Background : Schizandra chinensis Baillon have five tastes and lately it is using a beverage broadly. Schizandra chinensis is one of the top producing medicinal plant in Korea. Mungyeong of Gyongbuk province produce almost of Schizandra chinensis. Maturity of Schizandra chinensis get 3 years and proliferation of Schizandra chinensis was not a manual. It is needed that a new cultivar has a big fruit and high quality chracteristics using processed food and beverage. Methods and Results : 105 lines of Schizandra chinensis were collected on Mungyeong, Yeongwol, Jinan. It were studied it’ characteristics especially it’s fruit trait. Fruit traits of Schizandra chinensis were researched on fruit length, fruit weight, maturity, number of fruit, male and female ratio, powdery mildew. Fruit length of Schizandra chinensis is relation of fruit weight. It were founded 15 lines of long fruit length. 5 lines were studied high fruit weight and it’s weight were 32 to 41g. Number of fruit has relation with fruit weight and high fruit weight gets many fruits. it’s numer of fruits were 3 to 41. Male and female ratio were very impotant characteristic. High level of female ratio has quantity of fruit. High level of female ratio were founded 2 lines. Finally It was selected 3 good breed lines of Schizandra chinensis. Conclusion : 105 lines of Schizandra chinensis Baillons were collected on Mungyeong, Yeongwol, Jinan. It were founded 15 lines of long fruit length and 5 lines were studied high fruit weight. High level of female ratio were founded 2 lines. 3 good breed lines of Schizandra chinensis were selected.

Background : The purpose of the present investigation is to enhance extracellular acidic protease production by subjecting a protease producing strain Cordyceps pruinosa DK-01 to random mutagenesis by UV irradiation after ethidium bromide treatment. Methods and Results : Mutants were screened as protease producers on the basis of zone of clearance and relative proteolytic activity (RPA) on skimmed milk agar plates. In addition, mutants showed strong pink-red color intensity and different RAPD profiling compared with wild type control. Four mutants were randomly selected and their extracellular enzyme activities were investigated. In liquid culture without casein, 2.2-, 2.9-, 5.2- and 4.4-fold higher acid protease activity was achieved from mutants DK-m9, -m11 and -m12, respectively, than that of wild type strain (11.13 ± 1.60 U/ml). In liquid culture with casein, 1.1-, 1.3-, 1.3 and 1.3-fold higher acid protease activity was achieved with those mutants were found to produce, respectively, than that of wild type strain (93.95 ± 12.84 U/ml). Maximum acid protease activity was noticed from a mutant DK-m11 in liquid culture with casein (121.18 U/ml) and without casein (57.65 U/ml). The extracellular acid protease produced from DJ-m11 that was active in the pH range 4.5-6.5 and optimum temperature for the activity was 37°C. Furthermore, we found a deformed, shorten structure of setae on the elytron surface of dynastid beetles treated with culture supernatant of the DK-m11. Conclusion : These findings have more impact on enzyme economy for biotechnological and insecticidal applications of fungal proteases.

Background : With the increasing demand of the mistletoe in larger quantities for cancer therapy, it has been depleted from its natural habitat in the Far East countries including Korea because of overharvesting for high-value products (e.g., lectins and viscotoxins). The rapid multiplication of mistletoe by tissue culture can help this problem and provide the benefits in the phamaceutical industry. Methods and Results : Mistletoe plants growing on oak trees were collected and their leaf and stem segments were inoculated on MS basal medium supplemented with various concentrations of growth regulators. Calli were induced only from stem explants on MS medium containing 2,4-D and transferred onto MS medium supplemented with various concentrations of 2,4-D, NAA and BAP, respectively, for their propagation. The best callus multiplication rate of more than 15 folds (759 mg) was obtained in treatment of 2,4-D (4 mg/L) that produced yellowish-green, white and friable callus on this medium. To compare biochemical characterization, lectins were partially purified from natural mistletoe plants (nML) and in vitro cultured mistletoe calli (cML), respectively. The former was purified by lactose-agarose affinity chromatography and the latter was done by ammonium sulfate precipitation followed Sephadex G-25 chromatography. Both nML and cML showed similar molecular weight on SDS-PAGE and Western blot analyses. In addition, they showed similar carbohydrate-binding specificities and hemagglutination activities. Conclusion : From the above results, we may suggest that nML and cML showed the similarity in biochemical characters.

Background : Lectins were individually isolated from natural Korean mistletoe (nML) and its in vitro cultured calli (cML). Both of the lectins showed the difference in bioactivities such as cytotoxicity and cytokine induction. Methods and Results : Target cells (1 x 104 cells/well) were seeded independently into each well of a 96-well culture plate and incubated with different concentrations of each lectin. Survivability of target cells was determined by CCK-8 kit (Sigma, USA) according to manufacturer’s directions. The nML showed 46, 34 and 5.5 times stronger than cML in cytotoxicity (IC50) to human melanoma cell line (SK-MEL-28), human carcinoma cell line (NCI-H1650) and murine macrophage (RAW 264.7), respectively. In addition, respective lectins directly stimulated macrophage RAW 264.7 but they showed the difference in enhanced productivity of some inflammatory cytokines. Compared with cML, the nML induced both TNF-α and IL-1β at its low concentration. Administration of two kinds of lectins (10-1000 μ g/kg body weight) to ICR mouse did not show any significant changes on the level of alanine transaminase (ALT), glutamate-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) in sera. Conclusion : From the above results, we may suggest that nML and cML showed differences in cytotoxic effects and cytokine production due to the difference in amounts from sources.

This study aimed to evaluate the role of D-dimer in terminal cancer patients. Among 343 incurable cancer patients, only 4 patients (2.8%) had normal D-dimer levels, and the majority (n=115, 81.0%) had levels >2.0 μg/mL. The survival time was significantly differed according to D-dimer levels with a median of 48 days when D-dimer levels were <2 μg/mL and 19 days when D-dimer levels were higher. D-dimer levels were negatively correlated with survival according to Spearman’s rank correlation analysis (coefficient -0.335, p<0.001). In terminal cancer patients, D-dimer concentrations did exhibit prog-nostic significance.

Tracheobronchial foreign body aspiration can cause serious health problems in individuals of all age groups and requires immediate diagnosis and intervention. Patients with psychiatric disorders can aspirate foreign objects that may pose a danger to their health. Herein, we report on a case of curtain clip aspiration in a 44-year-old man with mental retardation. Chest radiography and bronchoscopy showed a sharp, pointed, S-shaped curtain clip inversely lodged in his left main bronchus. The curtain clip was removed successfully using flexible bronchoscopy, and no complications were noted.

Cardiovascular system is the primary organ to develop and reach a functional state, which underscores the essential role of the vasculature in the developing embryo. The vasculature is a highly specialized organ that functions in a number of key physiological works including the carrying of oxygen and nutrients to tissues. It is closely involved in the formation of heart, and hence it is essential for survival during the hatching period. The expression of genes involved during vascular development in the olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) in the days after hatching is not fully understood. Therefore, we examined the expression patterns of genes activated during the development of flounder. Microscopic observations showed that formation of blood vessels is related to the expression of the vimentin gene. Also, the temporal expression patterns of this vimentin-like gene in the developmental stages and in the normal tissues of olive flounder. The purpose of this study was to examine the expression patterns of vimentin in normal tissues of the olive flounder and during the development of the vascular system in newly hatched olive flounders and HIF-1 plays a vital role in the formation of blood vessels during development. Vimentin expression was strong at the beginning of the development of blood vessels, and was present throughout all developmental stages. Our findings have important implications with respect to the roles of vimentin and HIF-1 in the development and evolution of the first blood vessels in olive flounder. Further studies are required to elucidate the vimentin-mediated hypoxic response signal transduction and to decipher the functional role of vimentin in developmental stages.

Fish larvae are immediately exposed to microbes from hatching to maturation of their lymphoid organs, therefore effective innate mechanisms is very important for survival. However, the knowledge of the development of immune system in fish is limited and in demand now. In vertebrates, recombination-activating gene 1 (RAG-1) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) have been considered as very useful markers of the physiological maturity of the immune system. In this study, the expression of the both genes was assessed throughout the early developmental stages of olive flounder larvae (5-55 dph) and used as markers to follow the development of immune system. RAG-1 and IgM mRNA expression was detectable at 5 dph and remained so until 55 dph. These patterns of expression may suggest that the olive flounder start to develop its function around 5 dph. Tissue distribution was found that both genes mRNAs are only expressed in the immune-related organ such as spleen, kidney and gill. The early detection of IgM mRNA led to the investigation of its presence in oocytes. Both RAG-1 and IgM mRNA transcripts were detected in unfertilized oocytes, suggesting that they are maternally transferred. The biological significance of such a phenomenon remains to be investigated.

Arabidopsis Fused kinase TWO-IN-ONE (TIO) controls phragmoplast expansion and interacts with the Kinesin-12 subfamily proteins that anchor the plus ends of interdigitating microtubules (MTs) in the phragmoplast midzone. Previous analyses of loss-of-function mutants and RNA interference lines revealed that TIO positively controls both somatic and gametophytic cell cytokinesis, however, knowledge of the full spectrum of TIO functions during plant development remains incomplete. In order to further characterize TIO functions, we expressed TIO and a range of TIO variants under control of its own promoter in wild type Arabidopsis plants. We discovered that TIO-overexpressing transgenic lines produce enlarged pollen grains, arising from incomplete cytokinesis during male meiosis, and showed sporophytic abnormalities indicating polyploidy. These phenotypes arose independently in TIO variants that abolished either gametophytic function or the ability of TIO to interact with Kinesin-12 subfamily proteins. Interaction assays in yeast showed TIO to bind to AtNACK2/TETRASPORE and plants doubly homozygous for kinesin-12a and kinesin-12b knockout mutations to produce enlarged pollen grains. Our results show that TIO dominantly inhibits male meiotic cytokinesis in a dosage dependent manner that may involve direct binding to acomponent of the canonical NACK-PQR cytokinesis signaling pathway.

Olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus is one of the most widely cultured fish species in Korea. Although olive flounder receive attention from aquaculture and fisheries and extensive research has been conducted eye morphological change in metamorphosis, but little information was known to molecular mechanism and gene expression of eye development- related genes during the early part of eye formation period. For the reason of eyesight is the most important sense in flounder larvae to search prey, the screening and identification of expressed genes in the eye will provide useful insight into the molecular regulation mechanism of eye development in olive flounder. Through the search of an olive flounder DNA database of expressed sequence tags (EST), we found a partial sequence that was similar to crystallin beta A1 and gamma S. Microscopic observation of retinal formation correspond with the time of expression of the crystallin beta A1 and gamma S gene in the developmental stage, these result suggesting that beta A1 and gamma S play a vital role in the remodeling of the retina during eye development. The expression of crystallin beta A1 and gamma S were obviously strong in eye at all tested developing stage, it is also hypothesized that crystallin acts as a molecular chaperone to prevent protein aggregation during maturation and aging in the eye.

Totally, 26 collections, 17 from Korea and 9 from China, were investigated for their sequences of 5S rDNA, especially the non-transcribed spacers (NTSs). Sequences of 5S rDNA were isolated by PCR using the primers, 5s-rRNA1 and 5s-rRNA2. Genomic DNA PCR produced single amplification of 300, 330, or 350 base pair fragments. Sequence analysis revealed that all inserts contained the part of 5S rDNA gene sequence and the full length of the NTS region. Three different sizes of the fragments were confirmed due to different size of NTS and their length were 300bp, 330bp and 350bp, respectively. Among 17 Korean foxtail millets tested, 14 collections showed single 300bp amplification. Longest fragment amplification, 350bp, was obtained only from the foxtail millet from China origin, even though 2 of them include 300bp fragment. CLUSTALW multiple alignments of 26 foxtail millets clearly revealed 4 areas with certain degree of sequence heterogeneity (region I, II, III, IV). Among 4 boxed areas, foxtail millet genotypes from China have distinct insertion especially in region III. Five of them have extra insertion of sequence and their additional sequences were either 45 or 48 base pair. Three Korean foxtail millets have 32 bp insertion. Other 8 Korean collections have short insert sequences (6 to 8 bp), 3 with 8 bp and 5 with 6 bp. In addition to insert, deletion sequences were also confirmed as major deletion was observed in region II of Chinese collection. The size of deletion was 7 bp long. According to phylogenic tree constructed using MEGA4 program, clear grouping was not revealed. To obtain more convincing results various collections from many countries should be obtained and analyzed to distinguish different germplasm from different origin.

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and fertility restoration have been utilized as valuable tools for F_1-hybrid seed production in many crops despite laborious breeding processes. Molecular markers for the selection of CMS-related genes help reduce the expenses and breeding times. A previously reported genomic region containing the Ppr-B gene, which is responsible for restoration of fertility and corresponds to the Rfo locus, was used to develop gene-based or so-called "functional" markers for allelic selection of the restorer-of-fertility gene (Rfo) in F_1-hybrid breeding of radish (Raphanus sativus L.) Polymorphic sequences among Rfo alleles of diverse breeding lines of radish were examined by sequencing the Ppr-B alleles. However, presence of Ppr-B homolog, designated as Ppr-D, interferes on specific PCR amplification of Ppr-B in certain breeding lines. The organization of Ppr-D, resolved by genome walking, revealed extended homology with Ppr-B even in the promoter region. Interestingly, PCR amplification of Ppr-D was repeatedly unsuccessful in certain breeding lines implying the lack of Ppr-D in these radishes. Ppr-B could only be successfully amplified for analysis through designing primers based on the sequences unique to Ppr-B that exclude interference from Ppr-D gene. Four variants of Rfo alleles were identified from 20 breeding lines. A combination of three molecular markers was developed in order to genotype the Rfo locus based on polymorphisms among four different variants. These markers will be useful in facilitating F_1-hybrid cultivar development in radish.