Freesia is one of the most popular flowers over the world including Korea, due to the fragrance and beauty of the plant flower. The first domestic freesia cultivar ‘Shiny Gold’ was developed by NIHHS, RDA, in 2003, which has yellow double and large petals and strong fragrance. Ten years have passed since ‘Shiny Gold’ was cultivated at floral farms, and the deterioration of cut flower quality and yield are reported from the farms. Virus infection causes a reduction in the quantity and quality of the cut freesia flowers and is one of the most serious problems in Korea. Virus detection was carried by reverse transcription polymer chain reaction (RT-PCR) for FreMV, FreSV, BYMV, CMV, and TRV, as known to infect freesia. FreMV, FreSV, BYMV, and TRV were detected single or multiply, and CMV was not found in the freesia leaves collected from the farms. To produce virus-free freesia, meristem culture of ‘Shiny Gold’ was conducted in MS medium added ribavirin at different concentration. As the increased of ribavirin concentration, the growth of ‘Shiny Gold’ plantlets was inhibited in freesia’Shiny Gold’. The plantlets produced by meristem culture in ‘Shiny Gold’ were virus free at the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) level.

Heat shock protein (HSP) 70, the highly conserved stress protein families, plays important roles in protecting cells against heat and other stresses in most animal species. In the present study, we identified and characterized four Hsp70 (RuHSP4, RuHSC70, RuHSP12A, RuGRP78) family proteins based on the expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis of the Korean rose bitterling R. uyekii cDNA library. The deduced RuHSP70 family has high amino acid identities of 72-99% with those of other species. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that RuHsp70 family clustered with fish groups (HSP4, HSC70, HSP12A, GRP78) proteins. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed the specific expression patterns of RuHsp70 family members in the early developmental stages and several tissues in Korean rose bitterling. The expression of 4 groups of Hsp70 family was detected in all tested tissue. Particularly, Hsp70 family of Korean rose bitterling is highly expressed in hepatopancreas and sexual gonad (testis and ovary). The expression of Hsp70 family was differentially regulated in accordance with early development stage of Rhodeus uyekii.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology and fast improvement in plant genetics have elevated to massive development of molecular genetic markers through fast analysis of huge molecular biological data. Furthermore, in domestic commercial breeding of horticultural crops, the application of marker assisted breeding (MAB) has been introduced recently. For effective improvement of cultivar breeding, in this research, transcriptome analysis and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) comparison with high density pepper map in UC-DAVIS were performed using four lines of Capsicum annuum and C. chinense. For rapid analysis of MAB of tolerant pepper lines, 412 Fluidigm probes were newly designed in this study. These designed probes and SSR and COSII markers were applied for background selection through the MAB program. In addition, powdery mildew (PM), tomato spot wilt virus (TSWV) resistance related markers were subjected to foreground selection of BC1, BC2, and BC3 progenies. The MAB system using Fluidigm probes, and trait-related and common markers was introduced into domestic pepper breeding, which will rapidly approach to a new elite line and a commercial tolerant cultivar.

xBrassicoraphanus, a new synthetic intergeneric hybrid between Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis and Raphanus sativus L., also locally known as ‘Baemoochae’, is an interesting subject for studying polyploidy and genome plasticity in the family Brassicaceae, but very few genomic and cytogenetic information. Here, we analysed the chromosome complements and pairing of the most fertile lines, BB1 and BB5, using dual-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) to check their chromosomal segregation stability. The somatic chromosome complement of B. rapa was confirmed to be 2n=20 (2.8~4.8μm), of R.sativus, 2n=18 (2.0~3.3μm), and of xBrassicoraphanus, 2n=38 (2.2~5.0μm). There were eight, eight, and seventeen metacentric pairs and two, one, and two submetacentric pairs in B. rapa, R. sativus, and xBrassicoraphanus, respectively. Additionally, three, two, and five pairs of 5S rDNA and five, three, and eight pairs of 45S rDNA were observed in B. rapa, R. sativus, and xBrassicoraphanus, respectively. This suggests that both B. rapa (AA) and R. sativus (RR) genomes, particularly the rDNA arrays, co-exist in xBrassicoraphanus (AARR) genome. In meiosis I, nineteen bivalents were most frequent, and GISH analysis showed ten bivalents from the A genome. This study would provide a useful information for further genomic study of xBrassicoraphanus and its improvement as a new promising breeding variety.

Muscle strength and endurance activities of Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer; KG) were compared with those of wild simulated cultivation ginseng (WCG) in mice. Fifty male ICR mice were divided into five groups: A (vehicle); B (WCG 100 mg/kg); C (WCG 500 mg/kg); D (KG 100 mg/kg); E (KG 500 mg/kg). Subsequently, the mice were subjected to the forced swimming test (FST) and treadmill test at the 4th and 7th weeks. The glycogen content in the muscle and blood analysis (levels of glucose, triglyceride (TG), IGF-1) were also performed immediately after the last FST and treadmill test at the 7th week. Immobility times in FST were shorter in WCG- than KG-treated groups, and the results of the treadmill tests were also significant except for KG-treated at 100 mg/kg. The glycogen content was increased in both groups with a peak at 500 mg/kg of WCG groups. Serum concentrations of TG and glucose were decreased by administration of KG and WCG and all treated groups showed increase in the level of IGF-1 in serum. These results suggest that KG and WCG supplementations are effective in escalating the muscle strength and endurance.

In Korea, chilli pepper (Capsicum annum L.) is a major vegetable crop. The pepper seed market is about $35 million and the whole sale market including processed products is equivalent to $2 billion, representing the second highest market value among crops, next to rice in Korea. Since the development of elite pepper variety is so competitive, vegetable seed companies usually run two important programs to keep the credibility of seed quality. One program is to deliver F1 hybrid seeds with a high purity test to farmers. The purity control of parents and F1 hybrid to avoid any contamination is conducted by DNA markers because pepper seeds are obtained using MS line. The other program is to identify the F1 variety from other varieties by analyzing the polymorphism so that the company and/or breeder protects the intellectual property from copying by others or from non-intentional contamination. We have developed about 900 EST-SSR sets from pepper and used to both programs. A total of 66 markers were selected to identify 32 F1 varieties and their own parents. Using these markers, the purity control of F1 hybrid rose up to the highest degree. We also found several SSR markers to distinguish F1 variety from other varieties and these markers could be useful to find the uniqueness of F1 cultivar.