A new soybean cultivar for soy-paste, “Mansu”, was developed from the cross between ‘Suwon 192’, which was tolerant to disease, late maturing and high yielding, and ‘Suwon 196’ which was early maturing and large seed by soybean breeding team in the Yeongnam Agricultural Research Institute (YARI) to make new variety having large seed and high yielding. A promising line, SS97213-2B-3SSD-39-1-1, was selected and designated as the name of ‘Suwon 236’. It was characterized by regional yield trials (RYT) for three years from 2004 to 2006 and released as the name of “Mansu”. It has a determinate growth habit, purple flower, grey pubescence, pale green seed coat, yellow cotyledon, large spherical seed (26.5 grams per 100 seeds). Maturity date is 4 days later than the check cultivar, Taekwang. The average yield of Mansu was 2.93 ton per hectare in the regional yield trials (RYT) carried out for three years from 2004 to 2006 which was 7 percent higher than that of the check cultivar, Taekwang.

“Yeonganbyeo”, a new japonica rice variety (Oryza sativa L.), is a mid- maturing ecotype with high lysine content in kernels that was developed by the rice breeding team of National Yeongnam Agricultural Experiment Station (NYAES) in 2001 and released in 2002. This variety was originated from the single cross of Milyang 122/YR13616 Acp1 (in 1992/1993 winter) and was selected by means of a mixed method of bulk and pedigree breeding. The pedigree of “Yeonganbyeo” was YR15815-B-B-B-30 and designated in 1998 as “Milyang 164”. It has about 83cm in culm length with lodging tolerance. This variety is resistant to bacterial leaf blight (K1, K2, K3), stripe virus, and moderately resistant to leaf blast disease. Milled rice kernels of “Yeonganbyeo” has high lysine content of 4.31% (ratio of amino acid components in total protein), a clear translucent with non-glutinous endosperm and clear in chalkness and good at eating quality by pannel test. The yield potential of “Yeonganbyeo” in milled rice is about 5.45 MT/ha at ordinary fertilizer level of local adaptability test. This cultivar would be adaptable to the southern plain of Korea.

This study was conducted to identify QTLs for some agronomic traits under two different N-fertilizer conditions. A recombinant inbred population (DT-RILs) between Dasanbyeo (a tongil type rice, derived from an indica × japonica cross and similar to indica in its genetic make-up) and TR22183 (a Chinese japonica variety), consisting of 166 F8 lines, was developed and used for mapping. A frame map of 1,409 cM containing 113 SSR and 103 STS markers with an average interval of 6.5 cM between adjacent marker loci was constructed using the DT-RILs. The DT-RILs were cultivated in ordinary N-fertilizer (N-P2O5-K2O=100-80-80 kg/ha) condition and low N-fertilizer (N-P2O5-K2O=50-80-80 kg/ha) condition in order to compare the different N-fertilizer effects. Grain yield was positively correlated with spikelet number in both conditions. Path analysis revealed that spikelet number is the most positive contributor to grain yield. Twenty-nine single QTLs (S-QTLs) and sixty-five pairs of epistatic loci (E-QTLs) were identified for days to heading, culm length, panicle length, panicle number, spikelet number, spikelet fertility, 1000-grains weight and grain yield in both N-fertilizer conditions. The phenotypic variance explained by these S-QTLs and E-QTLs ranged from 8.8% to 61.1% and from 10.0% to 55.6%, respectively. The total phenotypic variance explained by all the QTLs for each trait ranged from 15.4% to 92.3%.

Perilla is an oil and vegetable crop growing in Korea, Japan, and China. We have conducted a field expedition for collecting Perilla germplasm in Korea in 1998 and 2002. P. frutescens var. frutescens was found to be grown and cultivated in large scale throughout the country, whereas var. crispa was not seen. Weedy types of both var. frutescens and var. crispa were often found in roadsides, waste lands and areas around the farmer’s fields. Total number of collection was 176 with 123 accessions of cultivated type of var. frutescens, 33 accessions of weedy type of var. frutescens, and 20 accessions of weedy type of var. crispa. The accessions of cultivated var. frutescens had four different seed coat colors; white, gray, brown and dark brown. Brown and dark brown types were more frequently found than the white type and distributed from north to south of Korea, whereas the white type was mainly found in southern part of Korea. The seeds of cultivated var. frutescens were either soft or hard and large in size (> 2mm), whereas seeds of both weedy types were small and hard with dark brown color. The accessions collected will be useful for preserving genetic diversity of this crop for further breeding programs of Perilla crops.

The effect of biofertilizer in enhancing nutrient quality and antioxidant property of rice grain was investigated. The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications and 7 treatments namely : RF = N-P2O5-K2O(11-5.5-4.8kg~;10a-1); half of the recommended fertilizer rate, HRF=N-P2O5-K2O(5.5-2.75-2.4kg~;10a-1): HRF+Bio 250=HRF combined with 250 kg Biofertilizer 10 a-1 ; HRF+Bio 500=HRF combined with 500 kg Biofertilizer 10 a-1; Bio 250=250 kg Biofertilizer 10 a-1; Bio 500=500 kg Biofertilizer 10 a-1; and NF=No Fertilizer. Results showed that HRF+Bio 500 obtained a significantly higher protein content but a significantly lower amylose content compared with RF and NF treatments. Highest phytic acid content was recorded in NF treatment while the lowest was observed in HRF+500 treatment. The highest values in both electron donating ability and reducing power were obtained in HRF+Bio 500 treatment. All treatments obtained higher reducing power than that of the RF treatment and that NF treatment showed comparable values in both electron donating ability and reducing power with those of the treated plots. Highest antimutagenicity property was also observed in HRF+Bio 500 treatment followed by Bio 500 treatment. This study showed the possibility of using biofertilizer to enhance nutritional quality and antioxidant property of rice.

Experiments were conducted with aims to (1) estimate the biomass yield potential, (2) characterize the biomass and digestible dry matter production, and (3) reveal the characteristic seedling establishment of a whole crop rice variety, Nogyangbyeo, in dry- and wet-seeded rice. Maximum aboveground total biomass of Nogyangbyeo was 18 t ha-1 in dry-seeded rice and 20 t ha-1 in wet-seeded rice. Biomass yield potential of Nogyangbyeo was lower than that of Dasanbyeo. Comparatively, Nogyangbyeo was straw-dependent and Dasanbyeo was grain-dependent for biomass accumulation. Percentage of digestible dry matter (DDM) was higher in panicles than straw. Digestible dry matter yield was determined mainly by biomass yield rather than DDM percentage. Number of seedling establishment in Nogyangbyeo was 73m-2 in dry-seeded rice and 109m-2 in wet-seeded rice. Poor seedling establishment of dry-seeded Nogyangbyeo in the field condition was the result of low seed germination under low temperature and poor seedling emergence by deep sowing. Low seedling emergence rate of Nogyangbyeo was attributed mainly to slow elongation growth by slow leaf development and partly to mesocotyl and 1st internode lengths, not to genetically defined leaf length. The slow elongation growth of Nogyangbyeo was the same even in the high daily mean temperature of 24~circC . Results suggest DDM yield in rice can be improved simply by increasing biomass and whole crop rice varieties should be adaptable to direct-seeding.