Cleft palates with or without cleft lip is one of the most common congenital craniofacial defects in dogs. It has been reported that monogenic autosomal recessive inheritance caused this defect in this species. However, here, we aimed to report cleft palate in a cloned dog. A fibroblast cell line was established from skin tissues of an eight-year-old German shepherd dog. Blood was collected from oocyte donor dogs, and serum progesterone concentration was measured by chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay method. Ovulation was determined when serum progesterone results reached 5-10 ng/ml, and in vivo matured oocytes were collected surgically about 72 hr after ovulation. Donor cells were cultured with Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium supplemented with 10% (v/v) fetal bovine serum until confluence. An in vivo matured oocyte was enucleated, and a donor cell was injected into the perivitelline space. The oocyte-cell couplet was electrically fused, and chemically activated. Reconstructed embryos were transferred to an oviduct of a recipient. Pregnancy diagnosis was performed 27 days after the embryo transfer, and ultrasonography of fetal heart beat, and rectal temperature and serum progesterone value of recipient was monitored until the day of delivery. Microsatellite analysis was performed using genomic DNA of cell donor, clones, and oocyte donors. As results, a total of 74 cloned embryos were transferred to five recipients, and one recipient diagnosed as pregnant with two fetuses by ultrasonography and radiology. Caesarean section was performed on day 58 after embryo transfer due to a decreased heart beat of a fetus, which was lower than 180. Two cloned puppies with 640g and 320g of birth weight were delivered safety, but the small one was born with a cleft palate. Microsatellite analysis results of both clones were identical with the cell donor. Cleft palate of the clone was surgically corrected on day 40 after birth. To our knowledge, there has been no report about cleft palate in cloned dogs, and also, no report about clones with different phenotype of cleft palate in dogs. Therefore, this study can give a clue of cleft palate in dogs, which might not be a genetic cause. Further studies about aberrant epigenetic reprogramming in those clones are needed.

Apple and pear are popular fruits consumed in Korea and are common fruit in daily diet. In order to compare the antioxidant activity of the apple and pear peels, total polyphenol contents, total flavonoid contents, ABTS+ free radical scavenging activity, and DPPH free radical scavenging activity were measured from hot water, ethanol, and methanol extracts of the two fruit peels. The total polyphenol and flavonoid contents were highest in 95% methanol extracts of the apple peelsand 70% ethanol extract of the pear peels, respectively. Total polyphenol contents of the pear peels were higher than that of apple peels, and total flavonoid contents of the apple peels were higher than that of pear peels. The apple and pear peels had the highest ABTS+· and DPPH free radical scavenging activity in 95% methanol extracts and 70% ethanol extracts, respectively. ABTS+· and DPPH free radical scavenging activity of pear peels was higher than that of apple peels, and the DPPH free radical scavenging activity of apple and pear peels were detected in hot water, 95% methanol, and 70% ethanol extracts, respectively. Ascorbic acid, a synthetic antioxidant used as positive control, had significantly higher scavenging activity than the apple and pear peels. In conclusion, the apple and pear peelshave great potential as natural antioxidants. Therefore, above results should be considered to provide the possibility for the development of high functional antioxidants.

This study is a basic study on the development of functional substances involved in obesity prevention, lipid metabolism, and immune regulation. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a high-fat diet for 10 weeks. Allium monanthum extracts (AME) were administered orally to obesity-induced rats, and their lipid-lowering, antioxidative and various types of biological effects related to the immune system were examined. Blood free fatty acid and triglyceride concentrations decreased as the dose of AME increased. Total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol concentrations in the blood decreased as the dose of AME increased. The total cholesterol concentrations in the liver of the AME-treated groups were lower than the control group. The thiobarbituric acid reactive concentrations were lower in the plasma and liver of all AME-treated groups than the control group. Plasma AST and ALT activities did not show any significant differences among the treatment groups. IL-1β and IL-6 concentrations in the liver tended to decrease as the dose of AME increased. TNF-α and IL-10 concentrations did now show any significant differences compared to the control group. Lower expression levels of TNF-α, Apo-B and Apo-E genes were found in the AME-treated groups. Taken together, these results indicate that AME may show positive effects in lipid lowering, antioxidation and anti-inflammation.

The effects of ovulation induction in ussurian bullhead, Leiocassis ussuriensis, were investigated by treating ussurian bullhead with hCG, LHRHa, GnRHa, ovaprim, and pimozide. hCG was injected to ussurian bullhead at 0.75% NaCl, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, and 30,000 IU, respectively. The ovulation inducement rates were 100% in 20,000 and 30,000 IU. Fertilization rates were 82.7% and 79.8%. Hatching rates were 59.4% and 57.2%. Ovulation time was between 16-19 hr The concentrations of LHRHa injected were 0.75 NaCl, 50, 100, 200, 300, and . The ovulation inducement rates were 100% in 300 and . Fertilization and hatching rates were 84.9% and 68.4% at . The times to ovulation were between 23 hr and 34 hr. Ovaprim of 0.75% NaCl, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 ml/kg were injected to the abdominal cavity. The ovulation inducement rate was highest at 2.0 and 3.0 ml/kg to 92% and ovulation time was between 27-38 hr. LHRHa concentrations of 0.75% NaCl, 50, 100, 200, 300 and were injected with pimozide (). Ovulation inducement rate was 100% from 200 to 400 IU with pimozide. Ovulation time was 22-36 h. Fertilization and hatching rates were 88.9% and 70.4% in with pimozide.

Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis) is one of the most important vegetables and widely cultivated in Asia countries including Korea and China. Recently, whole genome sequence and full-length cDNA information of this species became available, which are encouraging genetic studies of this species to characterize agricultural important traits. Orange-colored (Or) cultivar of Chinese cabbage has inner leaves in orange, whereas other cultivars generally cultivated have yellow (Ye)- or white-colored inner leaves. In this study, we investigated phenotypes and carotenoid biosynthesis genes related to color variation in the Or cultivar. Firstly we compared the carotenoid content and composition between the Or and Ye cultivars by HPLC analysis. The inner leaves of Or cultivar contained approximately 9-fold high β-carotene content, whereas content of both lutein and violaxanthin was decreased to less than 30%, compared to Ye cultivar. Or cultivar was segregated with ratio of 3:1 in F2 population derived from crossing between Or and Ye inbred lines, indicating that Or phenotype is controlled by single recessive gene. To identify this gene, we investigated the expression of several genes involved in carotenoid biosynthesis by RT-PCR analysis. Among genes tested, two encoding putative carotenoid isomerase (CRTISO) and phytoene desaturase (PDS) were identified to show different expression between Or and Ye cultivars. Through further analysis of genomic DNA regions of these two genes, we could expect that several mutations such as InDel and base-substitution occurred and then affected expression of these genes in Or cultivar. In this presentation, I will introduce more detailed results for Or cultivars.

Beta-carotene producing transformants were produced in the background of 'Nagdongbyeo', a Japonica rice cultivar. Introgression of the carotenoid locus in the transformant, PAC4-2 into the elite cultivar 'Ilpumbyeo' was started. To initiate a backcrossing program, we surveyed 220 SSR markers and found that 38% of them were polymorphic between 'Ilpumbyeo' as a recurrent parent and the PAC4-2 as a recipient parent. The selection strategy comprising foreground and background selection was employed. First, foreground selection was practiced in BC1, BC2, and BC3 generations using the transgene specific PCR-based marker in addition to visual scoring of the seed color. Marker-based background selection combined with phenotypic selection was employed from BC3F2 to BC3F4 generations. Blast search indicated that the transgene PAC4-2 was located between SSR markers, RM6 and RM482. 240 BC3F3 and 63 BC3F4 lines were evaluated for four agronomic traits including days to heading. Most of the lines were similar to Ilpumbyeo in agronomic traits evaluated. The percentage of PAC4-2 genome ranged from 4% to 21% with a mean of 12.5%, which was higher than the expected for an unselected BC3 backcross population. This could be explained by the fact that two genes for beta-carotene and the stripe virus resistance were targeted in this study. We selected 10 representative BC3F5 lines from 63 BC3F4 lines based on agronomic traits and carotenoids content. The selection strategy would be appropriate for the introgression of beta-carotene gene in a breeding program.