이 연구는 설화에 내포된 금기 화소의 의미를 신학적 관점에서 재해석하고자 하는 연구다. 연구자는 설화의 금기 화소에 대하여, 인간은 신에게 어떤 존재인가. 신은 인간에게 어떤 존재이며, 신은 왜 인간에게 하필 금기를 부여하는가. 또 그렇게 부여된 금기의 의미나 목적을 인간은 어떻게 이해하고 수용하여야하는가 등의 의문을 갖게 되었다. 금기 화소의 의미에 관하여는 지금까지 적잖은 연구가 있었다. 그러나 대부분의 선행연구는 “인간은 결코 신이 될 수 없는 존재”이며, 금기는 그런 인간이 침범해서는 안 될 신적 영역의 “경계선”이나 “고갯마루”로 규정하고, 이를 경계로 신과 인간을 대치시키는 부정적 견해로만 규정하였다. 연구자는 설화가 원시종교와 함께 발화된 점에 주목하여 기존의 연구에 신학적 시각의 접근을 모색하였다. 그 결과 ‘금기는 인간이 그것을 깨뜨림으로써 신이 원하는 방향으로 이끌어가는 방법적 메시지’라는 융의 주장을 수용하고, 금기의 파기로 원형성을 상실한 인간이 금기에 투사하여 통과 의례를 치름으로써, 신적 지위를 회복할 수 있는 근본적 행위 문제로써, 이는 인간의 구원을 위한 신의 계획된 목적이라는 결론을 얻었다.

Cotesia plutellae, an endoparasitoid wasp, parasitizes larvae of Plutella xylostella, and disrupt immune response of the host through parasitic factors. These immune disruption factors are maternal (venom proteins, polydnavirus, and ovary proteins) and embryonic (teratocytes) factors. In this study, we performed transcriptome analysis of venom glands of C. plutellae and identified neprilysin-1 (NEP1) known to be potential immunosuppression gene. Cp-NEP1 encoded 451 amino acid and belongs to hymeopteran NEP1 via phylogenetic analysis. Based on the structural comparison Cp-NEP1 lacks in conserved motifs such as substrate binding (NAYY/F), zinc-binding site (HExxH), zinc-binding site, protein folding and maturation (CxxW). To investigate function of Cp-NEP1, we constructed a recombinant Cp-NEP1 harboring N-terminally fused 6X His tag. Peptide sequencing revealed successful expression of the recombinant Cp-NEP1 in Escherichia coli. Pre-heated E. coli as antigen induced spike of nodule formation whereas co-injection of the recombinant Cp-NEP1 and pre-heated E. coli exhibited suppression of nodule formation in the host. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that expression of phenoloxidase related to nodule formation was suppressed under co-injection of the recombinant Cp-NEP1 and E. coli. These results suggest that Cp-NEP1 contributes to immunosuppression of P. xylostella via phenoloxidase suppression and conserved motifs of neprilysin family are not required for host immune suppression.

국화과(Compositae)는 현화식물 중 세계에서 가장 넓게 분포하고, 쌍자엽식물 중 가장 진화된 식물분류군이며, 우리나라에는 약 300여종이 존재하는 것으로 알려져 있다. 구절초, 감국, 쑥, 쑥갓, 개미취, 참취, 곰취 등 국화과 식물들은 예로부터 민간에서 약용 및 식용 소재로써 다양하게 사용되어왔다. 본 연구는 국화 및 국화근연종 유용유전자원 선발을 통하여 육종 소재를 확대하고, 중간모본 및 신품종 육성기반을 구축하고자 DNA 마커시스템의 개발을 위해 수행되었다. 1. 화단국인 Smileball(Dendranthema grandiflorum) 품종을 사용하여 SSR-enriched library를 작성하였고, GS FLX 분석을 통해 18.83Mbp의 염기서열 결과를 얻었으며, read의 평균 길이는 280.06bp로 나타났다. 2. 단순반복염기서열(SSR) 부위를 포함하는 26,780개 clones 중 di-nucleotide motifs가 16,375개(61.5%)로 우세하였고, trinucleotide motifs(6,616개, 24.8%), tetra-nucleotide motifs(1,674개, 6.3%), penta-nucleotide motifs(1,283개, 4.8%), hexa-nucleotide motifs(693개, 2.6%) 순으로 나타났다. 3. 얻어진 di-nucleotide motifs들 중에서는, AC/CA class가 93.5%로 대부분이었고, tri-nucleotide motifs에서는 AAC class가 50.5%, tetra-nucleotide motifs는 ACGT class가 43.6%이고, pentanucleotide motif에서는 AACGT class 27.2%이며, hexa-nucleotide motif에서는 ACGATG class 21.8%였다. 4. 얻어진 염기서열 결과를 토대로 다양한 motif를 갖는 100개의 SSR 마커를 제작하였고, 차후 이를 활용하여 국화 유전자원의 다형성 및 유전자형 분석을 통해 분자유전학적 다양성 및 집단의 구조분석이 가능하고, 국화의 분자육종기반 구축을 위한 유용한 도구가 될 것 이다.

This paper examines animal motifs related to Cuchulain in Ulster Cycle, especially Lady Gregory’s Cuchulain of Muirthemne and Celtic culture. In the preface of the text Yeats said that she will have given Ireland its Mabinogion, its Morte d’Arthur, its Nibelungenlied. The Ulster sagas are documents surviving from a Celtic culture unaffected by the Latin civilization of the rest of Europe. Set a century before the time of Christ, the Ulster stories posit an older world than any known in other European vernaculars. The narrative materials were transcribed as early as 8th century continued to be part of living literature until 18th. Esteem for the Ulster Cycle passed into English during the 19th century, when nationalists searched ancient literature for heroes to replace those imposed on Irish children by English-run schools. During the generation of Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge the Red Branch Cycle fostered widespread adaptation in English. Lady Gregory expected to let Irish students know that the Cuchulain stories were put into permanent literary form at about the same date as Beowulf, some 100 to 250 years before the Scandinavian mythology, at least 200 years before the oldest Charlemagne romance, and probably 300 years before the earliest draft of Nibelungenlied. In Cuchulain of Muirthemne there are twenty stories in English. Lady Grogery have exchanged for the grotesque accounts of Cuchulain’s distortion into the appearance of a god. In the Cuchulain’s stories still remains the ancient heart of Ireland and Celtic culture. In the Celtic supernatural world animals can talk, move about like humans, jest, warn and shapeshift. The Celts not only relied on animals for their survival but they respect them, learned them, and honoured them. The legendary Irish warrior and solar hero, Cuchulain, son of the god Lugh, exhibited the ‘hero light,’ a flaming aura, around his head when he entered the state of battle frenzy. As a lineage of Angus the hero fell in love with a swan goddess Fand. And was unsuccessfully wooed by the Morrigan in her raven aspect. Cuchulain, whose name means “Culan’s Hound,” was a Gaelic hero likened in his exploits to both the Greek Hercules and Achilles. He is said to have been able to perform a ‘salmon’s leap.’ In the War for the Bull of Cuailgne the hero single- handedly defends Ulster against the depredations of Connacht, as led by Medb and Ailill. The young Cuchulain, a superhuman, semi-divine hero has two chariot- horses, the Black of Saingliu and the Grey of Macha. The clairvoyante Grey cries tears of blood at the foreknowledge of his death. when the Ulster hero Cuchulain is finally killed, he has such a fearsome reputation that it is not until one of the raven-goddesses alights on his shoulder that his enemies believe he is dead and dare to approach and behead him. To the Celts, animals were special and central to all aspects of their world

Spatial- and temporal-specific expression patterns are primarily regulated at the transcriptional level by the promoter. Therefore, it is important to determine the binding motifs of transcription factors to understand the networks associated with embryogenesis. Here, we used a protein-binding microarray (PBM) to determine the binding motif of OsSMF1, which is a basic leucine zipper transcription factor that is involved in the regulation of rice seed maturation. OsSMF1 (previously called RISBZ1) is known to interact with GCN4 motifs (TGA(G/C)TCA) to regulate seed storage proteins (SSPs). In addition, OsSMF1 (also known as OsbZIP58) functions as a key regulator of starch synthesis in the rice seed. Quadruple 9-mer-based PBM (Q9-PBM) and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) experiments revealed that OsSMF1 binds to the ACGT (CCACGT(C/G)), GCN4 (TGA(G/C)TCA), and GCN4-like (GGATGAC) motifs with Kd values of 0.3353 μM, 0.6458 μM, and 1.117 μM, respectively. We also identified 60 putative OsSMF1 target genes using a combination of data from expression microarrays and RiceArrayNet (RAN) analysis. Of these OsSMF1 target genes, 20, 22, and 17 genes contained ACGT, GCN4, and GCN4-like motifs within the 2-kb promoter region, respectively. In addition to known target genes, we also identified 35 potential OsSMF1 target genes that have not been previously described in immature seeds. We also confirmed that OsSMF1 directly regulates Os03g0168500 (thioredoxin-related protein), RPBF, NAC6, and two hypothetical proteins (Os12g0621600 and Os11g0582400) in vivo. This study suggests that OsSMF1 functions in a wide range of seed development processes with specific binding affinities for three DNA binding motifs

The surveying of binding affinity between a particular transcription factor and DNA motifs is important in order to understand the developmental specific gene expression and regulatory networks of an organism. The microarray-based technologies (protein-binding microarrays; PBMs) provide useful predictions for understanding the transcriptional regulatory code in a genome-wide manner. The PBM was designed in such a way that target probes were synthesized as quadruples of all possible 9-mer combinations, named Q9-UPBM. Also, we developed rice promoter PBM (RPBM) using 19,480 rice promoter sequences containing 40 bp long probe with overlapping 20 bp (cover 1kb from 5’ upstream). We applied RISBZ1 protein, an endosperm specific basic leucine zipper transcription factor, to compare binding site specificities between Q9-UPBM and RPBM and find directly regulated promoter regions through the RPBM. Several cis-elements; Prolamin box (TGTAAAG), GCN4 motif (TGA(G/C)TCA), AACA motif (AACAAAA), and ACGT motif, are highly conserved in the promoters of cereal seed storage protein genes, and play a central role in controlling endosperm specific expression during seed maturation. Characterization of cis-elements and TFs has been performed on many storage protein genes of several crop plants, but the mechanisms are still poorly understood. Two chips provide RISBZ1 could bind to ACGT motif such as a CCACGTCA site and GGATGAC site as well as GCN4 motif known binding site. In RPBM binding affinity to CCACGTCA was highly significant, compared to GGATGAC site. The difference might be caused by the biased presence of specific promoter rather than Q9-UPBM. Also our results will provide direct insight into the importance of combinatorial interplay between cis-elements in regulating the expression of seed storage protein genes.

Recent release of whole genome draft sequences in legume species have led comparative genome studies among legume plants including Glycine max, G. soja, Cajanus cajan and Medicago truncatula. The majority of comparative genomic researches have been conducted based on synteny of coding sequences and coding sequence variations may be one of major forces for speciation and evolution. However, non-coding sequences have been also reported to be important phenotypic regulators. Especially, since short sequence motifs in the promoter regions are highly conserved, they are suggested to be another resources of interests in comparative studies. In this study, we predicted the conserved short sequence motifs by BLASTN algorithm using dicot promoter database from Softberry (http://www.softberry.com). A total of 37,396 conserved short sequence motifs were identified onto 2 kb upstreams of 46,367 high confident gene model of G. max (cv. Williams 82). Meanwhile, whole genome of 7 soybean landraces (G. max) and 7 wild soybean genotypes (G. soja) were sequenced at low depth of less than ten using Illumina Hiseq 2000. Among these genotypes, nucleotide variations were identified in predicted conserved regulatory motifs by mapping of short reads to the reference genome sequence using the Samtools program (http://samtools.sourceforge.net/). Fifteen and two genes, which have SNPs in regulatory motifs and no SNP in coding sequence, were identified by comparisons of inter-species and intra-species, respectively. qRT-PCR experiments are in progress for investigating differences of these 17 genes expressions at transcriptional level.