• Korean Journal of Ornithology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.69-76
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• 2018

Sexual dimorphism in birds refers to male-female differences in body size, plumage, color and/or behavior. In general, many seabirds, including the family of Laridae, are monomorphic in plumage-color, which makes the determination of sex difficult in the field because both parents also tend to share a great portion of parental care. The development of an inexpensive sexing tool facilitates understanding the degree of sex-specific parental care in the evolution of the life history. Here, we developed a non-invasive method for the determination of sex using the bill-head morphometric of known captive pairs and applied this tool to wild pairs to document factors underlying male-female parental care during the incubation period of Saunders's gulls (Saundersilarus saundersi). Males exhibited relatively larger bill-head ratios than their mates within naturally formed pairs in captivity, resulting in the determination of sex in12 wild pairs at the nest during the incubation period. Males and females equally shared the incubation role during the daytime, attending the nest at a high rate of 95%. However, the male's proportion of nest attentiveness greatly increased with time towards sunset, presumably reflecting the male duty for nighttime incubation. The present study provides a non-invasive method for the determination of sex in a monomorphic seagull species and highlights how male-female incubation behavior is associated with time of the day, rather than other ecological conditions.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.178-185
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• 2023

This study was described the microscopic anatomy of male reproductive organs and spermatophore necessary for understanding the reproductive ecology of the long arm octopus Octopus minor. The long arm octopus was a species that has sexual dimorphism that can distinguish between sex based on the presence of hectocotylus. Male reproductive organs consisted of testis, primary spermatic duct, spermatic gland, secondary spermatic duct, spermatophoric gland and spermatophoric sac. Histologically, the testis was testicular tubule type and male germ cells showed a layered arrangement. The primary spermatic duct was a tube connecting the testis and spermatic gland, and consisted with epithelial layer and connective tissue. The spermatic gland was located between the primary and secondary spermatic duct, and the epithelial layer was composed of epithelial cells and mucous cells. Mucous cells reacted blue in the AB-PAS (pH 2.5) reaction and purple in the AF-AB (pH 2.5) reaction. The secondary spermatic duct was a short tube connecting spermatic gland and spermatophoric gland, and folds were developed in lumen. The spermatophoric gland consisted of numerous tubular glands and secretory cells had eosinophilic granules. The spermatophoric sac was shape of pouch, folds were developed in lumen, and vacuolar secretory cells were present in the epithelial layer. The spermatophore was 83.5 mm long and consisted of cap thread in anterior portion, ejaculatory apparatus and cement body in medial portion, sperm mass in posterior portion.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.315-322
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• 2010

We studied and compared the age structure, body size, and growth rates of field populations of two Korean salamander species (Hynobius yangi and Hynobius quelpaertensis) to elucidate important aspects of basic population dynamics of these two endemic Hynobius species. In both populations, females were sexually mature at three years of age, while H. yangi and H. quelpaertensis males matured at two and three years of age, respectively. Both males and females of H. yangi and H. quelpaertensis attained a maximum age of 11 years and 10 years, respectively. In both species, the snout-vent length (SVL) and body weight (BW) of the females were greater than those of the males. The SVL, BW, and asymptotic SVL of both male and female H. yangi were smaller than those of H. quelpaertensis. The adult growth rates after sexual maturation of male and female H. yangi were lower than those of H. quelpaertensis, possibly resulting in the smaller body size of the former, although overall growth coefficients were not significantly different between the two species. We also compared the age structure and growth rates of three Korean and three Japanese species of Hynobius.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.305-312
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• 1985

The surface fine structures of Ixodes persulcatus (Schulze, 1930) male and female specimens were observed by means of a scanning electron microscope. A brief review on the biology of the ticks and their disease relationships was also presented. 1. The sexual dimorphism of the specimen was marked; the male was quite smaller than the female. 2. The genital groove was well developed and deep, the anal groove was distinct and characteristically extending anteriorly around the anus. 3. The 4th article was much reduced and situated on the top of the 3rd article ventrally. The hypostome dentition was usually 3/3. 4. The bottom of the basis capitulum of the male specimen was strictly straight in shape. 5. This species was regarded as one of the most important vectors for infectious diseases of migrating birds.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 1999

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of paternal sex chromosome on early development of buffalo embryos fertilized and cultured in vitro. Embryos were produced in vitro from abattoir derived buffalo oocytes. The cleaved embryos were cocultured with buffalo oviductal epithelial cells and evaluated on day 7 under the phase contrast microscope to classify development. The embryos which reached the morula/blastocyst stage were fast developing, the embryos which were at 16-32 cell stage were medium developing and the embryos below 16 cell stage were slow developing. The embryos which showed some fragmentation in the blastomeres or degenerated blastomeres, were degenerating. Sex of emberyos (n=159) was determined using PCR for amplification of a male specific BRY. 1 (301 bp) and a buffalo specific satellite DNA (216 bp) fragments. The results thus obtained show that 1) X and Y chromosome bearing sperms fertilize oocytes to give almost equal numbers of cleaved XX and XY embryos, 2) male embryos develop faster than female embryos to reach advanced stage and 3) degeneration of buffalo embryos is not linked with the paternal sex chromosome. We suggest that faster development of males is due to differential processing of X and Y chromosome within the zygote for its activation and / or differential expression of genes on paternal sex chromosome sex chromosome during development of buffalo embryos fertilized and cultured in vitro which may be attributed to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.1 no.1_2
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• pp.64-72
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• 1989

Karyological characteristics were investigated in 3 species of the genus Liobagrus from Korea. The diploid chromosome number in L. andersoni was found to be 28, with 9 pairs of metacentrics and 5 pairs of submetacentric chromosomes, and arm number (AN) was 56. L. mediadiposalis was found with 2n of 42, consisting of 13 pairs of metacentrics and 8 pairs of submetacentric chromosomes (AN=84). In the case of L. obesus 2n was 20, with 20 metacentric chromosomes (AN=40), which was the lowest among the species of the order Siluriformes. Sexual dimorphism or intraspecific polymorphism of the chromosomes was not observed in any species examined.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.351-360
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• 2010

A new species of the Cletopsyllidae belonging to the genus Isocletopsyllus Huys and Lee, 1999 is described from the materials collected from subtidal sandy bottoms at Jeju Island and Ulleung Island, Korea. So far, only two species of the genus Isocletopsyllus, viz. I. tertius (Por, 1964) from Israel and I. quartus (Soyer, 1966) from Banyuls-sur-Mer (France) are recorded, both from the Mediterranean Ocean. The new species can be clearly distinguished from its congeners by the combination of the following characters: (1) female antennule with a large process on the outer margin of first segment, (2) caudal rami with a bulbous proximal inner expansion, and shorter than those of other species (about four times long as wide in the new species), (3) second segment of P1 exopod with a short rod-like inner seta, (4) sexual dimorphism presented in the second endopodal segment of male P2, not in exopod of P4, and (6) female P5 with a very long exopod with very short second outer seta. A table comparing the modifications of swimming legs in the family Cletopsyllidae Huys and Lee, 1999 is presented. This is the first record of this family from Korea.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.89-93
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• 2017

For the karyotype analysis of Liobagrus hyeongsanensis, an endemic Korean torrent catfish, ten females and five males were used from Yangbuk-myeon, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsangbukdo, Korea. The diploid number of chromosomes was 42, and its karyotype consisted of 30 metacentrics and 12 submetacentrics; 84 FN (fundamental number), with having no polyploidy and sexual dimorphism. The chromosome number was the same as other closely-related species, L. mediadiposalis and L. somjinensis, but their karyotypes showed a clear difference by species. Such result may be related to chromosomal rearrangements by Robertsonian rearrangement with geographical isolation.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.195-199
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• 2007

Statistical tools for determining sex in the sexually monomorphic black-billed magpie based on morphological characters have been developed based on studies of European and North American populations. However, since no morphological method has been developed for black-billed magpies in Korea, it has been difficult to conduct field studies that require information about the sex of individuals. We present two discriminant equations for determining sex of second-year (SY) and after-second-year (ASY) magpies in north- and midwestern part of South Korea. Based on morphological measurements on 105 SY (56 females, 49 males) and 72 ASY (36 females, 36 males) individuals, we found body mass, wing chord, and head length to be the most useful features for morphological sex determination. The accuracy of our method was 86.5% for SYs and 93.1% for ASYs, which is similar to values reported previously from American and European magpies. Since the equations contain morphological traits which are only minimally susceptible to seasonal variation and measurement errors, our discriminant equations should be both useful and robust for sex determination on black-billed magpies in the northern and mid-western regions of South Korea.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.175-182
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• 2022

Previous studies, including our own, indicate that distinct morphological changes in rodent adrenal cortex could be induced by exposure of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC). In the present study, we conducted histological analyses of adrenocortical substructure using a nonylphenol-treated F1 rat model. The adrenal weight of NP-5000 group was significantly declined in female rats (p<0.001), while the adrenal weights of NP-treated groups were not significantly changed in male rats. The thickness of zona glomerulosa layers of female rats in NP-5000 group was significantly declined (p<0.001) but zona fasciculata layers were not changed. The zona reticularis layers of NP-treated group were significantly thinner than those of control group (NP-50, p<0.05; NP-5000, p<0.01). In male adrenal glands, there was no significant change of zona glomerulosa layers in NP-treated groups while the thickness of zona fasciculata in NP-5000 group was significantly decreased (p<0.01). Like female rats, the thickness of zona reticularis in NP-treated groups was significantly decreased (NP-50, p<0.001; NP-5000, p<0.05). Present study demonstrated that the adrenal histology could be altered by low-dose NP exposure in F1 rats, and the effect might be sexually dimorphic. Further study will be helpful for understanding possible adrenal pathophysiology induced by EDC exposure, and EDC-related sexually dimorphic phenomena in rodent adrenals.