Virus infections of the honeybee(Apis mellifera) have been increasingly investigated during the last decade. In general, honeybee viruses are widespread and most of them persist as inapparent infections. We screened honeybee colonies for the presence of several bee viruses, including deformed wing virus(DWV), black queen virus(BQCV), Kashmir bee virus(KBV), Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), sacbrood virus(SBV), acute bee paralysis virus(ABPV), using uniplex RT-PCR. Frequently simultaneous infections with different viruses are diagnosed in seemingly healthy bee colonies. Therefore we developed a multiplex RT-PCR assay for the simultaneous detection of multiple bee viruses.

Setdb1/Eset, a histone lysine methyltransferase, is recruited by various transcription factors to modify local chromatin. The observation that Setdb1-null blastocysts fail to produce epiblast-lineage cells suggests a role for Setdb1 in generating mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). When examined in mouse zygotes, Setdb1 proteins appeared as dots at perinucleolar rims of pronuclei, with the dot-shaped signals more prominent in male pronuclei. Setdb1 signals were observed diffusely in the nucleus from the two-cell stage onward and, by the blastocyst, took a punctate form, away from nucleolus. Such varying expression patterns suggest its involvement in diverse biological processes at preimplantation stage. Setdb1 appeared in Oct4-positive cells of inner-cell-mass origin but not in trophectoderm-lineage cells in blastocyst outgrowths. Setdb1 co- immunoprecipitated with Oct4 in mESCs, and Setdb1 expression was markedly reduced upon retinoic acid- induced differentiation. These observations suggest that Setdb1 has an important role in maintaining the self-renewal of mESCs through collaboration with Oct4.

Stick insect has several peculiarities like parthenogenesis, unique external features and dropping oviposition, so it is very hopeful to use for industrial insect. The oviposition was established by only female without fertilization with sperm of male which was not discovered during this study. The oviposition period was 37.3±14.9 days and the number of eggs per female was 41.5±16.5 eggs. The hatchability was 73.3% at 25℃and 66.7% after low temperature treatment(8℃, 60 days). The developmental periods and the length of egg were 100.9±4.2 days and 0.33±0.0cm, respectively, and the adult's life span was 49.7±16.0days. Differently other research which reported five nymph stage, the developmental stages of nymph showed five(62.9%) or six(37.1%) stages. The duration and the length of nymph increased according to the increase of nymph stage. Stick insect preferred the leaf of American locust, White oak, Chestnut, Bush clover in order but could be reared with food of the leaf of all these trees. Stick insects are herbivorus but made an attack each other when encountered in the small space. For sustaining mass rearing of stick insect, it is needed that the development of artificial diet and high density rearing method.

This paper reports a characteristic motion of a polarity inversion line (PIL) formed at the solar surface, which is newly found by performing a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation of flux emergence in the Sun. A magnetic flux tube composed of twisted field lines is assumed to emerge below the surface, forming a bipolar region with a PIL at the surface. A key finding is the successive half-turn rotation of the PIL, leading to the formation of a quadrupolar-like region at the surface and a magnetic configuration in the corona; this configuration is reminiscent of, but essentially different from the so-called inverse-polarity configuration of a filament magnetic field. We discuss a physical mechanism for producing the half-turn rotation of a PIL, which gives new insights into the magnetic structure formed via flux emergence. This presents a reasonable explanation of the configuration of a filament magnetic field suggested by observations.

Effects of Vegemil® containing soybean proteins and isoflavones on the growth and bone density of broiler chickens were investigated. One-week-old male and female Arbor Acres broiler chickens were fed on Vegemil® A containing 3% soybean proteins and 162 ppm isoflavones, instead of water, for 30 days and their growth indices (body weight, leg weight and femur length) and bone density were analyzed. The body weight gains in male and female chickens were increased by 15.6% and 31.7%, respectively, following feeding Vegemil® A compared to normal water. Vegemil® A increased leg weight as well as femur length of females by 22.9% and 15.0%, respectively. In addition, Vegemil® A feeding enhanced femoral bone density by 21.3% in comparison with water feeding. Therefore, it is suggested that Vegemil® A not only facilitates body growth, but also strengthens bone density of normal chickens, and that it could be a promising candidate for the improvement of infant growth and for the prevention of menopausal osteoporosis.

DNA-based technology are about to revolutionize the analysis of population structures as well as the determination of individual indentities. Furthermore, the analysis of polymorphic DNA regions make it possible to reach detailed conclusions on family relationships of individual. Microsatellite loci are increasingly used in population genetic and evolutionary studies. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) or microsatellites consisted of short tandem repeats (usually 1-6 nucleotide) have shown advantages over other markers. We report here the isolation and characterization of nine highly polymerphic microsatellite loci for phylogenetic and population genetic use in silkworm. Comparative analysis of diverse silkworm strains with microsatellite locus revealed several alleles and discriminative heterozygosity values. A list of primer sequences that tag each locus is provided. The usefulness of microsatellite markers can be expected to enhance the classification in silkworm.

We calculate the evolution of multiple supernova (SN) explosions inside a pre-exiting bubble blown up by winds from massive stars, using one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations including radiative cooling and thermal conduction effects. First, the development of the wind bubble driven by collective winds from multiple stars during the main sequence is calculated. Then multiple SN explosion is loaded at the center of the bubble and the evolution of the SN remnant is followed for 106 years. We find the size and mass of the SN-driven shell depend on the structure of the pre-existing wind bubble as well as the total SN explosion energy. Most of the explosion energy is lost via radiative cooling, while about 10% remains as kinetic energy and less than 10% as thermal energy of the expanding bubble shell. Thus the photoionization and heating by diffuse radiation emitted by the shock heated gas is the most dominant form of SN feedback into the surrounding interstellar medium.

We report the development of a semi-VLBI observation system operating at 21 cm and present the measurement of visibility function toward the sun using this system. The system consists of two 2.3 meter antennas with a maximum separation of 35 meter, a conventional high speed data acquisition system, and a set of programs for software correlation. Since two local oscillators of receiver modules are independent, data had to be fringe-fitted to yield the visibility amplitude. It is found that the visibility amplitude decreases and then bounces back as baseline increases. We confirm that solar disk with brighter limb best explains the measured visibility amplitude.