• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.381-397
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• 2021

Off-flavor materials (geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB)) produced by microorganisms, such as, cyanobacteria and actinomycetes, cause freshwater use problems worldwide. Due to unpleasant taste and odor, these microorganisms have raised issues especially in drinking water resources. Recently, there has been increasing concern about 2-MIB and causal cyanobacteria, namely, Pseudanabaena, in Korea. However, material production and ecological dynamics remain largely unexplored. This study reviewed the distribution of Pseudanabaena, its species diversity, and the research trend of molecular ecology related to 2-MIB production in Korea. Based on published literature, we found that seven species of Pseudanabaena which include P. mucicola, P. limnetica, P. redekei, P. catenata, P. galeata, P. yagii, and P. cinerea appeared to occur in a variety of Korean water systems. All of these Pseudanabaena species were found in the North-Han River system (Lakes Soyang, Chuncheon, Uiam, and Paldang). Some of these species were also detected in other watersheds, but the precise species diversity was not identified. Species belonging to the Pseudanabaena genus are hard to classify through general microscopic alpha taxonomy, due to their very small cell size and similar morphological characters. Moreover, the potential of 2-MIB production cannot be detected by microscopic observation. Combining molecular ecological techniques, such as, environmental genomic materials (eDNA, eRNA) analyses to conventional methods could be useful to better understand the off-flavor material production and dynamics, thereby providing more efficient management strategies of freshwater systems.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.354-362
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• 2020

A common snapping turtle Chelydra serpentina inhabiting North America is internationally protected as an endangered species. It is known that the individuals of common snapping turtles were imported to South Korea as pets, and after being abandoned, some inhabit the natural ecosystem of South Korea like wild animals. No genetic survey has yet been performed for the common snapping turtles imported to South Korea. Hereby, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) information, which is 594 bp long, was determined for a total of 16 C. serpentina individuals, of which one was found in nature, twelve legally imported and their descendants, and the other three were provided from the Kansas Herpetological Society, USA. The obtained data were combined with thirteen COI sequences of C. serpentina retrieved from NCBI GenBank for the subsequent population genetic analyses. The results showed that there exist five haplotypes with high sequence similarity (only three parsimoniously informative sites). In the TCS and phylogenetic analyses, all the examined C. serpentina samples coincidently formed a strong monoclade with those collected mostly from Kansas State, USA, indicating that the imported ones to South Korea are from the central North America. In addition, there found the amino acid changes and the high degree of nucleotide sequence differences between C. serpentina and C. rossignoni with some important morphological characters. It is expected that the present results could provide an important framework for systematic management and control of exotic snapping turtles imported and released to nature of South Korea.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.384-389
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• 1989

Thirteen varieties of Tongil type and ten of Japonica type which were produced in Korea, in 1985, were campa red in namely, width, thickness, length and weight of rice grains. Thousand-grain weight of paddy, brown rice and milled rice were not significantly different between Tongil type and Japonica type, but difference of paddy-brown rice and brown rice-milled rice had significant (p<2,859** and 4.316***, respectively), and the ratio of difference of paddy-brown rice was higher Tongil type than Japonica type. Width, thickness and length of paddy, brown rice and milled rice was significant (width : p<5.189***, 5.289** and 5.466***, thickness: p<3.371** 4.074*** and 5.988***, length: p<3.016**, 4.419*** and 5.492*** in paddy, brown rice and milled rice, respectively) between the Tongil type and Japonica type, and then the width and thickness of Japonica type were thicker than Tongil type, but length of Japonica type was shorter than Tongil type width/thickness ratio of paddy wes significant (p<2.396*) between the Tongil type and Japonica type, but its brown rice and milled rice was not. And length/width and length/ thickness ratio of paddy, brown rice and milled rice were significant (length/width : p<5.525***, 5.495*** and 5.863***, length/thickness: p<4.734***, 6,863*** and 8.425*** in paddy, brown rice and milled rice) between the Tongil type and Japonica type, and then its ratio were higher Tongil type than Japonica type.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.162-166
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• 1986

Experiments were carried out to find the varietal differences in histological structure and outer characteristics, and its relationships between each characters in the internodes of 15 barley varieties (5 covered barley, 5 naked barley and 5 malting barley). The length of 1st-3th internodes from the top was longer in malting barley varieties, covered barley varieties and naked barley varieties in the order, but of 4th-5th internodes was longer in naked barley varieties, covered barley varieties, and malting barley varieties in the order. The diameter of naked barley varieties internodes was much thicker that of malting barley varieties. The thickness of culm wall in 1st-3rd internodes was thicker naked barley varieties, covered barley varieties, and malting barley varieties in sequence and in 4th-5th inter-nodes was covered barley varieties, malting barley varieties, and naked barley varieties in the order. The number of large vascular bundles in covered barley varieties had more than that of naked barley varieties and malting barley varieties in 1st internodes. The size of large vascular bundles in covered barley varieties and naked barley varieties was larger than that of malting barley varieties. The size of large vascular bundles had significant positive correlation with thickness of culm wall and the diameter of internodes. The thickness of culm wall was negatively correlated with the length of internodes and culm, but positively correlated with the diameter of internodes.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2023

The genus Cottiusculus Jordan and Starks 1904 (Cottoidei: Cottidae) comprises four species worldwide, three species in Japan, and two species in Korea. Cottiusculus species are characterized by a compressed head and body without scales, except for lateral-line scales, a preopercle with four spines, a curved uppermost preopercular spine with small dorsal spines, and teeth on the upper jaws, vomer, and palatines. Two Cottiusculus species have been recorded in Korea: Cottiusculus gonez and Cottiusculus nihonkaiensis. Among these, "jeom-jul-hoet-dae" specimens were initially identified as Cottiusculus schmidti by many Korean Ichthyologists. However, since C. nihonkaiensis was reported by Kai and Nakabo (2009), most such specimens have been identified as C. nihonkaiensis. To clarify the taxonomic status of "jeom-jul-hoet-dae", we conducted morphological and molecular analyses collected from the coasts of South Korea, and compared our findings with previous reports. Japanese and Korean C. nihonkaiensis specimens mostly consistent in some proportional measurements, our molecular results indicate that they are the same species. C. nihonkaiensis, "jeom-jul-hoet-dae" distinguished from other congers by combination of following characters: simple nasal spines, two branched cirri at the upper jaw, cirri at the opercular, preopercular, and lateral lines, and a number of blotches below the lateral line.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.86 no.3
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• pp.378-390
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• 1997

Ten total populations of Korean fir (Abies koreana Wilson) and Manshurian fir [A. nephrolepis (Traut.) Maxim.] were sampled from south Korea to investigate patterns of intraspecific variation in these species and to evaluate a recognition of the two species. Principal components analysis and cluster analysis were performed both on seed-cone data and on needle morphology data. The characters that contributed most to the separation between A. koreana and A. nephrolepis along three principal components axis were leaf width, length of seed, width of seed wing, length of seed wing, cone width, width of scale, and length of bract tip, but these characters were not diagnostic because of overlap in reality. Therefore, all these characters were not reliable in distinguishing these two taxa including bract position (exerted and recurved vs. exerted and straight). The individuals of A. koreana from Mt. Chi-ri appeared quite unique probably on account of its larger cone size and longer scale tip, while those from Mt. Hal-la of A. koreana were generally distinct from others in terms of their larger seed and seed wing and longer scale width. The Mt. Duk-yu specimens of A. korecana appeared somewhat smaller but more data were needed due to the small sampling size. Generally, the gradual clinal geographic trends made evident by the position of resin ducts in leaves of A. koreana can be detected. The southern populations, Mt. Hal-la (an insular population) were generally distinct from the northern populations (Mt. Chi-ri, Mt. Ga-ya and Mt. Duk-yu) in terms of their position of resin duct (medial, within mesophyll vs marginal, close to epidermis : 100% vs 75 or 50%). Although no sharp boundary separating these two species could be detected based on cone and needle morphology, the observed clinal pattern was distinct in northern populations of A. koreana and southern population of A. nephrnlepis. In a preceding study of the flavonoids variation of 20 species in eastern Asia, flavanone (5-deoxyflavanone) was found to be characteristic of A. faxoniana Rehder et Wilson, A. georgei Orr of China and A. koreana of Korea. A. faxoniana, which is assumed to be primitive species, has position of resin duct relative to both the medial and the marginal, while A. georgei and A. koreana are identified by marginal position of resin duct. With respect of foliar flavonoids chemistry, A. koreana was distinct from A. nephrolepis : the southmost samples (Mt. Hal-la and Mt. Chi-ri) contained additional flavonoids derivatives (mainly flavanone) that were not found in the northmost samples of A. nephrolepis except a few individuals from Mts. Seo-rak and Tae-bak populations of Kwang-won province. The presence of A. koreana type flavonoids in two Chinese species suggested that position of resin duct may be a phyletic character. Abies koreana including two Chinese taxa, exhibited the most elaborate and specialized flavonoids profile within the Abies in eastern Asia. Contrary to our initial expectations, the apparent intermediates between A. nephrolepis and A. koreana in Duk-yu and Ga-ya mountains were found. The pattern of variation on position of resin duct and flavonoids chemistry in these populations of A. kareana suggested that genetic interchange or natural hybridization had occurred between these two species. The evidence needed to resolve the status of this taxon is still inconclusive in our opinion until intermediate individuals from Mts. Duk-yu and Ga-ya show indication of hybridization between the two species.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.3
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• pp.215-224
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• 2009

A review was given of the role of traditional morphometrics in plant morphological studies using 54 published studies in three major journals and others in Korea, such as Journal of Korean Forestry Society, Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy, Korean Journal of Breeding, Korean Journal of Apiculture, Journal of Life Science, and Korean Journal of Plant Resources from 1997 to 2008. The two most commonly used techniques of data analysis, cluster analysis (CA) and principal components analysis (PCA) with other statistical tests were discussed. The common problem of PCA is the underlying assumptions of methods, like random sampling and multivariate normal distribution of data. The procedure was intended mainly for continuous data and was not efficient for data which were not well summarized by variances or covariances. Likewise CA was most appropriate for categorical rather than continuous data. Also, the CA produced clusters whether or not natural groupings existed, and the results depended on both the similarity measure chosen and the algorithm used for clustering. An additional problems of the PCA and the CA arised with both qualitative and quantitative data with a limited number of variables and/or too few numbers of samples. Some of these problems may be avoided if a certain number of variables (more than 20 at least) and sufficient samples (40-50 at least) are considered for morphometric analyses, but we do not think that the methods are all mighty tools for data analysts. Instead, we do believe that reasonable applications combined with focus on objectives and limitations of each procedure would be a step forward.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.236-242
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• 1996

Orostachys japonjcus, called Wasong in herb medicine, has been artificially cultivated as an anti-tumor medicinal. The experiment was done to examine the effect of night-break periods imposed immediately before its bolting time on its morphological, flowering-related characters and fraction dry weights. After a plant was grown in a 15cm plastic pot containing a 2:1 soil:Peat moss mixture for about 3 months, three different night-break periods (0.5, 1 and 2 hours) around midnight were treated from Aug. 24. to compare with the natural daylength. The plants were sampled 6 times by 2-week interval after the treatments. Plant height and inflorescence length of all the treatments inclined with time lapse after the treatment and were shorter in 2 hour night-break due to slow increment than in the other treatments, while stem diameter showed reverse result. All the treatments except 2 hour night -break were nearly same in fraction, shoot and total dry weights per plant; two hour night-break treatment had greater leaf and bract weight from 6 weeks, greater stem, shoot and total weights from 2 weeks and greater root weight from 4 weeks but did less floret weight after the treatment. Although florets on the inflorescence were formed in 2 hour night-break treatment, flowering florets and flowering plants never occurred. In the other treatments showed the similar response, however, more florets appeared from 2 weeks, flowering florets was sharply increased from 6 weeks and flowering plants were reached up to 100% from 6 to 8 weeks after the treatment. Inflorescence length or number of total florets per plant in 2 hour night-break was positive-correlated to all the fraction dry weights except that those of natural daylength was not done, meaning that its artificial cultivation should permit bolting to secure more shoot dry matter.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.163-187
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• 2006

Taxonomic studies were conducted to evaluate the interspecific relationships in Viola albida var. albida and its related taxa using seven populations for morphology, palynology and anatomy. Molecular phylogenetic studies were also examined in 28 populations including 19 Korean, four Chinese, two Japanese, one American population and two outgroups using nrITS, and 27 populations except V pinnata for trnL-F region of chloroplast DNA. Morphological differences was observed among seven populations of three species in leaf shape, but characters such as serrate number of leaf margins, petal size, pistil shape were showed overlap between populations. Pollen shape of seven populations was monad and grain shape on the polar axis was semi-angular. Morphology of aperture was tri-colporate, and the surface sculpturing was scabrate in rugulate. The grain shape of equatorial view of five populations was prolate whereas V albida var. taknhashii type 1 and V albida var. chaerophylloides type 3 were subprolate. The anatomical characters of rnidvein of leaf, petiole, peduncle, root were also described for the species. The stomatal apparatus of the leaves was observed only in abaxial surface, and the number of stoma per unit ($mm^2$) were abundant in incised than lobate or cleft margin of the leaves. The nrITS analysis shows that V. pinnata and V. dissecta was monophyletic and occupied a basal position in the V. albida var. albida and its related taxa. The other clade including infraspecific populations of V. albida, and V. eizanensis was paraphyletic. The trnL-F noncoding region analysis was similar to the ITS tree. According to the above observations in morphology, palynology, anatomy, and molecular phylogenetic analysis, the significant differences were not found except for leaf shape in Viola albida var. albida and its related taxa, therefore V. albida var. takanhashii and V. albida var. chaerophylloides were considered to be an infraspecific taxa of V. albida var. albida rather than an independent species, subvariety or variety of V. pinnata and V. dissecta.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.89-96
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• 2017

The majority of freshwater ornamental fish are imported and distributed domestically, causing high risk of exposure to exotic pathogens and drug resistant bacteria in Korea. Aeromonas hydrophila is known as a common species of fresh water bacteria and opportunistic fish pathogen, as well as a species causing zoonotic infection. In this study, we isolated motile aeromonads from various imported freshwater ornamental fish and studied the characters of the isolates. Imported freshwater ornamental fish were purchased on day 1 after the fish were deposited in the aquarium. Bacteria were isolated from the liver, kidney and spleen of fish using 0.5% NaCl containing tryptic soy agar medium. Bacteria were grouped on the basis of their morphological characteristics. The colonies with clear zone on starch-ampicillin agar (SA agar) were tentatively identified as Aeromonas spp. Two hundred and twenty-six strains, about 70% of total isolates were assumed to be Aeromonas spp. Nine isolates were further identified based on the result of the API 20E test and PCR using primers specific for A. hydrophila 16S rRNA gene. The isolates were identified as A. hydrophila and the API 20E test showed differences in trisodium citrate, D-sucrose, D-melibiose, amygdalin and L-arabinose availability between the nine isolates and standard A. hydrophila. The susceptibilities of the isolated bacteria to 10 antibacterial agents were confirmed by the disk diffusion method. Isolated strains were found to be resistant to amoxicillin and ampicillin and sensitive to florfenicol. However, 7 isolates showed multiple drug resistances to erythromycin, oxytetracycline, nalidixic acid etc. Pathogenicity of the isolates was determined by the artificial challenge test on goldfish (Carassius auratus). Three isolates caused 60 ~ 80% mortality in goldfish within 5 days after the initiation of challenge. These results indicate that multiple drug resistant, highly pathogenic and exotic A. hydrophila can spread to domestic aquarium and the preventive treatment of fish before sale is necessary.