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In recent years, light-emitting diode (LED) technology has been applied to improve crop production and induce targeted biochemical or physiological responses in plants. This study investigated the effect of different ratios of blue 450 nm and red 660 nm LEDs on the overall plant growth, photosynthetic characteristics, and total triterpenoid production in the leaves of Hedyotis corymbosa in vitro plants. The results showed that a high proportion of blue LED lights had a positive effect on enhancing photosynthesis and the overall biomass. In addition, blue LED lights were shown to be more effective in controlling the production of the total triterpenoid content compared with the red LED lights. Moreover, it was also found that plants grown under a high proportion of red LEDs exhibited reduced photosynthetic properties and even induced damage to the photosynthetic apparatus, which indicated that the blue or red LED lights played contrary roles in Hedyotis corymbosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common buckwheat is widely cultivated worldwide. Due to its bioactive compounds, there are vigorous studies on protein and metabolism. However, there are not many studies using genetic approaches. Especially researches on genetic diversity in common buckwheat germplasm are rare, although it is crucial for breeding better cultivars. Thus, the current study examined the genetic diversity of the randomly selected common buckwheat germplasm found in the Republic of Korea. The results show that there are not many genetic variances among those wild common buckwheat germplasm that were used in the current study. Although it needs to test more number of germplasm, it seems that more diversity is required to be able to breed cultivars for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facility cultivation has been evolved from greenhouses to smart farms using artificial intelligence (AI) that simulates big data to maximize production. However, the big data for AI in smart farm is not studied well; the effect of differences among varieties within a crop remains unclear. Therefore, the response of two varieties of blueberry, 'Suziblue' and 'Star', to light was tested using SAPD meter in order to demonstrate the environmental responses could be different among varieties within the same species. The results showed that those two varieties had significant differences in SPAD values based on the leaf's position and time, whereas 'Star' did not. This indicates that the effect of light depends on the variety, which implies that other traits and other crops may show similar differences. These results are based on a simple experiment. However, it is enough to elucidate that it is extremely important to characterize responses to the environment not only for each crop but also for each variety to collect data for smart farming to increase accuracy for modeling; consequently, to maximize the efficiency of these facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gamma irradiation is used in plant mutation breeding. This method was also applied to turfgrass breeding. Hallagreen 07, 09, and 10 are irradiated and confirmed by image analysis that objective basis on canopy cover. The canopy cover means it has drought tolerance than relatively smaller canopy cover turfgrass. Hallagreen 07 represents a low canopy cover, Hallagreen 09 is a medium, and Hallagreen 10 is excellent at the untreated control. However, after the radiation treatment of 30 entries per cultivar, the trait improved than the control appeared at Hallagreen 07, which showed low canopy cover. In contrast, Hallagreen 10, the excellent cultivar, has no entries at improving the trait by irradiation. So, by irradiation, we could find better drought tolerance entries than control. In this study, we found the potential of radiation treatment to turfgrass to improve drought tolerance, and the efficiency of finding trait improvement is effective at not an excellent cultivar. And despite the canopy cover analysis by the vertical image being low tech, it is an efficient solution for screening bottlenecks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is not an expectation but a reality in the "oreums" (common local name for rising, small defunct volcanoes on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea). The oreums exhibit wide biodiversity. However, their ecology is threatened by its associated climate change and their ecological changes have rarely been monitored or recorded. We used three years of Sentinel-2 image data to generate a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) map of the Geum-oreum area. We found that the NDVI was highly associated with temperature, implying that Sentinel-2 images could be utilized to monitor the temperature variation in the oreums to assist in planning and preparation to conserve their ecosystems before they are jeopardized. The results indicated that the NDVI maps derived from Sentinel-2 images were highly associated with temperature in Geum-oreum. We expect this method could be applied in other regions to detect temperature variation for ecological management planning in large areas (such as forests). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyunsaturated fatty acids usually undergo lipid peroxidation induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Calcium-independent cellular phospholipase A 2 (iPLA 2 ) can maintain fatty acid compositions in phospholipids depending on physiological conditions. An insect iPLA 2 (Pi-iPLA 2 ) was predicted from the transciptome of the Indianmeal moth, Plodia interpunctella . It encodes 835 amino acids. It possesses five ankyrin repeats in the N terminal and patatin lipase domain in the C terminal. Pi-iPLA 2 was expressed in all developmental stages of the Indianmeal moth. In the larval stage, it was expressed in all tissues tested. RNA interference (RNAi) specific to Pi-iPLA 2 was performed using specific double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). It resulted in almost 70% of reduction in gene expression. Under such RNAi condition, P. interpunctella exhibited significant accumulation of lipid peroxidation based on the amount of malondialdehyde. RNAi of Pi-PLA 2 expression also impaired cellular immune response of P. interpunctella . Chlorine dioxide (ClO 2 ), an insecticidal agent by generating ROS, increased lipid peroxidation in a dose-dependent manner. However, the addition of vitamin E (an antioxidant) reduced the formation of lipid peroxidation. ClO 2 treatment significantly reduced expression of Pi-iPLA 2 but increased lipid peroxidation in larval fat body of P. interpunctella . Furthermore, larvae treated with dsRNA specific to Pi-iPLA 2 were significantly susceptible to ClO 2 treatment. These results suggest that Pi-iPLA 2 plays a crucial role in repairing damaged fatty acids from phospholipids. Our results also suggest that ClO 2 can elevate lipid peroxidation through inhibiting Pi-iPLA 2 expression in addition to direct ROS production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garlic ( Allium sativum L.) is one of the oldest horticultural crops and an important element for cuisines worldwide, especially in Korea. After isolating several black aspergilli from brownish lesions with black spores on garlic bulbs, we identified a representative isolate GL-125 through molecular analysis of its internal transcribed spacer (ITS)1-5.8S rRNA-ITS2 region, β-tubulin gene, and calmodulin gene. Morphological features of GL-125 were also compared with those of the Aspergillus awamori type strain NRRL 4948 T . As a result, GL-125 was identified as A. awamori by neighbor-joining and maximum-likelihood methods with the examined gene sequences. The macro-morphological (colony growth and color) and micro-morphological (stripes, vesicles, metulae, phialides, and conidia) features of GL-125 were also similar, compared with those of NRRL 4849 T . Furthermore, we conducted pathogenicity tests for GL-125 and NRRL 4948 T against garlic cloves, using pin-prick inoculation with spore suspensions. Both GL-125 and NRRL 4948 T were pathogenic on garlic cloves producing brown to pinkish sunken, water-soaking lesions with white mycelia and black spores in the center. These isolates were successfully re-isolated from the lesions, thereby fulfilling Koch's postulates, whereas no fungal mycelia were isolated from water-inoculated cloves (control). The identities of the re-isolated mycelia were re-confirmed by sequence analyses of the previously examined genes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of A. awamori as a fungal pathogen of garlic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously, we identified Aspergillus awamori, Fusarium oxysporum, Penicillium brasilianum, and Rhizopus oryzae as the predominant fungal species in onion bulbs in Korea. In that study, we also observed other minor Penicillium spp., among which a specific species was often isolated from yellowish sunken lesions of the bulbs and usually appeared with A. awamori . Hence, in this study, we identified this unknown Penicillium sp. GR-68 by molecular and morphological characteristics and tested its pathogenicity against onion bulbs. As a result, isolate GR-68 was identified as Penicillium georgiense by phylogenetic analyses using neighbor-joining and maximum-likelihood methods with internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and β-tubulin region sequences. When the micro- and macro-morphological characteristics of isolate GR-68 were compared with those of the reference isolate NRRL 35509 T of P. georgiense , isolate GR-68 was similar to the reference isolate. In the pathogenicity tests, isolates GR-68 and NRRL 35509 T were found to be pathogenic to onion bulbs, where hole-inoculated bulbs showed symptoms of weak yellow halos or yellowish sunken lesions. In addition, the fungal isolates were re-isolated from the symptomatic lesions on the inoculated bulbs and re-confirmed as P. georgiense by the ITS and β-tubulin region sequence analyses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of P. georgiense as a fungal pathogen of onion bulbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Onion ( Allium cepa L.) is an important vegetable crop in Korea, but its production is severely affected by fungal pathogens during plant growth and bulb storage. We investigated the occurrence of fungi on market onion bulbs; identified the predominant fungal species based on the internal transcribed spacer region, β-tubulin region, and elongation factor 1-α gene sequences; and tested the pathogenicity of each predominant fungal species in onion bulbs. The genera Aspergillus (63.9%), Penicillium (15.5%), Fusarium (6.4%), Rhizopus (5.2%), and others (9.0%) were detected in the samples. Among these genera, Aspergillus awamori , Fusarium oxysporum , Penicillium brasilianum , and Rhizopus oryzae were identified as the predominant species. All of the fungi tested could infect both the inner layers and outer surfaces of onion bulbs and be re-isolated from the infected tissues. To our knowledge, this is the first report that P. brasilianum is a fungal pathogen of onion bulbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hedyotis corymbosa (L.) Lam is a wild herb that is used in traditional Indian, Chinese, and African medicine. Light-emitting diode (LED) technology is paving the way to enhance crop production and inducing targeted photomorphogenic, biochemical, or physiological responses in plants. This study examines the efficiency of H. corymbosa (L.) Lam production under blue 450 nm and red 660 nm LED lights for overall plant growth, photosynthetic characteristics, and the contents of metabolite compounds. Our research showed that blue LED lights provided a positive effect on enhancing plant growth and overall biomass. In addition, blue LED lights are more effective in controlling the production of sucrose, starch, total phenolic compounds, and total flavonoid compared to red LED lights. However, blue and red LED lights played essential but different roles in photosynthetic characteristics. Our results showed the potential of colored LED light applications in improving farming methods and increasing metabolite production in herbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) is widely used as an important industrial crop. It has the potential to act as a sustainable energy provider in the future, and contains beneficial compounds for medical and therapeutic use. However, there are no clear breeding strategies to increase its biomass or leaf volume. Thus, to attain an increase in these parameters, we examined potential key traits such as stem diameter, plant height, and number of nodes to determine the relationship among them. We hypothesized that it would be easier to reduce the amount of time and labor required for breeding if correlations among these parameters are identified. In this study, we found a strong positive correlation between height and number of nodes (Spearman's Rho = 0.67, p < 0.001) and number of nodes and stem diameter (Spearman's Rho = 0.65, p < 0.001), but a relatively low correlation (Spearman's Rho = 0.34, p < 0.01) between height and stem diameter in the later stages of kenaf growth. We suggest that an efficient breeding strategy could be devised according to the breeding purpose, considering the correlations between various individual traits of kenaf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]