Royal jelly (RJ) is a well-known functional and medicinal food for human health promotion. Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs), which are the major protein components in RJ, exhibit antimicrobial activities. However, the identities of the MRJPs of RJ responsible for its antioxidant effects have remained unclear. Here, we report that honeybee (Apis cerana) MRJP 2 (AcMRJP2) acts as an antimicrobial and antioxidant agent in RJ. Using recombinant AcMRJP2, which was produced in baculovirus-infected insect cells, we established the antimicrobial and antioxidant roles of MRJP 2. AcMRJP2 bound to the surfaces of bacteria, fungi, and yeast, which then induced structural damage in the microbial cell walls and led to a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities. AcMRJP2 protected mammalian and insect cells via the direct shielding of the cell against oxidative stress, which led to reduced levels of caspase-3 activity and oxidative stress-induced cell apoptosis, followed by increased cell viability. Moreover, AcMRJP2 exhibited DNA protection activity against reactive oxygen species (ROS). Our data indicate that AcMRJP2 could play a crucial role as an antimicrobial agent and antioxidant in RJ, suggesting that MRJP 2 is a component responsible for the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of RJ.

In the United States and Europe, new environmentally friendly asphalt pavement has been researched as an alternative to traditional hot asphalt pavement. After the Paris Convention of 2015, policies should be found to reduce carbon dioxide. In the field of asphalt pavement, new methods are needed to reduce carbon dioxide from the traditional hot asphalt pavement. In Korea, waste asphalt is growing and natural aggregate is running dry. So the government is implementing policies to increase the use of waste resources. So, it created a new asphalt pavement method to reduce CO2 and use waste asphalt. It is a cold recycled asphalt pavement. Emulsified asphalt has a balance of dispersibility, stability, and adhesive between water, aggregates, and asphalt. But, the physical properties of emulsified asphalt can be degraded compared to traditional hot asphalt pavement. So there are limitations in actual use. The study compared the softening point, elastic recovery, and penetration properties of asphalt mix compounds by using latex in emulsified asphalt. In particular, cations latex was used for the emulsified asphalt, which could further improve the physical properties.

Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs), important protein components of bee royal jelly (RJ) and exclusive nourishments for queen, exhibit various biological and pharmacological activities. RJ is one of the most studied bee products, but the crucial roles for MRJP2 as an antimicrobial and antioxidant agents remain largely unknown. Here we demonstrated the antimicrobial and antioxidant functions of the Asiatic honeybee (Apis cerna) MRJP2 (AcMRJP2). Recombinant AcMRJP2 of approximately 53 kDa was expressed in baculovirus-infected insect cells, and it exhibited antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and yeast via binding to microbial surfaces and inducing structural damage in microbial cell walls. AcMRJP2 protected mammalian and insect cells against oxidative damage through shielding of cell membranes. Interestingly, AcMRJP2 exhibited DNA protection activity and DPPH radical-scavenging activity. Altogether, our data demonstrated that AcMRJP2 functions as antimicrobial and antioxidant agents.

In a previous study, it was reported that enzymatic hydrolysis under pressurization could be a new method which could produce arginine dipeptide and free amino acid in anchovy hydrolysate as salty enhancer at optimal condition. Powder is more efficient than liquid in terms of transport and storage stability. For the purpose of producing spray dried powder of various salt contents was investigated the effect of different salt concentration of anchovy hydrolysate on spray dried powder properties. The anchovy hydrolysate of various salt contents(in the range of approximately 0.7- 19.8% w/w) prepared adding the fish sauce (Dae-Young fish market) at inlet drying air temperatures of 120°C and 140°C. The process yield and physicochemical properties such as moisture content, bulk density, hygroscopicity and the morphology (EDS, XPS, XRD) of the anchovy hydrolysate powder was measured. The glass transition temperatures (Tg) of the powders equilibrated under various water activities were determined using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Different drying conditions and salt concentration could generate anchovy hydrolysate powders with different process yield, bulk density and moisture content. The spray-dried anchovy hydrolysate powder was confirmed by XRD to be a mixture of an amorphous substances and crystalline salts. The energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis demonstrated that the surface NaCl concentration of the powders increased with an increasing drying air temperature. Increasing moisture adsorption of the anchovy hydrolysate powders resulted in a Tg reduction. It is suggested that producing spray dried anchovy hydrolysate for the industrial use is the use of the feed salt concentration of not lower than % w/w and inlet air temperature at 120°C, 140°C

RNA interference (RNAi) has been considered as an alternative strategy to control agricultural pests whereby double-strandedRNA triggers a potent and specific inhibition of its homologous mRNA. Since small double-stranded RNAs are requiredfor various RNAi applications, there is a need for cost-effective methods for producing large quantities of high-qualitydsRNA. Bacillus thuringiensis produces much insecticidal proteins with expression of their encoding genes being drivenby sporulation-dependent promoters. To develop dsRNA mass-production platform utilizing Bt, the pHT1K-EGFP plasmidvector which has cyt1Aa sporulation-dependent promoter was constructed. The transcriptional level of target gene (EGFP)is higher 113 times than Bt reference gene (ssPE). It was applied to protect honeybee from Sacbrood virus, so targetgene was replaced to SBV-vp1. By ingestion of Bt-derived dsRNA to honeybee shows positive effect on SBV suppression.

RNA interference (RNAi) is an universal gene-knockdown mechanism in eukaryotic organisms including insects. RNAi has been considered as an alternative strategy to control agricultural pests whereby double-stranded RNA triggers a potent and specific inhibition of its homologous mRNA. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a spore-forming bacterium that produces a copious amount of crystal proteins δ-endotoxins under the control of sporulation-dependent promoter. In order to develop dsRNA mass-production platform utilizing recombinant Bt, the pHT1K-EGFP which expresses dsRNA against EGFP under the control of Cyt1-Aa sporulation-dependent promoter was constructed and the expression level of transgene (EGFP) was confirmed by qPCR analysis. These results suggested that Bt’s potential of becoming a new platform in dsRNA production.

Streptomyces is the largest genus of Actinobacteria that forms fungus-like branched networks of hyphae. Streptomyces has been clinically important because they produce various secondary metabolites with antibacterial, antifungal, and nematocidal activities. In order to explore novel insecticidal compounds, extracts from 363 strains of Actinobacteria were screened for their juvenoid and anti-juvenoid activities using yeast-two hybrid system. Among them, extract of Streptomyces spp. showed high anti-juvenoid activity. This extract also showed high level of insecticidal activities against larvae of Aedes albopictus, Laodelphax striatellus, and Ostrinia furnacalis. These results suggested that the secondary metabolites of Streptomyces could be natural sources of novel insecticidal compounds.

The development of nanostructured functional materials derived from biomass and/or waste is of growing importance for creating sustainable energy-storage systems. In this study, nanoporous carbonaceous materials containing numerous heteroatoms were fabricated from waste coffee grounds using a top-down process via simple heating with KOH. The nanoporous carbon nanosheets exhibited notable material properties such as high specific surface area (1960.1 m2 g–1), numerous redox-active heteroatoms (16.1 at% oxygen, 2.7 at% nitrogen, and 1.6 at% sulfur), and high aspect ratios (>100). These unique properties led to good electrochemical performance as supercapacitor electrodes. A specific capacitance of ~438.5 F g–1 was achieved at a scan rate of 2 mV s–1, and a capacitance of 176 F g–1 was maintained at a fast scan rate of 100 mV s–1. Furthermore, cyclic stability was achieved for over 2000 cycles.

Medical mushroom, Phellinus linteus and Phellinus baumii called as “Sanghwang” have cultivated in Korea. PL has been studied extensively for its extraordinary capacity of suppressing cancer or enhancing body immunity. The mycelial materials of PL have mainly been used as research samples worldwide because fruiting bodies was difficult to be artificially cultivated. Alternatively, P. baumii (variety, ‘Jangsu’) have been cultivated in Korea. However, fruiting body morphology of P. baumii is clearly different to that of PL. Generally, Phellinus spp. including P. linteus slowly grow on artificial medium such as Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). In contrast, P. baumii strains were rapidly grown on the artificial media when compared to other Phellinus spp. and thus it was considerable that its mycelial growing ability can be acted as a factor for producing fruiting bodies. This study aimed to find Phellinus isolates having high mycelial growth rate. Five Phellinus isolates that show rapid growth rate on YGM medium were selected from 36 Phellinus isolates collected in Korea. They were identified on nucleotide sequences of rDNA-ITS region. Phellinus linteus strain and Phellinus spp. showing mycelial growth rate comparing to P. baumii were characterized on cultural and bioactive characteristics (antioxidant activity and immune activation).

Bean bug, Riptortus pedestris is an agriculturally serious pest in north eastern Asian countries, damaging to several legumes and fruit trees. Chemical pesticides have been largely used to control the pest but it encounters insecticide-resistance and environmental toxicity issues. Alternatively different mode of action and environmentally sound pest management system can be found in entomopathogenic fungal insecticides. Herein we developed a platform to optimize the fungal production to express their maximum virulence against bean bug, by focusing on solid culture system for thermotolerance, formulation to select effective surfactants to carry the fungal conidia on the cuticles, and relationship between environmental abiotic factors and fungal mortality. First to produce highly thermotolerance fungal conidia, Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae isolates were cultured on several granular cereal substrates, which could be subjected to formulation process. Among the tested media, four media (millet, non-glutinous italian foxtail millet, glutinous italian foxtail millet, brown rice) were superior to the other grains in the spore production and thermotolerance. Next to efficiently deliver the fungal conidia on the cuticles of bean bug, total of six surfactant (CO-2.5, CO-12, LE-7, PE-61, TED-3 and Siloxane) was used to experiment. CO-12 was superior to the other surfactant in mortality of 100 ppm consistence. This work suggests that solid culture system and formulation and application should be seriously considered to reach an optimal level of mortality by inducing their maximum virulence.

Muscle satellite cell (SC) is responsible for postnatal muscle growth, repair, and regeneration. Satellite cell is an im-portant source of multi-potent stem cell process and differentiation into adipogenic, myogenic, and osteoblastogenic. The objective of this study was to identify alter of transcriptome during differentiation in porcine satellite cell and to elevated transcriptome at different stages of postnatal development to gain insight into the differences in differ-entiated PSC. We used RNA-seq technique to investigate the transcriptomes during differentiation in pig muscle. Sequence reads were obtained from Illumina HiSeq2000. Differentially expressed genes (DEG) were detected by EdgeR. Gene ontology (GO) terms are powerful tool for unification among representation genes or products. In study of GO biological terms, functional annotation clustering involved in cell cycle, apoptosis, extracellular matrix, phosphoryla- tion, proteolysis, and cell signaling in differences stage. Taken together, these results would be contributed to a better understanding of muscle biology and processes underlying differentiation. Our results suggest that the source of DEGs could be better understanding of the mechanism of muscle differentiation and transdifferentiation.

Satellite cells were derived from muscular tissue in postnatal pig. Satellite cell is an important to growth and development in animal tissues or organs. However, the progress underlying induced differentiation is not clear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the morphologic and the transcriptome changes in porcine satellite cell (PSC) treated with insulin, rosiglitazone, or dexamethasone respectively. PSC was obtained from postnatal muscle tissue. In study 1, for study the effect of insulin and FBS on the differentiated satellite cells, cells were cultured at absence or presence of insulin treated with FBS. Total RNA was extracted for determining the expression levels of myo-genic PAX3, PAX7, Myf5, MyoD, and myogenin genes by real-time PCR. Myogenic genes decreased expression levels of mRNA in treated with insulin. In study 2, in order to clarify the relationship between rosiglitazone and lipid in differentiated satellite cells, we further examined the effect of FBS on lipid accumulation in the presence or absence of the rosiglitazone and lipid. Significant differences were observed between rosiglitazone and lipid by FBS. The mRNA of FABP4 and PPARγ increased in rosiglitazone treatment. In study 3, we examined the effect of dexame-thasone on osteogenic differentiation in PSC. The mRNA was increased osteoblasotgenic ALP and ON genes treated with dexamethasone in 2% FBS. Dexamethasone induces osteoblastogenesis in differentiated PSC. Taken together, in differentiated PSCs, FABP4 and PPARγ increased to rosiglitazone. Whereas, no differences to FBS and lipid. These results were not comparable with previous reports. Our results suggest that adipogenic, myogenic, and osteoblasto-genic could be isolated from porcine skeletal muscle, and identify culture conditions which optimize proliferation and differentiation formation of PSC.

Muscular satellite cell (SC), which is stem cell of postnatal pig, is an important for study of differentiation into adipogenesis, myogenesis, and osteoblastogenesis. In this study, we isolated and examined from pig muscle tissue to determine capacity in proliferate, differentiate, and expression of various genes. Porcine satellite cells (PSC) were isolated from semimembranosus (SM) muscles of 90∼100 days old pigs according to standard conditions. The cell proliferation increased in multi-potent cell by Masson’s, oil red O, and Alizarin red staining respectively. We per-formed the expression levels of differentiation related genes using real-time PCR. We found that the differentiation into adipocyte increased expression levels of both fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) and peroxisome proliferator- acti-vated receptor gamma (PPARγ) genes (p<0.01). Myocyte increased the expression levels of the myosin heavy chain (MHC), myogenic factor 5 (Myf5), myogenic regulatory factor (MyoD), and Myogenic factor 4 (myogenin) (p<0.01). Osteo-blast increased the expression levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (p<0.01). Finally, porcine satellite cells were indu-ced to differentiate towards adipogenic, myogenic, and osteoblastogenic lineages. Our results suggest that muscle satellite cell in porcine may influence cell fate. Understanding the progression of PSC may lead to improved strat-egies for augmenting meat quality.

The high quality contact between graphene and the metal electrode is a crucial factor in achieving the high performance of graphene transistors. However, there is not sufficient research about contact resistance reduction methods to improve the junction of metal-graphene. In this paper, we propose a new method to decrease the contact resistance between graphene and metal using directly grown graphene over a metal surface. The study found that the grown graphene over copper, as an intermediate layer between the copper and the transferred graphene, reduces contact resistance, and that the adhesion strength between graphene and metal becomes stronger. The results confirmed the contact resistance of the metal-graphene of the proposed structure is nearly half that of the conventional contact structure.