• Animal cells and systems
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.231-236
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• 2001

SINE-R retroposons have been derived from human endogenous retrovirus HERV-K family and found to be hominoid specific. Both SINE-R retroposons and HERV-K family are potentially capable of affecting the expression of closely located genes. From cDNA library of human fetal brain, we identified seven SINE-R retroposons and compared them with sequences derived from GenBank database. The SINE-R retroposons from human feta1 brain showed 85∼97% sequence similarities with the human-specific retroposon SINE-R.C2. They also showed 88∼96% sequence similarities with the sequence of the schizo-cDNA clone that derived from postmortem frontal cortex tissue of a schizophrenic patient. Phylogenetic analysis using the neiqhbor-joining method revealed that the seven new SINE-R retroposons from cDNA library of the human feta1 brain have proliferated independently during human evolution. The data indicate that such SINE-R retroposons are expressed in human fetal brain and deserve further investigation as potential leads to understanding of neuropsychiatric diseases.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.39-41
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• 2001

Cytohesin family has been thought to participate in inside-outside signaling linking growth factor receptor stimulation of PI 3-kinase to cell adhesion and stimulate nucleotide exchange of ARF through its Sec7 domain. The genomic structure of the cytohesin family was analyzed by BLAST search using cDNA and genomic DNA sequences from the GeneBank database. The cytohesin-2 was encoded by 12 exons. while the cytohesin-4 was encoded by 13 exons. The Sec7 and PH domains were not encoded by separate exons. In an analysis of retroviral integration, those two families did not contain any retroviral elements in introns or exons. The phylogenetic tree calculated by the neighbor-joining method suggests that the cytohesin-1 family was closely related to cytohesin-3 (ARNO3) family. These date could be of great use in further studies for resolving the exact function and evolution of the cytohesin family.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.11-25
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• 1999

Two problematic subgenera of Tomoceridae (Collembola, Insecta) were investigated for their phylogenetic relationships based on morphological characters and allozyme study from three relevant species. Different dendrograms were obtained obtained between morphological and allozyme studies. The morphological data did not give rise to any result distinctive enough to separate the two subgenera whereas the allozyme analysis produced a clear separation by the high genetic distance value. They were consistent, however, whether given rise to by using distance or cladistic methods and also whether character weighting or unweighting approaches employed in the morphological character analysis. As a consequence, it is strongly suggested that any prominent morphological trait might work as a good taxonomical character when supported by a strong genetic divergence as evidenced by allozyme analysis for instance.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.95-105
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• 2011

To explain the origin of the Korean mandarin fish (Siniperca scherzeri), phylogenetic relationships and DNA polymorphism among Siniperca fishes have been investigated based on mitochondrial cytochrome b DNA sequences. As a result, S. roulei were firstly differentiated early in the evolution of Siniperca fishes and the other six species (S. schezeri, S. undulata, S. fortis, S. obscura, S. knerii and S. chuatsi) were evolved slightly later. However, the order of species differentiation among six species was not clear because the nodes of their phylogeny were poorly resolved. The constructed molecular phylogeny revealed three genetically distinct groups of local populations of S. scherzeri. The first group (group 1) is the local populations of Korean peninsula and northern China including Lioaning and Henan. The second one (group 2) is the local populations of Anhui, Fujian and Guangxi. The third one (group 3) is the local population of Zhejiang. The number of nucleotide differences in base pairs were 31~43 between group 1 and 2; 37~44 between group 2 and 3; 27~29 between group 1 and 3; and 1~5 within group 1. Thus, the Korean mandarin fish was likely to be originated from the northern China local population which was isolated from the middle or southern China local populations during the Cenozoic Pliocene. Low level of sequence divergence between Korean mandarin fish populations and northern China population indicated a recent expansion of distribution ranges from northern China to Korean peninsula.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.41 no.1 s.112
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• pp.73-93
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• 2006

Despite of ecological and landscape importances and public popularity of Pinaceae, not much scientific informations are known about Korean Pinaceae. Present work aims to understand the biogeography of Korean native Pinaceae, i.e., taxonomy, phylogeny, origin, life form, distribution, dispersal and migration. Korean native Pinaceae consists of five genera and sixteen species. Pinus is systematically closely related to Picea and Larix, but Abies is related to Tsuga. Boreal conifers which have migrated from NE Asia during the Pleistocene glacial epochs successfully survived, but now confined to the alpine and subalpine belts of the Korean Peninsula mainly due to climate warming since the Holocene. Species, such as Picea pungsanensis and Abies koreana have gradually adapted to local environment, and later became an endemic species of Korea. Disjunctive distribution of Pinus parviflora and Tsuga sieboldii are also indicatives of climate change of the Pleistocene. Major dispersal agent of pine trees with winged seed is wind, but wingless pine tree seeds seem to dispersed by birds and rodents. Pine trees with bigger wings are easily dispersed by wind, and now show broader distribution. Species of Pinaceae with disjunctive distribution on the alpine and subalpine belts of both North and South Korea seems to be more vulnerable to global warming.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2011

The sequence data of the plastid DNA (trnL-F IGS, trnL intron, and trnH-psbA) and nuclear DNA (RNApol2_i23) markers were utilized to study phylogenetic relationships among the taxa in the Polygonatum odoratum complex (Ruscaceae). European P. odoratum individuals form a clade with a high bootstrap value, which is a sister to the clade of Korean P. odoratum var. odoratum, P. odoratum var. pluriflorum and P. robustum. The formation of the clade with P. odoratum var. odoratum, P. robustum, and one accession of P. odoratum var. pluriflorum indicates geological speciation in isolated populations in the islands following dispersal events from the mainlands. All data sets form two major clades, which are congruent with the subgroups divided by the basic chromosome numbers (x = 9 and x = 10). Although it is not easy to test the hypothesis of the decrease in the basic chromosome number due to scatter taxon sampling in this study, the molecular data strongly suggested that aneuploidy plays an important role in lineage diversification in the genus Polygonatum. The cytological data was not strongly supported by the cpDNA sequences. Further investigations of the cytological, morphological, and geographical characteristics with comprehensive sampling are desired to understand the evolution and lineage diversification in the genus.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.373-386
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• 2003

Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA were determined for 14 individuals representing eight taxa from Scopolia s. str. and related genera, Anisodus and Atropanthe. We found that the ITS sequences of Korean endemic species, S. parviflora, are significantly different from its allied species, S. japonica. This is contradictory to traditional taxonomic treatments in which those species are regarded as conspecific. S. parviflora exhibited closer relationship to S. carniolica, which is disjunctly distributed in Europe. In spite of substantially high sequence divergence between S. japonica and S. parvlflora/S. carniolica clade, morphological resemblance is evident among the species. Morphological stasis concept (retardation of morphological differentiation or evolution of similar characters among the disjuncts in a similar ecological habitat) was referred to understand this rather unusual evolutionary feature. S. lutescens, another Korean endemic species, shared almost identical ITS sequences with S. parviflora. Lack of diagnostic character distinguishing the taxa suggests that they are conspecific. Anisodus carniolicoides, which was originally described in Scopolia, was grouped with A. luridus and A. tanguticus. The monophyletic Anisodus formed a sister group relationship with a monotypic genus Atropanthe.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.510-522
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• 2008

To construct the molecular systematics of the genus Megoura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), DNA based-identification was performed using four mitochondrial and three nuclear DNA regions: partial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI), partial tRNA-leucine + cytochrome c oxidase II (tRNA/COII), cytochrome b (CytB), partial 12S rRNA + tRNA-valine + 16S rRNA (12S/16S), elongation factor-1 alpha ($EF1{\alpha}$), and the internal transcribed spacers 1 and 2 (ITS1, ITS2). Pairwise sequence divergences between taxa were compared, and phylogenetic analyses were performed based on each DNA region separately, and the combined datasets. COI, CytB, $EF1{\alpha}$, ITS1, and ITS2 were relatively effective in determining species and resolving their relationships. By contrast, the sequences of tRNA/COII and 12S/16S were not able to separate the closely related species. CytB and $EF1{\alpha}$ gave better resolution with higher average sequence divergences (4.7% for CytB, 5.2% for $EF1{\alpha}$). The sequence divergence of COI (3.0%) was moderate, and those of the two ITS regions (1.8% for ITS1, 2.0% for ITS2) were very low. Phylogenetic trees were constructed by minimum evolution, maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses. The results indicated that the phylogenetic relationships between Megoura species were associated with their host preferences. Megoura brevipilosa and M. lespedezae living on Lespedeza were closely related, and M. nigra, monophagous on Vicia venosa, was rather different from M. crassicauda, M. litoralis, and M. viciae, which are oligophagous on Lathyrus and Vicia. The three populations of M. crassicauda formed a clade separated from M. litoralis and M. viciae. Nevertheless M. litoralis and M. viciae, which are morphologically similar, were not separated due to negligible sequence divergence. We discuss the phylogenetic relationships of the Megoura, and the usefulness of the seven DNA regions for determining the species level phylogeny of aphids.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.113-118
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• 1999

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) is found in all vertebrates and its type-II molecule is regarded as a fundamental embryonic growth factor during development. We have firstly identified, in this study, a cDNA clone corresponding to IGF-II (flIGF-II) from the adult brain of the teleost, Paralichthys olivaceus. We also examined the tissue expression of flIGF-II in several adult tissues by RT-PCR. The flIGF-II cDNA contained a complete ORF consisting of 215 amino acids and one stop codon. Its molecular characteristics appear to be similar to the previously identified IGF-II molecules, in which a common primary structure exhibiting B, C, A, D, and E domains is evidently observed. This cDNA clone seems to be cleaved at $Ala_{52}$ for the $NH_2$-end signal peptide and appears to produce a 98 amino acid-long E-peptide from the $Arg^{118}$. The functional B-D domain regions, therefore, include 65 amino acids and is able to encode a 7.4-kDa protein. The most prominent structural difference between IGF-I and IGF-II was that the D domain of IGF-II exhibits a two-codon-deleted pattern compared to the 8 amino acid-containing IGF-I. The insulin family signature in the A domain and six cysteins forming three disulfide bridges between the B and A domains were evolutionary-conserved from teleosts to mammalian IGF-II. Interestingly, the E-peptide region appears to provide a distinct hallmark between teleosts in amino acid composition. The flIGF-II shows 85.1% of sequence identity to salmon and trout, 90.6% to tilapia, and 98.4% to perch in amino acid level. In tissue expressions of IGF-II, it is very likely that flIGF-II has a significant expression in the adult brain. However, liver seems to be the main source for IGF-II production, and relatively low signals were observed in the adult muscle and kidney. Taken together, it would be concluded that the functional region for IGF-II mRNA is highly similar in phylogeny and is evolutionary, conserved as a mediator for the growth of vertebrates.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.65-74
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• 1999

Reovirus was found to inhabit both the respiratory and the enteric tract of human and animals. The genome of reovirus comprises 10 segments of double-stranded RNA, total size 24 kbp. Nine strains of reovirus were isolated from human and field mice in Korea. Aseptically collected sera from human and lung tissues from field mice were used for virus isolation. For serotype determination, hemagglutination inhibition test was used, and three strains were confirmed to type 2 and six strains to type 3. To determine the genomic diversity and molecular phylogeny of reoviruses isolated in Korea, part of S4 genomic segment of reovirus was enzymatically amplified and directly sequenced. In nucleotide level, Apo98-35 strain showed 15.4%, 19.3%, and 14.4% differences compared to type 1 (T1L, Lang), type 2 (T2J), and type 3 reference strains, respectively. In amino acid level, Apo98-35 strain showed 10.5%, 13.7%, and 9.5% differences compared to type 1, type 2, and type 3 reference strains, respectively. Using the maximum parsimony method based on 285 bp spaning region of the S4 genomic segment, phylogenetic analysis indicated that Apo98-35 from Korea formed different phylogenetic branch. Our data obtained by sequence and phylogenetic analyses of reoviruses are consistent with the distinct geographically dependent evolution of reoviruses in Korea.