• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.179-184
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• 2001

We evaluated a possibility of the use of chloroplast number per guard cell pairs as a measure for ploidy level in the different ploidy levels of tobacco plant (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. BY-4) . The guard-cell chloroplast numbers of leaves of haploid plant were a half of wild-type plant. Furthermore, the number of chloroplast per guard cell pairs of the leaves of doubled-haploid plant increased in two times compared with that of haploid plant. In addition, the chloroplast number was not changed in the F$_1$ progenies. The change of the chloroplast number by leaf stage was not observed. The results indicate that there is a strong relationship between ploidy level (2x and 4x) and chloroplast number per guard cell pairs. This relationship was also, observed in both in vitro and pot cultured plants. It was determined that the measurement of chloroplast number in guard cells of leaf epidermis is simple to use and less labour intensive, and hence can be considered a practical alternative to the chromosome counting methods or flow cytometry in the tobacco plant.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.55-58
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• 1979

The leaf tissues of 8 Populus species were examined to compare the chloroplast number and feature in guard cells and chlorophyll quantity. 1. The chloroplast number ranged from 10 to 30, but difference in number were not significant among species. 2. The size of chloroplast varied from $3m{\mu}$ to $6m{\mu}$, in diameter. The shape was generally circular. 3. The chlorophyll quantities were significantly different among species. 4. The amount of chlorophyll b was 2.4 to 3.2 times greater than that of chlorophyll a.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.311-315
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• 2001

The relationship among leaf size, leaf protoplast (cell) size, chloroplast size, and chloroplast number were investigated in tobacco and Arabidopsis thaliana at various developmental stages. In tobacco, protoplasts, less than 15.6 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in diameter had less than 20 chloroplasts, 0.93 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in thickness and 3.3 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in length on average. As protoplast size increased from 30 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ to 45 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in diameter, chloroplast size remained the same (1.57 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in diameter and 5.55 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in length on average), but chloroplast number increase from 42 to 101 on average. A similar relationship was also observed in A. thaliana. The ratio of total chloroplast volume to protoplast volume was constant (0.105 in tobacco and 0.325 in A. thaliana) over various developmental stages.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2023

Plant viruses are responsible for worldwide production losses of numerous economically important crops. The most common plant RNA viruses are positivesense single-stranded RNA viruses [(+)ss RNA viruses]. These viruses have small genomes that encode a limited number of proteins. The viruses depend on their host's machinery for the replication of their RNA genome, assembly, movement, and attraction to the vectors for dispersal. Recently researchers have reported that chloroplast proteins are crucial for replicating (+)ss plant RNA viruses. Some chloroplast proteins, including translation initiation factor [eIF(iso)4E] and 75 DEAD-box RNA helicase RH8, help viruses fulfill their infection cycle in plants. In contrast, other chloroplast proteins such as PAP2.1, PSaC, and ATPsyn-α play active roles in plant defense against viruses. This is also consistent with the idea that reactive oxygen species, salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and abscisic acid are produced in chloroplast. However, knowledge of molecular mechanisms and functions underlying these chloroplast host factors during the virus infection is still scarce and remains largely unknown. Our review briefly summarizes the latest knowledge regarding the possible role of chloroplast in plant virus replication, emphasizing chloroplast-related proteins. We have highlighted current advances regarding chloroplast-related proteins' role in replicating plant (+)ss RNA viruses.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.271-275
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• 2007

In the chloroplast transformation process, a chloroplast containing transformed chloroplast genome copies should be selected over wild-type chloroplasts on selection medium. It is more effective for a cell to become homoplasmic if the cell contains smaller number of chloroplasts. Therefore, to reduce the number of chloroplasts in mesophyll cells in tobacco, we overexpressed FtsZ to generate transgenic plants, of which mesophyll cell contained a few enlarged chloroplasts contrast to a wild-type mesophyll cell containing approximately 100 chloroplasts. It was demonstrated that transgenic leaf tissues comprising cells with a few enlarged chloroplasts gave rise to approximately 40% higher frequency of chloroplast-transformed adventitious shoots.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.112-118
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• 2005

It was previously shown that AtNAP1 is a plastidic SufB protein involved in Fe-S cluster assembly in Arabidopsis. In this study, we investigated the effects of depleting SufB protein from plant cells using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). VIGS of NbNAP1 encoding a Nicotiana benthamiana homolog of AtNAP1 resulted in a leaf yellowing phenotype. NbNAP1 was expressed ubiquitously in plant tissues with the highest level in roots. A GFP fusion protein of the N-terminal region (M1-V103) of NbNAP1 was targeted to chloroplasts. Depletion of NbNAP1 resulted in reduced numbers of chloroplasts of reduced size. Mitochondria also seemed to be affected. Despite the reduced number and size of the chloroplasts in the NbNAP1 VIGS lines, the expression of many nuclear genes encoding chloroplast-targeted proteins and chlorophyll biosynthesis genes remained unchanged.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.481-486
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• 2010

The rates of synonymous and nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions were studied for sequences of nuclear and chloroplast genes in Sorbus aucuparia. Results suggested that DNA evolution in this species had taken place, on average, at a slower rate in the chloroplast genes than in the nuclear genes: a rate variation pattern similar to those observed in eudicot plants. Within the nucleus, the synonymous substitution rates (Ks) (2.45-2.60) were two-fold higher than nonsynonymous substitution rates (Ka) (1.15-1.30). More notably, the values of Ks (1.20-1.26) were about six-fold higher than those of Ka (0.26-0.42) within the chloroplast genome. Ka/Ks ratios for nuclear and chloroplast genes of S. aucuparia had mean values of 0.178 and 0.056, respectively. A Ka/Ks ratio < 1 indicated negative (purifying) selection. The chloroplast genes had a lower effective number of codons (ENC) values (22.4-32.2) than those of nuclear genes (35.8-38.7). The analysis of the G+C content indicated that the chloroplast genes in this investigation had a higher preference for synonymous codons ending with A and T (G+C content range, 28.4-29.1%) where there was a slight bias toward codons ending with G+C (63.2-64.2%) in the nuclear genome.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.956-961
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• 2022

Plant Chloroplast have several advantages as an expression platform of biopharmaceuticals over conventional expression platforms such as mammalian cells, yeast and bacteria. First, plants do not serve as a host for mammalian infectious virus and have endotoxin like bacteria which can cause anaphylactic shock. In addition, high copy number of chloroplast genome allows for chloroplast transformants to reach the high level of expression of heterologous genes. Moreover, the integration of transgenes into specific region of chloroplast genomes makes chloroplast transformants unaffected by positional effect which can be frequently observed from nuclear transformants, resulting in loss of transgene expressions. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a kind of innate immunity which is found from bacteria to humans. Unlike conventional antibiotics, very less dosage of AMPs can have catastrophic effect on bacterial survival. Further, the repeated use of AMPs does not trigger the development of bacterial resistance. Moricin, one of the AMPs, was isolated from Bombyx mori, a silkworm moth. The C-terminal of moricin consists largely of basic amino acids, and the N-terminal has an α-helix structure. Moricin was chosen and expressed in a SUMO/SUMOase without leaving any unwanted amino acids which could potentially affect the anti-bacterial activity of the moricin. The transformation vector used in this study has already been created in this lab for the expression in both prokaryotic systems such as E. coli and chloroplast. The expressed moricin was purified using Ni columns and SUMOase, and the antibacterial activity of the purified moricin was confirmed using an agar diffusion assay.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.141-149
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• 2020

Solanum hougasii, one of the wild Solanum species, has been widely used in potato breeding since it exhibits excellent resistance to diverse important pathogens. S. hougasii can be directly crossed with the cultivated tetraploid potato (S. tuberosum) owing to its EBN (Endosperm Balanced Number) value of 4, which is same as that of S. tuberosum although it is an allohexaploid. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome sequence of S. hougasii was obtained by next-generation sequencing technology, and compared with that of the chloroplast genome of seven other Solanum species to identify S. hougasii-specific PCR markers. The length of the complete chloroplast genome of S. hougasii was 155,549 bp. The structural organization of the chloroplast genome in S. hougasii was found to be similar to that of seven other Solanum species studied. Phylogenetic analysis of S. hougasii with ten other Solanaceae family members revealed that S. hougasii was most closely related to S. stoloniferum, followed by S. berthaultii, and S. tuberosum. Additional comparison of the chloroplast genome sequence with that of five other Solanum species revealed five InDels and 43 SNPs specific to S. hougasii. Based on these SNPs, four PCR-based markers were developed for the differentiation of S. hougasii from other Solanum species. The results obtained in this study will aid in exploring the evolutionary and breeding aspects of Solanum species.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.4
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• pp.549-557
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• 2015

Novel cpSSR primers were developed based on the sequence information of the Pinus koraiensis chloroplast genome. A total of 30 cpSSR loci were detected in the chloroplast genome, and a total of 30 primer sets flanking those loci were designed. All primer sets were successfully amplified for chloroplast DNA in P. koraiensis. The cross-species transferability of the 30 primer sets was considerably high in P. pumila (100%) and P. paviflora (97%) belonging to the same Subgenus (Strobus) of P. koraiensis. Meanwhile, the transferability was relatively low (73%) in P. densiflora and P. sylvestris belonging to Subgenus Pinus. A total of 13 cpSSR loci out of the 30 loci were polymorphic in the Mt. Jumbong population of P. koraiensis. The mean of haploid diversity(H) was 0.512. The number of haplotypes(N) and the haplotype diversity($H_e$) were 25 and 0.992, respectively. Of the 25 haplotypes, 22 were unique in the analyzed population. The unique haplotypes differentiated 22 individuals (79%) from the total of 28 individuals. In conclusion, the novel cpSSR primers developed in this study would be applicable to other Pinus species, especially the subgenus Strobus, and provide a high level of polymorphism for the study of genetic variation of P. koraiensis.