• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.261-261
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• 2022

Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp] is one of the most important grain legumes that enhance soil fertility and is well-adapted to various abiotic stress. Also, it is cultivated worldwide as a tropical annual crop, and the semi-arid regions are known as the main cowpea-produced regions. However, accumulation of soil salinity induced by low rainfall in these regions is reducing crop yields and quality. In general, plants exposed to soil salinity cause an accumulation of high ion chloride, which leads to the degradation of root and leaf proteins. In this study, we identified candidate genes associated with salinity tolerance through an analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in four cowpea germplasms with contrasting salinity tolerance. A total of 553,776,035 short reads were obtained using the Illumina Novaseq 6000 platform for RNA-Seq, which were subsequently aligned to the reference genome of cowpea Vunguiculata v1.2. A total of9,806 DEGs were identified between NaCl treatment and control of four cowpea germplasms. Among these DEGs, functions related to salt stress such as calcium transporter and cytochrome-450 family were associated with salt stress. In GO analysis and KEGG analysis, these DEGs were enriched in terms such as the "phosphorylation", ''extracellular region", and "ion binding". These RNA-seq results will improve the understanding of the salt tolerance of cowpea and can be used as useful basic data for molecular breeding technology in the future.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1500-1509
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• 2020

Drought is a major abiotic factor and has drastically reduced crop yield globally, thus damaging the agricultural industry. Drought stress decreases crop productivity by negatively affecting crop morphological, physiological, and biochemical factors. The use of drought tolerant bacteria improves agricultural productivity by counteracting the negative effects of drought stress on crops. In this study, we isolated bacteria from the rhizosphere of broccoli field located in Daehaw-myeon, Republic of Korea. Sixty bacterial isolates were screened for their growth-promoting capacity, in vitro abscisic acid (ABA), and sugar production activities. Among these, bacterial isolates YNA59 was selected based on their plant growth-promoting bacteria traits, ABA, and sugar production activities. Isolate YNA59 highly tolerated oxidative stress, including hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and produces superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities in the culture broth. YNA59 treatment on broccoli significantly enhanced plant growth attributes, chlorophyll content, and moisture content under drought stress conditions. Under drought stress, the endogenous levels of ABA, jasmonic acid (JA), and salicylic acid (SA) increased; however, inoculation of YNA59 markedly reduced ABA (877 ± 22 ng/g) and JA (169.36 ± 20.74 ng/g) content, while it enhanced SA levels (176.55 ± 9.58 ng/g). Antioxidant analysis showed that the bacterial isolate YNA59 inoculated into broccoli plants contained significantly higher levels of SOD, CAT, and APX, with a decrease in GPX levels. The bacterial isolate YNA59 was therefore identified as Variovorax sp. YNA59. Our current findings suggest that newly isolated drought tolerant rhizospheric Variovorax sp. YNA59 is a useful stress-evading rhizobacterium that improved drought-stress tolerance of broccoli and could be used as a bio-fertilizer under drought conditions.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2021

As rice originates from tropical regions, low temperature stress during the germination stage in temperate regions leads to serious problems inhibiting germination and seedling establishment. Identifying and characterizing quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for low-temperature germination (LTG) resistance help accelerate the development of rice cultivars with LTG tolerance. In this study, we identified QTLs for LTG tolerance (qLTG5, qLTG9) and germination coefficient of velocity under optimal conditions (OGCV) (qOGCV7, qOGCV9) using 129 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from the cross between a low-temperature sensitive line Milyang23 and a low-temperature tolerant variety Gihobyeo. qLTG9 and qOGCV9 were detected at the same location on chromosome 9. At both LTG QTLs (qLTG5 and qLTG9), the alleles for LTG tolerance were contributed by the japonica variety Gihobyeo. At qOGCV7 and qOGCV9, the alleles for low temperature tolerance were derived from Milyang23 and Gihobyeo, respectively. The RILs with desirable alleles at two or more QTLs, i.e., GroupVII: qLTG5+qLTG9 (qOGCV9) and GroupVIII: qLTG5+qOGCV7+qLTG9 (qOGCV9), showed stable tolerance under low-temperature stress. Our results are expected to contribute to the improvement of tolerance to low-temperature and anaerobic stress in japonica rice, which would lead to the wide adoption of direct-seeding practices.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.162-168
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• 2011

High salinity is a common stress condition that adversely affects plant growth and crop production. In response to various environmental stresses, plants activate a number of defense genes that function to increase the tolerance. To isolate Arabidopsis genes that are involved in abiotic stress responses, we carried out genetic screening using various mutant lines. Among them, the blh8 ($\b{B}$EL1-$\b{L}$ike $\b{H}$omeodomain $\underline{8}$) mutant specifically shows chlorotic phenotypes to ionic (specifically, $Na^+$ and $K^+$) stresses, but no differences in root growth. In addition, BLH8 is related to plant development and abiotic stress as predicted by a Graphical Gaussian Model (GGM) network program. It implies that BLH8 functions as a putative transcription factor related to abiotic stress responses. Collectively, our results show that gene network analysis is a useful tool for isolating genes involved in stress adaptation in plants.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.50
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• pp.225-231
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• 2023

Cold stress is one of the most vulnerable environmental stresses that affect plant growth and crop yields. With the recent advancements in genetic approaches using Arabidopsis and other model systems, genes involved in cold-stress response have been identified and the key cold signaling factors have been characterized. Exposure to low-temperature stress triggers the activation of a set of genes known as cold regulatory (COR) genes. This activation process plays a crucial role in enhancing the resistance of plants to cold and freezing stress. The inducer of the C-repeatbinding factor (CBF) expression 1-CBF module (ICE1-CBF module) is a key cold signaling pathway regulator that enhances the expression of downstream COR genes; however, this signaling module in Panax ginseng remains elusive. Here, we identified cold-signaling-related genes, PgCBF1, PgCBF3, and PgICE1 and conducted functional genomic analysis with a heterologous system. We confirmed that the overexpression of cold- PgCBF3 in the cbf1/2/3 triple Arabidopsis mutant compensated for the cold stress-induced deficiency of COR15A and salt-stress tolerance. In addition, nuclearlocalized PgICE1 has evolutionarily conserved phosphorylation sites that are modulated by brassinsteroid insensitive 2 (PgBIN2) and sucrose non-fermenting 1 (SNF1)-related protein kinase 3 (PgSnRK3), with which it physically interacted in a yeast two-hybrid assay. Overall, our data reveal that the regulators identified in our study, PgICE1 and PgCBFs, are evolutionarily conserved in the P. ginseng genome and are functionally involved in cold and abiotic stress responses.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.618-624
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• 2004

All members of R. glutinosa show the unique characteristic of intrinsic tolerance to paraquat (PQ). Antioxidant enzymes have been proposed to be the primary mechanism of PQ resistance in several plant species. Therefore, the antioxidant enzyme systems of R. glutinosa were evaluated by comparatively analyzing cellular antioxidant enzyme levels, and their responses of oxidative stresses and hormones. The levels of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), glutathione reductase (GR), non-specific peroxidase (POX), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were 7.3-, 4.9-, 2.7- and 1.6-fold higher in PQ-tolerant R. glutinosa than in PQ-susceptible soybeans. However, the activity of catalase (CAT) was about 12-fold higher in the soybeans. The activities of antioxidant enzymes reduced after PQ treatment in the two species, with the exception of POX and SOD in R. glutinosa, which increased by about 40%. Interestingly, the activities of APX, SOD and POX in R. glutinosa, relative to those in soybeans, were further increased by 49, 67 and 93% after PQ treatment. The considerably higher intrinsic levels, and increases in the relative activities of antioxidant enzymes in R. glutinosa under oxidative stress support the possible role of these enzymes in the PQ tolerance of R. glutinosa. However, the relatively lower levels of SOD versus PQ tolerance, and the mixed responses of antioxidant enzymes to stresses and hormones, suggest a possible alternative mechanism(s) for PQ tolerance in R. glutinosa.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.191-191
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• 2017

Hydroxy fatty acid (HFA) is an important industrial resource that known to be extracted from seeds of Castor or Lesquerella. However, mass production of HFA from those crops are difficult because of their behavior or life cycle. In this study, we applied HFA synthesis related gene FAH12, RcPDAT1, RcLPCAT, RcDGAT2, and RcPDCT on bioenergy crop Camelina sativa. Furthermore, we determined NaCl or cold stress tolerance changes of transgenic Camelina. RcFAH12, RcPDAT1, RcLPCAT, RcDGAT2, and RcPDCT genes were cloned into multigene expression vector which is engineered with seed specific promoter of FAE1 or Napin. Combination of HFA genes multi-expression vector constructs were divided into Set3 (RcFAH12, RcPDAT1-2, RcLPCAT), Set4 (RcFAH12, RcDGAT2, RCPDAT1-2, RcLPCAT), and Set5 (RcFAH12, RcDGAT2, RCPDAT1-2, RcLPCAT, RcPDCT). Transgenic HFA synthesis Camelina plants were generated using agrobacterium-mediated vacuum infiltration system. Results of fatty acid composition of T1 transgenic Camelina seeds analyzed by GC-MS showed 9.5, 9.0, and 13.6 % of HFA contents in Set3#6, Set4#8, and Set5#10, respectively. Therefore, seeds of T2 generation were harvest from Set5#10 which is shown highest HFA contents, and, 17.7, 8.1 and 10.5 % of HFA contents were determined in Set5#10-5, Set5#10-8, and Set#10-10, respectively. However, 7.7% of C18:2 and 22.3 % of C18:3 among unsaturated fatty acids were decreased in Set5#10-5 than WT. Meanwhile, we confirmed abiotic stress responses in T2 transgenic Camelina Set5#10-5 and Set5#10-10 under 0, 100, 150, and 200 mM NaCl or 25, 15, and $10^{\circ}C$ temperature for 5 weeks. Both Set5#10-5 and Set5#10-10 showed lower growth in height than WT in control and NaCl condition. Growth of leaf length and width were similar in WT and Set5#10-10 but lower in Set5#10-5 under NaCl stress. Number of opened flowers showed that both transgenic Camelina were lower than WT under normal condition. But, WT and Set5#10-10 showed similar opened flower number in 100 and 200 mM NaCl. In cold stress, 15 and $10^{\circ}C$ treatment for 5 weeks did not showed significant changes in between WT and both transgenic lines even they showed different growth rate in control condition. Taken together, growth and development are delayed by expression of exogenous HFA related genes in transgenic lines but relative abiotic stress sensitivity is similar with WT. In conclusion, reduced C18:2 or C18:3 fatty acid composition of seed by HFA synthesis is resulted from lack of resource supplement for development at seedling stage but it is not affect NaCl and cold stress tolerance.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.483-493
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• 2010

Knock-out of a gene by insertional mutagenesis is a direct way to address its function through the mutant phenotype. Among ca. 15,000 gene-trapped Ds insertion lines of rice, we identified one line from selected sensitive lines in highly salt stress. We conducted gene tagging by TAIL-PCR, and DNA gel blot analysis from salt sensitive mutant. A gene encoding an oligopeptide transporter (OPT family) homologue was disrupted by the insertion of a Ds transposon into the OsOPT10 gene that was located shot arm of chromosome 8. The OsOPT10 gene (NP_001062118.) has 6 exons and encodes a protein (752 aa) containing the OPT family domain. RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression of OsOPT10 gene was rapidly and strongly induced by stresses such as high-salinity (250 mM), osmotic, drought, $100\;{\mu}M$ ABA. The subcellular localization assay indicated that OsOPT10 was localized specifically in the plasma membrane. Overexpression of OsOPT10 in Arabidopsis thaliana and rice conferred tolerance of transgenic plants to salt stress. Further we found expression levels of some stress related genes were inhibited in OsOPT10 transgenic plants. These results suggested that OsOPT10 might play crucial but differential roles in plant responses to various abiotic stresses.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.347-358
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• 2016

Brassinosteroid (BR), a plant steroid hormone, plays key roles in numerous growth and developmental processes as well as tolerance to both abiotic and biotic stress. To understand the biological networks involved in BR-mediated signaling pathways and stress tolerance, we performed comparative genome-wide transcriptome analysis of a constitutively activated BR bes1-D mutant with an Agilent Arabidopsis $4{\times}44K$ oligo chip. As a result, we newly identified 1,091 (562 up-regulated and 529 down-regulated) significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The combination of GO enrichment and protein network analysis revealed that stress-related processes, such as metabolism, development, abiotic/biotic stress, immunity, and defense, were critically linked to BR signaling pathways. Among the identified gene sets, we confirmed more than a 6-fold up-regulation of NB-ARC and FLS2 in bes1-D plants. However, some genes, including TIR1, TSA1 and OCP3, were down-regulated. Consistently, BR-activated plants showed higher tolerance to drought stress and pathogen infection compared to wild-type controls. In this study, we newly developed a useful, comprehensive method for large-scale identification of critical network and gene sets with global transcriptome analysis using a microarray. This study also showed that gain of function in the bes1-D gene can regulate the adaptive response of plants to various stressful conditions.

• Plant Breeding and Biotechnology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2017

AP2/EREBP gene family consists of transcription factor genes with a conserved AP2 DNA-binding domain and is involved in various biological processes. AP2/EREBP gene families were identified through genome-wide searches in five Cucurbitaceae species including cucumber, wild cucumber, melon, watermelon, and bitter gourd, which consisted of more than 100 genes in each of the five species. The gene families were further divided into five groups including four subfamilies (ERF, DREB, AP2 and RAV) and a soloist group. Among the subfamilies, DREB subfamily which is known to be related to abiotic stress response was more analyzed and a total of 25 genes were identified as Cucurbitaceae homologues of Arabidopsis CBF/DREB1 genes which are important for abiotic stress-response and tolerance. In silico expression profiling using RNA-Seq data revealed diverse expression patterns of cucumber AP2/EREBP genes. AP2/EREBP gene families identified in this study will be valuable for understanding the stress response mechanism as well as facilitating molecular breeding in Cucurbitaceae crops.