Recent research on stem cell conditioned medium (CM) has been revealed that CM could influence on the embryo development when supplemented to in vitro culture medium. However, the optimal basal medium for CM production has not determined although it is the fundamental factor of CM. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of human derived adipose stem cell CM (hASC-CM) with different basal medium on mice embryo development after parthenogenetic activation (PA). hASC-CM was collected from 2 kinds of serum free basal medium, DMEM and KSFM, respectively on day 5 from the culture of hASC isolated from human fat tissue. Intra-peritoneal injection of PMSG and hCG was conducted into 7-week-old ICR mice for superovulation. The oocytes were recovered from the oviductal ampulla, 18 h after hCG injection, and denuded using 0.1% hyaluronidase. PA of oocytes was conducted with KSOM media including strontium chloride. The parthenotes were in vitro cultured in 3 groups: 100% KSOM (Control), 75% KSOM + 25% DMEM or KSFM without FBS (DMEM or KSFM group) and 75% KSOM + 25% hASC-CM from DMEM or KSFM (DMEM-CM or KSFM-CM group). Cleavage rate was assessed after 2 days post IVC and blastocyst formation rate was evaluated after 6 days post IVC both using stereomicroscope. Total cell number of blastocysts was counted by Hoechst staining. 1way ANOVA from Graphpad prism 5 was used for statistical analysis and the values are presented as means ± standard error of mean. As a result, blastocyst formation rate of DMEM-CM group (16.09±3.32%, P<0.05) was significantly lower than control and DMEM group (34.43±2.89% and 34.49±5.34%, P<0.05) but cleavage rate and total cell number of blastocysts showed no significant difference among groups. In case of KSFM, there was no significant difference in cleavage rate, blastocyst formation rate and total cell number of blastocysts among the control, KSFM group and KSFM-CM group. The sort of basal medium used for the CM collection affected the development of parthenotes during in vitro culture differently. Therefore, further research should be conducted to find out the alternative basal medium of CM able to improve the embryo development. This research was supported by Nature Cell (#550-20170028), Cooperative Research Program of RDA (CCAR, #PJ013954022018), Research Institute for Veterinary Science and the BK21 plus program.

Thrips from the genus Frankliniella (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) are a serious insect pest of various crops, including vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants. Thrips cause significant economic damage plants directly by feeding, and indirectly by acting as vectors for the tospoviruses such as Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) and Chrysanthemum stem necrosis virus (CSNV) in chrysanthemum. To investigate the associations of thrips with tospoviruses and their ability to transmit, we have developed a protocol for identifying tospovirus and thrips species simultaneously in an individual thrips sample was successfully conducted. Total RNA was extracted from thrips according to manufacturer’s insturctions of RNeasy mini kit (Quiagen co.), and then TSWV was identified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using TSWV specific primers for the N genes. The residual genomic DNA in thrips RNA extract was used as a template to identify thrips species by PCR using universal primers for ITS2 region and subsequently digesting the PCR product by an restriction enzyme (RsaI) In addition, a classification into the species of thrips was confirmed using the nucleotide sequence of PCR products. The developed protocol was applied to investigate the occurrence of viruliferous thrips species in thrips populations collected from chrysanthemum fields. In this study, most of thrips were identified to Frankliniella spp. and thirps that acquire TSWV was 14 % of 65 thrips.

국내에서 재배하는 주요 핵과류(복숭아, 자두, 매실, 체리)에 발생하는 깍지벌레는 뽕나무깍지벌레(Pseudaulacaspis pentagona), 말채나무공깍지벌레(Lecanium corni), 무화과깍지벌레(Coccus hesperidum), 가루깍지벌레류(Pseudococcus sp.) 4종이 발견되었으나, 뽕나무깍지 벌레는 2017년에 총 113과원 중 103과원(발생과원율 91.2%), 2018년에는 77과원 중 64과원(발생과원율 83.1%) 모든 핵과류에서 가장 많이 발생하여 우점종으로 확인되었다. 2017년도에는 5월 상순부터 부화를 시작하여 암컷성충 1마리가 평균 75.5개(47∼159개)의 알을 낳으며 모든 알이 부화하는데 약 19일이 소요되었으며 5월 20일경에 월동성충의 모든 알이 부화하였다. 그러나, 2018년에는 4월 하순부터 부화를 시작하여 (부화율 72%) 부화유충(1령)으로 이동 후 5월 중순부터 고착유충(2~3령), 6월 중순부터 2세대 성충이 활동하기 시작하였다. 부화유충기(1령)에 약제 살포를 하면 살충율이 100.0%이었으나, 고착유충기(2~3령)에는 살충율은 2.7%에 불과하였다. 부화약충기를 제외한 모든 단계에서 몸체가 밀납깍지로 덮여 있어 약제를 살포하여도 직접 접촉되지 않아 치사율이 낮았다. 따라서 반드시 부화약충기에 약제를 살포하여야 방제효과를 높일 수 있다.

The tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura(Fabricius), is a major pest of tomato and frequently demands control measures. The timing of insecticide application is a key factor in determining its efficiency, so an experiment was designed to investigate this. Application of insecticide was based on three criteria: (i) the number of trap-caught moths in a Delta-type trap with a commercial sex pheromone lure placed in the center of the target area, soon after plant emergence; (ii) the percentage of plants exhibiting pinhole-type damage (10% or 20%) and (iii) the percentage of plants exhibiting shot hole-type damage (10% or 20%) compared to a check plot without any control measures. We found that the number of trap-caught moths was, compared to the other methods, the best means of deciding on insecticide application in tomato plant to control the tobacco cutworm. Using pheromone traps, we obtained the best performance of the insecticide Shinnago, causing > 90% larval mortality. Without insecticide application, tomato yield reduction due to the tobacco cutworm larva damage was 27%.

Supplemental substrates for mushroom cultivation media are potent sources for fungal contamination of indoor environment in cultivation houses. The present study was performed to investigate the presence of harmful fungi in the supplemental materials (beet pulp, cotton seed meal, kapok meal, peat moss, wheat straw) imported from China, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia and Pakistan. Fungal concentration in the supplemental materials ranged from 1.3×102 to 1.8×103 cfu/g. A total of 11 genera and 21 species were identified. Two genera and two species were found in Germany peat moss. In Pakistan wheat straw, three genera and four species were detected. In Egypt beet pulp and China cotton seed meal, four genera and five species and seven genera and ten species were shown, respectively. Among the identified fungi, Acremonium sp., Aspergillus chevalieri, Cryptococcus adeliensis, Eurotium amstelodami, Paecilomyces variotii and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa were known as human pathogens. This study provided evidence that pathogenic yeast and filamentous fungi are present in imported agricultural byproduct materials for mushroom cultivation.

World wide mushroom productions have been increased to 10-20% and more various mushrooms have been attempted to cultivate. Similar trends were also observed in Korea. More diverse mushroom varieties such as Pleurotus eryngii, Hericium erinaceus and Agrocybe aegerita have been attempted to cultivate in larger areas. In these days, 235 varieties of 33 different mushroom species have been cultivated. However only 50 varieties were protected by the law. Since 1960s, mushroom industry had been considered as one of the major export industries in Korea and mushroom production has been rapidly increased. In 2008, total mushroom production was about 198,209 ton, which were about 800 billion won (one trillion won if include mushroom factory products). Major cultivated species are Pleurotus ostreatus, P. eryngii, Flammulina velutipes, Lentinula edodes and Agaricus bisporus, which cover 90% of total production. We believed that the protection of mushroom vavarieties by the law is one of the main problems to be solved. Also, more studies to develop better mushroom production methods with low cost and improve the distribution structures are certainly required. In these days, the export of mushroom has been increased in Korea. We imported more mushrooms than exported for last 4 years, however, it has been changed that export is getting bigger in these days. Because we developed the liquid spawning and automatic cultivation systems, which lead the reduction of mushroom production cost and resulted in the increasement of export. If we develop better post-harvest system, it is certain that the mushroom export should be more important in the future. As an alternative way, some Korean companies are planning to build the plants in main export countries. Mushroom industry has promising future because mushroom is good for your health.