A surveillance of chigger mites was performed to monitor the incidence of scrub typhus vectors at 4 environmental collection points of 6 locations from September to November 2014 in Korea. During the survey period, 420 chigger mites were collected and the dominant species was Leptotrombidium scutellare (42.6%). The first appearance of chigger mite was at 37th week (9.3.-9.10.) and the collected numbers of chigger mites was the highest at 43rd week (10.17.-10.23.). In Goryeong-gun, 299 chigger mites were collected, whereas 5 chigger mites were collected In Yesan-gun. The high environmental collecting rates were recorded at rice field (56%) and waterway (20%). The annually collected numbers (2012-2014) of chigger mites were compared with the average temperatures in August. This result suggests that the average temperature in August might be related with the annual incidence of scrub typhus vectors in Korea. However, the relationship between climate factors and the density of chigger mites needs to be studied by long-term periodical surveillance.

In this proceedings, preliminary results of the KVN Source-Frequency Phase-Referencing (SFPR) observation of 3C 66A and 3C 66B are presented. The motivation of this work is to measure the core-shift of these 2 sources and study the temporal evolution of the jet opacity. Two more sources were observed as secondary reference calibrators and each source was observed at 22, 43, and 86 GHz simultaneously. Our preliminary results show that after using the observations at the lower frequency to calibrate those at the higher frequency of the same source, the residual visibility phases for each source at the higher frequencies became more aligned, and the coherence time became much longer; also, the residual phases for different sources, within 10 degrees angular separations, follow similar trends. After reference to the nearby calibrator, the SFPRed maps were obtained as well as the astrometric measurements, i.e. the combined coreshift. The measurements were found to be affected by structural blending effects because of the large beamsize of KVN, but this can be corrected with higher resolution maps (e.g. KAVA maps).

By probing nuclear regions and the overall properties of AGN hosts as a function of their environments, we aim to observationally examine how AGN activities are related to their surroundings. We have selected a representative sample of AGN hosts in the Virgo cluster. The selected galaxies are located in a range of density regions showing various morphologies in 1.4 GHz continuum emission. High-resolution obser- vations with the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) allow us to access the inner region of the AGN without suffering from dust extinction and synchrotron self-absorption. Since a number of our targets are too weak to be detected at K-band (22 GHz) within their coherence time, we applied phase referencing to calibrate fast atmospheric phase uctuations.

In this paper we introduce the Plasma Physics of Active Galactic Nuclei project, which is an ongoing experiment with Korean VLBI Network (KVN) and KVN and VERA Array (KaVA) to study multi- frequency polarimetric properties on parsec scales of active galaxies. The goal of the project is to improve our understanding of fundamental jet physics, especially evolution of the relativistic out ow coupled with the large-scale magnetic field. We selected six radio-loud AGN as our targets. So far we (i) detected resolved emissions regions at 86 and 129 GHz on VLBI scales, (ii) constructed 2D spectral index maps of the out ows, and (iii) found polarizations at 22 and 43 GHz for a few targets. Here we present spectral index distributions of 3C 120 between 22 and 43 GHz and a linear polarization map of BL Lac at 43 GHz obtained with KVN.

Most traditional genome sequencing projects involving infectious viruses include culturing and purification of the virus. This can present difficulties as an analysis of multiple populations from multiple locations may be required to acquire sufficient amount of high-quality DNA for sequence analysis. The electrophoretic method provides a strategy whereby the genomic DNA sequences of the Korean isolate of Pieris rapae granulovirus (PiraGV-K) were analyzed by purifying it from host DNA by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, thus simplifying sampling and labor time. The genomic DNA of infected P. rapae was embedded in agarose plugs, digested with a restriction nuclease and methylase, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was used to separate PiraGV-K DNA from the DNA of P. rapae, followed by mapping of fosmid clones of the separated viral DNA. The double-stranded circular genome of PiraGV-K encodes 120 open reading frames (ORFs), covering 92% of the sequenced genome. BLAST and ORF arrangement showed the presence of 78 homologs to other genes in the database. The mean overall amino acid identity of PiraGV-K ORFs was highest with the Chinese isolate of PiraGV (~99%), followed up with Choristoneura occidentalis ORFs at 58%. PiraGV-K ORFs were grouped, according to function, into 10 genes involved in transcription, 11 involved in replication, 25 structural protein genes, and 15 auxiliary genes. Genes for Chitinase (ORF 10) and cathepsin (ORF11), involved in the liquefaction of the host, were found in the genome. The recovery of PiraGV-K DNA genome by pulse-field electrophoretic separation from host genomic DNA had several advantages, compared with its isolation from particles harvested as virions or inclusions from the P. rapae host. We have sequenced and analyzed the 108,658 bp PiraGV-K genome purified by the pulsed field electrophoretic method. The method appears to be applicable to the analysis of genomes of large viruses. The chitinase, identified by PiraGV-K genome sequence, was functionally characterized by quantitative PCR, Western blot analysis, immunohistochemistry and transmission electron microscopy.

CD63, a member of tetraspanin membrane protein family, plays pivotal role in cell growth, motility, signal transduction, host-pathogen interactions and cancer. In this work, the cDNA encoding CD63 homologue (TmCD63) was cloned from larvae of coleopteran beetle, Tenebrio molitor. The cDNA is comprised of an open reading frame of 705 bp, encoding putative protein of 235 amino acid residues. In silico analysis shows that the protein has four putative transmembrane domains and one large extracellular loop. The characteristic ‘Cys-Cys-Gly’ motif and ‘Cys188’ residues are highly conserved in the large extracellular loop. Phylogenetic analysis of TmCD63 revealed that they belong to the insect cluster with 50-56% identity. Analysis of spatial expression patterns demonstrated that TmCD63 mRNA is mainly expressed in gut and Malphigian tubules of larvae and the testis of the adult. Developmental expression patterns of CD63 mRNA showed that TmCD63 transcripts are detected in late larval, pupal and adult stages. Interestingly, TmCD63 transcript was upregulated the maximum 4.5 fold in response to DAP-type peptidoglycan during the first 6 h, although other immune elicitors also made significant increase in the transcript level at later time-points. These results suggest that CD63 might contribute to T. molitor immune response against various microbial pathogens.

Apolipophorin III (apoLp-III) is a well-known hemolymph protein having a functional role in lipid transport and immune response of insects. We cloned full-length cDNA encoding putative apoLp-III from larvae of the coleopteran beetle, Tenebrio molitor (TmapoLp-III), by identification of clones corresponding to the partial sequence of TmapoLp-III, subsequently followed with full length sequencing by a clone-by-clone primer walking method. The complete cDNA consists of 890 nucleotides, including an ORF encoding 196 amino acid residues. Excluding a putative signal peptide of the first 20 amino acid residues, the 176-residue mature apoLp-III has a calculated molecular mass of 19,146 Da. Genomic sequence analysis with respect to its cDNA showed that TmapoLp-III was organized into four exons interrupted by three introns. Several immune-related transcription factor binding sites were discovered in the putative 5’-flanking region. BLAST and phylogenetic analysis reveals that TmapoLp-III has high sequence identity (88%) with Tribolium castaneum apoLp-III but shares little sequence homologies (<26%) with other apoLp-IIIs. Homology modeling of Tm apoLp-III shows a bundle of five amphipathic helices, including a short helix 3’. The ‘helix-short helix-helix’ motif was predicted to be implicated in lipid binding interactions, through reversible conformational changes and accommodating the hydrophobic residues to the exterior for stability. Highest level of TmapoLp-III mRNA was detected at late pupal stages, albeit it is expressed in the larval and adult stages at lower levels. The tissue specific expression of the transcripts showed significantly higher numbers in larval fat body and adult integument. In addition, TmapoLp-III mRNA was found to be highly up-regulated in late stages of L. monocytogenes or E. coli challenge. These results indicate that TmapoLp-III may play an important role in innate immune responses against bacterial pathogens in T. molitor.

The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, is a vector for transmitting dengue fever and yellow fever. An assessment was made of the histopathological and molecular effects of pellitorine, an isobutylamide alkaloid, on third instar Ae. aegypti larvae. At 5 mg/L concentration of pellitorine, whole body of the treated larvae became dark in color, particularly damaged thorax and abdominal regions. Pellitorine targeted mainly on midgut epithelium and anal gills, indicating variably dramatic degenerative responses of the midgut through a sequential epithelial disorganization. The anterior and posterior midgut was entirely necrosed, bearing only gut lumen residues inside the peritrophic membranes. Pellitorine caused comprehensive damage of anal gill cells and branches of tracheole and the debris was found in hemolymph of anal gills. RT-PCR analysis indicates that the compound inhibited gene expression encoding V-type H+-ATPase and aquaporine 4 after treatment with 2.21 mg/L pellitorine. The results provide a fact that pellitorine merits further study as a potential larvicide with a specific target site or a lead molecule for the control of mosquito populations.