Background : Recently, ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer.) berry has been used as a health-promoting supplements. Also, Mulberries (Morus alba L.) fruit have been used in traditional herbal medicine to treat and prevent diabetes. In this study, we measured the cytotoxicity after fermentation of the extracts in Panax Ginseng Berry and Mulberry Fruit. Methods and Results : The extracts were prepared by decoction for 3 hours in distilled water (100 g/L). The dried extract was then dissolved in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) in preparation for use. Cell viability was examined by an MTT assay. RAW 264.7 cells were seeded at 1 × 104/mL densities in 96-well plates. Each grouping had a non-treated group as the control. The extracts were added to each well and incubated for 24 hours at 37°C and 5% CO2. The MTT solutions (5 mg/mL) were added to each well, and the cells were cultured for another 2 hours. The supernatant was then discarded, and 100 μL of dimethyl sulfoxide was added to each well. The optical density was read at 540 nm. Conclusion : Probiotics and prebiotics modulate the composition of human and domestic animal gut microbiota. The beneficial effects may result from suppression of harmful microorganisms or stimulation of organisms which contribute in a positive way to the nutrition and health of human and domestic animal. Recently, fermentation using microorganisms for the production of more effective compounds has been extensively studied. In particular, the novel pharmacological effects of a new compound generated by fermentation have been reported. Some previous studies have demonstrated that Fermented herbal medicine extract showed better bioactivity than normal herbal Plants extract when used at the same concentration.

A double-cropping system with soybean (Glycine max) following the cultivation of potato, garlic, and onion is widely adopted in the southern region of Korea. For this system, marginal dates for planting must be determined for profitable soybean yields, because the decision to plant soybean as a second crop is occasionally delayed by harvest of the first crop and weather conditions. In order to investigate the effect of planting date on soybean yield, three cultivars (early and late maturity) were planted on seven different dates from May 1 to July 30 in both paddy and upland fields across 2012 and 2013. Soybean yields were significantly different among the planting dates and the cultivars; however, the interaction between cultivar and planting date was not significant. Based on linear regression, the maximum yield of soybean was reached with a June 10 planting date, with a sharp decline in yield for crops planted after this date. The results of this study were consistent with those of a previous one that recommends early and mid-June as the optimum planting period. Regardless of soybean ecotype, a reduction in yield of greater than 20% occurred when soybean was planted after mid-July. Frost during soybean growth can reduce yields, and the late maturity cultivars planted on July 30 were damaged by frost before completing maturation and harvest; however, early maturity cultivars were safely harvested. For sufficient time to develop and reach profitable yields, the planting of soybean before mid-July is recommended.

Left ventricular (LV) thrombi may be caused by various conditions, particularly myocardial infarction. In most cases, LV thrombus occurs in patients with a significantly reduced ejection fraction. A LV thrombus is extremely rare in patients with normal LV function. We report a case of LV thrombus initially detected on transthoracic echocardiography and confirmed using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in a patient with normal LV wall motion. We highlight the rarity of this condition and the usefulness of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of LV thrombus.

UDP-glucose 4-epimerase (UGE; EC 5.1.3.2) is an enzyme that plays an essential role in the interconverts UDP-D-glucose (UDP-Glc) and UDP-Dgalactose (UDP-Gal). Five members of the Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa) UDP-glucose 4-epimerase gene family, designated BrUGE1 to BrUGE5, have been cloned and characterized. Quantitative PCR shows that the BrUGE1and BrUGE4 mRNA are most abundant among other BrUGE genes, accounting for more than 55% of total BrUGE transcripts in most of the tissues examined. All genes showed organ specific expression pattern, two of which (BrUGE1 and 4) actively responded after Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum infection, while four genes (BrUGE-1, -3, -4 and -5)were shown to respond considerably against salt, drought and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments. To better understand the function of the UGE gene, we constructed a recombinant pART vector carrying the BrUGE1 gene under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter and nos terminator and transformed using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. We then investigated BrUGE1 overexpressing rice lines at the physiological and molecular levels under biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Bioassay of T3 progeny lines of the transgenic plants in Yoshida solution containing 120 mM Nacl for 2 weeks, confirmed that the BrUGE1 enhances salt tolerance to transgenic rice plants. Also T3 progeny lines of the transgenic plants, when exposed to infection caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae, showed tolerance to bacterial blight. These results showed that BrUGE1 can be used as potential genetic resource for engineering Brassica with multiple stress resistance.

The GA application on grapevines induces parthenocarpy, fruit set without fertilization, and the inhibition of pollen tube growth. But the molecular mechanism underlying this inhibition is not understood. Similar defective pollen tube growth within the transmitting tract has been reported in the mutant of GABA transaminase (GABA-T), referred to as pollen-pistil-interaction2 (pop2) in Arabidopsis. In spite of the similarity of pollen tube growth inhibition observed in GA-applied grapevines with that of pop2, only the effects of GABA on stress responses in grapevines have been reported. In present study, transcriptional changes of Vitis GABA metabolic genes, together with changes in GABA levels with or without GA application were analyzed to define how GA application restrained the pollen tube growth in grapevines. A GA solution (Dongbu, Seoul, Korea) at 100 ppm was onto inflorescence clusters 14 days before full bloom (DBF) and clusters were harvested at 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, and 19 days after GA application. Harvested inflorescence samples were immediately frozen in LN2 and extracted RNA and amino acid. The GABA contents were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (Agilent 1100 HPLC, Agilent Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, USA) equipped with a C18 column (4.6 mm×150 mm, 3.5 μm/VDS optilab, Berlin, Germany), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Without GA application, the simultaneous high expressions of VvGAD1, VvGAD4 and VvGABA-T2 during 10 to 5 days before full bloom (DBF) showing the activation of GABA metabolism. But the contents of GABA were low before 2 DBF, and it peaked only at near full bloom when expression levels of VvGABA-T2 remained low. After GA application, the contents of GABA were constant during 10 to 5 DBF, although transcription levels of both VvGAD1 and VvGABA-T2 rapidly declined less than 30% of the levels observed without GA application. However, the GABA levels increased more than 2-fold only at near full bloom, compared to those without GA application, and at that time, expression levels of VvGAD1 up-regulated more than 3-fold and those of VvGABA-T2 kept low. But other amino acid contents did not show significant changes. In case of VvSSAHDs, their transcriptional changes with or without GA application were not correlated with GABA levels. These results indicates that GABA levels before pollination is tightly regulated, but GA application alters the GABA-shunt to accumulate excess GABA more than needed for proper pollen tube growth at full bloom. Gibberellin application alters the GABA-shunt to accumulate excess GABA resulting in inhibition pollen tube growth in grapevines.

Magnoliae Flos (Sini in Korean) is one of the most important oriental medicinal plants. In the Korean Herbal Pharmacopeia, the bud of the all species in Manolia denudate and Manolia genus were regarded as the botanical sources for ‘Sini’. Most the dried bud of Manolia denudata, Manolia biondii and Manolia sprengeri were used as ‘Xin-yi’ in China. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine and compare the ‘Magnolia’ species, four species including Manolia denudata, M. biondii, M. liliiflora and M. Kobus were analysis of sequencing data revealed DNA polymorphisms. The based on tRNA coding leucine/phenylalanine (trnL-F) and NADH-plastoquinone oxidoreductase subunit 5 (ndhF) sequences in chloroplast DNA. For the identification of ‘Magnolia’ species, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of chloroplast DNA regions such as ndhF have proven an appropriate method. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) has been identified between genuine “Sini” and their fraudulent and misuse. Specific PCR primers were designed from this polymorphic site within the sequence data, and were used to detect true plants via multiplex PCR.

Genetically modified (GM) plant claims to be the solution to global poverty, and potentially solving environmental change and food requirement by increased human population. In this study, we were evaluating agronomic characteristics and chemical properties of two GM drought-tolerant rice (CaMsrB2-8 and CaMsrB2-23) compared with donor cultivars (Ilmi). Statistical analysis agronomic characteristics GM and donor rice showed no significant difference between both of them. Yield and appearance of rice grain, GM rice was a similar to the donor rice. Chemical composition analysis showed that GM drought-tolerant rice has no different with donor rice. This result indicated that GM drought tolerant rice has no big significant difference agronomic character and chemical properties; it can be solve food shortages in spite of drought condition.

Gibberellic acid (GA) is a well-characterized plant hormone, which plays a critical role in various plant growth and development. including stem elongation, floral indcution and seed development. GA is known to cause enlargement of ripening fruits and, especially in grapevines, GA shows a unique function: the induction of seedlessness in seeded grape varieties. However, despite extensive previous studies about GA, there has been no clear verification of the mechanism that induces seedlessness in grapes. To understand how GA treatment results in artificial parthenocarpy of seeded grapes at molecular levels, we analyzed transcriptional changes in seeded grapes with and without GA application in various inflorescence developmental stages using RNA-seq. At 14 days before flowering (DBF), seeded grapes were treated with 100 ppm GA and clusters were collected at three developmental stages: 7 DBF, full bloom, and 5 days after flowering (DAF). Of a total of 28,974 genes that were mapped to grape genome reference sequences, 7,013 and 9,064 genes were up- and down-regulated, respectively, in the GA-treated grape as compared to the non-GA-treated control at 7 DBF, full bloom, and 5 DAF. Clustering analysis revealed that these genes could be grouped into 9 clusters with different expression patterns. We also carried out functional annotation based on gene ontology categories. There were significant differences in the expression of the GA and auxin-related gene families. These findings expand our understanding of the complex molecular and cellular mechanisms of GA-induced parthenocarpy of grapes and provide a foundation for future studies on seed development in grapevines.

Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping is a highly effective approach for studying genetically complex forms of plant shattering. With QTLs mapping, the shattering loci can be described. SSR marker is based on the imformation of Simple Sequence Repeat and easy to analyze using PCR and has high reproducibility. For analyzing QTLs associated with shattering, we selected 219 SSR markers from 254 SSR markers and used them for implementing Mapmaker(Ver. 3.0) and Mapchart(Ver. 2.2). Mapmaker help to calculate distances between each markers and Mapchart is a program for drawing Genetic map. This Genetic map of rice (Oryza sativa L.) covering 2082.4 cM with 9.5 cM between makers in the Kosambi function has been constructed using 120 F1 DH plants from a single cross between the indica variety Chungchung and the japonica variety Nagdong.

본 연구에서는 감태 효소 추출물과 그것의 폴리페놀 추출물의 화장품 원료로서의 효능을 알아보기 위하여 항산화, 항당화, 미백, 항염 효과와 관련된 실험을 실시하였다. 감태 효소 추출물과 폴리페놀 추출물은 강력한 라디컬 소거능을 가지고 있으며 BSA/Glucose 시스템에서 최종당화생성물의 형성을 저해하는 항당화 활성과 타이로시네이즈 저해를 통한 우수한 미백력을 가지고 있음을 확인하였다. 또한 두 추출물 모두 세포 내에서 PGE2와 NO 생성 저해를 통한 항염 효과를 나타내었다. 이러한 결과를 종합해 볼 때, 감태 효소 추출물과 그 폴리페놀추출물은 화장품 원료로서의 응용 가능성이 있을 것으로 사료된다.

Twenty two common millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) varieties collected from Korea, China and Russia were investigated for their phylogenetic relationship using 5S ribosomal DNA sequences with a hope to provide the basic information on their exact origin. Sequences of 5S rDNA were isolated by PCR. The primers, 5s-rRNA1 and 5s-rRNA2, were designed to isolate the complete NTS. Genomic DNA amplification produced two fragments with different length, 900 bp and 400 bp fragments, confirming the presence of two types of 5S rDNA repeats that differed from each other in the length of the NTS region. Amplified DNAs of 400 bp fragment were subcloned and used for further investigation. The obtained NTS sequences ranged from 200 to 300 bp and homology of sequences among plant materials was much higher than long repeat. CLUSTALW multiple aligment of 5S rDNA sequences from 22 different common millets revealed the clear difference by their origin. And critically different areas with insert or deletion were also confirmed. Those sequence difference seems to be used for discrimination of cultivars from different origin and use as molecular markers for origin identification. In phylogenic tree construction, the clear classification was shown where the genotypes from China and Russia is positioned together and stay away from domestic genotypes.

Wild rice might have previously unidentified genes important for disease resistance and stress tolerance in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. A set of subtractive library was constructed both from leaves of wild rice plants, Oryza grandiglumis (CCDD, 2n=48), treated with fungal elicitor and from wounded leaves. A partial fragment that was homologous to PR10 genes from other plant species was identified via suppression subtractive hybridization and cDNA macroarray. The obtained full-length cDNA sequence (OgPR10) contains an open reading frame of 480 bp nucleotide, encoding 160 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 16.944 kDa and an isoelectric point (pI) of 4.91. The multiple alignment analyses showed the higher sequence homology of OgPR10 with PR10 genes identified in rice plants at amino acid level. The OgPR10 mRNA was not expressed by treatment with wounding, jasmonic acid, and salicylic acid, but markedly expressed in leaves treated with protein phosphatase inhibitors cantharidin and endothall, and yeast extract. In addition, the expression of OgPR10 mRNA was induced within 72 h after treatment with probenazole, one of well-known chemical elicitors, and reached the highest level at 144 h. Heterologous expression of OgPR10 caused growth inhibition and seedling lethality in E. coli and Arabidopsis, respectively. Chemically induced OgPR10 expression with glucocorticoid-mediated transcriptional induction system further reconfirmed its lethality on Arabidopsis seedling. In addition, OgPR10-expressing rice plants, Oryzae sativar were resistant against the infection of rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea. These results indicate that OgPR10 is involved in probenazole- and microbe associated molecular patterns-mediated disease resistance responses in plants and is a potential gene for developing disease resistance crop plants.

A gene flow has been tested from transgenic herbicide-resistant Chinese cabbage to major crops in Cruciferae. Hybridizations were made between transgenic Basta-resistant Chinese cabbage and non-transgenic Chinese cabbage, B. napus, B. juncea and Brassicoraphanus(B. campestris × Raphanus sativus, 2n=4x=38) with honey-bee mediated fertilization. Progeny populations were selected by Basta herbicide. The F1 hybrids with pat gene were again self-pollinated or cross-pollinated with nontransgenic Chinese cabbage and rape naturally or artificially. Pod setting ratio were compared as a tentative parameter for potential gene flow. Key agronomic characters were compared among the F1 hybrid populations obtained. In the days to flowering after cold treatment, the F1 hybrids of Brassicoraphanus x B. campestris and B. napus x B. campestris(GM) were the shortest (75 days), and the GM Chinese cabbage and the F1 hybrid of B. juncea x B. campestris(GM) were 87 and 93 days, respectively. In the stem length, the F1 hybrid of Brassicoraphanus x B. campestris was the longest(175 cm), and followed by the F1 hybrid of B. napus x B. campestris(GM), the F1 hybrid of B. juncea x B. campestris(GM) in order. The naturally occurring pod setting ratios were fluctuated seriously among individual and segregation lines. Natural pod setting of the transgenic Chinese cabbage was 10 to 19 %. The F1 hybrid of B. napus x B. campestris(GM) showed the ratio of 4-11%. However, the F1 hybrids of B. juncea x B. campestris and Brassicoraphanus x B. campestris(GM) did not produced seeds. The F1 hybrids with pat gene were hybridized with nontransgenic Chinese cabbage and rape by artificial bud pollination to test potential gene flow. All cross combinations except Brassicoraphanus produced seeds and the pod setting ratios ranged from 35 to 100 percentages. Thus, the potentials of the gene flow from Chinese cabbage with pat gene to the order specise in the same gene interspecies or intergeneric species and from the F1 hybrids with pat gene to nontransgenic Chinese cabbage and rape were detected. Herbicide resistant test to the acquired seeds by natural and artificial pollinations including honey-bee mediated fertilization using the same materials is going on.

A new soybean cultivar for soy-paste, “Mansu”, was developed from the cross between ‘Suwon 192’, which was tolerant to disease, late maturing and high yielding, and ‘Suwon 196’ which was early maturing and large seed by soybean breeding team in the Yeongnam Agricultural Research Institute (YARI) to make new variety having large seed and high yielding. A promising line, SS97213-2B-3SSD-39-1-1, was selected and designated as the name of ‘Suwon 236’. It was characterized by regional yield trials (RYT) for three years from 2004 to 2006 and released as the name of “Mansu”. It has a determinate growth habit, purple flower, grey pubescence, pale green seed coat, yellow cotyledon, large spherical seed (26.5 grams per 100 seeds). Maturity date is 4 days later than the check cultivar, Taekwang. The average yield of Mansu was 2.93 ton per hectare in the regional yield trials (RYT) carried out for three years from 2004 to 2006 which was 7 percent higher than that of the check cultivar, Taekwang.