전 세계적으로 인구가 증가함에 따라 유전자변형(GeneticallyModified; GM) 작물의 생산 역시 가파르게 상승하고 있다.국내에서 GM 작물의 재배가 아직까지는 승인된 바가 없지만식품, 사료, 가공용으로 많은 양이 수입되고 있다. 1. 결과적으로 GMO의 수입이 매년 증가하여 수송과정이나가공과정에서 비의도적인 방출이 발생하며, 주변환경에서 자라고 있는 일반 재배품종으로의 유전자이동 등 국내 자연환경에 미칠 수 있는 영향이 우려되고 있다. 2. GM 작물 중 우리나라에 가장 많은 양이 수입되는 GM옥수수의 비의도적인 방출을 확인하기 위해 2009년 7월부터9월까지 국내 곡물항구와 사료공장을 중심으로 모니터링을 수행하였다. 3. 조사는 주로 개방된 항구의 곡물저장고 지역과 사료공장으로 가는 수송경로에서 옥수수 종자와 자라고 있는 옥수수식물체를 수집하여 진행되었다. 4. PCR 분석을 통해 14개의 GM 옥수수 식물체와 수집된종자를 발아시켜 얻은 식물체 샘플 26개에서 GM 옥수수 유전자가 발견되었다. 5. 낙곡에 의한 GM 옥수수 종자의 유출이나 식물체가 자연환경에서 자라고 있는 것이 우리나라의 생태계에 어떠한 영향을 줄지 예측하기는 어렵지만, 법적으로 GMO를 철저히 관리하도록 되어 있으며, 사회적으로도 수입 GMO를 안전하게 관리하고 있다는 인식을 높이기 위해 주기적인 GMO의 모니터링이 수행되어야 할 것으로 판단된다.

연직수문의 방류량 계산에 필요한 수리학적 변수는 유량계수, 수문개방고, 상류수심이다. 자동수문의 수문개방고는 나머지 변수에도 영향을 미치기 때문에, 운영 중 수문개방고의 거동을 예측하는 것은 정밀한 수문설계를 위해 매우 중요하다. 본 연구에서는 부력식 연직수문 모형을 대상으로 부력이론으로 계산한 수문개방고와 실험에서 방류 중에 측정한 값과의 관계로 부터, 임의의 상류수심에서 수문개방고를 예측할 수 있는 무차원 관계식을 도출하였다. 측정값이 계산 값과 차이가 나는 것은 동수압 하중에 의한 영향임을 압력계수를 이용하여 검증하였다. 유량계수는 수문개방율과의 무차원 관계식을 도출하였다. 도출된 관계식들을 홍수추적에 적용한 결과, 수문설계 시에는 동수압 하중으로 인한 수문개방 억제 효과를 충분히 고려하여야 하는 것으로 판단되었다.

Ionizing radiation directly and indirectly affects gene expression within the plant genome. To access the physiological response of rice to different types of ionizing radiation, rice seeds were exposed to gamma-ray and ion beam radiation. Exposure to ionizing radiation dramatically decreased the shoot length compared with non-irradiated plants. Fluorescence-activated-cell-sorting (FACs) was used to measure DNA contents. There were significant correlations of dose-dependent between irradiated plant and non-irradiated plant. The radicals induced by the ionizing radiation in the plant could be observed by electron spin resonance (ESR). It was confirmed that the number of free radicals in cell was greatly increased all irradiated plants than non-irradiated plant. A significant positive correlation was shown between ionizing radiation dose and signal intensity. In order to determine the Genetic diversity, AFLP analysis was conducted with the irradiated plant and non-irradiated plant. Based on band patterns, the cluster analysis was conducted to evaluate the genetic variation by using the UPGMA (Unweighted Pair Grouping Method of Averages). Genetic diversity of irradiated plants by low dose ion beam was the closest non-irradiated plant and irradiated by high dose gamma-ray was the furthest from non-irradiated. We describe the detailed methods of ionizing irradiation and discuss its applications in genetic research as well as plant breeding.

Ionizing radiation affects gene expression from plant genomes. To monitor the genome-wide transcriptional changes induced by three types of ionizing radiation, we used the rice RNA sequencing to identify genes that are up- or down-regulated by gamma rays (GAs), proton (PRs) and ion beams (IBs). The Oryza sativa jacalin-like lectin domain containing proteins (OsJAC1) gene was highly induced by GAs, PRs and IBs. OsJAC1 was selected based on the expression patterns of a genome-wide dataset of RNA sequencing. Many jacalin-related lectin genes have been shown to be associated with disease resistance, biotic and abiotic stress signaling. Therefore, we studied its expression pattern in response to different abiotic stress and phytohormone treatments. The expression patterns of OsJAC1 under two different abiotic stress conditions (salt and heat stress) and phytohormones (salicylic acid and methyl jasmonate) were examined. The transcripts of OsJAC1 were significantly induced in response to abiotic stress conditions, including salt and heat treatments. In addition, it was induced in response to the salicylic acid and methyl jasmonate treatments, respectively. To investigate the sub-cellular localization of OsJAC1, the gene was expressed as a fusion protein tagged with GFP, in tobacco leaf epidermis and examined under confocal microscope. The OsJAC1 was clearly localized at the nucleus. These results provide critical insights into the molecular functions of the rice jacalin-like lectin domain containing proteins as receptors of external signals.

‘Tocomi-1’, a new japonica rice cultivar derived from a 200 Gy gamma ray irradiation with high tocopherol content and red pericarp. The local adaptability test of MRXII-1001-1 was carried out from 2012 to 2014 and it was named as ‘Tocomi-1’ in 2014. This variety is medium matured with heading date of August 12 in honam plain area of Korea. This variety is about 80 cm tall culm length and 106 spikelets per panicle. Its 1,000 grain-weight of rice seeds is 25.4 g. The yield potential of this variety is about 5.15 MT/ha in local adaptability test for three years. This variety exhibited greater seed longevity than the Donganbyeo, indicating a crucial role for tocopherols in maintaining viability during quiescence, and displayed faster seedling growth during the early growth stage. Tocopherol contents was 50% higher than the Donganbyeo. To study the molecular mechanism underlying vitamin E biosynthesis, we examined the expression patterns of seven rice genes encoding vitamin E biosynthetic enzymes. Accumulation levels of the OsVTE2 transcript and OsVTE2 protein in the ‘Tocomi-1’ were significantly higher than in the Donganbyeo. Sequence analysis revealed that the ‘Tocomi-1’ harbored a point mutation in the OsVTE2 promoter region, which resulted in the generation of MYB transcription factor—binding cis-element. These results help identify the promoter regions that regulate OsVTE2 transcription, and offer insights into the regulation of tocopherol content in ‘Tocomi-1’.

To define whole genome-level of structural variation by ionization energies and radiation doses in plant, the seeds of Ilpum rice cultivar were acutely irradiated with gamma rays (100Gy, 200Gy, and 400Gy) and ion-beams (20Gy, 40Gy, and 80Gy), respectively. Six M1 rice plants were re-sequenced by Hi-Seq2500 with Ilpum cultivar as control. The average sequencing coverage of the individuals was 10.6X, and the average mapping rate to the rice reference genome (IRGSP-1.0) sequence was 96.95%. The individual plants were irradiated with gamma-400Gy and ion-50Gy had highest variation of SNP with 471,837 and 469,147, respectively. The number of insertion/deletion was 77,500 and 77,106, the synonymous and frame-shift were 7,859 and 7,763 in above two individuals. Although high genome variation shown between Ilpum cultivar and irradiated individuals, there were non-correlation between number of variation and radiation doses. However, five individuals, except ion-20Gy, showed 33 common variant blocks (CVBs) spanning 6 Mb in whole rice genome (1.6%). The CVBs were distributed on 12 rice chromosomes, Chromosome 6 had biggest CVB (5 blocks, 1.3Mb), whereas chromosome 9 had smallest CVB (0.01Mb). Total five hundred fifty one genes were in CVBs which can regard radiation sensitive genes or may be regarded as radiation hot spots in rice genome. This study will contribute to the improvement of the radiation mutation breeding research in genetic and genomic aspect.

Exposure to ionizing radiation is regarded as a kind of abiotic stresses that can change the expression of genes in living organisms. This study aimed on investigating the variations in gene expressions induced by two different types of irradiations with different doses, which were low linear energy transfer (LET) gamma rays (100, 200, and 400 Gy) and high LET ion-beams (20, 40, and 80 Gy) on rice. RNA sequencing was carried out using the Illumina HiSeq-2500 platform. The average amount of reads were 4.8 Gb per individual, and 5 to 8% of the reads were removed after quality control. More than 90% of the RNA-seq reads were mapped to the rice reference genome sequence (IRGSP-1.0). A total of 247 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by comparison of the gene expression levels between the wildtype and the irradiated individuals. The 247 DEGs were divided into five modules and 27 intra-modular hub genes were found using the weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) method. The MEturquiose module had the most number of genes with 75 related to carbohydrate and small molecule metabolic processes. The co-expression network reconstructed using ARACNE (algorithm for reconstruction of accurate cellular networks) showed specific up- or down-regulation of the genes in each module according to the types and doses of radiation. This study will contribute to understanding the gene expression responses to ionizing irradiation.

Perilla frutescens (L.) is an edible plant, not only used as s food ingredient, but also in skin cream, soaps, and medicinal preparetions. ‘Atom-Ros’, a perilla (Perilla frutescenc (L.) Britt. cv. Chookyoupjaso was developed in 1995 by 200 Gy gamma irradiation-mutagenesis. This new cultivar has high rosmarinic acid content more than two fold compare with ‘Chookyoupjaso’ control. The observed phenotypical difference was changed leaf color of the ‘Atom-Ketone’ from violet to green. The yield potential of this cultivar (123.5 kg/10a) was 2.14 fold higher than that of ‘Chookyoupjaso’ (57.65 kg/10a). The methanol extracts of ‘Atom-Ros’ were tested for inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophase cells. Atom-Ros showed significant inhibition of NO production. This rosmarinic acid extracted from ‘Atom-Ros’ has a good potential to be developed as an antioxidant agent.

Perilla frutescens (L.) is an annual herbaceous and ornamental plant in the Lamiaceae family. Perilla frutescens (L.) Britt.cv.Chookyoupjaso were irradiated using a 200 Gy gamma ray in 1995. By HPLC analysis, this new cultivar significantly induced isoegomaketone content compared with ‘Chookyoupjaso’ control. The phenotypical difference was the changed leaf color of the ‘Atom-Ketone’ from violet to green. The yield potential of this cultivar (106 kg/10a) was 1.83 folds higher than that of ‘Chookyoupjaso’ (57.65 kg/10a). The methanol extracts of ‘Atom-Ketone’ inhibit nitric oxide (NO) production in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. This extract was further partitioned using ethyl acetate (EtOAc), butanol (BuOH), and water. The EtOAc fraction (EF-Atom-Ketone) was evaluated for antiinflammatory activities. These results indicated that the EF-Atom-Ketone reduced NO production by inhibiting inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression. The EF-Atom-Ketone treatment also significantly diminished expression of MCP-1 and IL-6. Therefore, ‘Atom-Ketone’ reveals the potential therapeutic use of bioactive