A pepper bZIP transcription factor gene, CabZIP2, was isolated from pepper leaves infected with an a virulent strain of Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv). Transient expression analysis of the CabZIP2-GFP fusion protein in Nicotiana benthamiana revealed that the CabZIP2 protein is localized in the cytoplasm as well as the nucleus. The acidic domain in the N-terminal region of CabZIP2 that is fused to the GAL4 DNA-binding domain is required to activate the transcription of reporter genes in yeast. Transcription of CabZIP2 is induced in pepper plants inoculated with virulent or avirulent strains of Xcv. The CabZIP2 gene is also induced by defense-related hormones such as salicylic acid, methyl jasmonate, and ethylene. To elucidate the in vivo function of the CabZIP2 gene in plant defense, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in pepper and overexpression in Arabidopsis were used. CabZIP2-silenced pepper plants were susceptible to infection by the virulent strain of Xcv, which was accompanied by reduced expression of defense-related genes such as CaBPR1 and CaAMP1. CabZIP2 overexpression (OX) in transgenic Arabidopsis plants conferred enhanced resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. Together, these results suggest that CabZIP2 is involved in bacterial disease resistance.

Plants are constantly exposed to a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses, which include pathogens and conditions of high salinity, low temperature, and drought. Abscisic acid (ABA) is a major plant hormone involved in signal transduction pathways that mediate the defense response of plants to abiotic stress. Previously, we isolated Ring finger protein gene (CaRING1) frompepper(Capsicum annuum), which is associated with resistance to bacterial pathogens, accompanied by hypersensitive cell death. Here, we report a new function of the CaRING1 gene product in the ABA-mediated defense responses of plants to drought stress. The expression of the CaRING1 gene was induced in pepper leaves treated with ABA or exposed to drought or NaCl. CaRING1-overexpressing (OX) transgenic plants showed enhanced sensitivity to ABA during the seedling growth and establishment. Furthermore, these plants were more tolerant to drought stress than the wild-type plants because of enhanced stomatal closure and increased expression of stress-responsive genes. Together, these results suggest that the CaRING1 acts as positive factor for drought tolerance in Arabidopsis by modulating ABA-mediated stomatal closing and gene expression.

In plants, lipoxygenases (LOXs) are involved in various physiological processes, including defense responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Our previous study has shown that pepper 9-LOX gene, CaLOX1, plays a crucial role in cell death due to pathogen infection. Here, the function of CaLOX1 in response to osmotic, drought, and high salinity was examined using CaLOX1-overexpressing (CaLOX1-OX) Arabidopsis plants. Changes in the temporal expression pattern of the CaLOX1 gene were observed when pepper leaves were treated with drought and high salinity, but not with abscisic acid (ABA), the primary hormone in response to drought stress. During seed germination and seedling development, CaLOX1-OX plants were more tolerant to ABA, mannitol, and high salinity than wild-type plants. In contrast, expression of the ABA-responsive marker genes RAB18 and RD29B was higher in CaLOX1-OX Arabidopsis plants than in wild-type plants. In response to high salinity, CaLOX1-OX plants exhibited enhanced tolerance, compared with wild-type, which is accompanied by decreased accumulation of H2O2 and high levels of RD20, RD29A, RD29B, and P5CS gene expressions. Similarly, CaLOX1-OX plants were also more tolerant than wild-type plants to severe drought stress. H2O2 production and relative increase of lipid peroxidation were lower, and the expression of COR15A, DREB2A, RD20, RD29A, and RD29B was higher in CaLOX1-OX plants, relative to those of wild-type plants. Taken together, our results indicate that CaLOX1 plays a crucial role in plant stress responses by modulating the expression of ABA- and stress-responsive marker genes, lipid peroxidation, and H2O2 production.

Stomata are natural pores of plants and constitute the entry points for water during transpiration. However, they also facilitate the ingress of potentially harmful bacterial pathogens. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a pivotal role in protecting plants against biotic stress, by regulating stomatal closure. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism whereby ABA influences plant defense responses to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000, which is a virulent bacterial pathogen of Arabidopsis, at the pre-invasive stage. We found that overexpression of two ABA receptors, namely, RCAR4/PYL10-OX and RCAR5/PYL11-OX (hereafter referred to as RCARs), resulted in ABA-hypersensitive phenotypes being exhibited during the seed germination and seedling growth stages. Sensitivity to ABA enhanced the resistance of RCAR4-OX and RCAR5-OX plants to Pst DC3000, through promoting stomatal closure leading to the development of resistance to this bacterial pathogen. Protein phosphatase HAB1 is an important component that is responsible for ABA signaling and which interacts with ABA receptors. We found that hab1 mutants exhibited enhanced resistance to Pst DC3000; moreover, similar to RCAR4-OX and RCAR5-OX plants, this enhanced resistance was correlated with stomatal closure. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that alteration of RCAR4- or RCAR5-HAB1 mediated ABA signaling influences resistance to bacterial pathogens via stomatal regulation.

Next generation sequencing technologies provide opportunities to reveal the genetic variants and differentially expressedgenes. The genetic variants are closely relevance to understanding of genes and phenotypic differences related to agronomic characteristics among cultivars. In this study, we conducted RNA-seq using two Korean soybean accessions, including Daewon and Hwangkeum, by using next generation sequencing against Williams 82 genome as reference. A number of variants such assingle nucleotide variants (SNV), multiple nucleotide variants (MNV), insertion/deletion (InDel) and replacement, was 34,411 and 55,544 in Daewon and Hwangkeum, respectively. Among these variants, 9,611 nonsynonymous variants were detected within 4,290 genes in Daewon and 13,225 non-synonymous variants were located on 5,672 genes in Hwangkeum. The distribution of nonsynonymous variants and expression values of genes can serve as invaluable resource for genotyping and study of traits within genes for soybean improvements.

This study investigated possible involvement of photoperiodic regulation in reproductive endocrine system of female olive flounder. To investigate the influence on brain-pituitary axis in endocrine system by regulating photoperiod, compared expression level of Kisspeptin and sbGnRH mRNA in brain and FSH-β, LH-β and GH mRNA in pituitary before and after spawning. Photoperiod was treated natural photoperiod and long photoperiod (15L:9D) conditions from Aug. 2013 to Jun. 2014. Continuous long photoperiod treatment from Aug. (post-spawning phase) was inhibited gonadal development of female olive flounder. In natural photoperiod group, the Kiss2 expression level a significant declined in Mar. (spawning period). And also, FSH-β, LH-β and GH mRNA expression levels were increasing at this period. However, in long photoperiod group, hypothalamic Kiss2, FSH-β, LH-β and GH mRNA expression levels did not show any significant fluctuation. These results suggest that expression of hypothalamic Kiss2, GtH and GH in the pituitary would change in response to photoperiod and their possible involvement of photoperiodic regulation in reproductive endocrine system of the BPG axis.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced in organisms as the natural products of oxidative metabolism by environmental stress and pathogen invasion. ROS, such as superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide, can be toxic to cells and tissues to cause oxidative stress. Recent study revealed that olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) superoxide dismutase (SOD) has been identified as a partial gene and strongly induced to benzoin[a]pyrene and it was deduced indicator of aquatic oxidative stress responses, but its transcriptional response against viral infection has not been investigated. In the present study, spatial and temporal expression profile was analyzed to investigate the function of Of-SOD in the anti-viral response. Of-SOD transcripts were ubiquitously detected in diverse tissues with variable levels using a real-time PCR. The expression of Of-SOD was significantly higher in the muscle, liver and brain, but extremely low in the stomach and spleen. Following VHSV challenge, the expression of Of-SOD increased within 3 hours and subsequently decreased to the original level at 2 days post-challenge in kidney. Although expression pattern and induction time are slight differences depending on the tissue, the transcript of Of-SOD was consistently increased in acute infection response, but expression is low in the chronic response. Collectively, Of-SOD expressions were inducible after VHSV infection and they were probably involved in the immune response against viral challenge. These results suggest that SODs may play important roles in the immune defense system of P. olivaceus and perhaps contribute to the protective effects against oxidative stress in this flounder.

Molecular markers are useful for selecting to include superior character genetic like as strong immune system and rapid growth in fish. The marker is also very important part of breeding technology in Olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus). Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) marker is already in use widely for genomic research and breeding. But this SNPs marker hardly has been validated for screening functional genes in Olive flounder. We study identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on Expressed sequence tag (EST) database, develop usable SNP marker and apply to wild sample and cultured of olive flounder. As a result, Out of total 4.327 ESTs, 693contigs and 514 SNP from total contigs were detected while these substitutions include 297 transitions and 217 transversions. 144 developed markers were applied in 16 samples (wild 8, culture 8), Out of total marker, only 32 markers had detected polymorphic in sample. Polymorphism of 32 markers was observed in the variety genes region involved in immunity and protein synthesis. And the 32 marker were identified 21 transitions, 11 transversions, and indel was not detected in polymorphic SNPs. The analysis on heterozygosity by sample showed 0.34 in wild sample and 0.29 in cultured sample. In conclusion, we was identified SNP and Polymorphism by designed new marker, it supports that development marker is suitable for SNP detection and diversity analysis in Olive flounder. The outcome of this study can be basic data for researches for immunity gene and characteristic with SNP.

Effects of newly developed functional rice grains Goami (high-amylose rice) and Nokwon (green-kerneled rice) on the glucose metabolism and antioxidative defense system in C57BL/6N mice under high fat diet condition were investigated. Animals were randomly divided into five groups (n = 8) and given experimental diets for eight weeks: normal control diet (NC), high fat diet (HF), and high fat diet supplemented with white rice (HF-WR), Goami rice (HF-GR), and Nokwon rice (HF-NR). At the end of the experimental period, the HF group exhibited markedly higher blood glucose level, insulin concentration, plasma lipid peroxidation and lower hepatic glycogen concentration than that exhibited by NC group. However, diet supplementation of Goami and Nokwon suppressed the high fat diet-induced hyperglycemia and oxidative stress through inhibition of the glucose-regulating enzymes and enhancement of the antioxidant enzymes activities. The results illustrate that the new functional rice Goami and Nokwon may be useful in the development of functional foods with preventive effect against high fat diet-induced hyperglycemia and oxidative stress.

Olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) is one of the commercial important flatfish species in Korea. The ocular signal transduction pathway is important in newly hatched flounders because it is closely involved in the initial feeding phase thus essential for survival during the juvenile period. However, the study of gene expression during ocular development is incomplete in olive flounder. Therefore we examined the expression analysis of specifically induced genes during the development of the visual system in newly hatched flounders. We searched ocular development-involved gene in the database of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from olive flounder eye and this gene similar to arrestin with a partial sequence homology. Microscopic observation of retinal formation corresponded with the time of expression of the arrestin gene in the developmental stage. These results suggest that arrestin plays a vital role in the visual signal transduction pathway of the retina during ocular development. The expression of arrestin was strong in the ocular system during the entirety of the development stages. Our findings regarding arrestin have important implications with respect to its biological role and evolution of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling in olive flounder. Further studies are required on the GPCR-mediated signaling pathway and to decipher the functional role of arrestin.

Cathepsins are members of the multigene family of lysosomal cysteine proteinases and have regulated function in several life processes. The potential role of cathepsin F cysteine gene was expected as protease in the yolk processing mechanism during early developmental stage, but expression analysis was unknown after fertilization. The alignment analysis showed that amino acid sequence of cathepsin F from olive flounder liver expressed sequence tag (EST) homologous to cathepsin F of other known cathepsin F sequences with 87－98% identity. In this study, we examined the gene expression analysis of cathepsin F in various tissues at variety age flounder. Tissue distribution of the cathepsin F mRNA has been shown to be ubiquitous and constitutive pattern regardless of age in each group, although derived from cDNA library using liver sample. The mRNA level of cathepsin F more increased as developmental proceed during embryogenesis and early developmental stage, especially increased in the blastula, hatching stage and 3 days post hatching (dph). As a result, it may suggest that the proteolysis of yolk proteins (YPs) has been implicated as a mechanism for nutrient supply during early larval stages in olive flounder.

Olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) is a most important aquaculture species in Korea. Like most marine fishes, olive flounders are stomachless at first feeding and aquired gastric function during the metamorphosis, so food was mainly digested by pancreatic enzyme from first feeding to premetamorphosis. However, comprehensive analysis of pancreatic and gastric digestive enzyme of olive flounder at early developmental period is still unclear. In the expression study of pancreatic and gastric digestive enzyme by real-time PCR at early developmental stage, pancreatic enzyme such as chymotrypsinogen 2, preproelastase 2 and 4, pancreatic protein somatomedin-B domain (PPSB) mRNA expression were initiated at first feeding and strongly expressed in the pancreas developmental stage, while gastric digestive enzyme signal was not at all detected during same period. Although, trypsinogens were secreted from pancreas and have similar amino acid sequence, trypsinogen 3 expression induction was detected both pancreas and stomach developmental stage, while trypsinogen 2 expression was significantly increased only post-metamorphosis period. Pepsinogen mRNA expression was only detected at metamorphosis according to stomach differentiation. Lipid digestive enzyme, lipase and intestine fatty acid binding protein 1 (I-FABP 1), were already reached a certain level at beginning of hatching and more increased during early developmental stage and then gradually decreased before metamorphosis. These results suggested that feed ingestion of olive flounder was exclusive charged by pancreatic digestive enyme, lipid digestive enzyme and trypsinogen 3 from first feeding and then fully swiched by gastric digestive enzyme and trypsinogen 2 from metamorphosis period.

The use of agricultural by-products as alternative nutrient sources in crop production had gained popularity in order to reducing the rate of chemical fertilizer application in the field. This study was conducted to determine whether the application of rice milling by-products treated with yeast inoculants could substitute, or reduce the rate of chemical fertilizer application. The results of agronomic measurements showed that the effect of incorporated materials was not immediate, as compared to 100% chemical fertilizer application. However, grain yield and quality was either the same or greater than 100% chemical fertilizer application. It was found out that expanded rice hull (treated with yeast or not) could reduce the rate of applying chemical fertilizers by half. Also, yeast treatment was only favorable only to expanded rice hull and not with rice bran, and was already found to be a potential material in reducing chemical fertilizer application in rice production.

Peritonitis is a common, major complication in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients and tuberculous (TB) peritonitis has been reported to constitute 1-2% of all peritonitis cases. In CAPD patients, TB peritonitis is often diagnosed late and has a high mortality rate. In a recent recommendation made regarding the treatment of TB peritonitis, primary removal of a peritoneal dialysis catheter has been advised in addition to anti-TB drugs. Here, we describe two cases of TB peritonitis in CAPD patients successfully treated without peritoneal dialysis catheter removal.

The excessive and indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers in the past has brought serious soil and other environmental problems so alternatives over this agrochemical are being searched. Our study focuses on the effects of expanded rice hull inoculated with selected beneficial microorganisms on growth (through agronomic characters), yield and yield components, and grain quality indices of rice. Results showed that favorable effects of different expanded rice hull preparations were not readily apparent at vegetative stage and only treatments with supplemental chemical fertilizer application were comparable with the conventional practice. Expanded rice hull combined with 50% rate of chemical fertilizer exhibited a significantly higher yield (6,471 kg ha-1) over conventional practice (5,719 kg ha-1). Good milling quality indices were observed in treatments having 50% chemical fertilizers plus alternatives from expanded rice hull. Finally, we demonstrated that chemical fertilizer rate can potentially be reduced into 50% if combined with expanded rice hull, and show even better output than chemical fertilizer alone.

The amount of genetic variability of a species is essential for its survival and adaptation in different environments, and studies of genetic diversity using molecular markers are necessary to understand the genetic structure of a population and to orientate effective strategies of germplasm conservation. The aim of current study was to determine the SSR markers that can be used rapidly and reliably to evaluated the pepper of Bulgaria landraces, and applied the markers to assement of introduce genetic diversity of the pepper germplasm. We used 22 polymorphic microsatellite markers to analysis of genetic diversity within 61 pepper collection of Bulgaria landraces germplasm, all SSR primers pairs produced 80 polymorphic and reproducible amplification fragments. An average value of polymorphic information contents (PIC) were 0.334 with a range of 0.061 to 0.63. The mean values of observed (HO) and expected heterozygosity (HE) were 0.383 and 0.154, respectively, indicating a considerable amount of polymorphism within this collection. A genetic distance-based phylogeny grouped into three distinct groups, which was the landrace, moderate and wilde type, genetic distance (GD) value was 0.540. An average day of flowering time was 53 days with a range of 45 to 60 days. The everage od fruit length and width were 9.38cm with a range 2.1 to 23.6cm, and 3.51cm with a range 0.6 to 8.9cm, respectively. Molecular data were complemented with morphological measurements according to the descriptor list for the pepper collection of Bulgaria landraces germplasm.