The Acoptolabrus changeonleei Ishikawa et Kim, 1983 (Coleoptera: Carabidae), has been listed as an endangered insect in South Korea. The complete mitochondrial genome of the species was 16,831 bp with a typical set of genes (13 protein-coding genes [PCGs], 2 rRNA genes, and 22 tRNA genes) and one non-coding region, with the arrangement identical to that observed in most insect genomes. Phylogenetic analyses with concatenated sequences of the 13 PCGs and 2 rRNA genes, using the Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum-likelihood (ML) methods, placed A. changeonleei as a sister to the within-subfamilial species Damaster mirabilissimus in Carabinae, with the highest nodal support by both analyses.

Previously, a partial mitochondrial COI and CytB gene sequences have been used to infer genetic diversity and gene flow of the species. In this study, we additionally collected C. tripartitus from one previous and two new localities, sequenced the COI and CytB genes. Sequence divergence of current samples showed slightly lower values, but nearly equivalent to previous study. Haplotype diversity was still high and nucleotide diversity indicating that Seogwi-dong showed the highest estimates in both gene sequences. Gene flow among populations is high, but a significance difference was detected between Gulupdo and Anmado; and between Gulupdo and Seogwi-dong only in COI sequences (P < 0.05). Considering the high genetic diversity and gene flow in C. tripartitus populations, one of the major issues regarding conservation seems not to be the recovery of genetic diversity as has been suggested before.

수출 시 절화 장미의 재배 및 공선단계의 관행 기술을 개선하고자 수출 절화 장미 ‘Beast’와 ‘Cappucino’의 관행 관리 실태를 조사하였다. 일본으로 장미를 수출하는 파주시와 전주시의 재배농가 농가와 공선장 내 채화와 선별 시 사용하는 관리도구의 청결수준을 조사한 결과, 채화가위, 길이 선별 가위와 장갑과 선별대, 포장 시 사용하는 장갑과 선별대에서 300CFU･mL-1이상의 박테리아수가 검출되었다. 파주시 재배 농가 저온고 내 절화가 담긴 저장수는 2.8×105CFU･mL-1로 박테리아가 검출되었으며, Chrysal RVB clear intensive(Chrysal, Netherlands, 1%)를 사용하는 전주시 농가의 저장수에서는 4.7×105CFU･mL-1로 검출되었다. 파주시 공선장의 수출박스내 박테리아수는 후처리제(Al2O3, pH 4.5)를 사용함에도 불구하고 2.7ⅹ104CFU･mL-1이었다. 한편 파주시 재배농가에서 포장을 마친 국내 생산수출용 ‘Beast’와 ‘Beast’의 가공장미인 매직로즈의 절화보존제(Florallife-Clear200, Oasisfloral, Japan) 유무에 따른 절화수명 연장 효과를 알아보고자 실험한 결과, ‘Beast’의 경우 절화보존제 처리구의 절화수명은 TW에 비해 3일 절화수명을 연장시킬 수 있었다. 반면 매직로즈의 절화수명은 TW와 절화보존제처리 간 유의적 차이가 없었다. 이때 보존용액 내 박테리아수는 ‘Beast’의 경우 TW와 절화보존제 처리구에서 각각 8.1×104, 2.0×103CFU･mL-1이었으며, 매직로즈의 경우 9.9×104, 1.0×103CFU･mL-1이었다. ‘Cappuccino’를 이용하여 국내용 선별 단계(건식운송)와 수출단계(습식운송)를 마친 절화의 절화수명을 조사한 결과, 국내유통용의 절화수명은 8일인 반면 수출용은 12일로, 습식운송했던 수출용 절화가 건식운송한 국내유통용절화보다 4일 길었다. 이에 따른 절화수명종료 현상은 국내유통용처리에서는 꽃목굽음(bent neck)과 꽃잎 탈리 현상이 각각 50%로 나타났고, 수출용처리구에서는 꽃잎탈리는 72.7%, 꽃목굽음은 18.2%이 나타났으며, 국내유통용처리에서 나타나지 않았던 잿빛곰팡이병이 9.1%로 나타났다.

This research was conducted to find the indigenous diatom species unrecorded in Korea from February to December 2016. The samples were taken at 28 sites of the coastal regions on the west coast of Korea and Jeju Island. Diatoms were collected mostly from sand and mud of tidal flats, including gravel, seaweed on the bottom and macrophytes floating in the seawater. Diatom specimens were observed by means of light and scanning electron microscopy. Twenty one species were discovered and added as new specimens to the Korean diatom flora, which are divided into 9 orders, 12 families, and 16 genera. The list and photographs of the species are included with the description of the morphological characteristics and distribution in Korea.

Bee venom contains a variety of peptide constituents, including low-molecular-weight protease inhibitors. While the putativelow-molecular-weight serine protease inhibitor Api m 6 containing a trypsin inhibitor-like cysteine-rich domain was identifiedfrom honeybee (Apis mellifera) venom, no anti-fibrinolytic or anti-microbial roles for this inhibitor have been elucidated.In this study, we identified an Asiatic honeybee (A. cerana) venom serine protease inhibitor (AcVSPI) that was shownto act as a microbial serine protease inhibitor and plasmin inhibitor. AcVSPI was found to consist of a trypsin inhibitor-likedomain that displays ten cysteine residues. Interestingly, the AcVSPI peptide sequence exhibited high similarity to the putativelow-molecular-weight serine protease inhibitor Api m 6, which suggests that AcVSPI is an allergen Api m 6-like peptide.Recombinant AcVSPI was expressed in baculovirus-infected insect cells, and it demonstrated inhibitory activity against trypsin,but not chymotrypsin. Additionally, AcVSPI has inhibitory effects against plasmin and microbial serine proteases; however,it does not have any detectable inhibitory effects on thrombin or elastase. Consistent with these inhibitory effects, AcVSPIinhibited the plasmin-mediated degradation of fibrin to fibrin degradation products. AcVSPI also bound to bacterial andfungal surfaces and exhibited anti-microbial activity against fungi as well as gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Thesefindings demonstrate the anti-fibrinolytic and anti-microbial roles of AcVSPI as a serine protease inhibitor.

Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) are important protein components of bee royal jelly (RJ) and exhibit various biologicaland pharmacological activities. The antimicrobial activities of royalisins and the jelleines contained within MRJP 1 andMRJP 2 in RJ have been elucidated. However, the antimicrobial effects of other bee RJ MRJPs remain largely unknown.In this study, we demonstrated that the Asiatic honeybee (Apis cerana) MRJP 4 (AcMRJP4) exhibits antimicrobial activitiesagainst bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Recombinant AcMRJP4 was expressed as a 63-kDa protein in baculovirus-infected insectcells. However, some of the recombinant AcMRJP4 proteins were cleaved into two fragments (i.e., 48-kDa (AcMRJP4-48)and 15-kDa (AcMRJP4-15) proteins) by the proteolytic cleavage of the C-terminus of the recombinant AcMRJP4. Interestingly,AcMRJP4, AcMRJP4-48, and AcMRJP4-15 exhibited antimicrobial activities, with AcMRJP4-15 exhibiting the highestantimicrobial activity, followed by AcMRJP4. AcMRJP4-15, which is a hydrophilic peptide with 88 amino acid residuesthat contains a high content of Asn and positively charged amino acids, induced structural damage in the cell walls ofthe assayed bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Altogether, our data demonstrated that AcMRJP4 functions as an antimicrobial agent.

By definition, endosymbionts reside in the hosts' cells and are maternally inheritted to offspring as the mitochondriondoes. Recent progresses reveal that some endosymbionts have evolved their manipulabilities of hosts' reproduction. Inthis nature, once an endosymbiont shares its host with others, their association may last long unless their evolutionaryinterest or hosts' fitness is undermined.We tested whether the association existed among the endosymbionts; Wolbachia, Spiroplasma, Cardinium and Rickettsia.The results show that there are some multiple infection cases but there is no obvious pattern in their association.

Bryopsis africana and Pyropia kinositae are reported for the first time on the list of Korean marine algal flora based on integrated morphological-molecular study. Bryopsis africana from Korea is recognized with distinct main axes, robust thalli, pinnately and radially branched above, and basally denuded. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that B. africana was placed within a clade of Bryopsis. Bryopsis africana differs from B. corymbosa by 2.7% gene sequence divergence. Pyropia kinositae is characterized by oblong to lanceolate thalli, entire margin, purplish red in color, twice as long as broad cells in transversal section view. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that P. kinositae was placed within a clade of Pyropia. Pyropia kinositae differs from P. tenera by 1.5-1.8%, P. ishigecola by 1.2-1.3%, and P. yezoensis by 1.5-1.8% gene sequence divergence respectively.

Detailed morphological studies and molecular analyses based on plastid-encoded rbcL gene sequences were undertaken on Peyssonnelia species, a poorly known genus from Korea. We report new records for the Korean coast, Peyssonnelia harveyana and P. rumoiana. Peyssonnelia harveyana is chiefly characterized by P. rubra-type anatomy, closely packed perithallial filaments in firm matrix, hypothallial filaments arranged in parallel rows, thalli with appressed margins, hypobasal calcification, and unicellular rhizoids. Peyssonnelia rumoiana is principally characterized by two vegetative features, hypothallial filaments arranged in a polyflabellate layer, and perithallial filaments arising from the whole upper surface of each hypothallial cell (Peyssonnelia rubra-type anatomy). Our rbcL analyses revealed that P. harveynana and P. rumoiana were placed within a clade of Peyssonnelia. We also propose the new combination, Sonderophycus cauliferus comb. nov., for previous Peyssonnelia caulifera. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that our S. cauliferus was placed within a clade of Sonderophycus.

Xenotransplantation is proposed as a solution to the problem of organ shortage. However, transplantation of xenogeneic organs induces an antigen-antibody reaction in α-1,3-gal structure that are not present in humans and primates, and thus complement is also activated and organs die within minutes or hours. In this study, we used FasL gene, which is involved in the immune response of NK cell, and US11, which suppresses MHC Class I cell membrane surface expression, to inhibit cell mediated rejection in the interspecific immunity rejection, and also hDAF(CD55) was introduced to confirm the response to C3 complement. These genes were tranfeced into Korean native pig fetal fibroblasts using pCAGGS vector. And cytotoxicity of NK cell and human complement was confirmed in each cell line. The US11 inhibited the cytotoxicity of NK cell and, in addition, the simultaneous expression of US11 and Fas ligand showed excellent suppress to T-lymphocyte cytotoxicity, hDAF showed weak resistance to cytotoxicity of natural killer cell but not in CD8+ CTLs. Cytotoxicity study with human complement showed that hDAF was effective for reducing complement reaction. In this studies have demonstrated that each gene is effective in reducing immune rejection.

We performed temperature dependent current-voltage (I-V) measurements to characterize the electrical properties of Au/Al2O3/n-Ge metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) diodes prepared with and without H2O prepulse treatment by atomic layer deposition (ALD). By considering the thickness of the Al2O3 interlayer, the barrier height for the treated sample was found to be 0.61 eV, similar to those of Au/n-Ge Schottky diodes. The thermionic emission (TE) model with barrier inhomogeneity explained the final state of the treated sample well. Compared to the untreated sample, the treated sample was found to have improved diode characteristics for both forward and reverse bias conditions. These results were associated with the reduction of charge trapping and interface states near the Ge/Al2O3 interface.

Embryo development is very important in reproductive physiology of domestic animal experiments. Therefore, in the above experiment, we want to provide a lot of important information with regard to fertilization breeding by looking at the expression of transcription factor by early embryo development. It is known that mice affect early embryonic development of many transcription factors, many experiments are underway. Different types of mammals showed different expression patterns, thus, we used pigs, which are known to be the most similar to humans, to observe the expression of transcription factors in early embryonic development. Transcription factors were observed using CDX2, OCT4 and E-CADHERIN. CDX2 was expressed in 2 cells, OCT4 and E-CADHERIN were expressed in blastocyst. OCT4 was expressed specifically in ICM (inner cell mass) in blastocyst, and E-CADHERIN was expressed in cell wall and junction of blastocyst. These results show that CDX2, OCT4 and E-CADHERIN play an important role in early embryonic development in pigs.

Porcine litter size is a quantitative trait and its heritability is especially low. So it is necessary to identify porcine reproductive gene and protein. The establishment of pregnancy requires performance of a receptive endometrium. We analyzed the endometrial tissue protein of porcine and would find out biomarker proteins related to porcine litter size. We sorted the two groups according to litter size of porcine: a small litter size group (SLSG) (n=2) and a large litter size group (LLSG) (n=2). The porcine endometrial tissue samples were analyzed separately using 2-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) within the isoelectric point ranges of 3.0 to 10.0, and then differential proteins were identified using MALDI-TOF analysis. In comparison of SLSG(small litter size group) with LLSG(large litter size group), a total of 9 protein spots differentially expressed on porcine endometrial tissue 2-DE gels, among which 5 spots were up-regulated proteins as retinol dehydrogenase 16-like isoform 1, Acrosin-binding protein, alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase. phosphoglycerate kinase 2, Acrosin-binding protein in LLSG. And 4 spots were up-regulated proteins as phosphoglycerate kinase 2, prenylcysteine oxidase in SLSG.