KORAD (Korea Radioactive Waste Agency, http://www.korad.or.kr) has stored slightly contaminated ascon (asphalt coated concrete mixture) that was introduced to Gyeongju repository about a decade ago waiting for a final disposal. It is believed to be mainly contaminated by radioisotope 137Cs due to impurities introduced from the outside during the ascon manufacturing process. We studied characteristics of the radioactive waste to see whether this material would be proper enough to be disposed in Gyeongju LILW repository or be other ways to reduce the disposal volume including self-disposal before its final disposal otherwise. KORAD looked into the properness of characteristics of ascon in terms of WAC (Waste Acceptance Criteria) documented by KORAD that includes general chemical and physical properties of asphalt, density, size of grains, content of organic material and possibility of existence of chelate materials that qualitatively limited to be disposed by the criteria. And other associated characteristics such as gas generation and bio degradation were also investigated. Based on the data obtained from the study, we proposed various plausible solutions in associated with operational and disposal safety and economic view points. This study will be used for KORAD’s decision on how to control and safely dispose the spent ascon within a reasonable time period. And also those experiences may be applied for other LILW issues that require treatment or conditioning of radioactive wastes in the future.

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.

Bacillus thuringiensis (B. t.) strains are important microorganism because they produced a large amount of δ-endotoxin protein per bacterial cell and their toxins are highly toxic to Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Diptera depending on B. t. To date, more than a hundred Cry proteins have been identified and classified into 195 holotypes, based on the amino acid sequence identity. The Cry proteins or cry genes from the Korean native B. t. isolates in this study were not identified yet. The electrospray ionization of quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (ESI Q-TOF MS) was used to get the internal amino acid sequences of the endotoxin-spore culture mixtures of B. t. isolates, for which polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques were unable to detect the cognate genes. Most of Cry proteins seperated, excized, and extracted from the one dimensional - polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (1D-PAGE), instead of 2D-PAGE, were matched with protein databases using MS-MASCOT search program. The internal amino acid sequences which were submitted to protein BLAST (basic local alignment search tool) had partially homology with the Cry protein databases. Hence, present data strongly suggest that the de novo amino acid sequencing and ESI Q-TOF/MS analysis along with MASCOT search could be used as a simple and rapid method for detection of novel Cry toxins from B. t. isolates and identification of B. t. isolates.

The damage of citrus fruit by yellow tea thrips, Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood, was first confirmed in 2008, and has since been one of the serious pests of citrus in Jeju. This was reported on damage symptom on tangor cultivar, Setoka (Tangor Norin No. 8) fruits cultivated in a greenhouse and the characteristic of spatial disttribution of S. dorsalis caught on yellow sticky traps was conducted in three commercial citrus orchards. The feeding habits by S. dorsalis cause rind blemishes on the navel part of fruit. The damage is characterized by being scarped and figure like covered cloud on satsum mandarine fruit, but on by a brown ring of rough russeting that occurs on navel part of Setoka fruit. The season of damage occurrence was from middle of June to late of July. There was a highly significant relationship between the average number of thrips per trap and the maximum number caught on a trap. The overall differences between the linear regression models obtained from mean-variance relationship for each surveyed fields were tested by type Ⅲ error and contrast method. The characteristic of spatial distribution of S. dorsalis was better described by Taylor's power law than Iwao's patchiness regression, and the dispersion index which is the slope (=1.72) of linear regression model showed the aggregated distribution pattern. The sequential sampling stop lines at fixed precision level of 0.20, 0.25 and 0.30 were calculated.

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.

A population ofrecombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between Ilpumbyeo, a blast-susceptibleyopowca cultivarofhigh eating-quality and high yield potential, and GL33, a blast-resistance/apowca weedy rice was used to identifv QTLs affect-ing importan