Jeong-Mi Park’s research while affiliated with National Institute of Biological Resources and other places

Orobanche coerulescens is a parasitic plant that cannot complete its life cycle without a host and is incapable of photosynthesis. The habitats of O. coerulescens span the coasts of Korea and its volcanic islands, Ulleungdo and Dokdo. Those on the volcanic islands exhibit morphological differences and have distinct hosts compared to those on the peninsula. The family of Orobanchaceae, encompassing both autotrophic and parasitic species, serves as a model for evolutionary studies of parasitic states. However, there are limited genome assemblies for the Orobanche genus. In our study, we produced approximately 100x ONT long reads to construct a chromosome-level genome of O. coerulescens. The resulting assembly has a total size of 3,648 Mb with an N50 value of 195 Mb, and 82.0% of BUSCO genes were identified as complete. Results of the repeat annotation revealed that 86.3% of the genome consisted of repeat elements, and 29,395 protein-coding genes were annotated. This chromosome-level genome will be an important biological resource for conserving biodiversity and further understanding parasitic plants.

Indole acetic acid (IAA) has been an important compound for plant growth and is widely known to be produced by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). The isolate producing the maximum amount of IAA from the Korea shooting range soil was identified as Pseudarthrobacter sp. NIBRBAC000502770, using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. IAA production was determined in Luria-Bertani (LB) broth and optimized using different temperatures, agitation rates, L-tryptophan concentrations, carbon and nitrogen sources, and inorganic salts. The strain NIBRBAC000502770 showed better production of IAA at temperature 30 °C (29.47 mg·L−1) and at an agitation rate of 200 rpm (32.65 mg·L−1). Maltose (0.5%) was found to be the best carbon source for the strain (yielding 36.48 mg·L−1 IAA). IAA yield was 19.17 mg·L−1 and 24.73 mg·L−1 at 1% yeast extract and 1% tryptone as nitrogen sources, respectively. qRT-PCR showed the transcript levels of amiE and aldH genes, which had been predicted to encode indole-3-acetamide hydrolase and indole-3-acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, to be significantly upregulated in response to tryptophan. This study has examined that NIBRBAC000502770 has significant effects as a biological agent such as plant growth promotion, and development of optimal medium could significantly reduce the cost of mass production of microorganisms.

Completed chloroplast genome of Campanula takesimana Nakai isolated from Dokdo island in Korea is 169,719 bp long (GC ratio is 38.8%) and has four subregions: 102,381 bp of large single-copy (37.8%) and 7,750 bp of small single-copy (32.6%) regions are separated by 29,794 bp of inverted repeat (41.3%) regions including 131 genes (87 protein-coding genes, eight rRNAs, and 36 tRNAs). Phylogenetic analyses suggested that C. takesimana from Dokdo Island form a clade with C. takesimana from Ulleungdo Island and that chloroplast genomes of the two accessions are diverged.

The Orobanche is the largest group, which are mainly distributed in the northern hemisphere and consisted of about 170 species. The present study is focused on a cytological study on Korean endangered species Orobanche filicicola as well as morphologically similar species O. coerulescens and their morphotype, which was previously referred to O. coerulescens f. alba but it was taxonomically treated as a synonym of O. coerulescens. Chromosome numbers of 13 individuals in six populations of two Korean Orobanche taxa (O. coerulescens and O. filicicola) as well as morphotype of O. coerulescens were examined to understand the karyotype diversity. A chromosome number of 2n = 2x = 38 was uniformly observed for all the Orobanche taxa in Korea despite that individuals of two different color types (typical purple and whitish yellow) were included. The karyotypes of O. filicicola were from metacentric to submetacentric and the length of chromosomes ranged from 2.08 to 4.74 μm, resulting in a Haploid Karyotype Length (HKL) of 60.92 μm. Investigations of meiotic configuration of O. filicicola, O. coerulescens, and its morphotype were constantly stable. In those species all homologous chromosome pairs have formed regular bivalents as previously documented in other species of the genus Orobanche.

The article provides information on type specimens of 33 species (94 sheets) of vascular plants, kept in the herbarium of the National Institute of Biological Resources (KB) of the Republic of Korea. Most of the type specimens in KB were donated by the Herbaria of Ajou University (AJOU), Chonbuk National University (JNU), Chungbuk National University (CBU), Hallym University (HHU), Korea Plant Research Institute (KPRI), Seoul National University (SNU), and others in recent years. For all specimens, the type category is indicated. There were 15 sheets for holotypes, 57 sheets for isotypes, and 22 sheets for paratypes. There were seven species of Pteridophytes, 22 species of Dicotyledons, and four species of Monocotyledons. The most represented genera in the 33 species are Corydalis (seven species) and Isoetes (four species). The type specimens examined in this article belong to the taxa described by Korean botanists, Byoung-Un Oh, Byoung-Yoon Lee, Byung-Yun Sun, Chong-Wook Park, Hong-Keun Choi, Young-Dong Kim, and others.

A floristic study was conducted 23 times from March 2010 to May 2016 on Mt. Yongbongsan and Mt. Suamsan region of Chungcheongnam-do which lies across Sapgyo-eup, Deoksan-myeon Yesan-gun, and Hongbuk-myeon Hongseong-gun. Based on voucher speciemens, list of vascular plants found in this area were contained 532 taxa in total including 105 families, 312 genera, 468 species, 4 subspecies, 47 varieties, and 13 forma. The 8 taxa were Korean endemic plants such as Populus tomentiglandulosa T.B.Lee, Clematis brachyura Maxim, C. trichotoma Nakai, Indigofera koreana Ohwi, Forsythia koreana (Rehder) Nakai, Paulownia coreana Uyeki, Weigela subsessilis (Nakai) L.H.Bailey, Aster koraiensis Nakai. 4 taxa of rare plants designated by the Korea Forest Service such as Taxus cuspidata Siebold & Zucc., Lithospermum arvense L., Allium senescens L., and Iris ensata var. spontanea (Makino) Nakai. Endangered plants designated by the Ministry of Environment was not found in this study. The 11 taxa of floristic regional indicator plants in 3rd to 5th degree were found. 68 taxa naturalized plants were found and the naturalized ratio was 12.8% while 21.2% of urbanized ratio which is regarded quite high.

A study of the genus Pilea in Korea including five taxa was carried out using molecular phylogenetic methods. The majority of members of the genus Pilea in Korea are annual herbs, and they live in moist habitats, flowering in summer and fruiting in autumn. The results of a phylogenetic analysis using nrDNA and cpDNA supported the recognition of P. japonica, P. peploides, and P. taquetii. Pilea taquetii from Mt. Sanbangsan in Jeju was nested within P. hamaoi and P. mongolica clade instead of the P. taquetii clade, with P. taquetii from Mt. Jirisan also separated from the P. taquetii clade. This indicates that the separation is not geographical isolation, but is instead related to taxonomic problems. Therefore, further study of the P. taquetii group is necessary.

An unrecorded species of Clematis takedana Makino, was found at the border of the reclaimed lake Shihwa Hwasung-si, Gyunggi Prov. This species is distinguished from C. heracleifolia var. davidiana Hemsl, the most similar taxon based on habit and flower shape. The new Korean name 'Ja-ju-sa-wi-jil-ppang' was given based on the color of the calyx. The illustration, description and a key to the treated taxa are given.

This study was carried out to illuminate the floras of vascular plants of Mt. Eungbongsan in Yeongwol-gun. This study was conducted from April to October, 2011. Based on the voucher specimens, vascular plants in this area consisted of 89 families, 288 genera, 405 species, 3 subspecies, 43 varieties, and 7 forms, totally 458 taxa. 16 species were endemic to Korea such as Cirsium setidens, Saussurea macrolepis, Salvia chanroenica, Anemone koraiensis, Clematis brachyura, Clematis trichotoma, Populus tomentiglandulosa, Salix dependens, Salix koriyanagi, Chrysosplenium flaviflorum, Philadelphus schrenckii, Lysimachia coreana, Lonicera subsessilis, Weigela subsessilis, Paulownia coreana, and Corydalis maculata. Ten taxa were rare plants as designated by Korea Forest Service such as Anemone koraiensis, Eranthis stellata, Aristolochia contorta, Rodgersia podophylla, Lysimachia coreana, Syringa wolfii, Lloydia triflora, Streptopus ovalis, Salvia chanroenica, and Carpinus tshonoskii. Plants specially designated by the Ministry of Environment in phytogeographic categories totaled 87 taxa including 39 taxa of grade I, 14 taxa of grade II, 19 taxa of grade III, 14 taxa of grade IV and 1 taxon grade V. Naturalized plants consisted of 8 families with 28 taxa that made up 6.1% of the total vascular plants in this area. Naturalized plants have not strongly influenced the Mt. Eungbongsan vegetation.

The taxonomic relationship of 3 taxa in Carex sect. Siderostictae were revealed by morphological and molecular studies. The morphological characteristics of Korean Carex siderosticta Hance, which is a type species of sect. Siderostictae, was first reviewed in comparison with previous records in order to identify the difference. Then the distribution map of this species was formulated through previous floral literatures and voucher specimens. Although the leaf shape which is represented by length/width ratio showed a great variation depending on habitat condition, the rhizome creeping patterns, the presence of hair on the surface leaf margin and perigynium were shown to be good diagnostic characters to define delimitation of species level. The results from molecular study supported C.ciliatomarginata Nakai should be ranked independently on species level.