• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2016

$Na^+/K^+$-ATPase is a membrane protein and plays a key role in osmotic regulation in living organisms. In the present study, a cDNA sequence encoding the $Na^+/K^+$-ATPase alpha subunit from the monogonont rotifer, Brachionus koreanus was cloned by rapid amplification of cDNA ends technique. To investigate the role of this enzyme in osmotic stress, enzymatic activities of $Na^+/K^+$-ATPase were measured after exposure to different salinities for 48 h. The full-length Bk $Na^+/K^+$-ATPase cDNA was 3069 bp-long, encoding a 1022-amino acid polypeptide. Bk $Na^+/K^+$-ATPase possesses eight membrane spanning regions and five conserved domains. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Bk $Na^+/K^+$-ATPase had high identity with those of other species, and was closely clustered with other Brachionus sp. These findings indicate that this protein was conserved both structurally and functionally. B. koreanus $Na^+/K^+$-ATPase activity was stimulated in both hyposaline (6 psu) and hypersaline (32 psu) conditions, suggesting that this protein may play a role in osmoregulation. This study would provide better understanding of the physiology of B. koreanus and this enzyme may be useful as a molecular marker for evaluation of osmotic stress in aquatic environment.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2011

Thais Roding, 1798, commonly known as rock-shell, is among the most frequently found gastropod genera worldwide on intertidal rocky shores including those of Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea. This group contains important species in many marine environmental studies but species-level taxonomy of the group is quite complicated due to the morphological variations in shell characters. This study examined the genetic variations and relationships among three Korean Thais species based on the partial nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial cox1 gene fragments. Phylogenetic trees from different analytic methods (maximum parsimony, neighbor-joining, and maximum likelihood) showed that T. bronni and T. luteostoma are closely related, indicating the most recent common ancestry. The low sequence divergence found between T. luteostoma and T. bronni, ranging from 1.53% to 3.19%, also corroborates this idea. Further molecular survey using different molecular marker is required to fully understand a detailed picture of the origin for their low level of interspecific sequence divergence. Sequence comparisons among conspecific individuals revealed extensive sequence variations within the three species with maximum values of 2.43% in T. clavigera and 1.37% in both T. bronni and T. luteostoma. In addition, there is an unexpectedly high level of mitochondrial genotypic diversity within each of the three Korean Thais species. The high genetic diversity revealed in Korean Thais species is likely to reflect genetic diversity introduced from potential source populations with diverse geographic origins, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and a variety of different coastal regions in South China and Japan. Additional sequence analysis with comprehensive taxon sampling from unstudied potential source populations will be also needed to address the origin and key factors for the high level of genetic diversity discovered within the three Korean Thais species studied.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.457-466
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• 2015

Taoyuan pig is a native Taiwan breed. According to the historical record, the breed was first introduced to Taiwan from Guangdong province, Southern China, around 1877. The breed played an important role in Taiwan's early swine industry. It was classified as an indigenous breed in 1986. After 1987, a conserved population of Taoyuan pig was collected and reared in isolation. In this study, mitochondrial DNA sequences and 18 microsatellite markers were used to investigate maternal lineage and genetic diversity within the Taoyuan pig population. Population differentiation among Taoyuan, Asian type, and European type pig breeds was also evaluated using differentiation indices. Only one D-loop haplotype of the Taoyuan pig was found. It clustered with Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China Type pig breeds. Based on the polymorphism of microsatellite markers, a positive fixation index value ($F_{IS}$) indicates that the conserved Taoyuan population suffers from inbreeding. In addition, high $F_{ST}$ values (>0.2105) were obtained, revealing high differentiation among these breeds. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling showed a clear geometric structure among 7 breeds. Together these results indicate that maternally Taoyuan pig originated in the Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China; however, since being introduced to Taiwan differentiation has occurred. In addition, Taoyuan pig has lost genetic diversity in both its mitochondrial and nuclear genomes.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.75-81
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• 2017

A total of 340 individuals from seven duck populations were studied using 24 polymorphic microsatellite (MS) markers to identify plumage colors with genetic diversity. The estimated average number of alleles (Na), polymorphic information content (PIC) value, and expected heterozygosity (He) per locus of all populations were 11.5, 0.602, and 0.635, respectively. The calculated population genetic distance (Fst), inbreeding coefficient of individuals within duck populations (Fis), and total inbreeding among populations (Fit) were 0.135, 0.105, and 0.229, respectively. Statistical analyses for each population using 24 marker combinations, revealed that the estimated average number of effective alleles (Ne), observed heterozygosity (Ho), and fixation index of inbreeding within populations (F) were 3.129, 0.505, and 0.104, respectively. The results of genetic distance and phylogenetic analysis revealed that Korean native duck populations were clearly separated from all Bangladeshi duck populations. Moreover, all populations clustered well according to their genetic distance, but could not be clearly separated according to black and white plumage colors or plumage color pattern. The combination of these 24 MS markers can be used for discrimination and determination of the genetic diversity of native duck breeds in further investigations for conservation and special development purposes.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.341-344
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• 2015

Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic protozoan parasite that can infect almost all warm-blooded animals including humans with a worldwide distribution. Micronemes play an important role in invasion process of T. gondii, associated with the attachment, motility, and host cell recognition. In this research, sequence diversity in microneme protein 6 (MIC6) gene among 16 T. gondii isolates from different hosts and geographical regions and 1 reference strain was examined. The results showed that the sequence of all the examined T. gondii strains was 1,050 bp in length, and their A + T content was between 45.7% and 46.1%. Sequence analysis presented 33 nucleotide mutation positions (0-1.1%), resulting in 23 amino acid substitutions (0-2.3%) aligned with T. gondii RH strain. Moreover, T. gondii strains representing the 3 classical genotypes (Type I, II, and III) were separated into different clusters based on the locus of MIC6 using phylogenetic analyses by Bayesian inference (BI), maximum parsimony (MP), and maximum likelihood (ML), but T. gondii strains belonging to ToxoDB #9 were separated into different clusters. Our results suggested that MIC6 gene is not a suitable marker for T. gondii population genetic studies.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.88-95
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• 2006

Analysis of molecular nature of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) could be powerful marker for anthropological studies of modern populations. While population genetic studies on mtDNA have been reported for several ethnic groups, no such study has been documented for the Korean population. We surveyed mtDNA polymorphisms in the HVS I of noncoding D-loop region and its upstream region from 430 unrelated healthy Korean population by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and direct sequencing analysis. PCR product with 2,790 bp spanning the specific mtDNA region (mt13715-16504) was subjected to RFLP analysis using 6 restriction enzyme (Hinf I, Hae III, Alu I, Dde I, Mbo I, Rsa I). On the PAUP analysis of PCR-RFLP results, 38 mtDNA haplotypes (Hap 1-38) were detected in the Korean populations, which were classified into 11 haplogroups (Grp 1-11) of related haplotypes encompassing all 38 haplotypes. In comparison of sequencing data with Anderson's reference sequence, the transition type was more prevalent than the transversion type. Insertions or deletions were not found. In addition, three of the polymorphic sites (A16240C, A16351G, G16384A) in HVS-I region are determined newly. The polymorphic sites were distributed randomly in the region, though the frequency at each site was variable. Thus, this research might be required for the genealogical study of Orientals.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.702-711
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• 2011

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench), one of the minor crops grown in Korea belonging to the Polygonaceae family, is an annual crop widely cultivated in Asia, Europe, and America and has a character of outcrossing and self-incompatibility. The objective of this study was to analyze the genetic variability, phylogenetic relationships and population structure of buckwheat landraces of Korea using SSR markers. Ten microsatellite markers have been detected from a total of 79 alleles among the 179 buckwheat accessions were collected from Korea. The number of allele per marker locus ($N_A$) ranged from 2 (GB-FE-001, GB-FE-043 and GB-FE-055) to 31 (GB-FE-035) with an average of 7.9 alleles. GB-FE-035 was the most polymorphic with the highest PIC value 0.93. Major allele frequencies ($M_{AF}$) for the 10 polymorphic loci varied from 0.12 to 0.97 with a mean allele frequency of 0.57. The expected heterozygosity ($H_E$) values ranged from 0.05 to 0.94 with an average of 0.53. The observed heterozygosity ($H_O$) ranged from 0.06 to 0.92 with an average of 0.42. The overall polymorphic information contents (PIC) values ranged from 0.05 to 0.93 with an average of 0.48. The landrace accessions of buckwheat used in the present study were not distinctly grouped according to geographic distribution. The study concludes that the results revealed genetic differentiation was low according to the geographic region because of outcrossing and self-incompatibility. We reported that our analyses on the genetic diversity of common buckwheat cultivars of Korea were performed by using of microsatellite markers.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.169-178
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• 2014

In this study, we investigated genetic diversity of 22 microsporidian isolates infecting tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta collected from various geographical forest locations in the state of Jharkhand, India, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based marker assay: random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). A type species, NIK-1s_mys was used as control for comparison. The shape of mature microsporidians was found to be oval to elongate, measuring 3.80 to $5.10{\mu}m$ in length and 2.56 to $3.30{\mu}m$ in width. Of the 20 RAPD primers screened, 16 primers generated reproducible profiles with 298 polymorphic fragments displaying high degree of polymorphism (97%). A total of 14 RAPD primers produced 45 unique putative genetic markers, which were used to differentiate the microsporidians. Calculation of genetic distance coefficients based on dice coefficient method and clustering with un-weighted pair group method using arithmetic average (UPGMA) analysis was conducted to unravel the genetic diversity of microsporidians infecting tasar silkworm. The similarity coefficients varied from 0.059 to 0.980. UPGMA analysis generated a dendrogram with four microsporidian groups, which appear to be different from each other as well as from NIK-1s_mys. Two-dimensional distribution based on Euclidean distance matrix also revealed considerable variability among different microsporidians identified from the tasar silkworms. Clustering of few microsporidian isolates was in accordance with the geographic origin. The results indicate that the RAPD profiles and specific/unique genetic markers can be used for differentiating as well as to identify different microsporidians with considerable accuracy.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.43-43
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• 2019

The collection, evaluation and conservation of crop germplasm have been treated as one of the basics to breeding program. An understanding of genetic relationships among germplasm resources is vital for future breeding process like yield, quality, and resistance. In the present study, EST-SSR markers were employed to assess the polymorphism and genetic diversity of 192 accessions of Proso millet preserved in the National Agrobiodiversity Center of RDA. We evaluated the efficiency of EST-SSR markers developed for proso millet species. A total of 98 alleles were detected with an average allele number of 4.5 per locus among 192 proso millet millet accessions using 22 EST-SSR markers. The averaged values of gene diversity ($H_E$) and polymorphism information content (PIC) for each EST-SSR marker were 0.362 and 0.404 within populations, respectively. Our results showed the moderate level of the molecular diversity among the proso millet accessions from diverse countries. A phylogenetic tree revealed three major groups of accessions that did not correspond with geographical distribution patterns with a few exceptions. The less correlation between the clusters and their geographic location might be considered due to their type difference. Our study provided a better understanding of genetic relationships among various germplasm collections, and it could contribute to more efficient utilization of valuable genetic resources. The EST-SSR markers developed here will serve as a valuable resource for genetic studies, like linkage mapping, diversity analysis, quantitative trait locus/association mapping, and molecular breeding.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2020

We have identified a heat shock protein 70 gene from freshwater snail, Semisulcospira coreana. The freshwater snail HSP70 gene encode a polypeptide of 639 amino acids. Based on bioinformatic sequence characterization, HSP70 gene possessed three classical signature motifs and other conserved residues essential for their functionality. The phylogenetic analysis showed that S. coreana HSP70 had closet relationship with that of golden apple snails, Pomacea canaliculata. The HSP70 mRNA level was significantly up-regulated in response to thermal and salinity challenges. These results are in agreement with the results of other species, indicating that S. coreana HSP70 used be a potential molecular marker in response to external stressors and the regulatory process related to the HSP70 transcriptional response can be highly conserved among species.