This study was conducted to investigate the effect of periods of sperm preincubation, concentrations and storage periods of miniature pig sperm on in vitro penetration of porcine follicular oocytes. High concentration (1×105, 2.5×105, 5×105, 1×106, 5×106 and 1×107) did support sperm penetration than low concentrations (P<0.05). However, polyspermic oocyte rates were increased with high concentrations of sperm. On the other hand, sperm preincubated during 1, 2 or 5h could be penetrated than sperm preincubated during 0, 3 or 4h (P<0.05). When sperm were storaged with different periods, in vitro pentration rates were significantly higher 0～2 days than 3～4 days of sperm storage (p<0.05). These results indicate that sperm treatment factors can effect in vitro penetration in miniature pig.

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.

The objective of this study was to analyze the genetic diversity using SSR marker and investigate the fatty acid composition of perilla (P. frutescens var. frutescens) germplasm. Genetic diversity among 95 accessions, which consisted of 29 weedy types and 66 landrace accessions, was evaluated based on 12 SSR markers carrying 91 alleles. The mean values of observed (HO) and expected heterozygosities (HE) were 0.574 and 0.640, respectively, indicating a considerable amount of polymorphism within this collection. A genetic distance-based phylogeny grouped into two distinct groups, which were the landrace, moderate and weedy type, genetic distance (GD) value was 0.609. The physicochemical traits about crude oil contents and fatty acid compositions were analyzed using GC. Among tested germplasm, the total average oil contents (%) showed a range from 28.57 to 49.67 %. Five fatty acids and their contents in the crude oils are as follows: α-linolenic acid (41.12%-51.81%), linoleic acid (15.38%-16.43%), oleic acid (18.93%-27.28%), stearic acid (2.56%-4.01%), and palmitic acid (7.38%-10.77%). The average oil content of wild types was lower than landrace, and the oil content of middle genotype accessions was higher than other germplasm, but no significant variation between landrace and wild types was shown. Nevertheless, IT117174, landrace of Korea, was highest in crude oil content (47.11%) and linolenic acid composition (64.58%) among the used germplasm. These traits of the selected accessions will be helped for new functional plant breeding in perilla crop.

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench), one of the minor crops grown in Korea belonging to the Polygonaceae family, is an annual crop widely cultivated in Asia, Europe, and America and has a character of outcrossing and self-incompatibility. The objective of this study was to analyze the genetic variability, phylogenetic relationships and population structure of buckwheat landraces of Korea using SSR markers. Ten microsatellite markers have been detected from a total of 79 alleles among the 179 buckwheat accessions were collected from Korea. The number of allele per marker locus (NA) ranged from 2 (GB-FE-001, GB-FE-043 and GB-FE-055) to 31 (GB-FE-035) with an average of 7.9 alleles. GB-FE-035 was the most polymorphic with the highest PIC value 0.93. Major allele frequencies (MAF) for the 10 polymorphic loci varied from 0.12 to 0.97 with a mean allele frequency of 0.57. The expected heterozygosity (HE) values ranged from 0.05 to 0.94 with an average of 0.53. The observed heterozygosity (HO) ranged from 0.06 to 0.92 with an average of 0.42. The overall polymorphic information contents (PIC) values ranged from 0.05 to 0.93 with an average of 0.48. The landrace accessions of buckwheat used in the present study were not distinctly grouped according to geographic distribution. The study concludes that the results revealed genetic differentiation was low according to the geographic region because of outcrossing and self-incompatibility. We reported that our analyses on the genetic diversity of common buckwheat cultivars of Korea were performed by using of microsatellite markers.