• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.851-860
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• 2023

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the target genes of gga-miR-20a-5p and the regulated immune responses in the chicken macrophage cell line, HD11, by the exosome-mediated delivery of miR-20a-5p. Methods: Exosomes were purified from the chicken macrophage cell line HD11. Then, mimic gga-miR-20p or negative control miRNA were internalized into HD11 exosomes. HD11 cells were transfected with gga-miR-20a-5p or negative control miRNA containing exosomes. After 44 h of transfection, cells were incubated with or without 5 ㎍/mL poly(I:C) for 4 h. Then, expression of target genes and cytokines was evaluated by quantitative realtime polymerase chain reaction. Results: Using a luciferase reporter assay, we identified that gga-miR-20a-5p directly targeted interferon gamma receptor 2 (IFNGR2), mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1), mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 5 (MAP3K5), and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 14 (MAP3K14). Moreover, the exosome-mediated delivery of gga-miR-20a-5p successfully repressed the expression of IFNGR2, MAPK1, MAP3K5, and MAP3K14 in HD11 cells. The expressions of interferon-stimulated genes (MX dynamin like GTPase 1 [MX1], eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2A [EIF2A], and oligoadenylate synthase-like [OASL]) and proinflammatory cytokines (interferon-gamma [IFNG], interleukin-1 beta [IL1B], and tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNFA]) were also downregulated by exosomal miR-20a-5p. In addition, the proliferation of HD11 cells was increased by exosomal miR-20a-5p. Conclusion: The exosome-mediated delivery of gga-miR-20a-5p regulated immune responses by controlling the MAPK and apoptotic signaling pathways. Furthermore, we expected that exosomal miR-20a-5p could maintain immune homeostasis against highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 infection by regulating the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and cell death.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.207-207
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• 2022

Eating and cooking quality (ECQ) is one of the most complex quantitative traits in rice. The understanding of genetic regulation of transcript expression levels attributing to phenotypic variation in ECQ traits is limited. We integrated whole-genome resequencing, transcriptome, and phenotypic variation data from 84 Japonica accessions to build a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) based regulatory network. All ECQ traits showed a large phenotypic variation and significant phenotypic correlations among the traits. TWAS analysis identified a total of 285 transcripts significantly associated with six ECQ traits. Genome-wide mapping of ECQ-associated transcripts revealed 66,905 quantitative expression traits (eQTLs), including 21,747 local eQTLs, and 45,158 trans-eQTLs, regulating the expression of 43 genes. The starch synthesis-related genes (SSRGs), starch synthase IV-1 (SSIV-1), starch branching enzyme 1 (SBE1), granule-bound starch synthase 2 (GBSS2), and ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase small subunit 2a (OsAGPS2a) were found to have eQTLs regulating the expression of ECQ associated transcripts. Further, in co-expression analysis, 130 genes produced at least one network with 22 master regulators. In addition, we developed CRISPR/Cas9-edited glbl mutant lines that confirmed the role of alpha-globulin (glbl) in starch synthesis to validate the co-expression analysis. This study provided novel insights into the genetic regulation of ECQ traits, and transcripts associated with these traits were discovered that could be used in further rice breeding.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.73.1-73.16
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• 2023

Background: Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) is considered a global threat to both human health and the poultry industry. MicroRNAs (miRNA) can modulate the immune system by affecting gene expression patterns in HPAIV-infected chickens. Objectives: To gain further insights into the role of miRNAs in immune responses against H5N1 infection, as well as the development of strategies for breeding disease-resistant chickens, we characterized miRNA expression patterns in tracheal tissues from H5N1-infected Ri chickens. Methods: miRNAs expression was analyzed from two H5N1-infected Ri chicken lines using small RNA sequencing. The target genes of differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs were predicted using miRDB. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis were then conducted. Furthermore, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, we validated the expression levels of DE miRNAs (miR-22-3p, miR-146b-3p, miR27b-3p, miR-128-3p, miR-2188-5p, miR-451, miR-205a, miR-203a, miR-21-3p, and miR-200a3p) from all comparisons and their immune-related target genes. Results: A total of 53 miRNAs were significantly expressed in the infection samples of the resistant compared to the susceptible line. Network analyses between the DE miRNAs and target genes revealed that DE miRNAs may regulate the expression of target genes involved in the transforming growth factor-beta, mitogen-activated protein kinase, and Toll-like receptor signaling pathways, all of which are related to influenza A virus progression. Conclusions: Collectively, our results provided novel insights into the miRNA expression patterns of tracheal tissues from H5N1-infected Ri chickens. More importantly, our findings offer insights into the relationship between miRNA and immune-related target genes and the role of miRNA in HPAIV infections in chickens.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.720-734
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• 2023

In Korea, Korea Proven Bulls (KPN) program has been well-developed. Breeding and evaluation of cows are also an essential factor to increase earnings and genetic gain. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of cow breeding value by using three methods (pedigree index [PI], pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction [PBLUP], and genomic-BLUP [GBLUP]). The reference population (n = 16,971) was used to estimate breeding values for 481 females as a test population. The accuracy of GBLUP was 0.63, 0.66, 0.62 and 0.63 for carcass weight (CWT), eye muscle area (EMA), back-fat thickness (BFT), and marbling score (MS), respectively. As for the PBLUP method, accuracy of prediction was 0.43 for CWT, 0.45 for EMA, 0.43 for MS, and 0.44 for BFT. Accuracy of PI method was the lowest (0.28 to 0.29 for carcass traits). The increase by approximate 20% in accuracy of GBLUP method than other methods could be because genomic information may explain Mendelian sampling error that pedigree information cannot detect. Bias can cause reducing accuracy of estimated breeding value (EBV) for selected animals. Regression coefficient between true breeding value (TBV) and GBLUP EBV, PBLUP EBV, and PI EBV were 0.78, 0.625, and 0.35, respectively for CWT. This showed that genomic EBV (GEBV) is less biased than PBLUP and PI EBV in this study. In addition, number of effective chromosome segments (M_e) statistic that indicates the independent loci is one of the important factors affecting the accuracy of BLUP. The correlation between M_e and the accuracy of GBLUP is related to the genetic relationship between reference and test population. The correlations between M_e and accuracy were -0.74 in CWT, -0.75 in EMA, -0.73 in MS, and -0.75 in BF, which were strongly negative. These results proved that the estimation of genetic ability using genomic data is the most effective, and the smaller the M_e, the higher the accuracy of EBV.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.69 no.2
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• pp.78-87
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• 2024

The risk of global warming is increasing due to rapid climate change and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Among the greenhouse gases, methane has a strong warming effect; in particular, 51.2% of the agricultural sector's methane emissions are from flooded rice fields. According to the current standard rice cultivation method, rice is grown during the maximum tillering stage with an intermittent drainage period of approximately 2 weeks. During the flooding period, methane-producing bacteria are active, but the activity of methane-producing bacteria and the amount of methane gas produced are reduced when the soil becomes oxidized through watering. Accordingly, this study used multiple-sensing technology to analyze the growth response according to the intermittent drainage period and to identify the extended intermittent drainage period with less impact on rice production. The equipment used for growth observations included NDVI, PRI, and IR sensors. The results confirmed that growth indices related to stress, such as NDVI and PRI, were not significantly different from those of the control when treated within 3 weeks of drainage, but drastically decreased when the drainage period was extended beyond 4 weeks. These results appear to result from the fact that soil water content (volumetric water content) also dropped to below 20% 4 weeks after irrigation, creating actual drought stress conditions. The 22^nd day after treatment, when the soil moisture content reached 20%, was considered the point in time when drought stress conditions were formed. The point at which the SPAD value decreased to 0.6% of normal was estimated to be 23.5 days after treatment by using the regression equation between NDVI and SPAD.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2024

This study explored computer vision methods using the OpenCV open-source library to characterize the phenotypes of various horticultural crops. In the case of tomatoes, image color was examined to assess ripeness, while support vector machine (SVM) and histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) methods effectively identified ripe tomatoes. For sweet pepper, we visualized the color distribution and used the Gaussian mixture model for clustering to analyze its post-harvest color characteristics. For the quality assessment of netted melons, the LAB (lightness, a, b) color space, binary images, and depth mapping were used to measure the net patterns of the melon. In addition, a combination of depth and color data proved successful in identifying flowers of different sizes and distances in cucumber greenhouses. This study highlights the effectiveness of these computer vision strategies in monitoring the growth and development, ripening, and quality assessment of fruits and vegetables. For broader applications in agriculture, future researchers and developers should enhance these techniques with plant physiological indicators to promote their adoption in both research and practical agricultural settings.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.282-288
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• 2013

This study was conducted to investigate the quality characteristics of eight everbearing strawberry cultivars and the effect of precooling treatment to maintain the quality during storage and shelf life of 'Charlotte'. Several quality parameters including firmness, soluble solids content (SSC), color, soluble sugars, and organic acids were evaluated. For Successful marketing everbearing strawberries required more than 1 N of firmness and $6^{\circ}Brix$ of SSC, respectively. 'Albion', 'Charlotte', and 'Goha' cultivars were higher in fruit SSC and 'Charlotte' cultivar was higher in fruit firmness among eight cultivars examined in this study. Fruit had more bright red color in 'Charlotte', 'Flamingo', 'GW-4', and 'San Andreas', which may reflect the consumer acceptance. Physicochemical characteristics of 'Charlotte' strawberry after with/without room precooling treatment were evaluated during storage at $4^{\circ}C$, $10^{\circ}C$, and $25^{\circ}C$ and additional 3 days at $25^{\circ}C$ for shelf-life. Weight loss increased about 8% in the fruits stored at $25^{\circ}C$ for 3 days, while in low temperature storage was about 2% for 7 days showing precooling was more effect on during shelf life periods rather than storage periods. Decay was not found during storage at $4^{\circ}C$ regardless of precooling treatment, but fungal growth was found in all the treatments after transferred to room temperature. Precooling treatment did not affect fruit color in shelf life period. For advanced marketing, everbearing strawberry should maintain in low temperature less than $4^{\circ}C$ to sustain quality, but the room precooling showed less significant effect to maintain quality on 'Charlotte' cultivar.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.569-574
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• 2007

This study was performed to investigate the biological activities of roasted (RE) and non-roasted (NRE) hot water extract samples from Euonymus alatus leaf by measuring DPPH radical scavenging, total polyphenol content, hydroxyl radical scavenging, superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activity, anti-inflammatory activity, and inhibitory effects on ${\alpha}-amylase$ and ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ in vitro. The $IC_{50}$ values fur DPPH free radical scavenging activity of the NRE and RE hot water extracts were $19.1{\mu}g/mL$ and $21.9{\mu}g/mL$, respectively, and their total polyphenol contents were estimated as 9.6 mg/g for NRE and 10.6 mg/g for RE. Both NRE and RE scavenged the hydroxyl radical in a concentration-dependent manner, but their activities were lower than that of BHA. It was also shown that SOD-like activity was dependent on NRE and RE concentration, and the SOD-like activity of NRE was slightly higher than that of RE. The highest SOD-like activity obtained from NRE was 20% at a concentration of 3 mg/mL. Neither NRE nor RE seemed to have an effect on ${\alpha}-amylase$ and ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibition. Finally, the hot water extracts of NRE and RE significantly decreased the concentration of LPS-induced NO in RAW 264.7 cells, indicating anti-inflammatory activity.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2014

Tyrosinase (TYR) gene is located on chromosome 1 in chicken and it is composed of five exons and four introns. TYR gene is described as a key enzyme in melanin biosynthesis. Most examples of complete albinism in chicken have been due to defects in the tyrosinase gene. The association of feather color and sequence polymorphism in the Tyrosinase (TYR) gene was investigated using Korean Native chicken H breed (H_PL), Korean Native chicken L/W breed(L/W_PL) and 'Woorimatdag' commercial chickens (Woorimatdag_CC). From L_PL and W_PL breed analyses, 4 synonymous SNPs (locus G33A, G116A, C217T and C247T) and 2 SNPs (G838A and G958A) were detected in 4th exon and 4th intron of TYR gene respectively. The genotype frequencies for 6 SNPs were compared between L_PL and W_PL and W_PL represented homozygous SNP types in all the analyzed SNP positions while L_PL displayed various SNP types.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.71-76
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• 2015

Developed countries have set seed industry as a new growth engine, which demands strong support from the government. Multinational seed companies such as Monsanto and DuPont have made huge financial investment to secure their major roles in the global market. To spur domestic seed industry performance, Korean government laid out the foundation for developing seed industry through policy promotion in the late 2000s. In this paper, I look at the current state of the domestic and international seed market to provide information for improving the efficiency of the propulsion of the Golden Seed Project (GSP) along with its vision. The increasing size of global giant companies has been regarded to monopolize the world seed industry wherein ten renowned companies occupy 73% of the overall global market. In effect, this causes a price hike due to limited seed choices. Domestic seed market has been stuck in a range due to a sustained low agricultural production resulting in decreased seed demand and market size. Though breeding technologies for rice and vegetables are world-class, the technologies for top global crops such as cabbage, paprika, and forage are insufficient therefore professionals in this field are not easily employed. Moreover, there is a lack in appropriate infrastructure set up in the universities which adds to ineffective training of professionals. Being a key-supporting industry for agriculture, seed industry should be granted with strong and sustainable investment support from the government. In view thereof, GSP, which started in 2012, ambitions to spur researches outlined by excellent professionals in universities and seed companies aimed to drive seed export volume and quality and attain domestic seed self-sufficiency through adoption of export- and import-substitution seed types (10 varieties each) development strategies. To develop Korea's seed industry excellent achievement of GSP's goals should be drawn successfully and to do this beside development of high quality seeds, support programs for promotion of seed exports are also needed.