• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.1063-1068
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• 2010

This study compared UV and UV/$H_2O_2$ inactivation of E.coli, a possible indicator microorganism for fecal contamination of water, and $Q{\ss}$ phage, an indicator for pathogenic viruses. UV inactivation of $Q{\ss}$, T4 and lambda phages in actual secondary effluent was investigated, too. As a result, similar inactivation efficiency between $Q{\ss}$ phage and E.coli was observed during UV treatment, while $Q{\ss}$ phage showed higher resistance to UV/$H_2O_2$ than E.coli. $Q{\ss}$ phage resistance to UV or UV/$H_2O_2$ does not reflect those of all pathogenic viruses. However, the result tells that the use of E.coli inactivation efficiency in evaluating microbiological safety of water could not always ensure the sufficient safety from pathogenic viruses. Meanwhile, $Q{\ss}$ phage showed less resistance to UV than T4 and lambda phages, indicating that the use of $Q{\ss}$ phage as an indicator virus may bring insufficient disinfection effectiveness by causing the introduction of lower UV dose than required. Consequently, it can be thought that T4 or lambda phages would be more desirable indicators in ensuring the sufficient disinfection effectiveness for various pathogenic viruses.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 1993

The inactivating effect of iron(II)-ascorbate complex (Fe-Asc) on various phages was previously reported. This paper describes the molecular target in the phage virion attacked by Fe-Asc. The effect of Fe-Asc on protein was investigated with bovine serum albumin and the structural protein of phage J1. There were no differences in the SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (patterns of these two proteins when either they were treated) with Fe-Asc or not. Also, there were no changes in the amino acid composition and ultraviolet spectrum of the proteins. The effects of Fe-Asc on DNA was investigated with pUC18 DNA, M13mpB DNA and ${\lambda}$ DNA as well as DNA from phage J1. Fe-Asc caused initially nicking of the subsequently form of pUC18 DNA to yield the open circular form and then subsequently the linear form. Strand breaks were also confirmed with M13mp8 DNA and ${\lambda}$ DNA as well as J1 DNA. The results indicate that the strand breaks in phage DNA could be responsible for the inactivation of phages by Fe-Asc.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.184-188
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• 1987

Evidences that the mannose permease of Escherichia coli mediates the infection of N4 in early steps, were obtained as follows. First, A mutant strain of Escherichia coli which was resistant to both wild type N4 and lambda whose genome is Charon 4A containing human genomic fragments in its EcoR I site, could not use mannose efficiently. Second, N4 could not infect pel mutant strains which lack one or all of intact components of mannose permease. However, unknown alterations in N4 made it possible for the phage to infect pel mutant of E. coli. It also turned out to be clear that the receptor of N4 was different from that of lambda.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.97-103
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• 2005

Under the condition of expression of $\lambda$ P protein at lethal level, the oriC DNA-binding activity is significantly affected in wild-type E. coli but not in the rpl mutant. In purified system, the $\lambda$ P protein inhibits the binding of both oriC DNA and ATP to the wild-type DnaA protein but not to the rpl DnaA protein. We conclude that the $\lambda$ P protein inhibits the binding of oriC DNA and ATP to the wild-type DnaA protein, which causes the inhibition of host DNA synthesis initiation that ultimately leads to bacterial death. A possible beneficial effect of this interaction of $\lambda$ P protein with E. coli DNA initiator protein DnaA for phage DNA replication has been proposed.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 1991

Inserting the $cI_{857}$ structural gene in the downstream of the tac promoter for the overproduction of $cI_{857}$ repressor protein was studied. DNA fragment containing $cI_{857}$ ; repressor gene was amplified by using plasmid pUC12, and partially digested with HphI. Only the $cI_{857}$ structural gene isolated was inserted in the downstream of the tac promoter. Plasmid pDR540- $cI_{857}$ having the tuc promoter-$cI_{857}$ structural gene insert could be isolated by the immunity of cells resistant at $30^{\circ}C$ and cell lysis at $42^{\circ}C$ to $\lambda$ phage $cI_{90}$. The amount of $cI_{857}$ repressor as 17% of total cellular protein were produced by using general E. coli as well as $lacI^q$ JM103 having this plasmid.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.740-748
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• 2007

To gain insight into the structure and function of repressor proteins of bacteriophages of gram-positive bacteria, repressor of temperate Staphylococcus aureus phage ${\phi}11$ was undertaken as a model system here and purified as an N-terminal histidine-tagged variant (His-CI) by affinity chromatography. A ~19 kDa protein copurified with intact His-CI (~ 30 kDa) at low level was resulted most possibly due to partial cleavage at its Ala-Gly site. At ~10 nM and higher concentrations, His-CI forms significant amount of dimers in solution. There are two repressor binding sites in ${\phi}11$ cI-cro intergenic region and binding to two sites occurs possibly by a cooperative manner. Two sites dissected by HincII digestion were designated operators $O_L$ and $O_R$, respectively. Equilibrium binding studies indicate that His-CI binds to $O_R$ with a little more strongly than $O_L$ and binding species is probably dimeric in nature. Interestingly His-CI binding affinity reduces drastically at elevated temperatures ($32-42^{\circ}C$). Both $O_L$ and $O_R$ harbor a nearly identical inverted repeat and studies show that ${\phi}11$ repressor binds to each repeat efficiently. Additional analyses indicate that ${\phi}11$ repressor, like $\lambda$ repressor, harbors an N-terminal domain and a C-terminal domain which are separated by a hinge region. Secondary structure of ${\phi}11$ CI even nearly resembles to that of $\lambda$ phage repressor though they differ at sequence level. The putative N-terminal HTH (helix-turn-helix) motif of ${\phi}11$ repressor belongs to the HTH -XRE-family of proteins and shows significant identity to the HTH motifs of some proteins of evolutionary distant organisms but not to HTH motifs of most S. aureus phage repressors.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1552-1558
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• 2020

With an increase in the consumption of non-heated fresh food, foodborne shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) has emerged as one of the most problematic pathogens worldwide. Endolysin, a bacteriophage-derived lysis protein, is able to lyse the target bacteria without any special resistance, and thus has been garnering interest as a powerful antimicrobial agent. In this study, rV5-like phage endolysin targeting E. coli O157:H7, named as LysECP26, was identified and purified. This endolysin had a lysozyme-like catalytic domain, but differed markedly from the sequence of lambda phage endolysin. LysECP26 exhibited strong activity with a broad lytic spectrum against various gram-negative strains (29/29) and was relatively stable at a broad temperature range (4℃-55℃). The optimum temperature and pH ranges of LysECP26 were identified at 37℃-42℃ and pH 7-8, respectively. NaCl supplementation did not affect the lytic activity. Although LysECP26 was limited in that it could not pass the outer membrane, E. coli O157: H7 could be effectively controlled by adding ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and citric acid (1.44 and 1.14 log CFU/ml) within 30 min. Therefore, LysECP26 may serve as an effective biocontrol agent for gram-negative pathogens, including E. coli O157:H7.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.78-82
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• 2018

Detection of pathogenic microorganisms takes several days by conventional methods. It is necessary to assess microorganisms in a timely manner to reduce the risk of spreading infection. For this purpose, bacteriophages are chosen for use as a biosensing tool due to their host specificity, wide abundance, and safety. However, their lytic cycle limits their efficacy as biosensors. Phage proteins involved in binding to bacteria could be a robust alternative in resolving this drawback. Here, a fragment of tail protein J (residues 784 to 1,132) of phage lambda fused with 6X His-tag (6HN-J) at its N-terminus was cloned, overexpressed, purified, and characterized for its binding with microorganisms. The purified protein demonstrated a size of about 38 kDa in sodium dodecyl sulfate - polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and bound with anti-His monoclonal antibodies. It bound specifically to Escherichia coli K-12, and not Salmonella typhimurium, Bacillus subtilis, or Pseudomonas aeruginosa in dot blotting. Binding of the protein to E. coli K-12 inhibited about 50% of the in vivo adsorption of the phage lambda to host cells at a concentration of $1{\mu}g/ml$ 6HN-J protein and almost 100% at $25{\mu}g/ml$ 6HN-J. The results suggest that a fusion viral protein could be utilized as a biosensing element (e.g., protein chips) for detecting microorganisms in real time.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.246-251
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• 1992

Molccular cloning of nod genes from Bradvrhizobium sp. SNU001, a nitrogen-fixing symbiont isolated from thc root nodules of soybean (Clycine trim) . was carried out. nod genes were found to be located on thc genome of the symbiont by gcnomic hybridization with 4.5 kb EcoRI/HndIII fragment (nod DABC) of Rhizohium meliloti as probe. Genomic library of this symbiont was constructed using h phage EMBL3-BanlHI vector. from which five nod positive clones were sclectcd by primary and secondary screening methods. The partial restriction map of inserted genomic DNA of h CNS-l(c1one 2) was constructed. and 3.9 kh Bun7HI fragment. which showed strong hybridization signal to the probe, was subcloned into pBS KS(+) plasmid vector. Partial restriction inap ot' a selected subclone (pBjCNS-I) was constructed and nod DABC was found to be located on the 1.8 kb KpnI/Sacl fragment of this subclone.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.69-80
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• 2017

In this study, cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) producer isolates genome were compared with genome of pathogenic and commensal Escherichia coli strains. Conserved genomic signatures among different types of CDT producer E. coli strains were assessed. It was shown that they could be used as biomarkers for research purposes and clinical diagnosis by polymerase chain reaction, or in vaccine development. cdt genes and several other genetic biomarkers were identified as signature sequences in CDT producer strains. The identified signatures include several individual phage proteins (holins, nucleases, and terminases, and transferases) and multiple members of different protein families (the lambda family, phage-integrase family, phage-tail tape protein family, putative membrane proteins, regulatory proteins, restriction-modification system proteins, tail fiber-assembly proteins, base plate-assembly proteins, and other prophage tail-related proteins). In this study, a sporadic phylogenic pattern was demonstrated in the CDT-producing strains. In conclusion, conserved signature proteins in a wide range of pathogenic bacterial strains can potentially be used in modern vaccine-design strategies.