• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.27 no.6 s.122
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• pp.355-361
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• 2004

In order to elucidate the ecophysiological characteristics of coastal plants, we collected them on salt marsh and sand dune, and analyzed inorganic ($Na^+,\;K^+,\;Mg^{2+},\;Ca^{2+}$) and organic solutes (soluble carbohydrate, glycine betaine). Chenopodiaceous plant species (Atriplex gmelini, Salicornia europaea, Salsola collina, Suaeda glauca, Suaeda japonica) showed a tendency to accumulate inorganic ions such as $Na^+\;and\;Cl^-$ instead of $K^+$. However, Chenopodium serotinum which lives in ruderal habitat contained more $K^+$ and less $Na^+$ than the other Chenopodiaceous plants. Most Chenopodiaceous plant species maintained very low level of soluble $Ca^{2+}$ and relatively low concentration of carbohydrates and showed high concentration of glycine betaine which is among the most effective known compatible solutes in the leaves of plant under drought and saline conditions. On the other hand, plant species which belong to Gramineae (Ishaemum anthephoroides, Phragmites communis, Zoysia sinica) and Cyperaceae (Carex kobomugi, Carex pumila) absorbed $K^+$ selectively and excluded $Na^+\;and\;Cl^-$ effectively regardless of habitat conditions, and they accumulated more soluble carbohydrate as osmoticum than Chenopodiaceous plants. These results suggested that physiological characteristics such as high storage capacity for inorganic ions (especially alkali cations, chloride) and the accumulation of glycine betaine in chenopodiaceous plants and $K^+$-preponderance, an efficient regulation of ionic uptake (exclusion of $Na^+\;and\;Cl^-$) and the accumulation of soluble carbohydrate in monocotyledonous plants enable them to grow dry and saline habitats.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.101-108
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• 2008

The Agrobacterium-mediated transformation has been successfully used method to introduce foreign genes into some monocotyledonous as well as a large number of dicotyledonous plants genome, We developed transgenic Chinese cabbage plants with insect-resistance gene, modified CryIAc, by Agrobacterium-transformation and confirmed transgene copy number by Southern blot analysis. We confirmed that twenty-nine out of 46 transgenic Chinese cabbage plants have single copy of CryIAc. To obtain the sequences information on the transferred DNA (T-DNA) integration into plant genome, we analyzed left border (LB) flanking sequences by genome walking (GW) PCR method. Out of 46 transgenic Chinese cabbage plants examined, 37 carried the vector backbone sequences. This result indicates that the transfer of the vector backbone from the binary vectors resulted mainly from inefficient termination of LB site. Analysis of T-DNA LB flanking region of 9 transgenic Chinese cabbage plants without vector backbone revealed that all LB ends were not conserved and nucleotides up to 36bp from the LB cleavage site were deleted.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.109-117
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• 1999

Thirty two species of coastal plants (mainly halophytes) were investigated for their free amino acids and the total and water-soluble nitrogen contents in leaves. All plants except some species (e.g. Scutellaria and Linaria) contained proline, but only Ageratum. Tetragonia and Raphanus in rather high amounts, that it can be thought to serve as a cytoplasmic osmolyte. In some plant species (Euphorbia. Glehnia. Peucedanum. Raphanus and monocotyledonous Carex and Zoysia), however, hydroxyproline. (OH-Pro) rather than proline were accumulated to a considerable extent. The concentrations of total free amino acids were low in Aster tripolium, Linaria. Lysimachia. Plantago. Rumex, Vitex and especially in the members of the Chenopodiaceae and Crassulaceae. Marked differences also occurred in the nitrogen levels. Aizoaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Convolvulaceae, Cruciferae, Euphorbiaceae and Leguminosae usually showed high values of total and soluble amino nitrogen, while the opposite was true for most of the Cyperaceae, Gramineae, Lamiaceae, Plantaginaceae, Scophuriaceae, and Verbenaceae. The free amino acids in the investigated plant species contributed very little to the nitrogen content, but in plants of Euphorbia, Messerschmidia and Orostachys. their amino acid-N made up for 25∼30% of the total nitrogen. In conclusion, only a few cases did proline known as compatible solute constitute a significant proportion of the free amino acid pool in coastal plants.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.180-187
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• 2012

Panicum maximum, Panicum repens, Imperata cylindrica, Pennisetum polystachion and Cyperus rotundus are five rhizomatous grass weeds that exist and are problematic in the coconut lands of Sri Lanka. Rhizomatous weeds are the most difficult to control because of their vegetative reproduction by underground propagules. Therefore chemical and biological techniques have failed to control these weeds to acceptable levels. Experiments were conducted to investigate the impact of depth of burial, duration of sun drying or duration of air drying rhizomes of the selected weed species on germination. Depth of burial reduced germination of all species. Burying rhizomes at depths less than 10 cm inhibited germination of P. maximum and P. polystachion. Burying depths below 30~40 cm inhibited germination of all species. Sun drying or air drying rhizomes for durations less than 5 days inhibited germination of P. maximum and P. polystachion. Germinations of all species were inhibited by sun drying rhizomes for 15 days or air drying rhizomes for 20 days. Sun drying of rhizomes of all species for five days reduced the moisture content to a greater extent than air drying. The results indicated that burying rhizomes at the depthsbelow 30~40 cm, sun drying rhizomes for durations beyond 15 days or air drying rhizomes for durations beyond 20 days would be effective in controlling germination of these species. The investigations of the experiments also suggest that keeping rhizomes on the soil surface without burying, sun drying rhizomes or air drying rhizomes for durations of 5~15 days would produce weak plants.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2005

Pathogens, insects and weeds have significantly reduced agricultural productivity. Thus, to increase the productivity, synthetic agricultural chemicals have been overused. However, these synthetic compounds that are different from natural products cannot be broken down easily in natural systems, causing the destruction of soil quality and agricultural environments and the gradually difficulty in continuous agriculture. Now agriculture is faced with the various problems of minimizing the damage in agricultural environments, securing the safety of human health, while simultaneously increasing agricultural productivity. Meanwhile, plants produce secondary metabolites to protect themselves from external invaders and to secure their region for survival. Plants infected with pathogens produce antibiotics phytoalexin; monocotyledonous plants produce flavonoids and diterpenoids phytoalexins, and dicotylodoneous plant, despite of infected pathogens, produce family-specific phytoalexin such as flavonoids in Leguminosae, indole derivatives in Cruciferae, sesquitepenoids in Solanaceae, coumarins in Umbelliferae, making the plant resistant to specific pathogen. Growth inhibitor or antifeedant substances to insects are terpenoids pyrethrin, azadirachtin, limonin, cedrelanoid, toosendanin and fraxinellone/dictamnine, and terpenoid-alkaloid mixed compounds sesquiterpene pyridine and norditerpenoids, and azepine-, amide-, loline-, stemofoline-, pyrrolizidine-alkaloids and so on. Also plants produces the substances to inhibit other plant growths to secure the regions for plant itself, which is including terpenoids essential oil and sesquiterpene lactone, and additionally, benzoxazinoids, glucosinolate, quassinoid, cyanogenic glycoside, saponin, sorgolennone, juglone and lots of other different of secondary metabolites. Hence, phytoalexin, an antibiotic compound produced by plants infected with pathogens, can be employed for pathogen control. Terpenoids and alkaloids inhibiting insect growth can be utilized for insect control. Allelochemicals, a compound released from a certain plant to hinder the growth of other plants for their survival, can be also used directly as a herbicides for weed control as well. Therefore, the use of the natural secondary metabolites for pest control might be one of the alternatives for environmentally friendly agriculture. However, the natural substances are destroyed easily causing low the pest-control efficacy, and also there is the limitation to producing the substances using plant cell. In the future, effects should be made to try to find the secondary metabolites with good pest-control effect and no harmful to human health. Also the biosynthetic pathways of secondary metabolites have to be elucidated continuously, and the metabolic engineering should be applied to improve transgenics having the resistance to specific pest.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 1995.06b
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• pp.27-53
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• 1995

In plant pathology there is an increasing necessity for improved cytological techniques as basis for the localization of cellular substances within the dynamic fine structure of the host-(plant)-pathogen-interaction. Low temperature (LT) preparation techniques (shock freezing, freeze substitution, LT embedding) are now successfully applied in plant pathology. They are regarded as important tools to stabilize the dynamic plant-pathogen-interaction as it exists under physiological conditions. - The main advantage of LT techniques versus conventional chemical fixation is seen in the maintenance of the hydration shell of molecules and macromolecular structures. This results in an improved fine structural preservation and in a superior retention of the antigenicity of proteins. - A well defined ultrastructure of small, fungal organisms and large biological samples such as plant material and as well as the plant-pathogen (fungus) infection sites are presented. The mesophyll tissue of Arabidopsis thaliana is characterized by homogeneously structured cytoplasm closely attached to the cell wall. From analyses of the compatible interaction between Erysiphe graminis f. sp. hordei on barley (Hordeum vulgare), various steps in the infection sequence can be identified. Infection sites of powdery mildew on primary leaves of barley are analysed with regard to the fine structural preservation of the haustoria. The presentation s focussed on the ultrastructure of the extrahaustorial matrix and the extrahaustorial membrane. - The integration of improved cellular preservation with a molecular analysis of the infected host cell is achieved by the application of secondary probing techniques, i.e. immunocytochemistry. Recent data on the characterization of freeze substituted powdery mildew and urst infected plant tissue by immunogold methodology are described with special emphasis on the localization of THRGP-like (threonine-hydrxyproline-rich glycoprotein) epitopes. Infection sites of powdery mildew on barley, stem rust as well as leaf rust (Puccinia recondita) on primary leaves of wheat were probed with a polyclonal antiserum to maize THRGP. Cross-reactivity with the anti-THRGP antiserum was observed over the extrahaustorial matrix of the both compatible and incompatible plant-pathogen interactions. The highly localized accumulation of THRGP-like epitopes at the extrahaustorial host-pathogen interface suggests the involvement of structural, interfacial proteins during the infection of monocotyledonous plants by obligate, biotrophic fungi.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.341-346
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• 1998

In this paper we describe the cloning and expression of the genes encoding the flavonoid-biosynthetic enzyme dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) in Matthiola incana R. Br. A heterologous cDNA probe from Zea mays was used to isolate full-size DFR cDNA clone from a corolla-specific cDNA library. Comparison of the coding region of this DFR cDNA sequence including the sequences of Zea mays, Anthirrinum majus, Petunia hybrida, Callistephus chinensis, Dianthus caryophyllus and Rosa hybrida reveals a identity higher than 61% at the nucleotide level. The DFR transcript is G/C rich in monocotyledonous plants show a strong codon bias preferring codons with a G or C in the third position. The function of this nucleotide sequences were verified by comparison with amino acid sequences of the amino-terminus and tryptic peptides from purified plant enzyme, by northern blotting with mRNA from wild type and mutant plants and by in vitro expression yielding an enzymatically active reductase. Genomic southern blot analysis showed the presence of one gene for DFR in Matthiola incana. Northern blot analysis of the DFR wild type and mutant lines showed that the lack of DFR activity in the stable acyanic mutant k17b is clearly by a transcriptional block of the DFR gene.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.32-36
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• 2019

Calla lilies (Zantedeschia spp.) are monocotyledonous ornamental plants which belongs to the Araceae family. After the release of elite calla cultivar, an efficient propagation system is needed for commercial use. Despite the use of conventional propagation methods such as splitting of tubers and rhizomes of calla, rapid and efficient propagation system should be developed. In order to achieve this goal, stem segments contained apical meristems derived from calla lily cultivar (cv. Gag-si) were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various concentrations of cytokinin and auxin. This was aimed at inducing embryogenic calluses, shoots and multiple shoots. As a result, about 25% of induction rates of yellow embryogenic calluses were observed with MS medium containing both $0.5mg{\cdot}L^{-1}\;NAA$ and $1.5mg{\cdot}L^{-1}\;BA$ as growth regulators. In the experiments involving the regeneration from embryogenic calluses through shoot formation, MS medium supplemented with $0.5mg{\cdot}L^{-1}\;IAA$ and $2.0mg{\cdot}L^{-1}\;BA$ showed the highest rates at approximately 85 ~ 90% with regard to the formation of shoots in calla. Moreover, multiple shoots needed for rapid propagation were generated when explants were cultured on MS medium supplemented with $0.5mg{\cdot}L^{-1}\;IAA$ and $2.0mg{\cdot}L^{-1}\;BA$ with 40% of formation rate. In this study, the combination of auxin and cytokinin showed positive effects on both the induction of embryogenic calluses, the formation of shoots as well as multiple shoots in calla. The regeneration system described here can contribute to the development of breeding programs of calla in the future.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.147-155
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• 2009

Oryza grandiglumis Chitinase IVa (OgChitIVa) cDNA encoding a class IV chitinase was cloned from wild rice (Oryza grandiglumis). OgChitIVa cDNA contains an open reading frame of 867 nucleotides encoding 288 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular weight of 30.4 kDa and isoelectric point of 8.48. Deduced amino acid sequences of OgChitIVa include the signal peptide and chitin-binding domain in the N-terminal domain and conserved catalytic domain. OgChitIVa showed significant similarity at the amino acid level with related monocotyledonous rice and maize chitinase, but low similarity with dicotyledoneous chitinase. Southern blot analysis showed that OgChitIVa genes are present as two copies in the wild rice genome. It was shown that RNA expression of OgChitIVa was induced by defense/stress signaling chemicals, such as jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, and ethephon or cantharidin and endothall or wounding, and yeast extract. It was demonstrated that overexpression of OgChitIVa in Arabidopsis resulted in mild resistance against the fungal pathogen, Botrytis cinerea, by lowering disease rate and necrosis size. RT-PCR analysis showed that PR-1 and PR-2 RNA expression was induced in the transgenic lines. Here, we suggest that a novel OgChitIVa gene may play a role in signal transduction process in defense response against B. cinerea in plants.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.450-456
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• 2016

Rhizoctonia leaf blight (large patch) has become a serious problem in Korean lawn grass, which is extremely hard to treat and develops mostly from the roots of lawn grass to wither it away. Rhizoctonia leaf blight (large patch) is caused by Rhizoctonia solani AG2-2 (IV). To develop zoysia japonica with strong disease tolerance against this pathogenic bacterium, ${\beta}-1,3-glucanase$ was cloned from zoysia japonica, which is one of the PR-Proteins known to play a critical role in plant defense reaction. ${\beta}-1,3-glucanase$ is known to be generated within the cells when plant tissues have a hypersensitive reaction due to virus or bacterium infection and secreted outside the cells to play mainly the function of resistance against pathogenic bacteria in the space between the cells. This study utilized the commonly preserved part in the sequence of corn, wheat, barley, and rice which had been researched for their disease tolerance among the ${\beta}-1,3-glucanase$ monocotyledonous plants. Based on the part, degenerate PCR was performed to find out the sequence and full-length cDNA was cloned. E.coli over-expression was conducted in this study to mass purify target protein and implement in vitro activation measurement and antibacterial test. In addition, to interpret the functions of ZjGlu1 gene, each gene-incorporating plant transformation vectors were produced to make lawn grass transformant. Based on ZjGlu1 protein, antibacterial activity test was conducted on 9 strains. As a result, R. cerealis, F. culmorum, R.solani AG-1 (1B), and T. atroviride were found to have antibacterial activity. The gene-specific expression amount in each organ showed no huge difference in the organs based upon the transformant and against 18s gene expression amount.