Chenopodium album sensu stricto belonging to C. album aggregate is an annual cosmopolitan weed displaying the diversity of morphologies. We completed the six chloroplast genomes of C. album s. str. collected in Korea to understand the relationship between the diversity of chloroplast genomes and their morphological variations. All six C. album chloroplast genomes have a typical quadripartite structure with length ranging from 151,906 bp to 152,199 bp, similar to the previously sequenced C. album chloroplast genome (NC_034950). In total, 56 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 26 insertion and deletion (INDEL) regions (308 bp in total) were identified from the six chloroplast genomes, presenting a low level of intraspecific variations in comparison to the other angiosperm species. 376 normal simple sequence repeats were identified in all seven C. album chloroplast genomes. The phylogenetic analysis based on all available complete Amaranthaceae chloroplast genomes presents phylogenetic positions of six C. album samples as well as correlation with one of C. album morphological features. Our results provide the way to investigate intraspecific features of C. album chloroplast genomes and also the insights of understanding various intraspecific characteristics including morphological features.

The study of oceanic microbial communities is crucial for our understanding of the role of microbes in terms of biomass, diversity and ecosystem function. In this study, 16S rRNA gene tag pyrosequencing was used to investigate change in bacterial community structure between summer and winter water masses from Gosung Bay in the South Sea of Korea and Chuuk in Micronesia, located in the North and South Pacific Oceans, respectively. Summer and winter sampling from each water mass revealed highly diverse bacterial communities, containing ~900 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). The microbial distribution and highly heterogeneous composition observed at both sampling sites were different from those of most macroorganisms. The bacterial communities in the seawater at both sites were most abundant in Proteobacteria during the summer in Gosung and in Bacterioidetes during the winter. The proportion of Cyanobacteria was higher in summer than in winter in Chuuk and similar in Gosung. Additionally, the microbial community during summer in Gosung was significantly different from other communities observed based on the unweighted UniFrac distance. These data suggest that in both oceanic areas sampled, the bacterial communities had distinct distribution patterns with spatially- and temporally-heterogeneous distributions.

Dysphania pumilio (R.Br.) Mosyakin & Clemants which belongs to Amaranthaceae is an invasive species all over the world. In this study, we presented first complete chloroplast genome of D. pumilio of which length is 151,962 bp consisting four subregions: 83,758 bp of large single copy (LSC) and 17,742 bp of small single copy (SSC) regions are separated by 25,231 bp of inverted repeat (IR) regions. One hundred and twenty-eight genes (84 protein-coding genes, eight rRNAs, and 36 tRNAs) were annotated successfully. The overall GC content of the chloroplast genome is 36.9% and those in the LSC, SSC and IR regions are 34.8%, 30.4%, and 42.7%, respectively. First chloroplast genome of Dysphania will provide accurate phylogenetic position of Dysphania genus among neighbour genera. ARTICLE HISTORY

Suaeda japonica Makino is an annual herb found in the seashore in Korea and Japan. In this study, we presented second complete chloroplast genome of S. japonica which is 152,112 bp long and has four subregions: 83,620 bp of large single-copy (LSC) and 18,102 bp of small single-copy (SSC) regions are separated by 25,195 bp of inverted repeat (IR) regions including 128 genes (83 protein-coding genes, 8 rRNAs, and 37 tRNAs). The overall GC content of the chloroplast genome is 36.4% and those in the LSC, SSC, and IR regions are 34.2%, 29.2%, and 42.7%, respectively. Phylogenetic trees show that two S. japonica is monophyletic. This chloroplast genome suggests further investigation to find the relationship between morphological variations and genetic diversity.

Soluble invertase was purified from pea (Pisum sativum L.) by sequential procedures entailing ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-Sepharose column, Con-A- and Green 19-Sepharose affinity columns, hydroxyapatite column, ultra-filtration, and Sephacryl 300 gel filtration. The purified soluble acid (SAC) and alkaline (SALK) invertases had a pH optimum of 5.3 and 7.3, respectively. The temperature optimum of two invertases was 37 degrees C. The effects of various concentrations of Tris-HCl, HgCl(2), and CuSO(4) on the activities of the two purified enzymes were examined. Tris-HCl and HgCl(2) did not affect SAC activity, whereas 10 mM Tris-HCl and 0.05 mM HgCl(2) inhibited SALK activity by about 50%. SAC and SALK were inhibited by 4.8 mM and 0.6 mM CuSO(4) by 50%, respectively. The enzymes display typical hyperbolic saturation kinetics for sucrose hydrolysis. The Kms of SAC and SALK were determined to be 1.8 and 38.6 mM, respectively. The molecular masses of SAC shown by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting were 22 kDa and 45 kDa. The molecular mass of SALK was 30 kDa. Iso-electric points of the SAC and SALK were estimated to be about pH 7.0 and pH 5.7, respectively.