• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.952-964
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• 2005

The diesel-degrading activities of biofilms sampled from petroleum-contaminated groundwaters in urban subway drainage systems were examined in liquid cultures, and the microbial populations of the biofilms were characterized by denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis (DGGE) and 16S rDNA sequence analysis. Biofilm samples derived from two sites (19 K and 20 K) at subway Station N and Station I could degrade around $80\%$ of applied diesel within 20 and 40 days, respectively, at $15^{\circ}C$, and these results were strongly correlated with the growth patterns of the biofilms. The closest phylogenetic neighbor of a dominant component in the 19 K biofilm was Thiothrix fructosivorans strain Q ($100\%$ similarity). Four dominant strains in the 20 K biofilm were closely related to Thiothrix fructosivorans strain Q ($100\%$ similarity), Thiothrix sp. CC-5 ($100\%$ similarity), Sphaerotilus sp. IF14 ($99\%$ similarity), and Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacterioides (CFB) group bacterium RW262 ($98\%$ similarity). Three dominant members in the Station I biofilms were very similar to uncultured Cytophagales clone CRE-PA82 ($91\%$ similarity), Pseudomonas sp. WDL5 ($97\%$ similarity), and uncultured CFB group bacterium LCK-64 ($94\%$ similarity). The microbial components of the biofilms differed depending on the sampling site. This is the first report on the isolation of clones highly similar to Thiothrix fructosivorans and Thiothrix sp. from biofilms in petroleum-polluted groundwaters, and the first evidence that these organisms may play major roles in petroleum degradation and/or biofilm-development.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1449-1459
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• 2015

A novel proteolytic enzyme with fibrinolytic activity, FSP3, was purified from the recently isolated Streptomyces sp. P3, which is a novel bacterial strain isolated from soil. FSP3 was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity by ammonium sulfate precipitation, anion exchange, and gel filtration. FSP3 is considered to be a single peptide chain with a molecular mass of 44 kDa. The maximum activity of the enzyme was observed at 50℃ and pH 6.5, and the enzyme was stable between pH 6 and 8 and below 40℃. In a fibrin plate assay, FSP3 showed more potent fibrinolytic activity than urokinase, which is a clinical thrombolytic agent acting as a plasminogen activitor. The activity was strongly inhibited by the serine protease inhibitor PMSF, indicating that it is a serine protease. Additionally, metal ions showed different effects on the activity. It was significantly suppressed by Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ and completely inhibited by Cu²⁺, but slightly enhanced by Fe²⁺. According to LC-MS/MS results, its partial amino acid sequences are significantly dissimilar from those of previously reported fibrinolytic enzymes. The sequence of a DNA fragment encoding FSP3 contained an open reading frame of 1287 base pairs encoding 428 amino acids. FSP3 is a bifunctional enzyme in nature. It hydrolyzes the fibrin directly and activates plasminogen, which may reduce the occurrence of side effects. These results suggest that FSP3 is a novel serine protease with potential applications in thrombolytic therapy.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.296-302
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• 2012

A bacterial strain was isolated from soybean paste fermented in a Korean Buddhist temple as a producer of the extracellular thermostable ${\alpha}$-amylase. The isolate YB-1234 has been identified as Bacillus licheniformis on the basis of its 16S rDNA sequence, morphology and biochemical properties. A gene encoding the thermostable ${\alpha}$-amylase of B. licheniformis YB-1234 was cloned into Escherichia coli and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The deduced amino acid sequence of ${\alpha}$-amylase was very highly homologous to those of the thermostable ${\alpha}$-amylases of B. licheniformis belonging to the glycosyl hydrolase family 13. The ${\alpha}$-amylase produced by recombinant E. coli carrying the ${\alpha}$-amylase gene exhibited maximal activity at pH 6.0, identical to ${\alpha}$-amylase in the culture filtrate of B. licheniformis, while the temperature profile was somewhat different between the two. Particularly, ${\alpha}$-amylase produced from B. lcheniformis is much more thermostable than that from recombinant E. coli. The predominant products resulting from the ${\alpha}$-amylase hydrolysis were glucose, maltose and maltotriose for maltotetraose and maltohexaose.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.277-285
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• 2006

Plasmids are covalently closed circular molecules of DNA that are stably inherited and replicate somewhat independently of the bacterial chromosome. Genes carried on plasmids can mediate a wide variety of important functions, including antibiotics (R plasmids) and heavy metals resistance, toxins production, cell penetration, iron chelation, complement resistance, and metabolic characteristics such as sucrose and lactose fermentation. Fifty strains of lactobacilli were isolated from 26 staters and 29 fermented milk products. They were classified 27 strains as Lactobacillus paracasei subsp paracasei, 11 stains as Lactococcus lactis subsp cremoris, 6 strains as L delbrueckii subsp lactis, 4 strains as L acidophius, and 2 strains as L delbrueckii subsp bulgaricus. All of these strains were examined for drug resistance and transferability of R plasmids. All of the isolates were sensitive to Am, C, CF, E, NB, P, T, and Te. But resistant to SXT 94% (47 strains), K 66% (33 strains), S 56% (28 strains), ENR 50% (25 strains), NOR 38% (19 strains) CIP 38% (19 strains), GM 16% (8 strains), and N 14% (7 strains), in order. And 32 different resistant patterns were found. The most frequently encountered patterns were CIP-ENR-K-NOR-S-SXT (5 strains). In vitro R plasmids transfer experiment, 57 antibiotic resistant strains which were not transfer to the recipient 2 Escherichia coli strains by conjugation, These results indicate that Lactobacillus in internal trade market' stater recognize R factor but transmissible R plasmid is not existed.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2020

The aim of this study is to investigate how the gut microbiome shifts when pigs were exposed with low concentrations of mycotoxins, deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN) in feed. Fifteen of pigs, 15 kg in weight which were negative for PRRSV and PCV2 were purchased, acclimatized until 20 kg in weight, and randomly divided into 3 groups; the DON group (DON treated), the ZEN group (ZEN treated) and the CTL (untreated negative control). DON and ZEN administered to each group for 30 days at 0.8 mg/kg (800 ppb) and 0.20 mg/kg (200 ppb) in feed, respectively. After extraction of microbial DNA from intestine and fecal samples, sequencing procedures were performed in the Ion PGM using an Ion 316 V2 chip and Ion PGM sequencing 400 kit. The results suggested that the bacterial communities in duodenum, jejunum and ileum of the DON and ZEN groups presented low-abundant OTUs compared with the CTL group. OTUs in cecum, colon and feces were determined more than in small intestine of all three groups. However, the CTL group yielded more OTUs than other two groups in inter-group comparison. It is not fully clarified how the richness and abundance in microbiome functions in the health condition of animals, however, the exposure to DON and ZEN has caused microbial population shifts representing microbial succession and changes following the diversity and abundance of porcine gut microbiome. The metabolomic analysis correlate with microbiome analysis is needed for further study.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.77-86
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• 2003

Pullorum disease due to Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica bioserovar Pullorum (S. pullorum) is reported to be an endemic disease in domestic poultry flocks. The pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) subtyping method was used to assess the extent of genetic diversity and clonality of most of salmonella serotypes and other diverse bacterial species from animals and environmental samples in worldwide. Nowadays, PFGE has already been evaluated as a gold standards for molecular subtyping of salmonella serotypes compared with other molecular analysis methods. PFGE of XbaI digested chromosomal DNA from 23 strains of S. pullorum gave 5 distinctive pulsotypes (from SXPI to SXPV) with 5% confidence range of Dice coefficients, indicating that PFGE is very discriminative and that multiple clones of S. pullorum have been existed and diffused all of domestic poultry flocks industries since 1995. Two dominant pulsogroups (SXA & SXB) appeared as a major clones in this country, because they had consistently been recovered from diverse sources including both chicken organs and raw feed materials between 1995 and 1998. In addition, the matching percentage of PFGE profiles (PFP) among strains from both chickens and feed ingredients provides indirect evidence of the possible transmission of pullorum disease from contaminated raw feed ingredients for chicken production. In calculating of discrimination index (DI) for PFGE method by Simpson's index, DI was appeared as 0.917. Therefore, this index suggested that the present PFGE would seem to be a desirable and confident molecular typing method for S. pullorum strains. To our knowledge for pullorum disease, this is the first study to compare S. pullorum strains from chicken organs and feed samples using the PFGE.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.108-113
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• 2003

Diesel oil-degrading bacterial strains were isolated from diesel oil contaminated soil and called HS series (HS1, HS2 and HS3). These strains were identified as Acinetobacter sp. (HS1) and Pseudomonas sp. (HS2 and HS3) based on Biolog test, cellular fatty acid composition, and 16S rDNA sequence analysis. These strains were coltivated in liquid minimal media containing 2% diesel oil, and diesel oil-degrading activity was measured. As result, all strains degraded over 70% of total diesel oil. But PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon)- and pris- tane-degrading rate of these strain was below 20％ of total PAH and pristane. The HS 1 strain showed highest hydrophobicity and low emulsifying activity among the experimental strains and high diesel oil-degrading activity. From the above-mentioned result, microcosm experiment was performed with the HS1 strain. The HS1 strain showed a degrading activity of over 80% of total diesel oil in microcosm test. And microbial activity was correlated to diesel oil-degrading activity. Therefore, it is suggested that the HS1 strains could be effectively used for the bioremediation for diesel oil.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.122-128
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• 1987

Several bacterial isolates capable of degrading 4-chlorobiphenyl or 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid were isolated from industrial wastes by the agar plate method and studied for their biodegradabilities of the hydrocarbons and some biochemical characteristics. The isolates DJ-12, DJ-26 and TP-1 were identified as Pseudomonas spp. and they could not degrade 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. The absorption spectra for 4-chlorobiphenyl and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid showed the peaks at 253 and 292 nm, respectively. Biodegradability of the isolates was determined by decrease of the absorbance for the test hydrocarbons with a UV-scanning spectrophotometer. The plasmids of the isolates were studied to examine whether or not the hydrocarbon-degrading genes exist in the plasmids. Antibiotics resistance was also examined to search out a proper marker for the isolates in further experiments, such as curing test and genetic recombination.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.337-340
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• 2007

Pseudomonas syringae Pv. syringae is a causal agent of bacterial blossom blight of kiwifruit in Korea. Eleven strains of the pathogen were isolated from different kiwifruit orchards in Korea and the plasmid profiles were obtained by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. They could be clustered into six groups according to the number and size of plasmids. The number of plasmids per strain and size of these plasmids ranged from 0 to 4 and from 22 to 160 kb, respectively. Among them, four strains belonging to Group III which harbored two plasmids were resistant to copper sulfate. Southern blot hybridization of the plasmid DNA indicated that the copper resistance determinant was carried on a 48 kb plasmid.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.89-95
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• 2012

Immune cells express toll-like receptors (TLRs) and respond to molecular patterns of various pathogens. CpG motif in bacterial DNA activates innate and acquired immune systems through binding to TLR9 of immune cells. Several studies reported that CpG can directly regulate B cell activation, differentiation, and Ig production. However, the role of CpG in B cell growth and Ig production is not fully understood. In this study, we analyzed the effect of CpG on the kinetics of mouse B cell viability, proliferation, and Igs production. Overall, CpG enhanced mouse B cell growth and production of Igs in a dose-dependent manner. Unlike LPS, 100 nM CpG (high dose) did not support TGF-${\beta}1$-induced IgA and IgG2b production. Moreover, 100 nM CpG treatment abrogated either LPS-induced IgM or LPS/TGF-${\beta}1$-induced IgA and IgG2b production, although B cell growth was enhanced by CpG under the same culture conditions. We subsequently found that 10 nM CpG (low dose) is sufficient for B cell growth. Again, 10 nM CpG did not support TGF-${\beta}1$-induced IgA production but, interestingly enough, supported RA-induced IgA production. Further, 10 nM CpG, unlike 100 nM, neither abrogated the LPS/TGF-${\beta}1$- nor the LPS/RA-induced IgA production. Taken together, these results suggest that dose of CpG is critical in B cell growth and Igs production and the optimal dose of CpG cooperates with LPS in B cell activation and differentiation toward Igs production.