• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1836-1843
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• 2019

Objective: Social genetic effects (SGE) are an important genetic component for growth, group productivity, and welfare in pigs. The present study was conducted to evaluate i) the feasibility of the single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction (ssGBLUP) approach with the inclusion of SGE in the model in pigs, and ii) the changes in the contribution of heritable SGE to the phenotypic variance with different scaling ${\omega}$ constants for genomic relationships. Methods: The dataset included performance tested growth rate records (average daily gain) from 13,166 and 21,762 pigs Landrace (LR) and Yorkshire (YS), respectively. A total of 1,041 (LR) and 964 (YS) pigs were genotyped using the Illumina PorcineSNP60 v2 BeadChip panel. With the BLUPF90 software package, genetic parameters were estimated using a modified animal model for competitive traits. Giving a fixed weight to pedigree relationships (${\tau}:1$), several weights (${\omega}_{xx}$, 0.1 to 1.0; with a 0.1 interval) were scaled with the genomic relationship for best model fit with Akaike information criterion (AIC). Results: The genetic variances and total heritability estimates ($T^2$) were mostly higher with ssGBLUP than in the pedigree-based analysis. The model AIC value increased with any level of ${\omega}$ other than 0.6 and 0.5 in LR and YS, respectively, indicating the worse fit of those models. The theoretical accuracies of direct and social breeding value were increased by decreasing ${\omega}$ in both breeds, indicating the better accuracy of ${\omega}_{0.1}$ models. Therefore, the optimal values of ${\omega}$ to minimize AIC and to increase theoretical accuracy were 0.6 in LR and 0.5 in YS. Conclusion: In conclusion, single-step ssGBLUP model fitting SGE showed significant improvement in accuracy compared with the pedigree-based analysis method; therefore, it could be implemented in a pig population for genomic selection based on SGE, especially in South Korean populations, with appropriate further adjustment of tuning parameters for relationship matrices.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.173-178
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• 2013

The characteristics of lactation persistency was investigated for new evaluation trait using 4,366,900 milk yield records from 436,690 heads of Korean Holstein dairy cattle. The average lactation persistencies of first parity, second parity and over third parity were 97.5%, 95.1% and 94.6%, respectively and there was a trend that after the peak yield, lactation persistency decreased collectively. The average days of peak milk yields after calving was about 50 days, but only 33.2% of cows reached peak yields at 36~66 days (second test day). Also, there was a difference between the milk yield of cows which reached peak yields at first test day by lactation days and that of cows which reached peak yields at second to fourth test day. The estimates of heritabilty and repeatability for mean lactation persistency were 0.16 and 0.35, respectively. The genetic correlation between cumulative lactation persistency from third to tenth test day and that from third to seventh test day was 0.91 and while it increased in later test day, it decreased sharply in earlier test day. The breeding value correlations of Data II and III for Data I were 0.80 and 0.72, respectively, while the rank correlations were 0.78 and 0.71, respectively. Based on the results, the breeding value and rank correlations decreased when more data were added.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.99-111
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• 2020

Probiotics are actively being studied for their efficacious anticancer, anticholesterol, and antidiabetic properties. As novel probiotic strains are being developed continuously, new strain-specific safety issues may be reported. Therefore, a procedure for the safety evaluation of probiotic strains is needed. In this study, we investigated the current status of domestic and foreign guidelines for the evaluation of safety of probiotics and suggested a general probiotic safety evaluation process. In other countries, the guidelines for probiotic evaluation are provided and managed separately. However, in Korea, general guidelines are provided regarding the use of functional ingredients, and specific guidelines for the use of probiotics are lacking. A review step based on the characteristics of the probiotics has been introduced in the procedure for safety evaluation of probiotics. Additionally, it has been suggested that the safety evaluation process should consider the results of the functional and genomic analysis for strain identification. Moreover, the factors to be evaluated are presented separately for the notified and non-notified strains. The suggested evaluation procedure may ensure the safety of probiotics, thereby promoting enhanced utilization of probiotics as functional products.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.720-734
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• 2023

In Korea, Korea Proven Bulls (KPN) program has been well-developed. Breeding and evaluation of cows are also an essential factor to increase earnings and genetic gain. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of cow breeding value by using three methods (pedigree index [PI], pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction [PBLUP], and genomic-BLUP [GBLUP]). The reference population (n = 16,971) was used to estimate breeding values for 481 females as a test population. The accuracy of GBLUP was 0.63, 0.66, 0.62 and 0.63 for carcass weight (CWT), eye muscle area (EMA), back-fat thickness (BFT), and marbling score (MS), respectively. As for the PBLUP method, accuracy of prediction was 0.43 for CWT, 0.45 for EMA, 0.43 for MS, and 0.44 for BFT. Accuracy of PI method was the lowest (0.28 to 0.29 for carcass traits). The increase by approximate 20% in accuracy of GBLUP method than other methods could be because genomic information may explain Mendelian sampling error that pedigree information cannot detect. Bias can cause reducing accuracy of estimated breeding value (EBV) for selected animals. Regression coefficient between true breeding value (TBV) and GBLUP EBV, PBLUP EBV, and PI EBV were 0.78, 0.625, and 0.35, respectively for CWT. This showed that genomic EBV (GEBV) is less biased than PBLUP and PI EBV in this study. In addition, number of effective chromosome segments (M_e) statistic that indicates the independent loci is one of the important factors affecting the accuracy of BLUP. The correlation between M_e and the accuracy of GBLUP is related to the genetic relationship between reference and test population. The correlations between M_e and accuracy were -0.74 in CWT, -0.75 in EMA, -0.73 in MS, and -0.75 in BF, which were strongly negative. These results proved that the estimation of genetic ability using genomic data is the most effective, and the smaller the M_e, the higher the accuracy of EBV.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.167-170
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• 2002

The long terminal repeats (LTRs) of human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) have been found to be coexpressed with sequences of closely located genes. It has been suggested that the LTR elements have contributed to the structural change or genetic variation of human genome connected to various diseases and evolution. We examined the HERV-W LTR elements in various cancer cells (2F7, A43l , A549, HepG2, MIA-PaCa-2, PC-3, RT4, SiHa, U-937, and UO-31). Using genomic DNA from the cancer cells, we performed PCR amplification and identified twelve new HERV-W LTR elements. Those LTR elements showed a high degree of sequence similarity (88-99％) with HERV-W LTR (AF072500). A phylogenetic tree obtained by the neighbor-joining method revealed that HERV-W LTR elements could be mainly divided into two groups through evolutionary divergence. Three HERV-W LTR elements (RT4-2, A43l-1, and UO3l-2) belonged to Group 1, whereas nine LTR elements (2F7-2, A549-1, A549-3, HepG2-3, MP2-2, PC3-1, SiHa-8, SiHa-10, and U937-1) belonged to Group 11. Taken together, our new sequence data of the HERV-W LTR elements may contribute to an understanding of tissue-specific cancer by genomic instability of LTR integration.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.329-338
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• 2010

Drought, salinity and flooding are three important abiotic factors limiting soybean production worldwide. Irrigation, soil reclamation, and drainage systems are not generally available or economically feasible for soybean production. Therefore, productive soybean varieties with tolerance are a cost effective means for reducing yield losses due to these factors. Genetic variability for higher tolerance to drought, salt and flooding is important. However, only a small portion of nearly 200,000 world soybean accessions have been screened to find genotypes with tolerance for use in breeding programs. Evaluation for tolerance to drought, salinity and flooding is difficult due to lack of faster, cost effective, repeatable screening methods. Soybean strains with higher tolerance to the above stresses have been identified. Crosses with lines with drought, salt and flooding tolerance through conventional breeding has made a significant contribution to improving tolerance to abiotic stress in soybean. Molecular markers associated with tolerance to drought, salt and flooding will allow faster, reliable screening for these traits. Germplasm resources, genome sequence information and various genomic tools are available for soybean. Integration of genomic tools coupled with well-designed breeding strategies and effective uses of these resources will help to develop soybean varieties with higher tolerance to drought, salt and flooding.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.165-171
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• 2013

Genomic relationship matrix (GRM) was constructed using whole genome SNP markers of swine and genomic breeding value was estimated by substitution of the numerator relationship matrix (NRM) based on pedigree information to GRM. Genotypes of 40,706 SNP markers from 448 pure Landrace pigs were used in this study and five kinds of GRM construction methods, G05, GMF, GOF, $GOF^*$ and GN, were compared with each other and with NRM. Coefficients of GOF considering each of observed allele frequencies showed the lowest deviation with coefficients of NRM and as coefficients of GMF considering the average minor allele frequency showed huge deviation from coefficients of NRM, movement of mean was expected by methods of allele frequency consideration. All GRM construction methods, except for $GOF^*$, showed normally distributed Mendelian sampling. As the result of breeding value (BV) estimation for days to 90 kg (D90KG) and average back-fat thickness (ABF) using NRM and GRM, correlation between BV of NRM and GRM was the highest by GOF and as genetic variance was overestimated by $GOF^*$, it was confirmed that scale of GRM is closely related with estimation of genetic variance. With the same amount of phenotype information, accuracy of BV based on genomic information was higher than BV based on pedigree information and these symptoms were more obvious for ABF then D90KG. Genetic evaluation of animal using relationship matrix by genomic information could be useful when there is lack of phenotype or relationship and prediction of BV for young animals without phenotype.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.293-305
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• 2020

The difference in the breeding programs and population history may have diversely shaped the genomes of Korean native cattle breeds. In the absence of phenotypic data, comparisons of breeds that have been subjected to different selective pressures can aid to identify genomic regions and genes controlling qualitative and complex traits. In this study to decipher genetic variation and identify evidence of divergent selection, 3 Korean cattle breeds were genotyped using the recently developed high-density GeneSeek Genomic Profiler F250 (GGP-F250) array. The three Korean cattle breeds clustered according to their coat color phenotypes and breeding programs. The Heugu breed reliably showed smaller effective population size at all generations considered. Across the autosomal chromosomes, 113 and 83 annotated genes were identified from Hanwoo-Chikso and Hanwoo-Heugu comparisons, respectively of which 16 genes were shared between the two pairwise comparisons. The most important signals of selection were detected on bovine chromosomes 14 (24.39-25.13 Mb) and 18 (13.34-15.07 Mb), containing genes related to body size, and coat color (XKR4, LYN, PLAG1, SDR16C5, TMEM68, CDH15, MC1R, and GALNS). Some of the candidate genes are also associated with meat quality traits (ACSF3, EIF2B1, BANP, APCDD1, and GALM) and harbor quantitative trait locus (QTL) for beef production traits. Further functional analysis revealed that the candidate genes (DBI, ACSF3, HINT2, GBA2, AGPAT5, SCAP, ELP6, APOB, and RBL1) were involved in gene ontology (GO) terms relevant to meat quality including fatty acid oxidation, biosynthesis, and lipid storage. Candidate genes previously known to affect beef production and quality traits could be used in the beef cattle selection strategies.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.949-955
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• 2021

Previously, our research group isolated Bifidobacterium breve IDCC4401 from infant feces as a potential probiotic. For this study, we evaluated the safety of B. breve IDCC4401 using genomic and phenotypic analyses. Whole genome sequencing was performed to identify genomic characteristics and investigate the potential presence of genes encoding virulence, antibiotic resistance, and mobile genetic elements. Phenotypic analyses including antibiotic susceptibility, enzyme activity, production of biogenic amines (BAs), and proportion of D-/L-lactate were evaluated using E-test, API ZYM test, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and D-/L-lactic acid assay respectively. The genome of B. breve IDCC4401 consists of 2,426,499 bp with a GC content of 58.70% and 2,016 coding regions. Confirmation of the genome as B. breve was provided by its 98.93% similarity with B. breve DSM20213. Furthermore, B. breve IDCC4401 genes encoding virulence and antibiotic resistance were not identified. Although B. breve IDCC4401 showed antibiotic resistance against vancomycin, we confirmed that this was an intrinsic feature since the antibiotic resistance gene was not present. B. breve IDCC4401 showed leucine arylamidase, cystine arylamidase, α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase, and α-glucosidase activities, whereas it did not show production of harmful enzymes such as β-glucosidase and β-glucuronidase. In addition, B. breve IDCC4401 did not produce any tyramine, histamine, putrescine, cadaverine, or 2-phenethylamine, which are frequently detected BAs during fermentation. B. breve IDCC4401 produced 95.08% of L-lactate and 4.92% of D-lactate. Therefore, our findings demonstrate the safety of B. breve IDCC 4401 as a potential probiotic for use in the food industry.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.1101-1108
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• 2024

Earlier studies have validated the isolation of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Salmonella (ESBL-Sal) strains from food. While poultry is recognized as a reservoir for Salmonella contamination, pertinent data regarding ESBL-Sal remains limited. Consequently, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has isolated Salmonella spp. from retail meat and evaluated their antibiotic susceptibility and genetic characteristics via whole-genome sequencing. To further elucidate these aspects, this study investigates the prevalence, antibiotic resistance profiles, genomic characteristics, and homology of ESBL-Sal spp. obtained from livestock-derived products in South Korean retail outlets. A total of 653 Salmonella spp. were isolated from 1,876 meat samples, including 509 beef, 503 pork, 555 chicken, and 309 duck samples. The prevalence rates of Salmonella were 0.0%, 1.4%, 17.5%, and 28.2% in the beef, pork, chicken, and duck samples, respectively. ESBL-Sal was exclusively identified in poultry meat, with a prevalence of 1.4% in the chicken samples (8/555) and 0.3% in the duck samples (1/309). All ESBL-Sal strains carried the bla_CTX-M-1 gene and exhibited resistance to ampicillin, ceftiofur, ceftazidime, nalidixic acid, and tetracycline. Eight ESBL-Sal isolates were identified as S. Enteritidis with sequence type (ST) 11. The major plasmid replicons of the Enteritidis-ST11 strains were IncFIB(S) and IncFII(S), carrying antimicrobial resistance genes (β-lactam, tetracycline, and aminoglycoside) and 166 virulence factor genes. The results of this study provide valuable insights for the surveillance and monitoring of ESBL-Sal in South Korean food chain.