• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.676-681
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• 2013

Perchlorate (${ClO_4}^-$) is an emerging contaminant found in surface water and soil/groundwater. Microbial removal of perchlorate is the method of choice since perchlorate-reducing bacteria (PRB) can reduce perchlorate to harmless end-products. A previous study [3] showed experimental evidence of autotrophic perchlorate removal using elemental sulfur granules and activated sludge. The granular sulfur is a relatively inexpensive electron donor, and activated sludge is easily available from a wastewater treatment plant. A batch test was performed in this study to further investigate the effect of various environmental parameters on the perchlorate degradation by sludge microorganisms when elemental sulfur was used as electron donor. Results of the batch test suggest optimum conditions for autotrophic perchlorate degradation by sludge microorganisms. The results also show that sulfur-oxidizing PRB enriched from activated sludge removed perchlorate better than activated sludge. Taken together, this study suggests that autotrophic perchlorate removal using elemental sulfur and activated sludge can be improved by employing optimized environmental conditions and enrichment culture.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.1273-1279
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• 2013

Aromatic hydrocarbons, such as phenol, have been detected frequently in wastewater, soil, and groundwater because of the extensive use of oil products. Bacterial strains (56 isolates) that degraded phenol were isolated from soil and industrial wastewater contaminated with hydrocarbons. GN13, which showed the best cell growth and phenol degradation, was selected for further analysis. The GN13 isolate was identified as Neisseria sp. based on the results of morphological, physiological, and biochemical taxonomic analyses and designated as Neisseria sp. GN13. The optimum temperature and pH for phenol removal of Neisseria sp. GN13 was $32^{\circ}C$ and 7.0, respectively. The highest cell growth occurred after cultivation for 30 hours in a jar fermentor using optimized medium containing 1,000 mg/l of phenol as the sole carbon source. Phenol was not detected after 27 hours of cultivation. Based on the analysis of catechol dioxygenase, it seemed that catechol was degraded through the meta- and ortho-cleavage pathway. Analysis of the biodegradation of phenol by Neisseria sp. GN13 in artificial wastewater containing phenol showed that the removal rate of phenol was 97% during incubation of 30 hours. The removal rate of total organic carbon (TOC) by Neisseria sp. GN13 and activated sludge was 83% and 78%, respectively. The COD removal rate by Neisseria sp. GN13 from petrochemical wastewater was about 1.3 times higher than that of a control containing only activated sludge.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.305-311
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• 1997

Bacillus thuringiensis, a gram-positive soil bacterium, is characterized by its ability to produce crystalline inclusions during sporulation. The crystal proteins exhibit a highly specific insecticidal activity. An insecticidal crystal protein (ICP), Cry II A, is specifically toxic to both lepidopteran and dipteran insects. In this study, tobacco plants transformed by the cry II A gene have been generated. The Cry II A crystal protein was purified from E. coli JM103 harboring cry II A gene by differential solubility. The activated Cry II A was prepared by tryptic digestion. The purified protoxin (70 kDa) and the activated toxin (50 kDa) were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. To generate the transgenic tobacco having cry II A gene, the cry II A gene was subcloned to a plant expression vector, pSRL2, having two CaMV 35S promoters. The recombinant plasmid was transformed into tobacco (N. tabacum var. Petit Havana SR1) by Agrobacterium-mediated leaf disc transformation. Through the regeneration, six putative transgenic tobacco plants were obtained and three transformants were confirmed by Southern blot analysis. It has been found that one plant had single copy of cry II A gene, another had two copies of the gene, and the third had a truncated gene. After the immunochemical confirmation of cry II A expression in plants, the transgenic tobacco plants will be used to study the genetics of future generation with the insecticidal crystal protein gene cry II A.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.190-196
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• 2012

In this study, a total of more than 1,000 bacteria, including 739 species of aerobic bacteria, 80 species of urease producing bacteria and 303 species of photosynthetic bacteria, were isolated from red-pepper field soils located in the Gyeongsan Province of the Republic of Korea. Amongst these, 158 species of aerobic bacteria, 70 species of urease producing bacteria and 228 species of photosynthetic bacteria were found to be auxin producing soil bacteria through quantification analysis with the Salkowski test. The latter groupings were then tested for antifungal activities to ${\beta}$-Glucanase and siderophore using CMC congo red agar and CAS blue agar media. In addition, the selected strains were examined for antifungal activity against various phytopathogenic fungi on PDN agar media. Six strains; BCB14, BCB17, C10, HA46, HA143, and HJ5, were noted for their ability to both produce auxin and act as antifungal substances. 16S rDNA sequence comparison analyses of these six strains identified them as Bacillus subtilis BCB14, B. methylotrophicus BCB17, B. methylotrophicus C10, B. sonorensis HA46, B. subtilis HA143, and B. safensis HJ5.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2006

We isolated a bacterium which produces antifungal substances from the Sanktpeterburg soils at Russia. The iso-lated strain was identified as Brevibacillus sp. and shown a strong antifungal activity on plant pathogenic fungi. Brevibacillus sp. KMU-391 produced maximum level of antifungal substances under incubation aerobically at $30^{\circ}C$ for 48 hours in trypticase soybean broth containing 1.0% sucrose and 1.0% polypeptone at 180 rpm and initiated pH adjusted to 7.0. Precipitate of culture broth by $30{\sim}60%$ ammonium sulfate precipitation exhibited strong antifungal activity against Didymella bryoniae by dry cell weight. Butanol extract of cultured broth also shown fungal growth inhibitory activity against Botrytis cinerea KACC 40573, Botrytis fabae KACC 40962, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides KACC 40804, Colletotrichum orbiculare KACC 40808, Didymella bryoniae KACC 40669, Fusarium graminearum KACC 41040, Fusarium oxysporum KACC 40037, Fusarium oxysporum KACC 40052, Fusarium oxysporum f, sp. radicis-Iycopersici KACC 40537, Fusarium oxysporum KACC 40902, Monosporascus cannonballus KACC 40940, Phytophthora camvibora KACC 40160, Rhizoctonia solani AG-1(IA) KACC 40101, Rhizoctonia solani AG-4 KACC 40142, and Scleotinia scleotiorum KACC 41065 by agar diffusion method.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.773-787
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• 2014

Bacterial pustule of soybean caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines is one of the most prevalent bacterial diseases in many areas where soybeans are grown. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of cultivars, sowing date and cropping system on the suppression of soybean bacterial pustule in the field. One hundred soybean cultivars were screened for disease resistance against bacterial pustule in naturally infested field. Among them, fourteen cultivars including 'Pureun' were found to be high resistant. And thirty cultivars showed to be moderate resistant(less than 3% of diseased leaf area). When Soybean cultivar 'Taekwang' were sown in four different dates, May 25, June 5, June 15, and June 25, at 10 day-interval in Milyang, the diseased leaf area of bacterial pustule was 23.3%-25.7%, 14.7%-18.0%, 10.7%-12.8%, and 1.0%-2.7%, respectively. The lowest percentage of diseased leaf area was recorded in the plots sown on June 25, whereas the highest percentage of diseased leaf area was recorded in the plot sown on May 25. As sowing time was delayed, incidence of soybean bacterial pustule found to be comparatively reduced. From December in 2006 to June in 2007, we surveyed the pathogen population of soybean bacterial pustule in five cropping upland soils where soybean was cultivated. The survey result showed the bacterial pustule pathogens were detected from the all cropping soils. The pathogen populations of soybean bacterial pustule in soybean-barley and soybean-garlic cropping soil were significantly lower than that of the other cropping soils. In addition, the incidence of soybean bacterial pustule was decreased under the two cropping systems.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.12-18
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• 2019

An auxin-producing bacterium Yangsong-1 was isolated from a button mushroom bed in Chung cheongnam-do. The strain Yangsong-1 was classified as a novel strain of Arthrobacter enclensis based on a chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analysis. The isolated A. enclensis Yangsong-1 was confirmed to produce indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), which is one of the auxin hormones. When the concentration of IAA was assessed by HPLC quantity analysis, the maximum concentration of IAA, $152.903mg\;L^{-1}$, was detected from the culture broth incubated in R2A medium containing 0.2% L-tryptophan for 48 h at $35^{\circ}C$. A negative relationship between IAA production and pH was estimated to show that the increase in IAA caused pH acidification of the culture. The effect of the supplement on L-tryptophan, a known precursor of IAA production, appeared to be at maximal production at 0.2% concentration and was rather reduced at concentration above 0.4%. To investigate the growth-promoting effects on the crops, the culture broth of A. enclensis Yangsong-1 was placed in water cultures and seed pots of mung beans and lettuce. In consequence, the adventitious root induction and root growth of mung beans and lettuce were 1.5 and 1.9 times higher, respectively, than those of the control.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2019

Nematode-trapping fungi develop trap and consume nematodes are an important part of the subsoil ecosystem and they share a special predator-prey relationship. Four nematode-trapping species, there with adhesive network, Arthrobotrys oligospora, A. sinensis, A. thaumasia and one with constricting ring, Drechslerella brochopaga were collected from soils in Korea and tested their predacity against 12 different nematode species. They were three feeding groups, plant-parasitic (Meloidogyne incognita and Pratylenchus penetrans), fungivorous (Aphelenchus avenae), bacteriovorous (Betlerius sp. and Diplogasteritus sp. in diplogasterid, Panagrolaimus labiatus, P. multidentatus in panagrolaimid, Mesorhabditis irregularis, Pelodera strongyloides and Rhabditis sp., in rhabditid, and Acrobeloides sp. in cephalobid). Results showed that nematode-trapping fungi successfully captured most of nematodes in Petri dish in the group of plant-parasitic nematodes and rhabditids, moderately and variably in other nematodes in 15 days. But it didn't captured A. avenae and Acrobeloides sp. both belongs to c-p group 2. Numbers of Acrobeloides sp. and A. avenae even increased during the test period. The results of this study indicated that nematode-trapping fungi may have specificity among nematode species.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.129-136
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• 2021

Rice is responsible for the stable crop of 3 billion people worldwide, about half of Asian depends on it, and rice is grown in more than 100 countries. Rice diseases can lead to devastating economic loss by decreasing yield production, disturbing a stable food supply and demand chain. The most commonly used method to control rice disease is chemical control. However, misuse of chemical control can cause environmental pollution, residual toxicity, and the emergence of chemical-resistant pathogens, the deterioration of soil quality, and the destruction of biodiversity. In order to control rice diseases, research on alternative biocontrol is actively pursued including microorganism-oriented biocontrol agents. Microbial agents control plant disease through competition with and antibiotic effects and parasitism against plant pathogens. Microorganisms isolated from the rice rhizosphere are studied comprehensively as biocontrol agents against rice pathogens. Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., and Trichoderma sp. were reported to control rice diseases, such as blast, sheath blight, bacterial leaf blight, brown spot, and bakanae diseases. Here we reviewed the microorganisms that are studied as biocontrol agents against rice diseases.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.239-246
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• 2022

Lactuca scariola L. is one of ecosystem-disturbance plants that grow everywhere such as roadsides, grasslands, railroads, banks, and fields. L. scariola usually occurs in autumn. It overwinters in rosette form. It flowers and produces seeds in early summer of the next year. Seeds of L. scariola can germinate immediately without dormancy when the temperature is over 20℃. Due to endogenous bacteria in seeds of L. scariola, it has a strong drought tolerance. Thus, it can grow well on roadsides. L. scariola should be controlled as it can result in 60-80% of soybean yield loss at densities above 50 plants m^-2. It is advisable to remove L. scariola as it competes with native plants by acting as a pioneer to other ecosystem-disturbance plants. Among various control methods, chemical control is the most effective method that is widely used. Soil treatment with herbicides such as oxyfluorfen EC and pendimethalin EC can inhibit the development of L. scariola. Foliar treatment herbicides glyphosate and glufosinateammonium are widely used. L. scariola is resistant to 2,4-D, dicamba, and MCPA among foliar treatment herbicides. Thus, it is recommended to apply herbicides with different modes of action.