• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.395-404
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• 2018

Since the mass mortality of Quercus mongolica has been first reported in Gyeonggi province at 2004, the disease spread rapidly over Korean peninsula annually. Ambrosia beetle (Platypus koryoensis) was known as the insect vector of oak wilt fungus, Raffaelea quercus-mongolicae, and control methods of the disease had mainly been focused on eradication of insect vector. However, for the efficient management of the disease, combined control methods for both of the pathogenic fungus and insect vector are strongly required. As one of the efforts to suppress the pathogenic fungus, antifungal activities of Streptomyces isolated from oak forest soil were assayed in this study. Optimum culture condition for the selected isolates was also studied, As a result, Streptomyces blastmyceticus cultured in PDB (Potato Dextrose Broth) at $25^{\circ}C$ for 1 week showed the strongest antifungal activity against oak wilt fungus. Mycelial growth inhibition rates (MGIRs) of Streptomyces isolates were compared on culture media supplemented with heated and unheated culture filtrates of S. blastmyceticus. MGIRs on culture media with unheated culture filtrates were generally higher than those on culture media with heated culture filtrates. Antagonistic mechanism to get involved in the inhibition of hyphal growth and spore formation of the pathogen is due to the antifungal metabolites produced by Streptomyces. This study will provide the fundamental information in developing biocontrol agents for the environment-friendly management of oak wilt disease.

• Mycobiology
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.302-309
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• 2016

The role of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in honey as antifungal activity has received little attention and their mechanism of inhibitory of fungi is not fully understood. In this study, LAB were isolated from honey samples from Malaysia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Twenty-five isolates were confirmed LAB by catalase test and Gram staining, and were screened for antifungal activity. Four LAB showed inhibitory activity against Candida spp. using the dual agar overlay method. And they were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum HS isolated from Al-Seder honey, Lactobacillus curvatus HH isolated from Al-Hanon honey, Pediococcus acidilactici HC isolated from Tualang honey and Pediococcus pentosaceus HM isolated from Al-Maray honey by the 16S rDNA sequence. The growth of Candida glabrata ATCC 2001 was strongly inhibited (>15.0 mm) and (10~15 mm) by the isolates of L. curvatus HH and P. pentosaceus HM, respectively. The antifungal activity of the crude supernatant (cell free supernatant, CFS) was evaluated using well diffusion method. The CFS showed high antifungal activity against Candida spp. especially The CFS of L. curvatus HH was significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited growth of C. glabrata ATCC 2001, C. parapsilosis ATCC 2201, and C. tropicalis ATCC 750 with inhibitory zone 22.0, 15.6, and 14.7 mm, respectively. While CFS of P. pentosaceus HM was significantly (p < 0.05) effective against C. krusei, C. glabrata, and C. albicans with inhibition zone 17.2, 16.0, and 13.3 mm, respectively. The results indicated that LAB isolated from honey produced compounds which can be used to inhibit the growth of the pathogenic Candida species.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.137-143
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the antifungal inhibition mechanism of fruit vinegar drinks against Candida albicans. To evaluate the effect of vinegar drinks on the growth and morphological changes of C. albicans, we performed real-time PCR and phase contrast microscopy. All the groups added vinegar drink showed the inhibitory effect of C. albicans on growth compared to the control. The expression of genes ALS3, ECE1, HWP1, and Sap5 were decreased by vinegar drink. As a result of phase contrast microscopy, the group to which vinegar drink was added showed significant quantitative decrease, morphological change and inhibition of C. albicans. This study can be provided as basic data for the development of antibiotics by verifying the antifungal activity of vinegar drinks.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1937-1945
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• 2018

Malassezia pachydermatis is a commensal yeast found on the skin of dogs. However, M. pachydermatis is also considered an opportunistic pathogen and is associated with various canine skin diseases including otitis externa and atopic dermatitis, which usually require treatment using an azole antifungal drug, such as ketoconazole. In this study, we isolated a ketoconazole-resistant strain of M. pachydermatis, designated "KCTC 27587," from the external ear canal of a dog with otitis externa and analyzed its resistance mechanism. To understand the mechanism underlying ketoconazole resistance of the clinical isolate M. pachydermatis KCTC 27587, the whole genome of the yeast was sequenced using the PacBio platform and was compared with M. pachydermatis type strain CBS 1879. We found that a ~84-kb region in chromosome 4 of M. pachydermatis KCTC 27587 was tandemly quadruplicated. The quadruplicated region contains 52 protein coding genes, including the homologs of ERG4 and ERG11, whose overexpression is known to be associated with azole resistance. Our data suggest that the quadruplication of the ~84-kb region may be the cause of the ketoconazole resistance in M. pachydermatis KCTC 27587.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.4.1-4.13
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• 2021

Background: Microsporum canis is a zoonotic disease that can cause dermatophytosis in animals and humans. Objectives: In clinical practice, ketoconazole (KTZ) and other imidazole drugs are commonly used to treat M. canis infection, but its molecular mechanism is not completely understood. The antifungal mechanism of KTZ needs to be studied in detail. Methods: In this study, one strain of fungi was isolated from a canine suffering with clinical dermatosis and confirmed as M. canis by morphological observation and sequencing analysis. The clinically isolated M. canis was treated with KTZ and transcriptome sequencing was performed to identify differentially expressed genes in M. canis exposed to KTZ compared with those unexposed thereto. Results: At half-inhibitory concentration (½MIC), compared with the control group, 453 genes were significantly up-regulated and 326 genes were significantly down-regulated (p < 0.05). Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis verified the transcriptome results of RNA sequencing. Gene ontology enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis revealed that the 3 pathways of RNA polymerase, steroid biosynthesis, and ribosome biogenesis in eukaryotes are closely related to the antifungal mechanism of KTZ. Conclusions: The results indicated that KTZ may change cell membrane permeability, destroy the cell wall, and inhibit mitosis and transcriptional regulation through CYP51, SQL, ERG6, ATM, ABCB1, SC, KER33, RPA1, and RNP genes in the 3 pathways. This study provides a new theoretical basis for the effective control of M. canis infection and the effect of KTZ on fungi.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.878-884
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• 2020

Penicillium digitatum and P. italicum are the two important postharvest pathogens in citrus, causing about 90% of the total loss of citrus fruit during storage and transportation. Natural fungicides such as essential oils have been widely used instead of chemical fungicides for preventing and controlling postharvest diseases. In this research, p-anisaldehyde exhibited a strong inhibitory effect on P. digitatum and P. italicum, with the minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum fungicidal concentration values of both being 2.00 μl/ml. Additionally, p-anisaldehyde visibly inhibited both the green mold and blue mold development of citrus fruits inoculated with P. digitatum and P. italicum. The mycelia morphologies of these pathogens were greatly altered, and the membrane permeability and cell wall integrity of mycelia were severely disrupted under p-anisaldehyde treatment. These results suggest that the antifungal activity of p-anisaldehyde against P. digitatum and P. italicum can be attributed to the disruption of the cell wall integrity.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.557-560
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• 2005

Resveratrol, a phenolic antioxidant found in grapes, has been known to mediate various biological activities on the human body. In the present study, we tested the antifungal a ctivity of resveratrol against human pathogenic fungi before carrying out further studies to elucidate the antifungal mechanism(s) of resveratrol. Resveratrol displayed potent antifungal activity against human pathogenic fungi at concentration levels of 10-20 ${\mu}g$/mL. Furthermore, time-kill curve exhibited fungicidal effect of resveratrol on C. albicans, but the compound had no hemolytic activity against human erythrocytes. The destruction of C. albicans cells by resveratrol was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. These results suggest that resveratrol could be employed as a therapeutic agent to treat fungal infections of humans.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.216-222
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• 2002

In order to evaluate the antifungal activity of bacteria against plant pathogenic fungi, 8 bacteria were isolated from mushroom compost hot spring, seaweed, and forest soil and mutants from them were induced by $LD_{95}$ gamma radiation($^{60}Co$). Bacillus circulans K1, Burkholderia gladioli K4 and Bacillus subtilis YS1 showed wide antifungal spectrum against 12 kinds of plant pathogenic fungi. From the radiation sensitivity test, B. gladioli K4 was very sensitive to gamma radiation and its $D_{10}$ value was 0.11 kGy. Antifungal activities of B. circulans Kl-1004 and B. subtilis YS1-1009, which were induced by the radiation of $^{60}Co$ increased against Botryosphaeria dothidea. The mutant strains, B. subtilis YS1-1006 and B. subtilis YS1-1009 were resistant to tebuconazole and copper hydroxide. SAR535, SAR5108, and SAR5118 mutated from Streptomyces sp. SAR01 were antifungal activity deficient mutants against 5 kinds of plant pathogenic fungi compared to wild strain, so that they could be supposed to be model strains far studying antifungal mechanism. It is suggested that various functional types of mutants could be induced by gamma radiation and applied usefully.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.437-441
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• 1990

For the genetic development of more powerful antagonistic Pseudomom - YPL-1 as a biocontxol agent against soilborne plant pathogenic Fuaarium solani causing root rot of many important crops, mutants improving the productivity of chitinase were obtained by mutation with UV radiation or NTG treatment, P. stutzeri YPL-M26 (UV mutant) and P. stutzeri YPL-MI78 (NTG mutant) could improve the productivity of chitinase by 2.5 and 2.0 times, and its antifungal activity by 1.7 and 1.5 times, respectively. The antifungal mechanism of P. stutzeri YPL-M26 was caused by lysis of the fungal cell wall by hydrolytic enzymes such as chitinase. The antifungal activity of crude chitinase of P. stutzeri YPLM26 on the mycelial growth of F. solani was observed to be much higher than that of the original strain. The enzymes produced by P. stutzeri YPL-M26 were the same as the original strain in enzymatic properties such as optimal pH and temperature.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.403-406
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• 2009

Rev is an essential regulatory protein for HIV-1 replication. Rev (11-20) is known as the significant region regarding the function of a nuclear entry inhibitory signal (NIS) of Rev. In this study, anticandidal effects and mechanism of action of Rev (11-20) were investigated. The result exhibited that Rev (11-20) contained candidacidal activities. To understand target site(s) of Rev (11-20), the intracellular localization of the peptide was investigated. The result showed that Rev (11-20) rapidly accumulated in the fungal cell surface. The cell wall regeneration test also indicated that Rev (11-20) exerted its anticandidal activity to fungal plasma membrane rather than cell wall. The fluorescent study using 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) further confirmed the membrane-disruption mechanism(s) of Rev (11-20). The present study suggests that Rev (11-20) possesses significant potential regarding therapeutic agents for treating fungal diseases caused by Candida species in humans.