Cordycepin (3’-deoxyadenosin), a polyadenylation specific inhibitor, is the main functional component in Cordyceps militaris which is one of the top three famous traditional Chinese medicine. It has been shown to possess many pharmacological activities including immunologically stimulating, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, and anti-virus, anti-infection effects. However, its anti-cancer molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. In this study, the apoptotic effects by cordycepin were investigates in human leukemia cells. Treatment of cordycepin significantly inhibited cells growth in a concentrationdependent manner by inducing apoptosis, as evidenced by morphological change and apoptotic cell death such as formation of apoptotic bodies, DNA fragmentation and increased populations of sub-G1. Induction of apoptosis by cordycepin was associated with modulation of Bcl-2 and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAP) family expression. Cordycepin also increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, activation of casepase-3, caspase-8, caspase-9, cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), β-catenin and phospholipase C (PLC)-γ1 protein. The quenching of ROS generation by N-acetyl-L-cysteine administration, a scavenger of ROS, reversed the cordycepin-induced apoptosis effects. Theresults suggested that cordycepin may be a potential chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of leukemia patients [This work was supported by Blue-Bio Industry RIC at Dong-Eui University as a RIC (08-06-07) program of ITEP under Ministry of Knowledge Economy].

In order to analyze the sex-linked lethal mutagenic effects of ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) in Drosophila melanogaster, the mutagenicities from the attached-X and Basc method have been detected. The indexes of relative lethal mutations at 2.0 and 4.0mM EMS treated group using the attached-X method were about 1.5 and 2.4 times than that of 1.0mM treated group, respectively. EMS had more pronounced effect in the sperm and spermatid stages in the induction of X-linked lethal mutations during the spermatogenesis. And, in the induction of X-linked recessive lethal mutations from the Basc method, the mutation frequency of 4.0mM EMS treated group as compared with 2.0mM was more than three fold. Two assay systems used in this study can support mutually according to experimental purposes, and the area of its application can be considerably wide.

The genetic variabilities of second chromosomes concealed Sasang natural and experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster have been analyzed. The experimental population was composed of D.melanogaster which had the lethal-free second chromosome collected from Sasang natural population in 1982. The results were as follow; The mean frequencies of deleterious genes were estimated to be 33.33% in Sasang natural population and 31.72% in experimental population. The allelism rates in lethal genes isolated from the natural and experimental populations were calculated to be about 0.95% and 12.28%, respectively. The allelism rates between lethal genes isolated from the natural population and those of the experimental population were calculated to be about 0.01%. The mean values of elimination by frequencies of deleterious genes and allelism rates were 0.0011 in the natural population and 0.0124 in the experimental population. The frequencies of phenotypic sterility of males in the natural and experimental populations were estimated to be 1.49% and 1.36%, respectively. The frequencies of genotypic sterility of females and males were estimated to be 0.90% and 1.80% in the natural population, and that of males was 2.38% in the experimental population.

Physiological toxic and mutagenic effects of gramoxone in Drosophila melanogaster were invetigated. Gramoxone was highly toxic on the development, resulting in of lowering the viability and in prolongation of the developmental times. Adults treated with gramoxone during the developmental stages caused a lowering of the productivity and a little change in protein quantity. But the effect on the sex-linked lethal mutagenesis was found to be negative. The order of mortality causing adult stage feeding to gramoxone in the D. melanogaster complex was like this ; D. mauritiana, D. sechellia, D. simulans and D. melanogaster. Two species of the D. yakuba complex were alike. Those results were more or less correlation with speciation of the D. melanogaster subgroup.