‘Jangsuheukchal’ waxy corn was developed through single-cross by Gyeonggido Agricultural Research and Extension Services in 2012. The seed parent inbred ‘GMB0016’ was crossed with the pollen parent inbred ‘GMB0017’ in 2010. ‘Jangsuheukchal’ took 72 days to silking, which was 4 days sooner than ‘Miheukchal’, and ‘Jangsuheukchal’ was 195 cm in height, which was 12 cm less than that of ‘Miheukchal’; the occurrence of lodging was low in the new species. Among the ear characteristics, the kernel setting rate was very high (99%), and the grain pericarp thickness was slightly more than that of ‘Miheukchal’, but the sensory evaluation was positive because of the high amylopectin content and the fine ear appearance. The regional yield trials were conducted in four areas for two years in 2011-2012, and the density of fresh ears for ‘Jangsuheukchal’ was determined as 62,280 ears/ha, which was 6% higher than that of ‘Miheukchal’, but the weight of the fresh ears was 9,178 kg/ha, which was 17% lighter than its counterpart. In order to diversify the use of fresh waxy corn, the cooking properties of milled waxy corns were investigated and compared to ‘Mibaek2’, which was the main cultivar in Gyeonggido province in 2018. The grain yield per ha of ‘Jangsuheukchal’ was 5,600 kg, which was 12% less than that of ‘Mibaek2’, but after harvesting fresh ears, the grain yield per ha was 1,060 kg, which was 10.6 times more than the known cultivar. In addition, compared to ‘Mibaek2’, ‘Jangsuheukchal’ showed excellent processing characteristics in the cooking properties for milled kernels because of its light 100-seed weight, low protein content, and high starch content. Therefore, we report ‘Jangsuheukchal’ as a new variety, suitable for use as a fresh corn and possessing the cooking properties of milled kernels (Registration No. 6065).

A new double cropping potato variety, ‘Gangseon’, was bred by the Highland Agriculture Research Institute, National Institute of Crop Science (NICS), RDA, Korea, in 2016. ‘Gangseon’ was obtained from the cross between ‘Daegwan1-83’ and ‘Chubaek’ in 2006. Seedling and line selection was performed from 2008 to 2009, and preliminary and advanced yield trials were carried out with ‘Gangseon’ from 2010 to 2013 in Gangneung city. The regional yield trials were conducted in Gangneung, Muan, and Jeju from 2014 to 2016. ‘Gangseon’ has light purple flowers, green narrow leaflets and petioles with medium anthocyanin coloration, round tubers with yellow russet skin, and yellow flesh. The dormancy of ‘Gangseon’ stored in 20 ℃ was 60-70 days after harvesting, which is longer than those of ‘Dejima’ and ‘Chubaek’, but shorter than that of ‘Superior’. The average yields of tubers in the spring and fall seasons were 36.6 and 21.2 ton⋅ha^-1, respectively, in the regional yield trials. It is susceptible to common scab and potato virus Y, but has high resistance to potato leaf roll virus, potato virus X, early blight, and late blight. The dry matter contents were 22.1% in spring and 19.8% in autumn. The adaptation area of ‘Gangseon’ is the southern coastal area, including Jeju Island, Korea. The plant variety protection right of ‘Gangseon’ was registered in April 2020, and its grant number is 8081.

‘Seongsan’, an early multi-resistant japonica rice cultivar developed from a cross between ‘Jopyeong’ and ‘Jungmo 1012’, was developed by the rice breeding team of the National Institute of Crop Science, Rural Development Administration. The average heading date at the ordinary planting was July 25th in seven test spots. In response to physiological stresses, premature heading rate was very low and viviparous germination rate was relatively low (15.7%). In response to biotic stresses, ‘Seongsan’ showed resistance to bacterial blight pathogen K1 to K3, rice stripe virus, and blight leaf. The milled rice of ‘Seongsan’ was translucent with relatively clear non-glutinous endosperm and medium short grain. The cooked rice had good palatability compared with that of ‘Chucheong’. The milled rice yield of this variety was approximately 5.52 MT/ha in a three-year local adaptability test. ‘Seongsan’ was an early maturing multi-resistant rice with good grain quality, and it was expected to be used as a representative for maturity diversification of rice cultivation area (Registration No. 7277).

Hexaploid wheat (common wheat/bread wheat) is one of the most important cereal crops in the world and a model for research of an allopolyploid plant with a large, highly repetitive genome. In the heritability of agronomic traits, variation in gene presence/absence plays an important role. However, there have been relatively few studies on the variation in gene presence/absence in crop species, including common wheat. Recently, a reference genome sequence of common wheat has been fully annotated and published. In addition, advanced next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology provides high quality genome sequences with continually decreasing NGS prices, thereby dawning full-scale wheat functional genomic studies in other crops as well as common wheat, in spite of their large and complex genomes. In this review, we provide information about the available tools and methodologies for wheat functional genomics research supported by NGS technology. The use of the NGS and functional genomics technology is expected to be a powerful strategy to select elite lines for a number of germplasms.

A new waxy corn single cross hybrid ‘Jangsuchal’ was developed by Gangwon Agricultural Research and Extension Services in 2014. The seed parent inbred HW12 was crossed with the pollen parent inbred HW15 in 2009. Days to silking of ‘Jangsuchal’ was three days later than ‘Ilmichal’, a check hybrid. Ear length of the hybrid was 22.2 cm, which was 2.8 cm greater than ‘Ilmichal’. The hybrid had thin pericarp thickness, high amylopectin content, and high value of sensory evaluation compared with ‘Ilmichal’. Resistance to disease and insect and lodging tolerance of ‘Jangsuchal’ were similar to those of ‘Ilmichal’. The number and weight of fresh ears for ‘Jangsuchal’ were greater than those of ‘Ilmichal’ in regional yield trials from 2012 to 2014. Silking date of the seed parent HW12 was in the pollen dispersal period of the pollen parent HW15 and F₁ seed yield was 242 kg/10a. ‘Jangsuchal’ can be planted anywhere in the country. Plant variety protection right of ‘Jangsuchal’ was registered in June 2017 with grant number of 6730.

An allo-octoploid strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is one of the most important vegetable crops in Korea. However, there were few genomic researches of strawberry due to polyploidy and complexity of its genome. In this study, we aimed to construct a genetic linkage map of strawberry using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers that were developed through a next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis. Two strawberry varieties, ‘Sulhyang’ and ‘Senga-sengana’, were used as a maternal and a paternal parent, respectively, and their F1 generation consisting of 94 individuals was used for construction of a genetic linkage map. A total of 19.0 Gbp (‘Sulhyang’) and 21.8 Gbp (‘Senga-sengana’) of genomic sequences were obtained through NGS analysis. Subsequently, approximately 87,000 SNPs were identified and 1,154 primer sets for high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis were designed through bioinformatic analysis. In result, a total of 224 polymorphic HRM markers were developed and 205 markers were mapped on the genetic linkage map of strawberry, which total length was 800.8 cM and the number of linkage groups were 30. This SNP-based genetic linkage map and the 224 SNP markers will be very helpful for the genomic and genetic researches of allo-octoploid strawberry.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the T-DNAs introduced into the transgenic OsCK rice, as part of a biosafety evaluation. Choline Kinase (CK) gene is upregulated in the transgenic OsCK rice. We identified the insertion sites, flanking sequences, structures and sequences of the inserted T-DNAs. Based on the adaptor-ligation PCR, we found that the right border of the T-DNA was inserted at position no. 129971, on BAC clone OSJNBa0014J14 of chromosome 10. The flanking sequences of the left border region of the T-DNA (which was later identified as a region harboring a 1-kb long deleted sequence), could not be identified by various PCR-based trials. However, it was finally identified with whole-genome shotgun sequencing, using an Illumina sequencer. The result indicated that one of the T-DNAs was inserted into the CaMV 35S promoter region, whereas the other T-DNA was introduced at position 128947 on OSJNBa0014J14 clone, with an inverse orientation. During the insertion process, a 1024-bp-long chromosome sequences flanked by the right border of the T-DNA region was deleted. A 370-bp long left border region and 199-bp long right border region corresponding to the matrix attachment region (MAR) sequences of the T-DNA were also deleted. Collectively, these results indicate that whole-genome shotgun sequencing is a useful tool to reveal the detailed sequences and structures of the introduced T-DNAs, especially in the case of multiple T-DNA insertions. The expenses incurred on genome sequencing can be easily compensated by minimizing the time and efforts invested in conventional molecular analyses.

The next generation sequencing (NGS) has been developed rapidly in recent years, paving ways of discovering vast sequence variations among germplasms. Whole-genome sequencing was performed on the genomic DNA of Milyang23 and Gihobyeo using NGS and developed new CAPS (cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence) markers based on the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in coding sequence between these varieties. The NGS sequencing yielded sequences of 60x coverage of the Nipponbare reference genome on average. A molecular genetic map was constructed with the recombinant inbred population derived from Milyang23/Gihobyeo cross (MGRIL) integrating the newly developed 146 CAPS makers and previously reported 219 PCR-based DNA markers. This map was applied to the detection of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for stem internode diameters, culm length and panicle length in rice with MGRIL population. A total of 4 new QTLs were detected for stem diameter traits including the first internode diameter (I1D), second internode diameter (I2D), third internode diameter (I3D), and fourth internode diameter (I4D). Among stem diameter QTLs, qI1D5 had relatively 6.09 LOD (likelihood of odds) score and explained 8.99% of total variation. Only very small portion of SNPs through re-sequencing were used in this study. Much more markers can be developed by using SNP information acquired in this study, which will enable construction of high-density genetic map and more accurate QTL analysis of important agronomical traits with MGRIL population.