• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.433-440
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• 2015

The Apostichopus japonicus is an important species in some Asia countries including Korea, China and Japan. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the differential gene expression of heat shock protein90 (Hsp90) and ferritin as a biomarker for the thermal stress during water temperature rising in the sea cucumber, A. japonicus. The A. japonicus (1.4 g) was cultured in incubator of separate temperature ($15^{\circ}C$, $20^{\circ}C$, $25^{\circ}C$ and $30^{\circ}C$) for each 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 hours. The mRNA expression levels of Hsp90 and ferritin were examined using RT-PCR assay. Results showed that, the expression of Hsp90 mRNA was not significantly changed at $15^{\circ}C$. The expression of Hsp90 mRNA was significantly increased at high temperature such as $20^{\circ}C$ and $25^{\circ}C$. Furthermore, Hsp90 mRNA was early increased at $25^{\circ}C$ than $20^{\circ}C$. The ferritin mRNA was similar expression pattern with Hsp90. But, Hsp90 mRNA was more sensitive than ferritin mRNA at high thermal stress. These results indicate that Hsp90 and ferritin mRNAs were involved in the temperature changes response and may be play an important role in mediating the thermal stress in A. japonicas.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.330-336
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• 2016

Pollution caused by fecal solids released from recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) is a growing global concern requiring immediate attention. Thus, this study investigated the physicochemical characteristics of fecal solid feed from RASs used for eel and rainbow trout farming. The concentrations of proteins, lipids, crude ash, and moisture in eel fecal solids were 10.9%, 1.2%, 85.8%, and 72.2%, respectively, while those in rainbow trout fecal solid feed were 20.5%, 3.2%, 70.9%, and 87.0%, respectively. The control group was fed a mixture of sea cucumber and dried sea mud. The protein digestibilities of eel and rainbow trout fecal solids were 25.43% and 23.96%, respectively, while the respective lipid digestibilities were 35.62% and 36.80%, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.337-342
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• 2016

Sea cucumbers have been an important part of human diets throughout history; demand is increasing every year, making the species a target for coastal resource development. New harvesting technologies have been developed in response to demand, including nursery production and insemination aquaculture, but such methods produce relatively few individuals and productivity per unit area is very small. For example, captures are prohibited during July and August due to the breeding season, and sea cucumbers aestivate during the hot season and hibernate during the cold season, all factors that limit natural-environment production in Korea. Problems with slow growth of sea cucumbers have been encountered in previous rearing experiments. To assess the importance of feeding ecology on sea cucumber growth, we conducted pond-bottom and lantern-net culture experiments. Results showed that sea cucumbers in bottom cultures grew from 3.06 to 102.59 g, but those in lantern cultures only grew from 25.60 to 28.03 g.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.237-244
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• 2013

Bacterial diversities in the guts of sea cucumbers (Apostichopus japonicus) and shrimps (Litopenaeus vannamei) were investigated using barcoded or tag-encoded 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes. In sea cucumbers, most of sequences were related to two genera, the genus Propionigenium in the phylum Fusobacteria and an unclassified genus in the family Flavobacteriaceae of phylum Bacteroidetes. Shrimps showed various kinds of genera including Lactococcus, Leuconostoc, Prochlorococcus, and Vibrio as well as the unclassified genera in the families, Flavobacteriaceae, Rhodobacteraceae, Desulfobulbaceae, and Helicobacteraceae and in the order Mycoplasmatales. Unclassified genera containing environmental sequences only are more than half of genera from sea cucumbers and shrimps. Sea cucumbers and shrimps could be unexplored sources of novel microbes and the bacterial diversity of them was revealed by high throughput 454 pyrosequencing.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.142-147
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• 2018

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of practical diets containing different seaweed powders on the growth and body composition of juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. Six experimental diets were formulated to contain 40% of the following seaweed powders: Sargassum thunbergii (ST), Undaria pinnatifida (UP), Ascophyllum nodosum (AN), Hizikia fusiformis (HF), fermented Laminaria japonica (FLJ), and fermented Hizikia fusiformis (FHF). Sea cucumbers (30 per tank; initial mean weight $0.4{\pm}0.01g$) in three replicates of six groups were fed one of the six experimental diets for 15 weeks. Survival in all groups was 83-93%, with no significant differences among the experimental groups. The specific growth rates of the sea cucumbers fed the ST and UP diets were significantly higher than those of sea cucumbers fed the HF, FLJ, and FHF diets, but did not significantly differ from those of sea cucumbers fed the AN diet. The results of this study suggest that S. thunbergii, U. pinnatifida, and A. nodosum could be useful sources of seaweed powder for practical diets of juvenile sea cucumber.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.232-240
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• 2019

Approximately 80% of the world's sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicas are processed into dried sea cucumbers. The hot air-drying method is currently used in industry, but it has many problems, such as a short drying time, severe browning, high nutrition loss, and low recovery. In this study, the moisture absorption rate, dry recovery rate, and lipid nutrient composition of sea cucumber dried by heat pump decompression and with a hybrid dryer were investigated. The moisture absorption rates for hybrid-dried sea cucumbers at 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 h were 241.3%, 427.7%, 652.0%, 721.0%, and 742.2%, respectively. The moisture absorption rates for hot air-dried sea cucumbers were 155.8%, 240.0%, 390.3%, 655.5%, and 667.4%, respectively. Thus, moisture absorption was faster and greater with hybrid drying than with hot air drying. The dry recovery rate at 24 h was greater for hybrid-dried sea cucumber (70.7%) than for hot air-dried sea cucumber (59.8%). Saturated fatty acid contents of the hybrid- and hot air-dried sea cucumbers were 30.0% and 37.5%, respectively. Moreover, greater ${\Sigma}n-3$ polyunsaturated fatty acid content was found in hybrid-dried sea cucumber (15.8%) than in hot air-dried sea cucumber (11.7%).

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.264-275
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• 2022

A non-destructive environmental DNA protocol for the genetic analysis of sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) resources DNA was established. Among the several commercial DNA extraction kits, the DNeasy^® Plant Mini Kit was selected as the best choice to obtain the high-quality genomic DNAs from the mucous sea cucumber. As the temperature and incubation time increased, the amount of extracted environmental DNA was also large, but it was judged that the increased amount did not affect as much as 2-3 times. Therefore, these conditions were not considered to be the main factors to consider in actual environmental DNA extraction. However, the amount of seawater relative to the size of the sample was judged as a major consideration, and a sufficient amount of environmental DNA for analysis was secured when stored within 1 min while stirring the volume of seawater corresponding to the total sea cucumber weight (g). In securing the environmental DNA of sea cucumbers, the mortality rate of sea cucumbers in all experiments was 0, and it was judged that the effects of sea cucumbers were not significant through this treatment. Through the results of this study, sea cucumber DNA research, which has been conducted in a destructive method, can be conducted non-destructively through environmental DNA analysis. Through this study, we have secured a standard protocol that can successfully extract the sea cucumber DNA through environmental DNA. It is not only excellent in terms of time and cost of traditional DNA analysis method currently used, but it is completely non-destructive in the ecosystem of the survey area. It is believed that the system can be transformed in a way that does not affect it. However, it is thought that various standard protocols should be established considering the characteristics of each type.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.681-687
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• 2018

Recently, several researchers have been developing cosmetics from natural ingredients for skin whitening and anti-aging products. The red sea cucumber (RSC), Apostichopus japonicas, is a species of sea cucumber in the family stichopodiae, which is widely distributed in China, Japan, and Korea. To use Red Sea Cucumber as a cosmetic ingredient, its inhibitory effects on melanogenesis and the anti-aging effects of RSC extracts were investigated. First, a tyrosinase activity assay was performed, which showed that RSC inhibited tyrosinase activity at a concentration of $200{\mu}g/ml$. An MTT assay was carried out to evaluate cell toxicity, and the results showed that RSC extract has no cytotoxicity in HaCaT cells. Furthermore, the mRNA expression levels of tyrosinase, tyrosinase related protein 1 (TRP-1), tyrosinase related protein 2 (TRP-2), microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF), and matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) genes treated with RSC extract in B16F10 and HaCaT cells decreased. Moreover, a wound-healing assay was performed to identify the cell regeneration effect of RSC extracts. Also, a skin turnover effect was confirmed by creating a three-dimensional cell culture with HaCaT and human fibroblasts. Altogether, the results suggested that Red Sea Cucumber may possess a high ability to induce whitening and anti-wrinkle effects as a cosmeceutical ingredient.