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송필순 교수, 국제저명학술지 논문 게재
Prof. Pill-Soon Song publishes a photo-biotechnology tool to improve quality and yield of crops

A Jeju National University research team developed a biotechnological tool to improve the quality and yield of crops based on the application of plant’s photo-receptor genes.

Professor Song and his co-workers of the JNU Subtropical Horticulture Research Institute (Prof. Hyo-Yeon Lee, Director) carried out research and demonstrated the agronomic improvements in sweet potato, cassava and turfgrasses.

The plant photo-receptors are light-sensing proteins. Traditionally, photosynthetically important genes such as those involved in chlorophyll light-reactions have been considered and used for the biotechnology of crop plants.

However, Professor Song and his team introduced photo-receptor genes such as phytochrome genes for better results, proposing the approach as a photo-biotechnology tool for crop improvement purposes.

Using photoreceptor genes, Professor Song’s team was able to show a 40 to 80% increase in yield of sweet potato and a 20% increase in chlorophyll contents in turfgrasses.

These results have appeared in a paper entitled “Photo-biotechnology as a tool to improve agronomic traits in crops” in an SCI journal ‘Biotechnology Advances’ in its January 2015 issue. The journal’s impact factor is 11.211. A periodical publication with an impact factor higher than 6.0 is regarded as a major impact journal.

Professor Song was the 2009 recipient of the prestigious prize, Finsen Medal in photobiology.