• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.371-377
• /
• 2016

The succulent herbaceous perennial Sedum sarmentosum commonly grows in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. It is a species native to China, most likely introduced into Korea due to its edible and medicinal uses. If plants were introduced from a single source, we would expect no or low levels of genetic variation in Korean populations. Alternatively, if plants were introduced from multiple sources, we would expect, in contrast, high levels of genetic diversity. To test which is more likely, we surveyed the degree of allozyme variation in ten populations of this species from southern Korea. We found that S. sarmentosum was monomorphic at all fifteen allozyme loci. However, two congeners (S. polytrichoides and S. kamtschaticum) and two related species (Hylotelephium ussuriense and H. verticillatum) maintain moderate to high levels of genetic diversity ($H_e=0.144$, 0.203, 0.201, and 0.204, respectively). We suggest that southern Korean populations of S. sarmentosum likely descended from a single introduction of a few plants and then became naturalized exclusively via vegetative spreading (as plants in Korea, but also as occurs in other parts of its native and naturalized range, are sterile).

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.34 no.7
• /
• pp.493-499
• /
• 2024

Antimicrobial peptides are antimicrobial substances inherent in animals and plants, with strong antibacterial activity even in small amounts and with various other functions such as antiviral and antioxidant actions. Plants can be grown with just water and sunlight, allowing for their mass production at low costs. However, transforming a chloroplast into one that produces antimicrobial peptides, rather than growing plants, increases the amount of protein expression and minimizes contamination of the ecosystem because gene transfer by pollen does not occur. In that context, using transgenic plant chloroplasts to produce recombinant proteins increases protein degradation and reduces the solubility of proteins. To solve this problem, we fused SUMO, a fusion protein, with a recombinant protein. We also used a 6xHis tag to purify the fusion protein. The antimicrobial peptide stomoxyn is an antibacterial substance found in stable flies. Stomoxyn has an α-helix structure and is amphiphilic, which allows it to dissolve bacterial cell membranes. In this study, we constructed a transformation vector to express stomoxyn in both plant chloroplasts and Escherichia coli and used this vector to confirm the expression of stomoxyn in E. coli. The expression of the protein was then confirmed in E. coli using a transformation vector. The expressed stomoxyn was purified by nickel column and SUMOase treatment, and its antibacterial activity was confirmed using an agar diffusion assay. The EGFP gene was used to ensure that the transformed vector was inserted into the chloroplast.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.37-44
• /
• 2013

This study was to investigate water quality and biotic community characteristics in Juam Lake. In water quality, water temperatures was $3.8{\sim}21.2^{\circ}C$, 6.7~8.6 in pH, $64{\sim}76{\mu}s\;cm^{-1}$ in Conductivity, $5.3{\sim}13.2mg\;L^{-1}$ in DO, $2.5{\sim}3.3mg\;L^{-1}$ in COD, $1.0{\sim}5.1mg\;L^{-1}$ in SS, $0.622{\sim}0.841mg\;L^{-1}$ in T-N, $0.007{\sim}0.019mg\;L^{-1}$ in T-P and $2.8{\sim}8.8mg\;m^{-3}$ in Chl-a. Revised Carlson's Index (TSIm) assessment using total phosphorus (TP) and chlorophyll-a domonstrated that the trophic states of Juam Lake were rated as mesotrophic. A total of 53 species of phytoplankton were identified. They were 28 Bacillariophyceae, 13 Chlorophyceae, 3 Cyanophyceae, and 9 Other algal taxa. The standing crops of phytoplankton was ranged from $113cells\;mL^{-1}$ to $2,909cells\;mL^{-1}$. A total of 16 species of zooplankton were identified (10 rotifers, 4 cladocerans and 2 copepods). Total zooplankton abundance was $309ind.\;L^{-1}$ to $435ind.\;L^{-1}$. The collected benthic macroinvertebrates from the surveyed sites in Juam Lake were 1,038 individuals, 33 species, 21 families and 12 orders. A dominant species was Uracanthella rufa and a subdominant species was Ecdyonurus kibunensis. Hydrophytes recorded from Juam Lake were identified 9 taxa. Emerged plants, floating plants among the hydrophytes was classified 8, 1 taxa, respectively. Ecosystem disturbance wildplant by Environment Ministry found were Paspalum distichum var. distichum and Ambrosia artemisiaefolia. A total of 30 species (6 families) were collected fishs from Juam Lake. There were 10 Korean endemic species (33.3% of collected species number) and 3 exotic species (10.0%).

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.127-135
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate suitable parts for callus induction and optimal concentrations of growth regulators, contained in the medium affecting shoot and rooting for in vitro mass production of Haworthia truncata. Leaves and flower bud showed 100% callus formation rate at NAA $1{\sim}2mgL^{-1}$ treatment, and NAA $1mgL^{-1}$ + TDZ $2mgL^{-1}$ treatment. The flower stalk showed 75% callus formation rate, at NAA $2mgL^{-1}$ + TDZ $2mgL^{-1}$ treatment in H. truncata. While the rate of callus formation was high in leaves and flower bud, leaves were the most efficient in obtaining most culture parts. Shoot induction rate from callus was highest, at NAA $0.1mgL^{-1}$ treatment in H. truncata. Additionally, the number of shoots formation was 66.3 shoots high, in NAA $1mgL^{-1}$ + BA $0.1mgL^{-1}$ treatment in H. truncata. In the case of acclimatization of regenerated plant, growth characteristics did not show significant difference (95%) shading with respect to the different ratio of substrate mixture, and it was determined that would be appropriate, considering plant height and appearance preference of H. truncata. It was established that optimization of culture condition, was responsible for mass propagation in vitro cultures of H. truncata.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.105-111
• /
• 2006

The objectives of this study, an analysis of fruit and leaf morphological characteristics among the five Zizyphus cultivars could be used for the investigation of cultivars classification and could provide information to make out the UPOV TG(Test Guidelines). ANOVA tests showed that there were statistically significant differences in all fruit and leaf morphological characteristics among the five Zizyphus cultivars at 1% level. But, for kernel characteristics, differences were statistically non-significant among the cultivars. Approximately, the Wolchul and Boeun cultivars showed larger and smaller values in overall characteristics and cultivars, respectively. The results of principal component analysis(PCA) for the fruit and leaf morphological characteristics showed that the first for principal components(PC's) explained about 65.3% of the total variation. The first PC was correlated with those characteristics that were mainly related to the terminal leaf length(TLL), leaf length(LL), fruit length(FL), terminal leaf width(TLW), and leaf petiole length(LPL). The second and third PC was mainly correlated with the terminal leaf morphological index(TLMI). Therefore, these characteristics were important to analysis of the fruit and leaf morphological characteristics and classification among the five Zizyphus cultivars. Cluster analysis using UPGMA method based on principal components showed that five Zizyphus cultivars could be clustered into two groups. Group I comprises Mudung, Wolchul, and Bokjo and Geumsung cultivars, Group II is Boeun cultivar. These results well similar to that of principal component analysis.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.373-386
• /
• 2003

Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA were determined for 14 individuals representing eight taxa from Scopolia s. str. and related genera, Anisodus and Atropanthe. We found that the ITS sequences of Korean endemic species, S. parviflora, are significantly different from its allied species, S. japonica. This is contradictory to traditional taxonomic treatments in which those species are regarded as conspecific. S. parviflora exhibited closer relationship to S. carniolica, which is disjunctly distributed in Europe. In spite of substantially high sequence divergence between S. japonica and S. parvlflora/S. carniolica clade, morphological resemblance is evident among the species. Morphological stasis concept (retardation of morphological differentiation or evolution of similar characters among the disjuncts in a similar ecological habitat) was referred to understand this rather unusual evolutionary feature. S. lutescens, another Korean endemic species, shared almost identical ITS sequences with S. parviflora. Lack of diagnostic character distinguishing the taxa suggests that they are conspecific. Anisodus carniolicoides, which was originally described in Scopolia, was grouped with A. luridus and A. tanguticus. The monophyletic Anisodus formed a sister group relationship with a monotypic genus Atropanthe.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.436-445
• /
• 2020

The number of protected areas has been steadily increased in Korea to achieve Aichi Target 11, and there are studies on potential protected areas that required additional designation. However, there has been an insufficient assessment of the complementarity of protected areas to conserve biodiversity effectively. This study identified the potential habitat areas using the species distribution model for plant species from the 3rd National Ecosystem Survey and compared the plant species abundance in the existing protected area and the potential protected areas using the similarity indices, such as the Jaccard index, Sorenson index, and Bray-Curtis index. As a result, we found that the complementarity of the existing protected areas and most potential protected areas were low, leading to the preservation of similar plant species. Only the buffer zone for Korea National Arboretum had high complementarity and thus is important to conserve some species with the other protected areas. This study confirmed that it was necessary to select additional protected areas outside the existing or potential protected areas to protect plant species with a low inclusion ratio of potential habitats within the protected area. This study is significant because it identified the ecological representativeness of each protected area to examine if the individual protected area can conserve unique and various species and proposed a method of finding candidate areas for additional conservation spatially. The findings of this study can be a valuable reference for the qualitative improvement of protected areas through the complementarity assessments, including animals and the effectiveness assessment study of protected areas using the National Ecosystem Survey data in the future.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.441-453
• /
• 2017

This paper described the spatio-temporal distributions in the phytoplankton community, such as species composition, standing crops, and dominant species, from July 2012 to April 2013 in the Coastal Waters of Central South Sea (CWoCSS) of Korea. A total of 87 species of phytoplankton belonging to 52 genera were identified. In particular, diatoms and phytoflagellates comprised more than 62.1% and 37.9% of the total species, respectively. The phytoplankton cell density fluctuated with an annual mean of $7.9{\times}10^4cells{\cdot}L^{-1}$ between the lowest value of $1.0{\times}10^3cells{\cdot}L^{-1}$ in spring and the highest value of $4.5{\times}10^5cells{\cdot}L^{-1}$ in winter. The seasonal succession of the dominant species were Chaetoceros curvisetus, Ch. debilis in summer, Eucampia zodiacus in autumn, E. zodiacus, Thalassiosira curviseriata in winter and Skeletonema costatum -ls (like species), Leptocylindrus danicus in spring. According to principal component analysis, the phytoplankton community of the CWoCSS was characterized by the mixing rate between the freshwater inflow from Somjin River and the seawater of the South Sea, Korea.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.118-131
• /
• 2018

The forest vegetation of Juwangsan National Park, which is famous for its towering scenic valleys, was syntaxonomically described. The study adopted the $Z{\ddot{u}}rich$-Montpellier School's method emphasizing a matching between species composition and habitat conditions. A combined cover degree and the r-NCD (relative net contribution degree) were used to determine a performance of 265 plant species listed-up in a total of 52 phytosociological $relev{\acute{e}}s$. Nine plant communities were classified through a series of table manipulations, and their distribution and actual homotoneity($H_{act}$) were analyzed. Syntaxa described were Carex gifuensis-Quercus mongolica community, Athyrium yokoscense-Quercus mongolica communiy, Arisaema amurense-Quercus serrata community, Lespedeza maximowiczii var. tomentella-Quercus variabilis community, Tilia rufa-Quercus dentata community, Carex ciliatomarginata-Carpinus laxiflora community, Aristolochia manshuriensis-Zelkova serrata community, Onoclea orientalis-Fraxinus mandshurica community, and Carex humilis var. nana-Pinus densiflora community. A zonal distribution was reviewed and the altitude of about 700 m was the transition zone between the cool-temperate central montane zone (Lindero-Quercenion mongolicae region) and southern submontane zone (Callicarpo-Quercenion serratae region). Only 19 taxa were associated with r-NCD 10% or more, most of which were tree species occurring in the Lindero-Quercenion and some of which was a member of open forests. Species composition of forest vegetation was much less homogeneous, showing the lowest $H_{act}$. Nearly natural forests and/or secondary forests in the Juwangsan National Park were defined as a regional vegetation type, which reflects much stronger continental climate in the Daegu regional bioclimatic subdistrict, rhyolitic tuff predominant, and wildfire interference.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.109-118
• /
• 2019

This study was carried out to investigate the vegetation of wetland and terrestrial lands in Jangdo wetland conserved area in Korea and to analyze the characteristics of the vegetation changes in the recent years. From the plant community, there were evergreen broad-leaved forests of the Machilus thunbergii, Castanopsis cuspidata, and Machilus thunbergii-Castanopsis cuspidata communities. Moreover, there were deciduous broad-leaved forests of the Salix koreensis, Mallotus japonicus, Mallotus japonicus-Pueraria thunbergiana and Celtis sinensis communities. Additionally, there were shrub forests of the Rosa multiflora-Rubus hirsutus, grassland of Molinia japonica-Miscanthus sacchariflorus and Miscanthus sacchariflorus-Imperata cylindrica communities, and plantation forest of the Pseudosasa japonica community. The area of the wetland vegetation (15%) was much narrower than that of the terrestrial land vegetation (85%). Comparing these results with those of the past 10 years, the wetland plant communities decreased by one-third and the proportion of neutral or dry plant communities increased. In order to mitigate landization succession of the wetland and maintain native wetland vegetation in this area, the expansion of the Salix koreensis community must be controlled to a suitable scale. In addition, it is urgently required to remove the invasive non-wetland plants, such as Pseudosasa japonica and Pueraria thunbergiana.