RNA interference (RNAi) has been considered as an alternative strategy to control agricultural pest whereby double-stranded RNA triggers a potent and specific inhibition of its homologous mRNA. Since small dsRNAs are required for various RNAi applications, there is a need for cost-effective methods for producing large quantities of high-quality dsRNA. In this study, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) based dsRNA production platform was established under control of sporulation-dependent promoter and vp1 gene of Sacbrood virus (SBV) was introduced. The dsRNA against vp1 gene produced from the Bt suppressed the replication of SBV. In addition, the dsRNA was assembled into inulin coated-nanoparticle to increase stability of dsRNA in environment.

본 조사는 채집방법에 따른 곤충군집을 비교하기 위해 공검지 습지보호지역 내에서 쓸어잡기, 함정트랩, 버킷트랩 세 가지 방법을 이용하였다. 조사 시기는 5월 15~16일, 8월 3~4일, 11월 6~7일 총 3회 실시하였으며, 조사는 보호지역 중심부에서 실시하였다. 본 연구결과 세 방법으로 총 7목 51과 110속 120종 14,717개체가 채집되었다. 채집방법별로 쓸어잡기에서 4목 25과 36속 37종 331개체, 함정트랩에서 3목 12과 18속 19종 30개체, 버킷트랩에서 6목, 38과 76속, 84종, 14,121개체가 조사되었다. 군집 분석결과 다양도 지수는 쓸어잡기가 3.63으로 가장 높게 나타났으며 풍부도 지수는 버킷트랩이 8.69로 가장 높게 나타났다. 유사도 지수는 세 방법이 서로 0.2이하로 매우 낮았다.

Streptomyces has been reported to produce various secondary metabolites which have the potential to become environmentally safe insecticides. In this study, 1,274 streptomyces culture filtrates were screened for their JHAN activity in order to identify novel insecticidal compounds. 34 isolates with high levels of JHAN activity were selected, and their insecticidal activities were tested against Plutella xylostella larvae. Among them, IMBL-263 which was revealed to be Streptomyces anulatus by 16s rRNA sequencing showed the highest insecticidal activity. Also, systemic activities of secondary metabolites extracted from the S. anulatus on plant, Brassica napus, were investigated. These results suggested that secondary metabolites from the S. anulatus might be useful for development of novel environmentally benign insecticides.

Beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, is known to be hard-to-kill pest by having high resistance to insecticides and its control is intensely dependent on fewer insecticides. In this study, the ethyl acetate extract of Streptomyces sp. was evaluated to find novel insecticidal agents against S. exigua. In order to determine the identity of insecticidal compounds, the crude ethyl acetate extract was fractionated based on the TLC profiling and bioassay-guided monitoring. These results indicated that the non-polar fraction have high level of insecticidal activity against second instars of S. exigua. These findings suggested that secondary metabolites produced by Streptomyces sp. could be considerable potential resources as novel insecticidal formulation candidates.

The development of entomopathogenic fungi has received increasing interest as part of integrated pest management strategies as biocontrol agents. It is reasonable to assume that entomopathogenic fungi might produce secondary metabolites modulating juvenile hormone for their survival against defense mechanisms of host insects. In this study, acetone extracts of 189 entomopathogenic fungi cultured on unpolished rice medium were screened for their juvenile hormone antagonist (JHAN) activities using the yeast-two hybrid system. Among 14 extracts showing JHAN activities, extract of the F-145 showed high level of insecticidal activities against both Plutella xylostella and Aedes albopictus. This isolate was identified as Lecanicillium attenuatum. These results suggested that the Lecanicillium attenuatum could be useful for development of eco-friendly insecticides.

농학(농업곤충)과 공중위생학(위생곤충) 뿐만 아니라 최근 기초생명과학 분야에서 중요하게 여겨지는 곤충학 전공은 분류학, 생태학, 생리학, 독성학, 생명공학 등을 아우르는 종합 응용학문이라 판단된다. 이러한 다양한 연구 분야를 포함하는 곤충학 전공 학생들의 장래 직업선택에 있어서도 다양한 선택지가 있을 것이다. 대학원생에게 진로 선택은 크게 수학의 연장과 취업으로 구분될 수 있다. 수학 연장의 경우에는 국내 및 외국으로의 박사과정 혹은 박사후과정으로의 진학이 가능하며, 취업의 경우에는 공공분야(국가 연구소), 기업 및 대학 연구원으로의 지원이 가능할 것이다. 특히 박사학위 취득 후에는 추가로 교수직 지원 또한 가능하게 된다. 성공적인 진학 또는 취업을 위한 정보의 획득과 전략의 수립은 각각의 진로 방향성에 맞게 특화되어야 할 것으로 판단되며, 본 심포지엄에서 는 공공기관, 기업, 해외 및 국내교수직에 종사하고 있는 여러 선배 곤충학자들을 통해 그들의 경험과 정보를 공유하고, 성공적인 취업 준비에 대한 논의를 하고자 한다. 뿐만 아니라 해외 박사과정 및 박사후과정을 마친 선배들을 통해 해외로의 진학을 위한 구체적 정보, 일정 및 전락에 대해서도 논의하고자 한다.

Insect growth regulators (IGRs) are insecticides that disrupt the normal development of target insects. Among the IGR insecticides, juvenile hormone (JH)-related IGRs are of particular interest because they stimulate or interfere with the formation of JH receptor complex. In the precious studies, novel JH-related IGRs with JH agonist (JHA) and antagonist (JHAN) activity were identified by using yeast two-hybrid system transformed with the Aedes aegypti JH receptor complex. In this study, the transcriptomic responses of Aedes albopictus were investigated upon JHA and JHAN, respectively. These results will provide important information about understanding of impact of JH-related IGRs in transcription level.

Haemaphysalis longicornis (Acari: Ixodidae) is a medically important arthropod vector of tick-borne diseases, especially the severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS). To establish a management strategy against tick-borne diseases, it is fundamental to understand the basic biology of vector species. Therefore under laboratory conditions, we evaluated the horizontal movement of adult and nymph stages of H. longicornis to better understand their dispersal behaviors. In the experiments, field populations were subjected to video recording of the horizontal movement of the ticks in a petri-dish arena for 3 hours. Our results indicate that nymphs showed a significantly higher mobility than adults, whereas there was no significant difference in angular velocity. Nymphs moved 3.74 ± 0.26 m at an angular velocity (AV) of 1.60 ± 0.07 deg/s. and adults moved 2.91 ± 0.26 m at an AV of 1.61 ± 0.14 deg/s.

In order to identify key nations and bird species of conservation concern we described multinational collaborations as defined using network analysis linked by birds that are found in all nations in the network. We used network analysis to assess the patterns in bird occurrence for 10,422 bird inventories from 244 countries and territories. Nations that are important in multinational collaborations for bird conservation were assessed using the centrality measures, closeness and betweenness centrality. Countries important for the multinational collaboration of bird conservation were examined based on their centrality measures, which included closeness and betweenness centralities. Comparatively, the co-occurrence network was divided into four groups that reveal different biogeographical structures. A group with higher closeness centrality included countries in southern Africa and had the potential to affect species in many other countries. Birds in countries in Asia, Australia and the South Pacific that are important to the cohesiveness of the global network had a higher score of betweenness centrality. Countries that had higher numbers of bird species and more extensively distributed bird species had higher centrality scores; in these countries, birds may act as excellent indicators of trends in the co-occurrence bird network. For effective bird conservation in the world, much stronger coordination among countries is required. Bird co-occurrence patterns can provide a suitable and powerful framework for understanding the complexity of co-occurrence patterns and consequences for multinational collaborations on bird conservation.

방울토마토의 수경재배 중 붕소+칼슘+규소 및 칼슘+규소의 복합 엽면시비가 수확 후 품질과 MAP 저장 중 저장성에 미치는 영향을 알아보고자 본 연구를 실시하였다. 엽면시비한 방울 토마토(‘Unicorn’)는 반숙 과상태에서 수확하여 산소투과성 필름으로 포장한 5oC, 11oC, 그리고 24oC에서 25일, 15일, 10일간 저장하였다. 붕소+칼슘+규소 복합처리한 방울토마토가 3가지 저장온도 모두에서 호흡과 에틸렌 발생이 억제되어 MAP 저장중 가장 낮은 생체중 감소와 가장 높은 외관상 품질을 보였다. 수확 후 조사한 방울토마토의 경도, 산도, 비타민 C 함량은 붕소+칼슘+규소 복합처리에서 가장 높았으며, 3가지 온도 모두에서 MAP 저장 후에도 모두 높게 유지되었다. 그러나 과피색, 라이코펜 함량과 당도는 수확 후에는 엽면시비 처리로 차이가 없었으나, 3가지 온도 모두 붕소+칼슘+규소 복합처리에서 가장 낮은 수치를 보였다. 이상의 결과로 볼 때 붕소+칼슘+규소 복합처리는 방울토마토의 수확후 생리 작용을 억제하고 경도, 산도, 비타민 C 함량을 높여 저장성을 향상시키는 것으로 판단되었다

We have surveyed the current status of insect pollinator use for horticultural crops in 2016. The use rate and farmnumber of insect pollinators for 26 horticultural crops were 25.8% and 55,208, respectively. The colony number of insectpollinators used in this survey was 479,777, which include 344,690 for honeybees, 119,104 for bumblebees, 2,415 formason bees, 1,317 for flies, and 2,415 for the combination of bumblebees, honeybees, and mason bees. The use rateof insect pollinators was 59.4% for 11 vegetable crops and the colony number of insect pollinators used for 11 vegetablecrops was 449,287. The colony number of insect pollinators used for 15 fruit tree crops was 30,290, which include honeybees(66.3%), bumblebees (20.2%), mason bees (8.0%), flies (1.6%), and the combination (3.9%) of bumblebees, honeybees,and mason bees. Together, farms of 98% showed positive effect for the use of insect pollinators and most of farms (97.0%)planed for the continuous use of insect pollinators

The small brown planthopper (SBPH), Laodelphax striatellus, is one of the most serious pest insects of rice plants.Buprofezin has been used to control SBPH for more than a decade, however, the occurrence of buprofezin resistant SBPHwas reported recently. To develop an alternative pest control an alternative pest control strategy, RNA-seq of buprofezin-treatedSBPH was performed to screen the insecticidal target genes for RNA interference (RNAi). Six genes were selected fordsRNA synthesis, and applied to SBPH to assess the insecticidal efficacy. Two and three of those dsRNAs showed moderatedand substantial insecticidal activity up to 60% of mortality in one week, respectively. These results demonstrated the potentialof gene screening strategy for the development of RNAi-based pest management program.