Pears (Pyrus spp.) are economically important fruit trees grown extensively world-wide. To identify QTLs related to key agronomically important fruit traits, we conducted QTL analysis using an interspecific 178 F₁ populations derived from a cross between ‘Manpungbae’ and ‘Oharabeni’. Phenotyping data, including fruit weight, fruit length and diameter, fruit shape index (FSI), soluble sugar content, fruit firmness (FF), and titratable acidity (TA) were investigated from 2016 to 2018. Using the previously constructed genetic linkage map together with the three-year phenotypic dataset, we detected 14 significant QTLs associated with the control of fruit weight, fruit length and diameter, FSI, FF, and TA on linkage groups 3, 10, 11, 12, and 13. These findings provide a useful resource for advancing genetic and genomic studies in pears and will aid breeding efforts to improve major fruit traits.

Breeders typically use core collections of a specific trait or core collections selected by a few genotypes to efficiently select breeding materials or to study functional genes. As a result, many accessions have been deemed redundant or duplicated and are no longer considered for use. This study aimed to investigate the agronomical characteristics and genetic diversity of 1,514 previously unused and unstudied wheat germplasms and to confirm their value as breeding materials using population structure analysis. The performance of these wheat germplasms was compared with that of 8,878 wheat breeding materials and 72 known Korean wheat cultivars. The results of agronomic trait diversity comparison showed that the germplasm populations used for breeding research did not completely encompass the unused germplasm populations. The agronomic traits of wheat germplasms varied greatly. ANOVA and PCA results revealed the greatest differences in growth habits (CV=0.339), panicle length (CV=0.330), and awn length (CV=0.296). To accurately assess the value of unused wheat germplasms as breeding materials, 106 SSR markers were extracted from the analysis of four representative Korean cultivars: Geuru, Geumgang, Uri, and Jokyoung. Among these, 24 SSR markers were chosen, and 129 wheat resources were subjected to population structure analysis, which revealed five subpopulations. Most of the 34 germplasms that originated in Korea were distributed in subpopulation 1 (18 accessions, 52.9%) and subpopulation 4 (12 accessions, 35.3%). Subgroups 2, 3, and 5 differed significantly in agronomic traits and genotypes, indicating their potential as breeding materials. The findings of this study could serve as a foundation for breeders and aid in the discovery and utilization of new wheat breeding materials.

In Korea, black soybeans are traditionally consumed after cooking with rice to supplement protein and oil which are lacking in rice. Seed cooking quality including seed traits after cooking with rice, which is important for consumers, were so far not comprehensively considered during the process of breeding. In this study, we first evaluated seed quality after cooking with rice, we tested the correlation between seed cooking quality and seed water absorption ratio, and we attempted to identify the Quantitative trait locus(QTL)/gene using two recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations, i.e., Daepung × Socheong2 and Daepung × Ilpumgeomjeong. Based on phenotype and correlation analyses, the main factors affecting the hardness of soybeans cooked with rice may differ between RIL population. In the Daepung × Socheong2 RIL population, one QTL associated with seed hardness after cooking with rice was identified on chromosome 11, and Glyma.11g049600, encoding peroxidase, is proposed as a candidate gene. In the Daepung × Ilpumgeomjeong RIL population, two QTLs associated with seed hardness after cooking with rice were identified on chromosomes 7 and 19, one QTL related to seed water absorption on chromosome 3, and Glyma.19g092600 encoding pectin methylesterase inhibitor are proposed as candidate genes. This is the first study on soybean cooking quality after cooking with rice, and the locations of four related QTLs were identified. The results will be of use for future development of high-quality black soybean varieties with high consumer preference using molecular breeding methods.

Interspecific hybridization is a valuable approach to generate genetic variation and to introgress desirable genes. The
objective
of the current study was to estimate the heritability and correlation coefficient of several fruit traits for three years (from 2016 to 2018) using a set of 178 interspecific F₁ populations developed from a cross between ‘Manpungbae’ (Pyrus pyrifolia) and ‘Oharabeni’ (P. pyrifolia×P. communis). For ‘Manpungbae’, the average values of fruit weight, length, diameter, fruit shape index, and soluble sugar content for the three years were 967.8 g, 109.0 mm, 125.7 mm, 0.87, and 13.4 °Brix, respectively. The average values for ‘Oharabeni’ were 268.2 g, 75.2 mm, 81.4 mm, 0.93, and 9.9 °Brix, respectively. The average values and heritability for three years in F₁ progenies were 222.0 g and 85.55%, 67.3 mm and 84.14%, 75.4 mm and 81.18%, 0.89 and 79.33%, and 10.7 °Brix and 77.75%, respectively. Among the five fruit traits we surveyed, the Pearson’s correlation coefficients between three traits (weight, length, and diameter) were highly significantly positive (over 0.8) for the three years.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the three major food crops, along with rice and corn, and is the second most consumed crop after rice in Korea. However, the domestic production of wheat is insufficient, and the self-sufficiency rate is recorded in single digits. As wheat has a large genome size of 17 Gbp, and contains many repeated nucleotide sequences, it is difficult to conduct breeding studies and genome-based breeding lags behind that of other crops. To overcome the above challenges, we constructed a wheat core collection using simple sequence repeat markers that are suitable for the domestic cultivation environment with excellent reproducibility. Genetic diversity and population structure were analyzed using a core collection. Agricultural traits were evaluated in the Korean wheat core collection. Single marker analysis was correlated with 21 agricultural traits to identify potential molecular markers. These results may be useful for wheat breeding programs in the precision breeding era.

In this study, genetic analysis was conducted on the inheritance of qualitative traits, such as leaf color, flower color, seed size, and seed hardness, in the F₂ population derived from the cross between var. frutescens and var. crispa. As determined by the separation pattern of each trait in the F₂ population, F₂ plants with a green color were more common than those with a purple color on the leaf surface, whereas F₂ plants with a purple color were more common than those with a green color on the reverse side of the leaf. For flower color, more F₂ plants were observed to have a white color. For seed size, more F₂ plants were observed to have a seed size of above 2 mm, and for seed hardness, more F₂ plants were observed to have characteristics of seed hardness. Our examination of the genetic separation ratios with respect to Mendel’s law of genetics revealed that three traits, leaf color (surface and reverse side) and flower color, did not follow the separation ratio of 1:2:1, and the seed size did not follow the segregation ratio of 3:1, but seed hardness was found to follow the separation ratio of 3:1. The results of this study are expected to provide basic information to help understand the genetic segregation of leaf and seed characteristics in the F₂ population derived from the cross between var. frutescens and var. crispa, and also to provide useful information for breeding studies to assist the development of varieties of Perilla crop.

We collected 32 maize inbred lines from eastern cereal and oilseed research center in Canada to develop new maize varieties. We also evaluated genetic diversity, genetic relationships, and population structure using 35 SSR markers. A total of 269 alleles were revealed in 35 loci with an average of 7.69 and a range between 3 and 15 alleles per locus. The genetic diversity values varied from 0.176 to 0.889 with an average of 0.691. The polymorphic information content varied from 0.171 to 0.879 with an average of 0.659. Population structure analysis indicated that 32 Canadian maize inbred lines comprised four major groups and one admixed group based on a membership probability threshold of 0.80. The four major groups contained 13, 2, 5 and 2 maize inbred lines, respectively. From genetic relationships analysis, the all inbred lines were divided into three main groups at 26% genetic similarity. Group I included 22 inbred lines, and Group II included 9 inbred lines. Group III consist of only one inbred line. The results in this study would be useful for the improvement and development of new cultivars, planning crosses for hybrids or development of inbred line in maize breeding program

In this study, we compared disease incidence rate and phyllosphere microbial community between drought resistance transgenic rice (Agb0103) and non-transgenic Ilmi (NGM) during 2011-2014 to examine an environmental risk assessment of drought resistance transgenic rice (Agb0103). As the results, major diseases such as sheath blight, brown spot, leaf blast and false smut were occurred, however, there were no significant disease incidence rate between Agb0103 and NGM. As the results of counting bacterial and fungal viable cell, the colonies were increased or decreased which affected by environmental conditions, however there were no differences between Agb0103 and NGM. Also unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averaging (UPGMA) analysis based on polymerase chain reaction with denaturing gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) revealed that DGGE band pattern of bacterial and fungal communities were clustered by each month and there were no differences between Agb0103 and NGM. Furthermore, isolated casual agents causing sheath blight and brown spot were collected from Agb0103 and NGM, and they revealed that each of pathogens were no differences in morphology and pathogenicity. Therefore, our results suggested that Agb0103 showed no differences in disease incidence rate, characteristic of pathogens and phyllosphere community with NGM. In this way, it can be assumed that transgenic rice Agb0103 could not influence phyllosphere microorganism community and environmental conditions.