Insect cuticle tanning (pigmentation and sclerotization) is a complex and vital process, which includes hydroxylation of initial amino acid, tyrosine, to DOPA and decarboxylation of DOPA to dopamine. In the pigmentation process, dopamine further undergoes two N-acylation reactions to yield N-acetyldopamine (NADA) and N-β-alanyldopamine (NBAD). In the former reaction, arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT1) converts dopamine to NADA, and in the later reaction, aspartate 1-decarboxylase (ADC) provides β-alanine, which is conjugated with dopamine catalyzed by NBAD synthase (Ebony) for production of NBAD. In this study, we performed functional genomics of TmAANAT1, TmADC and Tmebony to determine whether they are required for cuticle pigmentation in Tenebrio molitor adults. Loss of function of these genes by RNAi caused the significantly darker body color than that of control animals. Note that, although all phenotypes exhibited dark cuticle pigmentation, RNAi of either TmADC or Tmebony only altered brownish outer region of the cuticle to dark/black. In contrast, RNAi of TmAANAT1 had no effect on the brown hue of the outer cuticle layer, but less or no pigmented inner region of the cuticle became significantly darker than those of control adults. These results suggest that, like that seen in TcAANAT1- or TcADC-deficient Tribolium castaneum adults, NADA produced by a reaction by TmAANAT1 contributes the lighter inner cuticle layer(s), whereas NBAD appears to do the highly pigmented outer cuticle layer(s) of the cuticle of T. molitor adults. This work was supported by NRFs (NRF-2015R1A6A3A04060323 and NRF-2018R1A2B6005106).

Growth traits, such as body weight, directly influence productivity and economic efficiency in the swine industry. In this study, we estimate heritability for body weight traits usinginformation from pedigree and genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip data. Four body weight phenotypes were measured in 1,105 F2 progeny from an intercross between Landrace and Jeju native black pigs. All experimental animals were subjected to genotypic analysis using PorcineSNP60K BeadChip platform, and 39,992 autosomal SNP markers filtered by quality control criteria were used to construct genomic relationship matrix for heritability estimation. Restricted maximum likelihood estimates of heritability were obtained using both genomic- and pedigree- relationship matrix in a linear mixed model. The heritability estimates using SNP information were smaller (0.36-0.55) than those which were estimated using pedigree information (0.62-0.97). To investigate effect of common environment, such as maternal effect, on heritability estimation, we included maternal effect as an additional random effect term in the linear mixed model analysis. We detected substantial proportions of phenotypic variance components were explained by maternal effect. And the heritability estimates using both pedigree and SNP information were decreased. Therefore, heritability estimates must be interpreted cautiously when there are obvious common environmental variance components.

연산오계는 오래전부터 건강기능 증진 및 치료 효능이 높은 것으로 알려져 왔다. 최근 건강 기능식품 소재로 기능성 펩타이드 효능이 알려짐에 따라, 연산오계 다리육으로부 올리고 펩타이드 최적 생산 공정 및 생성물 특성에 대하여 연구를 수행하였다. 최적 효소가수 분해 공정 표면반응 분석을 이 용하여 수행하였다. 최적 공정 조건을 확립하기 위해서 온도 (40, 50, 60℃), pH (pH 6.0, 7.0, 8.0), 효 소 (1, 2, 3%) 범위에서 수행을 하였다. 생성물에 대한 가수분해도, 유리아미노산, 분자량 분포를 분석 하였다. 효소 가수분해 최적 온도는 58℃, pH 7.5, 효소의 농도는 3% 이었다. 최적 조건에서 2 시간 효소 가수분해를 한 결과 75-80% 이었다. 유리 아미노산 총량은 168.131 mg/100 g 이었다. 분자량를 MALDI-TOF 으로 분석을 한 결과 90% 이상이 300-1,000 Da 분포를 보여주었다.

For development of a human body model for electric shock, electroconductive paints with carbon black as a filler material were developed. The characteristics of the volume resistivities of thin films fabricated using the electroconductive paints were investigated as a function of the particle sizes and content of carbon black. With a carbon black particle size over 80 μm, agglomeration of carbon black powders was observed. The volume resistivity of the particles increased as the porosity increased and as the amount of carbon black decreased due to the agglomeration of carbon black powders. With a particle size of 4 μm and 20 μm, agglomeration of carbon black powders was not observed and their porosities were measured as 0.86% and 1.12% with volume resistivities of 20 Ω·cm and 80 Ω·cm respectively. A carbon black particle size of less than 20 μm is considered to be suitable as a type of electric-shock electroconductive paint for a human body model.