• KSBB Journal
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.79-84
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• 2010

In the present study, we isolated a new bacterial strain producing invertase (EC 3.2.1.26) and determined optimized culture condition in flask culture. The strain was identified as Bacilus flexus determined by the 16S rDNA sequencing method. The invertase was produced only in the sucrose medium as the sole carbon source. Potassium nitrate was an adequate nitrogen source for enzyme production, whereas meat peptone showed the highest bacterial growth. Enzyme production was increased about 2-fold when $MgSO_4\cdot7H_2O$ was supplemented to the growth media. The optimum temperature was found to be $30^{\circ}C$ for both enzyme production and bacterial growth. Invertase exhibited pH optima in the range 5.0-6.0 and have a temperature optimum at $40^{\circ}C$, similarly to other invertases found from different microbial sources. Several mineral ions (K and Fe) stimulated the invertase activity, whereas some bioelements (Ag, Mg, and Mn) inhibited enzyme activity. Under the optimized culture condition, the maximum enzyme production (over 250 units/mL) was achieved at 20 h. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to report on invertase production by Bacilus flexus.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.11-50
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• 2023

As the field of interventional pain management (IPM) grows, the risk of surgical site infections (SSIs) is increasing. SSI is defined as an infection of the incision or organ/space that occurs within one month after operation or three months after implantation. It is also common to find patients with suspected infection in an outpatient clinic. The most frequent IPM procedures are performed in the spine. Even though primary pyogenic spondylodiscitis via hematogenous spread is the most common type among spinal infections, secondary spinal infections from direct inoculation should be monitored after IPM procedures. Various preventive guidelines for SSI have been published. Cefazolin, followed by vancomycin, is the most commonly used surgical antibiotic prophylaxis in IPM. Diagnosis of SSI is confirmed by purulent discharge, isolation of causative organisms, pain/tenderness, swelling, redness, or heat, or diagnosis by a surgeon or attending physician. Inflammatory markers include traditional (C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and white blood cell count) and novel (procalcitonin, serum amyloid A, and presepsin) markers. Empirical antibiotic therapy is defined as the initial administration of antibiotics within at least 24 hours prior to the results of blood culture and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Definitive antibiotic therapy is initiated based on the above culture and testing. Combination antibiotic therapy for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria infections appears to be superior to monotherapy in mortality with the risk of increasing antibiotic resistance rates. The never-ending war between bacterial resistance and new antibiotics is continuing. This article reviews prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infection in pain medicine.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.547-554
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• 2008

Bacteriospermia is a frequent finding in fresh boar semen and can result in detrimental effects on semen quality and longevity. The objectives of this study was to evaluate types of bacterial contaminants in porcine fresh semen and the reducing effect of antibiotic and density gradient with percoll on the bacterial contaminants. Fresh semen was collected by gloved-hand method into a pre-warmed($37^{\circ}C$) thermostable bottle, and was inoculated onto blood agar and MacConkey agar, respectively. After incubated for 48 hour, 7.5% $CO_2$ at $37^{\circ}C$, bacterial colonies were selected and identified by Gram staining, oxidase test, catalase test and finally identified using API kits and Vitek system. Aerobic culture yielded a variety of bacteria from different genera. The most prevalent contaminant of fresh semen were Leclecia adecarboxylata, Acineobacter banmanni, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus cohni spp urealyticus, Proteus mirabilis. Most of identified bacteria were Gram(-) and non-pathogenic bacteria. It seems that bacterial contaminants in fresh semen were seem originated from multiple sources at the stud/farm, and were from animal and non-animal origins. Gentamicin treatment did not eliminate the bacterial contaminants completely but 3 step-density gradient with percoll completely removed the bacterial contaminants in fresh semen. Therefore, future study is necessary to prove that density gradient method with percoll can eliminate bacteria in fresh semen without significantly affecting sperm viability or function.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.100-105
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• 2008

The sphingolipid metabolites act as lipid mediator for cell proliferation and apoptosis in mammalian cells. In bacteria, sphingolipid metabolism remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sphingolipid metabolism is potential target for fumonisin $B_1$($FB_1$) and desipramine in Sphingomonas chungbukensis, Gram-negative bacteria, by comparing the intracellular contents of bacterial sphingolipids with ones of HIT-T15 ${\beta}$-cells, hamster pancreatic cells. The concentrations of ceramide and dihydroceramide were 18.0 ${\pm}$ 12.0 and 0.025 ${\pm}$ 0.018 nmol/mg protein, respectively, in HIT-T15 cells. However, the concentrations of ceramide and dihydroceramide in the bacterial culture were 2.0 ${\pm}$ 1.2 and 10.6 ${\pm}$ 5.5 nmol/mg protein, respectively. $FB_1$ decreased the level of ceramide from 18.0 to 3.8 nmol/mg protein in HIT-T15 ${\beta}$-cells. However, dihydroceramide content in $FB_1$-treated HIT-T15 cells was slightly decreased compared with the control culture. When S. chungbukensis was treated with either $FB_1$ or desipramine, dihydroceramide level was increased by 5- and 4-fold, respectively, compared with the control bacteria. These results indicate that $FB_1$ and desipramine may act as an activator in bacterial sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway, and bacterial sphingolipid metabolism pathway appears to be different from the pathway of mammalian cells.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.170-177
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• 2010

Bacillus licheniformis N1, previously developed as a biofungicide formulation N1E to control gray mold disease of plants, was investigated to study the bacterial traits that may be involved in its biological control activity. Two N1E based formulations, bacterial cell based formulation PN1E and culture supernatant based formulation SN1E, were evaluated for disease control activity against gray mold disease of tomato and strawberry plants. Neither PN1E nor SN1E was as effective as the original formulation N1E. Fractionation of antifungal compounds from the bacterial culture supernatant of B. licheniformis N1 indicated that two different cyclic lipopeptides were responsible for the antimicrobial activity of the N1 strain. These two purified compounds were identified as iturin A and surfactin by HPLC and LCMS. The purified lipopeptides were evaluated for plant disease control activity against seven plant diseases. Crude extracts and purified compounds applied at 500 ${\mu}g/ml$ concentration controlled tomato gray mold, tomato late blight and pepper anthracnose effectively with over 70% disease control value. While iturin showed broad spectrum activity against all tested plant diseases, the control activity by surfactin was limited to tomato gray mold, tomato late blight, and pepper anthracnose. Although antifungal compounds from B. licheniformis N1 exhibited disease control activity, our results suggested that bacterial cells present in the N1E formulation also contribute to the disease control activity together with the antifungal compounds.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1736-1745
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• 2016

The interactions of microbiota in the gut play an important role in promoting or maintaining the health of hosts. In this study, in order to investigate and compare the effects of dietary supplementation with Lactobacillus pentosus HC-2 (HC-2), Enterococcus faecium NRW-2, or the bacteria-free supernatant of a HC-2 culture on the bacterial composition of Litopenaeus vannamei, Illumina sequencing of the V1-V2 region of the 16S rRNA gene was used. The results showed that unique species exclusively existed in specific dietary groups, and the abundance of Actinobacteria was significantly increased in the intestinal bacterial community of shrimp fed with the bacteria-free supernatant of an HC-2 culture compared with the control. In addition, the histology of intestines of the shrimp from the four dietary groups was also described, but no obvious improvements in the intestinal histology were observed. The findings in this work will help to promote the understanding of the roles of intestinal bacteria in shrimps when fed with probiotics or probiotic supernatant.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.314-322
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• 2009

Four different bacterial colonies were isolated from an old stock of an entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema monticolum. They all showed entomopathogenicity to final instar larvae of beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, by hemocoelic injection. However, they varied in colony form, susceptibility to antibiotics, and postmortem change of the infected host insects. Biolog microbial identification and 16S rDNA sequence analyses indicate that these are four different species classified into different bacterial genera. Owing to high entomopathogenicity and a cadaver color of infected insect host, Serratia sp. was selected as a main symbiotic bacterial species and analyzed for its pathogenicity. Although no virulence of Serratia sp. was detected at oral administration, the bacteria gave significant synergistic pathogenicity to fifth instar S. exigua when it was treated along with a spore-forming entomopathogenic bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis. The synergistic effect was explained by an immunosuppressive effect of Serratia sp. by its high cytotoxic effect on hemocytes of S. exigua, because Serratia sp. caused septicemia of S. exigua when the bacterial cells were injected into S. exigua hemocoel. The cytotoxic factor(s) was present in the culture medium because the sterilized culture broth possessed high potency in the cytotoxicity, which was specific to granular cells and plasmatocytes, two main immune-associated hemocytes in insects.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.189-194
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• 2003

Contamination of bacterial infection is one of serious problems in in vitro culture system of root crops. From the contaminated tubes over 140 of petiole cultures of Pinellia ternata, a medicinal plant, 4 genera 8species 48 strains of bacteria, including Aeromonas and Pseudomonas, were isolated and identified and another 8 strains were not fully identified. Most of them were motile Gram positive bacteria as in common in early stage of in vitro cultures. Six strains of bacteria, 5 of Gram negative, including Enterobacter, and 1 of Gram positive, were identified from the embryonic axes cultures of tea plant. From the susceptibility test to pre-screened 5 antibiotics, all of the bacteria except for 2 species of Pseudomonas were susceptible to cefotaxime 60∼100mg/L. While 60mg/L erythromycin only was effective to Pseudomonas. Combination of erythromycin 20mg/L and cefotaxime 60mg/L totally suppressed the growth of all bacterial strains tested. Susceptibility test of bacteria from tea embryonic axes cultures showed similar results. Combination of erythromycin 35mg/L and cefotaxime 60mg/L was effective to 15 bacterial strains and partially effective to 1 unidentified.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.379-386
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• 2001

This study was performed to evaluate the sealing ability of various retrograde filling materials by using bacterial penetration and dye penetration test. One hundred and forty extracted human teeth with single, straight canals and mature apiece were collected and used for this study. All canals were instrumented using an engine driven Ni-Ti file (ProFile). After removing 3mm from the apex of tooth, a standardized 3mm root end cavity was prepared using an ultrasonic instrument. The 70 teeth were randomly divided into 7 groups : 6 groups for retrograde filling using Super-EBA, ZOE, Chelon-Silver, IRM, ZPC and amalgam. The 7th group was used as a negative control. Nail varnish was applied to all external root surfaces to the level of the reseated root ends to prevent lateral microleakages. The specimens were then sterilized in an ethylene oxide sterilizer for 24 hours. 2 mm of the reseated root was immersed in a culture chamber containing a Tripticase Soy Broth with a phenol red indicator. The coronal access of each specimen was inoculated every 72 hours with suspension of Proteus vulgaris. The culture media were observed every 24hours for color change indicating bacterial contamination. The specimens were observed for 4weeks. The remaining 70 teeth were submitted to a dye penetration test. The canals of all teeth were first sealed with AH26 and obturated using an Obtura II system. Root resection, root end preparation and retrograde filling was performed as above. All specimens were suspended in 2% methylene blue dye for 72 hours before being ion gitudinally split. The degree of dye penetration was then measured using a stereomicroscope at 10 magnification and evaluated. The results were as floows : 1. In the bacterial penetration, the degree of leakage was the lowest in the Super-EBA, followed by, in ascending order, ZOE, Chelon-Silver IRM and ZPC. The amalgam showed highest bacterial leakage of all(p<0.01). 2. In the dye penetration, the degree of microleakage was the lowest in the Chelon-Silver and Super-EBA, followed by, in ascending order, IRM, ZPC. The ZOE and amalgam showed the highest microleakage of all (p<0.05). These results suggested that the eugenol based cement, Super-EBA, have excellent sealing ability as a retrograde filling material.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.1367-1378
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• 2020

The polyphagous eri silk moth, Samia ricini, is associated with various symbiotic gut bacteria believed to provide several benefits to the host. The larvae of S. ricini were subjected to isolation of gut bacteria using culture-dependent 16S rRNA generic characterization, metagenomics analysis and qualitative enzymatic assays. Sixty culturable aerobic gut bacterial isolates comprising Firmicutes (54%) and Proteobacteria (46%); and twelve culturable facultative anaerobic bacteria comprising Proteobacteria (92%) and Firmicutes (8%) were identified inhabiting the gut of S. ricini. The results of metagenomics analysis revealed the presence of a diverse community of both culturable and un-culturable gut bacteria belonging to Proteobacteria (60%) and Firmicutes (20%) associated with seven orders. An analysis of the results of culturable isolation indicates that these bacterial isolates inhabited all the three compartments of the gut. Investigation on persistence of bacteria coupled with metagenomics analysis of the fifth instar suggested that bacteria persist in the gut across the different instar stages. In addition, enzymatic assays indicated that 48 and 75% of culturable aerobic, and 75% of anaerobic gut bacterial isolates had cellulolytic, lipolytic and nitrate reductase activities, thus suggesting that they may be involved in food digestion and nutritional provision to the host. These bacterial isolates may be good sources for profiling novel genes and biomolecules for biotechnological application.