually introducing adverse circumstances for winter survival of temperate fruit trees. Particularly, late winter or early spring thaws followed by hard freezes can cause severe injury to deacclimated flower buds. Thus, the selection of later or slower deacclimating cultivars is needed to avoid frost injury in late winter or early spring. This study was performed to investigate relationship between cold hardiness and bud development under an experimental deacclimation condition for 10 Prunus persica cultivars (Aikawanakajima, Daewol, Izumi Hakuto, Janghowon Hwangdo, Kiraranokiwami, Mihong, Misshong, Soomee, Suhong, and Sun Gold). The rate of deacclimation was not correlated with hardiness before the deacclimation treatment. On the other hand, a strong positive correlation was found between cold hardiness and stage of bud opening.

Changes in cold hardiness were confirmed with relative electrolyte leakage (REL) method in the shoots of two peach cultivars (Prunus persica Janghowon Hwangdo and Odoroki) during cold acclimation and deacclimation. Changes in proline (Pro) content and related gene expressions were also analyzed. Particularly, transcript accumulations of P5CS and P5CR were examined using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. REL in the shoots of two peach cultivars was significantly different during the entire experimental period. Cold hardiness of two cultivars increased gradually to December 2012, and then decreased to April 2013, whereas Pro contents of ‘Janghowon Hwangdo’ and ‘Odoroki’ were reduced from the beginning of the experiment to February 2012 and then increased in the spring. Interestingly, P5CS gene encoding an enzyme, which catalyzes conversion from glutamic acid (Glu) into glutamic-γ-semialdehyde (GSA) in the first step of Pro pathway, showed the contrasting patterns with Pro contents of two cultivars. On the other hand, P5CR gene encoding an enzyme, which catalyzes conversion from Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate(P5C)intoPro in the final step of Pro pathway, showed the similar patterns to Pro contents in two cultivars. Our results demonstrate that Pro responds negatively to low temperatures in the shoot of different peach cultivars, including the supplemental 10 peach cultivars, and expression of both P5CS and P5CR genes could show contrasting patterns from each other. Our results suggest that identification of both P5CS and P5CR genes are required necessarily for accurate analysis of Pro biosynthesis because Pro accumulation is affected more by expression of P5CR gene.

In southern region of Korea, double cropping system including soybean as a second crop is widely adopted because prolonged high temperature in October enables soybean maturation even in late autumn. Global warming during decades derives transition of soybean planting dates as late as late-July. Delayed planting beyond the critical time moves reproductive stage to less favorable weather conditions like low temperature and short photoperiod, which can affect soybean yield and seed composition. Therefore selection of appropriate cultivar for changed climate and cultural practice is required. Effects of different eco-type and planting date on soybean yield was investigated for three sowing dates of 20 June, 5 July and 20 July with ten cultivars. Strong interaction between cultivar and sowing date was detected in number of branch, node and pod. No significant interaction was observed in 100-grain weight and yield, and this might be resulted from similar yield reduction pattern. Daepung, Taekwang and Uram recorded the highest yield when planted late, proving that these three cultivars are the most adaptable to delayed planting. Delayed planting results in higher sugar content, especially stachyose and raffinose which have detrimental effect on human health by causing flatulence and diarrhea. Protein content was decreased and oil content was increased in July 20 planting. Decrease in protein content was the largest in Hwangeumol and maintained high in Saedanbaek. This information will provide a guideline when select appropriate soybean cultivar in delayed planting to maintain yield and seed quality.

In spite of the overwhelming number of cysteine proteases in plants, only a few were substantially investigated. Papain-like cysteine proteases (PLCPs) are commonly implicated to disease immunity in some key pathosystems in plants, such as in tomato – Cladosporium fulvum, potato/tomato – phytopthora infestans, and Arabidopsis – Ralstonia solanacearum, among the few others. This study demonstrates the function of cysteine protease gene cloned form Brassica rapa (BrCP) related to resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae in transgenic rice lines. The cysteine protease-encoding full-length cDNA was identified and characterized using web-based tools. The gene is 2,267 bp in size with an open reading frame of 1,365 bp that encodes predicted polypeptide of 455 amino acids. Blast analysis of the conserved domain of the gene confirmed its affinity to Peptidase_CIA family. Full-length cDNA of PLCP in Brassica rapa was then cloned and co-overexpressed in rice with HPT marker. Introgression of the gene was confirmed in the transformants through genomic PCR assay. RT-PCR analysis showed that the gene was constitutively expressed and present in all tissues. The overexpression rice lines exhibited an enhanced resistance when screened with four Korean Xoo isolates.

To obtain a better insight into a possible common regulatory mechanism shared in response to heat and cold stresses in model monocot plant, expression profiling for several selected transcripts of rice (O. sativa L.) was examined from meiotic stage panicle samples of a number of different cultivars including both heat/cold tolerant and susceptible varieties. Induction of several of these genes in response to heat stress treatment was observed across all different rice varieties tested, but no differential induction kinetics between the heat-tolerant and susceptible varieties was discernable for these genes. On the other hand, a few genes that are known to be involved in ROS signaling showed different induction kinetics between the tolerant and susceptible varieties, suggesting that these genes might be playing a key role in conferring the heat/cold stress tolerance at reproductive stage of tolerant rice varieties. This approach was also augmented by comparative gene expression data analyses, utilizing expression data of other monocots and dicots model plants available in the database. Based upon these results, a preliminary gene pyramiding effort to estimate contributing factor of several selected alleles after putting these genes together is underway. This work was supported by a grant from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (Plant Molecular Breeding Center No.PJ009076), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

New QTLs were identified for high grain yield with long panicle in rice. A total of 137 F15 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between Dasanbyeo (Tongil) and TR22183 (japonica), together with the parents were evaluated for 16 agronomic traits at IRRI in dry and wet seasons under different phosphorus (P) and irrigation conditions. A linkage map was constructed using 236 polymorphic markers in 384-plex Bead Xpress indica-japonica single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) platform. P and water effects were significant in both wet and dry seasons. Both parents and RILs showed varying degree of sensitivities to scarcities in water and phosphorus in terms of panicle length. Collocating with 20 yield-related QTLs, the panicle QTLs on chromosomes 1 (pl01) ,2 (pl02), 9 (pl09), and 11 (pl11) under low P and rainfed conditions were identified. RILs with TR22183 allele at pl11 showed longer panicle length under low P input rainfed condition in dry and wet seasons. The whole-genome sequences of the two varieties are being compared to design the molecular markers for fine-mapping and candidate gene identification. Based on Nipponbare MSU 7.0 annotation, a total of 1464 genes with predicted function were identified within the four QTL regions. Candidate genes identified in other studies for QTLs under low P and water conditions, such as calmodulin and dehydrin genes, were targeted for designing molecular markers for fine-mapping and expression analysis. Pyramiding the panicle length QTLs correlating with yield QTLs will provide an opportunity of improving yield traits.

Rice eating quality is considered to be one of the top priorities in determining the agronomical value of rice. Thus the rapid evaluation of eating quality at early breeding generations in breeding programs for better eating quality is of great importance. However, it has been limited due to the complex nature of eating quality and the absence of standard evaluation method. In our previous study, we developed a evaluation method with a set of DNA markers that allows to predict the eating quality for japonica rices. Here we successfully developed another marker set for the eating quality of indica rices. We used multiple regression analysis to test 54 markers, which were preselected for their possible association with eating quality, using 24 indica varieties with different palatability scores. Of these markers, eighteen markers were found to be significantly associated with palatability according to sensory evaluation. Accordingly, a marker set in the model regression equation with a high R2 (0.997) was formulated to estimate indica rice palatability. Validation suggests that markers and the statistical parameters formulated by the equation could be a potential tool to predict the palatability of cooked Indonesian indica rice and could be reliable in developing country-dependent model equations for eating quality. This work was supported by a grant from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (Plant Molecular Breeding Center No. PJ008125), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

Tongil (IR667-98-1-2) rice, developed in 1972, is a high-yielding rice variety derived from a three-way cross between indica and japonica. Tongil contributed to staple food self-sufficiency of Korea, an achievement that was termed the ‘Korean Green Revolution’. In this study, we analyzed the nucleotide-level genome structure of Tongil rice and compared it to those of the parental varieties. A total of 17.3 billion Illumina Hiseq reads, 47× genome coverage, were generated from Tongil rice. Three parental accessions, two indica and one japonica types, of Tongil rice were also sequenced for approximately 30x genome coverage. A total of 2,149,991 SNPs were detected between Tongil and Nipponbare; the average SNP frequency of Tongil was 5.77 per kb. Genome composition based on the SNP data by comparing with the three parental genome sequences on sliding window of Nipponbare genome sequence revealed that 91.8% of the Tongil genome originated from the indica parents and 7.9% from the japonica parent, different from the theoretical expectation in a three-way cross, i.e., 75% indica and 25% japonica parental origins on average. Copy number of SSR motifs, ORF gene distribution throughout the whole genome, gene ontology (GO) annotation, yield-related QTLs or gene locations, and polymorphic transposon insertions were also comparatively analyzed between Tongil and parents using sequence-based tools. The results indicated that each genetic factor was transferred from parents into Tongil in proportion to the whole-genome composition. The Tongil rice is the first successful superior cultivar derived from indica × japonica hybridization in Korea. Defining of genome structure demonstrates that the Tongil genome is composed mostly of the indica genome with a small proportion of japonica genome introgression. This work was supported by a grant from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (Plant Molecular Breeding Center No. PJ008125), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

Cardiovascular system is the primary organ to develop and reach a functional state, which underscores the essential role of the vasculature in the developing embryo. The vasculature is a highly specialized organ that functions in a number of key physiological works including the carrying of oxygen and nutrients to tissues. It is closely involved in the formation of heart, and hence it is essential for survival during the hatching period. The expression of genes involved during vascular development in the olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) in the days after hatching is not fully understood. Therefore, we examined the expression patterns of genes activated during the development of flounder. Microscopic observations showed that formation of blood vessels is related to the expression of the vimentin gene. Also, the temporal expression patterns of this vimentin-like gene in the developmental stages and in the normal tissues of olive flounder. The purpose of this study was to examine the expression patterns of vimentin in normal tissues of the olive flounder and during the development of the vascular system in newly hatched olive flounders and HIF-1 plays a vital role in the formation of blood vessels during development. Vimentin expression was strong at the beginning of the development of blood vessels, and was present throughout all developmental stages. Our findings have important implications with respect to the roles of vimentin and HIF-1 in the development and evolution of the first blood vessels in olive flounder. Further studies are required to elucidate the vimentin-mediated hypoxic response signal transduction and to decipher the functional role of vimentin in developmental stages.

May-Thurner syndrome is caused by blockade of local venous flow due to local vascular intimal proliferation, caused by repeated pulsatile compression of the iliac or iliofemoral vein between the iliac artery and the lumbar spine. In this case, we confirmed May-Thurner syndrome using lower extremity computed tomographic angiography and venography. However, on venography, it was impossible to distinguish the left iliac vein from the collateral vein; a thrombus was also seen, although some of the thrombus was not seen clearly. These problems were overcome with use of intravascular ultrasound. We report on intravascular ultrasound guided treatment of May-Thurner syndrome.

Fish larvae are immediately exposed to microbes from hatching to maturation of their lymphoid organs, therefore effective innate mechanisms is very important for survival. However, the knowledge of the development of immune system in fish is limited and in demand now. In vertebrates, recombination-activating gene 1 (RAG-1) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) have been considered as very useful markers of the physiological maturity of the immune system. In this study, the expression of the both genes was assessed throughout the early developmental stages of olive flounder larvae (5-55 dph) and used as markers to follow the development of immune system. RAG-1 and IgM mRNA expression was detectable at 5 dph and remained so until 55 dph. These patterns of expression may suggest that the olive flounder start to develop its function around 5 dph. Tissue distribution was found that both genes mRNAs are only expressed in the immune-related organ such as spleen, kidney and gill. The early detection of IgM mRNA led to the investigation of its presence in oocytes. Both RAG-1 and IgM mRNA transcripts were detected in unfertilized oocytes, suggesting that they are maternally transferred. The biological significance of such a phenomenon remains to be investigated.

May-Thurner syndrome is associated with deep vein thrombosis resulting from chronic compression of the iliac vein against the lumbar vertebrae caused by the overlying common iliac artery. Stent insertion into the compressed lesion is used in treatment of May-Thurner syndrome. Various complications can occur during angioplasty while using a stent. Among these complications, shrinkage of the vein below the stent, a rare complication, was observed in our hospital during treatment of a patient with May-Thurner syndrome. Different complications can occur when venous angioplasty is performed, unlike that when arterial angioplasty is performed.

The Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) is a near-infrared wide-band high-resolution spectrograph jointly developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and the University of Texas at Austin. IGRINS employs three HAWAII-2RG Focal Plane Array (H2RG FPA) detectors. We present the design and fabrication of the detector mount for the H2RG detector. The detector mount consists of a detector housing, an ASIC housing, a Field Flattener Lens (FFL) mount, and a support base frame. The detector and the ASIC housing should be kept at 65 K and the support base frame at 130 K. Therefore they are thermally isolated by the support made of GFRP material. The detector mount is designed so that it has features of fine adjusting the position of the detector surface in the optical axis and of fine adjusting yaw and pitch angles in order to utilize as an optical system alignment compensator. We optimized the structural stability and thermal characteristics of the mount design using computer-aided 3D modeling and finite element analysis. Based on the structural and thermal analysis, the designed detector mount meets an optical stability tolerance and system thermal requirements. Actual detector mount fabricated based on the design has been installed into the IGRINS cryostat and successfully passed a vacuum test and a cold test.

There was a research on the prolongation of solar cycle 23 by the solar cyclic variation of solar, interplanetary geomagnetic parameters by Oh & Kim (2013). They also suggested that the sunspot number cannot typically explain the variation of total solar irradiance any more. Instead of the sunspot number, a new index is introduced to explain the degree of solar activity. We have analyzed the frequency of sunspot appearance, the length of solar cycle, and the rise time to a solar maximum as the characteristics of solar cycle. Then, we have examined the predictability of solar activity by the characteristics of preceding solar cycle. We have also investigated the hemispheric variation of flare index for the periods that the leading sunspot has the same magnetic polarity. As a result, it was found that there was a good correlation between the length of preceding solar cycle and spotless days. When the length of preceding solar cycle gets longer, the spotless days increase. It is also shown that the shorter rise time to a solar maximum is highly correlated with the increase of sunspots at a solar maximum. Therefore, the appearance frequency of spotless days and the length of solar cycle are more significant than the general sunspot number as an index of declining solar activity. Additionally, the activity of flares leads in the northern hemisphere and is stronger in the hemisphere with leading sunspots in positive polarity than in the hemisphere with leading sunspots in negative polarity. This result suggests that it is necessary to analyze the magnetic polarity’s effect on the flares and to interpret the period from the solar maximum to solar maximum as the definition of solar cycle.

The number concentrations and the water soluble ionic concentrations of PM2.5 have measured at Gosan site in Jeju, Korea, from March 2010 to December 2010, to clarify their characteristics. PM2.5 number concentrations vary from 22.57 to 975.65 particles/㎝3 with an average value of 240.41 particles/㎝3, which have been recorded evidently high in spring season as compared with those in other season. And the concentrations in small size ranges are greatly higher than those in large size ranges, so the number concentration in the size range 0.25∼0.45 ㎛ has more than 94% of the total number concentration of PM2.5. The major ionic components in PM2.5 are SO4 2-, NH4 + and NO3 -, which are mainly originated from anthropogenic sources, on the other hand, the concentrations of Cl-, K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ are recorded relatively lower levels. The concentrations of the major ionic components are very high in spring season, but the concentration levels of the other components are recorded significantly high in winter season. On the other hand, in summer season, the lowest concentration levels are observed for overall components as well as the sum of them. The concentration ratios of nss-SO4 2-/SO4 2- and nss-Ca2+/Ca2+ are 98.1% and 88.9%. And the concentration ratio of SO4 2-/NO3 -(3.64) is greatly higher than the value in urban area due to no large NOx emission sources in the measurement. In addition, the correlation and the factor analysis for the number and the ionic concentrations of PM2.5 are performed to identify their sources. From the Pearson correlation analysis and the factor analysis, it can be suggested that the smaller parts(<0.5 ㎛) of PM2.5 is contributed by anthropogenic sources, but the sources of the remaining larger parts of PM2.5 are not able to be specified sources in this study.

존 애쉬베리의 작품『세 시』는 T. S. 엘리엇의 모더니즘 시『네 사중주』에 대한 포스트모던적인 반향이다. 엘리엇은 “육화”를 “회전하는 세계” 속에서 궁극적인 “정점”으로 동일시함으로써 기독교적인 중심을 갖는다.『세 시』를 면밀히 분석해보면 애쉬베리가『네 사중주』의 특정한 언어와 생각에 공명하고 있다는 것을 알 수 있다. 그는 우리가 시간에 포섭되는 것을 거스르는 엘리엇의 기독교적인 주장을 해체하고자 했다. 엘리엇의 기독교적 세계관에 기반한 유럽중심적인 고착이 자신들만의 문화적 구조를 바탕으로 세계관을 발전시키는 비서구사회의 독자들에게 문제시될만한 영향을 만들어내는 반면에, 애쉬베리의 보다 평등한 중점은 비서구사회의 문화적 구조에서도 보다 폭넓게 해석될 수 있다. 한편, 애쉬베리의 비정치적인 주체적 병합은, 즉 탈중심화된 주체는 그 자체가 유럽중심주의라는 측면에서 문제시 될 수 있다. 포스트모더니즘 비평가들이 논의해온 것처럼, 탈중심화된 정체성은 비서구사회와 소수민족들이 정체성에 목소리를 부여하는 순간 특권을 갖는다. 애쉬베리의 엘리엇에 대한 비위계적이고 탐구적인 비평은 유럽중심주의에 반하는 좀 더 성공적인 미적 대응 방식을 제시할 수 있다.