• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.302-307
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• 2014

To examine the trophic ecology of the ascidian Styela clava in an aquaculture system of Korea, stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes were analyzed monthly in S. clava, coarse ($>20{\mu}m$, CPOM) and fine particulate organic matters ($0.7<<20{\mu}m$, FPOM). CPOM (means: $-18.5{\pm}1.2$‰, $9.3{\pm}0.7$‰) were significantly higher ${\delta}^{13}C$ and ${\delta}^{15}N$ values than those ($-20.5{\pm}1.5$‰, $8.4{\pm}0.5$‰) of FPOM. S. clava had mean ${\delta}^{13}C$ and ${\delta}^{15}N$ values of $-18.9({\pm}1.7)$‰ and $11.6({\pm}0.7)$‰, respectively. S. clava were more similar to seasonal variations in ${\delta}^{13}C$ and ${\delta}^{15}N$ values of FPOM than those of CPOM, suggesting that they rely largely on the FPOM as a dietary source. In addition, our results displayed that the relative importance between CPOM and FPOM as dietary source for the ascidians can be changed according to the availability of each component in ambient environment, probably reflecting their feeding plasticity due to non-selective feeding irrespective of particle size. Finally, our results suggest that dynamics of pico- and nano-size plankton (i.e., FPOM) as an available nutritional source to S. clava should be effectively assessed to maintain and manage their sustainable aquaculture production.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.421-428
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• 2014

Total 20 surface sediments were collected in Anjung bay to investigate the physicochemical environment and heavy metal contents. The physicochemical investigation ranged from 6.41% to 11.68% (average $9.52{\pm}1.28%$) for ignition loss (IL), from 17.99 mg/g to 43.84 mg/g (average $27.53{\pm}6.39mg/g$) for chemical oxygen demand (COD), and from 0.05 mg/g to 0.61 mg/g (average $0.17{\pm}0.14mg/g$) for acid volatile sulfide (AVS) with significant correlation between water content (W/C) and COD. A contour of spatial distribution indicated higher organic pollution at the bottom of ascidian, Stylea clava, cultural waters. Most of metals contents was not exceeded the NOAA's effect range-low (ERL). Estimated enrichment factor (EF) ranging 0.96-1.12 indicated that the sediment environment of the studied waters was relatively pristine from heavy metal pollution in spite of increased vessel traffics, so far.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.197-204
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• 2011

The edible ascidian Halocynthia roretzi is a commercially important fisheries resource in Korea. However, for the last several years, outbreaks of mass mortalities of the species have been occurring along the south and east coasts of Korea, where most ascidians are produced. Although it is known that tunic-softness syndrome is associated with these mortality events, the agent causing the syndrome has not yet been confirmed. To determine the agent causing tunic-softness syndrome, healthy and diseased ascidians were collected in March 2011 from Tongyeong, on the south coast of Korea, and were used for biological and pathological investigations. The results showed that diseased ascidians exhibited remarkably reduced body fluid, fatness index, and tunic index compared with healthy specimens. Interestingly, bi-flagellated protozoans were observed specifically in the tissue imprints and tunic cultures of diseased ascidians at an occurrence rate of 97.5%. Histological observation showed that the thickness of the tunics of diseased ascidians was reduced by half, and irregular structure and breakdown of the tunic fiber bundles were observed. In particular, flagellate-like cells were observed in the diseased ascidians. Our study clearly shows that bi-flagellated protists are present only in the softened ascidians, suggesting that the flagellates are partly or entirely associated with soft-tunic syndrome. Accordingly, further investigations to verify the effects of the flagellates found in the present study on soft-tunic syndrome should be conducted.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.739-747
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• 2005

Full-length cDNA sequences of four novel SPATA4 genes in chimpanzee, cow, chicken and ascidian were identified by bioinformatic analysis using mouse or human SPATA4 cDNA fragment as electronic probe. All these genes have 6 exons and have similar protein molecular weight and do not localize in sex chromosome. The mouse SPATA4 sequence is identified as significantly changed in cryptorchidism, which shares no significant homology with any known protein in swissprot databases except for the homologous genes in various vertebrates. Our searching results showed that all SPATA4 proteins have a putative conserved domain DUF1042. The percentages of putative SPATA4 protein sequence identity ranging from 30% to 99%. The high similarity was also found in 1 kb promoter regions of human, mouse and rat SPATA4 gene. The similarities of the sequences upstream of SPATA4 promoter also have a high proportion. The results of searching SymAtlas (http://symatlas.gnf.org/SymAtlas/) showed that human SPATA4 has a high expression in testis, especially in testis interstitial, leydig cell, seminiferous tubule and germ cell. Mouse SPATA4 was observed exclusively in adult mouse testis and almost no signal was detected in other tissues. The pI values of the protein are negative, ranging from 9.44 to 10.15. The subcellular location of the protein is usually in the nucleus. And the signal peptide possibilities for SPATA4 are always zero. Using the SNPs data in NCBI, we found 33 SNPs in human SPATA4 gene genomic DNA region, with the distribution of 29 SNPs in the introns. CpG island searching gives the data about CpG island, which shows that the regions of the CpG island have a high similarity with each other, though the length of the CpG island is different from each other.This research is a fundamental work in the fields of the bioinformational analysis, and also put forward a new way for the bioinformatic analysis of other genes.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2014

This study was carried out to investigate nutritional and physiologically active characterizations of sikhae and the seasoned products from the sea squirt Halocynthia roretzi. The total taste values of sikhae fermented for 4 and 5 days were 10.9 and 15.4, respectively, which was lower than for commercially seasoned sea squirts. The sikhaes contained mostly glutamic and aspartic acids. The total amino acid contents of sikhaes fermented for 4 and 5 days were 5.5 and 6.0 g/100 g, respectively, which were lower than those of commercial seasoned-sea squirts or similar. An amount of 100 g of sikhae and its seasoned products contained P, K, Mg and Fe, and these minerals, which are deemed good for our health, were at 10% above the recommended daily requirements. The functional properties of sikhae fermented for 4 and 5 days were as follows: for ACE inhibiting activity, 69 and 69.5%, respectively; for antioxidative activity, 28.9 and 29.3%, respectively; for xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity, 52.8 and 53.1%, respectively; and for ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory activity, 2.4 and 1.4%, respectively. Antimicrobial activity of the 5 day fermented sikhae against Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Staphyloccus aureus was detected in 8 mm and in 7 mm against Escherichia coli.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.109-113
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• 2008

For useful basic data in new ascidian processed products, this study investigated and compared the biological activities of two ascidians, Styela clava and Styela plicata, in two conditions with fresh one and cooking one at $100^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. By fresh state, Styela clava (8.46 mg/ml) had higher activity than Styela plicata (13.67 mg/ml) in the antioxidative assay ($EDA_{50}$), whereas Styela plicata (10.54 mg/ml) had higher than Styela clava (12.05 mg/ml) after cooking. Particularly the antioxidative activity of Styela plicata increased 1.3 times after cooking. Fresh Styela clava had antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis, B. cereus, E. coli, whereas the activity appeared against E. coli only after cooking. However, antimicrobial activity in Styela plicata appeared against 4 gram positive bacteria (B. subtilis, B. cereus, S. aureus and L. monocytogenes) and E. coli, regardless of concentration level (1,000-1,500 ppm) and with/without cooking. ACE inhibitory activity was not observed in the samples. By cooking, the level of fibrinolytic activity increased to 1.79 from 1.24 plasmin unit/ml in Styela plicata, whereas the level decreased to 1.55 from 1.62 in 5tyela clava.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.194-198
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• 2006

Dried raw Ascidians(Halocynthia roretzi) shells harvested from fish farms in southern coast area in Korea were used to extract ${\beta}$-carotene using supercritical carbon dioxide($SCO_2$) and with ethanol as a co-solvent at the range of temperatures and pressures, from 25 to $65^{\circ}C$ and 100 to 350 bar respectively. The size of the dried Ascidians shells was around $850{\mu}m$. The system used this study was a semi-batch flow type high pressure unit. The efficiency of ${\beta}$-carotene extraction using $SCO_2$ with and without co-solvent, ethanol, influenced to pressure and temperature changes. The highest solubility of ${\beta}$-carotene in $SCO_2$ was 1.35 mg/g for ${\beta}$-carotene at $35^{\circ}C$ and 350 bar. With addition of 2(v/v%) ethanol the recovery of ${\beta}$-carotene was 93%. As a result of using n-hexane and methanol for rinse, at $35^{\circ}C$ and 350 bar the amount of ${\beta}$-carotene by methanol rinse was 5 times higher than that of n-hexane rinse.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.99-105
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• 2011

This study was conducted to compare the species composition of sessile organisms on the artificial substrates of PVC submerged at different time intervals and duration in Jangmok Bay, Geoje Island, southern coast of Korea. Three PVC plates were submerged at one month interval from March to October and retrieved in November, 2007. A mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis exclusively occupied the artificial substrates submerged from March to April and occurred as a dominant species to July. An ascidian, Styela plicata occurred as a dominant sessile species from May to August. Balanus amphtrite, Bugula sp., and hydrozoans occurred as dominant species on the plates submerged from July to September. There was a mis-match between the peak time of settlement and dominance of sessile organisms due to the interspecies competitions when the PVC plates were retrieved in November. There was no clear relationship between submerged duration and the abundance of sessile organisms due to the different settlement period. M. galloprovincialis seemed to be a strong competitor which could exclude the previous recruiters of macroalgae by overgrowth and occupy the substrate surface and maintain its high population density by preventing the settlement of other species until late autumn. These results suggested that the composition of sessile organisms in vacant hard substrates could be determined by the combined effects of supply-timing of larvae and post-settlement competitions.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2004

Stretch-activated channels (SACs) responds to membrane stress with changes in open probability (Po). They play essential roles in regulation of cell volume and differentiation, vascular tone, and in hormonal secretion. SACs highly present in Xenopus oocytes and Ascidian oocytes are suggested to be involved in the regulation of pH and fluid transport to balance the osmotic pressure, but remain unclear in mammanlian oocytes. This study was investigated to find the presence of SACs in hamster oocytes and to examine their electrophysiological properties. To infer a role of SAC in relation to the development of early stage, we followed up to the stage of two-cell zygote with patch clamp techniques. Single channels were elicited by negative pressure (lower than ­15 cm$H_2O$). Interestingly, SACs were dependent on permeable cations such as $Na^+$ or $K^+$. As permeable cation removed from both sides across the membrane, SAC activity completely disappeared. When permeable cations present only in intracellular compartment, outward currents appeared at positive potentials. In contrast to this, inward currents occurred only at the negative voltage when permeable cation absent in cell interior. These result suggests that SAC carry cations through the nonselective cation channel (NSC channel). Taken together, we found that stretch activated channels present in hamster oocyte and the channel may carry cations through NSC channels. This stretch activated-NSC channels may play physiological role(s) in oocyte growth, maturation, fertilization and embryogenesis in fertilized oocytes to two-cell zygotes of hamster.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.161-169
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• 2003

Seawater and sediment quality analysed was calculated to examinate the present environmental characteristics and pollution load was also calculated to evaluate the effect of farming area on the coastal environment. The measurements for seawater quality demonstrate the coastal environment has relatively eutrophicated with significantly decreased DO (0.2-8.5 mg/l) and elevated COD (9.6-31.2 mg/l) in summer. It was also evident that the water quality in Jindong Bay has been influenced by residues tide from Masan Bay with high metal concentration in August of 2002. Annual total pollution load (land and farm-driven) was estimated at 37,316 ton (SS) /yr: 9,809 ton/yr (26.3%) of land-driven load, 23,576 ton/yr (63.2%) of coastal sedimentation and 3,932 ton/yr (10.5%) of feces of cultural organisms. When all ark shell seedling farms are permitted species conversion to ascidian farm, the pollution load would increase by 196%, which may be another source for accelerating the eutrophication of the environment in Jindong Bay.