• Animal cells and systems
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 2008

Structure and mucosubstance histochemistry in the epidermis of five teleostean species, i. e., spotty belly, Agrammus agrammus, devil stinger, Inimicus japonicus, stone fish, Erosa erosa, cubed snailfish, Liparis tessellatus, and Japanese bluefish, Scombrops boops were investigated. The epidermis of five species studied is composed of three layers: superficial, middle, and basal layer. The superficial layer is comprised of rather flattened cells. Mucous cells, the type commonly found in fishes are completely lacking in the epidermis of devil stinger, stone fish, and cubed snailfish. The epidermis of devil stinger and stone fish have multicellular glands which do not have mucosubstances. The skin surface of them is covered with mucous layer. The superficial cells in the epidermis of devil stinger, stone fish, and cubed snailfish are mucus-secreting cells. The composition and the amount of the mucosubstances vary in species and body regions. The mucous layer on the skin surface and superficial epidermal cells of devil stinger contain a mixture of neutral and acidic(sulfated and nonsulfated) mucosubstances. In stone fish, the mucous layer has acidic(sulfated and non-sulfated) mucin and the superficial epidermal cells contain neutral mucin. In cubed snailfish, the type of epidermal mucosubstances is identified as a mixture of neutral and acidic(non-sulfated) mucin. The mucous cells of the epidermis in spotty belly and Japanese bluefish contain neutral mucin.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2013

The investigation for species composition and catch in the Korean deep-water of the East Sea (also known as Sea of Japan) was carried out with trammel nets of 7 mesh sizes (6.1~24.2cm) offshore Donghae (2006) and Yangyang (2007) of Korea. The catches were 1,268kg and composed of 37 species between 200m and 1,200m in depth. The principal species caught were Taknka's snailfish, salmon snailfish, red snow crab, hunchback sculpin, snow crab, spinyhead sculpin, Tanaka's eelpout, Alaska cod and so on. Those were target fish for commercial value except salmon snailfish. The mesh sizes for the largest catch were 10.6cm and 15.2cm in the fishing ground of Donghae and Yangyang, respectively. The habitat of snow crab was shallower than that of red snow crab in both areas. Trammel net enabled to investigate fish in deep-water with small fishing vessel and rather cheap expenses in contrast to bottom trawl that required too much of it. With increasing inner mesh size of trammel net the mean size of some principal species such as Taknka's snailfish, spinyhead sculpin, hunchback sculpin, Pacific cod, snow crab, red snow crab and hybrid between snow crab and red snow crab tended to be large in certain range of mesh size.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.308-311
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• 2012

A single specimen (134.3 mm standard length) of a snailfish, Careproctus notosaikaiensis was collected from a fish trap in Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do, East Sea, Korea. It is characterized by having the teeth strongly trilobed; dorsal fin rays 52; anal fin rays 47; pectoral fin rays 35; caudal fin rays 10; vertebrae 58; ribs 2 pairs; cephalic pores, 2-6-7-2; gill slit extending to the fifth pectoral fin ray; chin pores paired and equal in size; dorsal and anal fins with distinct reddish margins. We describe this species as the first record to Korea, and proposed the new Korean name, "Dong-hae-bun-hong-ggom-chi" for this species.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 2002

In order to obtain the specific genes of snailfish a subtracted cDNA library was constructed, and analysed by sequencing and GenBank search. Among them C90-171 clone was turned out to be genes showing low homology and nonredundant genes. This novel clone was named Gomsin(C90-171). Gomsin was shown to be intensely expressed in the epithelial cells, some mesenchymal cells, and sheaths of muscle bundles in the result of immunohistochemistry. In the cross reaction assay of Gomsin antibody against various human tissues, the Gomsin was strongly expressed in the ductal and acinar cells of salivary glands, which was similar to the expression patterns of proline-rich proteins(PRPs) of human. The antibody raised against the Gomsin was clearly cross-reacted with human salivary PRPs and also recombinant proteins of human PRPs in the Western blot and immunoprecipitation analysis. Contrast to the salivary PRPs, the Gomsin was not easily degraded in the mixed saliva, but rapidly attacked on the cultured keratocytes in vitro. The simulated protein structure of Gomsin was similar to the whorled pattern of PRPs, even though the amino acid sequence of Gomsin was quite different from those of PRPs. These data suggest that the Gomsin is a characteristic matrix protein in the skin and body of snailfish, which is also utilized for the tissue protection in the similar way to the PRPs of human muco-secretory organs.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.332-339
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• 2010

Maturity and spawning of the snailfish, Liparis ochotensis was investigated based on samples collected by gill net in the East Sea of Korea from December 2008 to December 2009. The average total length of L. ochotensis was 63.4 cm and 64.1 cm for females and males, respectively. Gonadosomatic index (GSI) began to increase in July, reaching a maximum in November, then began to decrease in December. Monthly changes in the GSI values of L. ochotensis were similar for females and males. Annual reproductive cycle of this species can be divided into five successive stages in females: early growing stage (May), late growing stage (June to July), mature stage (August to September), ripe and spent stage (September to December), and recovery and resting stage (January to April). Males show four successive stages; growing stage (May to July), mature stage (August to September), ripe and spent stage (September to December), and recovery and resting stage (January to April). Relationship between total length (TL) and fecundity (F) was F=$0.00003TL^{4.002}$ ($R^2$ = 0.703), and F increased with TL. Total length at 50% group maturity was estimated to be 55.8 cm. Our findings suggest that the spawning period takes place from September to December, with the main spawning period occurring from October to December.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.71-78
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• 1997

Stomach contents of snailfish, Liparis tanakai, caught in the Nakdong River Estuary were examined quantitatively. Liparis tanakai was a bottom feeding carnivores, and showed an almost strict specialization on shrimps and fishes. Shrimps and fishes accounted for 74.3% and 19.8% of the overall stomach contents, respectively. The most selected prey species was Cragon affinis for all fish size classes. The snailfish' s diets included minor quantities of crabs, amphipods, mysids and isopods. Small individuals(4~10 cm SL) consumed mainly shrimps which accounted for approximately 90% of the stomach contents. However, the portion of the diet attributable to shrimps decreased steadily with increasing fish size, and this decrease was paralleled by increased cosumption of fishes. For 31~45 cm individuals, fishes constituted over 30% of the stomach contents, while shrimps made up approximately 60% of the diet.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.239-250
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• 1994

The vertical distribution and activity patterns of fishes during the evening and morning transitions between day and night were studied acoustically and by bottom trawling in November 1990-1992 in thermally stratified waters of the East China Sea. The acoustic data were collected from six stations with a scientific echo-sounder operating at two frequencies of 25 and 100kHz, and the echograms were used to determine the vertical distributions of fish. Biological sampling was accomplished by bottom trawling to identify fish species recorded on the echograms, and the species and length compositions were determined. At each station, vertical profiles of water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen were taken with a CTD system and were related to the diel movements and the depth distributions of fish. During the day most fish were within several meters above bottom, but began to migrate upwards just before sunset, and during the night they were dispersed in midwater. Prior to sunrise with a thermocline present, one group of the fish aggregation occurred in dense schools slightly above the thermocline, while the other group occurred with the numerous single fish-traces bellow it. These groups of aggregations rapidly began to migrate toward the bottom across the thermocline from about 40 min before sunrise. Trawl hauls in the bottom strata below the thermocline with the characteristic single fish traces yieled invariably catches dominated by snailfish and fishing frog with minor quantities of other species in all stations. Hence, the results indicate that snailfish and fishing frog were the dominated scatterers in the depth strata below the thermocline, and the single-fish recordings were mainly snailfish. The fish species such as anchovy and juvenile mackerel in bottom trawl catches is poorly represented in relation to the mesh selectivity of the trawl net, but their occurrence suggest that the fish-school recording above the thermocline were due to these species which migrated vertically across the thermocline, with a temperature gradient of about 8$^{\circ}C$, from the water layers near the bottom at night. Accordingly, we conclude that the vertical distribution and activity patterns of snailfish were strongly temperature dependent and in the termally stratified waters, the upper limit to diel activity was closely linked to the position of the thermocline.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.282-290
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• 2011

Two species of demersal fish, Liparis tessellates (cubed snailfish) and Hemitripterus villosus (shaggy sea raven), were investigated in relation to seasonal chemical composition. Total fat contents of the two fish were very low and were not appreciably different throughout the year, whereas their fatty acid compositions were significantly different depending on season. Noticeable changes in the moisture and protein contents in the two fishes were observed before and after spawning. Cubed snailfish showed relatively high amounts of total amino acids and free amino acids during summer months, whereas the levels of those in shaggy sea raven remained relatively unchanged throughout the year. Regardless of season, the major fatty acid of the two fishes was palmitic acid and most of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were n-3 PUFAs. Lead was over the legislative limit in some samples of the two fishes.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.198-207
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• 2016

Tanaka’s snailfish, Liparis tanakae (Gilbert and Burke, 1912), is distributed throughout the coasts of Korea. To clarify the population structure of L. tanakae, we analyzed the morphological and genetic variation among individuals sampled from three localities surrounding the Korean peninsula: Boryeong in the Yellow Sea, Jinhae in the Korea Strait and Pohang in the East Sea. Principal component analysis based on 20 morphometric characteristics revealed two slightly distinct groups (Boryeong vs. Jinhae and Pohang). However, canonical discriminant analysis clearly revealed three groups, separated according to locality. Pairwise differentiation index (F_ST) comparisons based on 762-base pairs mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences showed that Boryeong significantly differed from Jinhae and Pohang, but Jinhae and Pohang did not significantly differ from each other. Our findings suggest that Korean L. tanakae comprise at least two groups. Further studies using more sensitive DNA markers, such as microsatellite DNA, are required.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 2000

Snailfish usually lives at the bottom of the sea and showed typical retrogressive change with specialized tissue structures of skin and skeletons. In order to obtain the specific genes of snailfish, highly expressed in the body, we made subtracted cDNA library and analyzed 200 clones. Totally 200 clones were obtained and sequenced, and among them 62 clones were turned out to be homologous to the known gene, i.e., thioesterase (9), myosin (8), creatine kinase (7), skeletal alpha-actin (6), parvalbumin b (5), ribosomal protein (5), type I collagen (3), muscle troponin (3), dopamine receptor (2), histatin (2), and heat shock protein (2), cystatin (1), lectin (1), statherin (1), secretory carrier membrane protein (1), keratin type I (1), desmin (1), chloroplast (1), muscle tropomyosin (1), reticulum calcium ATPase (1), ribonucleoprotein (1). The remaining 138 clones were low homologous or non-redundant genes through Genbank search. Especially 5 clones were novel and specifically expressed in the body tissues of Snailfish by in situ hybridization. Therefore, we analysed these 5 clones to identify the C-terminal protein structures and motifs, and partly defined the roles of these proteins in comparison with the expression patterns by in situ hybridization. C9O-77, about 5000 bp, was supposed to be a matrix protein expressed strongly positive in epithelium, myxoid tissue, fibrous tissue and collagenous tissue. C9O-116, about 1500 bp, was supposed to be a transmembrane protein which was weakly expressed in the fibrous tissue, epithelium tissue, and myxoid tissue, but strong in muscle tissue. C9O-130, about 1200 bp, was supposed to be an intracytoplasmic molecule usually in the epithelial cells. C9O-161, about 2000 bp, was weakly expressed in epithelium, muscle tissue and myxoid tissue, but specially strong in epithelium. C9O-171, about 1000 bp, was supposed to be a transcription factor containing zinc finger like domain, which was intensely expressed in the epithelium, muscle tissue, fibrous tissue, and in collagenous tissue.