Effects of Vegemil® containing soybean proteins and isoflavones on the growth and bone density of broiler chickens were investigated. One-week-old male and female Arbor Acres broiler chickens were fed on Vegemil® A containing 3% soybean proteins and 162 ppm isoflavones, instead of water, for 30 days and their growth indices (body weight, leg weight and femur length) and bone density were analyzed. The body weight gains in male and female chickens were increased by 15.6% and 31.7%, respectively, following feeding Vegemil® A compared to normal water. Vegemil® A increased leg weight as well as femur length of females by 22.9% and 15.0%, respectively. In addition, Vegemil® A feeding enhanced femoral bone density by 21.3% in comparison with water feeding. Therefore, it is suggested that Vegemil® A not only facilitates body growth, but also strengthens bone density of normal chickens, and that it could be a promising candidate for the improvement of infant growth and for the prevention of menopausal osteoporosis.

The gap between the increasing amount of raw sequence data and qualified biological information is widening: it is not possible to provide qualified annotation for new genomes with the same speed at which sequences are generated -- especially with next generation sequencing technologies. Additionally, managing the huge number ofavailable bioinformatics algorithms represents a challenge of its own. Thus, a systemwhich provides maximum annotation quality with approved methods in a minimum of time is absolutely critical as the basis for the R&D pipeline in industrial biotechnology. Also using those various genome annotation, comprehensive knowledge of a fungal’s biosynthetic capacities is the indispensable basis of its usefulness in the biotechnology research. Comparative genomics is on the rise as a potent tool in molecular biology. The publicly available genomes from yeasts and several fungal species are used to comparative genomics method for discovery of functional information in our research. Also we had integrated information from different data sources to dynamically build semantic networks representing up-to-date knowledge, which can then be mined and analyzed. Through those methods, we could inspect the common features and uniques between yeasts and fungal species in the new aspect.

We tested differences in female pheromone production and male response in three species of the genus Adoxophyes in Korea. Females of all three species produced mixtures of Z9-14:OAc and Z11-14:OAc as major components but in quite different ratios. The ratio of Z9-14:OAc and Z11-14:OAc in pheromone gland extracts was estimated to be 100:198 for A. honmai, 100:23 for A. orana, and 100:3880 for A. sp. Field tests showed that males of each species were preferentially attracted to the two-component blends of Z9-14:OAc and Z11-14:OAc mimicking the blends found in pheromone gland extracts of conspecific females. The effects of minor components identified in gland extracts on trap catches varied with species. Addition of 10me-12:OAc or E11-14:OAc to the binary blend of Z9-14:OAc and Z11-14:OAc significantly increased captures of A. honmai males, whereas E11-14:OAc exhibited a strongly antagonistic effect on catches of A. sp. males. Moreover, Z9-14:OH or Z11-14:OH added to the binary blends increased attraction of male A. orana but not A. honmai and A. sp. males, suggesting that these minor components, in addition to the relative ratios of the two major components, play a noteworthy role in reproductive isolation between Adoxophyes species in the southern and midwestern Korea where these species occur sympatrically.

DNA-based technology are about to revolutionize the analysis of population structures as well as the determination of individual indentities. Furthermore, the analysis of polymorphic DNA regions make it possible to reach detailed conclusions on family relationships of individual. Microsatellite loci are increasingly used in population genetic and evolutionary studies. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) or microsatellites consisted of short tandem repeats (usually 1-6 nucleotide) have shown advantages over other markers. We report here the isolation and characterization of nine highly polymerphic microsatellite loci for phylogenetic and population genetic use in silkworm. Comparative analysis of diverse silkworm strains with microsatellite locus revealed several alleles and discriminative heterozygosity values. A list of primer sequences that tag each locus is provided. The usefulness of microsatellite markers can be expected to enhance the classification in silkworm.