Previously, several levels of phylogenetic relationships in an insect order Odonata have been estimated using morphological and molecular markers. For the molecular phylogeny rRNA sequences were mainly, but other markers were not frequently employed. In this study, we sequenced both two mitochondrial genes (COI and 16S rRNA) and nuclear genes (28S rRNA and elongation factor-1α), composed of ~4,002 bp from 71 species of Odonata, occurring mostly in South Korea. These concatenated sequences were utilized to test the previous phylogenetic hypotheses of Odonata via Bayesian Inference (BI) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) algorithms, along with the data partition option available in BI method. Each families and superfamilies represented by multiple taxa consistently supported monophylies with the highest nodal supports in both Anisoptera and Zygoptera. A close relationship of Anisozygoptera to Anisoptera represented by a single species was obvious. On the other hand, familial relationships within each suborder of Anisoptera and Zygoptera have shown two compelling topologies. The topology obtained by BI method with partitioning of the four genes showed an unresolved relationship among Gomphidae, Aeshnidae, and the suborder Anisozygoptera in Anisoptera clade, presenting the relationships ((((Libellulidae + Corduliidae) + Macromiidae) + (Gomphidae + Aeshnidae + Anisozygoptera)) + (((Coenagrionidae + Platycnemdidae) + Calopterygidae) + Lestidae)). Another topology obtained by both BI and ML methods without partitioning, on the other hand, placed Anisozygoptera the basal lineage of Anisoptera, but Lestidae in Zygoptera was placed as the sister to Anisoptera + Anisozygoptera, presenting the relationships (((((((Libellulidae + Corduliidae) + Macromiidae) + Aeshnidae) + Gomphidae) + Anisozygoptera) + Lestidae) + ((Coenagrionidae + Platycnemdidae) + Calopterygidae)). Topological test to find out better supported tree turned out a slight higher support for the former topology, but the monophyly of Zygoptera with the inclusion of Lestidae was supported only poorly (BPP = 0.68) in the former topology.

The flower bugs (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) is usually known as biological control agents against various kinds of agricultural pests such as aphids, mites, thrips and so on. Since the classification of the family Anthocoridae has been controversial, the molecular phylogenetic study was conducted with 44 species including 6 outgroup taxa. Three genes, a total of 3277 bp of sequence data (nuclear 18S rDNA: 2022bp, 28S rDNA: 755bp, and mitochondrial 16S rDNA: 498bp), were analyzed using ML (maximum likelihood) and Bayesian methods, excluding MP (maximum parsimony) as the incongruence length difference (ILD) test has very low (0.001) P-values on all partition tests. Our results support the rank and monophyly of the family Lasiochilidae which was exclusively separated from the main clade of Anthocoridae proposed by Schuh and Stys (1991), and indicate the monophyletic relationships among tribes and genera within the family Anthocoridae. According to our results, the genus Amphiareus should be out of the tribe Dufourini and treated as the tribe level and The three genera, Blaptostethus, Scoloposcelis and Xylocoris should be placed to the family Lyctocoridae. We also propose the evolutionary theory of Anthocoridae based on their habitats, hunting behavior and the molecular phylogenetic results.

Halacarid mites inhabit mainly in the bottom of the sea and their body lengths are approximately 0.5 mm. Few biological information about halacarids have been obtained. The phylogenetic study of halacarid mites has not been progressed and the phylogenetic relationship within the family Halacaridae is still unknown. Particularly there is no molecular study to infer phylogenetic relationship within the family. In the annual meeting of Acarological Society of Japan 2007, we developed the method for molecular analysis of 28S nuclear ribosomal gene in haracarid mites. Subsequently, we have further progressed the technique of the molecular analysis to infer the phylogenetic relationship of haracarids. The aim of the present study is to elucidate the phylogenetic position of the subfamily Rhombognathinae on the bases of molecular data. Halacarid specimens which were obtained from seaweeds and sandy segment at Japanese seacoasts, consist of eight genera in five subfamilies: Halacarinae (Halacarus sp., Agauopsis spp., Thalassarachna spp.), Halixodinae (Badyagaue sp., Agaue sp.), Copidgnathinae (Copidognathus spp.), Actacarinae (Actacarus spp.) and Rhombognathinae (Rhombognathus spp.). The template DNA was extracted and 28S nuclear ribosomal gene of the DNA was amplified by PCR reactions. And we determined approximately 400 base pair length of the gene. To construct phylogenetic trees by neighbor-joining method we calculated genetic distances of each operational taxonomic unit considering 1) transversions and 2) transitions and transversions based on Tamura - Nei model by using MEGA ver. 4 (Tamura et al. 2007). As a result, we got two trees both showing two main clusters. One of them includes only one subfamily Rhombognathinae and another consist of Halacarinae, Copidgnathnae, Actacarinae and Halixodinae. Rhombognathinae was greatly differentiated from the other subfamilies. Thus, Rhombognathinae possibly is a distinct taxon phylogenetically and this result supports the monophyletic nature obtained previously by morphological analysis.

We amplified D1 and D3 expansion segments of the 28S ribosomal RNA from 10 Suanguina moxae populations found in Korea. The amplification of the D1-D3 expansion segments of 28S gene of all populations tested produced a single PCR product approximately 1.03kb in size, suggesting the lack of D1-D3 expansion region size polymorphism among populations. The secondary structure model of 28S expansion segments D2 and D3 for Subanguina Moxae was predicted based on free energy minimization with comparative sequence analysis and new sequence alignment was conducted based on predicted secondary structure model. The predicted model was compared with previous predicted models of plant and animal parasite nematode. This predicted secondary structure model will provide valuable information to allocate positional sequence homology and reconstruction of reliable phylogenetic trees.

The subfamily Hoplolaiminae included economically important plant parasitic nematodes and consisted of more than 400 species, all having the diagnostic characters of a strongly annulated cuticle and a large stylet. Among the Hoplolaiminae genera, the genus Hoplolaimus species include species such as H. columbus, and H. galeatus that cause serious damage to crops and turf grass in the Southeastern United States. Traditional identification of species has been approached by interspecific variation of phenotypic traits that rely on morphological and morphometric characters. However, these taxonomic criteria are sometimes not practical because of their limited ability to discriminate species among closely related groups due to overlapping of important taxonomic characters. The exact species identification is needed to control target nematode and also quarantine. Therefore, genetic studies for development of molecular diagnostics, population biology, and disease management are required. In recent years, many molecular diagnostic methods have been used for the identification of plant parasitic nematodes. Advanced molecular techniques have been used that test traditional identification methods. In our studies, Hoplolaimus species showed that high genetic divergence in rDNA sequence is combined with low morphological diversity. Based on genetic information, we developed multiplex PCR for H. columbus, H. galeatus, and H. magnistylus and successfully amplified mixed populations. In molecular phylogeny, the subfamily Hoplolaiminae is an important out‐group of the Heteroderidae, a notorious plant parasite nematode group. Molecular phylogeny of the Hoplolaiminae will help us understand of pathways of pathogenesis. In our phylogenetic analysis using D2 and D3 expansion segments of 28S gene, the molecular data supported morphological based taxonomic schemes. To reconstruct more reliable phylogenetic analysis, correct assignment of each nucleotide within multiple sequence alignment is an important step. Sequence alignments based on secondary structure have been proposed as new alternative methods to obtain this goal. We predicted the secondary structure of D2 and D3 domain using computational predictions method such as the minimization energy method and comparative sequence analysis (co‐variation). Predicted secondary structure included 18 species with two outgroup species, Globodera rostochiensis, Rotylenchulus reniformis. Consensus secondary structure was obtained from closely related and distantly related species. Phylogenetically informative characters were distributed in the stem region (86.7%). These results support the effectiveness of stem and loop regions for phylogenetic analysis of the Hoplolaiminae.

A survey was conducted to find out the major plant parasitic nematode in Chrysanthemum morifolium fields in Korea from May to June in 2005. A genus of Pratylenchus was determined as the most important plant parasitic nematode based on analysis of total 50 samples from 8 cities of chrysanthemum field. Pratylenchus showed 86% occurrence rate and average numbered 1,095 per 200㏄ soils and Ig root. Five Pratylenchus isolates, "Muan", "Masan", "Tean", "Gumi", "Jeongup", were selected for the molecular identification of the species of Pratylenchus, and ITS and D3-28S ribosomal DNA were amplified by PCR. For the ITS, only" Muan" isolate was differentiated by total 1 kb PCR amplification, which was 200 bp larger than all the other isolates. There was no size variation in amplified D3-28S rDNA and all isolate represented approximately 320 bp of PCR product. Sequence data of D3-28S rDNA were analysed by MegAlign program in DNASTAR software and phylogenetic tree was constructed. Sequence homology was 100% between "Gumi" isolate and "Tean" isolate and "Jeongup" isolate was also close to these isolates by 99.7% sequence homology. "Gumi", "Tean" group and "Jeongup" isolate were determined to be closely related to Pratylenchus vulnus by 96.7% and 96.3% similarity in respectively. D3 sequence of "Masan" isolate was 100% identical to P. penetrans, and "Muari" isolate showed 99.7% similarity to P. brachyurus. This result was congruent with the branch divergence pattern shown in phylogenetic tree.