• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1073-1077
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• 2010

Fungi, including allergenic, pathogenic or toxigenic species, may have direct effects on human health, interfere with the disinfection process and maintenance of chlorine residual, and add to taste and odor problems. We surveyed distribution of waterborne fungi from raw water in Busan metropolitan city using the EPA standard method. According to the survey, conducted from March 2008 to October 2008, the number of fungi in raw water was high in September and low in April. Quantitative enumeration of fungi per 100 ml of raw water ranged from 5 to 64 CFU, and a higher number was detected in the Mulgum region compared to the Maeri region. Total fungi numbers highly correlated with pH, water temperature and total coliform in this area. Predominant fungi genera grown in medium were identified as Aspergillus, Penicillum, Histoplasma, Rhizopus, Trichophyton, Mucor and Sporthrix species. Aspergillus flavus and Penicillum notatum were particularly dominant in both areas. There were a total of 6 and 9 species detected in the Mulgum and Maeri regions respectively, and the number of species was more verified in the Maeri region than the Mulgum region.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.158-166
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• 2009

On the basis of morphological characteristics, of total 128 strains of from sputum of tuberculos inpatient were identified as A. fumigatus (61 strains), A. niger (37), A. flavus (26), A. versicolor (1), A. nidulans (1), A. clavatus (1) and Neosartorya fennelliae (1). These strains were re-identified according to recent Aspergillus classification system which is mainly based on molecular characteristics. The strains were grouped by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) techniques. The representative strains from each group were sequenced with partial ${\beta}$-tubulin gene and compared with those of reference strains in the Aspergillus and were identified by the sequence. The identification was confirmed by morphology examination. As the results, they are reidentified as A. fumigatus (58), A. niger (11), A. tubingensis (26), A. flavus (27), A. sydowii (3), A. nidulans (1), A. clavatus (1) and Neosatorya fennelliae (1). This is the first report of A. tubuingensis in clinical field in Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.282-288
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• 2014

In this study, we attempted to isolate fungi from soybean fermented foods produced in Sunchang County and to identify Aspergillus oryzae from fungal isolates. Ten fungal isolates were identified with ${\beta}$-tubulin gene. According to the sequences of ${\beta}$-tubulin gene, ten fungal isolates were identified as A. oryzae/flavus complex. For further identification of the ten of fungal isolates, omtA gene, one gene of the aflatoxin biosynthesis gene cluster, was sequenced and the sequences were compared with those of A. oryzae and A. flavus strains from the GenBank database. In addition, identification of the ten fungal isolates was further confirmed using the PCR amplicon of norB and cypA intergenic region, in which a deletion was recognized relative to A. flavus and A. parasiticus. The amplicon size of the ten fungal isolate strains was smaller than those of A. flavus and A. parasiticus, but the same as that of the reference A. oryzae strain. These results indicated that the ten isolates should be identified as A. oryzae. The protease activity in rice koji made with 6, 13, 17, 27, 37 and 38 of strain, respectively was twice higher than that in control. The kojis made with nine of the A. oryzae isolates, respectively, did not produce aflatoxin, suggesting that the strains could possibly be used as starters for soybean products.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 1988

A total of 1,192 patients, who complained a continued chronic cough, suptum or occasional hemoptysis, in spite of successful completion of antituberculous chemotherapy or had some suspected fungal infection, were included. Serum specimens were collected from all the patients studied and sputum or other specimens collected and cultured from the most of the patients. 405(34.0%) cases of the total patients studied showed a positive precipitin reaction to the one or more of the fungal antigens on immunodiffusion tests and 303 cases of them were found to have been infected with Aspergilli, of which Aspergillus fumigatus was involved in 287 cases, followed by Aspergillus flavus(1.7%), Aspergillus nidulans(0.3%), Aspergillus niger(0.3%) and Aspergillus nidulans var. latus(0.1%). pricipitin antibodies were produced to Candida al­bicans(8.1%) and Pseudallerscheria boydii(0.8%). In the chest radiographs of 186 precipitin positive patients, distinct fungus ball shadows were seen in 47 cases and 45 cases of them were formed by A. fumigatus. The isolates from sputum specimens of 724 patients were aspergilli which were consisted of the 46.4% of the total fungal isolates. Identification of 137 yeast like fungi from the sputum specimens of 413 patients revealed that C. albicans(64.2%) was a commonest yeast flora.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.138-143
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• 2017

The antifungal activity of isolated lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from a locally fermented cereal, "Kunu", was tested against toxigenic Aspergillus flavus. The liquid refreshment, "Kunu", was prepared under hygienic condition using millet, sorghum, and the combination of the two grains. The antifungal potential of isolated LAB against toxigenic A. flavus was carried out using both in vitro and in vivo antifungal assays. The LAB count from prepared "Kunu" ranged from $2.80{\times}10^4CFU/mL$ to $4.10{\times}10^4CFU/mL$ and Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Lactobacillus fermentum, Pediococcus acidilactici, and Leuconostoc mesenteroides were the isolated bacteria. Inhibitory zones exhibited by LAB against toxigenic A. flavus ranged from 5.0 mm to 20.0 mm. The albino mice infected with toxigenic A. flavus showed sluggishness, decrease in body weight, distortion of hair, and presence of blood in their stool, while those treated with LAB after infection were recovered and active like those in control groups. Except for the white blood cell that was increased in the infected mice as $6.73mm^3$, the packed cell volume, hemoglobin, and red blood cell in infected animals were significantly reduced (P<0.05) to 29.28%, 10.06%, and 4.28%, respectively, when compared to the treated mice with LAB and control groups. The antifungal activity of LAB against toxigenic A. flavus can be attributed to the antimicrobial metabolites. These metabolites can be extracted and used as biopreservatives in food products to substitute the use of chemical preservatives that is not appealing to consumers due to several side effects.

• Mycobiology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.121-133
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• 2008

Aspergillus niger isolated from Allium sativum was used at large scale fermentation (150 mg flavone/200ml medium) to obtain suitable amounts of the products, efficient for identification. Then spectral analysis (UV, IR, $^1H$-NMR, $^{13}C$-NMR) and mass spectrometry were performed for the two products, which contributed to the identification process. The metabolite (1) was identified as 2'-hydroxydihydrochalcone, and the metabolite (2) was identified as 2'-hydroxyphenylmethylketone, which were more active than flavone itself. Antioxidant activities of the two isolated metabolites were tested compared with ascorbic acid. Antioxidant activity of metabolite (1) was recorded 64.58% which represented 79% of the antioxidant activity of ascorbic acid, and metabolite (2) was recorded 54.16% (67% of ascorbic acid activity). However, the antioxidant activity of flavone was recorded 37.50% which represented 46% of ascorbic acid activity. The transformed products of flavone have anti-microbial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aspergillus flavus and Candida albicans, with MIC was recorded $250{\mu}g/ml$ for metabolite (2) against all three organism and 500, 300, and $300{\mu}g/ml$ for metabolite (1) against tested microorganisms (P. aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Klebsiella pneumonia, Fusarium moniliforme, A. flavus, Saccharomyces cerviceae, Kluveromyces lactis and C. albicans) at this order.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.247-272
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• 1993

Forty-eight fungal isolates were collected from the Korean traditional maejus and twenty-eight isolates of them were identified to be a hyphomycetous fungus(three genera and 20 species) Aspergillus flavus, A. flavus var columnaris, A. oryzae, A, oryzae var effusus, A. terreus, Scopula­riosis brevicaulis, Penicillium botryosum, P. gorlenkoanum, P. griseo-purpureum, P. citrinum, P. miczynskii, P. gaditanum, P. turolense, P. funiculosum, P. rubicundum, P. godlewskii, P. jensenii, P. roqueforti, P. volguense, P. verrucosum. Various 14 species of Penicillium were isolated from maejus, but all of them were not considered to be involved in the maeju fermentation. Otherwise, S. brevicaulis was especially collected from the maejus of various located areas, but were also related to the good quality of maejus under labratory conditions. A. flavus, A. oryzae P. tulolense, and P. funiculosum were also observed to be involved in the process of maeju.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.237-245
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• 1980

Microorganisms growing on Dried-Persimmon have heed isolated ana identified. Fluorescent substance were extracted from a putrefactive Dried-Persimmon after invaded Toxigenic Fungi, and compared with Aflatoxin by Thin layer chromatography and u. v. absorption spectra. The results obtained were summarized as follows: 1) Fungal invasion was frequently appeared at the beginning of storage, and after then Bacteria invasion was followed. 2) Several Genera of microorganisms (Aspergillus sp., Escherichia sp., Mucor sp., Alternaria sp., Penicillium sp. ) were observed in Dried-persimmon during storage. Aspergillus sp., one of all Genus was predominant. 3) Two strains (Aspergillus flavus Group, Penicillium citrimum Series) of 6 Fungi had Fluorescent substance, which was presumed Aflatoxin-like substance. 4) The Rf value of T. L. C. ana λ max of u. v. absorption spectra showed the same value as the standard of Aflatoxin. It is suppose that the Fluorescent substance in Dried-Persimmon is a Aflatoxin-like substance.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1081-1087
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• 2014

Aspergillus oryzae is generally recognized as safe, but it is closely related to A. flavus in morphology and genetic characteristics. In this study, we tested the aflatoxigenicity and genetic analysis of nine commercial A. oryzae strains that were used in Korean soybean fermented products. Cultural and HPLC analyses showed that none of the commercial strains produced detectable amount of aflatoxins. According to the molecular analysis of 17 genes in the aflatoxin (AF) biosynthetic pathway, the commercial strains could be classified into three groups. The group I strains contained all the 17 AF biosynthetic genes tested in this study; the group II strains deleted nine AF biosynthetic genes and possessed eight genes, including aflG, aflI, aflK, aflL, aflM, aflO, aflP, and aflQ; the group III strains only had six AF biosynthetic genes, including aflG, aflI, aflK, aflO, aflP, and aflQ. With the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, the group I A. oryzae strains showed no expression of aflG, aflQ and/or aflM genes, which resulted in the lack of AF-producing ability. Group II and group III strains could not produce AF owing to the deletion of more than half of the AF biosynthetic genes. In addition, the sequence data of polyketide synthase A (pksA) of group I strains of A. oryzae showed that there were three point mutations (two silent mutations and one missense mutation) compared with aflatoxigenic A. flavus used as the positive control in this study.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.25 no.1 s.80
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• pp.35-45
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• 1997

The yellow fungal isolates inhabiting at the cereals (Hwang-Kuk, HK-fungi) were widely collected from the mejus and nuluks in Korea; the meju is a raw material for Korean traditional foods for soysauce and soypaste, and the nuluk is a raw material for Korean traditional rice wine. These isolates, well known as an Aspergillus oryzae producing amylase for Korean rice wine or producing protease for soybeans, were compared with Aspergillus species known. All isolates were microscopically observed to be a species of A. oryzae or its related, but to be difficult to be identified. Thus, RAPD-DNA techniques were applied for these isolates and analyzed with nummerical values using NT-system, or Ecological programs or Factorial analyses. Several common bands of RAPD-DNA in the 28 isolates were synthesized with the different OPD primers and speculated to be used for identification of HK fungi. The HK-fungi isolated were revealed to belong to the group of A. flavus previously defined. Particularly, the isolates collected from mejus were analyzed to be more closed to A. flavus, The species of A. flavus, A. oryzae and A. sojae were grouped at the values lower than those indicating the diversity of species. In other words, these three fungal species were not distinguishable and all isolates known as a HK-fungus were very closed to A. flavus, All isolates were not diversified at groupings of RAPD-DNA, and considered to be not the natural flora at the mejus or nuluks. The meju or nuluk having the above fungi as the fungal flora were speculated to be not termed "Korean traditional foodstuffs".The yellow fungal isolates inhabiting at the cereals (Hwang-Kuk, HK-fungi) were widely collected from the mejus and nuluks in Korea; the meju is a raw material for Korean traditional foods for soysauce and soypaste, and the nuluk is a raw material for Korean traditional rice wine. These isolates, well known as an Aspergillus oryzae producing amylase for Korean rice wine or producing protease for soybeans, were compared with Aspergillus species known. All isolates were microscopically observed to be a species of A. oryzae or its related, but to be difficult to be identified. Thus, RAPD-DNA techniques were applied for these isolates and analyzed with nummerical values using NT-system, or Ecological programs or Factorial analyses. Several common bands of RAPD-DNA in the 28 isolates were synthesized with the different OPD primers and speculated to be used for identification of HK fungi. The HK-fungi isolated were revealed to belong to the group of A. flavus previously defined. Particularly, the isolates collected from mejus were analyzed to be more closed to A. flavus, The species of A. flavus, A. oryzae and A. sojae were grouped at the values lower than those indicating the diversity of species. In other words, these three fungal species were not distinguishable and all isolates known as a HK-fungus were very closed to A. flavus. All isolates were not diversified at groupings of RAPD-DNA, and considered to be not the natural flora at the mejus or nuluks. The meju or nuluk having the above fungi as the fungal flora were speculated to be not termed 'Korean traditional foodstuffs'.