To evaluate therapeutic efficacy of aldose reductase (AR) inhibition, the leaves of Aster yomena were tested for inhibition of AR. The stepwise polarity fractions of A. yomena were tested. Among them, the n-BuOH fraction showed highest activities against AR inhibition. Our results demonstrated that A. yomena could be a worthy natural source source for curing against diabetic complications.

Pollutants generated by the biodegradation of livestock carcasses have the potential for contamination of the environment. Hence, livestock mortalities burial has been banned in the EU. In spite of the hazard, research on the biodegradation of livestock carcasses is lacking. In this study, five lysimeters were used to evaluate the enhanced biodegradation of organic materials in livestock mortalities burial. Lysimeter 1(control), lysimeter 2(grinding of livestock carcass), lysimeter 3(anaerobic microorganisms), lysimeter 4(Corynebacterium glutamicum in anaerobic condition) and lysimeter 5(Corynebacterium glutamicum in aerobic condition) were operated with temperature control. The degradation efficiencies of livestock carcass in the lysimeters were evaluated based on total organic carbon balance. The degradation efficiencies of ground livestock carcass were 1.9 times more than those of livestock carcass without grinding. In anaerobic condition, anaerobic microorganisms were more effective compared with Corynebacterium glutamicum on the biodegradation of livestock carcasses. However, the degradation efficiencies with Corynebacterium glutamicum in aerobic condition were significantly influenced on the biodegradation of livestock carcasses. Even if it would be helpful to degrade the livestock carcass in aerobic condition in terms of stabilization, potential risks on the environment by odor and bioaerosol must be solved.

Reuse, recycling and recovery (3R) of industrial wastes are common and encouraging in Korea. Industrial symbiosis is one of typical methods for implementing 3R and has been defined as engaging “traditionally separate industries in a collective approach to competitive advantage involving physical exchange of materials, energy, water, and by-products”. The keys to industrial symbiosis are collaboration and the synergistic possibilities offered by geographic proximity. Recently, several countries in East Asia such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and China are promoting ‘designed’ symbiosis networks in various industrial complexes based on their national Eco-industrial Park (EIP) demonstration programs. Despite the recently promoted EIP initiatives worldwide, only very few studies furnish the operational and functional details of ‘designed’ industrial symbiosis networks, starting from the planning to implementation stage. The production of terephthalic acid (TPA) in Korea is 6.5 million ton based on 2011. The production of waste generated in the process of TPA is about 15,000 ton/yr and included useful materials like residue TPA as well as isophthalic acid (iPA), benzoic acid (BA) and p-toluic acid (p-TL). Until now, TPA waste was incinerated due to high caloric value. This study was conducted for recovery of valuable materials from industrial waste and utilization of recovered material as an example of Korean EIP. In this study, the experiment was performed to separate above four materials from the waste by solvent (methanol and water) extraction. The solubility of TPA (0.1g/100g) for methanol is relatively low compared to other materials. Also the solubility of BA (68g/L at 95℃) and p-TL (11.6g/L at 98℃) for water is relatively high in comparison with other materials. Finally, BA was separated from p-TL by molecular distillation system. The purity of recovered materials was analyzed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (Waters Xevo TQ system). The recovery rate and purity of BA is 90% and 93%. The recovered BA could be recycled the companies which are produced plastic plasticizer and paints.

This study investigated possible involvement of photoperiodic regulation in reproductive endocrine system of female olive flounder. To investigate the influence on brain-pituitary axis in endocrine system by regulating photoperiod, compared expression level of Kisspeptin and sbGnRH mRNA in brain and FSH-β, LH-β and GH mRNA in pituitary before and after spawning. Photoperiod was treated natural photoperiod and long photoperiod (15L:9D) conditions from Aug. 2013 to Jun. 2014. Continuous long photoperiod treatment from Aug. (post-spawning phase) was inhibited gonadal development of female olive flounder. In natural photoperiod group, the Kiss2 expression level a significant declined in Mar. (spawning period). And also, FSH-β, LH-β and GH mRNA expression levels were increasing at this period. However, in long photoperiod group, hypothalamic Kiss2, FSH-β, LH-β and GH mRNA expression levels did not show any significant fluctuation. These results suggest that expression of hypothalamic Kiss2, GtH and GH in the pituitary would change in response to photoperiod and their possible involvement of photoperiodic regulation in reproductive endocrine system of the BPG axis.

The isolated single coronary artery is a rare congenital anomaly, in which both coronary arteries arise from a solitary ostium. Diagnosis of coronary anomalies and identification of the exact anatomy of coronary arteries has significant clinical importance, hence, myocardial ischemia or sudden cardiac death is usually related to its course of anomalous coronary artery. Most patients with a single coronary artery are asymptomatic and have normal electrocardiogram and negative stress tests. However, if the patient has other structural abnormalities, for example, ventricular hypertrophy, the exam is determined. This report describes a case of single coronary artery, where the right coronary artery originated from the distal left circumflex artery in a patient with hypertrophic ardiomyopathy.

The first Korean satellite laser ranging (SLR) system, Daedeok SLR station (DAEK station) was developed by Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) in 2012, whose main objectives are space geodesy researches. In consequence, Korea became the 25th country that operates SLR system supplementing the international laser tracking network. The DAEK station is designed to be capable of 2 kHz laser ranging with precision of a few mm both in daytime and nighttime observation of satellites with laser retro-reflector array (LRA) up to the altitude of 25,000 km. In this study, characteristics and specifications of DAEK station are investigated and its data quality is evaluated and compared with International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) stations in terms of single-shot ranging precision. The analysis results demonstrated that the DAEK station shows good ranging performance to a few mm precision. Currently, the DAEK station is under normal operations at KASI headquarters, however, it will be moved to Sejong city in 2014 to function as a fundamental station for space geodesy researches in combination with other space geodesy systems (GNSS, VLBI, DORIS, etc.).

We have generated 383 independent transgenic lines for genetically modified (GM) rice that contained GPD, UtrCSP, BrTSR15 and BrTSR53 genes overexpression constructs under the control of the constitutive CaMV 35S promoter. TaqMan copy number assay was determined inserted T-DNA copy number. Also FSTs analysis was isolated from 203 single copy T-DNA lines of transgenic plants and sequence mapped to the rice chromosomes. In analyzing single copy lines, we identified 95 FSTs, among which 37 (38.9%) were integrated into genic regions and 58 (61.1%) into intergenic regions. About 27 homozygous lines were obtained through multi-generations of planting, resistance screening and TaqMan copy number assay. To investigate the transgene expression patterns, quantitative real-time PCR analysis was performed using total RNAs from leaf tissue of single copy, intergenic region of T-DNA insertion and homozygous T2 plants. The mRNA expression levels of the examined transgenic rice were significantly increased in all of the transgenic plants. In addition, myc-tagged 35S::BrTSR15 and 35S::BrTSR53 transgenic plants were displayed higher levels of transgene protein than WT plants. These results may be useful for producing of large-scale transgenic plants or T-DNA inserted mutants in rice.

Rice is one of the most important cereal crops in the world and a model plant for functional genomics of monocotyledon. Recently, rice crop loss is estimated to be approximately 30% of the total yield due to herbivorous pests, mainly insects. Cry1Ac toxin is a protein produced by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis and has insecticidal properties. CryBP1 toxin also is an insecticidal protein produced by the bacterium Bacillus popilliae. These two toxic genes derived bacteria, which were inserted into a binary vector, have been introduced into rice plants by Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation in order to enhance resistance to insects. Here, we utilized anthers to regenerate transgenic rice plants when it has been plated on the callus induction media as a callus-inducing material. Anther culture has a benefit in terms of being apt to produce doubled haploids in short term in plants breeding compared to seed culture. However, anther culture method in generating transgenic rice still has low productivity of plant regeneration in some genotypes of Japonica rice. Therefore, we examined the efficiency of callus induction and transformation with three different cultivars of Japonica rice, Haiami, Ungwang and Dongjin. In this study, our results showed that Haiami is the best genotype among three cultivars of Japonica rice as callus inducing material in anther culture to produce transgenic rice plants conferring resistance to insects.

With the purpose of improving ginsenoside production in Korean wild ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer) mutant adventitious root lines, a synthetic gene encoding squalene synthase (PgSS2) was placed under the control of 35S promoter and transferred to Panax ginseng. Embryogenic callus obtained from ginseng adventitious root lines were transformed by infection with A. tumefaciens strain EHA105 containing the PgSS2 gene. Ten phosphinothricin-resistant plants were generated on selection medium, and the transgene integration and expression in these plants were confirmed by PAT test strip, RT-PCR and Southern hybridization. Ginsenoside analysis by HPLC revealed that the total contents of the 8 ginsenoside types (Rg1, Re, Rf, Rh1, Rb1, Rc, Rb2, Rd) in transgenic adventitious root lines were about 1.6-fold higher than that of the mutant control line (MCL1). This transformation method may facilitate the improvement of Panax ginseng in terms of the accumulation levels of ginsenoside.

Mungbean (Vigna radiata) is a fast-growing, warm-season legume crop that is primarily cultivated in developing countries of Asia. We constructed a draft genome sequence of mungbean to facilitate genome research into the subgenus Ceratotropis and to enable a better understanding of the evolution of leguminous species. The draft genome sequence covers 80% of the estimated genome, of which 50.1% consists of repetitive sequences. In total, 22,427 high confidence protein-coding genes were predicted. Based on the de novo assembly of additional wild mungbean species, the divergence of what was eventually domesticated and the sampled wild mungbean species appears to have predated domestication. Moreover, the de novo assembly of a tetraploid Vigna species (Vigna reflexo-pilosa var. glabra) provided genomic evidence of a recent allopolyploid event. To further study speciation, we compared de novo RNA-seq assemblies of 22 accessions of 18 Vigna species and protein sets of Glycine max and Cajanus cajan. The species tree was constructed by a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo method using highly confident orthologs shared by all 24 accessions. The present assembly of V. radiata var. radiata will facilitate genome research and accelerate molecular breeding of the subgenus Ceratotropis.

‘Muhan’ (Hordeum vulgare L.), a new ruminant-palatability forage barley cultivar, was developed by the breeding team at the Department of Rice and Winter Cereal Crop, National Institute of Crop Science, RDA in 2013. It was derived from the cross between SB921011-3B-16-2/IT0188556 and ‘Suwon 365’. Among the cross made in 2002, a promising line, SB02T2097-B-B-B-18, showed good characteristics in potential forage yield in the yield trial tested at Iksan in 2009 to 2010 designated as Iksan 465. The line in the Regional Yield Trials(RYT) tested in eight locations around Korea for three years from 2011 to 2013, and was released as the name of ‘Muhan’. It has the growth habit of group Ⅳ, erect plant type, green leaf and awnless spike. Its average heading and maturing dates were on May 4, and June 4, respectively, with similar to check cultivar ‘Youngyang’. The cultivar had 102cm of culm length, 711 spikes per m2 and it showed better rate of leaf, winter hardiness, and resistance to BaYMV than those of the check cultivar. The average forage yield of ‘Muhan’ was about 12.4 ton ha-1 in dry matter in paddy field. ‘Muhan’ also showed 6.6% of crude protein content, 28.6% of ADF (Acid Detergent Fiber), 50.1% of NDF (Neutral Detergent Fiber), and 66.3% of TDN (Total Digestible Nutrients), including higher grade of silage quality for whole crop barley

‘Jungmo2506’ (Hordeum vulgare L.), a new ruminant-palatability forage barley cultivar, was developed by the breeding team at the Department of Rice and Winter Cereal Crop, National Institute of Crop Science, RDA in 2013. It was derived from the cross between ‘Sunwoo’ and ‘Milyang 34’. Among the cross made in 2002, a promising line, SB02T2020-B-BB- 64, showed good characteristics in potential forage yield in the yield trial tested at Iksan in 2009 to 2010 designated as Iksan 463. The line in the Regional Yield Trials(RYT) tested in eight locations around Korea for three years from 2011 to 2013, and was released as the name of ‘Jungmo2506’. It has the growth habit of group Ⅳ, erect plant type, green leaf and short awn spike. Its average heading and maturing dates were on May 3, and June 2, respectively, with similar to check cultivar ‘Youngyang’. The cultivar had 99cm of culm length, 692 spikes per m2 and it showed better rate of leaf, winter hardiness, and resistance to BaYMV than those of the check cultivar. The average forage yield of ‘Jungmo2506’ was about 11.8 ton ha-1 in dry matter in paddy field. ‘Jungmo2506’ also showed 6.6% of crude protein content, 27.4% of ADF (Acid Detergent Fiber), 49.2% of NDF (Neutral Detergent Fiber), and 67.2% of TDN (Total Digestible Nutrients), including higher grade of silage quality for whole crop barley.

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an excellent source of vitamin A and C as well as flavonoid compounds, which are important antioxidant components that may reduce the risk of diseases. In this study, we investigated ABTS, DPPH activity and flavonoid contents in eggplant leaves and fruits to identify genetic resources with high antioxidant capacity for use in food or as feed additives. A total of 102 eggplant accessions were classified into four groups by latitude of their origins: 0°~15° N (8 accessions), 15°~30° N (19 accessions), 30°~45° N (34 accessions), and 45°~60° N (41 accessions). The accessions originated from 45°~60°N showed the highest flavonoid contents (AVG. = 15.4 μg mg-1) followed by accessions originated from 30°~45° N (AVG. = 13.0 μg mg-1), 15°~30°N (AVG. = 11.0 μg mg-1) and 0°~15°N (AVG. = 9.5 μg mg-1). Same pattern was also found in ABTS and DPPH antioxidant activities. High ABTS, DPPH activity and flavonoid contents were found in the early-flowering accessions. All flavonoids of the greenish violet leaves were significantly higher than those in green leaves. The flavonoid concentration in eggplant leaves with an average of 15.6 μg mg-1 increased from 10- to 20-fold as compared with their fruit (AVG.=0.9 μg mg-1). In conclusion, eggplant leaves represent a potential source of natural antioxidants due to their very high flavonoid contents.

In this study, 80 F7:8 recombinant inbred lines (RIL), derived from a cross between dent corn and waxy corn, were evaluated for 10 grain yield and eating-related traits over a two-year period. A total of 39 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and 74 epistatic interactions were confirmed in 2011 and 2012. All QTLs detected in 2011 and 2012, qAC9 (amylose content), qEH4 (ear height), qSEL6 (setted ear length), and q100KW10 (fresh 100 kernel weight) had higher phenotypic variance and were observed in both years; therefore, they may be considered major QTLs. We reported that the QE interaction affects (QTLs and environmental changes) for qEH4, qSEL6, and q100KW10 in discussion. Some new QTLs identified in this study were located on different loci compared with other studies. The genetic region (bin 4.08) strongly controls plant height and ear height, and results from pleiotropy and/or tight linkage. qST3 (including stem thickness) and qEH3 were co-located within two common adjacent simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers (umc2275 and umc1273), whereas qEL6 (ear length) and qSEL6 were co-located within two common adjacent SSR markers (umc2309 and bnlg238). Thus, these SSR markers are a useful selection tool for screening grain yield and yield component traits.

Neutropenic enterocolitis (NE), the most serious gastrointestinal complication, has been reported as a clinical syndrome that occurs in the setting of disease- or chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. Complications of NE include bowel necrosis with perforation, fistula, stenosis, massive bleeding, abscess formation, and pneumatosis intestinalis (PI). Most physicians recommend initial conservative management with bowel rest, intravenous fluids, total parenteral nutrition, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and normalization of neutrophil counts. Surgical intervention is recommended in the event of obstruction, perforation, persistent gastrointestinal bleeding despite correction of thrombocytopenia and coagulopathy, or clinical deterioration. We experienced a patient whose abdominal computed tomography scan showed pneumoretroperitoneum, intramural gas in the colon, and inferior vena caval gas. Her condition improved after treatment with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and broad-spectrum antibiotics. We report on this case along with a review of the literature.

Cleft palates with or without cleft lip is one of the most common congenital craniofacial defects in dogs. It has been reported that monogenic autosomal recessive inheritance caused this defect in this species. However, here, we aimed to report cleft palate in a cloned dog. A fibroblast cell line was established from skin tissues of an eight-year-old German shepherd dog. Blood was collected from oocyte donor dogs, and serum progesterone concentration was measured by chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay method. Ovulation was determined when serum progesterone results reached 5-10 ng/ml, and in vivo matured oocytes were collected surgically about 72 hr after ovulation. Donor cells were cultured with Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium supplemented with 10% (v/v) fetal bovine serum until confluence. An in vivo matured oocyte was enucleated, and a donor cell was injected into the perivitelline space. The oocyte-cell couplet was electrically fused, and chemically activated. Reconstructed embryos were transferred to an oviduct of a recipient. Pregnancy diagnosis was performed 27 days after the embryo transfer, and ultrasonography of fetal heart beat, and rectal temperature and serum progesterone value of recipient was monitored until the day of delivery. Microsatellite analysis was performed using genomic DNA of cell donor, clones, and oocyte donors. As results, a total of 74 cloned embryos were transferred to five recipients, and one recipient diagnosed as pregnant with two fetuses by ultrasonography and radiology. Caesarean section was performed on day 58 after embryo transfer due to a decreased heart beat of a fetus, which was lower than 180. Two cloned puppies with 640g and 320g of birth weight were delivered safety, but the small one was born with a cleft palate. Microsatellite analysis results of both clones were identical with the cell donor. Cleft palate of the clone was surgically corrected on day 40 after birth. To our knowledge, there has been no report about cleft palate in cloned dogs, and also, no report about clones with different phenotype of cleft palate in dogs. Therefore, this study can give a clue of cleft palate in dogs, which might not be a genetic cause. Further studies about aberrant epigenetic reprogramming in those clones are needed.

Olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) is a most important aquaculture species in Korea. Like most marine fishes, olive flounders are stomachless at first feeding and aquired gastric function during the metamorphosis, so food was mainly digested by pancreatic enzyme from first feeding to premetamorphosis. However, comprehensive analysis of pancreatic and gastric digestive enzyme of olive flounder at early developmental period is still unclear. In the expression study of pancreatic and gastric digestive enzyme by real-time PCR at early developmental stage, pancreatic enzyme such as chymotrypsinogen 2, preproelastase 2 and 4, pancreatic protein somatomedin-B domain (PPSB) mRNA expression were initiated at first feeding and strongly expressed in the pancreas developmental stage, while gastric digestive enzyme signal was not at all detected during same period. Although, trypsinogens were secreted from pancreas and have similar amino acid sequence, trypsinogen 3 expression induction was detected both pancreas and stomach developmental stage, while trypsinogen 2 expression was significantly increased only post-metamorphosis period. Pepsinogen mRNA expression was only detected at metamorphosis according to stomach differentiation. Lipid digestive enzyme, lipase and intestine fatty acid binding protein 1 (I-FABP 1), were already reached a certain level at beginning of hatching and more increased during early developmental stage and then gradually decreased before metamorphosis. These results suggested that feed ingestion of olive flounder was exclusive charged by pancreatic digestive enyme, lipid digestive enzyme and trypsinogen 3 from first feeding and then fully swiched by gastric digestive enzyme and trypsinogen 2 from metamorphosis period.

Our study is performed to confirm the level of genetic diversity and population structure with 80 maize inbred lines (40 waxy inbred lines and 40 flint inbred lines) and to explain the genetic basis of agronomic traits using an association mapping. The 200 SSR loci are confirmed a total of 1,610 alleles in total 80 maize inbred lines. The average number of alleles per locus was 8.05. The average GD was 0.72. The average PIC value was 0.68. The average MAF was 0.40. Population structure was revealed for K=2. Total 80 maize inbred lines were divided by groups I, II and admixed group. The 14 waxy inbred lines were assigned to group I. The 45 inbred lines include 5 waxy inbred lines and 40 flint inbred lines were contained to group II. The 21 waxy inbred lines were contained in the admixed group with lower than membership threshold 0.8. Association mapping between 200 SSR markers and 10 phenotypic traits of waxy/flint maize inbred lines were performed by Q GLM and Q+K MLM. In significant level at 0.01, 72 SSR markers were associated with 10 phenotypic traits using Q GLM. The 4 marker-trait association were detected in Q+K MLM. The results derived from this study will be used for designing efficient new maize breeding programs.

Drought and salinity are the major abiotic stresses which are being continued to hamper the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region. Plant species have adaptations to enhance their ability to tolerate stresses through physiological adjustment. Therefore, substantial amount of research are ongoing to provide insights about those mechanisms which enlighten the stress tolerance in plant. In this study, several rice cultivars were collected from the different parts of the world and ion accumulation experiments were conducted to select the best stress tolerant cultivar in drought and salt stress environment. For stress treatment, five rice cultivars were subjected to salt (200 mM NaCl) and drought (200 mM Mannitol) for 72h. Later Na+, Ca++, K+ concentrations in shoot and root samples were examined at different time interval. In both drought and salt stress, rice cultivar C201 (collected for uzbekistan) showed the lowest levels of Na+ ion and Na+: K+ ratio compared to other cultivars. It was significant parallel observation with pokkali (known salt tolerant cultivar). In this preliminary study, it was observed the C201 had more stress tolerant in terms of ion accumulation; however detail physiological studies are required to strengthen the idea regarding the best stress tolerant physiotype.