• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2018

The imports of Centella asiatica L. Urban are increasing year-by-year due to the fact that its extract is a raw material used for skin wounds and in cosmetics. However, studies on the cultivation and identification of native C. asiatica species in Korea have been extremely rare. Therefore, this study was conducted in order to investigate the physiological and functional activity of Korean native C. asiatica plant cultivated in Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea. As a result, the highest antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities were examined with methanol extract while skin-whitening and wrinkle improvement were examined with water extract. Seven bacterium and one fungus were treated with 50% methanol extracts of C. asiatica and most of the bacterium showed similar or low levels of antibacterial activity compared to the control group of Omiza (Schisandra chinensis) extract, except for Streptococcus pyogenes, which showed higher antimicrobial activity than that of Omiza extract. However, neither C. asiatica and Omiza extracts showed antimicrobial activity against the fungus, C. albicans. The results of anti-inflammatory effect analyses with Raw 264.7 cells confirmed that the treatment of methanol extract reduced the level of NO by 50% or more compared to the control group. In addition, the water extract showed the highest reduction of melanin content of up to 20% more than the control group when examined with B16F10 cell line, indicating a significant skin-whitening effect. Furthermore, we were able to show the significant skin wrinkle improvement caused by C. asiatica extract with NHDF cell as an indicator, but strong cytotoxicity was also observed, suggesting that further studies are necessary.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.126-136
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• 2021

Oxidative stress causes injury to and degeneration of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. It is involved in several retinal disorders and leads to vision loss. In the present study, we investigated the effect of 14 kinds of natural compounds and two kinds of synthetic compounds on oxidative stress-induced cellular damage in human PRE cell lines (ARPE-19). From among them, we selected five kinds of compounds, including auranofin, FK-509, hemistepsin A, honokiol, and spermidine, which have inhibitory effects against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-mediated cytotoxicity. In addition, we found that four kinds of compounds (excluding auranofin) have protective effects on H2O2-induced mitochondrial dysfunction. Furthermore, the expression of phosphorylation of histone H2AX, a sensitive marker of DNA damage, was markedly up-regulated by H2O2, whereas it was notably down-regulated by FK-506, honokiol, and spermidine treatment. Meanwhile, five kinds of candidate compounds had no effect on H2O2-induced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, suggesting that the five candidate compounds have protective effects on oxidative stress-induced cellular damage through the ROS-independent pathway. Taken together, according to the results of H2O2-mediated cellular damage―such as cytotoxicity, apoptosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and DNA damage―spermidine and FK-506 are the natural and synthetic compounds with the most protective effects against oxidative stress in RPE. Although further studies on the identification of the mechanism responsible are required, the results of the present study suggest the possibility of using spermidine and FK-506 to suppress the risk of retinal disorders.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.693-702
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• 2015

In order to identify the species and to reveal the phylogenetic relationship of rook populations found in Jeju-do Province in winter seasons, we determined the sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene and analyzed the genetic structure of maternal lineages and phylogenetic relationship. The rook DNAs were isolated from the post-mortem specimens and plumages collected from agricultural farms in Jeju-do Province including U-do Island. The obtained COI sequences (n=41) showed over 97.0% identities with those previously reported from Corvus frugeligus. Three COI haplotypes (J01-J03) were detected from COI sequences of the rooks obtained in Jeju-do Province but those did not show the site-specific patterns, showing that they might be derived from a common maternal origin. Eight maternal haplotypes were detected from all COI sequences obtained. Among those three haplotypes contained the COI sequences from Northeast Asia including eastern Russia, Mongolia and South Korea. On the other hand, the other five haplotypes contained the COI sequences reported from Central Asia, Middle East, western Russia and European countries. The COI sequences from Jeju-do Province were located on three haplotypes (CF01-CF03) belonging to Northeast Asian rook lineages. The NJ tree showed the distinct branch patterns suggesting two different maternal lineages of C. frugilegus, which proposed as two parapatric subspecies, C. f. frugilegus (Western) and C. f. pastinator (Eastern). These findings using DNA barcoding approaches will be contributed to provide the information about avian fauna for understanding the genetic structure of maternal lineage, phylogenetic relationship and their molecular ecology.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.1114-1119
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• 2012

Bacteria are frequently contaminated during the collection and processing procedures of boar semen. Of the contaminants, Stenotrophomonas (S.) maltophilia is a Gram-negative bacterium that is widely distributed in a variety of habitats. Although PCR assays have been developed for the detection of S. maltophilia, they cross-react with some species of Xanthomonas. In this study, we designed a primer set for the detection of S. maltophilia in order to target the chiA (GenBank accession no. NC_010943) gene. The specific PCR products were amplified from S. maltophilia only, not from other tested strains that are frequently found in semen. The detection limit of the PCR was $1.5{\times}10^3$ CFU/ml with pure-cultured S. maltophilia and $1.5{\times}10^4$ CFU/ml with S. maltophilia spiked in semen. Twenty-six (5.9%) S. maltophilia were isolated from 440 semen samples. The PCR results exhibited 98.9% agreement with a comparison of S. maltophilia isolation. Also, the sensitivity and specificity of the PCR were 100% and 98.7%, respectively. In the antimicrobial susceptibility test, S. maltophilia isolates were highly susceptible to enrofloxacin and florfenicol, while the majority of them were resistant to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, apramycin, ceftiofur, penicillin, and spectinomycin. These results indicated that the PCR using the chiA gene was proven to be reliable and effective for the detection of S. maltophilia with high levels of sensitivity and specificity.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.126-134
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• 2001

Several angular sandstone fragments (about 7 cm in longest diameter) occur in two piston cores, obtained from the submarine trough in the northeastern part of Korea Strait. The origin of the sandstone fragments and the paleoenvironment of trough sediment could be suggested from sedimentary facies analysis of cores and identification of ostracod within sandstone fragments. Echo characteristics around two core sites in submarine trough represent the prolonged bottom echoes with diffuse or no subbottom reflectors. The cores consist of a lower bioturbated mud and an upper gravelly sand sediments with sandstone/shell fragments. The bioturbated mud sediments show low water contents (27-44%) and high shear strength (19.2->37 kPa) compared with those of Holocene sediments (60-219% and 1.0-2.7 kPa, respectively) in the inner shelf and continental slope. However, clay contents (48-56%) of the bioturbated mud sediments are similar to those of fluviatile Holocene sediments in the inner shelf. The mean grain size of gravelly sand sediments ranges from 2.3 to 3.0 ${\phi}$ and shows coarsening upward with sandstone/shell fragments. The Holocene palimpsest in the continental shelf are composed of muddy sand sediments or sandy mud sediments (mean grain size: 4.6-7.6 ${\phi}$). Those suggest that two core sediments might be formed from Paleofluvial and paleocoastal deposits during sea-level lowstand. However, sandstone fragments mainly consist of quartz grains and bioclasts, with carbonate matrix, hollow pore, and glauconite. Two extinct ostracod species, Normanicythere sp. and Kotoracythere sp., are recovered in the sand-stone fragments of core EP-7, and they continued to exist from late Pliocene to early Pleistocene in cold water environment of this area. Thus, the sandstone fragments are interpreted to be formed at the paleocoastal environment derived from the Plio-Pleistocene outcrops exposed around the submarine trough during the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum) period.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.306-314
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• 2023

Stream sediments are an important component of water quality management because they are receptors of various pollutants such as heavy metals and organic matters emitted from upland sources and can be secondary pollution sources, adversely affecting water environment. To effectively manage the stream sediments, identification of primary sources of sediment contamination and source-associated control strategies will be required. We evaluated the performance of machine learning models in identifying primary sources of sediment contamination based on the physico-chemical properties of stream sediments. A total of 356 stream sediment data sets of 18 quality parameters including 10 heavy metal species(Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, As, Zn, Cr, Hg, Li, and Al), 3 soil parameters(clay, silt, and sand fractions), and 5 water quality parameters(water content, loss on ignition, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorous) were collected near abandoned metal mines and industrial complexes across the four major river basins in Korea. Two machine learning algorithms, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers were used to classify the sediments into four cases of different combinations of the sampling period and locations (i.e., mine in dry season, mine in wet season, industrial complex in dry season, and　industrial complex in wet season). Both models showed good performance in the classification, with SVM outperformed LDA; the accuracy values of LDA and SVM were 79.5% and 88.1%, respectively. An SVM ensemble model was used for multi-label classification of the multiple contamination sources inlcuding landuses in the upland areas within 1 km radius from the sampling sites. The results showed that the multi-label classifier was comparable performance with sinlgle-label SVM in classifying mines and industrial complexes, but was less accurate in classifying dominant land uses (50~60%). The poor performance of the multi-label SVM is likely due to the overfitting caused by small data sets compared to the complexity of the model. A larger data set might increase the performance of the machine learning models in identifying contamination sources.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.23
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• pp.25-37
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• 2008

This study focuses on identification of mineralogical and geochemical characteristics and interpretation of raw material sources for prehistoric chlorite beads excavated from Geoseokri site in Boseong and Buntori site in Haenam, Korea. These prehistoric beads consist of three grayish blue ring-shaped beads, one dark green tubular bead and one greenish black tubular bead that show acicular-columnar and fibrous microtexture. The beads are composed of $SiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$, MgO and FeO as majors and a trace amount of $K_2O$, CaO and Na_2O$. Mineral species is mostly chlorite with a small amount of quartz and feldspar. Quantitative analysis indicates that the grayish blue ring-shaped beads and the dark green tubular bead belong to clinochlore and the greenish black tubular bead does to the boundary between clinochlore and sheridantie. Chlorite is a hydrous phyllosilicate mineral and it shows various microtexture of acicular, sheeted, earthy, granular andfibrous shapes. As its hardness is 2, chlorite is easily engraved due to its softness. It has aesthetic worthy as it shows green, black and greenish gray colors and pearly to greasy luster as well. These factors would lead to the extensive use of chloritic beads as ornaments from prehistoric times. Though the mineral sources of the chlorite beads can be found in central western region of Chungnam and Iwon of Hamnam, those areas are too distant from the two relic sites. Instead, chlorite ores commonly occur as altered products in wall rock alteration zone of every hydrothermal deposit. Therefore, it is probable that raw materials of chlorite were supplied from neighboring hydrothermal environment rather than far deposits. The result needs further study to verify raw material provenance interpretation, supply, manufacture and distribution on the basis of archaeological points of view.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.66-74
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• 2011

In 2005, a survey was conducted to identify virus diseases on victory onion, Allium victorialis var. platyphyllum grown in Ulleung island located in the East Sea. A total of 61 samples were collected from victory onion in the neighborhood of Seonginbong. The identification of viruses from the samples were carried out by electron microscopy and RT-PCR using primers species specific to GCLV, LYSV, SLV, OYDV and genus specific to Allexivirus, respectively. From sixty-one samples, filamentous rod particles (600-900 nm) were detected from four victory onion samples in EM, three samples containing SLV and one sample containing both SLV and Allexivirus in RT-PCR analysis, respectively. Victory onions naturally infected by the viruses were asymptomatic apparently. The viruses detected by RT-PCR were further characterized by the nucleotide sequence analysis of the coat protein region. Three isolates of SLV showed approximately 99% identities in the nucleotide and amino acid sequences, suggesting that they were likely to be the same strain. On the other hand, they showed approximately 75.7~83.7% identities in the nucleotide and 89.2~97.0% in amino acid sequences compared with the previously reported SLV isolates in Allium. The CP gene of the Allexivirus showed approximately 99.2% nucleotide identities and 98.8% amino acid identities with Garlic virus A. However, there was relatively low homology ranging from 60.6% to 81.5% compared with other Allexiviruses (GarV-C, GarV-E, GarV-X, GMbMV, and Shal-X). These data suggested that two viruses, SLV and GarV-A identified from victory onion, are named SLV-Ulleungdo and GarV-A-Ulleungdo, respectively. This is the first report of viruses infecting victory onion.

• Weed & Turfgrass Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.38-46
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• 2013

With increasing environmental issues from synthetic chemical herbicides, microbe-originated herbicides could be a fascinating alternative in current agriculture. We isolated Streptomyces strains that produced herbicidal active metabolite(s) against a grass weed Digitaria sanguinalis. According to the result from 16S rDNA sequence comparison with the close strains, the best isolate (Code name MS-80673) was identified as Streptomyces scopuliridis KR-001. The closest type strain was Streptomyces scopuliridis RB72 which was previously reported as a bacteriocin producer. The optimal culture condition of S. scopuliridis KR-001 was $28^{\circ}C$, pH 7.0 and culture period 4 to7 days. Both of soil and foliar application of the crude culture broth concentrate was effective on several troublesome or noxious weed species such as a Sciyos angulatus in a greenhouse and field condition. Phytotoxic symptoms of the culture broth concentrate of S. scopuliridis KR-001 by foliar application were wilting and burndown of leaves, and stems followed by discoloration and finally plant death. In crops such as rice, wheat, barley, hot pepper and tomato, growth inhibition was observed. These results suggest that the new S. scopuliridis KR-001 strain producing herbicidal metabolites may be a new bio-herbicide candidate and/or may provide a new lead molecule for a more efficient herbicide.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.85-98
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• 2003

The articles, published in the Journal of Korean Forestry from Number 1(1962) to Number 6, Volume 91(2002), were surveyed and investigated for the research trend analysis about resource-plants for special use or purpose, i. e., edible plants, medicinal plants, feed resource, landscape plants, fiber plants, industrial usuage, and bee plants. If the purpose or subject matter of the research was construction or furniture timber production, mushrooms and/or pulp and paper, such research was not included in this study. These articles were classified again depending on the content of research into 14 categories: habitat environment, ecology, physiology, propagation, silviculture (tending and culture), genetics and breeding, identification, insect and disease control, animal-related research, component analysis, vegetation survey, biotechnology, management, and review. Among the total 1.434 articles published, 396 ones (27.6%) were related with plants for special use or purpose. Vegetation survey was 60 (15.2%): physiology 56(14.1%) : genetics and breeding 56(14.1%): propagation 53(13.4%): and ecology 37(9.3%). Siviculture research field included 11 articles (2.8%), which indicates that the management of resource-plants is so far from economic income as seen in the low number of management research filed articles, i. e., only 6 reports (1.5%) Korean white pine was most popular for research and included 42 articles: Robinia pseudoacacia 23: Castanea crenata 14: and ginkgo tree 14. Research related with these species had focused mainly on propagation, physiology, genetics and breeding, ecology and pest control. Based on this survey and analysis, the followings are suggested: 1. More research is required on forest herbaceous plants. 2. Cooperative research work with other industrial and/or scientific area is recommendable for commercialization including medicine, cosmetics, and food etc. 3. Research on resource-plant conservation, which includes biology, social education and policy, should be supported for next generation. 4. Mutual correspondence and information exchange about the research results between researchers and institutes is more necessary than now.