• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.139-143
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• 2010

Quail is a very useful animal model for studying vertebrate development because of its small body size and unique reproductive traits. This species is also ideal model for producing germline chimeras via transferring exogenous primordial germ cells (PGCs) into the recipient embryo. To increase the contribution efficiency of donor PGCs into recipients' tissues, decreasing the population of endogenous PGCs has been rate-limiting factor. We therefore conducted this study to investigate if gamma ($\gamma$)-irradiation depletes endogenous PGCs in developing quail embryo. Firstly, freshly laid stage X quail embryos were irradiated with various output of $\gamma$-irradiation and its teratogenic effect on the embryo was evaluated. Although a dose-dependent increase in the number of embryo showing malformation was found as the output increased (0, 250, 500, 750, and 1,000 rads), only a maximum of 10.1% of embryos were abnormal in 1,000 rads. Immunocytochemical analysis using the QCR1 antibody, which is specific marker for quail PGCs, was conducted to analyze the effect of sterilization. As results, $\gamma$-rays at a dose-rate of 500 rads/73 sec onto undeveloped stage X embryo significantly reduced the number of germ cells to an average of 75.55 % and 82.03 % in male and female embryos, respectively. We conclude that $\gamma$-ray selectively targets PGCs while affects minimally to the somatic development in quail embryo. Our results will not only provide important data for germline chimera production but can be used for analyzing the effect of ionized rays on the differentiating germ cells in various stages during animal development.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.171-182
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• 2009

Conventionally, many pig producers have utilized a continual sow managements system that the matings, farrowings and weanings are done weekly basis. But this transitional method is not able to cut the cycle of diseases and fully apply all-in/all-out system because of the continuous flow of sows and pigs. Conventional weekly management system is currently limiting in small farm to work efficiently both for workers and pigs. Therefore, pig producers have found novel management methods for applying all-in/all-out system, improving pig health, leading to better growth, lowering mortality and reducing medication costs nowadays. Moreover, all-in/all-out pig management system has known as a strategy for improving productivity in swine farm. The batch system is one of the best management methods to adopt all-in/all-out pig management system that prevent spreading diseases in pig and remove cycle of diseases. Batch farrowing system is a concept for providing a group of sows that delivery within a specific farrowing interval and inducing a large enough scale of piglets to fill the weaner facilities. There are different types of batch farrowing system with batch size and interval of farrowing when several factors at the swine farm are considered such as total number of sows, available facilities in the farm, and the efficiency of workforce. Sow managements such as farrowing, weaning and breeding, every 3 weeks rather than weekly, 2 or 5-week interval have advantages for workers and reproductive cycle of sows as well as pig flow. Because there are several pros and cons both in weekly and batch management system, various factors should be considered to apply the most suitable management system in each individual farm. To improve poor swine productivity in Korea compared to ED, batch system for sows will be an alternative choice which is able to prevent high incidence of diseases in swine farm such as PMWS, PRRS, PRDC and PED because all-in/all-out pig management can be also applied automatically by using this management system.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.181-185
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• 2004

This study was conducted to examine whether activation treatments, source of oocytes and culture conditions affect in vitro developmental ability of caprine oocytes. Mature Korean native goats were pretreated with intravaginal CIDR for 10 days. The goats were then treated with a single intramuscular injection of 1,000 IU PMSG on Day 8 or twice daily injection of a total of 70 mg FSH for 3 days from Day 8 of CIDR insertion for superovulation. All the goats were injected with 10 mg PGF/sub 2a/ on Day 8 and 400 IU hCG on Day 10 of CIDR. Oocytes were surgically collected by oviduct flushing(in vivo maturation) or direct follicle aspiration(in vitro maturation) through mid-ventral incision at 35 h after hCG injection. Fifteen to twenty oocytes were placed in TCM-199 medium containing 25 mM Hepes and hormones under mineral oil at 39℃ in a humudified atmosphere of 5% CO₂ in air for 22 to 24 h. After maturation, the oocytes were activated by electric stimulation or ionomycin + 6-DMAP. The activated oocytes were then cultured in M16, TCM-199 and mSOF media supplemented with proteins at 39℃ for 6 to 7 days. Activation treatments did not affect cleavage of the oocytes. The cleavage rates were 64.1% (41/64) in oocytes activated by electric stimulation and 76.5% (218/285) in oocytes activated by ionomycin + 6-DMAP. The proportion of development to blastocyst was 15.6% (34/218) in oocytes activated by ionomycin + 6-DMAP, but activation by electric stimulation did not support embryos developed beyond morula stage. There were no differences in the cleavage rates of activated oocytes experiencing in vivo (86.8%, 66/76) and in vitro maturation (69.0%, 127/184). However, the development rate to blastocyst stage was significantly (P<0.05) higher for oocytes matured in vivo (50.0%, 33/66) compared to in vitro (0.8%, 1/127). Culture conditions did not affect the cleavage of -activated oocytes. The cleavage rates were 51.6% (49/95) in M16, 64.3% (18/28) in TCM-199 and 81.0% (145/179) in mSOF, respectively. By contrast, the development rate of activated oocytes to stage was greater (P<0.05) for oocytes cultured in mSOF medium (23.4%, 34/145) than in M16 or TCM-199 (0.0%). Our results suggest that source of oocytes and culture conditions are major factors affecting in vitro development of caprine parthenogenetic oocytes.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.263-270
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• 2013

The vent sexing and the auto-sexing by using sex-linked traits are general sexing methods of day-old chicks. Currently, the feather sexing which is based on the differences in the feather characteristics at hatching is the representative sexing method of chicken, because the late-feathering is sex-linked trait. The feather sexing can be used if the breed has dominant feathering gene (K) in maternal and recessive gene ($k^+$) in paternal. Therefore it is necessary to identify the association of feathering genes and quantitative traits in chickens. In this study, we investigated the influence of the rate of feathering on productive traits in Korean Native Chicken. In results, there was no significant difference between early-feathering chickens and late-feathering chickens in reproductive performance such as fertility and hatchability. Livability, body weights, egg production, egg weight and egg quality also did not significantly differ between early- and late-feathering chickens. Age at first egg was the only trait of those tested in which significant difference was observed. The early-feathering chickens laid eggs 3 days earlier than late-feathering chicken. As a result, there is no influence of feathering phenotypes on productive performance in Korean Native Chickens. Consequentially, establishing the feather sexing strain is available using the Korean Native Chicken breed without considering of the effect of feathering genes on productive traits.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.237-243
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• 2021

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of stem number on plant growth, fruit quality, and yield of sweet peppers grown in greenhouses under supplemental lighting in winter. The seedlings were transplanted at 3.2 plants·m^-2 on October 26, 2020, and started supplemental lighting with 32 high pressure sodium lamps for 16-hour photoperiod from December 1, 2020 to May 25, 2021. Stems were differently trained with 2 and 3 numbers after branching nodes were developed. In the final harvest, the plant height was significantly shorter in the 3 stem-plants than in the 2 stem-plants. The number of nodes per stem and the leaves per plant were increased in the 3 stem-plants than in the 2 stem-plants, while the leaf area was less affected. There were no significant differences in the dry mass of leaves, stems, and immature fruits between the 2 and 3 stem-plants. The fruit fresh weight and fruit dry weight in the 3 stem-plants were decreased by 17% and 12% at 156 days after transplanting (DAT), and by 17% and 15% at 198 DAT compared to those in the 2 stem-plants, respectively. The marketable fruit rates were 93.6% and 95.4% in the 2 and 3 stem-plants, respectively. The total fruit yield in the 3 stem-plants was increased by 30.2% as compared to that in the 2 stem-plants. We concluded that the 3-stem-training cultivation positively affected the total fruit yield by sustaining adaptive vegetative growth of the plants. This result will help producers make useful decisions for increasing productivity of sweet peppers in greenhouses.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.307-315
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• 2001

Litter size has been one of the important economic traits in porcine reproduction. The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system has been shown to mediate actions of the steroid hormone or to synergize with other endocrine factors so that it consequently plays roles in reproductive processes, including ovulation, implantation, maintenance of pregnancy, and fetal development. However, the effect of the serum IGF system on porcine litter size has not been deeply studied. Therefore, this study was conducted to relate serum IFG-II concentration and IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) expression with porcine litter size. Moreover, the possible association of those with estrogen receptor (ER) as a candidate gene for litter size was investigated. Swine were separated into two groups showing high and low litter sizes, and sera were collected from sows in the estrous cycle to postnatal growth of their female progeny. Serum IFG-II concentration was measured by radioimmunoassay and IGFBP-3 expression was detected by Western ligand blotting. During the estrous cycle, IGFBP-3 expression in both groups decreased moderately from metestrus to estrus, but IFG-II concentration showed a reverse pattern. Also, IFG-II concentration and IGFBP-3 expression decreased gradually as pregnancy proceeded. Unlike IGFBP-3, IFG-II decreased moderately as newborn pigs grew. Significant differences in serum IFG-II amount between the two groups were detected at 60 (p<0.01), 75, 90, and 105 d (p<0.05) of pregnancy and at 60 (p<0.01), 45, and 105 d (p<0.05) of postnatal growth. Furthermore, based on ER genotypes, a high litter size group with genotypes AB and BB showed lower IFG-II concentration than a low litter size group with a genotype AA during pregnancy. Taken together, the results indicate that the serum IFG-II and IGFBP-3 are correlated with the litter size in pigs.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2014

To describe the macroscopic anatomy and ovarian-physiological difference of the genital organs of the female Korean water deer, organs from captured animals in a wild area of Korea were dissected. The ovary of estrus group was about $1.10{\pm}0.02mm$ long and weighed about $0.50{\pm}0.02g$. And pregnant group was about $1.3{\pm}0.10mm$ long and weighed about $0.40{\pm}0.05g$. And the crowns of corpora lutea were found in the estrus group, but we couldn't find crowns at the pregnant group. Especially, the estrus ovaries tended (p=0.04) to be heavier than the ovaries during pregnancy. The MMP-9 activity was higher at the Graafian follicles of pregnant group than that in estrus group. However, with regard to follicles of estrus group, MMP-2 level was higher than that in pregnant group. Furthermore, apoptosis detection marker (Casp-3) was highly expressed in Graafian follicle of the pregnant group and the corpora lutea of estrus group. Thus, the differential expression of MMPs observed in this study suggests that the reflected the mechanisms underlying of monovulatory in estrus and/or pregnancy. Our results may be very useful as it provides with information that may be considered for the development of reproductive biotechnologies in endangered animals.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.67-67
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• 2003

Tributyltin chloride (TBTCI) is an organotin compounds that have been widely used as antifouling agents and bioaccumulated in the food chain. TBTCI has been known to induce imposex in female gastropods. There are several reports that TBTCI increased testosterone level and inhibited the conversion of testosterone to estradiol by the aromatase cytochrome P450 enzyme. In this studies, we investigated the effects of TBTCI on steroidogenesis in testes, We dosed to 4-week-old Spragus-Dawleys (SD) male rats with TSTCI (0, 1, 5, 10, and 20mg/kg/day) daily by gavage for 14 days. TBTCI significantly decreased the weights of seminal vesicle, prostate, cowper's gland and LABC at 10 and 20mg/kg/day but significantly Increased the weights of liver at 10 and 20mg/kg/day and adrenals at 20mg/kg/day. mRNA levels of steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) and P450 aromatase were decreased and mRNA levels of cytochrome P450 17$\alpha$-hydroxylase/$C_{17-20}$ lyase (P450c17) were increased by TBTCI. TBTCI significantly increased serum testosterone level in dose-dependent manner. From above results, we found that TBTCI altered mRNA levels of enzymes related steroidogenesis, weights of organs and serum testosterone levels. This suggests that change of hormone levels may be due to alteration of mRNA levels of steroidogenic enzyme in testes, but further studies are necessary to investigate hormone levels in testis organ in order to find a relation of enzyme related to steroidogenesis with hormone levels. This work was supported by the Korea FDA Grant KFDA-03131-EDS-010.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.318-327
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• 2017

Background: A typical sewage treatment plant is designed for organic and nutrient removal from municipal sewage water and not targeted to eliminate micropollutants such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and nano-sized metals which become a big concern for sustainable human and ecological system and are mainly discharged from sewage treatment plant. Therefore, despite contaminant removal by wastewater treatment processes, there are still remaining environmental risks by untreated pollutants in STP (sewage treatment plant) effluents. This study performed aquatic toxicity tests of raw wastewater and treated effluents in two sewage treatment plants to evaluate toxicity reduction by wastewater treatment process and analyze concentration of contaminants to reveal potential toxic factors in STP effluents. Methods: Water samples were collected from each treatment steps of two STPs, and acute and chronic toxicity tests were conducted following USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) guidelines. Endpoints were immobility for mortality and reproduction effect for estrogenicity. Results: Acute $EC_{50}s$ (median effective concentration) of influents for Seungki (SK) and Jungnang (JN) STPs are $54.13{\pm}32.64%$ and $30.38{\pm}24.96%$, respectively, and reduced to $96.49{\pm}7.84%$ and 100%. Acute toxicity reduction was clearly correlated with SS (suspended solids) concentration because of filter feeding characteristics of test organisms. Chronic toxicity tests revealed that lethal effect was reduced and low concentration of influents showed higher number of neonates. However, toxicity reduction was not related to nutrient removal. Fecundity effect positively increased in treated wastewater compared to that in raw wastewater, and no significant differences were observed compared to the control group in JN final effluent implying potential effects of estrogenic compounds in the STP effluents. Conclusions: Conventional wastewater treatment process reduced some organics and nutritional compounds from wastewater, and it results in toxicity reduction in lethal effect and positive reproductive effect but not showing correlation. Unknown estrogenic compounds could be a reason causing the increase of brood size. This study suggests that pharmaceutical residues and nanoparticles in STP effluents are one of the major micropollutants and underline as one of estrogenic effect factors.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.161-167
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• 2010

Early diagnoses of pregnancy for animal such as swine and bovine is extremely important to increase income of a farmhouse and for the management of farm. For the development of immunoasaay system of pregnancy in swine, we report a competitive heterologous enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the direct measurement of oestrone sulfate (E1S) in diluted urine using anti-E1G (glucuronide) monoclonal antibody which cross react with ElS. The principle of assay was based on the typical solid-phase competitive ELISA methods using E1G-HRP (horseradish peroxidase) as a tracer and E1S for standard. The method had a reasonable sensitivity for the detection of E1S with 0.15 ng/ml as a detection limit. The intra-assay and inter-assay precisions were raging coefficient of from 8.50~9.67% and 8.50~9.87%, respectively, which were quite acceptable. In a field trial with a group 37 sows (18 non-pregnancy and 19 pregnancy sows) after day 29~30 post service, the concentration of E1S were determined to be below 30 ng/ml in all non-pregnancy group and over 48 ng/ml in pregnancy group except one sample. The method described here, heterologous ELISA for the measurement of E1S in urine is good enough for monitoring the early pregnancy test of swine.