The plant-specific NAC transcription factors control various biological processes, including plant development and stress responses. We have isolated an ANAC032 gene, one of the NAC transcription factor family, which was highly activated by multi-abiotic stresses, including high salt and drought in Arabidopsis. Here, we generated transgenic plants constitutively expressing ANAC032 and its knockout to identify the functional roles of ANAC032 in Arabidopsis under abiotic stress responses. The ANAC032-overexpressing plants showed enhanced tolerance to salinity and drought stresses. The anac032 knockout mutants were observed no significant changes under the high salt and drought conditions. We also monitored the expression of high salt and drought stress-responsive genes in the ANAC032 transgenic plants and anac032 mutant. The ANAC032 overexpression upregulated the expression of stress-responsive genes, RD29A and ERD10, under the stresses. Thus, our data identify that transcription factor ANAC032 plays as an enhancer for salinity and drought tolerance through the upregulation of stress-responsive genes and provides useful genetic traits for generating multi-abiotic stress-tolerant forage crops.

Waterlogging strongly affects maize (Zea mays L.) growth. It is necessary to find the screening method of waterlogging tolerant maize lines. This study was to investigate the growth characters at V3 stage of maize, when is very sensitive to waterlogging. Six Korean maize inbred lines were subjected to waterlogging at V3 stage for 30 days. The 30 days waterlogging treatment significantly reduced plant height, number of expanded leaves, and SPAD value, compared with the control plants. SPAD values were significantly different among the six inbred lines, KS140 was the highest. The dry matter accumulation of aerial and root part were significantly decreased by 30 days waterlogging. KS140 was the weightiest among inbred lines. The dry matter of adventitious root showed same trend. Waterlogging treatment significantly reduced to ear length and thickness, grains filling length, grain number per ear, and maize grain. Plant height, SPAD value, and number of fully-expanded leave showed high correlation with maize grain yield, but number of senescent leaves, dry matter of adventitious root and TR ratio did not, suggesting that the former three traits may be good indicator for evaluating 30-day waterlogging tolerance of maize inbred lines. KS164 was the highest yield by increasing of grains filling length and grain number per ear of among waterlogging inbred lines. According to the results, evaluation of maize waterlogging should be consider both early growth characteristics and resilience in the later growth stages.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers allow rapid screening of crop varieties in early growth stages. We developed a modified SNP PCR procedure for assaying SNPs in maize. For SNP marker development, we chosen 200 SNP sites from MaizeGDB database, and designed two base pair mismatch primers based on putative SNP site of B73 genome sequence. PCR products size was from 200 to 500 bp or was not shown in the case of SNP site existing in Korean silage corns. Using previously discovered 16 primer sets, we investigated distinctness of 50 silage F1 hybrid corns including 10 Korean silage corns developed by RDA such as Gangdaok, Kwangpyeongok, Dapyeongok, Andaok, Yanganok, Singwangok, Jangdaok, Cheongdaok, Pyeonggangok, and Pyeonganok as well as 40 foreign commercial silage corns. From cluster analysis, we confirmed that 10 Korean silage F1 hybrid corns were clearly distinguished except for Singwangok, P1395, and several foreign commercial corns, and selected minimum SNP primer combination for Gangdaok, Jangdaok, Pyeonggangok, and Pyeonganok. Therefore, development of SNP marker sets might be faster, cheaper, and feasible breed discrimination method through simple PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis.

Teosinte, commonly known as wild species of corn, has distributed in Central and South America. It is believed that teosinte contains genes for resistance to flooding because of the climate characteristics of the collected countries. Recent studies have shown that teosinte has the ability to form adventitious roots, to develop aerenchyma tissues of teosinte, and the resistance to toxic substances under flooding soil condition. Therefore, development of corn varieties to cope with climate change and the growing corn at paddy field in Korea are required to introduce the characteristics of teosinte. However, in order to utilize teosinte resources, preconditions must be settled such as photoperiodic responsibility, physiological and ecological characteristics. Also if the preconditions are studied together with the metabolic level studies, the possibility of utilization for flooding resistant varieties will be even higher.

To identify the limited and adaptable sowing date and select the double cropping system, two different cropping systems such as potato (Sumi, Chubaek) - maize (Ilmichal, Yanganok) and maize (Ilmichal, Yanganok) - potato (Chubaek) were conducted in paddy and upland field condition. We observed and compared plant growth characteristics, yield potential, and income at two different cropping systems. Average yield of potato (first crop, Sumi) in paddy field was higher than upland field when planted at March 20. The plant height and stem length of the second cropping potato sown at August 20 were 30 cm higher than first cropping potato sown at March 20, which is reduced about 1,500 ~ 2000 kg/ 10a of the second cropping potato yield. Stem length and the first ear height of the first cropping corn Ilmichal sown at April 15 in paddy field were 5~10 cm higher than upland field and ear property was similar. Silking date of the second cropping corn Ilmichal sown at July 3 were about 19 day earlier than the first cropping corn Ilmichal sown at April 15, However, both stem length and the first ear height of the second cropping corn Ilmichal sown at July 3 were small compared to those of sown at April 15. Ear property of Yanganok sown at June 19 and July 3 were similar in both paddy and upland field. Fresh weight yield (aerial part, kg/10a) of Yanganok sown at June 19 were 500 ~ 700 kg/10a higher than those of sown at July 3. In view of income comparison between two different cropping systems, Chubaek-Ilmichal and Chubaek-Yanganok cropping systems were best combination, Ilmichal-Chubaek and sumi- Yanganok cropping systems were worst combination in upland field. Chubaek-Ilmichal and Chubaek- Yanganok cropping systems were best combination, Ilmichal-Chubaek cropping systems was worst combination in paddy field.

동남아시아 주요 옥수수 생산국인 인도네시아의 옥수수 생 산과 생산성 제한 요인에 대하여 조사·분석한 결과는 다음과 같다. 1. 인도네시아는 북위 5°에서 남위 10°사이에 위치하여 연 중 열대성 기후를 보이며 건기와 우기의 구별이 뚜렷하다. 2. 옥수수 재배면적은 약 4,000천ha 정도이며 생산량은 2009년 이후로 17,000천톤 이상을 유지하고 있다. 그 가운데 수확면적과 생산량의 약 50%를 Jawa섬이 차지하고 있다. 2014년 단위 면적당 생산성은 4.95ton/ha로 1980년대에 비하 여 약 3배 증가하였으나 지역적으로는 2.5 ~ 7.32ton/ha의 변이 를 보여 지역 간 차이가 심하다. 3. 생물적 생산성 제한요인은 downy mildew (Peronosclerospora), maydis leaf blights (Helminthosporium spp.), leaf spots (Curvularia spp.), rusts (Puccinia polysora), stalk and ear rots (Fusarium spp., Diplodia spp.), banded leaf and sheath blight (BLSB, Rhizoctonia solani) 등의 병과 바 구미(Sitophilus spp.), shoot flies (Atherigona spp.), Asian corn borers (Ostrinia furnacalis), 멸강충(Mythimna spp.), corn ear worm (Helicoverpa spp.) 등의 충이나, 가장 큰 영 향을 주는 요인은 downy mildew이다. 4. 비생물적 생산성 제한요인은 토양의 산성화에 따른 척박 토양과 관개가 자유롭지 못한 전작 지대의 한발피해 등이며, 경제·사회적 제한요인으로는 비료, 농약 등 농자재 투입 비용 과 hybrid종자 가격 등이다. 5. 인도네시아에 적응하는 품종 개발 시 생산성 제한 요인을 극복하기 위한 주요 타겟 형질은 환경 스트레스 내성으로서, 특 히 downy mildew 저항성과 내산성, 내건성이 요구된다.

In monsoon climates, persistent shade is a troublesome weather condition with an impact on the growth and yield of corn (Zea mays L.). We imposed 7, 14, 21, and 28 days of consecutive shade (CS) on Gwangpyeongok and P3394 corn hybrids at the beginning of the kernel filling stages. Shade had little impact on leaf area and dry matter accumulation in the stem and leaves. However, dry matter accumulation in the ear was severely reduced by approximately 28% and 53% after 14 and 28 days of CS, respectively. For the components of grain yield, 7 and 14 days of shade did irreparable damage to the number of filled kernels, the kernel number per ear row, and the percent of filled kernels, but did little damage or reversible damage after removal of the shade to the 100-grain weight and the row number per ear. Shade significantly reduced the relative growth rate (RGR) due to a decrease in the net assimilation rate (NAR). These results suggest that source activity limitation by shade during the kernel filling stages leads to the inhibition of sink activity and size. The yield of biomass, ear, and grain logistically declined as the length of CS increased. Probit analysis revealed that the number of days of CS needed to cause 25% and 50% reductions in grain yield were 3.7 and 23.1, respectively. These results suggest that the plant yield loss induced by shade at the beginning of the kernel filling stages is mainly achieved within the first 7 days of consecutive shade.

Understanding the response of a crop to water deficiency is the first step towards breeding drought-tolerant varieties. In this study, inbred maize (Zea mays L.) lines KS140 and KS141 were subjected to drought stress by withholding water for 10 days at the V5 or V6 leaf stage. Water-deficient plants experienced a decrease in relative leaf water content, stomatal conductance, net CO2 assimilation rate, and water use efficiency compared to well-watered plants. This was accompanied by a decrease in the relative leaf water content that resulted in severe growth retardation in KS140 and KS141. However, leaf chlorophyll content in KS140 was unchanged. To understand the proteome dynamics during the 10-day drought stress in maize leaves, comparative proteome analysis was carried out between the well-watered and water-withheld leaves. Differential expression was observed for 29 protein spots from KS140 and 14 protein spots from KS141, and these were identified using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Among identified proteins, metabolism and stress related proteins were highly were increased by drought stress. This study provides a protein profile of a Korean maize inbred line during drought stress, which will be valuable for future studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying drought resistance and for development of selective breeding markers for drought tolerance in maize.

Fresh edible sweet corns demand relatively short period to harvest fresh ears, which can allow farmers to make a choice sweet corns for various cropping systems. For this reason, we were to find the optimum planting date of late-planted sweet corns to sell fresh ears in the autumn linked to cropping system with winter crops, investigating yield and properties of marketable fresh ears and growth traits of sweet corns (cv. 'Godangok' and cv. 'Guseulok') depending on planting dates such as 10 July, 20 July, and 30 July in Suwon 2012 and 2013, respectively. The 20 July-planted sweet corns showed the most fresh ear yield. However, the 10 July-planted and the 30 July-planted had 32% less yield caused by consecutive rainfall from 10 July through 20 July, and 15% less yield due to low air temperature during ripening than the 20 July-planted, respectively. The 10 and 20 July-planted sweet corns had average 140g of a fresh ear weight and 15% heavier ear than the 30 July-planted. For the July-planted sweet corns, silking days after planting (r=-0.80**), and harvesting days after silking (r=-0.97**) and planting (r=-0.91**) were highly negatively correlated with daily mean air temperature during the period, resulting in it takes 1,100 growing degree days (GDD) to harvest fresh ears from the July-planted sweet corns. The fresh ears of the 20 July-planted sweet corns are able to be harvested by early October. Therefore it will be a good choice for the cropping system based on winter vegetable cash crops such as temperate garlic and onion with medium or late maturity. Among three planting dates 20 July-planted sweet corns had the best field performance in every year considering fresh ear yield, ear size, and stability to grow.

Understanding the host defense mechanisms in response to brown leaf spot disease caused by Cochliobolus miyabeanus is very important for production of resistant plant. In this study, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DGE) in conjunction with mass spectrometry was utilized to unravel changes of stress inducible proteins in rice leaves infected with C. miyabeanus. For this purpose, we firstly observed disease developmental process of C. miyabeanus in rice using trypan blue, anilin blue, acid fuchsin staining, and DAB staining for ROS detection and expressional abundance of ROS related proteins in rice leaves inoculated was confirmed by Western blotting. Proteins were extracted by PEG fractionation and their expression patterns were analyzed by 2-DGE and subjected to image analysis using the ImageMaster 6.0 2D Platinum software, resulting in the identification of 86 differentially expressed protein spots with significantly changes (p<0.05) compared with control. MALDI-TOFTOF-MS analysis revealed that 69 proteins including 42 and 27 significantly up- and down-regulated proteins, respectively, were identified. Based on gene ontology analysis, identified proteins were classified according to their functional groups: metabolism (20%), oxygen-detoxifying (13%), protein stress/defense (24%). Thus, these results for the first time suggest that differentially induced proteins may play a key role for understanding host defense mechanisms during rice -C. miyabeanus interaction.

The rice blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae (M. oryzae) is one of the most serious diseases of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) in most rice-growing regions of the world. In order to investigate early responsible genes in rice in response to M. oryzae, we analyzed transcriptomics analysis using 300 K tilling microarray chip. The quality of RNA samples was initially validated by 4 defense related genes and phytoalexins measurement using RT-PCR and HPLC, respectively, which are well known defense markers. We determined that accumulation of 608 genes showed statistically significant changes in the level of transcription (>2 fold change, P<0.05). Among them, 261 genes were more up-regulated in incompatible interaction than that of compatible one. We further analyzed GO enrichment analysis of the 41 and 231 which were 2 fold up-regulated genes at 12h and 48h in incompatible interaction, respectively, using Rice Oligo nucleotide Array Database (http://ricearray.org). Furthermore, MapMan analysis (http://mapman.gabipd.org/) revealed that 21 and 85 genes including 18 receptor-like genes which were more induced in incompatible interaction compared to compatible interaction were found to be involved in biotic stress. Thus, this study suggests that early inducible genes including receptor-like protein kinases in incompatible interaction may play a key role in disease resistance against M. oryzae attacks.

Here, we first demonstrate that identification of rice brown spot disease fungus (Cochliobolus miyabeanus, C. miyabeanus) proteins is possible in infected tissues using in planta apoplastic proteome with non-destructive tissues. In planta apoplastic proteins from rice leaves inoculated with C. miyabeanus, CM2 (compatible race), were isolated by vacuum infiltration with CaCl2/Na-acetateextractionbuffer, separated by SDS-PAGE, and identified by MudPIT. Of the 529 proteins that were identified by MudPIT, a large proportion (490) was from the rice. Numerous carbohydrate metabolic process (48), oxidation and reduction (44), response to oxidative stress (20%) were identified and confirmed their expression at RNA levels using microarray. Bioinformatic analysis showed that 176 and 39 of these proteins have a signal peptide in rice and rice brown spot fungus, respectively, using Signal P. The large proportion of proteins interestingly identified from the in planta apoplast were involved inprotease, hydrophobin, and host cell wall hydrolysis (Xylanase, beta-glucosidase) derived from pathogen. Thus, we suggest that in planta rice apoplastic secretome will be an important clue to understand the rice-rice brown spot fungus interactions.