One of the key challenges for the commercialization of carbon nanotube fibers (CNTFs) is their large-scale economic production. Among CNTF spinning methods, surfactant-based wet spinning is one of the promising techniques for mass producing CNTFs. Here, we investigated how the coagulation bath composition affects the spinnability and the properties of CNTFs in surfactant-based wet spinning. We used acetone, DMAc, ethanol, and IPA as coagulants and analyzed the relationship between coagulation bath composition and the properties of CNTFs in terms of kinetic and thermodynamic coagulation parameters. From a kinetic perspective, we found that a low mass transfer rate difference (MTRD) is favorable for wet spinning. Based on this finding, we mixed the coagulant bath with solvent in a proper ratio to reduce the MTRD, which generally improved the wet spinning. We also showed that the coagulation strength, a thermodynamic parameter, should be considered. We believe that our research can contribute to establishment of surfactant-based wet spinning of CNTFs.

국화에서 줄기괴저바이러스와 토마토반점위조바이러스를 매개하는 것으로 알려진 꽃노랑총채벌레 약충과 성충이 잎, 꽃, 과실의 흡즙을 통해 확산시킨다. 최근 무분별한 농약 사용으로 약제저항성 계통 출현이 지속적으로 보고되고 있다. 총채벌레류는 식물바이러스 매개하는 시간이 짧아 상대적으로 효과가 낮은 약제로는 총채벌레 방제효과를 기대하기가 어렵다. 시판되는 국화 총채벌레류 등록 살충제 10종을 꽃노랑총채벌레 발육단계별(약충, 번데기, 성충)로 살포한 결과, 유효성분 피롤계 클로르페나피르, 카바메이트계 벤퓨라카브와 스피노신계 스피네토람이 함유된 약제가 우수한 살충력을 보였다. 총채벌레류 화학적 방제를 위해서는 위 성분이 함유된 살충제를 교호로 사용하는 것이 효과적일 것으로 보여진다.

알락수염노린재(Dolycoris baccarum L.)는 구북구(Palearctic region)에 널리 분포하는 다식성 곤충으로서 국내에서는 콩, 단감, 유자 등 다양한 작물의 해충이다. 이 종은 다른 노린재과(Pentatomidae) 곤충과 마찬가지로 수컷이 집합페로몬 을 방출하는 것으로 알려져 있다. 우리는 수컷의 집합페로몬 성분을 동정하기 위하여, 고상미량추출(SPME) 방법을 이용하여 수컷과 암컷 성충에서 방출되는 휘발성 물질을 포집하여 화학구조를 분석하였다. 그 결과, 수컷 특이적인 휘발물질로서 α-bisabolol, α-bergamotene, β-bisabolene을 동정하였고, 3가지 성분이 100:15:5 비율로 존재함을 밝혔다. 야외에서 알락수염노린재 수컷과 암컷 성충 모두가 주성분인 α-bisabolol을 처리한 트랩에 유인되었다. 나머지 2가지 성분(α-bergamotene과 β-bisabolene)의 경우, 그 자체로는 유인 효과가 없었으나 주성분인 α-bisabolol에 추가되면 보강효과가 발휘되었다. 곤충에서 α-bisabolol이 동정된 것은 이것이 처음이며, 이번에 밝혀진 알락수염노린재 집합페 로몬은 이 해충의 발생예찰과 친환경 방제에 유용할 것이다.

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.

기후변화에 따른 시설토마토의 해충 발생 추이를 비교해 보고자, 작물의 주산지를 중심으로 2015년부터 시작하여 현재까지 논산, 부여, 익산, 장수에서 해충 발생 및 밀도를 조사하였다. 논산, 부여, 익산은 2월 중순 이후부터 5월 상순까지, 작기가 다른 장수지역은 6월 상순부터 현재까지 가루이류, 총채벌레류, 아메리카잎굴파리가 주로 발생하였다. 특히, 가루이는 2017년은 4월 중순에 가장 밀도가 높았으나, 작년 대비 고온다습한 기후를 보인 2018년에는 약 한 달 앞 당겨진 3월 중순에 발생최성기를 보였다. 가루이는 모든 농가에서 발생하였으며 발생밀도도 높았다. 총채벌레는 논산, 부여, 익산지역에서는 3월 중순부터 발생하기 시작하여 작기가 종료되는 5월까지 발생밀도가 증가하였으며, 장수지역에서는 6월 중순에 최성기를 보였다. 발생밀도의 정도는 같은 지역 내에서도 농가간의 차이는 있었으며 이는, 농가마다 방제시기나 방법에서의 차이로 보여진다.

Whiteflies (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) and thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) are major pests on greenhouse crops including sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) in South Korea. To manage this pest complex effectively, it is fundamental to understand population dynamics and spatial distributions of the pests. In this study, we conducted visual counting and used yellow sticky traps to monitor whitefly and thrips populations in sweet pepper greenhouse (6 × 28 m). The survey was conducted every two weeks over two months. A total of 84 traps were set up at 20cm from the plant top canopy and spaced 1m apart from each other. Leaves were selected randomly from the middle plant canopy for visual counting at the same sampling locations. The trap data indicate that the numbers of whiteflies and thrips increased from 5.50 ± 0.34 to 168.51 ± 14.95 and from 52.40 ± 1.67 to 158.42 ± 7.44 (mean ± SE) per trap, respectively, over the two-month observation period. In general, the spatial distributions of these pests aggregated near the greenhouse entrance with significant positive correlation between the densities of the two species (r = 0.74, P = 0.02). However, the results of visual counting were completely different; either species was rarely found on leaves, even when the trap catches were relatively high at the same locations. That is, there was no correlation between visual counting and sticky trap data sets. The current study will serve as a fundamental step to develop reliable and effective management programs for greenhouse sweet pepper.

The tight regulators of fruit set initiation, gibberellin (GA) and auxin, have been applied for decades to induce parthenocarpy, fruit set without fertilization. The integration of GA and auxin signaling mediated by either GA or auxin application during parthenocarpy has been actively reported in tomato, and recently we reported that GA application at pre-bloom also activating auxin signaling and down-regulated negative regulators of fruit set initiation in grapevines. However, the activation of auxin signaling upon GA application without up-regulation of auxin biosynthesis is still unclear. In this study, expression patterns of three auxin efflux transporter genes, VvPIN1a, VvPIN2 and VvPIN4, were monitored during inflorescence development in ‘Tamnara’ grapevines with or without GA application. Without GA application, transcription levels of VvPIN1a and VvPIN4 gradually increased from 14 days before full bloom (DBF) to 2 and 5 days after full bloom (DAF), respectively, except down-regulation of VvPIN1a during 5 DBF to full bloom. However, VvPIN2 expression declined steadily after peaking at 10 DBF. With GA application, VvPIN1a did not show significantly different expression patterns when compared to no GA application, with the exception of 4-fold up-regulation at full bloom, but transcription of VvPIN4 was reduced between 5 and 2 DBF. In addition, VvPIN2 was down-regulated between 12 and 10 DBF by more than 50% compared to levels in the absence of GA application. These reductions of both VvPIN2 and VvPIN4 with GA application prior to pollination suggest that GA application might regulate auxin distribution, instead of auxin biosynthesis, to activating auxin signaling during parthenocarpic fruit initiation.

Gibberellic acid (GA) is a well-characterized plant hormone, which plays a critical role in various plant growth and development. including stem elongation, floral indcution and seed development. GA is known to cause enlargement of ripening fruits and, especially in grapevines, GA shows a unique function: the induction of seedlessness in seeded grape varieties. However, despite extensive previous studies about GA, there has been no clear verification of the mechanism that induces seedlessness in grapes. To understand how GA treatment results in artificial parthenocarpy of seeded grapes at molecular levels, we analyzed transcriptional changes in seeded grapes with and without GA application in various inflorescence developmental stages using RNA-seq. At 14 days before flowering (DBF), seeded grapes were treated with 100 ppm GA and clusters were collected at three developmental stages: 7 DBF, full bloom, and 5 days after flowering (DAF). Of a total of 28,974 genes that were mapped to grape genome reference sequences, 7,013 and 9,064 genes were up- and down-regulated, respectively, in the GA-treated grape as compared to the non-GA-treated control at 7 DBF, full bloom, and 5 DAF. Clustering analysis revealed that these genes could be grouped into 9 clusters with different expression patterns. We also carried out functional annotation based on gene ontology categories. There were significant differences in the expression of the GA and auxin-related gene families. These findings expand our understanding of the complex molecular and cellular mechanisms of GA-induced parthenocarpy of grapes and provide a foundation for future studies on seed development in grapevines.

Recent global warming and climate change has presented greater challenge to the global agriculture of having to cope with more severe adversaries from various abiotic stress conditions including drought, cold, and heat. As a preliminary step towards developing a heat-tolerant japonica rice variety through molecular breeding, we examined and compared expression of several genes that have been reported being expressed specifically during rice panicle development in different rice varieties after subjecting them heat stress. Although the induction of these transcripts upon heat treatment was invariably observed in all rice varieties tested, the magnitude and kinetics of the induction were found to be different among these varieties, suggesting possible functional implication of these genes in conferring heat tolerant phenotype during reproductive organ development of these plants. General protein synthesis activity as well as pollen viability incurred by the heat stress treatment were also monitored in these plants and the result showed a close correlation overall with the induction dynamic of these transcripts under heat stress. Therefore, these genes, together with the ones involved in the regulatory network for the expression of them, could serve as candidates for useful markers with which molecular breeding of heat tolerant japonica rice can be facilitated.

Plants have evolved a set of protecting mechanisms against pathogens, which include secondary metabolites and induced defense responses to pathogen attack. The biological role of purine alkaloids including caffeine is largely unknown. It has been proposed that caffeine confers a resistance against pathogenic bacteria and herbivores. We, in this study, tested direct effects on the growth of rice pathogenic microbes, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) causing a bacterial leaf blight and Magnaporthe grisea (M. grisea) causing a rice blast. Cell growth of Xoo and M. grisea were significantly retarded in presence of high concentration (2mM) of caffeine. Exogenous caffeine (5mM) induced resistance of wild type rice (cv. Dongjin, susceptible to Xoo and M. grisea) against those pathogens. These results indicated that caffeine enhanced the basal resistance to infection with Xoo. In addition, expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes was tested in the caffeine treated rice to elucidate the acquired resistance by caffeine, resulted in induction of PR genes including OsPR1a and OsPrb1. We have generated a transgenic rice producing caffeine by introduction of three N- methyltransferase genes (CaXMT1, CaMXMT1, CaDXMT1) identified from coffee plant. The transgenic rice successfully expressed the three genes, synthesized caffeine up to 5ug/g and showed enhanced resistance to Xoo. We also observed that transcripts of PR genes such as the OsPR1a and OsPrb1 encoding PR-1 type pathogenesis-related protein increased in the caffeine-producing rice. These result showed that caffeine is likely to act a powerful factor to increase level of rice defense as a natural and non-harmful metabolite.