• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.235-243
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• 2011

The non-edible plant Jatropha curcas L. is one of the most promising feedstock for sustainable biodiesel production as it is not a source of edible vegetable oils, produces high amounts of oil (approx. 30-60% in dry seeds) and does not require high-cost maintenance. However, as with other undomesticated crops, the cultivation of J. curcas presents several drawbacks, such as low productivity and susceptibility to pests. Hence, varietal improvement by genetic engineering is essential if J. curcas is to become a viable alternative source of biodiesel. There is to date no well-established and efficient transformation system for J. curcas. In this study, we tested various physical wounding treatments, such as sonication and sand-vortexing, with the aim of developing an efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transformation for J. curcas. The highest stable transformation rate (53%) was achieved when explants were subjected to 1 min of sonication followed by 9 min of shaking in Agrobacterium suspension. The transformation frequency achieved using this protocol is the highest yet reported for J. curcas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.172-173
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• 1998

A research collection of Pseudomons solanacearum bacteria, a pathogen causing ‘bacteria wilt’ disease of more than 265 plant species, represented for northern provinces of Vietnam has recently been established and was saved for examination of antifungal activity in their culture fluids. All strains used in this work have been isolated from infected tomato, potato, and groundnut collected from production fields and they express different levels of virulence on their host plants. Cell-free culture fluids of these strains were tested for antifungal activity (to inhibit growth of mycelium and to destroy germination tube of fungal spores) on a number of fungi that either infect or associate with vegetable crops of Solanaceae family (tomato, potato, pepers...), fruit plants (banana), and even well-known by Vietnamese traditional medicine herbal plants belonging to Trifoliatus, Schefflera, Homalomena and Panax genera (Araliaceae family) of which roots are used as a resource of the herbal material. The antifungal activity was found in nearly all strains tested. Result of study on chitin, CMC, tween 80 and casein degradation abilities of the latter suggested that antifungal activity of positively-found strains may be due to their ability of extracelluar chitinase's excretion that destroy fungal cell wall.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.47
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• pp.124-134
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• 2002

The sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas L. (Lam.), is one of the important summer upland crops in Korea and has been used as human food, industrial yaw material and vegetable. Sweetpotato has been consumed for human foods such as boiled, roasted, fried or salad etc. It should be developed for higher quality as a snack or health food, primarily through improving the eating and marketing qualities as well as nutritional value. Its quality after cooking or processing is a complex one combining the aroma, taste, texture and fiber content. The other important qualities for consumers are root shape, size, skin color, flesh color, insect and disease resistance, nutritional components and safety from phytoalexins(toxic stress metabolites) etc. Korean people generally prefer to red skin color, round or elliptic shape and dry texture, yellow flesh color of sweetpotato which is high in starch content including vitamins and nutrients. The almost factors of quality components of sweetpotato are genetically controlled by breeder, but postharvest handlings and marketing management for making high quality goods should be done thoroughly according to the quality evaluation criteria of sweetpotato from the moment of harvest until shipping them to the market by farmers and the other users. This paper describes current status and prospects of the quality evaluations and researches in sweetpotato roots in Korea.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 1992

Effects of various artificial light sources on the growth of Chinese white cabbage, Chinese flat cabbage, lettuce, garland chrysanthemum, and green perilla were investigated. Plants were grown under different treatments for three weeks. Generally, the growth of artificial light treatment were better than natural daylight(ND). The greatest growth and external quality occurred in high-pressure sodium lamp(HPS). In incandescent lamp(IL), fresh weight was heavy, but marketable quality was poor because of succulent(or spindly) growth. Overall, vitamin C content were no difference among treatments. But relative chlorophyll content was somewhat high in HPS.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.254-260
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• 2013

Greenhouse and field experiments with American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) stratified seed sown at depths of 10 to 100 mm were carried out to determine effects of seeding depth on seedling emergence, growth and development and to calculate optimum seeding depth. The time to 50% seedling emergence ($E_{50}$) in the field increased linearly from 17 d at 20 mm seeding depth to 42.5 d at 80 mm. Seedling emergence and root weight (economic yield) at the end of the first year each increased quadratically with the increase of seeding depth. Maximum emergence and root yields were produced at sowing depths of 26.9 and 30.6 mm respectively. In a greenhouse pot experiment, increasing seeding depth from 10 to 100 mm increased partitioning of dry matter to leaves from 23.6% to 26.1%, to stems from 6.9% to 14.2%, and decreased dry matter to roots from 69.5% to 59.7%. Optimum seeding depth was 31.1 mm for a corresponding maximum root weight of 119.9 mg. A predictor equation [X (seeding depth, mm)=Y (seed weight, mg)/9.1+20.96] for seeding depth for ginseng, based on data for ten vegetable crops, their seed weights and suggested seeding depths, predicted a seeding depth of 28.3 mm for ginseng similar to that reported above for most pot and field experiments.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.14-19
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• 2011

Early blight of potato, caused by Alternaria solani, is a ubiquitous disease in many countries around the world. Our previous screening of several Iranian potato cultivars found that significant variation in resistance phenotypes exists between two cultivars: resistant 'Diamond' and susceptible 'Granula'. Our previous analysis of five different pathogen isolates also identified varying degrees of aggressiveness regardless of the host cultivar. Here, a bioassay was used to study the role of liquid culture exudates produced in vitro on pathogenicity and elicitation of disease symptomology in seedlings as well as detached leaves. Responses of host genotypes to the exudates of the two A. solani isolates were significantly different. Detached leaves of the resistant cultivar 'Diamond' elicited fewer symptoms to each isolate when compared to the susceptible cultivar 'Granula'. Interestingly, the phytotoxicity effect of the culture filtrate from the more aggressive isolate A was higher than from isolate N suggesting an increased concentration or strength of the toxins produced. Our results are significant because they indicate a correlation between symptoms elicited by A. solani phytotoxins and their aggressiveness on the host.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.256-267
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• 2019

The use of low-cost substrates represents one key issue to make single cell oil production sustainable. Among low-input crops, Arundo donax L. is a perennial herbaceous rhizomatous grass containing both C5 and C6 carbohydrates. The scope of the present work was to investigate and optimize the production of lipids by the oleaginous yeast Cutaneotrichosporon curvatus from undetoxified lignocellulosic hydrolysates of steam-pretreated A. donax. The growth of C. curvatus was first optimized in synthetic media, similar in terms of sugar concentration to hydrolysates, by applying the response surface methodology (RSM) analysis. Then the bioconversion of undetoxified hydrolysates was investigated. A fed-batch process for the fermentation of A. donax hydrolysates was finally implemented in a 2-L bioreactor. Under optimized conditions, the total lipid content was 64% of the dry cell weight and the lipid yield was 63% of the theoretical. The fatty acid profile of C. curvatus triglycerides contained 27% palmitic acid, 33% oleic acid and 32% linoleic acid. These results proved the potential of lipid production from A. donax, which is particularly important for their consideration as substitutes for vegetable oils in many applications such as biodiesel or bioplastics.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.971-978
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• 2022

Fertigation, which has been introduced in agricultural fields since 1990, has been widely practiced in upland fields as well as in plastic film houses as part of the crop production system. In accordance with demands in the agricultural sector, a huge number of scientific studies on fertigation have been conducted worldwide. Moreover, with a combination of advanced technologies such as big-data, machine learning, etc., fertigation is positioned as an indispensable tool to achieve sustainable crop production and to enhance nutrient and water use efficiency. In this review, we focused on providing valuable information in terms of crop production and nutrient/water use efficiency. A variety of fertigation studies have described that enhancement of crop production did not differ relative to conventional method or slightly increased. In contrast, fertigation significantly improved nutrient/water use efficiency, with a reduction in use ranging from 20 to 50%. Water-soluble organic resources such as livestock manure and agricultural byproducts also have been identified as useful resources like chemical fertilizers. Furthermore, the initial irrigation point was generally recommended in a range of -10 - -40 kPa, although the point differed according to the crop and crop growth stage. From this review, we suggest that fertigation, which is closely integrated with advanced technology, could be a leading technology to attain not only food security but also carbon neutrality via improvement of nutrient/water use efficiency.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.179-186
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• 2017

This study was conducted to monitor the insecticidal susceptibility of western flower thrip, Frankliniella occidentalis, which damage horticultural crops in the Gyeonggi area. Bioassays were conducted under laboratory and greenhouse conditions by using the recommended concentrations of commercial insecticides being used for the control of thrips. Neonicotinoid insecticides, especially acetamiprid (8%) soluble powder (SP), clothianidin (8%) SC, imidacloprid (10%) wettable powder (WP) and thiacloprid (10%) water dispersible granule (WG) were not toxic to F. occidentalis collected from horticultural crops. However, F. occidentalis collected from vegetable greenhouses was extremely susceptible to acetamiprid + spinetoram (6 + 4%) suspension concentration (SC), clothianidin + spinetoram (6 + 4%) SC and methoxyfenozide + spinetoram (6 + 4%) SC, which resulted in over 90% control of thrips. In the greenhouse test, spinetoram (5%) WG, which caused 100% F. occidentalis mortality in the laboratory test, showed 87.4, 88.0, and 98.3% control at 3, 6, and 9 days after treatment, respectively, while imidacloprid (10%) WP showed below 44% control. From the results of this study, spinosin insecticides, such as more than over 4 and 10% of spinetoram and spinosad, and pyrrole insecticide, such as 5% chlorfenapyr, are recommended for the effective control of F. occidentalis.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.225-232
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• 1998

In order to monitor the degree of heavy metal distribution in upland cultivations in Korea, both the cultivated soils and crops were collected from the 854 and 140 sites, respectively. The contents of cadmium (Cd), copper(Cu), lead(Pb), and zinc(Zn) in each sample were measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma(ICP) technique after 1N-HCl extraction. The content of Arsenic(As) was also measured with the same technique after 1N-HCl extraction. The average contents of heavy metal in surface soils(0~15 cm depth) were $0.135mg\;kg^{-1}$ for Cd, $2.77mg\;kg^{-1}$ for Cu, $3.47mg\;kg^{-1}$ for Pb, $10.7mg\;kg^{-1}$ for Zn, and $0.57mg\;kg^{-1}$ for As. Heavy metal contents of soil were similar to those values measured for upland soils in 1989, lower than soils under plastic film house in 1996. However, these contents were lower than "Countermeasure values for soil contamination"(Cd: 4, Cu: 125, Pb: 300, and As: $15mg\;kg^{-1}$ in soil) describled in Soil Environmental Conservation Act in Korea(1996). The contents of heavy metal in fresh vegetable, and root and tuber crops ranged $0.005{\sim}0.019mg\;kg^{-1}$ for Cd, $0.20{\sim}1.03mg\;kg^{-1}$ for Cu, $0.042{\sim}0.104mg\;kg^{-1}$ for Pb, and $2.0{\sim}4.0mg\;kg^{-1}$ for Zn, respectively.