The cluster analysis of diurnal precipitation patterns is performed by using daily precipitation of 59 stations in South Korea from 1973 to 1996 in four seasons of each year. Four seasons are shifted forward by 15 days compared to the general ones. Number of clusters are 15 in winter, 16 in spring and autumn, and 26 in summer, respectively. One of the classes is the totally dry day in each season, indicating that precipitation is never observed at any station. This is treated separately in this study. Distribution of the days among the clusters is rather uneven with rather low area-mean precipitation occurring most frequently. These 4 (seasons) × 2 (wet and dry days) classes represent more than the half (59 %) of all days of the year. On the other hand, even the smallest seasonal clusters show at least 5∼9 members in the 24 years (1973-1996) period of classification. The cluster analysis is directly performed for the major 5∼8 non-correlated coefficients of the diurnal precipitation patterns obtained by factor analysis In order to consider the spatial correlation. More specifically, hierarchical clustering based on Euclidean distance and Ward's method of agglomeration is applied. The relative variance explained by the clustering is as high as average (63%) with better capability in spring (66%) and winter (69 %), but lower than average in autumn (60%) and summer (59%). Through applying weighted relative variances, i.e. dividing the squared deviations by the cluster averages, we obtain even better values, i.e 78 % in average, compared to the same index without clustering. This means that the highest variance remains in the clusters with more precipitation. Besides all statistics necessary for the validation of the final classification, 4 cluster centers are mapped for each season to illustrate the range of typical extremities, paired according to their area mean precipitation or negative pattern correlation. Possible alternatives of the performed classification and reasons for their rejection are also discussed with inclusion of a wide spectrum of recommended applications.

Somatic embryos do not survive at exposure to liquid nitrogen temperatures without cryoprotective treatments. A simplified technique which simultaneously induces and cryoprotects embryogenic calli using plant vitrification solution 2 (PVS2) followed by dehydration was developed for the cryopreservation of Soap berry genetic resources. Vitrification is a way of removing the moisture in vegetation through PVS2. The PVS2 vitrification solution consisted of 30% glycerol (w/v), 15% ethylene glycol (w/v), 15% Dimethylsulfoxide (w/v) in B5 medium containing 0.4M sucrose. Two tests were done. The one was to eliminate moisture at 0℃ and the other at 25℃. In both cases the best results came out at a vitrification time of 10~20 minutes. It was also found that the survival rate was higher at 0℃ than at 25℃. In particular, the survival rate reached more than 80%. Water-damaged embryos turned brown and stoped growth, but energetic embryos took on a milky hue and show a very vigorous growth rate. Successful cryopreservation of somatic embryos of soapberry can be used to establish in vitro genebanks for long-term conservation of Soapberry genetic resources to complement field genebanks and other in vitro methods already being used.

In vitro-grown axillary buds of Melia aredarach were successfully cryopreserved by vitrification. On the MS medium supplemented with BA 1 mg/L, multiple shoots were developed within 4~5 weeks. Plantlets of Melia azedarach were cold-hardened at 10℃ for a 16-hr photo-period for 6 weeks. Excised axillary shoot-tips from hardened plantlets were precultured on a solidified Murashige & Skoog agar medium (MS) supplemented with 0.7 M sucrose for 1 day at 25℃. Axillary shoot-tip meristems wert dehydrated using a highly concentrated vitrification solution (PVS2) for 60 min at 0℃ prior to a direct plunge into liquid nitrogen (LN). The PVS2 vitrification solution consisted of 30% glycerol (w/v), 15% ethylene glycol (w/v), 15% DMSO (w/v) in MS medium containing 0.4M sucrose. After short-term warming in a water bath at 40℃, the meristems were transferred into 2 ml of MS medium containing 1.2M sucrose for 15 min and then planted on solidified MS culture medium. Successfully vitrified and warmed meristems resumed growth within 2 weeks and directly developed shoots without intermediary callus formation. The survival rate of cold-hardened plantlets for 3 and 4 weeks was 90%. We did not find any difference in PCR-band patterns between control and cryopreserved plants. This method appears to be a promising technique for cryopreserving axillary shoot-tips from in vitro-grown plantlets of Medicinal plants.

The standard protocol for the production of transgenic mouse from ES-injected embryo has to process via chimera producing and several times breeding steps, In contrast, tetraploid-ES cell complementation method allows the immediate generation of targeted murine mutants from genetically modified ES cell clones. The advantage of this advanced technique is a simple and efficient without chimeric intermediates. Recently, this method has been significantly improved through the discovery that ES cells derived from hybrid strains support the development of viable ES mice more efficiently than inbred ES cells do. Therefore, the objective of this study was to generate transgenic mice overexpressing human resistin gene by using tetrapioid-ES cell complementation method. Human resistin gene was amplified from human fetal liver cDNA library by PCR and cloned into pCR 2.1 TOPO T-vector and constructed in pCMV-Tag4C vector. Human resistin mammalian expression plasmid was transfected into D3-GL ES cells by lipofectamine 2000, and then after 8~10 days of transfection, the human resistin-expressing cells were selected with G418. In order to produce tetraploid embryos, blastomeres of diploid embryos at the two-cell stage were fused with two times of electric pulse using 60 V 30 sec. (fusion rate : 93.5%) and cultured upto the blastocyst stage (development rate : 94.6%). The 15~20 previously G418-selected ES cells were injected into tetraploid blastocysts, and then transferred into the uterus of E2.5d pseudopregnant recipient mice. To investigate the gestation progress, two El9.5d fetus were recovered by Casarean section and one fetus was confirmed to contain human resistin gene by genomic DNA-PCR. Therefore, this finding demonstrates that tetraploid-ES mouse technology can be considered as a useful tool to produce transgenic mouse for the rapid analysis of gene function in vivo.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of glucose on embryonic development of mouse embryos. Two cell embryos were recovered from ICR female mice(3-4weeks) at 46~50 hrs after hCG 5 IU injection (mated just after hCG injection) and cultured in 50 DMEM droplets supplemented with nothing (control: n=46), glucose 0.5mM (Group A; n=46) or glucose 3.15 mM(Group B; n=46) under mineral oil. All experimental media were supplemented with 20% human follicular fluid. Total blastocyst formation rates was lower (NS) in glucose groups (group A: 52.2% : B. 47.8%) than control group (60.9%). ZiB rates was the highest (P<0.05) in control (47.8%) than those in group A (21.7%) and B (28.3%). ZeB rates were the highest (NS) in group A (30.4%) than those in control (13.0%) and group B (19.6%). Blastocysts, cultured in group B (50.5), had the highest (NS) mean cell number compared with the others (control: 39.2 ; group A: (45.6). The ICM proportion (% ICM of total cells) in blastocysts cultured in group A (20.6%) was the highest (NS) than those of other tested groups (control: 15.2 ; group B: 13.9%). This study shows that a low dose of glucose added to culture medium increases the ICM proportion of blastocysts in mice.

Adult stem cells can make identical copies of themselves for long periods of time. They also give rise to many differentiated mature cell types that have characteristic morphology and specialized function. Human adult stem cells are the attractive raw materials for the cell/tissue therapy, however, it is not easy to get from the adult tissues. In the present study, we tried to isolate a cell population derived from human umbilical cord vein which has been discarded after birth. The cells were isolated after treatment of the umbilical vein with collagenase or trypsin. After 3 days of culture, two kinds of cell populations were found consisting of adherent cells with endothelial cell-like and fibroblast-like morphology, respectively. When these cells were subcultured 12 times over a period of 3 months, almost cells appeared uniformly to exhibit fibroblastoid morphology which was different from that of mesenchymal stem cells obtained from human bone marrow The results of RT-PCR analyses showed distinct expression of BMP-4, oct-4, and SCF genes but not of GATA, PAX-6 and Brachyury genes. On immunohistochemical staining, the cells were negative for the von Willebrand factor(vWF), alpha-smooth muscle actin and placental alkaline phosphatase. From these observations, it is suggested that stem-like cells might be present in human umbilical cord vein.

This study was conducted to analyze the effects of genotypes, environments and interaction of G~times E on yields of sesame grown in seven different environments by AMMI analysis. Environments accounted for the largest (91 %) proportion of the sums of squares, followed by G~times E (8%) and genotypes (1%) Therefore, G~times E effects are theoretically eight times as important as G effects. G2 (Yanghukkae) has the largest IPCAI scores indicating higher G~times E interaction. G3 (Suwon 171) was near zero score of IPCAI suggesting higher stability than others in yield component. Most of environments except for Iksan area shows different G~times E effects by years, which means Iksan is optimal area for multi-environmental adaptation evaluation in sesame breeding programs. According to this experiment, it is concluded that maximization of grain yield through environments can be achieved by specific genotypes in specific environments.

Mechanisms regulate the arrest and growth of the resting primordial follicles are very poorly understood. To elucidate genes involved in the early folliculogenesis, we conducted suppression subtractive hybridization using mRNA from day1 and day5 ovaries and selected weel for further analysis, since it was most frequent gene in the day1-subtracted cDNA library (1). Expression of weel and correlated components of the cell cycle machinery, such as cdc2, cyclin B1, cdc25C, and phosphorylated cdc2 was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. In primordial follicles, expression of weel, cdcw, and cyclin B1 was cytoplasmic in oocytes, but phosphorylated cdc2 was weakly expressed in oocytes. While cdc25C expression was in ovarian somatic and in some theca cells. None of components was expressed in the pre-granulosa cells of the primordial follicles, while weel weakly, and cdc2 and cyclin B1 was strongly expressed in the granulosa cells of the growing follicles. Results from the present study suggest that 1) the mejotic arrest of the oocytes may not due to of cell cycle machinery, and 2) the weel may arrest meiosis by sequestering cdc2 and cyclin B1 in the cytoplasm by protein-protein interactions and/or by inhibitory phosphorylation.