• Animal cells and systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.280-288
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• 2012

Targeted degradation of proteins through ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis is an important control mechanism in various cellular processes. The process of ubiquitin conjugation is achieved by three enzyme complexes, among which the ubiquitin ligase complex (E3) is in charge of substrate specificity. The SCF (SKP1-CUL1-F-box) family portrays the largest and the most characterized member of the E3 ligases. For each SCF complex, the ubiquitination target is recognized by the F-box protein subunit, which interacts with the substrate through a unique C-terminal domain. We have characterized a novel F-box protein CFL-1 that represents a single LRR-type F-box (FBXL) in the Caenorhabditis elegans genome. CFL-1 is highly homologous to FBXL20 and FBXL2 of mammals, which are known to regulate synaptic vesicle release and cell cycle, respectively. A green fluorescence protein (GFP)-reporter gene fused to the cfl-1 promoter showed restricted expression around the amphid and the anus. Modulation of CFL-1 activity by RNAi affected the time interval between defecations. RNAi-treated worms also exhibited reduced tendency to form dauer when exposed to daumone. The potential involvement of CFL-1 in the control of defecation and pheromone response adds to the ever expanding list of cellular processes controlled by ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis in C. elegans. We suggest that CFL-1, as a single LRR-type F-box protein in C. elegans, may portray a prototype gene exerting diverse functions that are allocated among multiple FBXLs in higher organisms.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.203-210
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• 2011

Ant Colony System is a new meta heuristics algorithms to solve hard combinatorial optimization problems. It is a population based approach that uses exploitation of positive feedback as well as greedy search. It was first proposed for tackling the well known Traveling Salesman Problem. In this paper, we propose the searching method to consider the overlapping edge of the global best path of the previous and the current. This method is that we first determine the overlapping edge of the global best path of the previous and the current will be configured likely the optimal path. And, to enhance the pheromone for the overlapping edges increases the probability that the optimal path is configured. Finally, the performance of Best and Average-Best of proposed algorithm outperforms ACS-3-opt, ACS-Subpath and ACS-Iter algorithms.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.259-263
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• 2009

Salivary lipocalin (SAL1) is a member of the lipocalin protein family that has a property to associate with many lipophilic molecules and was identified as pheromone-binding protein in pigs. Our previous study has shown that SAL1 is expressed in the uterine endometrium in a cell type- and implantation stage-specific manner and secreted into the uterine lumen in pigs. However, function of SAL1 in the uterus during pregnancy in pigs is still not known. To understand physiological function of SAL1 in the uterine endometrium during pregnancy in pigs, it needs to elucidate the ligand(s) for SAL1. Thus, to identify the ligand for SAL1 in the porcine uterus, we collected uterine luminal fluid from pigs on day 12 of pregnancy by flushing with PBS. Proteins from the uterine luminal fluid were separated by ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration. Fractions containing SAL1 protein were pooled and concentrated. Immunoblot analysis confirmed successful purification of SAL1. Then, we extracted lipids from the purified SAL1 protein and analyzed the lipids by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and predicted to be steroid hormones and prostaglandins as SAL1 ligands. Results in this study showed that SAL1 protein in the uterine secretions has a small lipophilic molecule as a natural ligand. Further characterization of ligand extracted from purified SAL1 will be useful for understanding physiological function of SAL1 during pregnancy and its application to increase the pregnancy rate in pigs.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2004

To search a new porcine pheromonal odorants, this research for biostimulation and role of pheromone was augmented by means of "control system technologies" to offer a potentially useful and practical way to improve reproductive efficiency in livestock species. Therefore the 13 physicochemical parameters such as similarity indice (S), hydrophobicity (logP) and van der Waals molecule volume (MV) etc. of 54 steroid analogues, which are analogous of substrate molecules, 5$\alpha$-androst-16-en-3-one (P1) and 5$\alpha$-androst-16-en-3-ol (P2) of lipocalin as receptor of pig pheromones were calculated and discussed. The physicochemical properties of these steroid analogues were mainly followed by steric dissimilar of A and D ring in steroid nucleus. And we found that from correlation with S values and MV constants of molecules, the more MV constants are small, the more S values tend to approach 1. Based on this results, the S-values of 4-androsten-3,17-dione (P1-1) and 5 $\alpha$ -androstan-3-one (P2-1) were 1.0, respectively. The two compounds of them were chosen because they showed the same value each other at a side of hydrophobicity, molar refractivity and molecular volume. It is expected that the new two compounds will be able to substitute for P1 and P2, porcine pheromonal odorants.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.1 s.129
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• pp.1-6
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• 2005

This research was performed to investigate the expression patterns of odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) migrating hydrophobic semiochemicals such as pheromone to the olfactory receptors in a termite (Reticulitermes speratus). Antennas and legs were cut from soldier and worker termites, respectively, and RT-PCR were conducted to investigate the existence of the OBPs reported up to now. Blast search suggested that the OBPs obtained were highly homologues of the OBPs reported. In worker termites, OBP-1 was expressed in both antennas and legs, OBP-2 and OBP-3 were observed only in antennas. And in soldier termites, OBP-1 was shown in both antennas and legs, OBP-2 were not observed, and OBP-3 was found in both antennas and legs. The differences of expression patterns of OBPs between worker and soldier termites may be explained by their specialized peculiarity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Sericultural Science Conference
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• 1997.06a
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• pp.51-72
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• 1997

Diapause hormone (DH) is a neuropeptide hormone which is secreted from the suboesophageal ganglion (SG) and is responsible for induction of embryonic diapause of the silkworm, Bombyx mori. DH is isolated from SGs and determined to be a 24 amino acid peptide amide. The cDNA encodes the polyprotein precursor from which DH, pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN) and three other neuropeptides are released and become matured. The C-terminal FXPRL-NH2 sequence of DH is essential but not sufficient for expression of full activity. Recently, we have isolated a unique hydrohobic peptide (VAP peptide) with a slight diapause egg induceing activity from organic solvent extracts of the male adult heads of the silkworm. The VAP peptide itself has no diapause inducing activity, but enhances DH activity through reducing ED50 value and the threshold concentration of DH. The DH-PBAN gene is composed of 6 exons interrupted by 5 introns and is expressed in 12 neurosecretory cells of the SG. The incubation of eggs at 25$^{\circ}C$, which induces embryonic diapause in the progeny, caused DH-PBAN mRNA content to increase at 5 different stages in the life cycle. By contrast, a 15$^{\circ}C$ incubation only induced expression of the gene at the late phrase adult stage. The temperature-controlled expression of DH-PBAN gene is closely correlated to the incidence of diapause, indicating that DH-PBAN gene expression is the initial event leading to diapause induction. DH acts to stimulate trehalase activity in developing ovary to bring about hyprglycogenism in mature eggs, a prerequisite metabolism for diapause initiation. Using in vivo and in vitro systems, DH is clearly shown to induce trehalase gene expression in developing ovaries. New protein synthesis is not needed for this process, but a Ca2+-dependent proteinkinase seems to be involved. Quite recently, we have sucessfully applied a new and potent trehalase inhibitor (Trehazoline) to reudce glycogen content in developing ovaries. The eggs deficient in glycogen were also able to enter diapause as the natural eggs do, so that we could provide the new egg system to reconsider the diapause associated metabolism other than the glycogen-sorbitol metabolic system.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.185-191
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• 2021

A Quarantine Pest Research Facility (QPRF) had been build in Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency and designed to ensure alien pests are safety contained inside the laboratory. Functions of QPRF including insect rearing, research, and physical containment facility were verified to check suitability as a research laboratory using the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua. As insect rearing and laboratory facility, S. exigua completed its development for 32.2 days at 25℃. Egg hatching, pupation, and adult eclosion showed 80, 86.6, and 90%. Two pesticides, fluxametamide and hydramethylnon showed high susceptibility against S. exigua larvae by spraying and dipping methods. As physical containment facility, male adults, which were artificially released from laboratory, did not capture in delta trap installed sex pheromone lure during winter season. Based on these results, QPRF will be used for study on alien insect species.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2022

In this paper, we design and implement a GPU-based parallel algorithm to effectively solve the traveling salesman problem through an ant color system. The repetition process of generating hundreds or thousands of tours simultaneously in TSP utilizes GPU's task-level parallelism, and the update process of pheromone trails data actively exploits data parallelism by 32x32 thread blocks. In particular, through simultaneous memory access of multiple threads, the coalesced accesses on continuous memory addresses and concurrent accesses on shared memory are supported. This experiment used 127 to 1002 city data provided by TSPLIB, and compared the performance of sequential and parallel algorithms by using Intel Core i9-9900K CPU and Nvidia Titan RTX system. Performance improvement by GPU parallelization shows speedup of about 10.13 to 11.37 times.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2022

Numerous insect pests threaten the Korean orchard industry through feeding on various tissues of fruit trees. Generally, the control of economically important orchard pests is based on the use of chemical insecticides. Owing to growing concerns regarding the environmental and human health effects of insecticides, environment-friendly pest control strategies are urgently needed. Pheromones of orchard pests could lead to an environmentally safe control system based on mating disruption or mass trapping. This review summarizes the functions and compounds of known pheromones from 51 orchard pests in Korea. The pheromones identified to date from 14 species in the families Miridae, Aphididae, Diaspididae, Pseudococcidae, Rutelidae, Cecidomyiidae, and Eurytomidae and 26 species in the order Lepidoptera are female-produced sex pheromones that attract only males. In contrast, all known examples for 11 species in the families Alydidae, Pentatomidae, Thripidae and Cerambycidae are male-produced aggregation pheromones that attract both sexes. Research on pheromones in new pests, kairomones in key orchard pests, mating disruption dispensers to generate prolonged release of the pheromones, and trap design and trap location for mass trapping will be required for the expanded use of pheromones and other semiochemicals in orchard pest management in the future.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.209-220
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• 2018

Mating disruption (MD) has been widely used to effectively control Grapholita molesta in apple orchards. A simultaneous mating disruption (SMD) techniques have been developed to control both G. molesta and G. dimorpha. This study was performed to determine the practical parameters to apply the SMD technique to field conditions. To determine the application amount of SMD lures, a dispenser containing 10 mg pheromone was placed at different numbers of trees in an orchard. Application at every other tree (= one dispenser per two trees) was relatively safe to expect effective MD efficiency in both wax and polyethylene (PE) formulations. One time application at the end of March was enough to maintain a year round MD efficacy against both species. A fence treatment using food trap was applied to prevent any immigratory mated females from nearby untreated regions. To enhance the food trap by adding host-derived secondary compounds, terpinyl acetate (TA) was screened to be effective to attract females of Grapholita molesta among six compounds contained in apple fruit extracts. Among different TA concentrations, 0.05% TA treatment was the most effective to attract the adults. A mixture of TA and sugar was effective to attract and kill females and called FAKT (female attract-to-kill techniques). FAKT was treated at approximately 6 m interval at the edge of the apple orchards. The females trapped by the FAKT included mated females possessing vitellogenic oocytes. SMD supplemented with FAKT maintained the high MD efficacy and significantly suppressed leaf damage induced by the two insect pests compared to control or single SMD treatment.