In Korea the most important plant industry is the rice-growing but she has not yet attained self-sufficiency with regard to rice which is the basic food of Korean. In the past, various measures of increasing rice production have been tried with some success but the increasing rate of did not show the sufficient result. Judging from experiences, disease control may be the most important factor which has influence on increasing of rice production in Korea. During the past 60 years three periods divided by the transition of rice diseases were noted, and especially the recent transition attracted much attention . That is, sheath blight and stripe which were minor diseases in the past have promptly spread all over the country and caused heavy losses to rice plant, and also local outbreak of bacterial leaf blight and dwarf were noticed. Various environmental factors are related to such transition of rice disease. Above all, cultivated varieties susceptible to these diseases, increase of application of nitrogenous fertilizer, earlier transplanting and density of transplanting are considered to be lucre closely related to the development of these diseases and successive development of blast. On the other hand. application of forage fungicides such as organic mercury compounds specific to blast contributed to reduce prevalent area if blast in spite of wide spread of susceptible varieties and increase of application of nitrogenous fertilizer. These facts were confirmed by Korean investigators At the present which various diseases to control coexist in the same region, no one variety resistant to all of these diseases is provided and cultural practices for the control of these diseases often do not produce sufficient yield of rice. it is emphasized that a role of pesticides is very great

We investigated whether sound could alter gene expression in plants. Using a sound-treated subtractive library, a set of sound-responsive genes in plants was demonstrated through mRNA expression analyses. Of them, the rbcS and ald genes, which are light responsive, up-regulated their expression with sound treatment in both light and in dark conditions. This suggested that sound could be used as a gene regulator instead of light. When we analyzed ald gene expression using various single wavelengths, a significant increase in mRNA levels was found at 125 or 250 Hz but decreased at 50 Hz, indicating that the gene responded to sound in a wavelength-specific manner. To determine whether the ald promoter respond to sound, we generated transgenic rice plants harboring the chimeric gene consisting of a 1,506-bp promoter fragment of the ald gene fused to Escherichia coli GUS reporter gene. Analyses of mRNA expressison level of three independent transgenic lines sound-treated with 50 or 250 Hz for 4 h showed that the Gus gene expression in all three transgenic lines was up regulated by 250 Hz, but down regulated by 50 Hz. These results correlated with sound responsive mRNA expression pattern observed for the ald gene in rice plants, indicating that the 1,506-bp ald promoter confers sound-responsiveness on a reporter gene in transgenic rice plants. We also investigated whether sound waves could improve salt tolerance in rice seedling. The rice seedlings were sound treated with 800 Hz for 1hr, and then treated with 0, 75, 150, and 225mM NaCl for 3 days to observe changes in physiological and morphological aspects. Sound treatment seedlings resulted in enhanced salt stress tolerance, mainly demonstrated by the sound treated seedlings exhibiting of increased root relative water contents (RWC), root length and weight, photochemical efficiency (ratio of variable to maximum fluorescence, Fv/Fm), and germination rate under salt stress condition. This demonstrates that a specific sound wave might be used, not only to alter gene expression in plant, but also to improve salt stress tolerance.

Environment friendly agricultural material products (EFAMs) in current market were evaluated for their insecticidal or acaricidal activities. EFAMs were evaluated against Tetranychus urticae, Plutella xylostella, Myzus persicae and Nilaparvata lugens in spray method. Several EFAMs indicated high control value in spray method. Hatchability of T. urticae was relatively high after EFAM treatment. some materials show high insecticidal activities against P. xylostella larvae but not against eggs. Few meterials showed more than 80% insecticidal activities against M. persicae and N. lugen. The control value of more than half the materials for pest control was lower than 60%. EFAMs containing S. flavescens, neem oil and Rape showed higher control value

The high incidence of polyspermic fertilization is one of the major causes lowering the overall efficiency of porcine IVF. The common procedure for IVF involves the co-culture of both gametes in the medium drop, which increases sperm concentration and incidence of polyspermy. Therefore, the present study was carried out to increase the efficiency of porcine IVF by reducing polyspermy using a modified swim-up method. This method modifies conventional swim-up washing by placing oocytes directly at the time of washing. Sperm pellet was prepared in the tube and mature oocytes were placed on cell strainer with pore size (Falcon 2350) at the top of the tube. After insemination, the oocytes were stained for examination. Also, the developmental potential of fertilized embryos was measured to evaluate for the feasibility of this method. While having similar penetration rates in both methods (), there was a significant reduction of polyspermy in modified swim-up method () compare to the control ( (p<0.05). Subsequent culture showed higher rate of blastocyst formation in modified swim-up method (20.440.99%) than the control () (P<0.05), even though there was no significant difference. These results suggest that, by controlling the number of spermatozoa reaching the oocytes, porcine oocytes might be protected from polyspermy in vitro. Also, the developmental potential of the fertilized embryos using this method could be improved by increasing the pool of spermatozoa with better quality. Further optimization of the procedure required to implicate this method in routine porcine IVF.

The lutropin/choriogonadotropin receptor (LHR) is a member of the rhodopsin-like subfamily of G protein coupled receptor (GPCRs), that has been shown to mediate the internalization of its two naturally occurring agonist, lutropin and choriogonadotropin (CG). The clustered agonist-receptor complex is internalized by a dynamin-dependent pathway and traverses the endosomal compartment without agonist dissociation Dissociation of the agonist-receptor complex occurs in the lysosomes, where both the agonist and receptor are degrade. Recently, constitutively activating mutations of the receptor have been identified that are associated with familial male-precocious puberty (FMPP). A FMPP is a form of sexual precocious puberty in boys in which testosterone levels are elevated independent of changes in luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone and serum luteinizing hormone levels, We have now analyzed two naturally occurring, constitutively active mutants of the human LHR. These mutations were introduced into the rat LHR (rLHR) and are designated L435R and D556Y. Cells expressing rLHR-D556Y bind human choriogonadotropin (hCG) with normal affinity, exhibit a 25-fold increase in basal cAMP and respond to hCG with a normal increase in cAMP accumulation. Cells expressing rLHR-L435R also bind hCG with normal affinity, exhibit a 47-fold increase in basal cAMP, and do not respond to hCG with a further increase in cAMP accumulation. This mutation enhances the internalization of the free and agonist-occupied receptors ~2- and ~17- fold, respectively We conclude that the state of activation of the rLHR can modulate its basal and/or agonist-stimulated internalization. Since the internalization of hCG is involved in the termination of hCG actions, we suggest that the lack of responsiveness detected in cells expressing rLHR-L435R is due to the fast rate of internalization of the bound hCG. The finding that membranes expressing rLHR-L435R respond to hCG with an increase in adenylyl cyclase activity supports this suggestion. Autonomous Leydig cell activity in FMPP is caused by a constitutively activating LH/CGR.

콩[Glycine max (L. ) Merrill] 종자내 저장양분의 전류에 대한 기초자료를 얻기 위하여, 콩 품종 '힐콩', '팔달콩', 및 '장엽콩' 의 발아와 초기 유묘발달단계 동안 유묘의 각 기관별 건물중의 변화를 고려대학교 자연자원대학 부속농장에서 5월 26일, 6월 5일, 및 6월 14일에 각각 조사하였다. 콩 세품종의 평균 생체중, 평균 건물중 및 평균 수분함량은 자엽부위를 제외한 유묘의 모든 기관에서 V2단계까지 증가하였다. 자엽의 평균 건물중은 V2단계까지 계속 감소하였으며, 발아단계시 자엽 건물중의 약80%가 감소되었다. 발아단계에서 자엽의 구조성분은 자엽 건물중의 약22.2%였다. 자엽의 대사성분은 V2단계까지 급격히 감소하였으며, 발아단계시 자엽 대사성분의 약 91%가 이용되었다. 그러나 전체 유묘의 대사성분은 V1단계 이후에 증가하였음을 보였다. 따라서 종자의 발아와 유묘발달을 위하여 종자내 저장양분의 이동 및 탄소동화작용에 의한 양분 공급자로서 자엽의 역할은 특히, V1단계까지 중요한 것으로 나타났다.