ocust, Locusta migratoria (Orthoptera: Acrididae) is one of the outbreaking pests worldwide and such big occurrence was recorded in 2014, Korea, however little consideration was given to the management strategy of the pest. Herein we established a indoor locust-rearing system and constructed a locust-pathogenic fungal library to further facilitate the resources to be used as possible biological control agents. A locust colony was provided from the National Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology and reared in corn or barley plants at artificially manipulated rooms. The critical developmental stages, such as oviposition, hatching and mating were successfully proceeded. Entomopathogenic fungal granules were treated to the locust (2 g/rearing box), and in 5~7 days mycosis was observed in the membranous cuticles of head, abdomen and legs. In particular JEF-003 (Metarhizium anisopliae), JEF-186 (M. lepidiotae) and JEF-187 (Clonostachys rogersoniana) showed high virulence against the locust. A population of locust was exposed to the entomopathogenic fungal conidia-incorporated soil to investigate the possibility of the fungal isolation from natural soil, which resulted in the pathogenesis in 7~10 days in laboratory conditions. More than 80% of control efficacy was observed in the greenhouse trial of fungal granular application. This work suggests that locust rearing system was successfully established and entomopathogenic fungi can be used to control the migratory locust.

Entomopathogenic Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae are well-known biological control agents worldwide and have high potential in industrialization. However their thermo-susceptibility limits long-term storage under high temperature conditions and high insecticidal activity after application to target pests. Herein we isolated highly virulent isolates, B. bassiana JEF006 and JEF007 and M. anisopliae JEF003 and JEF004, and produced in three grains, such as sorghum, millet and Italian millet as substrates for solid cultures, followed by thermotolerance assays to compare the potential of the three substrates for thermotolerance. The JEF isolates were exposed to dry and wet heat at 50°C and overall conidia were more stable under dry heat condition rather than wet heat. Of the three grains, Italian millet was superior to the other grains in the production of thermotolerant conidia. Additionally Italian millet did not severely aggregated, which enabled air to penetrate into the substrate well compared to the sorghum and millet. JEF isolates were more thermotolerant when they were kept in oil conditions as carriers of an oil-based formulation. This work suggests that Italian millet can be used as an effective substrate to produce more thermotolerant conidia, thus maintaining viability for long times under unfavorable environment and biological activity against target pests.

The effects of seed soaking treatment with the solutions of plant growth regulators IAA, GA3 and BAP on seed germination and shoot and bulb growth of Allium victorialis var. platyphyllum (Korean wild garlic) were determined. A significant variation in the seed germination rate was recorded at all treatments for various soaking periods. Maximum seed germination was obtained when seeds were soaked in IAA or GA3 solution at 200 mg L-1. The MAP treated seeds started to germinate after 3 months. Among treatments, IAA was found to be most effective in improving seed germination, but further seedling growth was not correlated to the soaking time. Seed soaking in IAA or GA3 solution enhanced further growth of seedlings compared with water control treatment. Shoot and bulb growth was highest in GA3 treatments.

We investigated the insect community along altitudinal gradient to gather basic data for distributional monitoring of insect species in the forest ecosystem. The investigation area was Seon-gaksan (Mt.) in Jinan-gun, Jeollabuk-do province, where the bucket-light trap and pit-fall trap for quantification were installed in Quercus vegetation at altitude of 300m, 600m and 900m. The field collecting was performed on May, July and September 2013 respectively. ANOVA analysis was conducted to analyze the significance between insect species along altitude using the collected insect community data. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed statistically significant differences among ground-beetles and ants abundance with altitude as a response variable. Although we expected a distinct cluster with the difference of altitude at each study site, nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS) showed distinct clusters with the moth, ground-beetles, and ant assemblage at altitudinal increase and sampling month. In the result, a total of 309 species in 18 families of nocturnal moths were collected by bucket-light trap. The insects collected in pit-fall trap were ground-beetles with 196 individuals of 26 species and ants with 11,276 individuals of 14 species respectively.

Xylitol is a five-carbon sugar alcohol that inhibits the growth of oral streptococci, including Streptococcus mutans. In this study, we tested xylitol sensitivity among the oral streptococci. We also compared nucleotide homology of putative fructose phosphotransferase system (PTS) and xylitol sensitivity, since xylitol is transported via the fructose PTS. Among the tested Streptococci, S. pneumonia showed the highest resistance to xylitol while S. gordonii and S. sanguinis showed the most sensitive growth inhibition. These streptococci could be grouped according to their xylitol sensitivity. S. mutans and S. salivarius showed similar bacterial growth inhibition by xylitol. S. mitis, S. oralis, S. pneumonia, S. intermedius and S. anginosus showed relatively low sensitivity to xylitol. When the genetic homologies of five fructose PTSs were compared among the tested streptococci, closely related streptococci showed similar sensitivity to xylitol. Taken together, fructose PTSs may mediate the sensitivity to xylitol in oral streptococci.

Urbanization is one of the leading causes of habitat loss, habitat degradation, and fragmentation. Urban development negatively affects biodiversity. This study aimed to clarify the change of butterfly communities on effect of urbanization in urban green areas. Butterfly survey was conducted using the line transect methods from April to October in 2012. A total of 59 species and 1,465 individuals of butterflies were observed in four urban green areas: Namsan Park (NS), Ewha Womans University (EW), Bukseoul Dream Forest (BD), and Hongneung Forest (HF), and natural forest: Gwangneung Forest (GF). The category of land use around study site was determined based on GIS data. Species richness and abundance of niche breadth and habitat type in urban green areas differed significantly from those in GF. Estimated species richness and species diversity (H’) in four urban green areas were significantly lower than those in GF. Species richness and abundance of forest interior species and specialist were positively correlated with paddy, field, and forest, whereas those of forest interior species and specialist were negatively correlated with urban area and road. Butterfly communities in four urban green area differed from that in GF. The result suggests that the decrease of paddy, field, and forest associated with increase of urban area and road negatively influences species composition and changes butterfly communities.

To profile the proteome in porcine plasma, blood samples were collected from adult male barrows and those plasma were retrieved. For the depletion or pre-fractionation of high-abundance proteins, plasma samples were treated with commercial kits. Then, protein profiling was initiated using one and two-dimensional electrophoresis. Proteins were spotted and then identified by MALDI-TOF-TOF and LC-MS-MS. In the results, more than forty six proteins were identified and the reference map was constructed. The pre-treatment for the removal of high-abundance proteins caused the changes in 2-DE images and some of the proteins were newly uncovered after the most of high abundant proteins were removed. However, it is expected for further steps necessary to identify more low-abundance proteins that may contain potential bio-markers.

Here, we present an approach of blood plasma proteome profiling and their comparisons between the young and the adult pigs as prerequisite for the identification of bio-markers related to the health conditions, growth performance and meat quality. To profile the proteome in porcine plasma, blood samples were collected from 19 young piglets and 20 adult male barrows and the plasma was retrieved. Then, protein profiling was initiated using one and two-di-mensional electrophoresis. Proteins were spotted and then identified by MALDI-TOF-TOF and LC-MS-MS. In the re-sults, more than thirty-six and twenty eight protein spots were selected in young piglets and adult pigs, respectively and twenty three proteins were identified. The proteome profile images were compared between those ones using Image Master Version 7.0. The image of expressed proteome showed that most of proteins from plasma of young pig-let separated clearly and concentrated in 2DE display compared to ones from adult. Image analysis in detail was car-ried out to look for the specific proteins related to age progression. It demonstrated that the characteristics of proteome expression could be distinct to their age stages. Further investigations needed to proceed to understand the age de-pendent change of protein conformation and biological meaning of those differences in proteome expression between young and mature adult pigs.

Muscle satellite cell (SC) is responsible for postnatal muscle growth, repair, and regeneration. Satellite cell is an im-portant source of multi-potent stem cell process and differentiation into adipogenic, myogenic, and osteoblastogenic. The objective of this study was to identify alter of transcriptome during differentiation in porcine satellite cell and to elevated transcriptome at different stages of postnatal development to gain insight into the differences in differ-entiated PSC. We used RNA-seq technique to investigate the transcriptomes during differentiation in pig muscle. Sequence reads were obtained from Illumina HiSeq2000. Differentially expressed genes (DEG) were detected by EdgeR. Gene ontology (GO) terms are powerful tool for unification among representation genes or products. In study of GO biological terms, functional annotation clustering involved in cell cycle, apoptosis, extracellular matrix, phosphoryla- tion, proteolysis, and cell signaling in differences stage. Taken together, these results would be contributed to a better understanding of muscle biology and processes underlying differentiation. Our results suggest that the source of DEGs could be better understanding of the mechanism of muscle differentiation and transdifferentiation.

Satellite cells were derived from muscular tissue in postnatal pig. Satellite cell is an important to growth and development in animal tissues or organs. However, the progress underlying induced differentiation is not clear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the morphologic and the transcriptome changes in porcine satellite cell (PSC) treated with insulin, rosiglitazone, or dexamethasone respectively. PSC was obtained from postnatal muscle tissue. In study 1, for study the effect of insulin and FBS on the differentiated satellite cells, cells were cultured at absence or presence of insulin treated with FBS. Total RNA was extracted for determining the expression levels of myo-genic PAX3, PAX7, Myf5, MyoD, and myogenin genes by real-time PCR. Myogenic genes decreased expression levels of mRNA in treated with insulin. In study 2, in order to clarify the relationship between rosiglitazone and lipid in differentiated satellite cells, we further examined the effect of FBS on lipid accumulation in the presence or absence of the rosiglitazone and lipid. Significant differences were observed between rosiglitazone and lipid by FBS. The mRNA of FABP4 and PPARγ increased in rosiglitazone treatment. In study 3, we examined the effect of dexame-thasone on osteogenic differentiation in PSC. The mRNA was increased osteoblasotgenic ALP and ON genes treated with dexamethasone in 2% FBS. Dexamethasone induces osteoblastogenesis in differentiated PSC. Taken together, in differentiated PSCs, FABP4 and PPARγ increased to rosiglitazone. Whereas, no differences to FBS and lipid. These results were not comparable with previous reports. Our results suggest that adipogenic, myogenic, and osteoblasto-genic could be isolated from porcine skeletal muscle, and identify culture conditions which optimize proliferation and differentiation formation of PSC.

Muscular satellite cell (SC), which is stem cell of postnatal pig, is an important for study of differentiation into adipogenesis, myogenesis, and osteoblastogenesis. In this study, we isolated and examined from pig muscle tissue to determine capacity in proliferate, differentiate, and expression of various genes. Porcine satellite cells (PSC) were isolated from semimembranosus (SM) muscles of 90∼100 days old pigs according to standard conditions. The cell proliferation increased in multi-potent cell by Masson’s, oil red O, and Alizarin red staining respectively. We per-formed the expression levels of differentiation related genes using real-time PCR. We found that the differentiation into adipocyte increased expression levels of both fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) and peroxisome proliferator- acti-vated receptor gamma (PPARγ) genes (p<0.01). Myocyte increased the expression levels of the myosin heavy chain (MHC), myogenic factor 5 (Myf5), myogenic regulatory factor (MyoD), and Myogenic factor 4 (myogenin) (p<0.01). Osteo-blast increased the expression levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (p<0.01). Finally, porcine satellite cells were indu-ced to differentiate towards adipogenic, myogenic, and osteoblastogenic lineages. Our results suggest that muscle satellite cell in porcine may influence cell fate. Understanding the progression of PSC may lead to improved strat-egies for augmenting meat quality.

Insect cuticular melanization is regulated by the prophenoloxidase (proPO)- activating system, which is also involved in the innate immune reaction. Here, we demonstrate how the differentiation of the proPO-activating system is regulated toward a cuticular melanization or innate immunity function in silkworm (Bombyx mori) pupae. Our results indicate that the differential and spatial regulation of key components, such as the proPO-activating factor, tyrosine hydroxylase, and porPOs, primes the proPO-activating system for either cuticular melanization or innate immunity. This dual strategy for cuticular melanization in development and innate immunity upon infection demonstrates a two-pronged defense mechanism that is mediated by the priming of the proPO system.

Insect-derived Kazal-type serine protease inhibitors exhibit thrombin, elastase, plasmin, proteinase K, or subtilisin A inhibition activity, but so far, no functional roles for bee-derived Kazal-type serine protease inhibitors have been identified. In this study, a bee (Apis cerana) venom Kazal-type serine protease inhibitor (AcKTSPI) that acts as a microbial serine protease inhibitor was identified. AcKTSPI contained a single Kazal domain that displayed six conserved cysteine residues and a P1 threonine residue. AcKTSPI was expressed in the venom gland and was present as a 10-kDa peptide in bee venom. Recombinant AcKTSPI Kazal domain (AcKTSPI-Kd) expressed in baculovirus-infected insect cells demonstrated inhibitory activity against subtilisin A (Ki 67.03 nM) and proteinase K (Ki 91.53 nM), but not against α-chymotrypsin or typsin, which implies a role for AcKTSPI as a microbial serine protease inhibitor. However, AcKTSPI-Kd exhibited no detectable inhibitory effects on factor Xa, thrombin, tissue plasminogen activator, or elastase. Additionally, AcKTSPI-Kd bound directly to Bacillus subtilis, B. thuringiensis, Beauveria bassiana, and Fusarium graminearum but not to Escherichia coli. Consistent with these findings, AcKTSPI-Kd showed antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria and antifungal activity against both plant-pathogenic and entomopathogenic fungi. These findings constitute molecular evidence that AcKTSPI acts as an inhibitor of microbial serine proteases. This paper provides a novel view of the antimicrobial functions of a bee venom Kazal-type serine protease inhibitor.

The high quality contact between graphene and the metal electrode is a crucial factor in achieving the high performance of graphene transistors. However, there is not sufficient research about contact resistance reduction methods to improve the junction of metal-graphene. In this paper, we propose a new method to decrease the contact resistance between graphene and metal using directly grown graphene over a metal surface. The study found that the grown graphene over copper, as an intermediate layer between the copper and the transferred graphene, reduces contact resistance, and that the adhesion strength between graphene and metal becomes stronger. The results confirmed the contact resistance of the metal-graphene of the proposed structure is nearly half that of the conventional contact structure.

The performance of graphene-based electronic devices is critically affected by the quality of the graphene-metal contact. The understanding of graphene-metal is therefore critical for the successful development of graphene-based electronic devices, especially field-effect-transistors. Here, we provide a review of the peculiar properties of graphene-metal contacts, including work function pinning, the charge transport mechanism, the impact of the process on the contract resistance, and other factors.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a gram-positive bacterium that produces parasporal crystal proteins known as endotoxins or Cry proteins. The Cry protoxins are then cleaved by insect midgut proteinases to form active Bt toxins. The activated Cry protein then binds to specific receptors at the midgut epithelium. Cadherin-like and aminopeptidase N (APN) proteins are involved in Bt toxin binding by interacting sequentially with different toxin structures. Aminopeptidase N (APNs) from several insect species have been shown to be putative receptors for these toxins. We have characterized four different midgut APNs(APN1, APN2, APN3, APN4) cDNAs from S. exigua. Forward primers and reverse primers for confirmation of four different midgut APNs were designed based on their sequences cloned from the cDNA libraries. Quantitative RT-PCR procedures includes 42℃ for 20min (cDNA synthesis), 99℃ for 5min, and 35 cycles (94℃ for 1min, and 60℃ for 50 s) for collection. Four aminopeptidase N isoforms were confirmed with qRT-PCR. Sequence analysis was performed by BlastX search the National Center for Biotechnology Information(NCBI) nucleotide. Furthermore, double-stranded RNAs(dsRNAs) were synthesized. DsRNAs were determined for bioassay.