Ampelopsis brevipedunculata, a porcelain berry that is a kind of Korean domestic wild berry (Viticeae), has been known to be resistant to diseases and insects. A total of 2,622 unigenes containing 912 contigs and 1,710 singletons were obtained by sequencing 5,839 expressed sequence tag (EST) clones derived from the cDNA library of wild grape, A. brevipedunculata. In the gene ontology analysis, 1,175 genes related to biological process, 1,516 genes related to molecular function, and 1,413 ones related to cell components were annotated. Among the genes showing molecular function, 17 clones were classified into defense-related genes, and 102 were known to be related with responses to stress in plants. Domains, such as leucine-rich repeat, Serine/threonine protein kinase-related, WD40 repeat, EF-hand calcium-binding, pentatricopeptide repeat, and pathogenesis-related transcriptional factor were highly expressed. Genes encoding defense related proteins, such as chitinase, catalase, protein-serine/threonine kinases, were also clustered into an abundant group in cDNAs from A. brevipedunculata. Approximately, 80 simple sequence repeats with 2~5 nucleotides were detected in the cDNAs of A. brevipedunculata. These data could provide useful information for the genetic analysis of wild grapevines and in programs for breeding grape cultivars.

Mealworms, Tenebrio molitor (L.) is used as an important animal feed additive for growth promotion and health management, but potentially exposes to fungal infection. In this work, virulence of two species of entomopathogenic fungi against the insect, and the relationship between abiotic features and virulence were investigated. Secondly our consideration was also given to the effect of chemical fungicides on conidial germination for risk control. Between Beauveria bassiana (Bb) and Metarhizium roberstii (Mr) (previously M. anisopliae), Bb isolates had much higher virulence (~100% mortality in 3~4 days after the treatment), rather than Mr isolates in laboratory assays. Next, fungus-treated mealworms were kept at wheat bran at 20, 25, 30 and 35℃ with 3, 6, 9 times of water spray to the feeds for set-up of different humidity conditions. Inoculation of fungi to mealworms was conducted by fungal spray and feeding methods, which resulted in higher virulence in feeding method. In the feeding method, all temperature treatments except 35℃ showed high virulence against mealworms, but any significant relationship between virulence and humidity was not observed. In the chemical fungicide screening, fluazinam (CAS No. 79622-59-6) and mancozeb (8018-01-7) significantly inhibited the germination of Bb and Mr conidia. This work suggest that contamination of wheat bran with fungal pathogens, particularly B. bassiana may induce mycosis of mealworms, but introduction of effective fungicides possibly reduce fungal infection.

Pluripotent stem cells can be derived from both pre- and post-implantation embryos. Embryonic stem cells (ES cells), derived from inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocyst are naïve pluripotent and epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) derived from post-implantation epiblast are primed pluripotent. The phenotypes and gene expression patterns of the two pluripotent stem cells are different each other and EpiSCs thought to be in a more advanced pluripotent (primed pluripotent state) than mouse ES cells (naïve pluripotent state). Therefore, we questioned whether EpiSCs are less potential to be differentiated into specialized cell types in vitro. EpiSCs were isolated from 5.5～6.5 day post coitum mouse embryos of the post-implantation epiblast. The EpiSCs could differentiate into all tree germ layers in vivo, and expressed pluripotency markers (Oct4, Nanog). Interestingly, EpiSCs also were able to efficiently differentiate into neural stem cells (NSCs). The NSCs differentiated from EpiSCs (EpiSC-NSCs) expressed NSC markers (Nestin, Sox2, and Musasi), self-renewed over passage 20, and could differentiate into two neural subtypes, neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Next, we compared global gene expression patterns of EpiSC-NSCs with that of NSCs differentiated from ES cells and brain tissue. Gene expression pattern of brain tissue derived NSCs were closer to ES cell-derived NSCs than EpiSC-NSCs, indicating that the pluripotent stem cell-derived somatic cells could have different characteristics depending on the origin of pluripotent stem cell types. * This work was supported by the Next Generation Bio-Green 21 Program funded by the Rural Development Administration (Grant PJ 008009).

Bee venom contains a variety of peptides and enzymes, including serine proteases. While the presence of serine proteases in bee venom has been demonstrated, the role of these proteins in bee venom has not been elucidated. Furthermore, there is currently no information available regarding the melanization response or the fibrin(ogen)olytic activity of bee venom serine protease, and the molecular mechanism of its action remains unknown. Here we show that bee venom serine protease (Bi-VSP) is a multifunctional enzyme. In insects, Bi-VSP acts as an arthropod prophenoloxidase (proPO)-activating factor (PPAF), thereby triggering the phenoloxidase (PO) cascade. Bi-VSP injected through the stinger induces a lethal melanization response in target insects by modulating the innate immune response. In mammals, Bi-VSP acts similarly to snake venom serine protease, which exhibits fibrin(ogen)olytic activity. Bi-VSP activates prothrombin and directly degrades fibrinogen into fibrin degradation products, defining roles forBi-VSP as a prothrombin activator, a thrombin-like protease, and a plasmin-like protease. These findings provide a novel view of the mechanism of bee venom in which the bee venom serine protease kills target insects via a melanization strategy and exhibits fibrin(ogen)olytic activity.

The spontaneous mutant circling mouse (cir/cir) shows a circling behavior and hearing loss. We produced transgenic mice overexpressing transmembrane inner ear (tmie) gene, the causative gene, for the phenotypic rescue of the circling mouse. Through the continuous breeding with circling mice, the cir/cir homozygous mice carrying the transgene (cir/cir‐gtg) were produced. The rescued cir/cir‐gtg mice were able to swim in the water with proper orientation and did not show any circling behavior like wild type mice. Western blot and immunohistochemical analysis exhibited that the transgenic tmie was expressed in the inner ear. Inner and outer hair cells were recovered in the cochlea and spiral ganglion neurons were also recovered in the rescued mice. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) test demonstrated that the cir/cir‐gtg mice are able to respond to sound. This study demonstrates that tmie transgene can recover the hearing impairment and abnormal behavior in the circling mouse.

Propylea japonica is small ladybug(approximately 4-5mm) and is met with everywhere in Korea. When there was no aphid, the survival rate of P. japonica was 0% among another instar bugs and 26.7～32.8% among same instar bugs after 48 hours. When there were sufficient aphids, the cannibalism of P. japonica was low, so the survival rate of P. japonica was 78.6～95.8% among another instar bugs and 80.6～100% among same instar bugs after 48 hours. In the comparison of the number of eggs at different oviposition site, P. japonica preferred the corrugated cardboard. In experiment using T-tube, the rate of decoy was 81% at cotton aphid compared with pepper leaf and 62% at cotton aphid compared with artificial diet. In the artificial diet using shrimp and chicken liver, the developmental period from egg to adult was 17days and the survival rate from egg to adult was 66.7% but the vitality was not good. These data suggest that P. japonica can be used effective natural enemy for control of aphids and is needed to research about artificial diet, mass rearing system and control effect in field.

수평 배향 액정 모드는 양의 유전율 이방성과 음의 유전융 이방성 액정을 사용한 프린지 필드 스위칭과 양의 유전율 이방성 액정을 사용한 인플래인 스위칭 모드가 대표적이다 . 이 대표적인 세 구동 방식의 화질 특성을 비교하기 위하여 각각의 최척화된 위상지연 값 조건하에서 밝기, 명암대비율과 색 특성을 조사하였다. 그 결과 양액정과 음액정을 사용한 프린지 필드 스위칭 모드가 밝기와 명암대비율 면에 있어서 인플래인 스위칭 모드보다 우수한 특성을 보인다. 또한 양액정을 사용한 프린지 필드 스위 칭 모드는 시야각 방향에서 적은 색 변이 특성을 보인다.