• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2010

We have developed an efficient and precise method for genome manipulations in Bacillus subtilis that allows rapid alteration of a gene sequence or multiple gene sequences without altering the chromosome in any other way. In our approach, the Escherichia coli toxin gene mazF, which was used as a counter-selectable marker, was placed under the control of a xylose-inducible expression system and associated with an antibiotic resistance gene to create a "mazF-cassette". A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-generated fragment, consisting of two homology regions joined to the mazF-cassette, was integrated into the chromosome at the target locus by homologous recombination, using positive selection for antibiotic resistance. Then, the excision of the mazF-cassette from the chromosome by a single-crossover event between two short directly repeated (DR) sequences, included in the design of the PCR products, was achieved by counter-selection of mazF. We used this method efficiently and precisely to deliver a point mutation, to inactivate a specific gene, to delete a large genomic region, and to generate the in-frame deletion with minimal polar effects in the same background.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.525-530
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• 2020

Objective: The purpose of this study was i) to identify the characteristics of carcass traits in Chikso by gender, region, age at slaughter, and coat color using the carcass data collected from the nationwide pedigree information and coat color investigation, and ii) to estimate genetic parameters for breed improvement. Methods: A linear model was used to analyze the environmental effects on the carcass traits and to estimate genetic parameters. Analysis of variance was performed using TYPE III sum of squares for the unbalanced data provided by the general linear model procedure. Variance components for genetic parameters was estimated using REMLF90 of the BLUPF90 family programs. Results: Phenotypic performance of carcass weight (CW), eye muscle area (EMA), and backfat thickness (BF) in Chikso were lower than those of Hanwoo. This is a natural outcome because Hanwoo have undergone significant efforts for improvement at the national level, a phenomenon not observed in Chikso. Another factor influencing the above outcome was the smaller population size of Chikso compared to that of Hanwoo's. The heritabilities of CW, EMA, BF, and marbling score in Chikso were estimated as 0.50, 0.37, 0.35, and 0.53, respectively, which were was higher than those of Hanwoo. Conclusion: Based on the genetic parameters that were estimated in this study, it is expected that the carcass traits will improve when the livestock research institutes at each province conduct small-scale performance tests and the semen is provided to farmers after selecting proven bulls using the state-of-art selection technique such as genomic selection.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.2.1-2.8
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• 2014

Hanwoo (Korean cattle) is the native, taurine type of cattle breed of Korea and its history as a draft animal dates back to 5000 Years. In earlier times Hanwoo was used extensively for farming, transportation. Over the period of time, Hanwoo has changed to be meat type cattle. Full-scale production of Hanwoo as meat-type cattle has occurred since 1960s with the rapid growth of the Korean economy. Hanwoo is one of the most economically important species in Korea as it is a significant source of nutrition to the Korean people. Hanwoo beef is the most cherished food of Korea. One of the main goals of researchers is to increase the meat quality, quantity and taste of the beef. In this review we describe the origin, domestication of Hanwoo cattle and breeding program initiated from 1980's. Moreover the advent of technological advancement had provided us a platform to perform genome wide selection on economic traits and its implementation into traditional breeding programs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.485-493
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• 2019

Objective: This study was undertaken to investigate the genetic characteristics of Berkshire (BS), Landrace (LR), and Yorkshire (YS) pig breeds raised in the Great Grandparents pig farms using the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) information. Methods: A total of 25,921 common SNP genotype markers in three pig breeds were used to estimate the expected heterozygosity ($H_E$), polymorphism information content, F-statistics ($F_{ST}$), linkage disequilibrium (LD) and effective population size ($N_e$). Results: The chromosome-wise distribution of $F_{ST}$ in BS, LR, and YS populations were within the range of 0-0.36, and the average $F_{ST}$ value was estimated to be $0.07{\pm}0.06$. This result indicated some level of genetic segregation. An average LD ($r^2$) for the BS, LR, and YS breeds was estimated to be approximately 0.41. This study also found an average $N_e$ of 19.9 (BS), 31.4 (LR), and 34.1 (YS) over the last 5th generations. The effective population size for the BS, LR, and YS breeds decreased at a consistent rate from 50th to 10th generations ago. With a relatively faster $N_e$ decline rate in the past 10th generations, there exists possible evidence for intensive selection practices in pigs in the recent past. Conclusion: To develop customized chips for the genomic selection of various breeds, it is important to select and utilize SNP based on the genetic characteristics of each breed. Since the improvement efficiency of breed pigs increases sharply by the population size, it is important to increase test units for the improvement and it is desirable to establish the pig improvement network system to expand the unit of breed pig improvement through the genetic connection among breed pig farms.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.214-214
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• 2022

Soluble starch synthases (SSs) elongate α-glucans from ADP-Glc to the glucan nonreducing ends and play a critical role in synthesizing resistant starch in the rice. A total of 10 SSs isoforms were reported in rice, including granules-bound starch synthase I (GBSSI), GBSSII, starch synthase I (SSI), SSIIa (SSII-3), SSIIb (SSII-2), SSIIc (SSII-1), SSIIIa (SSIII-2), SSIIIb (SSIII-1), SSIVa (SSIV-1), and SSIVb (SSIV-2). SSIII proteins are involved in forming the B chain and elongating cluster filling chains in amylopectin metabolism. The functions of SSIIIb (SSIII-1) are less clear as compared to SSs. Here, we sought to shed light on the genetic diversity profiling of the SSIII-1 gene in 374 rice accessions composed of 54 wild-type accessions and 320 bred cultivars (temperate japonica, indica, tropical japonica, aus, aromatic, and admixture). In total, 17 haplotypes were identified in the SSIII-1 coding region of 320 bred cultivars, while 44 haplotypes were detected from 54 wild-type accessions. The genetic diversity indices revealed the most negative Tajima's D value in the temperate-japonica, followed by the wild type, while Tajima's D values in other ecotypes were positive, indicating balancing selection. Nucleotide diversity in the SSIII-1 region was highest in the wild group (0.0047) while lowest in temperate-japonica. Lower nucleotide diversity in the temperate-japonica is evidenced by the negative Tajima's D and suggested purifying selection. The fixation index (F_ST) revealed a very high level of gene flow (low F_ST) between the tropical-japonica and admixture groups (F_ST=-0.21) followed by admixture and wild groups (-0.04), indica and admixture groups (0.02), while low gene flow with higher F_ST estimates between the temperate-japonica and aus groups (0.72), tropical-japonica and aromatic groups (0.71), and temperate-japonica and admixture groups (0.52). Taken together, our study offers insights into haplotype diversity and evolutionary fingerprints of SSIII-1. It provides genomic information to increase the resistant starch content of cooked rice.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.142-145
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• 1995

The pumb gene encoding a basic amino acid transport protein in Neurospora crassa could be cloned by using a mutant strain defective in pmb gene as a host strain, using a negative selection on the media containing amino acid analogue canavanine. To select positive transformants of the genes for cloning, an auxotrophic marker (his-2) was added to a pmb mutant strain by mating ; a triple mutant (pmn : pmb : his-2) was constructued by crossing a strain defective in basic amino acid transport system (# 1683-bat um 535 "A") to a double mutant strain defective in neutral amino acid transport and histidine production (mitrol : his-2 "a"). Crossing was performed on synthetic crossing (SC) media containing histidine. The pmn : pmb and pmn :pmb : his-2 strains were selected among the progeny colonies from crosses on plates containing 5- .mu.g/ml para-fluoro-phenylalanine (PFPA), 200 .mu.g/ml canavanine, and 500 .mu.g/ml histidine. The selected colonies were cultured on minimal media with or without histidine for discarding pmn : pmb strain, because the pmn : pmb : his -2 strain grows only on histidine containing media. The pmn :pmb : his-2 strain selected can be used as a host strain for the cloning of the pmb and the pmn genes from a Neurospora genomic library by means of positive selections.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.205-212
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• 2009

Colletotrichum acutatum was the main cause of the recent outbreaks of anthracnose on pepper fruit in Korea. To facilitate molecular analysis of C. acutatum, we generated an arginine auxotrophic mutant of the C acutatum strain JC24 using a targeted gene replacement strategy. A 3.3-kb genomic region carrying an ortholog (designated CaARG2) of the fungal gene encoding N-acetylglutamate synthase, the first enzyme of arginine biosynthesis in fungi, was deleted from the fungal genome. The mutant exhibited normal growth only when arginine was exogenously supplied into the culture medium. Transformation of the arginine auxotrophic mutant with a plasmid DNA carrying an intact copy of CaARG2, which was smaller than the deleted region in the mutant, not only caused random vector insertions in the fungal genome, but also recovered both hyphal growth and pathogenicity of the mutant to the wild-type level. Using this new selection system, we have successfully developed a restriction enzyme-mediated integration procedure, which would provide an economically efficient random mutagenesis method in C. acutatum.

• Plant Resources
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2003

Ginseng(Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer) is important medicinal plant but requires 4-year cultivation for root harvest because of slow growth. In contrast, ginseng hairy roots induced by introducing Ri-plasmid of Agrobacterium rhizogenes into genomic DNA of plant cells show vigorous growth, and the hairy roots produce the same or more saponins than natural ginseng roots. Therefore, hairy roots can be used for commercial purposes. The present study was carried out to induce hairy roots with both active growth and high saponin contents. Numerous hairy roots of Panax ginseng were obtained after root disks of three-year old roots were infected with Agrobacterium rhizogenes R1000 A4T in dark condition after one month of culture. About 3 hundred lines of hairy roots were selected according as morphological characters on medium with carbenicillin. After pre-selection of fifteen lines of hairy roots with active growth, KGHR-l and KGHR-8 lines were finally selected which had characters of high content of ginsenoside-Rd and ginsenoside-Re, respectively. The optimum growth of hairy roots was achieved in the culture of 1/2 MS liquid medium in dark (22 $^{\circ}C$) under 60 rpm gyratory shaking. Hairy roots grew well in 5L Erlenmeyer flasks, lL roller drums, 10L jar-fermenters, and especially in 20L air-lift culture vessels.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.13-13
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• 2017

By the progress of genome sequencing, infrastructures for marker-assisted breeding (MAB) of rice came to be established. Fine mapping and gene isolation have been conducted using the breeding materials derived from natural variations and artificial mutants. Such genetic analysis by the genome-wide dense markers provided us the knowledge about the many genes controlling important traits. We identified several genes or quantitative trait loci (QTL) for heading date, blast resistance, eating quality, high-temperature stress tolerance, and so on. NILs of each gene controlling heading date contribute to elongate the rice harvest period. Determination of precise gene location of blast resistance gene pi21, allowed us to overcome linkage drag, co-introduction of undesirable eating quality. We could also breed the first practical rice cultivar in Japan with a brown planthopper resistance gene bph11 in the genetic back-ground of an elite cultivar. Discovery of major and minor QTLs for good eating quality allowed us to fine-tune of eating quality according to the rice planting area or usage of rice grain. Many rice cultivars have bred efficiently by MAB for several traits, or by marker-assisted backcross breeding through chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) using genetically diverse accessions. We are also systematically supporting the crop breeding of other sectors by MAB or by providing resources such as CSSLs. It is possible to pyramid many genes for important traits by using MAB, but is still difficult to improve the yielding ability. We are performing a Genomic Selection (GS) for improvement of rice biomass and grain yield. We are also trying to apply the genome editing technology for high yield rice breeding.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.129-134
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• 2001

Winter bud explants from 15 individual angelica tree (Aralia elata) were cultured in vitro to find out optimal conditions for somatic embryo induction as well as plant regeneration. Calli are induced and grown on MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/L 2,4-D for 4 weeks and subcultured on a half-strength MS medium without phytohormones to induce somatic embryos. Inter-simple sequence repeat (I-SSR) markers were analyzed with total DNAs extracted from the trees. Genotype effects on somatic embryo induction were examined by cluster analysis. Callus induction rate varied from 58.5 to 100% among the genotypes. Somatic embryo induction rate also greatly varied from 0 to 100% among the genotypes. There was a significant difference in somatic embryo induction rate even among the individual trees that showed close genetic relationships each other. This suggested that somatic embryo induction rate in Aralia elata be influenced by a few major specific genes rather than whole genomic similarity among individual trees. Four individuals of Ulneong-7, Cheju-1, Shingu and China, which are recalcitrant to somatic embryo induction, turned out to have a close genetic relationship, suggesting that both physiological and genetic factors affect somatic embryo induction. The results suggest that genotype selection be the most important factor to achieve an efficient propagation, although cultural optimization through medium and explant manipulation may also play crucial roles in somatic embryogensis as well as plant regeneration of these species.