Some behaviors of pigs that are not expressed in the wild state or are observed in a small minority of individuals after groups of pigs are mixed have been reported to indicate poor welfare. A GWAS analysis was performed by measuring the frequency and duration of the four ethological traits and using the mlma command provided by the genome-wide complex trait analysis (GCTA). The positional candidate genes on significantly identified single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were identified by using the dbSNP provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). When the GWAS analysis was applied the 43,565 (of the purebred Landrace population) and 41,700 (of the purebred Yorkshire population) SNP markers, 1, 2, and 1 significant SNP markers were identified for the traits of feeding frequency (LOC110262254), locomotion time (LOC110260361), and locomotion frequency (LOC110260361) of the purebred Landrace population, respectively. Meanwhile, 1 and 7 significant SNP markers were identified for the traits of drinking time (LOC 110260090) and feeding frequency (MAP3K19; LOC110257013; ACMSD; TMEM163; RAB3GAP1) of the purebred Yorkshire population, respectively. The results of this study may suggest that the GWAS analysis of the ethological traits of purebred Landrace and Yorkshire populations could be used to perform a GWAS analysis on non-economic traits, and the results can thus be provided as basic data for GWAS analyses of other non-economic traits in the future.

The Transgenic livestock can be useful for the production of disease-resistant animals, pigs for xenotranplantation, animal bioreactor for therapeutic recombinant proteins and disease model animals. Previously, conventional methods without using artificial nuclease-dependent DNA cleavage system were used to produce such transgenic livestock, but their efficiency is known to be low. In the last decade, the development of artificial nucleases such as zinc-finger necleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas has led to more efficient production of knock-out and knock-in transgenic livestock. However, production of knock-in livestock is poor. In mouse, genetically modified mice are produced by co-injecting a pair of knock-in vector, which is a donor DNA, with a artificial nuclease in a pronuclear fertilized egg, but not in livestock. Gene targeting efficiency has been increased with the use of artificial nucleases, but the knock-in efficiency is still low in livestock. In many research now, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) methods used after selection of cell transfected with artificial nuclease for production of transgenic livestock. In particular, it is necessary to develop a system capable of producing transgenic livestock more efficiently by co-injection of artificial nuclease and knock-in vectors into fertilized eggs.

According to Livestock Inspection Standards, the piglets enter the feedlot at approximately 30 kg, and the inspection starts after the preliminary feeding period. The reason for applying the preliminary feeding period is to select inspection piglets with no diseases after the complete growth of the internal organs until 10 weeks of age. Furthermore, the age of 10 week is the time when the muscle fibers grow to their maximum size and the piglets are prepared for fat deposition at the later fattening period. In the study, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed through the mlma command of the genome-wide complex trait analysis (GCTA) program with 703 purebred Landrace population, and the candidate genes associated with the weight of 10 week were searched. The GWAS identified 3 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, which have a significant genome-wide suggestive level, on chromosome 6 (DIAS0002615; p-value=1.62×10-6, MARC0083933; p-value=4.94×10-6, ASGA0028717; p-value=5.40×10-6). The 2 genes (Ubiquitin protein ligase E3 component n-recognin 4; UBR4, WD and tetratricopeptide repeats 1; WDTC1) in which these 3 SNP markers are located are positional candidate genes of the weight of 10 week of the purebred Landrace population. 2 candidate genes have been reported to be associated with fattening. Therefore, the positional candidate genes in this study, UBR4 and WDTC1, are expected to be usable as genes for traits associated with the weight of 10 week weight and fattening through additional experimental research with other population.

We sequenced 15,803 bp of the leaf-rolling-weevil, Apoderus jekelii (Coleoptera: Attelabidae) mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) that lacked ~8,000 bp of the A+T-rich region for the completion of the genomic sequence. The A. jekelii mitogenome, which includes 1,169 bp of A+T-rich region, possesses typical sets of genes [13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNA genes, and 2 rRNA genes]. Phylogenetic analyses using the eight concatenated PCG sequences, which are commonly available for the mitogenome sequences of Curculionoidea, revealed Attelabidae as monophyletic, as well as the sister relationship between current A. jekelii and congeneric species A. coryli in Attelabidae, with the highest nodal supports both in Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods. In order to gain a more comprehensive picture of the phylogenetic relationships among the lineages of Attelabidae, an extended analysis with more taxonomic sampling will be necessary. †These authors contributed equally to this paper.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Ostrinia palustralis memnialis Walker, 1859 (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) was determined to be 15,246 bp with a typical set of genes (13 protein-coding genes [PCGs], 2 rRNA genes, and 22 tRNA genes) and one non-coding region, with an arrangement identical to that observed in most lepidopteran genomes. The A+T content of the whole genome, PCGs, srRNA, lrRNA, tRNAs, and the A + T-rich region all are well within the range found in other Pyraloidea. Phylogenetic analyses of the concatenated sequences of the 13 PCGs using Bayesian inference and Maximum-likelihood methods placed O. palustralis as a sister group to O. furnacalis and O. nubilalis, with the highest nodal support. The subfamilies within Crambidae, such as Nymphulinae, Spilomelinae, and Pyraustinae, all formed monophyletic groups with the highest nodal support.

Insect killing fungus Beauveria bassiana has been widely studied as a biological control agent. However, many studies have been focused on lab or field-based management. Herein this work, comparison of three B. bassiana strains was investigated under a molecular level. The whole genome sequences of ERL836, JEF-007 were analyzed by PacBio (35.5 Mb of ERL836 and 36.5 Mb of JEF-007) and ARSEF2860 referenced from GenBank (33.7 Mb). To compare the three strains, virulence, thermotolerance and chemical resistance were assayed. The transcriptomes of non-infecting B. bassiana and infecting B. bassiana against western flower thrips were analyzed using RNA-seq. This work can provide that genome features, functions, morphology and gene expression could be different under the molecular level, even if in the same species.

Calliphora is a genus from the family Calliphoridae, which includes blow flies and bottle flies. Calliphora flies are one of the most entomologically important fly species because of their relative time of arrival and colonization to animal carcasses. Until now there are only three complete mitochondrial genome recorded from the genus. In this study we added a new complete mitochondrial genome record from the species Calliphora lata. Although genome structures and gene orientations of the four Calliphora flies mitochondrial genome are identical. The size and nucleotide composition of the genomes are slightly different.

A genus Cryptaulus Ôhira (Coleoptera: Elateridae) includes 15 species in Palearctic region and two of them, C. berus (Candèze) and C. larvatus pini (Lewis), have been recorded from South Korea. Recently, a rare species of genus, C. yamato (Nakane) which is regarded as endemic to Japan, was newly discovered from Gwangneung forest, South Korea with a DNA barcode sequence (In press). As results of the present study, a complete mitochondrial DNA genome of Cryptalaus yamato (Nakane), is reported for the first time. The genome consists of 15,882 base pairs including 13 protein coding genes (PCGs), 20 tRNAs, two rRNAs and a 1,279 bp long AT-rich region. The overall base composition is 69.4% AT and 30.6% GC. The maximum likelihood analysis based on nucleotide sequence data of 13 PCGs supported that C. yamato is involved in monophyletic group of Elateridae.