Bumblebee, Bombus ardens ardens (Apidae: Hymenopera), is an important resource for pollination that is most widely distributed in Korea. This study utilized microsatellite markers for investigation of genetic diversity and geographic relevance of the B. a. ardens populations in Korea. Through Next Generation Sequencing analysis, we identified 10 microsatellite markers and genotyped for 107 individuals of B. ardens collected from 10 populations. At each locus the number of alleles ranged from 10 to 23; the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.8909 to 1.0000 and 0.6641 to 0.8422, respectively; and inbreeding coefficient(FIS) ranged from –0.5053 to –0.0891. Significant deviation from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium was not observed at any locus. Population structure analysis indicated that there are three genetic groups in Korea with each Jeongseon and Ulleung-do composed of different gene pool from the remaining other populations. Similarly, Principal coordinates analysis also showed the same pattern. FST and RST analyses showed that each Jeongseon and Ulleung-do population had a significant genetic distance from other populations. Considering these results, genetic isolation of Ulleung-do may be explained by “Oceanic island” status and Jeongseon, which showed the positive FIS (0.069) and genetic isolation may be caused by its location on the east side of Baekdudaegan and by on-going inbreeding with a small population size.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the elementary students’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice for food hygiene and safety. A self-administered questionnaire was developed and offered to 375 elementary school students throughout the Seoul region. The results of the survey were as follows: First, the knowledge, attitudes, and practice were not at satisfactory level. The scores of children's knowledge, attitudes, and practice were 67.42%, 3.83, and 3.81 out of 5 point scale, respectively. Second, knowledge, attitudes and practice levels were significantly different according to demographic characteristics. The lower grade-students had significantly higher scores for knowledge (p<.05), attitudes (p<.05) and practice (p<.01) than higher gradestudents, suggesting that food hygiene and safety education is more effective in younger students or that repeated education is needed for higher grade-students. Third, knowledge, attitudes and practice levels were significantly correlated each other. These results suggest that the education programs for food hygiene and safety should be developed for, as well as implemented in, lower elementary school grades.