Pigs are considered as optimal donor animal for the successful xenotransplantation. To increase the possibility of clinical application, genetic modification to increase compatibility with human is an important and essential process. Genetic modification technique has been developed and improved to produce genetically modified pigs rapidly. CRISPR/Cas9 system is widely used in various fields including the production of transgenic animals and also can be enable multiple gene modifications. In this study, we developed new gene targeting vector and enrichment system for the rapid and efficient selection of genetically modified cells. We conducted co-transfection with two targeting vectors for simultaneous inactivation of two genes and enrichment of the genetically modified cells using MACS. After this efficient enrichment, genotypic analysis of each colony showed that colonies which have genetic modifications on both genes were confirmed with high efficiency. Somatic cell nuclear transfer was conducted with established donor cells and genetically modified pigs were successfully produced. Genotypic and phenotypic analysis of generated pigs showed identical genotypes with donor cells and no surface expression of α-Gal and HD antigens. Furthermore, functional analysis using pooled human serum revealed dramatically reduction of human natural antibody (IgG and IgM) binding level and natural antibody-mediated cytotoxicity. In conclusion, the constructed vector and enrichment system using MACS used in this study is efficient and useful to generate genetically modified donor cells with multiple genetic alterations and lead to an efficient production of genetically modified pigs.

There have long been debated whether Jeju king cherry in Korea and Punus x yedoensis (Yoshino cherry) in Japan are the same or not and its originality. Recent genomic approach among P. yedoensis and closed related varieties from Korea, Japan and USA confirms that P. yedoensis is F1 hybrid. The results also show that there are two types of Jeju king cherry in Mt. Halla, Jeju, Korea and one type is clearly different and the other type is the same grouping to Yoshino cherry in Japan and USA and the maternal texa of the two types in Jeju is the same of P. pendula. The search of paternal texa of the same type and further molecular genetic analysis and classification among newly found hundreds of Jeju King Trees in natural habitats of Mt. Halla including a 265 year-old tree along with previous findings would reveal the hypothesis that two independent F1 hybrid of P. yedoensis are evolved in Mt. Halla where is the only natural birth place of P. yedoensis in the world. Furthermore, policy agenda of king cherry tree eco-exploration among six countries including two divided Korea proposed. In terms of bio-diplomacy, it was amazing fact that Jeju King Cherry trees were sent USA under Japanese colony in 1912. In 1943, USA Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi confirms that they were Korean Cherry Trees. The first four of these trees were presented to the American University in 1943 by the Korean Women’s Relief Society of Honolulu according to notice of AU’s School authority. As Jeju NAtional University students and teachers confirmed the fact in April 2018, they suggest Jeju King Cherry Trees Eco- Exploration between the two universities at university level, hoping to extend a warming program of planting Jeju King Cherry trees at the Dalma tourism complex in Wonsan city of North Korea in April of 2020.

In establishing and overseeing ASIAPARC Federation in March of 2016 in Jeju Island Korea, it will be essential for us to learn aspiration, network, purpose, values, goals and strategies from 42 years experiences of EUROPARC Federation as our partnership organization such as practicing exchange programs and joint conferences. We also believe we can add one more principle, ‘Initiating Island Resilience’, into the three principles of the Jeju Declaration of 1) Scaling up Conservation, 2) Nature-based Solutions, and 3) Sustainability in Action through the opening of a "Green Growth Organization" of the Jeju Declaration of WCC 2012.

Present study aimed to determine the effect of ‘bitter melon’, a popularly used fruit in Bangladesh and several other Asian countries, on high-fat-diet-induced type 2 diabetes. To investigate the effect, ethanol extract from bitter melon (BME) as a dietary supplement with mouse chow was used. BME was found to significantly attenuate the high-fat diet (HFD) -induced body weight and total fat mass. BME also effectively reduced the insulin resistance induced by the HFD. Furthermore, dietary supplementation of BME was highly effective in increasing insulin sensitivity and reducing hepatic fat and obesity. These results indicate that BME could be effective in attenuating type 2 diabetes and could therefore be a preventive measure against type 2 diabetes.

Space has many distinguishable characteristics from earth such as strong cosmic radiation, microgravity, supervaccum and weak magnetic field. For this reason, space environments can be used an efficient mutagen for plant breeding nowadays. To identify the affected genes by condition in space with outer space, Brachypodium seeds were placed in the Russia Segment (RS) Biorisk module of International Space Station (ISS). Brachypodium distachyon is a model system for temperature grass, because they represent the characteristics for annual winter grass. Seeds and organs of plants carried by satellite or spacecraft to space can be genetically mutated by exposing space environment. We performed a duplicated RNA sequencing to profile the differentially expressed genes. As a results, about 700 genes were upregulated and 250 genes were downregulated by cosmic environments, respectively. In the molecular function category, protein kinase and transcription activity related genes were upregulated. Among the many transcription factors (TFs), stress related TFs such as ERF, NAC and WRKY were differentially expressed in space exposed samples. In the future, their expression will be identified by using qRT_PCR.

This study was carried out to determine the amount of lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose in six kenaf cultivars during different harvesting stages. Three mutant cultivars (Jangdae, Jeokbong and Baekma), two original cultivars (Jinju, C14), and one Chinese cultivar (Auxu) were planted on May 14, 2013. Four harvesting times were made at intervals of 20 days from 15 July to 16 September, 2013. The overall growth characters of mutant cultivar ‘Jeokbong’ such as plant height, stem diameter, flowering time, and dry mass were similar with those of the original variety. The mutant cultivar ‘Baekma’ occurred 10-day late flowering in comparison with the original variety and also displayed higher dry mass than the original variety. Jinju, Auxu and Jangdae, mid-late maturing kenaf cultivars, had high dry weight compared to early maturing cultivars such as Jeokbong, Baekma and C14. In all cultivars, the lignin contents were increased by a late harvest. The Mid-late maturing kenaf cultivars showed high lignin content in comparison with those of the early maturity cultivars. There were no significant differences of cellulose, and hemicellulose content between the cultivars, however cellulose content in stems of these kenaf cultivars were significantly decreased by a late harvest. These results may provide valuable information to assist the parental selection of kenaf breeding.

Rose (Rosa Hybrida Hort.) are of a high symbolic value and a great cultural importance in different societies. They are widely used as garden ornamental plants and as cut flowers. For the induction of mutation, gamma-rays are widely used as a mutagen. This study was carried out to establish a system for mutation breeding by irradiation of gamma-ray in rose. The rooted cuttings of five cultivar roses (Lovelydia, Vital, Aqua, Yellowbabe and Haetsal) are grown by in a greenhouse. They were two difference treatment (Before rooting gamma-ray irradiation, After rooting gamma-ray irradiation) were exposed to dose of 70 Gy using a 60Co gamma-irradiator (150 TBq of capacity ; ACEL, Canada) at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. The irradiated plants were planted in a greenhouse, and investigated survival rate, mutation rate, flower buds number, and shoot length were planted after 80days. The two treatments of and growth characters was significantly reduced to 20% to 40% compared with the control. In addition, survival rate and mutation rate were ‘after rooting γ-ray irradiation (37.4~67.3% and 0.5~5.6%)’ higher than ‘before rooting γ-ray irradiation (18.3~50.8% and 0.3~3.4%)’. Mutation types were solid type, chimeric and mosaic petal mutants with various colors were induced from five rose. These results indicate that efficiency of mutation induction in rose by gamma-ray irradiation on petal colors and petal shapes in two difference treatment with rooted cutting system.

Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) native to Africa can be used as fiber, food, feedstock and bio plastic. This study was carried out to evaluate the mineral, amino acid and vitamin contents of six selected kenaf cultivars which are enable to produce seed under Korean circumstance. The leaves of three mutant cultivars (Jangdae, Jeokbong and Baekma), two original cultivars (Jinju, C14) and one Chinese cultivar (Auxu) were harvested at flowering time. Mineral components of kenaf leaves, such as calcium, potassium, and mineral, did not showed significant differences among the cultivars. As major amino acids including proline and phenylalanine, significant differences were found in these kenaf cultivars. The Auxu cultivar contained the highest amount of essential amino acid (Phenylalanine, Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine, Methionine and Lysine). The amount of vitamin displayed significant differences such as vitamin E and vitamin K among these cultivars. Especially, Jangdae cultivar contained the highest amount of vitamin E and vitamin K. Thus, these data suggested that Jangdae and Auxu is the most desirable cultivar containing high amount of vitamin and amino acid.

Radiation technologies have been widely used in mutation breeding of crops. Although gamma-radiation has been predominantly applied in radiation breeding, ion beam irradiation is recently emerging as a methodology highly effective in induction of mutations that are useful for plant breeding. Therefore, we investigated the biological effects caused by irradiation of two types of ion beams, which were proton and ion beams, respectively, in pepper. In the evaluation of survival rate, LD50 values were between 300 and 350 Gy, 30 and 40 Gy in irradiation of proton and carbon beams, respectively, while LD50 for gamma-ray was determined to be between 50 and 100 Gy. Growth traits including shoot length, root length, and root width were also examined in pepper seedlings according to does of proton and carbon ion beams to estimate biological effectiveness of each radiation. The result was applied in the construction of pepper mutant population which will be used to develop pepper breeding materials containing novel characteristics.

This study was conducted to determine the optimal dose of gamma-ray for mutation breeding in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor M.). Gamma-rays irradiated to dry seeds with various doses (0 to 1000 Gy) at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. Lethal dosage (LD50) was approximately 256 Gy. Significant decreases in growth characteristics (plant height, tiller number and fresh weight) were observed by dose of increased over 300 Gy. Reduction doses (RD50) was approximately 363 Gy in plant height. We also conducted comet assay to observe nucleus DNA damage due to gamma irradiation. In comet assay, a clear difference was identified over 100 Gy treatments. With increasing doses of gamma-ray in the range of 100 to 400 Gy, the rate of head DNA was decreased significantly from 93.52% to 67.57%. The most of the Sorghum cells were severely damaged in the integrity of DNA by gamma-ray. These data provide valuable information when the optimal dose should be chosen for purpose of mutation breeding program of Sorghum.

This study was carried out to determine the effects of different harvesting stage on nutritive value and the quality of ensiled kenaf after fermentation among six kenaf cultivars. Six kenaf cultivars including two different maturity groups, mid-late maturing (Auxu, Jangdae and Jinju) and early-maturing (Baekma, Jeokbong and C14), were planted on May 14, 2013. Four harvesting times were made at intervals of 20 days from 15 July to 16 September, 2013. In all cultivars, the CP (crude protein) contents were decreased by a delayed harvest; the CP contents of kenaf silage were ranged from 92 to 184 g kg-1. Interestingly, there were no significant difference of NDF (neutral detergent fiber) and ADF (acid detergent fiber) content between the cultivars, however NDF and ADF content of kenaf silage were significantly increased by a late harvest. The silages of all cultivars displayed a low pH ranges less than 4.0, which is sufficient for stable storage. The lactic acid contents in Auxu were from 2.57 to 3.21%, which is higher than other cultivars. The harvesting stages did not affect to the concentrations of butyric acid and acetic acid in all cultivars. These results indicate that the harvesting stage is more important for the quality of kenaf silage than cultivar differences. And kenaf silage could be also used as fodder for ruminants.

Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) is an annual herbaceous plant of the family Malvaceae that has been planted in Africa for more than 4000 years and used as source of fiber, energy and feed stock. Also, kenaf seeds are good source for edible oil used for first class cooking oil and margarine production. The seeds can be used for lubrication, soap, paint and varnishes. This study was carried out to evaluate fatty acids variation among sixteen kenaf germplasm and gamma-ray induced mutants derived from Jinju and Auxu. Linoleic, oleic, and palmitic acid were the predominant fatty acids in all kenaf seed oils. The sixteen accessions showed a wide range of fatty acid compositions, spanning from 28.94 to 43.36% saturated, 56.64 to 71.05% total unsaturated, 15.52 to 46.85% monounsaturated, and 13.56 to 48.97% polyunsaturated fatty acids. The mutant lines derived from Jinju, significantly surpassed parental mean for all the palmitic and oleic acid. Also, the mutant lines derived from Auxu showed broad ranges of variation in oleic and linoleic acid and narrow ranges of variation in stearic and palmitic acid. The relative amount of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) were increased at all the gamma-ray induced mutants. These results will provide a valuable information to assist parental selection of kenaf breeding.