Soybean is a crop of importance economically and nutritionally in many parts of the world. Thanks to many new genes brought from genomic research, It is possible to introduce various candidate genes through genetic transformation to see the performance of the genes in field. In our lab, soybean transformations have been tried for last 10 years to probe the possibility of traits improvement by transformation of new gene into soybean. For this purpose, three different genes were transformed into Korean soybean variety, Kwangan. First, the gene that controls early flowering of plant was transformed into Kwangan. Second, a candidate gene for soybean mosaic virus (SMV) resistance was transformed to produce transgenic plants. Third, another candidate gene for drought tolerance was transformed. All the transgenic plants from three genes transformation were produced for their gene insertion and their expression using PCR, qRT-PCR. Further analysis including harvesting seeds is currently undertaken.

Understanding the response of a crop to water deficiency is the first step towards breeding drought-tolerant varieties. In this study, inbred maize (Zea mays L.) lines KS140 and KS141 were subjected to drought stress by withholding water for 10 days at the V5 or V6 leaf stage. Water-deficient plants experienced a decrease in relative leaf water content, stomatal conductance, net CO2 assimilation rate, and water use efficiency compared to well-watered plants. This was accompanied by a decrease in the relative leaf water content that resulted in severe growth retardation in KS140 and KS141. However, leaf chlorophyll content in KS140 was unchanged. To understand the proteome dynamics during the 10-day drought stress in maize leaves, comparative proteome analysis was carried out between the well-watered and water-withheld leaves. Differential expression was observed for 29 protein spots from KS140 and 14 protein spots from KS141, and these were identified using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Among identified proteins, metabolism and stress related proteins were highly were increased by drought stress. This study provides a protein profile of a Korean maize inbred line during drought stress, which will be valuable for future studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying drought resistance and for development of selective breeding markers for drought tolerance in maize.

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.

xBrassicoraphanus, a new synthetic intergeneric hybrid between Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis and Raphanus sativus L., also locally known as ‘Baemoochae’, is an interesting subject for studying polyploidy and genome plasticity in the family Brassicaceae, but very few genomic and cytogenetic information. Here, we analysed the chromosome complements and pairing of the most fertile lines, BB1 and BB5, using dual-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) to check their chromosomal segregation stability. The somatic chromosome complement of B. rapa was confirmed to be 2n=20 (2.8~4.8μm), of R.sativus, 2n=18 (2.0~3.3μm), and of xBrassicoraphanus, 2n=38 (2.2~5.0μm). There were eight, eight, and seventeen metacentric pairs and two, one, and two submetacentric pairs in B. rapa, R. sativus, and xBrassicoraphanus, respectively. Additionally, three, two, and five pairs of 5S rDNA and five, three, and eight pairs of 45S rDNA were observed in B. rapa, R. sativus, and xBrassicoraphanus, respectively. This suggests that both B. rapa (AA) and R. sativus (RR) genomes, particularly the rDNA arrays, co-exist in xBrassicoraphanus (AARR) genome. In meiosis I, nineteen bivalents were most frequent, and GISH analysis showed ten bivalents from the A genome. This study would provide a useful information for further genomic study of xBrassicoraphanus and its improvement as a new promising breeding variety.

Genome sequencing researches for considerable numbers of crops and wild plants are being developed. Cytogenetic researches according to chromosome number and size are essential to confirm and comprehend ploidy level and genome size before genome sequencing project is actually conducted. Cytogenetic researches on six food crop plants were carried out by DAPI staining and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method. Fagopyrum esculentum Moench showed 2n=2x=16, each chromosome length of 1.42㎛ to 1.77㎛, total chromosome length of 13.31㎛, and karyotypic formula of 2n=8m; Phaseolus angularis W.F. Wight, 2n=2x=22, 2.01㎛ to 3.84㎛, total 28.03㎛, 2n=9m+2sm, Perilla frutescens var. japonica Hara, 2n=2x=40, 1.73㎛ to 2.76㎛, total 44.36㎛, 2n=5m+13sm+2st. Chromosome sizes of the other three species such as, Panicum miliaceum L., 2n=2x=36, total chromosome length of 30.83㎛, Sesamum indicum L., 2n=2x=26, 27.39㎛, lpomoea batatas L., 2n=2x=30, total 33.51㎛ were too small for each chromosome type to be identified and analyzed. The result of FISH analysis using 5S and 45S rDNA probe showed species-specific chromosome locations in the genome. These preliminary analyses were carried out to decide which food crop to prioritize for genome sequencing. This work was supported by the “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (No.PJ009837), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

Discovery, identification, and informatics of low molecular weight peptide are extensively rising in the field of proteomics research. In this study, we analyzed protein profiles to discover peptide based biomarker for twelve different soybean seeds with three different agronomic types using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS). For optimization of SELDI-TOF MS in soybean seed proteome analysis, four different extraction buffers were tested with urea solubilization buffer, thiourea/urea solubilization buffer, phenol extraction buffer, and modified trichloroacetic acid (TCA)/acetone precipitation/urea solubilization extraction buffer. Two different type of ProteinChip arrays, cation exchange (CM10) and anion exchange (Q10), applied to profile peptides. Among the four different extraction buffers, phenol extraction was selected to protein extraction methodology. Numbers of detected peak cluster in twelve soybean seeds were 125 at CM10 and 90 at Q10 array in the mass range from 2 to 40 kDa. Among them, 82 peak clusters at CM10 and 33 peak clusters at Q10 array showed significantly different peak clusters at p<0.00004 (CM10) and p<0.00005 (Q10) among twelve different soybean cultivars. Moreover, 29 peak clusters at CM10 and 17 peak clusters at Q10 array were detected in all cultivars as an ‘universally existed peptide’. In comparison with three different agronomic types, total of 55 peak clusters (CM10) and 23 peak clusters (Q10) were significantly different peak clusters at p<0.00004 and p<0.0001, respectively. In these probability levels, soybean seeds were well discriminated into different cultivar and different type with each other. Also we could find several specific peptide biomarkers for agronomic type.