Phosphorus is one of the macronutrients essential for plant growth and development, as well as crop productivity. Many soils around the world are deficient in phosphate (Pi) that plants can utilize. To cope with the stress of Pi starvation, plants have evolved many adaptive strategies, such as changes of root architecture and enhanced Pi acquisition form soil. To understand molecular mechanism underlying Pi starvation stress signaling, we characterized the activation-tagged mutant showing altered responses to Pi deficiency compared to wild type Arabidopsis and named hsp3 (hypersensitive to Pi starvation3). hsp3 mutant exhibits enhanced phosphate transporter activity, resulting in higher Pi content than wild type. However, in root architectural change under Pi starvation, hsp3 shows hyposensitive responses than wild type, such as longer primary root elongation, lower lateral root density. Histochemical analysis using hsp3 mutant expressing auxin-responsive DR5::GUS reporter gene, indicated that auxin allocation from primary to lateral roots under Pi starvation is aborted in hsp3 mutant. Molecular genetic analysis of hsp3 mutant revealed that the mutant phenotype is caused by the lesion in ENHANCED SILENCING PHENOTYPE4 (ESP4) gene whose function is proposed in mRNA 3’ end processing. Here, we propose that mRNA processing plays a crucial role in Pi homeostasis in Arabidopsis.

In order to adapt to various environmental stresses, plants have employed diverse regulatory mechanisms of gene expression. Epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications play an important role in gene expression regulation under stress condition. It has been known that some of epigenetic modifications are stably inherited after mitotic and meiotic cell divisions, which is known as stress memory. To understand molecular mechanisms underlying stress memory mediated by epigenetic modifications, we developed Arabidopsis suspension-cultured cell lines adapted to high salt by stepwise increases in the NaCl concentration up to 120 mM. Adapted cell line to 120 mM NaCl, named A120, exhibited enhanced salt tolerance compared to unadapted control cells (A0). Moreover, the salt tolerance of A120 cell line was stably maintained even in the absence of added NaCl, indicating that the salt tolerance of A120 cell line was memorized even after the stress is relieved. By using salt adapted and stress memorized cell lines, we intend to analyze the changes of DNA methylation, histone modification, transcriptome, and proteome to understand molecular mechanisms underlying stress adaptation as well as stress memory in plants.

Wild rice might have previously unidentified genes important for disease resistance and stress tolerance in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. A set of subtractive library was constructed both from leaves of wild rice plants, Oryza grandiglumis (CCDD, 2n=48), treated with fungal elicitor and from wounded leaves. A partial fragment that was homologous to PR10 genes from other plant species was identified via suppression subtractive hybridization and cDNA macroarray. The obtained full-length cDNA sequence (OgPR10) contains an open reading frame of 480 bp nucleotide, encoding 160 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 16.944 kDa and an isoelectric point (pI) of 4.91. The multiple alignment analyses showed the higher sequence homology of OgPR10 with PR10 genes identified in rice plants at amino acid level. The OgPR10 mRNA was not expressed by treatment with wounding, jasmonic acid, and salicylic acid, but markedly expressed in leaves treated with protein phosphatase inhibitors cantharidin and endothall, and yeast extract. In addition, the expression of OgPR10 mRNA was induced within 72 h after treatment with probenazole, one of well-known chemical elicitors, and reached the highest level at 144 h. Heterologous expression of OgPR10 caused growth inhibition and seedling lethality in E. coli and Arabidopsis, respectively. Chemically induced OgPR10 expression with glucocorticoid-mediated transcriptional induction system further reconfirmed its lethality on Arabidopsis seedling. In addition, OgPR10-expressing rice plants, Oryzae sativar were resistant against the infection of rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea. These results indicate that OgPR10 is involved in probenazole- and microbe associated molecular patterns-mediated disease resistance responses in plants and is a potential gene for developing disease resistance crop plants.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are of great interest for cell-based therapies and tissue engineering approaches, as these cells are capable for extensive self-renewal and display a multilineage differentiation potential. Clinical application of these cells for degenerative and age-related diseases has been accumulating. However, preparation of MSC before the onset of the diseases, it needs to develop the cryopreservation method. Most cryopreservation methods include fetal bovine serum (FBS) which is essential for effective cryopreservation. Yet it should not be used clinically because of the potential risk of infection. In the present study, we investigated whether human serum albumin (HSA), human serum (HS), and knockout serum replacement (KSR) can be used as an alternative of FBS for cryopreservation of human adipose derived stem cells (hADSC). Cells cryopreserved with 9% HSA showed much higher viability after thawing compared with cells frozen with 5% or 1% HSA. Cells cryopreserved with 90% HS or KSR exhibited greater viability than cells frozen with 25% and 5% HS or KSR, respectively. Viability of cells frozen with 9% HSA, 90% HS or 90% KSR was comparable to that with 90% FBS. Morphology and proliferation ability of these cells were not affected by cryopreservation when compared the freshly obtained cells. Cryopreserved hADSC expressed transcription factor genes including Oct3/4, Nanog, Nestin and Sox2, which are related to the self-renewal of stem cells. Flow cytometric analyses showed that both fresh and cryopreserved hADSC were positive for the antigens of HLA-ABC, CD44, CD73, CD90, and CD105, CD166, and negative for HLA-DR, CD31, and CD34. Similar to fresh cells, cryopreserved hADSC could differentiate into mesodermal lineages, adipogenic, osteogenic, or chondrogenic cells. These results suggest that 9% HSA, 90% HS or 90% KSR can be used to replace FBS during successful cryopreservation of hADSC.

The human eyelid adipose-derived stem cells (HEACs) are known as a candidate source for stem cell-based therapy. HEACs possess the ability to proliferate in vitro and multipotency to differentiate into adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic cells. To be used later than the time of collection, a long-term storage is needed. In this study, we investigated stem cell characteristics after cryopreservation of HEACs for 6 months and 1 year in liquid nitrogen. Frozen-thawed stem cells have shown that cumulative cell and doubling numbers were similar to those of fresh HEACs. After thawing, HEACs expressed stem cell-related genes of SCF, NANOG, OCT4, and TERT, ectoderm-related genes of NCAM and FGF5, mesoderm/endoderm-related genes of CK18 and VIM. They also consistently expressed transcripts of the immune-related genes of HLA-ABC and β2M. To induce mesodermal differentiation, cell were cultivated in adipogenic, osteogenic or chondrogenic medium for 2～3 weeks. After each differentiation culture, HEACs expressed adipocyte-, osteocyte- and chondrocytespecific genes. They were also stained with Oil red O, von Kossa, or alcian blue, revealing adipogenic, osteogenic, or chondrogenic character, respectively. The results suggest that long-term storage up to 1 year do not affect their biological properties, HEACs may be suitable for clinical application on cell-based therapies.

A new spray chrysanthemum cultivar ‘Prima Donna’ was released by National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science (NIHHS), Rural Development Administration (RDA), in 2008. The cross was made between ‘Plano’ and ‘Yeonja’ in 2005. Trials were conducted from 2006 to 2008 for the evaluation and selection of this cultivar, including shading cultures in summer and retarding cultures in spring. The natural flowering time of ‘Prima Donna’ is late October, but year-round flowering is possible by photo-periodic control. The cultivar has single type flowers with pink petals, green center and good inflorescence. The growth of plant is very vigorous. The diameter of flower is 7.0cm. The number of flowers per stem and petals per flower are 13 and 42, respectively. Days to flowering under the short day treatment is about 59 and its vase life is 26.1 days in autumn season.

This study was conducted to examine the variations of seed hull color characteristics, the oil contents and fatty acid composition in 275 sunflower germplasms. The seed hull of sunflower germplasms were classified into 4 colors of white, black, grey, and brown. The grey color of seed hull was the highest percentage of 33.8%, whereas the white color of seed hull was the lowest percentage of 5%. Average oil content was 22.5% with a range from 11.7% to 45.5%. Average saturated fatty acid contents were 6.9%, while average content of unsaturated fatty acid was 93%. The average contents of fatty acids such as palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, and linoleic acid were 4.7%, 2.2%, 55.2%, and 38%, respectively. Comparing the oil contents and fatty acids among different seed hull colors, the highest content of oil was with grey seed hull color and the lowest with white seed hull color. Saturated fatty acid were higher in brown seed hull color. Unsaturated fatty acids were higher in grey and black seed hull colors. It could be observed that there was significant negative correlation(r=-0.998**) between linoleic and oleic acid content, and also L-value(Lightness of seed hull color) showed significant negative correlations with oil content, oleic acid content and linoleic acid content.

barley grain and malt is highly related to beer quality, especially hordein is known to be a more significant factor in malting process than albumin. In this study, we proposed selection criteria for high quality malting barley with aid of grain and malt quality parameter scores and storage protein subunit profile informations. Albumin and hordein were extracted and denatured protein subunits were evaluated with malt and grain quality parameters. Total 13 local adaptability test (LAT) lines were planted in four locations (Naju, Iksan, Jeju, and Jinju) and evaluated for malt and beer making qualities. Seventeen germplasms (world collections for high or low seed storage protein content) were also evaluated for biochemical genetic marker. Denatured seed storage protein subunits of albumin and hordein of all tested lines and germplasms were evaluated using 12% 1D SDS-PAGE. Scored data of protein subunit's presence or absence was applied to Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) for statistical analysis. Subunits fractionated within specific molecular weight ranges (97.4-31.0, 66.2-31.0, and 45.0-31.0 kDa) were highly correlated with agricultural characteristics. Several LAT lines showing good performance in agricultural characteristics were clustered in dendrogram constructed by biochemical-genetic assay using XLSTAT. Specific band pattern showed in good performance LAT lines were also observed in some germplasms of world collection having low protein contents which are known to have superior quality in malting. The results would provide selection criteria for high quality malting barley in the malting barley breeding program.