The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith is a noctuid moth endemic throughout the Western Hemisphere that has recently become widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. In Asia, FAW was firstly reported at corn fields in India, SriLanka, Bangladeshi, Miyanmar and Thailand in 2018. In January 2019, FAW was also found in Yunnan province of China. In March 2019, the larvae which could be tentatively identified as FAW were caught at a corn field of Plant Protection Center of Lao PDR, which is located in Vientiane, Laos. Species identification was confirmed by DNA barcoding using the COⅠ segment of the four larvae, which were found to be the haplotype of rice strain (COⅠ-RS). The host strain identity was additionally analysed as a Tpi-C (C-strain allele) by Triosephosphate isomerase gene (Tpi) segment located on the Z sex chromosome. The result shows that the FAW specimens in Lao is the subpopulation of COⅠ-RS/Tpi-C (COⅠ and Tpi haplotype combination). It was reported that COⅠ-CS/Tpi-C were more frequently observed than COⅠ-RS/Tpi-C in Western Hemisphere and Western Africa, but COⅠ-RS/Tpi-C were more frequently observed in Eastern Africa. It can be supposed that the subpopulation of COⅠ-RS/Tpi-C in Lao is one of the subpopulations which have migrated into the Indochinese peninsula from Eastern Africa, with more detailed analysis for more diverse nationwide specimens left.

The aphid genus Stomaphis Walker, 1870 (Hemiptera: Aphididae: Lachninae) is Palaearctic origin group with 30 valid species. It is associated with variable woody host plants, having very long rostrum, which enables them to feed crevices in thick bark of trees. In this study, Stomaphis (stomaphis) pini pini is newly recorded in the Korean Peninsula on Pinus densiflora (Pinaceae). We described morphological features of alate viviparous females, apterous males and oviparous females, respectively. Furthermore, little known forms, sexual morphs of giant oviparous females and dwarfish apterous males are observed.

The subfamily Lachninae Herrich-Schaeffer, 1854 consist of about 400 species belonging to 19 genera world-wide. Lachninae are distributed mostly in the Nearctic, Oriental and Palaearctic Regions. Their host plants are known as grasses, deciduous tree and conifers. Taxonomic study of Lachninae has been dealt with some authors in several countries, whereas it has rarely performed in the Korean Peninsula after Lee et al. (1994). Here, we review the subfamily Lachninae from the Korean Peninsula, focusing on its taxonomic history and diversity.

Recent research on stem cell conditioned medium (CM) has been revealed that CM could influence on the embryo development when supplemented to in vitro culture medium. However, the optimal basal medium for CM production has not determined although it is the fundamental factor of CM. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of human derived adipose stem cell CM (hASC-CM) with different basal medium on mice embryo development after parthenogenetic activation (PA). hASC-CM was collected from 2 kinds of serum free basal medium, DMEM and KSFM, respectively on day 5 from the culture of hASC isolated from human fat tissue. Intra-peritoneal injection of PMSG and hCG was conducted into 7-week-old ICR mice for superovulation. The oocytes were recovered from the oviductal ampulla, 18 h after hCG injection, and denuded using 0.1% hyaluronidase. PA of oocytes was conducted with KSOM media including strontium chloride. The parthenotes were in vitro cultured in 3 groups: 100% KSOM (Control), 75% KSOM + 25% DMEM or KSFM without FBS (DMEM or KSFM group) and 75% KSOM + 25% hASC-CM from DMEM or KSFM (DMEM-CM or KSFM-CM group). Cleavage rate was assessed after 2 days post IVC and blastocyst formation rate was evaluated after 6 days post IVC both using stereomicroscope. Total cell number of blastocysts was counted by Hoechst staining. 1way ANOVA from Graphpad prism 5 was used for statistical analysis and the values are presented as means ± standard error of mean. As a result, blastocyst formation rate of DMEM-CM group (16.09±3.32%, P<0.05) was significantly lower than control and DMEM group (34.43±2.89% and 34.49±5.34%, P<0.05) but cleavage rate and total cell number of blastocysts showed no significant difference among groups. In case of KSFM, there was no significant difference in cleavage rate, blastocyst formation rate and total cell number of blastocysts among the control, KSFM group and KSFM-CM group. The sort of basal medium used for the CM collection affected the development of parthenotes during in vitro culture differently. Therefore, further research should be conducted to find out the alternative basal medium of CM able to improve the embryo development. This research was supported by Nature Cell (#550-20170028), Cooperative Research Program of RDA (CCAR, #PJ013954022018), Research Institute for Veterinary Science and the BK21 plus program.

Insect peptides have been extensively studied due to beneficial effects in the treatment of infectious diseases. Melittin, a fundamental component of honeybee venom produced by European honeybee Apis mellifera, has applied to prevent various inflammatory disease and bacterial infections in human. However, the therapeutic application of melittin is limited due to its low stability, hemolytic activity and expensive manufacturing costs. In this study, we aimed to discovery unknown peptides from the Apis mellifera and evaluate its antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli KACC 10005. A total 15,853 peptide sequences were diciphered using Illumina HiSeq 2500 next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform and analyzed based on the Apis mellifera official Gene Set Version 3.2 (amel_OGSv3.2) and the Collection of Anti-Microbial Peptides (CAMPR3) database. All the peptide sequences and annotation data sets were combined and sorted by physicochemical features of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), such as short peptide length <=50, positive charge, isoelectric point (8.0<=pl<=12), and aggregation propensity (in-vitro: <=500, in-vivo: –40<= Na4vSS <=60). Among the screened peptides, four unknown peptide candidates, named AMP1-4, were chemically synthesized and tested for antimicrobial activity in comparison with a reference peptide, melittin. Inhibition of bacterial growth was observed in the AMP4 treated group from 6 hours to 48 hours post-treatment against E. coli. These results suggest that honeybee-derived peptide sequences can be applied as natural resources to acquire novel AMPs and the peptide sequences derived parameters are enough to recognize antibacterial peptides. In addition, the selected novel peptide candidate, AMP4, has antibacterial activity.

The hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) of the honeybee worker produces royal jelly (RJ) and has a developmental cycle closely related to the division of labor. In this study, we investigated to compare the HPG acini diameter of differently aged worker bees with high royal jelly producing colony (HRC) or less producing colony (LRC). Additionally, we also evaluated whether the fresh weight of the head is a reliable indicator of the developmental status of HPG. The HRC showed a significantly higher RJ production about two-times as compared with those of the LRC. We measured the HG-diameters on days 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15. The microscopic analysis revealed that the acini size of the HRC was significantly larger than the LRC. In addition, the acini diameter of HRC was 15% longer than the LRC on the first day after emerging. It was shown that the fastest development during 3 days which is preparing for nurse the brood. The HPG acini diameters increased in both colonies in a similar fashion until day 12 and then decreased. We also compared the fresh head weight of the experimental colonies, differences were similar to the development of HPG. Therefore, high royal jelly production may have a positive correlation between HPG acini size and the fresh head weight.

In general, hemipteran insects transmit either obligate or facultative symbionts to their offspring using various transmission mechanisms. Riptortus pedestris (Hemiptera: Alydidae) also have facultative symbiosis with Burkholderia sp. which is acquired from the soil every generation especially during 2nd instar nymphal period. This environmental symbiont transmission makes R. pedestris face a great risk of missing their symbionts, however, previous studies showed that they have intimate associations with their symbionts. Therefore, we suspected that R. pedestris 2nd instar nymphs may have a preference toward Burkholderia sp. to achieve an efficient symbiont acquisition during the limited time of window. In order to identify the preference of 2nd instar nymph, we first conducted dual-choice experiments varying with the number of 2nd instar nymphs (a nymph and 100 nymphs) in plastic cages. Furthermore, Y-tube olfactometer experiments varying with the presence of soil as medium of Burkholderia sp. were performed to determine if the insects respond to bacterial volatile induced from the symbiont. Based on our results, we observed that R. pedestris 2nd instar nymphs may not show any specific behavioral preference or response to chemical volatile from Burkholderia sp. in laboratory conditions (P >0.24). Therefore, we will further conduct a dual-choice experiment in a semi-field condition to investigate if such patterns can be detected in a larger arena simulating a more natural environment.

Geminiviruses are plant-infecting viruses with monopartite or bipartite single-stranded circular DNA genomes. They are known to be mediated by insects such as whiteflies, treehoppers, leafhoppers or aphids and can cause devastating plant diseases in a wide range of economically significant crops worldwide. In Korea, occurrence of geminiviruses were reported officially after the 2000s. Although Honeysuckle yellow vein virus (HYVV) and Sweet potato leaf curl virus (SPLCV) were identified from honeysuckle and sweet potato in 2004 and 2006 respectively, these viruses did not spread and cause much concern for geminiviruses. In 2008, Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) that has caused severe tomato production loss in many subtropical and tropical countries was first reported in tomato plants cultivated in Tongyeong. TYLCV rapidly spread through the country and has been continuously reported from tomato cultivating areas in Korea. In addition to TYLCV, Tobacco leaf curl virus and Sweet potato golden vein associated virus have occurred. In recent years, new geminiviruses including Papaya leaf curl Guangdong virus (PaLCGdV) and Euphorbia leaf curl virus (EuLCV) have been introduced. Newly emerging geminiviruses from tropical and subtropical countries are due to increased demand for various fruits and vegetables, and climate change. In addition, there are reports that some geminiviruses including TYLCV can be transmitted by infected seeds. Therefore it is important to study on epidemiology of virus introduction and spread among the countries and within country.

Six taxa of unrecorded Korean species of charophytes are described. Freshwater and aerial charophytes were collected from the bark of trees, reservoirs, small ponds and swamps from April 2017 to September 2017. The newly recorded species of Korea were Cosmarium quadrifarium f. octastichum, Euastrum turneri, Spondylosium nitens var. triangulare, Staurastrum kouwetsii, Staurodesmus dickiei var. latus, and Klebsormidium subtile. K. subtile was transferred from Stichococcus subtilis.

In 2017, the freshwater algae were collected from reservoirs, small ponds, soil, and rocks in Korea. Eight taxa of Chlorophyta (Chlorophyceae and Trebouxiophyceae) have been newly reported in Korea. The unrecorded indigenous species were Chlorolobion braunii, Coelastrum pseudomicroporum, Coelastrum reticulatum var. cubanum, Monoraphidium nanum, Tetrachlorella incerta, Ecdysichlamys obliqua, Gloeotila scopulina, and Stichococcus jenerensis.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a useful biotechnological tool for animal cloning. Until now, SCNT has been inefficient, especially in dog. It is believed that an embryo developmental block in SCNT embryos is cause of low production efficiency. However, no studies have been performed on canines for embryo developmental block. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the beneficial role of EDTA in canine parthenogenic (PA) embryos development to overcome embryo developmental block. The PA embryos were divided into 0.01 mM EDTA treated and non-treated groups. Embryo developmental efficiency was measured by activating chemically parthenote. After EDTA induction, PA embryos were evaluated for embryonic development, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) activity, mitochondrial integrity, ATP production and genomic activation. The EDTA treated PA embryos showed significantly higher survival rate and improved cavity formation compared to non-treated. Furthermore, cytoplasmic ROS level was mitigated and mitochondrial membrane potential was found significantly higher in EDTA treated group followed by higher ATP production. Moreover, major embryonic genomic activation specific markers/factors were also elevated in EDTA treated group. Conclusively, we elucidated that EDTA showed substantially positive effect to overcome embryo developmental block in canine.

One of the most performed action in daily life is standing up from sitting position. As the population of the world is aging at the high rates, people may face problems with reduced muscle strength as well as psychological changes. This can lead elderly people having difficulties with standing up from chair. Now, with the aging trend worldwide, products are being developed that can support the lives of the elderly. This study examines the distribution of hip pressure in relation to the seating positions of the standing assistance seats under development to prevent standing up accidents in older adults. The currently developing standing assistant chair designed to tilt to a maximum angle of 25 degrees. At over 25°, design considers that older people are at risk of thrown back out of that force and that the forces exerted on their arms and legs can be a significant burden to older people. By considering danger of higher than 25° for older people which is experimented in the basis of static capturing approach in previous papers, it is experimented people with age group of 20~60 on 0° to 25° tilting angle on the basis of dynamic capturing method in order to pick convenient angle of inclination. Moreover, tried to find the optimum angle by comparing the hip pressure distribution when seated at the edge of the seat and at the center of the seat with the pressure distribution sensor.

The Lucid technology as an interactive fully illustrated identification tool, has developed and assisted in the diagnosis of agricultural and quarantine pests and invasive organisms over the past years. In this study, lepidopterans specifically relating to quarantine pests were selected for a lucid key development based on the border inspection data from 1996 to 2016 in South Korea. They belong to four families: Sphingidae, Noctuidae, Pyralidae and Crambidae, and also categorize into the three groups: regulated, potential regulated and non-quarantine pests. The key includes diagnostic characters from head, thorax, fore- and hind-wings for each species examined.

Mirinae is the most diverse subfamily within the family Miridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera), and includes more than 4,000 species. In Korea, mirids were first recorded from Jeju Island in the mid-1960s. Since that study, numerous plant bug species from the Korean peninsula have been newly recognized and described. Previously, 101 species of Mirini were recorded from Korean peninsula. In this study, we provide an additional information of Mirini in Korea with a description of new species and new records.