• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.164-171
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• 2005

Codium fragile (Suringar) Hariot, an edible green alga is farmed in Korea by natural blooming zygotes attachment. Experiments were conducted to reveal the conditions for artificial seed production of C. fragile by sexual and asexual reproduction. Growth was compared between zygotes attachment (sexual reproduction) and isolated utricles with medullary filaments (asexual reproduction). Zygotes and isolated utricles with medullary filaments were cultured under different light conditions (10, 20, 40, 60 and $100\;{\mu}mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$) and temperatures (5, 10, 15, 20 and $25^{\circ}C$) under 16:8LD. Maximum growth of zygote was $261.3{\pm}21.0\;{\mu}m$ under $15^{\circ}C$ and $20\;{\mu}mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$ after 13 days culture. Maximum regeneration of isolated medullary filament was $8.1{\pm}1.7\;mm$ per one isolated utricle under $20^{\circ}C$ and $100\;{\mu}mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$ after 15 days culture. After intermediate culture during two months in the field, morphogenesis occurred in both sexual and asexual reproduction, and growth of young thalli was not significantly different (p>0.05) between the both reproduction methods. Even though seed production of C. fragile is possible in both sexual and asexual reproduction, the mass artificial seed production of asexual reproduction is much more effective than that of sexual reproduction that is too much affected by maturity.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.89-106
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• 2016

Many plant species have two modes of reproduction: sexual and asexual. Both modes of reproduction have often been viewed as adaptations to temporally or spatially variable environments. The plant should adjust partitioning to match changes in the estimated success of the two reproductive modes. Perennial plants showed that favorable habitats in soil nutrients or water content tend to promote clonal growth over sexual reproduction. In contrast, under high light-quantity conditions, clonal plants tend to allocate more biomass to sexual reproduction and less to clonal propagation. On the other hand, plants with chasmogamous and cleistogamous flowers provides with a greater tendency of the opportunity to ensure some seed set in any stressful environmental conditions such as low light, low soil nutrients, or low soil moisture. It is considered that vegetative reproduction has high competitive ability and is the major means to expand established population of perennial plants, whereas cleistogamous reproduction is insurance to persist in stressful sites due to being strong. Chasmogamous reproduction mainly enhances established and new population. Therefore, the functions of sexual and asexual propagules of perennial or annual plants differ from each other. These traits of propagule thus determine its success at a particular region of any environmental gradients. Eventually, if environmental resources or stress levels change in either space or time, species composition will probably also change. The reason based on which the plants differ with respect to favored reproduction modes in each environmental condition, may be involved in their specific realized niche.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.236-244
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• 2014

The plant pathogen Fusarium graminearum causes Fusarium head blight in cereal crops and produces mycotoxins that are harmful to animals and humans. For the initiation and spread of disease, asexual and sexual reproduction is required. Therefore, studies on fungal reproduction contribute to the development of new methods to control and maintain the fungal population. Screening a previously generated transcription factor mutant collection, we identified one putative $C_2H_2$ zincfinger transcription factor, pcs1, which is required for both sexual and asexual reproduction. Deleting pcs1 in F. graminearum resulted in a dramatic reduction in conidial production and a complete loss of sexual reproduction. The pathways and gene ontology of pcs1-dependent genes from microarray experiments showed that several G-protein related pathways, oxidase activity, ribosome biogenesis, and RNA binding and processing were highly enriched, suggesting that pcs1 is involved in several different biological processes. Further, overexpression of pcs1 increased conidial production and resulted in earlier maturation of ascospores compared to the wild-type strain. Additionally, the vegetative growth of the overexpression mutants was decreased in nutrient-rich conditions but was not different from the wild-type strain in nutrient-poor conditions. Overall, we discovered that the pcs1 transcription factor positively regulates both conidiation and sexual reproduction and confers nutrient condition-dependent vegetative growth.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.10
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• pp.281-289
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• 2017

Background: In this study, the growth and reproductive response of seedlings, grown in plastic pots with sand, to moisture and nutrients were analyzed in order to study the environmental conditions required to create an alternative habitat for Epilobium hirsutum L., an endangered plant. Results: Vegetative and reproductive growths of Epilobium hirsutum L. are accelerated with increase in moisture and organic matter content in the soil. Among vegetative organs, the number of runners related to asexual reproduction was the highest when the moisture content was over 25% and nutrient content between 7 and 14% in the soil. But the number of flowers related to flowering responses, among reproductive organs, was the highest when the moisture content was maintained at 75% and when nutrient content was 21% in the soil. The number of seeds, related to sexual reproduction, was the highest when the moisture content was over 25% and nutrient content between 14 and 21%. Conclusions: The study results show that a place with high moisture and nutrient content in the soil is advantageous to asexual and sexual reproduction of Epilobium hirsutum L. Therefore, we must serve periodically nutrient and seeds to sustain population in in situ conservation. Furthermore, it is advisable to create in riverside where abundant nutrient content have, making alternative habitat of Epilobium hirsutum L. Also, we must find species that have high contribution degree index through vegetation survey.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2014

Robinia pseudoacacia has become invasively naturalized in Japan. We investigated the role of sexual reproduction in the development of R. pseudoacacia riparian forests along the Chikumagawa River in Japan, by using five chloroplast (cpSSR) and seven nuclear (nSSR) markers. We identified eight chloroplast haplotypes and 147 nuclear genotypes from 619 R. pseudoacacia trees sampled in three plots (Plots A, B, and C) and along two line transects (Lines D and E). CpSSR analyses showed that multiple maternal lines were distributed along the river, and that some haplotypes from different populations overlapped. In addition, while Plots A and B were separated by a short distance, only these two plots exhibited genetic differentiation in the haplotypes. In the nSSR analysis, all pairwise $F_{ST}$ values among the three plots were significantly different from zero. Kinship analysis based on nSSR markers revealed that kinship connected many individuals to another individual from the same plot. These results indicate that seed dispersal near to mother trees contributes to the fine-scale genetic structure of R. pseudoacacia riparian forests. Our results indicate that sexual reproduction, in addition to asexual reproduction, is a major contributor to the fine-scale formation of R. pseudoacacia forests.

• Mycobiology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.171-182
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• 2009

Many aspergilli that belongs to ascomycetes have sexuality. In a homothallic or self-fertile fungus, a number of fruiting bodies or cleistothecia are formed in a thallus grown from a single haploid conidia or ascospores. Genome-sequencing project revealed that two mating genes (MAT) encoding the regulatory proteins that are necessary for controlling partner recognition in heterothallic fungi were conserved in most aspergilli. The MAT gene products in some self-fertile species were not required for recognition of mating partner at pheromone-signaling stage but required at later stages of sexual development. Various environmental factors such as nutritional status, culture conditions and several stresses, influence the decision or progression of sexual reproduction. A large number of genes are expected to be involved in sexual development of Emericella nidulans (anamorph: Aspergillus nidulans), a genetic and biological model organism in aspergilli. The sexual development process can be grouped into several development stages, including the decision of sexual reproductive cycle, mating process, growth of fruiting body, karyogamy followed by meiosis, and sporulation process. Complicated regulatory networks, such as signal transduction pathways and gene expression controls, may work in each stage and stage-to-stage linkages. In this review, the components joining in the regulatory pathways of sexual development, although they constitute only a small part of the whole regulatory networks, are briefly mentioned. Some of them control sexual development positively and some do negatively. Regarding the difficulties for studying sexual differentiation compare to asexual one, recent progresses in molecular genetics of E. nidulans enlarge the boundaries of understanding sexual development in the non-fertile species as well as in fertile fungi.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.335-351
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• 1992

The identification of green algae which were collected from paddy rice fields of the whole nation was conducted in 1991, and also the reproduction processes of three important green algae were investigated. The green algae identified were 46 species in 16 families including 4 species in the Volvocaceae, 4 species in the Palmellaceae, 3 species in the Ulotrichaceae, 3 species in the Oocystaceae and 6 species in the Scenedesmaceae. It was recognized that the algae which have caused a large injury to the flooded direct-seeded rice in Seosan reclaimed saline land was the genus Cladophora. The green water blooms on paddy water were induced mostly by the concentrated populations of suspended green algae such as the genera, Chlamydomonas and Stichococcus. A rapid propagation of Hydrodictyon was resulted from the asexual reproduction forming autocolony in each mother cell. The sexual and asexual reproduction processes of Oedogonium and the sexual reproduction process of Spirogyra were observed.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2015

Ailanthus altissima, which is recognized as an invasive tree in the Western world, has been widely observed in Japan. To investigate how A. altissima expanded within-population and to new populations within a region, 446 A. altissima trees were sampled from three separate sites (A, B, and C) including 35 distantly positioned patches, with three chloroplast DNA markers and nine nuclear microsatellite markers. We detected 2, 2, and 3 chloroplast haplotypes in sites A, B, and C, respectively. In addition, 271, 40, and 41 nuclear genotypes were detected in sites A, B, and C, respectively. The clonal richness value was 0.85, 0.78, and 0.53 in sites A, B, and C, respectively. Most trees with the same genotypes were distributed in the same patch, indicating that range expansion by asexual reproduction was limited to a maximum of 45 meters. According to autocorrelation analysis, the extent of nonrandom spatial genetic structure was approximately 0-2 km in sites A and C. KINGROUP analyses showed that 812, 74, and 111 nuclear genotype pairs were detected to have kinship in sites A, B, and C, respectively. Most nuclear genotype pairs were detected within the same patches or sites. These results indicate that the number of A. altissima trees gradually increased from seeds, some of which were produced by trees within sites, meaning that this species could regenerate naturally. This shows the need for the future management of A. altissima as an invasive species in Japan.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.241-246
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• 2022

Felids are the unique definitive host of Toxoplasma gondii. The intestine of felid is the only site for initiating Toxoplasma gondii sexual reproduction. T. gondii excretes millions of infectious oocysts from the intestine, which are the primary source of infection. There are many difficulties in developing vaccines and drugs to control oocyst excretion due to the lack of an appropriate experimental model. Here, we established an in vitro feline intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) infection system and an efficient animal model of T. gondii Chinese 1 genotype, Wh6 strain (TgCtwh6). The Kunming mice brain tissues containing TgCtwh6 cysts were harvested 42-day post-infection. The bradyzoites were co-cultured with cat IECs in vitro at a ratio of 1:10. Five 3-month-old domestic cats were orally inoculated with 600 cysts each. The oocysts were detected by daily observation of cat feces by microscopy and polymerase chain reaction. We found that the parasite adhered and invaded cat IECs in vitro, transformed into tachyzoites, and then divided to form rose-like structures. These parasites eventually destroyed host cells, escaped, and finished the asexual reproduction process. Schizonts associated with sexual reproduction have not been observed during development in vitro cultured cells. However, schizonts were detected in all infected cat intestinal epithelial cells, and oocysts were presented in all cat feces. Our study provides a feasible cell model and an efficient infection system for the following studies of T. gondii sexual reproduction, and also lays a foundation to develop drugs and vaccines for blocking excretion and transmission of oocysts.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2002

The tree of heaven naturalized plant grows in the various habitats of the city. The principal reason is that it is reproduced not only through sexual reproduction but through asexual reproduction. By the spreading of sucker and a bud appearance of the seed it forms a group easily inside the city habitat. The distribution of seed and spreading of the seedlings of the tree of heaven were investigated like the followings. As the result of the sexual reproduction by the seed and hangs in cluster farm, 350 individuals are germinated at the Namsan the best environment, and 50 individuals at Toegyewon Rotary These seeds are dispersed by the effect of wind and geographical factor. Because the northwest wind is blowing mainly from late autumn to early spring, it is dispersed in the south. In Toegyewon Rotary, a slant site, is dispersed mainly by down the site. Compared with width of crown, the seedling of a seed germination are distributed outside more than inside the crown and the seed is spreaded until the maximum 7.5 times of crown width at the investigated area. 1 year seedlings appeared as a group at the place of 2-4 times of the crown (in 20m from the crown, 75% distribution). Considering the distribution by the seed scattering of the tree of heaven, there is a possibility of sudden individual increase even in the deteriorated city environment. So this possibility shows that we need to consider the protection of the city soil, and the species variety decrease resulted from the successful competition to the other species.