Harmonized actions of ovarian estrogen (E2) and progesterone (P4) regulate cell proliferation and differentiation in the uterus with a spatiotemporal manner. Imbalance between the actions and levels of two major regulators often lead to infertility and gynecological diseases, such as endometriosis and endometrial cancer. While numerous works have shown that reduced expression and/or deletion of uterine factors associated with P4 signaling could disturb uterine physiology, local factor(s) to mediate E2 actions has not been extensively studied yet. Here we demonstrate that early growth response 1 (Egr1), a transcription factor which is rapidly induced in the uterus by E2, is required to maintain coordinated actions of E2 and P4 for uterine receptivity for embryo implantation. Given exogenous gonadotrophins to overcome LHβ deficiency in the pituitary of Egr1(－/－) mice, ovulation, fertilization and embryo development normally occurred in these mice. However, they showed complete failure of embryo implantation with reduced uterine responses to artificial decidualization stimuli. While serum levels of E2 and P4 in Egr1(－/－) mice were comparable, genes regulated by E2 and/or P4 in uterine epithelial cells (ECs) were aberrantly expressed on day 4 of pregnancy. Impaired P4 signaling along with absence of PR in ECs caused hypersensitive E2 responses shown as enhanced expression of E2-responsive genes such Muc1 and Ltf as well as reduced levels of P4-dependent genes, such as Ihh and Areg, in ECs of Egr1(－/－) mice. This is consistent with persistent proliferation in ECs and severely impaired proliferation in stromal cells (SCs) in Egr1(－/－) mice treated with E2+P4. Furthermore, primary co-culture of Egr1(－/－) ECs with Egr1(+/+) SCs and vice versa supported a notion that Egr1 itself is required for proper responses to two major regulators, E2 and P4, in both uterine cell compartments. Collectively, our results show that E2-induced Egr1 participates in P4-dependent modulation on E2 activities in the uterus by regulating a spectrum of genes essential for uterine receptivity and embryo implantation.

The generation and analysis of genomic resources information are essential to understand genomic features of crops. Even though medicinal component and its effect of Panax ginseng was well studied, the genomic study has been recently started. The ginseng genome has been known to undergo two rounds of whole genome duplication (WGD), therefore we investigated an evidence of WGD in ginseng draft sequence for understanding current ginseng genome structure. Four paralogous gene-rich genome blocks were found, consisted by eight scaffolds, using about 3.0 Gb whole genome draft sequence and 48,821 unigenes of P. ginseng generated by whole genome shotgun sequencing. The eight scaffold sequences were ordered and connected into four genomic blocks, using zig-zag extension within scaffold sequences recently duplicated. The paralogous scaffold pairs that were recently duplicated showed high sequence conservation in genic and non-genic regions. However, paleo duplicated paralogue scaffold sequences showed little conservation only in genic regions. Finally, a total of 110 paralogous gene pairs and its expression were identified from recently and paleo duplicated scaffold pairs, which were co-linear among four genomic blocks. This study provides the first insight into duplicated genome structure of ginseng and will be a valuable information for further ginseng genomics including improvement of draft sequence quality, chromosome anchoring of scaffolds, and genetic mapping.

The patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a vascular structure connecting the proximal descending aorta to the roof of the main pulmonary artery, near the origin of the left branch pulmonary artery. Transcatheter closure has become the treatment of choice for most cases of PDA in both children and adults; however, measurement of the exact size and morphology of the shunt in adult cases using only contrast fluoroscopy is difficult. We report on a case of a 49-year-old woman who underwent transcatheter closure of PDA with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) guideance. In the current case, IVUS is feasible and helpful for measuring the exact size and shape of the PDA.

The transcription factor, early growth response protein 1 (EGR1), act as immediate early response genes to control various cellular and reproductive events. Egr1-deficient female mice show infertility by anovulation resulting from luteinizing hormone-β (LH-β) subunit deficiency. While ovulation, fertilization and embryo development normally occur in Egr1-deficient mice treated with a superovulation regime to rescue LH deficiency, embryo implantation was completely failed. The morphology and ultrastructure of uterine tissues were observed by light and transmission electron microscopy during the peri-implantation period in Egr1-deficient mice. To examine alterations in cellular organelles, the uterine horns were fixed with 2.5% glutaraldehyde and postfixed with 1% osmium tetroxide in PBS. After dehydration and infiltration, the samples were embedded in Epon 812. Semi-thin sections 0.5 μm thick were cut with an ultramicrotome and stained with toluidine blue for light microscopy. Thin sections were cut with a diamond knife of the ultramicrotome and placed on copper grids. The sections were double stained and examined under a transmission electron microscope. The height of luminal epithelial cells was decreased and the polarity was poorly differentiated in the Egr1-deficient comparing to the wild mice. The abundant mucinous materials were observed in the surface of luminal epithelial cells of the Egr1-deficient. It was confirmed the microarray and real time qPCR data. The luminal epithelial cells of wild mice had many dense lipophilic granules and healthy mitochondria, but not in the Egr1-deficient. It may related to production and secretion of steroid hormones and prostaglandins in the luminal epithelial cells for successful implantation. These results show that Egr1 is a critical transcription factor to fine-tune subcellular morphological and functional changes for the receptive phase of peri-implantation period of uterine tissue in mice.

Spatial- and temporal-specific expression patterns are primarily regulated at the transcriptional level by the promoter. Therefore, it is important to determine the binding motifs of transcription factors to understand the networks associated with embryogenesis. Here, we used a protein-binding microarray (PBM) to determine the binding motif of OsSMF1, which is a basic leucine zipper transcription factor that is involved in the regulation of rice seed maturation. OsSMF1 (previously called RISBZ1) is known to interact with GCN4 motifs (TGA(G/C)TCA) to regulate seed storage proteins (SSPs). In addition, OsSMF1 (also known as OsbZIP58) functions as a key regulator of starch synthesis in the rice seed. Quadruple 9-mer-based PBM (Q9-PBM) and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) experiments revealed that OsSMF1 binds to the ACGT (CCACGT(C/G)), GCN4 (TGA(G/C)TCA), and GCN4-like (GGATGAC) motifs with Kd values of 0.3353 μM, 0.6458 μM, and 1.117 μM, respectively. We also identified 60 putative OsSMF1 target genes using a combination of data from expression microarrays and RiceArrayNet (RAN) analysis. Of these OsSMF1 target genes, 20, 22, and 17 genes contained ACGT, GCN4, and GCN4-like motifs within the 2-kb promoter region, respectively. In addition to known target genes, we also identified 35 potential OsSMF1 target genes that have not been previously described in immature seeds. We also confirmed that OsSMF1 directly regulates Os03g0168500 (thioredoxin-related protein), RPBF, NAC6, and two hypothetical proteins (Os12g0621600 and Os11g0582400) in vivo. This study suggests that OsSMF1 functions in a wide range of seed development processes with specific binding affinities for three DNA binding motifs

Glucosinolates of Brassica rapa collection from Korea genebank were measured to determine total glucosinolate content and their variation of diverse glucosinolates; Around 100 accessions representing the different morphotypes and geographical origin of Brassica rapa were analysed. The principal component analysis was performed to evaluate the differences among morphotypes using the profiles of 14 glucosinolates identified from the leaves. DMRT test and box plots showed the significant difference between total glucosinolates of subspecies. Most of turnip accessions had higher gluconilates compared to the other type accessions, Chinese cabbage and pak choi. These accessions will be used for GWAS study for glucosinolate. Now they are being finger-printed by genotyping by sequencing (GBS). Among these accession, we selected a turnip accession with high amount of glucosinolate, K0466 and two Chinese cabbage accession with low amount of glucosinolate, K0015 and K0621. To analyse quantitative traits loci (QTL) for glucosinolate synthesis, these three accessions were fixed through microspore culture. Finally, six homozygous lines were selected and were crossed each other to make F1 hybrids. We just harvested F2 seeds and transferred doubled haploid plants to pots. QTL analysis for glucosinolate will be performed these F2 and DH population.

Perilla is a genus as a member of the mint family Lamiaceae which is known to contain lots of volatile metabolite. Perilla has been called as ‘deulkae’ indicating ‘wild sesame’ that means it has been maintained in Korea with long history. It has been very friendly used as edible oil and as fresh leaf vegetable. Perilla oil is valued for its medicinal benefit because it contains best amounts of unsaturated fatty acids, especially for the alpha-linolenic acid, known to omega-3 fatty acid, among all of the plant oils. It also include many beneficial phytochemicals. However, little study is conducted on their genetics. Here, we announce construction of well normalized and full length enriched-perilla cDNA library from a whole plant of one cultivar ‘Youngho-deulkae’ and their sequence characterization to provide useful resources for genetics, breeding and metabolite engineering. By sequencing of 5,760 cDNA clones, we 5,438 high quality EST sequences. Sequence trimming and assembly resulted 3,995 unigenes which consists 1,004 contigs and 2,991 singletones. Unigenes that showed little homology at the DNA sequence level with known genes in other plants even though they showed similarity at the protein domain level based on BLASTN, BLASTX, and TBLASTX. This study may provide good resources for initiation of further genomics, comparative genomics, functional genomics such as metabolic engineering and molecular breeding.