Flavonoids and total polyphenols are important secondary plant metabolites, as they play a role in reducing the oxidative stress caused by ROS In this study, we investigated for flavonoid contents, total polyphenol contents, and antioxidant activities in 27 accessions from 10 Vicia species. Among 27 vicia accessions, NAC17 (V. monantha) and NAC14 (V. hyrcanica) had the highest total flavonoid (1.42 ± 0.09 mg/g) and total polyphenol (124.2 ± 0.5 μg/GAE mg) contents, respectively. In four flavonoids, naringenin showed the highest concentrations in Vicia species. The DPPH and ABTS were the range from 0.2 (NAC24, V. sativa subsp. nigra) to 18.5 (NAC13, V. faba) μg/ASC mg and 19.1 (NAC7, V. cracca) to 253.4 (NAC13, V. faba) μg/Trolox mg, respectively. Among the 10 Vicia species, V. monantha and V. hyrcanica had the highest flavonoid (1.31 ± 0.09 mg/g) and total polyphenol (116.5 ± 2.0 μg/GAE mg) contents, respectively. The highest antioxidant activity was detected in V. faba. These results will expand the flavonoid database and provide information on Vicia species valuable for development of functional foods or feed-additives resources.

DNA barcoding is the use of short DNA sequences of the genome for large scale species identification. The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) plant-working group recommended the 2-locus combination as the standard plant barcode. The evolutions of the chloroplast regions combine with nuclear gens are sufficiently rapid to allow discrimination between closely related species. We evaluated the efficacy of the proposed plant barcoding loci matK along with ITS2 for barcoding Vigna species. To assess the discrimination ability of barcoding loci to resolve Vigna species, we sampled 52 of the taxonomically best known groups in the genus. Topologies of the phylogenetic trees based on ITS2 and matK analyses were similar but a few accessions were placed into distant phylogenetic groups. Neither ITS2 nor matK analyses were able to discriminate some closely related Vigna species alone. Thus, we used concatenated data to increase the resolving power of ITS2 and used matK as an additional tool for phylogenetic analysis in Vigna because characterization of the nucleotide sequences of matK region was easier to recover and more cost-effective than those of the ITS region.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is one of the most important oilseed crops with high oil contents and rich nutrient value. The development of a core collection could facilitate easier access to sesame genetic resources for their use in crop improvement programs and simplify the genebank management. The present study was initiated to the development and evaluation of a core collection of sesame based on 5 qualitative and 10 quantitative trait descriptors on 2,751 sesame accessions. The accessions were different countries of origin. About 10.1 percent of accessions were selected by using the power core program to constitute a core collection consisting of 278 accessions. Mean comparisons using t-test, Nei’s diversity index of 10 morphological descriptors and correlation coefficients among traits indicated that the existing genetic variation for these traits in the entire collection has been preserved in the core collection. The results from this study will provide effective information for future germplasm conservation and improvement programs in sesame.

Soybean (Glycine max L.) is crucial legume crop as source of high quality vegetable protein and oil, and Korea is regarded as a part of center of soybean origin. To expand the information of conserved genetic diversity, we analyzed the genetic variability of soybean collection mainly introduced Korean accessions using 75 microsatellite markers. A total of 1,503 alleles with an average value of 20.0 alleles were detected among 644 accessions. Korean collection revealed average allele number of 13.4 while Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian accessions showed 9.0, 5.4 and 6.5 mean alleles, respectively. Especially, Korean accessions showed more number of private allele per locus as 3.4 contrary to other geographical groups. The mean expected heterozygosity and polymorphic information content was 0.654 and 0.616, respectively, and expected heterozygosity values were not significantly distinguished according to the geographical groups. The phylogenetic dendrogram and deduced population structure based on DNA profiles of 75 SSR loci showed Korean accessions formed distinct gene pool against Chinese accessions, and could be divided into five subpopulations. Korean soybean accessions have specific genetic diversity and might be serve the valuable alleles for bio-industry as a part of the center of soybean origin.

The purpose of this study was to develop the cost-effective and efficiency seed longevity prediction method of rice (Oryza sativa L.) germplasm for viability monitoring. To find an optimum predicting method for rice seed longevity at genebank, an accelerated ageing (AA) test, a controlled deterioration (CD) test and a dry-heat treatment (DHT) were conducted to the four groups of rice germplasm based on ecotype, such as Indica, Japonica, Javanica and Tongil type. Among the three artificial aging treatments, the dry-heat treatment of 36 hours at 90°C is suggested as a routine predictive test method of rice germplasm longevity at a genebank. The distribution of germination rate on 3,066 accessions which conserved 26.5 years at 4°C showed similar trend with the result of distribution by dry-heat treatment at 90°C on 36 hours using 106 accessions of rice selected samples which composed four ecotype groups. The results show that the dry-heat treatment affect not only predicting the rice seed longevity but also determining effective interval for monitoring germination of rice germplasm in genebanks.

The genus Vicia comprises 166 annual or perennial species distributed mainly in Europe, Asia, and North America, also extending to the temperate regions of South America and tropical. However, utilization of SSR markers have not been investigated extensively in Vicia species as compared to other crop species. Here, we have assessed the potential for transferability (cross-species amplification) of cDNA microsatellites markers developed from common vetch (Vicia sativa subsp. sativa). In total, 226 alleles were detected in 36 microsatellite loci. The number of alleles per marker ranged from one to 20, with an average of 6.3. The gene diversity and polymorphism information content value averaged 0.540 and 0.503, with a range of 0–0.85 and 0–0.84 respectively. For transferability of the SSRs, amplification was carried out with selected from two to 8 accessions of 22 different Vicia species. For individual species, the successful amplification rate ranged from 32.6% in V. ervilia to 81.9% in V. sativa subsp. nigra, with average of 48.8%. As the rate of successful amplification of microsatellite markers generally correlates with genetic distance, these SSR markers are potentially useful in the analysis of genetic relationships between or within Vicia species.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is important crop as a staple carbohydrate sources and was regarded as domesticated in Asia region. The seed dormancy is one of the domesticated traits, and this character allows that plants survive in various environment. The degree of dormancy have been targeted for controling in breeding program while weak dormancy cause pre-harvest sprouting contrary to the nonuniform seed germination by strong dormancy. In this study, we surveyed the variation of germiability in diverse rice genetic resources including japonica and indica ecotype. Overall, the degree of seed dormancy of rice germplasm was distinguished into four groups and admixed types; first group(G-1) included accessions revealing high germiability, the accessions of second group(G-2) acquired the high germiability by after-ripening process, third group(G-3)’s accessions showed high germiability after dormancy breaking process and the accessions of last group(G-4) maintained the low germiability in spite of the dormancy breaking process. Among the 51 japonica accessions G-1, G-2, G-3 and G-4 included 15, 15, 11 and 10 accessions, respectively, and among 40 indica accessions, G-1, G-2, G-3 and G-4 groups included 15, 15, 9 and 1 accessions, respectively. Based on these primary test, we plan to detail examine the seed germiability and survey the genetic factors affecting the degree of germiability in representative accessions of each group

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an excellent source of vitamin A and C as well as flavonoid compounds, which are important antioxidant components that may reduce the risk of diseases. In this study, we investigated ABTS, DPPH activity and flavonoid contents in eggplant leaves and fruits to identify genetic resources with high antioxidant capacity for use in food or as feed additives. A total of 102 eggplant accessions were classified into four groups by latitude of their origins: 0°~15° N (8 accessions), 15°~30° N (19 accessions), 30°~45° N (34 accessions), and 45°~60° N (41 accessions). The accessions originated from 45°~60°N showed the highest flavonoid contents (AVG. = 15.4 μg mg-1) followed by accessions originated from 30°~45° N (AVG. = 13.0 μg mg-1), 15°~30°N (AVG. = 11.0 μg mg-1) and 0°~15°N (AVG. = 9.5 μg mg-1). Same pattern was also found in ABTS and DPPH antioxidant activities. High ABTS, DPPH activity and flavonoid contents were found in the early-flowering accessions. All flavonoids of the greenish violet leaves were significantly higher than those in green leaves. The flavonoid concentration in eggplant leaves with an average of 15.6 μg mg-1 increased from 10- to 20-fold as compared with their fruit (AVG.=0.9 μg mg-1). In conclusion, eggplant leaves represent a potential source of natural antioxidants due to their very high flavonoid contents.

Rice genetic resources are composed of various species and ecotypes, and each accession reveals different genetic and phenotypic characters. For the managenment of diverse rice genetic resources, seed integrity is important factor in that the individuals of one accession in self-pollinating crop might be homogeneous. To elevate the management efficiency of rice germplasm contrary to the phenotypic distinction, we focused on applicable microsatellite markers because this markers are widly used for genetic evaluation in diverse genetic resources with a character of high reproducibility and polymorphism. In this regard, we selected microsatellite markers based on genotypes; diversity set including 150 accessions using 249 SSR markers. As SSR loci with high PIC(polymorphism information content) values usually revealed multi bands in one accession, proper genotyping were difficult in these loci. Therefor, we checked the band clarity in addition to PIC values and chose 12 and 6 SSR markers finally. All accessions of rice diversity set were distinguished with the first marker set comprising 12 SSR markers, and only 3 combinations of tested accessions(0.03%, 3/11,175) showed same genotype with second marker set comprising 6 SSR markers. The tested 142 Korean bred varieties revealed 0.19%(19/10,011 combinations) and 0.69%(69/10,011 combinations) genotypic identity using first and second marker set, respectively. These newly selected markers might be useful for the analysis of genetic homogeneity and relationship in rice genetic resources.

For the development of SSR marker system in Vicia villosa Roth, an enriched library was constructed by using a modified biotin-streptavidin capture method and the selected clones were sequenced with GS-FLX(454). Of 37,794 sequenced reads, we found that 8,474 reads (22.4%) were redundant, leaving 29,320 unique ones (77.6%). Among the unique clones, 17,174 reads (58.6%) were having microsatellite repeating motifs. Sequence analysis of all SSR-containing reads revealed a predominance of the di-nucleotide SSRs (62.5%). The tri-nucleotide and the tetra-nucleotide SSRs were 5.7% and 22.5%, respectively. As the di-nucleotide type, the AG/GA class of repeat motif was most frequently identified (55.0% of the total di-nucleotide SSRs), followed by the CT/TC class (19.5%), and the TA/AT class (12.1%). Among the tri-nucleotide SSRs, the AGT/GTA/TAG class of repeat motifs was predominant (22.2%), followed by the ACT/CTA/TAC class (17.8%). Among the tetra-nucleotide SSRs, the CTTT/TTTC/TTCT/TCTT class of repeat motifs was predominant (31.2%), followed by the AAAG/AAGA/AGAA/ GAAA class (19.9%). Finally, we designed 779 primer pairs from the flanking sequences of SSR containing reads. We are undertaking the analysis of polymorphisms using the diverse collected accessions of Vicia villosa Roth now. This newly developed SSR marker set shall provide a very useful tool for implementing molecular diversity assessment and population structure studies of Vicia villosa Roth onward.

In this study, 29 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to analyze the genetic diversity and population structure of 125 rice accessions from 40 different origins in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and Oceania. A total of 333 alleles were detected, with an average of 11.5 per locus. The mean values of major allele frequency, expected heterozygosity, and polymorphism information content (PIC) for each SSR locus were 0.39, 0.73, and 0.70, respectively. The highest mean PIC was 0.71 for Asia, followed by 0.66 for Africa, 0.59 for South America, 0.53 for Europe, and 0.47 for Oceania. Model-based structure analysis revealed the presence of five subpopulations, which was basically consistent with clustering based on genetic distance. Some accessions were clearly assigned to a single population in which >70% of their inferred ancestry was derived from one of the model-based populations. In addition, 12 accessions (9.6%) were categorized as having admixed ancestry. The results could be used to understanding the genetic structure of rice cultivars from these regions and to support effective breeding programs to broaden the genetic basis of rice varieties.

To facilitate an active breeding strategy for rice quality improvement, mutation were induced by treating rice variety Sindongjin seeds with gamma ray(300 Gray) and its fertilized eggs with MNU(1mM). Endosperm and grain shape of mutants were classified and selected in M2 population. From M2 generation, 48(7.6%) endosperm mutants and 179(11.9%) grain shape mutants were selected. White belly and White core were the most frequent. Selected grain mutants were classified into 16 types according to their morphological phenotypes. The overall segregation ratio was 3 : 1, controlled by one gene. Specially, SM-17 and SM-20 displayed segregation ratio of 9 : 7 and 1 : 15 respectively. Grain mutants showed generally earlier heading dates, shorter culm length and ear length than the parent. Grain length, grain width, and 1,000 grain weight were also mostly shorter and lower than the parent. In SEM analysis, each mutant type showed unique starch particle size and starch accumulation pattern. The density of polygonal cells and small inner corpuscles depending on amylose content decreased as following order - Waxy>Dull>Parent >White core. In SDS-PAGE analysis, SM-22 of Opaque group and SM-34 of Giant embryo group showed high glutelin polypeptide concentration. SM-23 of Floury group, SM-26 of Shrunken group, and SM-31 of Sugary group showed low concentration of total protein with variations in bands over 55kDa.

The present study was carried out to assess the genetic diversity, population structure and linkage disequilibrium in Korea. In model-based population, Korean rice germplasm were classified into four subpopulaton designated as indica cultivated, japonica cultivated, indica weedy, and japonica weedy were identified. Pair-wise estimates of FST indicated a different degree of differentiation between the four model-based populations with values ranging from 0.073 (between japonica cultivated and japonica weedy) and 0.474 (between japonica weedy and indica weedy). The indica weedy population appeared to be highly differentiated as compared to other populations. The indica cultivated have the highest gene diversity (0.58), followed by japonica cultivated (0.50), japonica weedy (0.42) and indica weedy (0.35). The total number of specific alleles in indica weedy and japonica weedy populations was 39 alleles (23 markers) and 55 alleles (22 markers), respectively. An average of LD (r2) value of indica weedy and japonica weedy type was higher than two other populations, both in inter- and intra-chromosome, indicating the possible reproductive and geographical isolations of sub-populations in cultivated rice fields.

This study was conducted to examine the physiological and biochemical responses against UV-B radiation in the seedling of 15 different rice cultivars, having the different physiological sensitivities. Out of 15 rice cultivars tested, moderate and susceptible groups showed significant decreases in biomass and RGR (relative growth rate). Contents of total chlorophyll were reduced remarkedly by irradiation of UV-B. In all rice cultivars tested, the content of chlorophyll a was strongly decreased, while the contents of chlorophyll b were slightly reduced without showing clear different among three groups and 15 cultivars. Carotenoid content was largely reduced by UV-B radiation, whereas polyamine content was moderately increased. The contents of MDA (malondialdehyde) that reflect the level of lipid peroxidation of cell membranes were clearly increased by UV-B stress, showing higher content in susceptible cultivars than moderate and torelant cultivars. The physiological important parameters highly related to visible injury were leaf color, chlorophyll, carotenoid, and lipid peroxidation, whereas biomass and polyamines were not closely correlated. Based on this results, it was concluded that changes of visible injury and the contents of chlorophyll and MDA could be adequately applied and utilized as physiological indicators to UV-B radiation