Sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is a serious pest of many economically important crops. The insect has developed resistance to chemical insecticides. Therefore, the development of microbial agent is necessary. Among the several entomopathogenic fungi, Lecanicillium lecanii Btab01 which has high insecticidal activity was carried out this experiments. To develop mass culture, we subcultured L. lecanii Btab01 on PDA, TSA, SDA+Y, RA and GSA media at 25℃ incubator to select the optimal solid culture medium. Hyphal growth was measured every 3 or 4 days. L. lecanii Btab01 grew fastest in RA, followed GSA, SDA+Y, PDA and TSA. L. lecanii Btab01 was cultured on PDB, TSB, SDB+Y, RB, GSB media at 25℃, 180rpm shaking incubator to select the optimal liquid medium. Spore germination was measured by spread plate method every 12 or 24 hours. Spore germination appeared 7.8×108 CFU/ml after 4 days in RB, followed GSB (5.5×108 CFU/ml), SDB+Y (2.7×108 CFU/ml), TSB (1.7×108 CFU/ml) and PDB (0.6×108 CFU/ml).

Previously, we have reported a plant extract isolated from Lysimachia foenum gracum Herba as a new environment friendly biopesticide that has the mycelial growth inhibition effect on Magnaporthe oryzae, the pathogenic fungus of the rice blast disease. For the finding of additional biopesticide candidate, we tested the mycelial growth inhibitory effects about 700 species of plant extracts on PDA media. Among them, the extract of Anemarrhena asphodeloides showed prominent inhibitory effect of which IC50 was 139.7 ㎍/㎖. Mycelial radii of M. oryzae were measured on PDA medium containing the four organic solvent fractions isolated from total extract from A. asphodeloides. Ethyl acetate fraction showed the impressive inhibitory effect of IC50, 54.12 ㎍/㎖. In the subsequent rice field test for the total extract of A. asphodeloides, we obtained encouraging 62.0% control rate of rice blast disease without any phytotoxicity. It is almost equivalent to that of chemical pesticides implying the applicability of the extract as a new biopesticide. In further study, the analysis of active ingredients of the extract would be necessary for the development of a new biopesticide and for the verification of cellular mechanism by which the mycelial growth of M. oryzae inhibited.

In a previous study, we mapped 12 QTLs for 1,000 grain weight (TGW) in the 172 BC2F2 lines derived from a cross between Oryza sativa ssp. Japonica cv. Hwaseongbyeo and O. rufipogon. These QTLs explained 5.4 – 11.4% of the phenotypic variance for TGW. Marker-aided selection combined with backcrosses was employed to develop QTL-NILs for each QTL. BC2F2 lines with each target QTL were backcrossed to Hwaseongbyeo twice and then allowed to self to produce BC4F5 populations. SSR markers linked to TGW were employed to select QTL-NILs with the respective target QTL. Six QTL-NILs with the recurrent parent, Hwaseongbyeo were evaluated for nine traits for three years from 2007 and 2009. Differences were observed between each of the 6 QTL-NILs and Hwaseongbyeo in TGW. In addition to TGW, these QTL-NILs displayed differences in other agronomic traits possibly indicating a tight linkage of genes controlling these traits. The direction of the QTL for TGW in 6 QTL-NILs was consistent as in the BC2F2 lines from the same cross. Difference in TGW between each of the QTL-NILs and Hwaseongbyeo was associated with the difference in one or two grain shape traits; grain length, grain width, and grain thickness. SSR markers linked to the QTL for TGW will facilitate selection of the grain shape character in a breeding program to diversify grain shape and provide the foundation for map-based gene isolation. Also, the QTL-NILs developed in this report and the progenies from crosses between the QTL-NILs will be useful in clarifying epistatic interactions among QTLs for TGW.