• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.883-890
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• 2016

Marine sediments are a microbial biosphere with an unknown physiology, and the sediments harbor numerous distinct phylogenetic lineages of Bacteria and Archaea that are at present uncultured. In this study, the structure of the archaeal and bacterial communities was investigated in the surface and subsurface sediments of Jeju Island using a next-generation sequencing method. The microbial communities in the surface sediments were distinct from those in the subsurface sediments; the relative abundance of sequences for Thaumarchaeota, Actinobacteria, Bacteroides, Alphaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria were higher in the surface than subsurface sediments, whereas the sequences for Euryarchaeota, Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, and Deltaproteobacteria were relatively more abundant in the subsurface than surface sediments. This study presents detailed characterization of the spatial distribution of benthic microbial communities of Jeju Island and provides fundamental information on the potential interactions mediated by microorganisms with the different biogeochemical cycles in coastal sediments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.100-107
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• 2000

In a recently developed strategy for in-situ treatment of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), bioaugmentation was used in conjunction with a surfactant, sorbitan trioleate, as a carbon source for the degrader bacteria, along with the monoterpene, carvone, and salicylic acid as inducing substrates. Two bacteria were used for soil inoculants, including Arthrobacter sp. st. B1B and Ralstonia eutrophus H850. This methodology achieved 60% degradation of PCBs in Aroclor 1242 after 18 weeks in soils receiving 34 repeated applications of the degrader bacteria. However, an obvious limitation was the requirement for soil mixing after every soil inoculation. In the research reported here, bioaugmentation and biostimulation treatment strategies were modified by using the earthworm, Pheretima hawayana, as a vector for dispersal and mixing of surface-applied PCB-degrading bacteria and soil chemical amendments. Changes in microbial biomass and microbial community structure due to earthworm effects were examined using DNA extraction and PCR-DGGE of 16S rDNA. Results showed that earthworms effectively promoted biodegradation of PCBs in bioaugmented soils to the same extent previously achieved using physical soil mixing, and had a lesser, but significant effect in promoting PCB biodegradation in biostimulated soils treated with carvone and salicylic acid. The effects of earthworms were speculated to involve many interacting factors including increased bacterial transport to lower soil depths, improved soil aeration, and enhanced microbial activity and diversity.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2007

The bacterial diversity inherent to the biofilm community structure of a modified rotating biological contactor wastewater treatment process, referred to as the Rotating Activated Bacillus Contactor (RABC) process, was characterized in this study, via both culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. On the basis of culture-dependent methods, Bacillus sp. were found to exist in large numbers on the biofilm (6.5% of the heterotrophic bacteria) and the microbial composition of the biofilms was quite simple. Only three phyla were identified-namely, the Proteobacteria, the Actinobacteria (High G+C Gram-positive bacteria), and the Firmicutes (Low G+C Gram-positive bacteria). The culture-independent partial 16S rDNA sequence analysis revealed a considerably more diverse microbial composition within the biofilms. A total of eight phyla were recovered in this case, three of which were major groups: the Firmicutes (43.9%), the Proteobacteria (28.6%), and the Bacteroidetes (17.6%). The remaining five phyla were minor groups: the Planctomycetes (4.4%), the Chlorobi (2.2%), the Actinobacteria (1.1%), the Nitrospirae (1.1%), and the Verrucomicrobia (1.1%). The two most abundant genera detected were the endospore-forming bacteria (31.8%), Clostridium and Bacillus, both of which are members of the Firmicutes phylum. This finding indicates that these endospore-forming bacteria successfully colonized and dominated the RABC process biofilms. Many of the colonies or clones recovered from the biofilms evidenced significantly high homology in the 16S rDNA sequences of bacteria stored in databases associated with advanced wastewater treatment capabilities, including nitrification and denitrification, phosphorus accumulation, the removal of volatile odors, and the removal of chlorohydrocarbons or heavy metals. The microbial community structures observed in the biofilms were found to correlate nicely with the enhanced performance of advanced wastewater treatment protocols.

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.76-83
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• 2014

Bacteria associated with marine sponges seemed to be concerned in halogenation/dehalogenation process of natural compounds. In the present study, the effect of hexabromobenzene (HBB) on the community structure of bacteria associated with a marine sponge Axinella sp. from Chuuk State under anaerobic condition was investigated. Regardless of 100 ppm HBB, most of detected microorganisms displayed high similarity with clones reported from coral or sponges. Amongst, Desulfovibrio marinisediminis like clones were dominant. Clones affiliated with Lentisphaerae and Fusibacter paucivorans (Clostridia) were detected at the conditions without HBB but clones affiliated with Vallitalea guaymasensis (Clostridia) increased its proportion with HBB. From these results and previous reports clones affiliated with D. marinisediminis and V. guaymasensis seemed to be concerned in halogenation/dehalogenation process.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.281-286
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• 2005

In this study, the anaerobic enrichment cultivation was performed with the sediments and the dredged soils from the cities of Ulsan, Masan, Yeosu, Gwangyang, Ansan and Seongnam. Acetate as an electron donor and PCE (perchloroethylene) or TCE (trichloroethylene) as an electron acceptor were injected into the serum bottle with an anaerobic medium. After the incubation of 12 weeks, the removal efficiency of PCE was highest at $70\%$ in the treatment with the sediment of Ulsan. Also, the bacterial community structure was analyzed by D-DGGE (double denatured gradient gel electrophoresis) through PCR-based 16S rDNA approaches. The dominant species id the anaerobic enrichment were found to belong to the genus of Desulfovibrio.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.209-220
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• 2015

In this study, gut bacterial communities in xylophagous insects were analyzed using the pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes for their potential biotechnological applications in lignocelluloses degradation. The result showed that operational taxonomic units (OTUs), species richness and diversity index were higher in the hindgut than in the midgut of all insect samples analyzed. The dominant phyla or classes were Firmicutes (54.0%), Bacteroidetes (14.5%), ${\gamma}-Proteobacteria$ (12.3%) in all xylophagous insects except for Rhinotermitidae. The principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) showed that the bacterial community structure mostly clustered according to phylogeny of hosts rather than their habitats. In our study, the two carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)-degrading isolates which showed the highest enzyme activity were most closely related to Bacillus toyonensis $BCT-7112^T$ and Lactococcus lactis subsp. hordniae $NCDO\;2181^T$, respectively. Cellulolytic enzyme activity analysis showed that ${\beta}-1,4-glucosidase$, ${\beta}-1,4-endoglucanase$ and ${\beta}-1,4-xylanase$ were higher in the hindgut of Cerambycidae. The results demonstrate that xylophagous insect guts harbor diverse gut bacteria, including valuable cellulolytic bacteria, which could be used for various biotechnological applications.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.24 no.2 s.62
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• pp.172-178
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• 2006

The dynamics of bacterial populations belonging to $\alpha\;\beta\;\gamma-subclass$ proteobacteria, Cytophaga-Flavobacterium (CF) group and sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) in water column of the middle reaches of Nakdong River depending on sediment harvesting were analyzed by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) at sediment harvesting site (near the Seongju bridge) and non-sediment harvesting site (near the Gumi bridge). In addition, some physico-chemical parameters such as temperature, pH, $chi-\alpha$ and electrical conductivity were measured. Regarding the number of total cell counts, cells stained by DAPI, there were no substantial quantitative differences between both sites, but those fluctuation at sediment Harvesting site was greater. And also the ratios of CFgroup and SRB to total cell counts tend to increase at sediment harvesting site with higher $chl-\alpha$, maybe due to the resuspension of sediment into water column. But the total proportion of all determined bacterial populations to total cell counts were greater at non-sediment harvesting site, compared with those at sediment harvesting site. Since the detectibility of bacteria by FISH depends on their metabolic activity, those lower proportion at the sediment harvesting site implies that sediment harvesting may lead to malfunction of those bacteria respect to nutrient recycling and subsequently negative effects on microbial food web.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.4 s.109
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• pp.363-367
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• 2004

For comparative analysis of the eubacterial community structure at 8 sampling sites throughout the Nak-Dong River, FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) method was employed. The total ratio of each determined eubacterial group such as ${\alpha}\;{\cdot}\;{\beta}\;{\cdot}\;{\gamma}-subclasses$proteobacteria and Cytophaga-Flavobacterium(CF) group to total counts(DAPI) at each site varied 9.3-42.5% with the highest value at uppermost part. And each ratio of determined eubacterial groups reached mostly under 10% except that of CF group (23%) at uppermost part. Furthermore, compared to lower part, upper part represented unexpectedly higher proportions of ${\gamma}-subclass$ proteobacteria comprised almost fast growing bacteria on degradable organics. Also the variations of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria ranged from $2.7{\times}10^4$ to $18.0{\times}10^4$ cells $mL^{-1}$ with the lowest value in lower part and the highest value in mid part whereas those of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria varied 5.2-7.7{\times}10^4$ cells $mL^{-1}$ without noticeable differences throughout the sites. Additionally, the ratio of nitrifying bacteria to total counts ranged from 1.0% to 13.6% with no differences between ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. In conclusion, FISH method introduced in this study for monitoring, normally used for the quantitative analysis of bacteria, provided also good information on their environmental status in the Nak-Dong River.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2024

Background: As pollutants caused by non-point sources flow into rivers, river water quality monitoring for fecal pollution is becoming increasingly important. Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the distribution of microbial communities in the Yeongsangang River water system and sewage treatment plants in Gwangju and to evaluate their antibiotic resistance. Methods: In the experiment, samples were distributed to five selective media at each point and then cultured for 18 to 24 hours. When bacteria were observed, they were sub-cultured by size and shape and identified using MALDI-TOF MS equipment. When identification was completed, 17 types of antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed using VITEK II equipment, focusing on gram-negative dominant species among the identified strains. Results: During the study period, a total of 266 strains were isolated from 39 samples. Gram-positive bacteria were 37 strains in four genera, or 13.9% of the total, and Gram-negative bacteria were 229 strains in 23 genera, or 86.1% of the total. Antibiotic susceptibility testing of 23 strains, the major dominant species, showed that one strain (4.3%) was resistant to only one antibiotic, and two strains (8.7%) were 100% susceptible to the 17 antibiotics tested. The other 20 strains (87.0%) were multidrug resistant bacteria resistant to two or more antibiotics. There were various types of multidrug resistance. Among them, penicillin and cephalosporin series showed the highest resistance. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, it was found that the bacterial community structure changed according to regional and environmental factors, and it was judged that continuous research such as genetic analysis of antibiotic-resistant bacteria present in natural rivers is necessary.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.118-126
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• 2002

To evaluate the correlations of microbial populations with soil healthiness and crop production and establish the criteria for microbial population of soil types. We analyzed the microbial community structure of 13 soils which were different in physical and chemical properties and cultivation methods. According to the analysis of microbial population suing the dilution plate method, the large differences of the microbial population structures among soil types were shown: aerobic bacteria $2-27{\times}10^6$, fluorescent Pseudomonas $1-1,364{\times}10^5$, Gram negative bacteria $1-126{\times}10^4$, and mesophilic Bacillus $1-110{\times}10^5$. The density of Gram negative bacteria was highest on red pepper cultivating soils (sample no. 4 and 6) of Umsung and Gesan, Chungbuk, and the density of the fluorescent Pseudomonas was highest on greenhouse soil (sample no. 7) of Jinju, Kyungnam. The crop productivity of three soils was high as compared with those of other soils. It was supposed that the density of fluorescent Pseudomonas and mesophilic Bacillus were correlated with the incresed crop production. By MIDI analysis, 579 strains isolated from 13 soils composed of a variety of microbes including 102 isolates of Agrobacterium, 112 isolates of Bacillus, 32 isolates of Pseudomonas, 44 isolates of Kocuria, and 34 isolates of Pseudomonas. Among the 624 isolates of Gram negative bacteria, Pseudomonas including P. putida and p. fluorescens occupied the highest density (51%), and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Burkholderia cepacia also appeared at high density. From RAPD analysis, the fluorescent Pseudomonas strains isolated from 13 soil types showed a high level of strain diversities and were grouped into 2 - 14 patterns according to soil types. Many of unknown bacteria were recovered from the paddy soil, and needed to be further characterized on the molecular basis.