• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.98-103
• /
• 2019

We compared the functional traits of leaf blades and culms of common reed (Phragmites australis) in four habitat types of distinguished environments such as temperature, precipitation, water characteristics, and indices related to biomass production (montane fen, MF; riparian marsh, RM; lagoon, LG; and salt marsh, SM). We also examined the relationships between the functional traits within and among populations. Four populations showed remarkable differences in the functional traits of leaf blades and culms. MF and RM had relatively tall (> 300 cm) and thick (> 8 mm) culms bearing long leaf blades (> 40 cm), whereas LG and SM had relatively shorter and thinner culms bearing shorter leaf blades than MF and RM. Some relationships between the functional traits of leaf blades and culms showed negative or not significant correlations within the population, whereas most of the relationships between the functional traits showed positive correlations particularly when all the data from four populations was included into the correlation analysis.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.278-284
• /
• 2018

Plant functional traits have been shown to be useful to understand how and why ecosystems and their components vary across environmental heterogeneity or gradients. This study investigated how plant functional (leaf) traits vary according to an elevation-associated environmental gradient. Environmental gradients (mean annual temperature and precipitation) were quantified, and leaf traits (leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf nitrogen, leaf phosphorus, leaf carbon, and leaf C/N ratio) of the understory woody plant species Acer pseudosieboldianum were examined across an elevational gradient ranging from 600 to 1200 m in a Baegunsan Mountain in Gwangyang-si, Jeollanam-do, South Korea. The results showed that mean annual temperature and precipitation decreased and increased along with elevation, respectively. Leaf area of the plant species decreased slightly with increasing elevation, while specific leaf area did not differ significantly. Leaf nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon concentrations) were higher at high elevations, but leaf C/N ratio decreased with elevation.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.64 no.1
• /
• pp.155-165
• /
• 2022

As pork consumption increases, rapid and accurate determination of porcine carcass grades at abattoirs has become important. Non-destructive, automated inspection methods have improved slaughter efficiency in abattoirs. Furthermore, the development of a calibration equation suitable for non-destructive inspection of domestic pig breeds may lead to rapid determination of pig carcass and more objective pork grading judgement. In order to increase the efficiency of pig slaughter, the correct estimation of the automated-method that can accommodate the existing pig carcass judgement should be made. In this study, the previously developed calibration equation was verified to confirm whether the estimated traits accord with the actual measured traits of pig carcass. A total of 1,069,019 pigs, to which the developed calibration equation, was applied were used in the study and the optimal estimated regression equation for actual measured two traits (backfat thickness and hot carcass weight) was proposed using the estimated traits. The accuracy of backfat thickness and hot carcass weight traits in the estimated regression models through stepwise regression analysis was 0.840 (R²) and 0.980 (R²), respectively. By comparing the actually measured traits with the estimated traits, we proposed optimal estimated regression equation for the two measured traits, which we expect will be a cornerstone for the Korean porcine carcass grading system.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.78-87
• /
• 2021

Background: To understand shade and wind effects on seedling traits of common reed (Phragmites australis), we conducted a mesocosm experiment manipulating day length (10 h daytime a day as open canopy conditions or 6 h daytime a day as partially closed canopy conditions) and wind speed (0 m/s as windless conditions or 4 m/s as windy conditions). Results: Most values of functional traits of leaf blades, culms, and biomass production of P. australis were higher under long day length. In particular, we found sole positive effects of long day length in several functional traits such as internode and leaf blade lengths and the values of above-ground dry weight (DW), rhizome DW, and total DW. Wind-induced effects on functional traits were different depending on functional traits. Wind contributed to relatively low values of chlorophyll contents, angles between leaf blades, mean culm height, and maximum culm height. In contrast, wind contributed to relatively high values of culm density and below-ground DW. Conclusions: Although wind appeared to inhibit the vertical growth of P. australis through physiological and morphological changes in leaf blades, it seemed that P. australis might compensate the inhibited vertical growth with increased horizontal growth such as more numerous culms, indicating a highly adaptive characteristic of P. australis in terms of phenotypic plasticity under windy environments.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.110-121
• /
• 2022

Leaf functional traits widely have been used to understand the environmental controls of resource utilization strategy of plants along the environmental gradients. By using key leaf functional traits, we quantified the relationships between leaf traits and local climate throughout the distributional range of Rhododendron caucasicum Pall. in eastern and western Georgian mountains (the South Caucasus). Our results revealed, that all traits showed high levels of intraspecific variability across study locations and confirmed a strong phenotypic differentiation of leaf functional variation along the east-west longitudinal gradient in response to the local climate; out of the explored climatic variables, the moisture factors related to precipitation and number of precipitation and dry days for winter and growth seasons were more strongly related to leaf trait variation than the elevation and air temperature. Among studied leaf traits, the leaf specific area (SLA) showed the highest level of variability indicating the different resource utilization strategies of eastern and western-central Rh. caucasicum individuals. High SLA leaves for western-central Caucasian individuals work in relatively resource-rich environments (more humid in terms of precipitation amount and the number of precipitation days in winter) and could be explained by preferential allocation to photosynthesis and growth, while eastern Caucasian samples work in resource-poor environments (less humid in terms of precipitation amount and the number of precipitation days in winter) and the retention of captured resources is a higher priority appearing in a low SLA leaves. However, more evidence from a broader study of the species throughout its distribution range by including additional environmental factors and molecular markers are needed for firmer conclusions of intraspecific variability of Rh. caucasicum.

• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.131-137
• /
• 2010

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have greatly contributed to the identification of common variants responsible for numerous complex traits. There are, however, unavoidable limitations in detecting causal and/or rare variants for traits in this approach, which depends on an LD-based tagging SNP microarray chip. In an effort to detect potential casual and/or rare variants for complex traits, such as type 2 diabetes (T2D) and triglycerides (TGs), we conducted a targeted resequencing of loci identified by the Korea Association REsource (KARE) GWAS. The target regions for resequencing comprised whole exons, exon-intron boundaries, and regulatory regions of genes that appeared within 1 Mb of the GWA signal boundary. From 124 individuals selected in population-based cohorts, a total of 0.7 Mb target regions were captured by the NimbleGen sequence capture 385K array. Subsequent sequencing, carried out by the Roche 454 Genome Sequencer FLX, generated about 110,000 sequence reads per individual. Mapping of sequence reads to the human reference genome was performed using the SSAHA2 program. An average of 62.2% of total reads was mapped to targets with an average 22X-fold coverage. A total of 5,983 SNPs (average 846 SNPs per individual) were called and annotated by GATK software, with 96.5% accuracy that was estimated by comparison with Affymetrix 5.0 genotyped data in identical individuals. About 51% of total SNPs were singletons that can be considered possible rare variants in the population. Among SNPs that appeared in exons, which occupies about 20% of total SNPs, 304 nonsynonymous singletons were tested with Polyphen to predict the protein damage caused by mutation. In total, we were able to detect 9 and 6 potentially functional rare SNPs for T2D and triglycerides, respectively, evoking a further step of replication genotyping in independent populations to prove their bona fide relevance to traits.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.65 no.2
• /
• pp.293-310
• /
• 2023

Protein-translated mRNA analysis has been extensively used to determine the function of various traits in animals. The non-coding RNA (ncRNA), which was known to be non-functional because it was not encoded as a protein, was re-examined as it was studied to actually function. One of the ncRNAs, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), is known to have a function of regulating mRNA expression, and its importance is emerging. Therefore, lncRNAs are currently being used to understand the traits of various animals as well as human diseases. However, studies on lncRNA annotation and its functions are still lacking in most animals except humans and mice. lncRNAs have unique characteristics of lncRNAs and interact with mRNA through various mechanisms. In order to make lncRNA annotations in animals in the future, it is essential to understand the characteristics of lncRNAs and the mechanisms by which lncRNAs function. In addition, this will allow lncRNAs to be used for a wider variety of traits in a wider range of animals, and it is expected that integrated analysis using other biological information will be possible.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.12
• /
• pp.1693-1702
• /
• 2009

Economic values of 14 production and functional traits for two Slovak dairy sheep breeds (Improved Valachian and Tsigai) were calculated. Semi-extensive production systems with one lambing per year were simulated using a bio-economic deterministic computer model. The marginal economic value of a trait was defined as the partial derivative of the profit function with respect to that trait. The relative economic value expressed the percentage proportion of standardized economic value (marginal economic value${\times}$genetic standard deviation) of a trait in the sum of the absolute values of the standardized economic values over all traits. Milk yield was of highest relative importance (26% and 32% in Improved Valachian and Tsigai) followed by productive lifetime and conception rate of ewes (16% and 15% in Improved Valachian and Tsigai, in both traits). Conception rate of female lambs and litter size had nearly the same relative economic importance in both breeds (9% to 11%). Survival rate of lambs at lambing and till weaning reached slightly lower economic values (4% to 7%). The economic importance of all remaining traits was less than 4%.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.327-333
• /
• 2021

The two main hypotheses that explain why invasive alien plants successfully colonize new environments are: 1) invasive alien plants are functionally different from native plants in a community, and 2) the plants can adapt well to new environments because they are functionally similar to native plants. The present study investigated the functional traits of naturalized alien herbaceous plants and their native neighbors in a riparian park area near the Hapcheon-Changyeong weir along the Nakdong River to determine which of the two hypotheses applied to the study area. According to the results, leaf functional traits, such as leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf thickness, leaf dry matter content, leaf nitrogen content, and leaf carbon content differed between naturalized alien and native plants, which could be attributed to the higher leaf nitrogen contents in naturalized alien plants than in native plants. The high leaf nitrogen contents are associated with high photosynthetic rates, which lead to effective resource use and rapid growth; therefore, naturalized alien plants growing in the study area were considered to have such functional traits. The results of the present study support the hypothesis that the successful establishment of invasive alien plants is attributed to the functional trait differences between invasive and native plants.

• ALGAE
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.285-298
• /
• 2021

The amount of CO₂ absorbed by the oceans continues to rise, resulting in further acidification, altering some functional traits of phytoplankton. To understand the effect of elevated partial pressures of CO₂ (pCO₂) on functional traits of dinoflagellates Alexandrium affine and A. pacificum, the cardinal temperatures and chain formation extent were examined under two pCO₂ (400 and 1,000 µatm) over the range of temperature expected to be associated with growth. The growth rate and chain formation extent of A. affine increased with higher pCO₂, showing significant changes in cardinal temperatures and a substantial increase in middle chain-length (4-8 cells) fractionation under elevated pCO₂ condition. By contrast, there were no significant differences in specific growth rate and any chain-length fractionation of A. pacificum between ambient and elevated pCO₂ conditions. The observed interspecies variation in the functional traits may reflect differences in ability of species to respond to environmental change with plasticity. Moreover, it allows us to understand the shifting biogeography of marine phytoplankton and predict their phenology in the Korea Strait.