최근 국내 포도원에서 과실 표면에 구름모양의 흰색 얼룩이 자주 발견되고 있으나, 그 원인에 대해 명확히 알려진 바가 없어 방제대책을 세우지 못하고 있는 실정이다. 흰색의 달무리 반점은 포도 과실 표면에 부정형으로 퍼져 있으며, 그 중앙에는 총채벌레가 산란할 때 만들어진 작은 구멍의 상처가 남아 있다. 이 상처부위는 시간이 지나면서 코르크화되고 표피세포와 분리되어 딱지로 남거나 떨어져 나가게 된다. 이러한 증상은 총채벌레의 섭식이나 노린재의 흡즙에 의한 상처와는 구별된다. 산란구멍에서 발견한 총채벌레 알껍질에서 DNA를 추출하여 ITS2 부위의 염기 서열을 PCR-RFLP 방법으로 분자동정을 실시한 결과 꽃노랑총채벌레의 것으로 확인되었다. 미토콘드리아 COI 염기서열은 이러한 분자 동정 결과를 재확인하여 주었다. 본 연구결과는 포도 과피에 꽃노랑총채벌레 산란에 의해 유발되는 독특한 피해 증상에 대한 정확한 정보를 제공하며 포도원에서 이 해충에 대한 방제전략 수립에 도움이 될 것으로 여겨진다.

Rapid identification of pest species found under quarantine is an important factor in preventing an economic loss of agricultural commodities. In this study, we analyzed RNA-Seq of the larvae of C. sasakii, G. molesta and G. dimorpha, which are serious pests in several fruits in Korea and are difficult to discriminate by species in their larval stage because of lack of a morphological character. To select immunological diagnostic markers, discriminating the larvae of C. sasakii from the G. molesta and G. dimorpha, RNA-Seq was performed for the larvae of the three insects. The 454 pyrosequencing generated 3,058-4,686 contigs for each three pest species, which assembled into 2,584-3,970 isotigs with average lengths of 829-1,244 bp. Functional annotation of the sequencing results generated 774 orthologs for the three pest species, and 12 isotigs were finally registered as candidate markers for species discrimination through bioinformatical screening, literature search, and gene expression study. The selected candidates include serine proteases, serpins, 27 kDa glycoprotein and storage protein with a constitutive gene expression in their larvae, pupae and adult stage.

Spider mites are one of major pests in cultivations of various ornamental plants and also important in plant quarantine service. Due to the very small body size and high similarity within the Genus the identification of species is difficult even at the microscopic observation. To identify 5 major species (Tetranychus cinnabarinus, T. urticae, T. phaselus, T. kanzawai and T. truncatus) in the Genus Tetranychus at the molecular level, we designed 4 species-specific primer sets using nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) region in the nuclear ribosomal repeat unit. At the PCR diagnosis of extracted genomic DNAs of 5 species using each primer set, specific primers of both T. phaselus and T. truncates were species-specific to their own species samples. However, specific primer set of T. urticae detected T. cinnabarinus as well as T. urticae. Specific primer set of T. kanzawai detected T. truncates as well as T. kanzawai, even though detection intensities were lower in non-target species.

Root knot nematode species, such as Meloidogyne hapla, M. incognita, M. arenaria and M. javanica are economically most notorious nematode pests, causing serious damage to the various crops throughout world. In this study, DNA sequence analyses of the D1-D3 expansion segments of the 28S gene in the ribosomal DNA were conducted to characterize genetic variation of the four Meloidogyne species obtained from Korea and United States. PCR-RFLP (Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism), SCAR (Sequence Characterized Amplified Region) marker and RAPD (Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA) also were used to develop the methods for exact and rapid species identification. In the sequence analysis of the D1-D3 expansion segments, only a few nucleotide sequence variation were detected among M. incognita, M. arenaria, and M. javanica, except for M. hapla. The PCR-RFLP analysis that involves amplification of the mitochondrial COII and lrRNA region yielded one distinct amplicon for M. hapla at 500 bp, enabling us to distinguish M. hapla from M. incognita, M. arenaria, M. javanica reproduced by obligate mitotic parthenogenesis. SCAR markers successfully identified the four root knot nematode species tested. We are under development of RAPD primers specific to the three root knot nematodes found in Korea.