• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.627-637
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• 2010

The consumption of tomato has greatly increased recently in Korea, and a large number of tomato cultivars are commercially available in the market. However, identification of tomato cultivars by morphological traits is extremely difficult because of the narrow genetic diversity of breeding lines. Therefore, it is necessary to develop molecular markers for cultivar identification in tomato. In this study, we surveyed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), and developed SNP marker sets for tomato cultivar identification. SNP markers were developed based on conserved ortholog set II (COSII) and intron-based markers derived from pepper EST sequences, and marker polymorphism was tested using high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis. A total of 628 primer sets was tested, and 417 primer sets amplifying single bands were selected. Of the 417 primer sets, 70 primer sets showing HRM polymorphism among 4 inbred lines were selected. Eleven markers were selected from the 70 primer sets and subjected to cultivar identification analysis. Thirty two commercial tomato cultivars were successfully identified using the marker set.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.345-351
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• 2005

To access the natural products of uncultured microorganisms, we constructed and screened the metagenomic DNA libraries by using a cosmid vector and DNA inserts isolated directly from soil. Initial screening of the libraries in Escherichia coli resulted in the isolation of several clones that produce a dark brown color when grown in LB medium. One of the positive clones, designed pYS85C, was transposon mutagenized and the DNA surrounding the transposon insertions in cosmids that no longer conferred the production of brown pigment to E. coli was sequenced. Annotation of the pYS85C sequence obtained from the transposon mutagenesis experiment indicated a single 393 amino acid open reading frame (ORF) with a molecular mass of about 44.5 kDa, predicted to be a 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenases (HPPDs), was responsible for the observed brown pigment. In a BLAST search against deposited sequence, the translated protein from this ORF showed moderate-level identity (>60%) to the other known HPPDs and was most conserved in the C-terminal region of the protein. These results show that genes involved in natural product synthesis can be cloned directly from soil DNA and expressed in a heterologous host, supporting the idea that this technology has the potential to provide novel natural products from the wealth of environmental microbial diversity and is a potentially important new tool for drug discovery.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.301-309
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• 2017

This study is examined river naturality and vegetative composition of river riparian zones to identify their most important sources of variation. Information on plant species cover and on physical characteristics that occur at upper, medium, and low areas was collected for 30 riparian plots located throughout the Youngjeong River in Korea. The riparian areas of river banks are dominated by mixed sediment and the vegetation is composed of herbs, shrub, and trees. The floristic characterization of riparian at this river during 2015 season was identified with a total of 28 families, 72 genera, 75 species, 13 varieties, 23 associations. The vegetations of low water's edge and flood way at upper region were naturally formed various vegetation communities by natural erosion. Forty plant species were identified around the upper region, where the dominant growth form was mostly trees. The flood way vegetation at middle region was both of natural vegetation and artificial vegetation. Land uses in riparian zones river levee at low region were bush or grassland as natural floodplain. The values of cover-abundance at upper, middle, and low region were total 9.26, 7.24, and 7.56, respectively. Grasses and forbs at the Youngjeong River have similar cover-abundance values. Recent, many riparian areas of this river have been lost or degraded for commercial and industrial developments. Thus, monitoring for biological diversity of plant species of this river is necessary for an adaptive management approach and the successful implementation of ecosystem management.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.566-575
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• 2008

Twenty-five chipmunk species occur in the world, of which only the Siberian chipmunk, Tamias sibiricus, inhabits Asia. To investigate mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence variations and population structure of the Siberian chipmunk in northeastern Asia, we examined mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences (1140 bp) from 3 countries. Analyses of 41 individuals from South Korea and 33 individuals from Russia and northeast China resulted in 37 haplotypes and 27 haplotypes, respectively. There were no shared haplotypes between South Korea and Russia - northeast China. Phylogenetic trees and network analysis showed 2 major maternal lineages for haplotypes, referred to as the S and R lineages. Haplotype grouping in each cluster was nearly coincident with its geographic affinity. In particular, 3 distinct groups were found that mostly clustered in the northern, central and southern parts of South Korea. Nucleotide diversity of the S lineage was twice that of lineage R. The divergence between S and R lineages was estimated to be 2.98-0.98 Myr. During the ice age, there may have been at least 2 refuges in South Korea and Russia - northeast China. The sequence variation between the S and R lineages was 11.3% (K2P), which is indicative of specific recognition in rodents. These results suggest that T. sibiricus from South Korea could be considered a separate species. However, additional information, such as details of distribution, nuclear genes data or morphology, is required to strengthen this hypothesis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.351-351
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• 2017

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are particular soil fungi that benefit many crops and require a symbiosis with plant roots to survive. In our previous study, there was a positive correlation between AMF root colonization and soybean grain yield in a four-year consecutive winter cover crop-soybean rotational system without phosphorus fertilizer. It is suggested that higher AMF root colonization can be a better solution for improving soybean growth and grain yield in P-limited soil. Our purpose in this study was to test the hypothesis that a P application is the main factor improving soybean growth, P nutrition and grain yield, and the benefit from AMF to soybean P uptake and growth in a P-limited soil. Impact of a P application on AMF root colonization and communities in soybean roots and their potential contribution to soybean growth and P nutrition under a five-year P-unfertilized crop rotational system were investigated over two-years. In this study, four cover crop treatments included 1) wheat (Triticum aestivum); 2) red clover (Trifolium pratense); 3) rapeseed (Brassica napus); and 4) fallow in the crop rotation. The amount of triple superphosphate as a P fertilizer applied rate after cultivation of cover crops was 120 and $360k\;ha^{-1}$ in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Soybean roots were sampled at full-flowering and analyzed for AMF communities using polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) techniques. The AMF root colonization in the soybean roots at full bloom stage was significantly influenced by cover crop and P application throughout the two-year rotation. The two-year rotation of different cover crops or fallow impacted the molecular diversity of AMF communities colonizing roots of soybean. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that AMF communities colonizing roots of soybean were significantly different among cover crop rotations. The AMF communities colonizing roots of soybean were clearly influenced by a P application in the two-year trial. Moreover, a P application may have positively impacts on the AMF communities under P-deficit soil due to the continuous cover crop-soybean rotational system without a P fertilizer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.135-135
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• 2017

The Gramene database (http://www.gramene.org) is a powerful online resource for agricultural researchers, plant breeders and educators that provides easy access to reference data, visualizations and analytical tools for conducting cross-species comparisons. Learn the benefits of using Gramene to enrich your lectures, accelerate your research goals, and respond to your organismal community needs. Gramene's genomes portal hosts browsers for 44 complete reference genomes, including crops and model organisms, each displaying functional annotations, gene-trees with orthologous and paralogous gene classification, and whole-genome alignments. SNP and structural diversity data, available for 11 species, are displayed in the context of gene annotation, protein domains and functional consequences on transcript structure (e.g., missense variant). Browsers from multiple species can be viewed simultaneously with links to community-driven organismal databases. Thus, while hosting the underlying data for comparative studies, the portal also provides unified access to diverse plant community resources, and the ability for communities to upload and display private data sets in multiple standard formats. Our BioMart data mining interface enable complex queries and bulk download of sequence, annotation, homology and variation data. Gramene's pathway portal, the Plant Reactome, hosts over 240 pathways curated in rice and inferred in 66 additional plant species by orthology projection. Users may compare pathways across species, query and visualize curated expression data from EMBL-EBI's Expression Atlas in the context of pathways, analyze genome-scale expression data, and conduct pathway enrichment analysis. Our integrated search database and modern user interface leverage these diverse annotations to facilitate finding genes through selecting auto-suggested filters with interactive views of the results.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.126-132
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• 2009

Legionella spp. is the causative agent of Legionellosis, which induces a potentially fatal form of pneumonia. With a concentrated performance during the summer of 2008, we secured 73 isolates from the water systems of 25 wards in Seoul. We analysed serotypes, pathogenic genes (Dot/Icm), and patterns of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) in an attempt to confirm relationships among them. Different from the previous year's pattern (2007), among the isolates, 69 were Legionella pneumophila and 4 were Legionella spp. The serotype distribution of Legionella pneumophila was sg1 43, sg6 9, sg5 8, sg3 8, and sg2 1. The serotype for the 4 Legionella spp. was Legionella nautarum. Most of the Legionella pneumophila had several pathogenic genes. On the other hand, the 4 Legionella spp. were defective in pathogenicity in genomic terms. The PFGE patterns of the serotypes showed a tendency for diversity of Legionella pneumophila and a close correlation with genetic pathogenicity.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.334-340
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• 2004

This study was initially performed to obtain fundamental data on lichen distribution depending on environmental condiLichens distributed on coastal rocks atleast 20 m far away from the coast were also investigated. Analyof morphological characteristics and rDNA ITS clones revealed that lichens containing 9 families and 15 genera were distributed in coastal rocks of V-do, while lichens containing 10 families and 14 genera were in field rocks, demonstrating little difference of diversity between both sites. Foliose lichens such as PhaeophysPhyscia, Pyxine belonging to the family Physciaceae were representatives distributed in coastal rocks of V-do, along with Xanthoparmelia belonging to Parmeliaceae, fruticose lichens such as Ramalina to Ramaliand crustose lichen Lecanora to Lecanoraceae. In contrast, foliose lichen Cladonia belonging to the family Cladoniaceae, fruitcose lichen Stereocaulon to Streocaulaceae, and crustose lichen Porpidia to Porpidwere found only on the surface of field rocks. Crustose lichens containing genera Caloplaca, CanDirinaria, Graphis, Rhizocarpon, and Pertusaria were rarely distributed in coastal rocks, and most of them were also found in field rocks.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.275-285
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• 1998

Based on the geographic range and distribution of its rodent reservoir host, the European common vole (Microtus arvalis), Tula virus is likely to be widespread throughout Eurasia. Tula virus-infected voles have been captured in Central Russia, Austria, Czech and Slovak Republics, and the former Yugoslavia. Although serologic evidence for Hantaan (HTN) or Seoul (SEO) virus infection can be found in the vast majority of the more than 300 cases of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) occurring annually in Korea, approximately 4% of Korean patients with HFRS show a more than 4-fold higher antibody titer to Puumala (PUU) virus than to HTN or SEO virus by double-sandwich IgM ELISA, suggesting the existence of pathogenic Puumala-related hantaviruses in Korea. To further define the geographic distribution and genetic diversity of Tula virus in Eurasia and to investigate the existence of previously unrecognized Microtus-borne hantavirus in Korea, arvicolid rodents were captured in Lodz, Poland in 1995 and in Yunchon-kun, Kyungki-do during April to May, 1998. In addition, sera from 18 Korean HFRS patients who showed higher (or the same) antibody titer to Tula virus than HTN and SEO viruses were examined for hantavirus RNA by RT-PCR. Hantaviral sequences were not detected in any of the 18 patients or in 35 reed voles (Microtus fortis) in Korea. Alignment and comparison of a 208-nucleotide region of the S segment, amplified from lung tissues of two hantavirus-seropositive Marvalis captured in Poland, revealed $80.8{\sim}83.2%$ sequence similarity, respectively, with Tula virus strains from Central Russia and the Czech and Slovak Republics. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the newfound Tula virus strains from Poland were closely related to other Tula hantaviruses from Eurasia.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.845-850
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• 2011

Norovirus (NoV) causes major acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis in humans. NoV genus is a member of the family Caliciviridae, which is transmitted by contaminated food and water or from human to human. Many genotypes of genogroups I and II have been reported because of their high genetic diversity. To obtain molecular epidemiological information on gastroenteritis sporadic cases in Busan, Korea, we analyzed the nucleotide sequences of NoV strains detected during 2008~2010. We performed one step RT-PCR amplifying the open reading frame (ORF) 2 (capsid region) followed by semi-nested PCR. Fecal samples were collected from 4,071 acute gastroenteritis, and genotypes of the 421 positive samples were determined by sequence analysis. Based on partial sequence of capsid region, 7 NoV were categorized into genogroup I and 13 into genogroup II. Prevalent genotypes among gastroenteritis patients within Busan were GII.4, GI.6, GII.5 in 2008~2010. The results of this study will contribute to the currently available epidemiological data and improve public health and hygiene via development of diagnostic methods and sustainable surveillance.