• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.2 s.69
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• pp.161-168
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• 2005

In this study, we did the molecular typing of 39 environmental Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 isolates collected from 2001-2003 in Busan using the pulsed-filed gel electrophoresis (PFGE). PFGE of SfiI fragments were divided into 10 pulsotypes $(A\~J)$, corresponding to $<65\%$ similarity and a subtype within each pulsotype was characterized by $>84\%$ similarity. The major cluster was pulsotype E $(46.2\%)$, which included 18 isolates and was divided into 4 subtypes $(E1\~E4)$. PFGE of NotI fragments were divided into 8 pulsotypes $(a\~h)$, corresponding to $<60\%$ similarity and a subtype within each pulsotype was characterized by $100\%$ similarity. The major cluster was pulsotype f $(38.5\%)$, which included 15 isolates. The ATCC type strain L. pneumophila serogroup 1 was identified as a different molecular pulsotype compare to the Busan isolates. It is possible that L. pneumophila serogroup 1 isolated in Busan with specific DNA pattern is comparable with those isolation in other cities in Korea.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.45-105
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• 2016

The purposes of this study is to debate the duty to share and right to be forgotten of human materials and human genome information in modern personalized medicine. This study debates the use of human materials and human genome information in modern personalized medicine from the perspectives of the duty to share and right to be forgotten. The arguments are based on personal and community aspects. In general, human genome information is considered the personal property of an individual. Nevertheless, on thinking carefully, we can understand that human materials and human genome information have both personal and community aspects. In this study, cases are examined including a HeLa cell, Guaymi woman cell strain, and Hagahai man cell, to support various debates an genetic information for database construction in personalized medicine. Finally, using moral theories, this study attempts to synthesize the dialectics of the duty to share and right to forget regarding the use of human materials and human genome information in medicine.

• Weed & Turfgrass Science
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2015

Korean Poaceae includes approximately 80 species of the agricultural weeds. Precise species identification is the first step for more effective weed management in the agricultural fields. However, the identification of species in Poaceae is not easy without the assistance of taxonomists or identification experts although they are relatively easy to distinguish from the plants of the other family by the unique characteristics of caryopsis. Thus, DNA barcode was suggested as an alternative powerful technique for species identification by using short sections of DNA from a specific region of the genome. Two standard barcode markers of vascular plants, chloroplast rbcL and matK, and a supplementary nuclear ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region were used for barcode of major Korean Poaceae weeds, 403 individuals of 84 taxa. All the barcode markers revealed a good level of sequencing success with the lowest 73.7% for matK and the highest 88.8% for rbcL. The barcode sequences were deposited to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database for public use. Combined matK and ITS showed very high resolving power with 92.9%. Besides the identification of weeds for weed managment, the generated DNA barcode data could be used for many other applications such as rapid biodiversity assessment and conservation prioritization.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.262-268
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• 2005

Intoxication of murine macrophages (RAW 264.7) with the anthrax lethal toxin (LeTx 100 ng/ml) results in profound alterations in the host cell gene expression. The role of LeTx in mediating these effects is unknown, largely due to the difficulty in identifying and assigning function to individual proteins. In this study, we have used two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to analyze the protein profile of murine macrophages treated with the LeTx, and have coupled this to protein identification using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Interpretation of the peptide mass fingerprint data has relied primarily on the ProFound database. Among the differentially expressed spots, cleaved mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (Mek1) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase were increased in the LeTx treated macrophages. Mek1 acts as a negative element in the signal transduction pathway, and G6PD plays the role for the protection of the cells from the hyper-production of active oxygen. Our results suggest that this proteomic approach is a useful tool to study protein expression in intoxicated macrophages and will contribute to the identification of a putative substrate for LeTx.

• Ocean policy research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.183-204
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• 2018

Whaling has been banned in Republic of Korea after the declaration of the moratorium on the commercial whaling by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) since 1986. Korean government followed the moratorium immediately. However whale meat market has been kept by the bycaught whales and dolphins. So Korean government established a rule to control and trace whale meat in the market in 2011. The rule has some loopholes to allow illegally taken whale meat smuggle into the market. This study investigates the flaws in the current rule and recommend the way to overcome that defects. The first step is to prevent the entry of the illegal whale meat into the market. Minor change of the current law would be a solution. The next measure is to increase the sampling rate of the whale DNA that allowed to distribute in the market. The DNA database would be a powerful tools to identify illegal whale meat which is existing in the market. Korean government is operating three kind of food traceability systems. However, because of the legal limitations and the opposition of the non-governmental animal rights organizations, it is difficult to include whale meat to the existing systems. So the last step is to establish a new Traceability System with a state-of-the-art IT technology like as blockchain. The three measures mentioned above would increase the transparency in the whale meat market and prevent the entry of the illegal products.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.496-507
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• 2023

This study investigated species identification and labeling compliance of 48 shrimp products sold in the Korean online markets. Species identification was conducted using the standard DNA barcoding method, using the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. The obtained sequences were compared with those deposited in the NCBI GenBank and BOLD Systems databases. Additionally, phylogenetic analysis was performed to further verify the identified shrimp species. Consequently, 16 shrimp species were identified, including Penaeus vannamei, Pandalus borealis, Palaemon gravieri, Leptochela gracilis, Penaeus monodon, Pleoticus muelleri, Metapenaeopsis dalei, Euphausia pacifica, Lebbeus groenlandicus, Trachypenaeus curvirostris, Argis lar, Metanephrops thomsoni, Metapenaeopsis barbata, Alpheus japonicus, Penaeus chinensis, and Mierspenaeopsis hardwickii. The most prevalent species was Penaeus vannamei, found in 45.8% of the analyzed products. A significant mislabeling rate of 72.9% was found; however, upon excluding generic names such as shrimp, the mislabeling rate reduced to 10.4%. The mislabeling rate was higher in highly-processed products (89.3%) compared with that in minimally-processed products (50%). No correlation was found between the country of origin and mislabeling rate. The results of this study provide crucial data for future monitoring of shrimp products and improving the labeling of shrimp species in Korea.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.464-475
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• 2023

In this study, based on an analysis of two DNA barcode markers (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and cytochrome b genes), we performed species identification and monitored labeling compliance for 50 commercial pufferfish products sold in on-line markets in Korea. Using these barcode sequences as a query for species identification and phylogenetic analysis, we screened the GenBank database. A total of seven pufferfish species (Takifugu chinensis, T. pseudommus, T. xanthopterus, T. alboplumbeus, T. porphyreus, T. vermicularis, and Lagocephalus cheesemanii) were identified and we detected 35 products (70%) that were non-compliant with the corresponding label information. Moreover, the labels on 12 commercial products contained only the general common name (i.e., pufferfish), although not the scientific or Korean names for the 21 edible pufferfish species. Furthermore, the proportion of mislabeled highly processed products (n = 9, 81.8%) was higher than that of simply processed products (n = 26, 66.7%). With respect to the country of origin, the percentage of mislabeled Chinese products (n = 8, 80%) was higher than that of Korean products (n = 26, 66.7%). In addition, the market and dialect names of different pufferfish species were labeled only as Jolbok or Milbok, whereas two non-edible pufferfish species (T. vermicularis and T. pseudommus) were used in six commercial pufferfish products described as JolboK and Gumbok on their labels, which could be attributable to the complex classification system used for pufferfish. These monitoring results highlight the necessity to develop genetic methods that can be used to identify the 21 edible pufferfish species, as well as the need for regulatory monitoring of commercial pufferfish products.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.179-190
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• 2024

Cannabis sativa is a plant widely cultivated worldwide and has been used as a material for food, medicine, building materials and cosmetics. In this study, we assessed the functional effects of C. sativa stem and root extracts using network pharmacology and confirmed their novel functions. The components in stem and root ethanol extracts were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, and networks between the components and proteins were constructed using the STICHI database. Functional annotation of the proteins was performed using the KEGG pathway. The effects of the extracts were confirmed in lysophosphatidylcholine-induced THP-1 cells using real-time PCR. A total of 21 and 32 components were identified in stem and root extracts, respectively, and 147 and 184 proteins were linked to stem and root components, respectively. KEGG pathway analysis showed that 69 pathways, including the MAPK signaling pathway, were commonly affected by the extracts. Further investigation using pathway networks revealed that terpenoid backbone biosynthesis was likely affected by the extracts, and the expression of the MVK and MVD genes, key proteins in terpenoid backbone biosynthesis, was decreased in LPC-induced THP-1 cells. Therefore, this study determined the diverse function of C. sativa extracts, providing information for predicting and researching the effects of C. sativa.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.772-781
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to develop simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers from expressed sequence tags (EST) of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and identify 9 germplasms from 3 wild species of lettuce and 61 commercial cultivars using the developed EST-SSR markers. A total of 81,330 lettuce ESTs from NCBI databases were used to search for SSR and 4,229 SSR loci were identified. The highest proportion (59.12%, 2500) was represented by trinucleotide, followed by dinucleotide (29.70%, 1256) and hexanucleotide (6.62%, 280) among SSR repeat motifs. Totally 474 EST-SSR primers were developed from EST and a random set of 267 primers was used to assess the genetic diversity among 9 germplasms and 61 cultivars. Out of 267 primers, 47 EST-SSR markers showed polymorphism between 7 cultivars. Twenty-six EST-SSR markers among 47 EST-SSR markers showed high polymorphism, reproducibility, and band clearance. The relationship between 26 markers genotypes and 70 accessions was analyzed. Totally 127 polymorphic amplified fragments were obtained by 26 EST-SSR markers and two to nine SSR alleles were detected for each locus with an average of 4.88 alleles per locus. Average polymorphism information content was 0.542, ranging from 0.269 to 0.768. Genetic distance of clusters ranged from 0.05 to 0.94 between 70 accessions and dendrogram at a similarity of 0.34 gave 7 main clusters. Analysis of genetic diversity revealed by these 26 EST-SSR markers showed that the 9 germplasms and 61 commercial cultivars were discriminated by marker genotypes. These newly developed EST-SSR markers will be useful for cultivar identification and distinctness, uniformity and stability test of lettuce.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.445-452
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• 2016

Exorista japonica is one of the major natural enemies of noctuid larvae, Mythimna separata and Spodoptera litura. The examined parasitoid was obtained from host species M. separata, collected at Gimje city and identified by DNA sequences (partial cytochrome oxidase I, 16S, 18S, and 28S). For purposed of this study, laboratory reared S. litura served as the host species for the development of the E. japonica. The developmental period of E. japonica immature stages were investigated at seven constant temperatures (16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, $34{\pm}1^{\circ}C$, RH 20~30%). Temperature-dependent developmental rates and development completion models were developed. E. japonica was successfully developed from egg to adult in $16{\sim}31^{\circ}C$ temperature regimes. Developmental duration was the shortest at $34^{\circ}C$ (8.3 days) and the longest at $16^{\circ}C$ (23.4 days) from egg to pupa development. Pupal development duration was the shortest at $28^{\circ}C$ (7.3 days). Total immature-stage development duration decreased with increasing temperature, and was the shortest at $31^{\circ}C$ (16.3 days) and the longest at $16^{\circ}C$ (45.4 days). The lower developmental threshold was $7.8^{\circ}C$ and thermal constant required to complete total immature-stage development was 370.4 degree days. Among four non-linear temperature-dependent developmental rate models, Briere 1 model had the highest adjusted R-squared (0.96). The distribution model of development completion for total immature stage development of E. japonica was well described by all model ($r^2_{adj}=0.90$) based on the standardized development duration. These results of study would be necessary not only to develop population dynamics model but also to understand fundamental biology of E. japonica.