Both Nilaparvata lugens Stål and Laodelphax striatellus Fallén has been known as the major rice pests which were irregularly migrated into Korea by wind current from China. We re-arranged and compared the resistance profiles to detect the existence convergent adaptation by using the previously published dataset (N. lugens at 2014, 17:711-716 and L. Striatellus at 2016, 19:247-252 in J. Asia Pac. Entomol., respectively). Both species commonly exhibited the high level of resistance to imidacloprids. Especially, the immigrant populations of L. Striatellus exhibited higher resistance level to indigenous populations, suggesting that they would settle down in Korea with insecticide resistance traits being predisposed. To detect the convergent adaptation to insecticide, pearson correlation analysis were employed by comparing mean dosage of LD50 and resistance ratio to nine insecticides. Strikingly, high and similar dosage responses were observed between the two species with high correlation coefficients of 0.928 (df=7, P <0.001) and 0.950 (df=7, P <0.001), respectively, in the comparison of LD50 vs. resistance ratio. This finding indicates that convergent adaption has occurred in both species through consistent selection by insecticides with similar usage patterns.

Exportation of sweet persimmon has been grown up recently, but the growth was accumulated because of quarantine and shelf life issues. Herein, we've investigated the concurrent processing of ethyl formate (EtF), a MeBr alternative quarantine fumigant, and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), an anti-ethylene compound, on sweet persimmon and suggested proper fumigation methods. An important quarantine pest, Tetranychus urticae, was inoculated on sweet persimmon, and then 70 g m-3 of ethyl formate has been fumigated for 6 h before and after 1 ppm of 1-MCP treatment for 24 h at 5°C condition. These concurrent processing showed the promise that efficacy of EtF was enough to meet quarantine guideline and shelf life of fruits was extended in terms of the hardness, surface color and sugar contents when treated fruits were stored for four weeks at 5°C.

Beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella and tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura are the three most serious pests of many economically important crops such as cruciferous crops, various vegetables and ornamental plants. Because these pests are known to be resistant to lots of chemical insecticides, integrated control using both or either entomophathogen and/or natural enemy is thought to be an attractive alternative for effective control. One of the obstacles using and expanding mycopesticide is narrow host ranges. At commercial farms, cultivating crops are seriously damaged by various Lepidopteran pests. Farmers want to use a microbial control agent which can control various host insects to reduce cost and labor. In previous study, we selected two entomopathogenic fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae and Paecilomyces fumosoroseus, which shown high virulence against beet armyworm. For wide use of the isolates in farm, we tested its host ranges, especially to diamondback moth and tobacco cutworm, which also are serious pest in Korea. The two isolates were shown a good control effect in leaf disc bioassy.

Various insect pests and plant disease can outbreak in a field. For the effective control of pests and plant diseases during crop cultivation, farmers simultaneously or sequentially spray various eco-friendly agricultural materials (EFAM), chemical pesticides and microbial control agents on the same fields. It was reported that many agrochemicals are harmful to entomopathogenic fungi, especially some fungicides with broad spectrum activity that are routinely applied for the control of plant diseases. In addition, some pesticides may antagonize the potential insecticidal activity and efficiency of entomopathogenic fungi. Therefore, sometimes the utilization of fungal entomopathogen in forestry and agricultural production is limited because of the undesirable interference from some fungicides and pesticides. There is little research that examines the compatibility of these EFAMs with entomopathogenic fungi and the influence of EFAMs on the control efficacy of mycopesticides. We conducted a study of influence of pretreated eco-friendly agricultural materials on control efficacy of Isaria javanica isolate against sweet potato whitefly.

Microbe have been considered as potential control agents for pest, as alternative to chemical control methods. Among entomopathogens, fungi cause the mortality by penetrating the cuticle of pest and/or by metabolites such as toxin. Not only this direct control effect of fungi, but repellency of fungi also may be used to prevent the pest. Repellence effect of fungi is considered as inhibitory factor to control termite. A study was reported in Japan that termite was able to detect and remove the conidia of fungi on their surface. The termite can escape from fungal infection and protect their colony. There is few study that insect pest such as moth can detect and avoid the virulence fungi. Therefore, we has been conducting the detection and avoidance of beet armyworm to high pathogenic fungi, Paecilomyces fumosoroseus. Adult of the beet armyworm avoided oviposition at Chinese cabbage treated with P. fumosoroseus compare to control. This result may be used to prevent the infestation of moth in crop production.

As ubiquitous organisms entomopathogenic fungi may natually occur within environment including phylloplanes and soil or deposite and survive for a while after spraying a fungal suspension to control insect pest. The existence of pathogenic fungi is a threat to arthropods foraging for food and oviposition sites. The detection and avoidance of pathogens is important for host survival, longevity and ultimate fitness. Although entomopathogenic fungi are ubiquitous worldwide and act as common natural enemies of many invertebrate species, very few studies have conducted abiut the detection and avoidance of pathogenic fungi by insect pest. We have studied that an insect pest can recognize a high virulence fungi on crop surface, avoid oviposition and don’t enter the field treated their pathogen.

Entomopathogenic fungus is a useful control agent to sucking type insect such as whitefly and aphid. The fungi are influenced by some environmental factors such as relative humidity, temperature and UV and cause slow and fluctuation in pest control efficacy. Especially, UV kills conidia or spores of entomopathogenic fungi and a mycopesticide using fungi has short control period in field. UV intensity changes from season to season. Survival rate of entomopathognic fungi treated may differ from seasons and will show different control efficacy. Therefore, we conducted a study to estimate the persistence of an Isaria javanica isolate, which was already reported as sweet potato whitefly control agent, in potted greenhouse soil planted different crops. The number of survival spore decreased gradually and differ from seasons.

Entomopathogenic fungi are natural enemies of insect pests and contribute to the natural regulation of their host populations. These fungal group are often used as active ingredients for microbial insect pest control. In addition, the potential antimicrobial effect by entomopathogenic fungi including Beauveria bassiana, Lecanicillium spp., and Isaria fumosorosea have recently been reported against fungal plant pathogens. Dual microbial control effects with entomopathogenic fungi against both aphids and cucumber powdery mildew had reported in Canada. In our previous studies we conducted bioassay with entomopathogenic fungi to develop dual microbial control agent which can control both aphid and fungal plant disease. We selected an Beauveria bassiana isolate which has high dual control effects against both cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii and sclerotinia rot, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. In this study, we have tested the dual control efficacy of the B. bassiana isolate against cotton aphid and sclerotinia rot on whole potted cucumber plants. We found that the B. bassiana isolate protected the plant from cotton aphid and sclerotinia rot under laboratory condition.

Seasonal abundance and distribution of mosquitoes and chigger mites are important for human populations. However, factors affecting the abundance and distribution of vector species are not well - understood. Furthermore, global climate change makes it difficult to predict the population dynamics of vector species. Therefore, it is important to monitor this vector species over a long period of time. In 2015, mosquitoes were collected from three potential mosquito habitats using black light trap and BG-Sentinel trap in Gyeongi-do in April through October. Also, we collected chigger mite using sherman live traps in Cheorwon, Gangwon-do in April, September and October. From the survey, we collected a total of 11,649 mosquitoes in three potential mosquito habitats, and a total of 3,656 chigger mites from 54 wild rodents. In the samples, dominant mosquito species were Aedes vexans nipponii (Species Ratio 70%), Culex pipens pallens (SR 9.8%) in Gyeonggi area and dominant chigger mite species was Leptotrombidium pallidium (SR 59%) in Cheorwon. The results of this study can serve as provide fundamental basis to develop effective management strategy under the global climate change environment.

Human body and head lice are obligatory human ectoparasites. Although both body and head lice belong to a single species, Pediculus humanus, only body lice are known to be a vector of several bacterial diseases. The higher vector competence of body lice is assumed to be due to their weaker immune response than that of head lice. To test this hypothesis, immune reactions were compared between body and head lice following infections by two model bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and a human pathogen, Bartonella quintana. Following dermal or oral challenge, the number of these bacteria increased both in hemocoel and alimentary tract of body lice but not in head lice and the viability of the B. quintana was significantly higher in body louse feces, the major route of infection to human. In addition, body lice showed the lower basal/induced transcription level of major immune genes, cytotoxic reactive oxygen species and phagocytosis activity compared with head lice. These findings suggest that a reduced immune response may be responsible, in part, for the increased proliferation and excretion of viable bacteria which are associated with the high level of human infectivity seen in body versus head lice.

Insect pests have been a serious problem over many years and remain a major threat for food production. Although chemical pesticides are major pest control strategies, use of microorganisms such as entomopathogenic bacteria, fungi, viruses and nematodes have continuously increase last few decades to minimize the use of agrichemicals. According to BBC research, the global biocontrol market was about $2.1 billion in 2011, and this is expected to rise $3 ~ 4 billion by 2017. Over 50 entomopathogens are commercially produced and used augmentatively as microbial pesticides. About 175 biopesticide active ingredients and 700 products have been registered worldwide. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium spp., nuclear polyhedrosis virus and Steinernema spp. are the most popular control agents used in plant protection. Among the microbial control agents Bt products have more than 50% of market share. In Korea, only 13 environmentally-friendly crop protectants were registered for insect pest control in 2015. Market share is very low and has grown slowly. We will discuss how we can expand the market with our techniques.

This study investigated the antibacterial effects of Galla rhois extract (GRE) against Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of GRE against C. jejuni and C. coli were 0.28 and 0.55 mg/mL, respectively, and the corresponding minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) were 4.4 and 5.5 mg/mL. C. jejuni treated with the MIC, MBC or 2×MBC of GRE showed significant inhibition of growth compared with that of the control group during the incubation period, and no viable bacteria were detected at 24 h after incubation. C. coli treated with MIC, MBC or 2×MBC of GRE also showed inhibition of growth compared with that of the control group during the incubation period, and in the C. coli cultures treated with MBC and 2×MBC of GRE, no viable bacteria were detected at 24 h after incubation. In conclusion, GRE is a candidate antibacterial agent against C. jejuni and C. coli, and may have applications for the control of Campylobacter infection in poultry.

Xenotransplantation of pig islet regarded as a good alternative to allotransplantation. However, cellular death mediated by hypoxia-reoxygenation injury after transplantation disturb success of this technique. In the present study, we produce transgenic pig expressing human heme oxygenase 1 (HO1) genes to overcome cellular death for improving efficiency of islet xenotransplantation. Particularly, Korean miniature pig breed, Micro-Pig, was used in the present study. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique was used to produce the HO1 transgenic pig. Six alive transgenic piglets were produced and all the transgenic pigs were founded to have transgene in their genomic DNA and the gene was expressed in all tested organs. Also, in vitro cultured fibroblasts derived from the HO1 transgenic pig showed low reactive oxygen species level, improved cell viability and reduced apoptosis level

A new commercial cultivar ‘Hae Sal’ of Hypsizigus marmoreus was developed by the method of mono-mono crossing between monokaryotic strains derived from KNR8047 and KNR8080. The parental strains are characterized by the property of high quality and a short period of time in cultivation respectively. The optimum temperature of mycelial growth was 25°C and that of fruiting body development was 15～16°C. The period of harvesting including primordia formation was 7.0 days shorter than that of control strain ‘Mangadak No.2’. The color of pileus and stipe surface was neutral-brown and pure white, respectively. The yield was 117.6±23.2g/850cc plastic bottle. Analysis of the genetic characteristics of the new commercial cultivar ‘Hae Sal’ showed a different profile as that of the control strain, ‘Mangadak No.2’, when RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA) primer was used. This new cultivar ‘Hae Sal’ of Hypsizigus marmoreus is characterized by the improved quality and a short period of time in cultivation after scratching. It would be of much help to expand the cultivation area of Hypsizigus marmoreus.