• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology Conference
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• 2002.04b
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• pp.41-47
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• 2002

Adverse environmental conditions such as drought, high salt and cold/freezing are major factors that reduces crop productivity worldwide. According to a survey, 50-80% of the maximum potential yield is lost by these 'environmental or abiotic stresses', which is approximately ten times higher than the loss by biotic stresses. Thus, improving stress-tolerance of crop plants is an important way to improve agricultural productivity. In order to develop such stress-tolerant crop plants, we set out to identify key stress signaling components that can be used to develop commercially viable crop varieties with enhanced stress tolerance. Our primary focus so far has been on the identification of transcription factors that regulate stress responsive gene expression, especially those involved in ABA-mediated stress response. Be sessile, plants have the unique capability to adapt themselves to the abiotic stresses. This adaptive capability is largely dependent on the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA), whose level increases under various stress conditions, triggering adaptive response. Central to the response is ABA-regulated gene expression, which ultimately leads to physiological changes at the whole plant level. Thus, once identified, it would be possible to enhance stress tolerance of crop plants by manipulating the expression of the factors that mediate ABA-dependent stress response. Here, we present our work on the isolation and functional characterization of the transcription factors.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 1974

The most commonly grown economical and flue-cured tobacco cultivar Yellow Special A was used in pot-culture tests in order to study Ethrel (2-chloroethyl phosponic acid) effects on accelerating maturity of tobacco leaves in relation to the most adequate level of the chemical useful for field growing, nitrogen level in soil for the most pronounced response, and the most suitable spray period during the growth stages of pre-, post- and topping periods. The following conclusions, thus, were obtained from the present studies; 1. 500ppm Ethrel spray was reconfirmed to be adequate in the practical applications, although the extent of yellow-ripening of tobacco leaves was increased as the Ethrel level increased. The highest leevel treated resulted in causing chemically damaged lesions on leaves and early defoliation. 2. Ethrel-treated leaves showed deeper yellowish tinge to them than those without treatment, while different levels of the chemcial had less influence on the tinge. 3. An adequate level of nitrogen supply to plants favored the Ethrel response, whereas either very low or high level of nitrogen in the soil lowered the chemical effect on accelerating the yellow-ripening. When carbohydrates versus total nitrogen ratio became relatively high, the condition brought out some outstanding Ethrel effects. 4. Chlorophyll level of leaves increased as soil applications of nitrogen level increased, and that also increased carotenoid level of the tobacco leaves. Ethrel-treated leaves showed deeper orange tinge than those without treatment, while the highest level of nitrogen application showed the deepest orange tinge to tobacco leaves. 5. Pre-topping treatment (12 days before topping and flowering) resulted in almost no Ethrel response, and that treatment right on the day of topping, showed response of yellow-leaf ripening at nearly bottom-half leaves of a tobacco plant. The post-topping treatment (12 days after topping) made plants showing full response of Ethrel from bottom to the top leaves of tobacco plant in accelerating the leaf maturity. 6. The extent of Ethrel responses on accelerating yellow-ripening of tobacco leaves was discussed for the modifying influences brought about by certain environmental factors. Discussions were also made about the possible practical applications (particularly for pre-rice planting) and quality difference that may be caused by such growth environments.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.903-909
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• 2015

Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production is a typical mechanism of plant growth promotion by some rhizobacteria. However, a functional genomic study is necessary to unravel the function and mechanism of IAA signaling during rhizobacteria-plant interactions. In this study, the expression of SlIAA1 and SlIAA9 among the auxin response genes in tomato was examined during the interaction between IAA-producing Acinetobacter guillouiae SW5 and tomato plants. When 3-day grown tomato seedlings were treated for 30 min with 10~100 µM of IAA produced by bacteria from tryptophan, the relative mRNA levels of SlIAA1 and SlIAA9 increased significantly compared with those of the control, demonstrating that IAA produced by this bacterium can induce the expressions of both genes. Inoculation of live A. guillouiae SW5 to tomato seedlings also increased the expressions of SlIAA1 and SlIAA9, with more mRNA produced at higher bacterial density. In contrast, treatment of tomato seedlings with dead A. guillouiae SW5 did not significantly affect the expression of SlIAA1and SlIAA9. When 3-day bacterial culture in tomato root exudates was administered to tomato seedlings, the relative mRNA level of SlIAA1 increased. This result indicated that the plant may take up IAA produced by bacteria in plant root exudates, which may increase the expression of the auxin response genes, with resulting promotion of plant growth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.236-236
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• 2017

Low soil pH causes from $H^+$ rhizotoxicity results in nutrients unavailability in the growing media, inhibits plant growth, development and reduces crop yields. The present study was carried out to reveal morpholophysiological and biochemical responses of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to acidity stress. Four wheat varieties viz. BARI Wheat-21, BARI Wheat-25, BARI Wheat-26 and BARI Wheat-30 were used in the study. Eight-day-old seedlings were exposed to different pH levels (3.5, 4.5, 5.5 and 6.5) of growing media. Acidity stress at any level reduced biomass, water, and chlorophyll contents in all the varieties; whereas BARI Wheat-26 showed the least damage. $H^+$ rhizotoxicity also caused oxidative stress through excess production of reactive oxygen species and methylglyoxal which increase lipid peroxidation in all the varieties but the lowest oxidative damage was observed in BARI Wheat-26 due to better performance of the antioxidant defense and glyoxalase systems. Considering the growth, physiological and biochemical attributes BARI Wheat-26 may be considered as acidity stress tolerant, among the variety examined.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.325-331
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• 2007

A series of experiments were performed to evaluate effects of lettuce seed treatment with low temperature and dry heat treatment (DHT) on bolting response in the case of spring cultivation. During spring production in greenhouse, bolting response of the plants produced from the treated seeds was faster in the order of low temperature treatment, control and DHT. Plant height was increased 5-10 cm higher by low temperature treatment, but plant growth of some cultivars was inhibited by DHT. Difference on lettuce plant growth between low temperature treatment and DHT was gradually diminished with the lapse of time after transplanting. Fresh weight of plant was not significantly different among all treatments. 'Red Gyeolku' showed very early bolting response and plant height was significantly promoted by low temperature treatment. However, 'Cheongchima' showed low bolting percentage after various seed treatments, so it is considered late-bolting cultivar.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.355-362
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• 2016

In order to secure the stability against strong earthquakes, isolation devices on the existing nuclear power plant have been introduced. By applying the isolation device on structures, it is possible to isolate structures from the ground motion. Therefore, the natural frequencies of the structures become longer, and the responses of the structures due to the ground motion decrease. Especially, when designing the nuclear power plant, it is important to ensure the safety of internal devices as well as the nuclear power plant itself. The floor response spectrum is commonly used in designing the internal devices. In this research, floor response spectrum is evaluated and the effect of second hardening behavior is investigated by performing earthquake analysis.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.343-354
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• 2014

Rice blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most serious diseases of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) in most rice-growing regions of the world. In order to investigate early response genes in rice, we utilized the transcriptome analysis approach using a 300 K tilling microarray to rice leaves infected with compatible and incompatible M. oryzae strains. Prior to the microarray experiment, total RNA was validated by measuring the differential expression of rice defense-related marker genes (chitinase 2, barwin, PBZ1, and PR-10) by RT-PCR, and phytoalexins (sakuranetin and momilactone A) with HPLC. Microarray analysis revealed that 231 genes were up-regulated (>2 fold change, p < 0.05) in the incompatible interaction compared to the compatible one. Highly expressed genes were functionally characterized into metabolic processes and oxidation-reduction categories. The oxidative stress response was induced in both early and later infection stages. Biotic stress overview from MapMan analysis revealed that the phytohormone ethylene as well as signaling molecules jasmonic acid and salicylic acid is important for defense gene regulation. WRKY and Myb transcription factors were also involved in signal transduction processes. Additionally, receptor-like kinases were more likely associated with the defense response, and their expression patterns were validated by RT-PCR. Our results suggest that candidate genes, including receptor-like protein kinases, may play a key role in disease resistance against M. oryzae attack.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.1626-1633
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• 2010

In this paper, we implemented medicinal plant information system based on user requirement using Ajax technique which can retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background without refresh webpage and jQuery which is a lightweight cross-browser javascript library. Also, we presented the source code handling the server response data used in the system and compared the features by the type of response data. This system shows the improvement of user interaction and response rates because of a simple response data from the server, client-side data processing and change of web page by manipulating the DOM tree and provides ease of use and convenient data access.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.609-622
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• 2019

Sound vibration (SV) treatment can trigger various molecular and physiological changes in plants. Previously, we showed that pre-exposure of Arabidopsis plants to SV boosts its defense response against Botrytis cinerea fungus. The present study was aimed to investigate the changes in the proteome states in the SV-treated Arabidopsis during disease progression. Proteomics analysis identified several upregulated proteins in the SV-infected plants (i.e., SV-treated plants carrying Botrytis infection). These upregulated proteins are involved in a plethora of biological functions, e.g., primary metabolism (i.e., glycolysis, tricarboxylic acid cycle, ATP synthesis, cysteine metabolism, and photosynthesis), redox homeostasis, and defense response. Additionally, our enzyme assays confirmed the enhanced activity of antioxidant enzymes in the SV-infected plants compared to control plants. Broadly, our results suggest that SV pre-treatment evokes a more efficient defense response in the SV-infected plants by modulating the primary metabolism and reactive oxygen species scavenging activity.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.323-331
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• 2008

Plants are continually exposed to a variety of potentially pathogenic microbes, and the interactions between plants and pathogenic invaders determine the outcome, disease or disease resistance. To defend themselves, plants have developed a sophisticated immune system. Unlike animals, however, they do not have specialized immune cells and, thus all plant cells appear to have the innate ability to recognize pathogens and turn on an appropriate defense response. Using genetic, genomic and biochemical methods, tremendous advances have been made in understanding how plants recognize pathogens and mount effective defenses. The primary immune response is induced by microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). MAMP receptors recognize the presence of probable pathogens and evoke defense. In the co-evolution of plant-microbe interactions, pathogens gained the ability to make and deliver effector proteins to suppress MAMP-induced defense responses. In response to effector proteins, plants acquired R-proteins to directly or indirectly monitor the presence of effector proteins and activate an effective defense response. In this review we will describe and discuss the plant immune responses induced by two types of elicitors, PAMPs and effector proteins.