• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.58-63
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• 2014

The tyrosine-protein kinase Tec (TEC) is a member of non-receptor tyrosine kinases and has critical roles in cell signaling transmission, calcium mobilization, gene expression, and transformation. TEC is also involved in various immune responses, such as mast cell activation. Therefore, we hypothesized that TEC polymorphisms might be involved in aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) pathogenesis. We genotyped 38 TEC single nucleotide polymorphisms in a total of 592 subjects, which comprised 163 AERD cases and 429 aspirin-tolerant asthma controls. Logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the associations between TEC polymorphisms and the risk of AERD in a Korean population. The results revealed that TEC polymorphisms and major haplotypes were not associated with the risk of AERD. In another regression analysis for the fall rate of forced expiratory volume in 1 second ($FEV_1$) by aspirin provocation, two variations (rs7664091 and rs12500534) and one haplotype (TEC_BL2_ht4) showed nominal associations with $FEV_1$ decline (p=0.03-0.04). However, the association signals were not retained after performing corrections for multiple testing. Despite TEC playing an important role in immune responses, the results from the present study suggest that TEC polymorphisms do not affect AERD susceptibility. Findings from the present study might contribute to the genetic etiology of AERD pathogenesis.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.326-333
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• 2011

This study evaluated disease resistance responses of pure lines of tomato plants at various temperature conditions against Ralstonia solanacearum strains isolated from Korea. Evaluation of six tomato lines with various strains of R. solanacearum showed that many strains can infect the resistant lines of tomato plants previously known as highly tolerant to bacterial wilt. One of the most virulent strains, SL341 (race 1 and biovar 4) caused severe infection on all six tomato lines, irrespective of temperature. In contrast, a moderately virulent strain SL1944 (race 1, biovar 4) showed the remarkable difference in disease progress on some resistant lines dependent on temperature. Moneymaker and Bonny Best were susceptible to SL1944 at all tested conditions with different temperature. However, tomato lines, such as Hawaii 7998, Hawaii 7996, Bblocking which were previously known as highly tolerant lines, were severely infected by SL1944 at relatively higher temperature ($35^{\circ}C$ for 14 hr light and $28^{\circ}C$ for 10 hr dark cycle). The disease progress at high temperature was much faster than those at low temprature on the same tomato line and those on Moneymaker and Bonny Best at the same high temprature. This result suggested that R. solanacearum strains isolated in Korea were highly virulent to bacterial wilt resistant tomato lines and some strains may cause severe infection on those plants at higher temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.12-12
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• 2017

Genetic improvement in potato can be carried out through several approaches, as sexual crosses, somatic hybridization, mutation and genetic engineering. Although the approach is different, but the goal is the same, to get a superior cultivar. Mutation and genetic engineering are very interesting methods for genetic improvement of potato plants. Mutation by gamma-ray irradiation have been performed to get some new potato cultivars which are more resistant to disease and have higher productivity. We have carried out a mutation of some potato cultivars and obtained some excellent clones to be potentially released as new superior cultivars. By the mutation method, we have released one potato cultivar for the French fries industry, and we registered one cultivar of potato for chips, and two cultivar for vegetable potatoes. Actually we are doing multi-location trial for three clones to be released as new cultivars. Through genetic engineering, several genes have been introduced into the potato plant, and we obtained several clones of transgenic potato plants. Transgenic potato plants containing FBPase gene encoding for fructose bisphosphatase, have a higher rate of photosynthesis and higher tuber productivity than non-transgenic plants. This result suggests that FBPase plays an important role in increasing the rate of photosynthesis and potato tuber productivity. Some transgenic potatoes containing the Hd3a gene are currently being evaluated for their productivity. Over expression of the Hd3a gene is expected to increase tuber productivity and induce flowering in potatoes. Transgenic potato plants containing MmPMA gene encoding for plasma membrane ATPse are more tolerant to low pH than non-transgenic plants, indicating that plasma membrane ATPase plays an important role in the potato plant tolerance to low pH stress. Transgenic potato plants containing c-lysozyme genes, are highly tolerant of bacterial wilt diseases caused by Ralstonia solanacearum and bacterial soft rot disease caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum. Expression of c-lyzozyme gene plays an important role in increasing the resistance of potato plants to bacterial diseases.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.181-183
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• 2003

Corky root symptoms caused by Pyrenochaeta lycopersici were observed on the roots and stem base of tomato plants in Korea. Symptoms on infected plants typically appeared as stunting and generally lacking vigor, and infected plants die back from the foliage tips after fruits have set. Brown lesions appearing with bands around the roots were characteristic symptoms of the disease. The lesions become swollen and cracked along the length of the root with corky appearance. Based on cultural and morphological characteristics, the fungus from the diseased plants was identified as Pyrenochaeta lycopersici. Pycnidia were solitary, globose to subglobose, brown to black, darker around the neck region, and measured 173-215 $\mu\textrm{m}$ in diameter with septate setae up to 102-132$\times$6.5 $\mu\textrm{m}$. Conidia were hyaline, unicellular, and 4.2-4.7$\times$l.5-2.0 $\mu\textrm{m}$ long. Optimum temperature for mycelial growth of the p. lycopersici isolates ranged from $20^{\circ}C$ to $25^{\circ}C$. Fifteen isolates off lycopersici were tested for pathogenicity to susceptible and tolerant cultivars of tomato plants by artificial inoculation. Three isolates of P. lycopersici induced typical corky root discoloration on susceptible tomato cultivars but not on tolerant tomato. This is the Erst report in Korea of tomato corky root disease caused by P. lycopersici.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.88-93
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• 2001

Oxidative stress is one of the major limiting factor in plant productivity. Reactive oxygens species (ROS) generated during metabolic processes damage cellular functions and consequently lead to disease, senescence and cell death. Plants have evolved an efficient defense system by which the ROS is scavenged by antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). Attempts to reduce oxidative damages under the stress conditions have included the manipulation of 갠 scavenging enzymes by gene transfer technology. Increased SOD activities of transgenic plants lead to increased resistance against oxidative stresses derived from methyl viologen (MV), and from photooxidative damage caused by high light and low temperature. Transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing APX showed reduced damage following either MV treatment of photooxidative treatment. Overexpression of glutathion reductase (GR) leads to increase in pool of ascorbate and GSH, known as small antioxidant molecules. These results indicate through overexpression of enzymes involved in ROS-scavenging could maintain or improve the plant productivities under environment stress condition. In this study, the rational approaches to develop stress-tolerant plants by gene manipulation of antioxidant enzymes will be introduced to provide solutions for the global food and environmental problems in the $21^\textrm{st}$ century.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.425-432
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• 2023

Kiwifruit industry has been threatened by the emergence of kiwifruit vine decline syndrome causing plant death within one or two years from symptom appearance. The main symptoms of this syndrome are root cortex breakdown, leaf necrosis, phylloptosis, fruit skin wrinkling, and twig wilting. Kiwifruit vine decline syndrome occurred on both Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis and A. chinensis var. deliciosa in mid-summer after rainy season. Kiwifruit vine decline syndrome was turned out to be severely occurred in wettable clay soils affected by waterlogging or poor aeration. No pathogens were directly correlated with the syndrome. Kiwifruit vine decline syndrome could be expected to be efficiently prevented controlled using Bounty 71 rootstock tolerant to water stress such as waterlogging.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.294-301
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• 2022

In our greenhouse experiment, soil heat treatment groups (50, 80, and 121℃) significantly promoted growth and disease suppression of Panax notoginseng in consecutively cultivated soil (CCS) samples (p < 0.01), and 80℃ worked better than 50℃ and 121℃ (p < 0.01). Furthermore, we found that heat treatment at 80℃ changes the microbial diversity in CCS, and the inhibition ratios of culturable microorganisms, such as fungi and actinomycetes, were nearly 100%. However, the heat-tolerant bacterial community was preserved. The 16S rRNA gene and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing analyses indicated that the soil heat treatment had a greater effect on the Chao1 index and Shannon's diversity index of bacteria than fungi, and the relative abundances of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were significantly higher than without heating (80 and 121℃, p < 0.05). Soil probiotic bacteria, such as Bacillus (67%), Sporosarcina (9%), Paenibacillus (6%), Paenisporosarcina (6%), and Cohnella (4%), remained in the soil after the 80℃ and 121℃ heat treatments. Although steam increased the relative abundances of most of the heat-tolerant microbes before sowing, richness and diversity gradually recovered to the level of CCS, regardless of fungi or bacteria, after replanting. Thus, we added heat-tolerant microbes (such as Bacillus) after steaming, which reduced the relative abundance of pathogens, recruited antagonistic bacteria, and provided a long-term protective effect compared to the steaming and Bacillus alone (p < 0.05). Taken together, the current study provides novel insight into sustainable agriculture in a consecutively cultivated system.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.72-78
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• 2021

Various management systems are being broadly employed to minimize crop yield loss resulting from abiotic and biotic stresses. Here we introduce a Bacillus zanthoxyli HS1 strain as a potent candidate for managing manifold stresses on vegetable plants. Considering 16S rDNA sequence and biochemical characteristics, the strain is closely related to B. zanthoxyli. The B. zanthoxyli HS1's soil-drench confers disease resistance on tomato and paprika plants against infection with Ralstonia solanacearum and Phytophthora capsici, respectively. Root and shoot growths are also increased in B. zanthoxyli HS1-treated cabbage, cucumber, and tomato plants, compared with those in mock-treated plants, after application of high salinity solution. Moreover, the pretreatment of B. zanthoxyli HS1 on cabbage plants inhibits the degradation of chloroplast pigments caused by high salinity stresses, whereas the inhibitory effect is not observed in cucumber plants. These findings suggest that B. zanthoxyli HS1 stain inhibits disease development and confers tolerance to salinity stress on vegetable plants.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2008

Background: A co-inhibitory molecule, B7-H4, is believed to negatively regulate T cell immunity by suppressing T cell proliferation and inhibiting cytokine production. However, the mechanism behind B7-H4-mediated tolerance remains unclear. Methods: Balb/c $(H-2^d)$ mice were fed with dendritic cell line, DC2.4 $(H-2^d)$ every day for 10 days. Meantime, mice were hydrodynamically injected with recombinant plasmid expressing B7-H4 fusion protein (B7-H4.hFc) or hFc via tail vein. One day after last feeding, mice were immunized with allogeneic B6 spleen cells. 14 days following immunization, mice were challenged with B6 spleen cells to ear back and the ear swelling was determined the next day. Subsequently, a mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) was also performed and cytokines profiles from the reaction were examined by sandwich ELISA. Frequency of immunosuppressive cell population was assayed with flow cytometry and mRNA for FoxP3 was determined by RT-PCR. Results: Tolerant mice given plasmid expressing B7-H4.hFc showed a significant reduction in ear swelling compared to control mice. In addition, T cells from mice given B7-H4.hFc plasmid revealed a significant hyporesponsiveness of T cells against allogeneic spleen cells and showed a significant decrease in Th1 and Th2 cytokines such as IFN-${\gamma}$, IL-5, and TNF-${\alpha}$. Interestingly, flow cytometric analysis showed that the frequency of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Tregs in spleen was increased in tolerant mice given recombinant B7-H4.hFc plasmid compared to control group. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that B7-H4 synergistically potentiates oral tolerance induced by allogeneic cells by increasing the frequency of FoxP3+ CD4+CD25+ Treg and reducing Th1 and Th2 cytokine production.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2022.09a
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• pp.36-36
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• 2022

The molecular understanding of resistance and susceptibility of host plants to scab, a most threatful disease to pome fruit production worldwide, is very limited. Comparing resistant line '93-3-98' to susceptible one 'Sweet Skin' at seven time points of 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 days post inoculation, RNA-sequencing data derived from infected and mock-inoculated young leaves were analyzed to evaluate the tolerant response and to mine candidate genes of pear to the scab pathogen Venturia nashicola. Analysis of the mapped reads showed that the infection of V. nashicola led to significant differential expression of 17,827 transcripts with more than 3-fold change in the seven pairs of libraries, of which 9,672 (54%) are up- and 8,155(46%) are down-regulated. These included mainly receptor (NB-ARC domains-containing, CC-NBS-LRR, TIR-NBS-LRR, seven transmembrane MLO family protein) and transcription factor (ethylene responsive element binding, WRKY DNA-binding protein) related gene. An arsenal of defense response of highly resistant pear accessions derived from European pear was probably supposed no sooner had V. nashicola infected its host than host genes related to disease suppression like Polyketide cyclase/dehydrase and lipid transport protein, WRKY family transcription factor, lectin protein kinase, cystein-rich RLK, calcium-dependent phospholipid-binding copine protein were greatly boosted and eradicated cascade reaction induced by pathogen within 24 hours. To identify transcripts specifically expressed in response to V. nashicola, RT-PCRs were conducted and compare to the expression patterns of seven cultivars with a range of highly resistant to highly susceptible symptom. A DEG belonging to the PR protein family genes that were higher expressed in response to V. nashicola suggesting extraordinary role in the resistance response were led to the identification. This study provides the first transcriptional profile by RNA-seq of the host plant during scab disease and insights into the response of tolerant pear plants to V. nashicola.