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This study examines how three East Asian countries - Korea, China, and Japan overcome and translated heterogeneities into a means of communication with Western civilization. Simultaneously, discussions on ways of translation were also examined to compare the stances of each country that accepted Western civilization. The governments of the 3 East Asian countries have commonly encouraged the translation works along with openness to Western civilization in the 19th century. Translation has usually been exploited as a means to rule colonized countries. However, the three countries have spontaneously encouraged translation, suggestive of the need to find alternate approaches to conventional ways in the study of translations in the post-colonial era. In the past, the three countries shared common Chinese characters that facilitated mutual communication. However, their point of view on communication with foreign countries differed. Japan has initiated the translation of the works of Western civilization since 16th century, thus gaining experience in the importance of mutual communication with foreign civilizations. Accordingly, the level of translation and the resultant culture have evolved more than in other countries. China likewise has a long history of translation, but most works of translation were conducted by people of Western origin. In Korea, despite the significant career in the operation of national translational-training school, the public recognition of translation and translators has been relatively negative. This poor acceptance of translation and translators might be the consequence of different results from communication mediated through Korean translation in the 19th century.

We analyzed 6,749 lines tagged by the gene trap vector pGA2707. This resulted in the isolation of 3,793 genomic sequences flanking the T-DNA. Among the insertions, 1,846 T-DNAs were integrated into genic regions, and 1,864 were located in intergenic regions. Frequencies were also higher at the beginning and end of the coding regions and upstream near the ATG start codon. The overall GC content at the insertion sites was close to that measured from the entire rice (Oryza sativa) genome. Functional classification of these 1,846 tagged genes showed a distribution similar to that observed for all the genes in the rice chromosomes. This indicates that T-DNA insertion is not biased toward a particular class of genes. There were 764, 327, and 346 T-DNA insertions in chromosomes 1, 4 and 10, respectively. Insertions were not evenly distributed; frequencies were higher at the ends of the chromosomes and lower near the centromere. At certain sites, the frequency was higher than in the surrounding regions. This sequence database will be valuable in identifying knockout mutants for elucidating gene function in rice. This resource is available to the scientific community at http://www.postech.ac.kr/life/pfg/risd.

We have produced 22 090 primary transgenic rice plants that carry a T-DNA insertion, which has resulted in 18 358 fertile lines. Genomic DNA gel-blot and PCR analyses have shown that approximately 65% of the population contains more than one copy of the inserted T-DNA. Hygromycin resistance tests revealed that transgenic plants contain an average of 1.4 loci of T-DNA inserts. Therefore, it can be estimated that approximately 25 700 taggings have been generated. The binary vector used in the insertion contained the promoterless beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene with an intron and multiple splicing donors and acceptors immediately next to the right border. Therefore, this gene trap vector is able to detect a gene fusion between GUS and an endogenous gene, which is tagged by T-DNA. Histochemical GUS assays were carried out in the leaves and roots from 5353 lines, mature flowers from 7026 lines, and developing seeds from 1948 lines. The data revealed that 1.6-2.1% of tested organs were GUS-positive in the tested organs, and that their GUS expression patterns were organ- or tissue-specific or ubiquitous in all parts of the plant. The large population of T-DNA-tagged lines will be useful for identifying insertional mutants in various genes and for discovering new genes in rice.