One objective of soybean breeders is to develop cultivars with elevated oleic acid content. Testing soybean seeds for oleic acid content is possible using gas chromatography (GC), however it is time-consuming and requires destructing the seeds. Using single seeds, we developed a near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) calibration equation relating oleic acid measured with GC to oleic acid predicted by NIR. The slope of the regression line of oleic acid measured with GC on oleic acid predicted by NIR and the intercept was not different from zero. A set of 300 soybean seeds was used to calculate the NIR equation and an independent set of 100 soybean seeds was used for validation. This NIRS equation showed significant correlation between reference values and NIRS estimated values based on the SEP, r2, and the RSP of reference data to SEP. This research shows that NIR prediction of oleic acid using intact soybean seeds is accurate and rapid and should be especially useful for early generation screening.

A comparative phenotypic study between bl2 and spl6 mutant wasperformed to characterize spot formation mechanisms of bl2 mutant. Small spots appeared at the seedling stage in bl2 and later it covered large round areas on the leaves whereas, relatively small red spots in parallel line on both leaf surfaces at late tillering stage were observed in spl6. Vegetative and reproductive growth was reduced due to lesion formation at early age in the mutants. Lower growth habit and agronomic trait value was observed in mutants as compared to wild type plants. Genetic segregation data among F2 population revealed that both mutants are recessive in nature. Mesophyll chloroplast was not found in spotted area which demonstrates the damage of chloroplast cell at spotted area due to cell death. Transmission electron microscopy also confirmed the chloroplast damage. Increased level of total chlorophyll and hydrogen peroxide content were observed till 45 days of growth after transplantation under natural environment and dropped at 60 days. Catalase activity was increased until 45 days and decreased at 60 days whereas very slight level difference in protein content was observed. However, increasing level of total ascorbic acid contents were found in spl6 and bl2 as compared with wild type till 60 days after transplantation. Higher expressions of OsPDI and OsGPX1 in bl2 spotted leaves were found whereas OsTPX expression was very low in the spotted leaf. (This research was supported by the National Research foundation of Korea, Grant 0070065).

Rice with purple colored pericarp deposit anthocyanin on the seed coat and color accumulation increased rapidly during seed development. The purple color of rice pericarp is genetically determined by the Prp locus. Inheritance of purple pericarp was studied in Prp/ Kumgangbyeo (indica type Korean variety). Pericarp color of the F1 plants was purple and the F2 population of 274 plants segregated into 3 purple: 1 white ratio indicating dominant nature of the purple color. Comparative proteomic approaches using 2-DE were applied to analyze the protein profiles and molecular mechanism of purple color formation in ricepericarp. Results revealed that approximately 1,500protein spots were reproducibly detected in the gels with silver staining across the two biological replicates. Among them, 46 proteins were expressed differentially between purple color pericarp rice and white color pericarp of the wild type rice, in which 28 and 16 protein spots were more than two fold up regulated in the wild type and purple pericarp, respectively. MALDI-TOF MS analysis of nine spots revealed that putative fructokinase,embryo-specific protein and one unknown proteins were abundant in the wild type, whereas, anthocyanidin synthase, putative chloroplast inner envelope protein, and dihydroflavonol reductase were highly abundant in the Prp rice. Results indicated anthocyanidin synthase and/or dihydroflavonol reductase might be involved in the biosynthetic pathway of the purple color formation in the rice pericarp. [This research was supported by the Grant funded by Agricultural R&D Promotion Center, ARPC (IPET project number: 108091-05-1-CG000)].

Rice lax panicle (lax) mutant had defect in early inflorescence differentiation and lateral branch formation and exhibitedfewer numbers of rachis branches and spikelets in the panicle. The mutant also had abnormality in floral organ formation. Whereas, the spotted leaf 6 (spl6) mutant produced lesions in absence of pathogen. Analysis with a lax spl6 double mutant indicated both genes are controlled by single recessive factor and linked on chromosome 1 with 7 centiMorgan map distance. The lax gene was fine mapped within the 261.3 kb region between RM7594 and RM5389 that predicted 10 open reading frames (ORF) as candidate for lax gene. Sequencing of the candidates in the lax mutant revealed a substitution of nucleotide T by G corresponding to an amino acid substitution from serine (S) to alanine (A) at the 117th position within the coding region of the candidate ORF bhlh123. The intronless 1080 bp cDNA of LAX gene contains an ORF of 215 amino acids and encoded a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor. Analysis of a 5.1 kb genomic fragment of the lax gene from homozygous dominant progeny which corresponded to indica cultivar resulted in a long deletion of 24 nucleotides in the upstream of LAX cDNA. (This research was supported by the National Research foundation of Korea, Grant 0070065).

In this study, a series of laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the weak reflection of regular and random water waves over a train of protruded permeable shore structures. A cylindrical slit type breakwater and the alternatives are employed and compared for reflecting and transmitting capabilities of incident waves including wave forces. A series of random waves were generated by using the Bretschneider-Mitsuyasu frequency and directional spectrum. Measured spectrum of irregular waves without breakwaters is verified by comparing with those of the input waves generated. Weak reflection is occurred at the breakwater center of the peak frequency. If the row of breakwaters is fixed at three layers and the relative height of breakwater is fixed at 0.6, around 45% of incident wave energy is reflected to offshore. It is also found that the transmission of directional random waves increases as the maximum frequency parameter increases. A very good agreement is observed. Reflection coefficients of permeable submerged breakwaters are less than those of impermeable breakwaters. The upside-down L shape is recommended for a small fishery harbor mooring in terms of reflecting capability and of practical application. The final design was applied to the wharf of a small beach of Seolly, near Namhae at the southeast coast of Korea.

A cDNA clone encoding a MDR-like ABC transporter protein was isolated from Brassica rapa seedlings, through rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). This gene (named as Brmdr 1; GenBank accession no.: DQ296184 ) had a total length of 4222 bp with an open reading frame of 3900 bp, and encoded a predicted polypeptide of 1300 amino acids with a molecular weight of 143.1 kDa. The BrMDR1 protein shared 71.0, 62.5, 60.0 and 58.2% identity with other MDR proteins isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana (AAN28720), Coptis japonica (CjMDR), Gossypium hirsutum (GhMDR) and Triticum aestivum (TaMDR) at amino acid level, respectively. Southern blot analysis showed that Brmdr1 was a low-copy gene. Expression pattern analysis revealed that Brmdr1 constitutively expressed in the root, stem petals and stamens, but with lower expression in leaves and open flowers. The domains analysis showed that BrMDR1 protein possessed two transmembrane domains (TMDs) and two nucleotide binding domains (NBDs) arranging in "TMD1-NBD1-TMD2-NBD2" direction, which is consistent with other MDR transporters. Within NBDs three characteristic motifs common to all ABC transporters, "Walker A", "Walker B" and C motif, were found. These results indicate that BrMDR1 is a MDR-like ABC transporter protein that may be involved in the transport and accumulation of secondary metabolites.

This study was performed to investigate the flora and plant resources of Mt. Gamak (537.8 m) from April to October 2007. The collected vascular plants were composed of all 478 taxa including cultivated species, and classified into 410 species, 3 subspecies, 61 varieties, and 4 forms of 284 genera under 94 families. Six taxa of the Korean endemic plants and 4 taxa of the rare and endangered plants were also distributed in this mount. Resource plants were categorized into edible 222, pasturing 208, medicinal 183, stainable 134, ornamental 96, timber 20, fiber 6 and industrial 4 taxa, respectively. Floristic geography of the investigated area was regarded as the boundary between middle parts in floristic pattern of the Korean Peninsula.