• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.257-264
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• 2009

Gardenia yellow, extracted from gardenia fruit, has been widely used as a coloring agent for foods, and thus, safety of its usage is of prime importance. In the current study, short-term genotoxicity assays were conducted to evaluate the potential genotoxic effects of gardenia yellow. The gardenia yellow used was found to contain 0.057 mg/g of genipin, a known biologically active compound of the gardenia fruit extract. Ames test did not reveal any positive results. No clastogenicity was detected by a chromosomal aberration test, even on evaluation at the highest feasible concentration of gardenia yellow. Gardenia yellow was also shown to be non-genotoxic using an in vitro comet assay and a micronucleus test with L5178Y cells, although a marginal increase in DNA damage and micronuclei frequency was reported in the respective assays. Additionally, in vivo micronucleus test results clearly demonstrated that oral administration of gardenia yellow did not induce micronuclei formation in the bone marrow cells of male ICR mice. Taken together, our results indicate that gardenia yellow is not mutagenic to bacterial cells, and that it does not cause chromosomal damage in mammalian cells, either in vitro or in vivo.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.175-178
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• 2004

Little study has been published specifically addressing the dynamics of nitrate reducing bacteria (NBR) during the bioremediation of nitrate-contaminated aquifer. In our previous study we successfully quantified fumarate-enhanced microbial nitrate reduction rate in a nitrate-contaminated aquifer by using a series of single-well push-pull tests (PPTs). In this study we analyzed the suspended population during PPTs. To monitor changes in the microbial community, PCR amplification of 16S rDNA genes and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) were used to study the dynamics of the bacterial community in detail. Before the stimulation of NBR, the dominant DGGE bands obtained by PCR were affiliated with V-Proteobacteria consisting of Acinetobacter spp. and Pseudomonas fluorescens. However, as NBR biostimulation proceeded, the dominant patterns of DGGE bands changed, and they were affiliated with Azoarcus denitrificans Td-3 and Flavobacterium xanthum. Azoarcus denitrificans Td-3 is known to completely reduce nitrate to nitrogen gas. The series of single-well push-pull tests in this study should prove useful for conducting rapid, low-cost feasibility assessments for in situ denitrification and provide important information about which microorganisms play a key role in bioremediation of a nitrate contaminated aquifer.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.87-95
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• 2000

Staphylococcus aureus infections are often life-threatening. Relatively little is known about the host response to these infections, in particular, the implication of apoptosis induced by this microorganism. In this study, we have shown that S. aureus was cytotoxic to J774A.1 cell, a murine macrophage cell line. The cell death mediated by S. aureus occurred through apoptosis, as shown by increase in the proportion of fragmented host cell DNA. Although phagocytosis and NO production had important role in the induction of apoptosis, the contact between bacteria and host cells was not essential for this pathway. A certain bacterial product could also induce typical caspase-dependent apoptosis of J774A.1 cell. It is expected that new interpretation may be possible to host-parasite relationship based on these results.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 1994

In order to evaluate the availability of lacZ as a reporter gene for producing transgenic mud loach, foreign DNA, bacterial \beta-galactosidase$ gene (lacZ) was microinjected into mud loach eggs and its insertion and expression were examined. X-gal based histochemical assay, fluorimetric analysis of \beta-galactosidase$ with 4-methylumbelliferyl-$\beta$-D-galactoside (MUG) and molecular biological examination using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), dot blot, southern blot and sequence analysis of PCR products were carried out to analyze both microinjected group and non-injected controls. The results are disccussed in this paper.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.214-221
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• 1998

A Brevibacterium ammoniagenes gene coding for glucose/mannose-specific enzyme II ($EII^{Glc}$) of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system (PTS) was cloned by complementing an Escherichia coli mutation affecting a ptsG gene, and the complete DNA nucleotide sequence was determined. The cloned gene was identified to be a ptsG, which enables the E. coli transportment to use glucose more efficiently than mannose as the sole carbon source in an M9 minimal medium. The ptsG gene of B. ammoniagenes consists of an open reading frame of 1,983 nucleotides putatively encoding a polypeptide of 661 amino acid residues and a TAA stop codon. The deduced amino acid sequence of the B. ammoniagenes $EII^{Glc}$ shows, at $46\%$, the highest degree of sequence similarity with the Corynebacterium glutamicum EII specific for both glucose and mannose. In addition, the $EII^{Glc}$ shares approximately $30\%$ sequence similarities with sucrose-specific and ${\beta}$-glucoside-specific EIIs of the several bacteria belonging to the glucose-PTS class. The 161-amino-acid C-terminal sequence of $EII^{Glc}$ is also similar to that of E. coli enzyme $IIA^{Glc}$, specific for glucose ($EIIA^{Glc}$). The B. ammoniagenes $EII^{Glc}$ consists of three domains; a hydrophobic region (EIIC) and two hydrophilic regions (EIIA, EIIB). The arrangement of structural domains, IIBCA, of the $EII^{Glc}$ is identical to those of EIIs specific for sucrose or ${\beta}$-glucoside. While the domain IIA was removed from the B. ammoniagenes $EII^{Glc}$ the remaining domains IIBC were found to restore the glucose and mannose-utilizing capacity of E. coli mutant lacking $EII^{Glc}$ activity with $EIIA^{Glc}$ of the E. coli mutant. $EII^{Glc}$ contains a histidine residue and a cysteine residue which are putative phosphorylation sites for the protein.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1654-1663
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• 2018

Finding a safe and broad-spectrum medication is a goal of scientists, pharmacists, and physicians, but developing and fabricating the right medicine can be challenging. The current study describes the formation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by Fusarium mangiferae. It involves the antibiofilm activity of the nanoparticles against Staphylococcus aureus. It also involves cytotoxic effect against mammalian cell lines. Well-dispersed nanoparticles are formed by F. mangiferae. The sizes of the nanoparticles were found to range from 25 to 52 nm, and UV-Vis scan showed absorption around 416-420 nm. SEM, TEM, and AFM results displayed spherical and oval shapes. Furthermore, the FTIR histogram detected amide I and amide II compounds responsible for the stability of AgNPs in an aqueous solution. AgNPs were observed to decrease the formation of biofilm at 75% (v/v). DNA reducing, smearing, and perhaps fragmentation were noticed after treating the bacterial cells with 50% (v/v). Additionally, cell lysis was detected releasing proteins in the supernatant. It was also observed that the AgNPs have the ability to cause 59% cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) deaths at 25% (v/v), however, they showed about 31% toxicity against rat embryo fibroblast transformed cell lines (REF). The results of this study prove the efficiency of AgNPs as an antibiofilm against S. aureus, suggesting that AgNPs could be an alternative to antibiotics. It must also be emphasized that AgNPs displayed cytotoxic behavior against mammalian cell lines. Further studies are needed for assessing risk in relation to the possible benefit of prescribing AgNPs.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.35-39
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• 2012

In this study, multiparametric flow cytometry (FCM) was installed to enumerate the diagnosis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 10145 and Escherichia coli K12 (IFO 3301). The nucleic acids (DNA/RNA) were double stained by a LIVE/DEAD bacLight viability kit, involving green SYTO 9 and red propidium iodide (PI), based on the permeability of two chemicals according to the integrity of plasma membrane. As the results showed, the gate for dead bacteria was defined as the range of $0.2{\times}10^0$ to $6.0{\times}10^1$ photo multiplier tube (PMT) 2 fluorescence (X-axis) and $2.0{\times}10^0$ to $2.0{\times}10^2$ PMT 4 fluorescence (Y-axis), and the gate for live bacteria was defined as the range of $6.0{\times}10^0$ to $6.0{\times}10^2$ PMT 2 fluorescence (X-axis) and $2.0{\times}10^0$ to $4.0{\times}10^2$ PMT 4 fluorescence (Y-axis). In the comparison of the number of the tested bacteria detected by FCM (viability assessment) and plate culture (cultivability assessment), the number of bacteria detected by FCM well represented the number of bacteria that was detected by the colony forming unit (CFU) counting method when bacteria were exposed to isopropyl alcohol and silver/copper cations. Consequently, it is concluded that the application of FCM to monitor the functional effect of disinfectants on the physiological status of target bacteria can offer more rapid and reliable data than the plate culture colony counting method.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.356-362
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• 2007

The rhizobacterial diversity associated with 9 native plant species inhabiting coastal sand dunes in Tae-an area, Chungnam Province, was studied using the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting analysis over three times from October 2003 to March 2004. One dominant band commonly occurred in all of the rhizosphere samples, which was identified as that of Lysobacter enzymogenes. The other common bands included those derived from species of Pseudomonas and Bacillus. It was notable that L. enzymogenes was dominant in all of the 9 plant species and such dominance was consistent throughout the whole sampling period, which confirms the previous study by Lee et al. (2006a). The Bacillus bands were detected in all of the three samplings, and those of Pseudomonas were notable in the samples of December 2003. By the DGGE analysis alone, the significance of Lysobacter to the sand dune plants is not clear. However, considering their presence in healthy plants and the dominance in all plant species, Lysobacter may have positive roles in the survival or growth of the plants in sand dune area.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.198-198
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• 1998

Muc1 mucin is found in a variety of epithelial tissue and is overexpressed in several epithelial cancer. Recently it is alsol reported that primary Hamster tracheal surface epithelial(HTSE) cells express Muc1 protein and cDNA encoding HTSE muc1 protein has been cloned. Although numerous monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to human muncins, particularly Muc1 have been produced, no such antibodies to murine Muc1 have been described. We now describe monoclonal antibody, called mAb M1CT, produced to C-terminal region of HTSE Muc1 protein by immunising mice with a glutathion-s-transferase linked fusion protein. In this study, using this antibody(mAb M1CT) we investigated the effect of RA on the expression of Muc1 in HTSE cells. Retinoic acid(RA) plays an essential role in maintaining normal differentiation of tracheal epithelial cells. With RA-deficiency tracheocytes undergo squamous metaplasia, an abnormal differentiation that can be reversed by RA. We had primary culture of HTSE cells under different concentrations of RA. Culture was maintained until the direction of differentiation was determined. Then Western blot analysis with mAb M1CT was performed with the cell lysates from the culture. The expression of Muc1 protein was decreased in dose-dependent manner as the concentration of retinoic acid was decreased. Our result indicates that the expression of Muc1 protein is coordinately regulated with airway mucous cell differentiation by RA pathway. And the antibody, mAb M1CT, produced in this study should provide useful tool to study the expression of Muc1 mucin in differentiation process or disease.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.56-62
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• 2000

Pasteurella multocida is kind of commensal bacteria in the upper respiratory tract of pigs. It is classified toxigenic and nontoxigenic strains based on the production of dermonecrotic toxin. Toxigenic strain is most associated with atrophic rhinitis which brings great economical loss in swine industry. However, toxigenic and nontoxigenic strains do not differ by diagnostic biochemical reaction or morphology. One of recently developed techniques, PCR detects the toxigenic P multocida. Amplification of an 846-nucleotide fragment of toxA gene was developed. The fragment amplified by PCR was detected in P multocida type D not type A. The PCR amplification was as sensitive as it could detect 1 pg of P multocida DNA. We compared the result of the PCR with the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a test for 40 swine nasal swabs. All of these isolates were toxin negative based on the ELISA while 2 isolates were detected in the PCR technique. in addition to accuracy, as required for rapid detection from contaminated nasal swabs, toxigenic P multocida was recovered efficiently from contaminated culture without inhibition of the PCR. The results show that the PCR detection of toxigenic P multocida directly form nasal swabs are feasible.