Cryptotympana atrata belongs to the family Cicadidae, has long been recognized as a damaging plant-sucking pest, and is distributed in East Asian countries. In addition, their cries cause direct harm to us through noise pollution and also reported twig damage in the forest environments. In this study, we isolated strains of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium that occurred from C. atrata collected this year. Here, we provide the morphological character and molecular phylogenetic relationship of this species. This is the first record of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium viridulum isolated from C. atrata in Korea and provides a candidate strain with potential use for biological agents.

A stable method for strain distinction using viral RNA 1 structures analyses was developed and compared with the combined RT-PCR and RAPD methods. Seven out of 61 random primers were found to be polymorphic based on RAPD analysis resulting on the differentiation of the 33 BaYMV isolates into four distinct groups according to geographical districts. The first and largest group includes 13 isolate and consists mainly of two-rowed malting barley in Haenam area. The second group had ten collections from inland in west southern. The third group had seven isolates from west southern coastal region, where mainly six-rowed naked barley is cultivated. The last fourth group included three isolates from Gyungnam region in east southern area. Conclusively, RNA 1 analysis proved to be stable and efficient method for strain distinction for Korean BaYMV isolates. Further, results of pathogenicity and RNA 1 structure analyses revealed four groups BaYMV strains and were distributed all over Korea, represented by Naju, Haenam-okcheon, Iksan and Milyang.

This study was conducted to investigate the occurrence of Soil borne wheat mosaic virus(SbWMV) in barley fields in Korea and to examine the host pathogenicity of SbWMV. By using the ELISA test, SbWMV was detected in the six regions : Suwon, Milyang, Jinju, Youngkwang, Iksan, and Chonju. SbWMV was isolated from the two strains, Albori strain from Jinju and Eunpamil strain from Milyang. SbWMV was collected from leaves showing mosaic, yellowing and necrosis stripes. SbWMV was inoculated mechanically on 1∼1.5 leaf stages with leaf-rubbing to identify the host pathogenicity of 36 Korean barley cultivars, a wheat cultivar, two rye cultivars, three Japanese barley cultivars and Chenopodium amaranticola. Viral sympoms of inoculated leaves appeared on moulted loaves about 4 to 6 weeks of inoculation. Baegdong and Tapgolbori, infected from Albori strain and Eunpamil strain infected from Samdobori showed much higher susceptibility than C. amaranticola and C. quinoa which showed ring spots and chlorotic spots respectively. Virus particles were observed by the electron microscope. They were rod-shapes, which are bipartite, of 142 nm or 281 nm in length with 20 nm diameter on infected leaves. Specific detection and identification of SbWMV was set up using the RT-PCR. PCR fragments of SbWMV(0.5kb) were obtained by using the designed primers for SbWMV RNA 2.

This test checked jujube witches'-broom disease, sumac witches'-broom disease, paulonia witches'- broom disease, and mulberry dwarf disease whether or not they were infected by phytoplasma, using universal and specific primers. Upon treatment of DNA amplified by PCR of phytoplasma with Alu I , Hpa II and Sat I restricted enzymes, distinction of phytoplasmas was possible. Particularly, phytoplasma of each host was distinguishable by treatment of Hpa II restricted enzyme. Meanwhile, analysis of restricted enzymes of jujube witches'-broom disease showed a higher infectivity of phytoplasmas of two origins. There were a lot of relations between jujube witches'-broom disease and sumac witches'-broom disease, and between paulonia witches'-broom disease and mulberry dwarf disease.

A rapid and sensitive assay for specific detection and identification of barley yellow mosaic virus(BaYMV) was set up using the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR). A couple of primers was select to discriminate the viruses. PCR fragments of BaYMV(ca.0.9 kb) were obtained by using the method designed for BaYMV capsid protein. RT-PCR fragments were cloned with vector pT7 Blue and the resulting clones were sequenced. Capsid protein of BaYMV consisted of 297 amino acids and 891 nucleotides. The capsid protein sequence of BaYMV showed that 98% of nucleotides and 99% of amino acids homology.

An isolate of barley yellow mosaic virus(BaYMV-HN) obtained from Haenam, Korea was compared with two BaYMV strains. BaYMV-Ⅱ-1 from Japan and BaYMV-G from Germany. The sequence of the 3'-terminal 3817nucleotides[excluding the poly (A) tail] of RNA 1 of BaYMV-HN was determined to start within a long open reading frame coding for a part of the NIa-VPg polymerase(26 amino acids). NIa-Pro polymerase (343 amino acids), NIb polymerase(528 amino acids) and the entire capsid protein(297 amino acids), which is followed by a noncoding region(NCR) of 235 nucelotides. In the partial ORFs, BaYMV-HN shows higher sequence homology with BaYMV-Ⅱ-1(99.5%) than BaYMV-G(92.7%). The 3' non-coding regions of BaYMV-HN(235nt) shows higher nucleotide sequence homology with BaYMV-G(235nt)(99.6%) than BaYMV-Ⅱ-1(231nt)(97.0%). The 3' NIa-Pro protein sequence of BaYMV-HN shows higher amino acid sequence homology with BaYMV-Ⅱ-1(95.0%) than BaYMV-G(93.6%), but, NIb protein sequence of BaYMV-HN shows same all amino acid sequence. The capsid protein sequence of BaYMV-HN(297aa) shows same with BaYMV-Ⅱ-1, and shows higher nucleotide sequence homology with BaYMV-UK (from United Kingdom)(97.3%) than BaYMV-G(96.9%) and G2(96.9%). Difference of capsid protein amino acid were 0-9 between the Japan, United Kingdom and Germany and were 2-6 between all Korean isolates. Many of the amino acid differences are located in the N-terminal regions of the capsid proteins from 1 to 74 amino acid positions.