Grapholita molesta occur four times a year and Carposina sasakii occur twice a year, and both pests do damage on stone fruits such as peach, apple, plum, apricot, etc. Grapholita molesta is worldwide distributed in temperate and subtropical areas including South Korea. But, Carposina sasakii distributed in South Korea, Japan, China and Asia, and has been managed as an important import quarantine pest by the authorities of United States, Canada and Taiwan. Forecasting of both pests in Korea is currently done through the investigation of 1,000 fruits per 10 trees (100 fruits / tree) in designated peach orchard. However, this method is very difficult to observe the pest by bagging of peach and require too much time and labor. Therefore, we tried to carry out a new forecasting method by using of sex pheromone traps for newly standardized method as an alternative. Using sex pheromone trap, attractiveness of G. molesta was proved to be 2.5 > 1.5 > 0.5 m by the height and the border => outside > center by the position. Attractiveness of C. sasakii made no difference in height, but, more trapped at the center and border than outside in position at peach orchard.

Tropilaelaps mercedesae is an ectoparasite of immature honey bees belonging to the genus Tropilaelaps (Acari: Laelapidae). T. mercedesae has become a major threat to the Western honey bee Apis mellifera in Asia, including Korea, and is expanding its geographical range to northern regions due to global warming. To establish gene resources of T. mercedesae, the whole transcriptome was analyzed by RNA sequencing. An mRNA-focused library was generated from total RNA extracted from the mixed stages using the TruSeq RNA Library Preparation kit and sequenced using the HiSeq 2000 platform. A total of 6.0 Gb reads were obtained with 85% Q30 value. Trimmed sequence data were de novo assembled using the CLC Assembly Cell v 4.2. A total of 64,868 non-duplicate contigs were finally obtained and annotated by the Blast2GO using the NCBI nr database. The most abundant species in the resulting 14,336 Blast hits (22.1%) was Metaseiulus occidentalis, a predatory mite, followed by Ixodes scapularis and Tribolium castaneum, suggesting that the T. mercedesae transcriptome matches well with closely related other arthropod species, including mites and ticks. In order to provide basic information for efficient control and monitoring of potential resistance in T. mercedesae, acaricide target genes were annotated and characterized. One voltage-sensitive sodium channel gene encoding the molecular target of fluvalinate, a pyrethroid acaricide most widely used for the control of T. mercedesae, was identified and its molecular properties were investigated. In addition, other acaricide target genes, including acetylcholinesterase and glutamate (or GABA)-gated chloride channel, were identified and characterized.

The acetylcholinesterase 1 (AmAChE1) of the honey bee is known to be abundantly expressed both in the central and peripheral nervous systems. AmAChE1 exists mostly in the soluble form with little catalytic activity and has non-neuronal functions. Our preliminary observation showed that AmAChE1 expression fluctuated between the forages and nurses. A more systematic expression profiling of AmAChE1 over a year cycle on a monthly basis revealed that AmAChE1 was predominantly expressed during the winter months with being moderately expressed during the rainy summer time. However, no significant difference in AmAChE1 expression was noticed between the nurse and forager workers. Interestingly, AmAChE1 expression was inhibited when bees were allowed for brooding by placing overwintering bee hives in strawberry green houses with the supplement of pollen diets whereas it was resumed when the bee hives were removed from the green houses, thereby suppressed brooding. To confirm whether brooding status is a main determining factor for the suppression of AmAChE1 expression, active bee hives were placed in a screen tent, thereby hindering foraging, until brooding was completely suppressed, and then allowed to restore brooding by removing the screen. The AmAChE1 expression in the head was up-regulated when brooding was suppressed whereas its expression was down-regulated when brooding was resumed. These finding demonstrates that AmAChE1 expression in the central nervous system (i.e., head) is related with brooding status of honey bee. To understand the connection between the AmAChE1 expression and other pathways related with brooding, currently in progress are the analyses of head transcriptomes of honey bee workers with or without their brooding suppressed.

Mosquitoes are vectors of many human diseases such as Japanese encephalitis, vivax malaria, west nile fever, dengue fever and yellow fever. However, factors affecting the abundance and distribution of mosquitoes are not well-understood. Moreover, the global climate change makes it even more difficult to address and predict the population dynamics of mosquitoes. Therefore, it is important to monitor this medically-important pest throughout landscapes over a long period of time. This study was conducted as a part of the nation-wide surveillance program to monitor insect vectors. In 2015, mosquitoes were collected using black light traps and BG-Sentinel traps in Gyeonggi-do at every two weeks from April to September. Three types of potential mosquito habitats were selected for surveillance: urban area (Suwon), cattle shed (Yongin) and wild bird refuge (Gwangju). Among the three habitats, female mosquitoes were first caught on April 4 by BG-Sentinel trap in the urban area. The highest density of female mosquitoes in the traps was recorded in July in the urban area (134 ± 84 per trap); the highest density was observed in June in the cattle shed (2473 ± 1319) and wild bird refuge (21 ± 15) (mean ± SE). The dominant mosquito species were Culex pipens pallens (91%), Aedes vexans nipponii (79%) and Anopheles sinensis (33%) in the urban area, cattle shed and wild bird refuge, respectively. The results of this study indicate that female mosquitoes were most abundant in the cattle shed habitat type. It is also noteworthy that the dominant mosquito species varied among the habitat types surveyed. This nation-wide monitoring program for medical pests will provide fundamental basis to develop effective management strategy under the global climate change environment.

Leptotrombidium pallidum is the major vector mites for Orientia tsutsugamushi, the causative agent of scrub typhus. To understand the molecular mechanism of L. pallidum, we sequenced the whole genome using Illumina sequencing technology. Totally four genomic libraries with different insert sizes ranging from 280 bp to 8 kb were used to generate 45.1 Gb of genome in the combination of paired-end and mate-pairs sequencing reads. Quality filtering and correction of paired-end reads for very small and/or bad-quality sequences yielded 26.9 Gb of high-quality sequences, which are used to estimate the genome size as 175 Mbusing kmer methods and assembled into a 193.7 Mb genomic sequence scaffolds with N50 length of 92,945 bp. Furthermore, 94% of CEGMA completeness score were obtained from genome scaffold assembly. To facilitate gene annotation, we used a combination of de novo and homology based tools to predict gene models in the chigger mite genome. A combination of evidence-based and de novo approaches predicted 15,842 high-confidence protein-coding genes with an average transcript length of 1,511 bp and 2.4 exons per gene which corresponds to about 12.4% total gene length. Bacterial endosymbiosis are very common in mite species and can range from mutualistic to pathogenic associations. Henceforth, the endosymbionts in L. pallidum were predicted using the NCBI microbial draft genomes and mitochondrial genome. Besides, this L. pallidum draft genome can be used as a significant reference for comparative genomic studies across mite species.

미이라병은 Diaporthe/Phomopsis complex에 의해 유발되는병으로 콩 재배기간 중 따뜻하고 습한 환경에서 종자가 성숙되면 감염률이 높아지며 감염된 콩 종자는 외관상 품질뿐만아니라 종자 활력이 저하된다. 미이라병에 대한 연구를 수행하기 위하여 대만에 위치한 아시아채소개발연구센터(AVRDC)의 콩 시험포장에서 미이라병 병징을 보이는 콩 줄기를 채집하고 이로부터 3개의 곰팡이 균주(isolate)를 분리하였다. 배지위에서의 곰팡이 균사의 생육특성, 현미경하에서 관찰된 알파,베타 분생자(conidia)의 모양 그리고 PCR-RFLP 분석으로, 3개의 균주는 Diaporthe phaseolorum var. sojae 으로 확인되었다. 한편, 미이라병 저항성 육종을 위해서는 유전자원과 계통의 검정이 선행되어야 하는데, 인공접종을 위해서 분생자의최적 배양조건을 탐색하였다. 그 결과 배지는 PDA, 온도는24oC에서 잘 배양되었으며, 일장은 암조건에서는 균사체만 유도되고 분생자는 유도되지 않았으며, 24시간과 15시간의 일장에서는 균사체 유도 및 분생자의 유도 정도에 차이가 없었다.또한 잎-줄기와 꼬투리, 두 개의 접종 부위에 따른 미이라병감염률을 조사하였는데, 두 접종 부위에 따른 미이라병 감염정도는 통계적인 유의차는 나타나지 않았으나 잎-줄기에 접종한 개체 보다 꼬투리에 접종한 개체의 종자 감염률이 높은 경향을 보였다.

Norovirus (NoV) is an etiologic agent of human and animal acute gastroenteritis and is a member of the family Caliciviridae. NoV is classified based on nucleotide sequences of the VP1 gene into at least six genogroups (GI-GVI), among which GI, GII, and GIV are known to infect humans and GII is the most prevalent genogroup. In this study, VP1, the full gene of GII human NoV, was cloned from a human fecal sample and expressed using a baculovirus expression system. Human NoV VP1-specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were produced using expressed recombinant VP1. Expressed VP1 in the recombinant virus was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), indirect fluorescence antibody (IFA) test, and Western blot analysis. Eight hybridomas secreting VP1-specific MAbs against human GII NoV were generated and characterized. All of the MAbs produced in this study reacted with human GII NoV VP1-recombinant baculoviruses but not with other non-human calicivirus recombinant baculoviruses. These MAbs reacted specifically with human NoV GII.4-2009 virus-like particles (VLPs), and some MAbs showed cross-reactivity with other GII.4 variant VLPs. Expressed human GII NoV VP1-recombinant protein and MAbs specific to this protein can be used as useful reagents for detecting and characterizing human NoV.

This study was conducted to evaluate the accumulation and distribution of hydrophobically modified glycol chitosan (HGC) as a degradable nanoparticle in the body. To determine the movement of degradable HGC nanoparticles in the body, 20 mg/kg of lutetium177-labeled HGC (Lu177-HGC) with the size ranging from 320 to 400 nm was injected intravenously into ICR mice, and the amount of radioactivity remaining in blood and several organs was measured at various time points during the period of 5 days. In the pharmacokinetics analysis using the Lu177 radioisotope, the free Lu177 was mainly distributed and accumulated in the order of kidney>liver>lung at 1 day after the injection of the radioisotope. However, the Lu177-HGC showed a high distribution of nanoparticles in the order of liver>spleen>kidney during the experimental period of 5 days. These results would provide a basic pharmacokinetics for the use of HGC as a drug carrier in drug delivery system.

The ultimate goal of this study is to assess the accumulation and distribution of hydrophobically modified glycol chitosan (HGC) as a degradable nanoparticle in the body. To understand the movement of degradable nanoparticle HGC in the body, we intravenously injected a dose of 20 mg/kg of Cy5.5-labeled HGC with size ranging from 320 to 400 nm into ICR mice, and measured the amount of fluorescence remaining in blood and several organs at various time intervals. In blood, the level of Cy5.5-labeled HGC was the highest at 15 min, then after 30 min it decreased rapidly and reached a plateau form 30 min to 28 days. In the tissue we confirmed the presence of nanoparticles at high levels in the order of kidney>liver>submandibular gland until 28 days after injection. However, we did not find the presence of the particles in the brain or testes. These results will provide basic information on HGC as a drug delivery agent.

Feminist therapy, based on feminist philosophy, has the aim of supporting and strengthening the powers of social minority groups, including women, and bringing change to society through these efforts. Its basic principle is that of equality, seeking freedom from any prejudice or oppression coming from gender differences. Through the analysis of a commercial entitled “Show,” by Korea Telecom, this study discusses how women, and especially women’s sense of ethics, are viewed in society. The commercial has been analyzed according to ethical theories, and a tentative conclusion has been reached: Women’s ethics is more relationshiporiented and caring than that of men, and it is the product of experiences, and learned through a system. Men and women are not innately different in terms of ethics, but rather the difference is something experienced, learned, and encouraged, and people acquire this difference in the course of interacting with others in order to survive. Taking this into consideration, the current study proposes and discusses a new method of dealing with ethics in feminist therapy: The fact that difference exists should be acknowledged, and an effort should be made to ‘show’ various effects of this difference.

The German cockroach, Blatella germanica, is one of the most important household pest that can cause disease on human. Conventional contact insecticides show less efficacy because it is hard to be contacted or digested by cockroach that lives inside small crevice. Ethyl formate(EF), which is a potential fumigant to control various insect pests such as stored grain insects and quarantine pests, can be penetrated wherever air exist and shows toxicity on respiratory system of insect. In this trials, we've demonstrated practical and commercial scale fumigations of EF on German cockroach. Efficacy of EF was described in terms of concentration × time (CT) product. At practical fumigation, EF gave 100% control of German cockroach nymph and adult when the CT product was 43.2g h m-3. When 600m3 scale warehouse fumigation for 15 hours with 5g m-3 of EF, nymph and adult stage of German cockroach were completely controlled. The ventilation time to reduce EF concentration under TLV(Threshold Limit Value, EF=100ppm) was less than 1 hour. These results show that EF can be applied at warehouse or mill house to control German cockroach effectively.

This studies was conducted to define community structure and diversity of epigeal spiders in apple orchards under different farming practices (organic and conventional). In 11 commercial apple orchards, epigeal spider community structure was investigated during 2012-2014 (3 orchards, 2012; 3 orchards, 2013, 5 orchards, 2014). Epigeal spiders were collected by pitfall traps from April to October, 2012 in Danyang-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do; 2013 in Muju-gun, Jeollabuk-do; 2014 in Cheongsong-gun and Uiseong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea. Sampled spiders were identified to the species level. Biodiversity was analyzed with species richness (total numbers of spider species), abundance (total numbers of individuals) and Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H΄) for each site and compared between organic and conventional orchards. In all regions, abundance of the spider communities were relatively higher in organic orchards than in conventional orchards. But, no significant difference in species richness and specie diversity (H΄) between organic and conventional orchards. Lycosidae was the most dominant family in all orchards regardless farming practices. However, Linyphiidae dominated in organic orchards only. The most dominant species were Pardosa laura (Lycosidae), Erigone koshiensis (Linyphiidae) in organic, Piratula procurvus (Lycosidae) in conventional orchards.

The sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a species complex, including at least 24 biotypes which express different ecological and physiological characteristics. B. tabaci is one of the most serious pests in the horticultural crops in worldwide level. B. tabaci infests over 600 plant species and also indirectly damages plants by the honeydew excretion. Moreover, whiteflies transmit more than 100 plant viruses, especially begomoviruses. Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) which infested severely in tomato cultivars is transmitted by the vector insect, B. tabaci. Here, we demonstrated whether gene expression of B. tabaci is regulated by the oral ingestion of dsRNA. Double strand RNA (dsRNA) of heat shock protein 70 gene (hsp70) was produced from cDNA by using the specific primer. Whitefly adults were allowed to ingest sugar solution containing dsRNA for 3 hr in the two-layered parafilm feeding tube. Quantitative realtime PCR showed that whiteflies which ingest hsp70 dsRNA completely knockdown its transcript expression. Whiteflies ingestded dsRNA increased mortality by heat shock but not by cold shock. Further research will focus the role of hsp70 in various environmental stresses against insects.

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in a maturation medium on oocyte maturation and embryonic development in pigs. Immature pig oocytes were matured for 44 h in a medium supplemented with 0.4% (w/v) BSA, 0.1% (w/v) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), or 10% (v/v) pig follicular fluid (PFF). After IVM, oocytes reached metaphase II stage were activated for parthenogenesis (PA) or used as cytoplasts for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Nuclear maturation (89.5%, 90.7% and 91.3% for BSA, PVA and PFF, respectively) and intraoocyte glutathione contents (1.20, 1.16 and 1.00 pixels/oocyte for BSA, PVA and PFF, respectively) were not altered by the macromolecules added to maturation medium. IVM of oocytes in a medium containing BSA (21.4%) and PVA (20.7%) showed significantly lower blastocyst formation after PA than culture in medium with PFF (39.2%). After SCNT, oocytes matured in medium with BSA showed decreased embryonic development to the blastocyst stage (9.2%) compared to those matured in medium with PFF (28.9%), while 23.6% of SCNT oocytes matured in medium with PVA developed to the blastocyst stage. When the effect of BSA in a maturation medium during the first 22 h and the second 22 h of IVM in combination with PFF or PVA was examined, PVA-BSA showed a higher nuclear maturation (94.1%) than BSA-PFF (84.5%). However, there was no significant difference in the blastocyst formation among tested combinations (47.3, 52.2, 50.0, 44.4 and 49.0% for PFF-PFF, PFF-BSA, PVA-BSA, BSA-PVA and BSA-PFF, respectively). Our results demonstrate that BSA and PVA added to maturation medium can support oocyte maturation comparable to PFF-supplemented medium. However, maturation of oocytes in a BSA-containing medium decreases embryonic development after PA and SCNT when compared with the medium supplemented with PFF.

Leptotrombidium pallidum is the major vector mite for Orientia tsutsugamushi, the causative agent of scrub typhus, in Asian countries, including Korea. The genome size of L. pallidum was previously estimated to be 191 ± 7 Mb (Kim et al., 2014). Genomic DNA (gDNA) was extracted from a single female from a 9-generation inbred L. pallidum colony and used for whole genome amplification (WGA). The resulting amplified gDNA was used for the construction of paired-end and mate-pair libraries and sequenced using Illumina platforms (HiSeq2000 and MiSeq). An unamplified gDNA sample extracted from 20 female mites was also used for sequencing in parallel. More than 45Gb sequence reads from both paired-end and mate-pair libraries of the WGA gDNA were trimmed and then de novo assembled using the CLC Asembly Cell v.4.0 for contig assembly and SSPACE for scaffolding. The assembly generated approximately 6,545 scaffolds with N50 value of 92,945 and total size of ~193Mb, which was in a good agreement with our previous estimation. Repeat analysis showed that about 30% of genome (~58Mb) was masked as repeats, most of which were unclassified novel elements. For gene predictions, generated were the PASA models based on genomic alignments of RNA-seq reads from 4 different chigger mite samples (i.e. male, female, larva, and protonymph) and the GeneWise models based on genomic alignments of protein sequences from 4 closely related species with chigger mite. Independently, ab initio gene predictions were performed with AUGUSTUS and FgeneSH with custom trained matrices optimized for L. pallidum and GENEID with pre-trained matrix for Acyrthopsiphon pisum. By combining all together, 15,842 genes were predicted finally. Manual curation is in progress for various groups of genes, including chemosensory receptor genes, immune-related genes, acaricide target genes, etc.

RDA(Rural Development Administration of Agriculture) and YIRI(Yecheon-gun Industrial Insect Research Institute) was development of 3 strains crossbred honey bee(Apis mellifera) for increasing honey production(HP). The overall goal of this research is to improve the honey production of queen honey bees. This will enhance the economic value of the nation’s honey bees for honey production, and hazard resistance. Our main objective of this research is to test of honey bees(A. mellifera) that have increased as well as being good honey producers and resistance of disease in jeon-nam province. The new honey bee(A. mellifera) stock were identified ability of increasing honey production by comparing with rearing practice colony. The new honey bee(A. mellifera) stock can produce more than 30~50% honey(HP; 12.31 kg) comparing with rearing practice colonies(control 1; 8.17 kg, and control 2; 9.53 kg). Furthermore, we are calculated the number of worker bee per colony. Population of worker bee in new honey bee(A. mellifera) stock are 2,849 (colony 1), 8,860 (colony 2) and 10,451 (colony 3), it was more then 1.2~3.7 fold comparing with controls.