• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 1987

Mutants of E. coli which showed increased sensitivity to MMS(methylmethane sulfonate)were isolated by MNNG mutagenesis and characterized by enzymatic assay, survival of simple alkylating agents and host-cell reactivation. E.coli mutant, 5-62, which showed absolute deficiency in 3-methyladenine DNA glycosylase II activity and had low capability of reactivating MMS-treated phage charon 35 was very sensitive to MMS and MNNG. NNS gene which confered resistance to the lethal effects of MMS was cloned in 5-62 strain. 5-62 mutants carrying recombinant plasmid, pMRG 1, which acquired resistance to the lethal effects of MMS had normal sensitivity to MNNG. Resistance to MMS was somewhat increased after they were treated with 0.5.$\mu$g MNNG/ml for 2 hours at $37^{\circ}C$. Although recombinant plasmid, pMRG 1, did not complement alk A mutation in 5-62 and ada mutation in 1-27 mutnat, mutnats transformed with this plasmid showed more capability of reactivating MMS treated phage than mutants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.1799-1808
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• 2006

A food-grade integration vector based on site-specific recombination was constructed. The 5.7-kb vector, pIMA20, contained an integrase gene and a phage attachment site originating from bacteriophage A2, with the ${\alpha}$-galactosidase gene from Lactobacillus plantarum KCTC 3104 as a selection marker. pIMA20 was also equipped with a controllable promoter of nisA ($P_{nisA}$) and a signal peptide-encoding sequence of usp45 ($SP_{usp45}$) for the production and secretion of foreign proteins. pIMA20 and its derivatives mediated site-specific integration into the attB-like site on the Lactococcus lactis NZ9800 chromosome. The vector-integrated recombinant lactococci were easily detected by the appearance of blue colonies on a medium containing $X-{\alpha}-gal$ and also by their ability to grow on a medium containing melibiose as the sole carbon source. Recombinant lactococci maintained these traits in the absence of selection pressure during 100 generations. The ${\alpha}-amylase$ gene from Bacillus licheniformis, lacking a signal peptide-encoding. sequence, was inserted downstream of $P_{nisA}\;and\;SP_{usp45}$ in pIMA20, and the plasmid was integrated into the L. lactis chromosome. ${\alpha}-Amylase$ was successfully produced and secreted by the recombinant L. lactis, controlled by the addition and concentration of nisin.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 1990

To examine the effects of sequence variations near the transcriptional start site on the rate of formation of the open complexes at bacteriophage $\lambda P_{R}$ promoter, two mutant promoters were created by site-specific mutagenesis using synthetic oligonucleotides. Mutant I coatains changes at positions -3 and -4 from TT to CC, thus having a 6-bp long G/C stretch between -10 region and transciptional start site (+1). Mutant II has changes at positions -5 and -6 from GG to AA, thereby having a 9-bp long A/T stretch between positions -11 and -3. Selective filter binding assays were performed to measure the rate of formation of the open complexes between the wild-type or two mutant $P_{R}$ promoters on 664 bp fragments and E. coli RNA polymerase at two temperatures. At 37.deg.C, the wild-type and two mutants showed similar rates for the formation of open complex. The second order rate constant $k_{a}$ and $\tau _{int}$, as determined from the .tau.-plot analysis, were $(6.0\pm0.4)\times10^{6}M^{-1}sec^{-1}$ and $11\pm5$sec, respectively. At 18.deg.C, however, the wild-type and two mutant promoters showed differences in the kinetic parameters. k for the wild-type promoter was (2.2$\pm$0.1)\times 10^{6}M^{-1}sec^{-1}$ and $\tau _{int}$ was 76$\pm$sec. Mutant I and II exhibited differences mainly in the rate of isomerization ($\tau_{int,I}=91\pm$10 sec, int,II=34$\pm$ sec), whereas the second order rate constant $k_{a}$ was similar to the wild type value. This result implies that at $18^{\circ}C$, the isomerization rate is determined by both protein conformational change and DNA melting, which are separable kinetically according to the 3-step mechanism of Roe et al.(1984,1985), and that the base changes affected mainly the rate of DNA melting as predicted.lting as predicted.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.183-187
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• 1989

The bacteriophage Mu and transposon Tn5 containing plasmid pJB4JI-transferred transposon Tn5 to Caulobuter crescentus. When several thousand of transposon Tn5 insertion mutants were examined, we found auxotrophic and motility mutants at frequencies of 2％ and 3％, respectively. Transposition of transposon Tn5 was analyzed by the reverse field electrophoresis and Southern hybridization. The results indicated that transposon Tn5 was randomly inserted to Caulobuter crescentus chromosome but the plasmid vector, pJB4JI, was not maintained.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.88-98
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• 2018

In this study, we isolated and characterized a bacteriocin-producing strain and two bacteriophages (P4, A3), showing antimicrobial effects against Clostridium perfringens, from chicken and swine feces by the spot-on-the lawn antagonism method. The selected strain was identified as Streptococcus hyointestinalis by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The bacteriocin from the isolated strain exhibited strong inhibitory activity against four strains of C. perfringens and all the tested strains of Listeria monocytogenes, and the bacteriocin were highly heat- and pH-stable even at pH 2, pH 10 and $121^{\circ}C$ for 15 min. We also evaluated the combined effects of the isolated bacteriocin and phages. Combining the phage treatments and bacteriocin resulted in a synergetic effect compared with the phage or the bacteriocin alone. In addition, during the probiotic test, the bacteriocin-producing S. hyointestinalis B19 strain reduced the population of C. perfringens significantly. Treatment with S. hyointestinalis B19 and a cocktail of lytic bacteriophages eradicated the C. perfringens KCTC $3269^T$, completely. Consequently, the isolated bacteriocin and bacteriophages represent candidates for effective biocontrol of C. perfringens, and bacteriocin-producing S. hyointestinalis B19 is a potential probiotic candidate for use in domestic animals.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2001

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widely used for various food fermentation. With the recent advances in modern biotechnology, a variety of bio-products with the high economic values have been produced using microorganisms. For molecular cloning and expression studies on the gene of interest, E. coli has been widely used mainly because vector systems are fully developed. Most plasmid vectors currently used for E, coli carry antibiotic-resistant markers. As it is generally believed that the antibiotic resistance markers are potentially transferred to other bacteria, application of the plasmid vectors carrying antibiotic resistance genes as selection markers should be avoided, especially for human consump-tion. By contrast, as LAB have some desirable traits such that the they are GRAS(generally recognized as safe), able to secrete gene products out of cell, and their low protease activities, they are regarded as an ideal organism for the genetic manipulation, including cloning and expression of homologous and heterologous genes. However, the vec-tor systems established for LAB are stil insufficient to over-produce gene products, stably, limiting the use of these organisms for industrial applications. For a past decade, the two popular plasmid vectors, pAM$\beta$1 of Streptococcus faecalis and pGK12 theB. subtilis-E. coli shuttle vector derived from pWV01 of Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris wg 2, were most widely used to construct efficient chimeric vectors to be stably maintained in many industrial strains of LAB. Currently, non-antibiotic markers such as nisin resistance($Nis^{r}$ ) are explored for selecting recombi-nant clone. In addition, a gene encoding S-layer protein, slp/A, on bacterial cell wall was successfully recombined with the proper LAB vectors LAB vectors for excretion of the heterologous gene product from LAB Many food-grade host vec-tor systems were successfully developed, which allowed stable integration of multiple plasmid copies in the vec-mosome of LAB. More recently, an integration vector system based on the site-specific integration apparatus of temperate lactococcal bacteriophage, containing the integrase gene(int) and phage attachment site(attP), was pub-lished. In conclusion, when various vector system, which are maintain stably and expressed strongly in LAB, are developed, lost of such food products as enzymes, pharmaceuticals, bioactive food ingredients for human consump-tion would be produced at a full scale in LAB.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2060-2065
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• 2016

Characteristics of E. coli O157:H7-specific infection bacteriophages (O157 coliphages) and broad-host-range bacteriophages for other E. coli serotypes (broad-host coliphages) were compared. The burst sizes of the two groups ranged from 40 to 176 PFU/infected cell. Distributions of the virulence factors stx1, stx2, ehxA, and saa between the two groups were not differentiated. Broad-host-range coliphages showed lower stability at $70^{\circ}C$, in relation to O157 coliphages. However, O157 coliphages showed high acid and ethanol tolerance by reduction of only 22% and 11% phages, respectively, under pH 3 and 70% ethanol for 1 h exposure. Therefore, these results revealed that the O157 coliphages might be more stable under harsh environments, which might explain their effective infection of the acid-tolerant E. coli O157:H7.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2009

The gene encoding Thermus thermophilus HJ6 DNA polymerase (Tod) was cloned and sequenced. The open reading frame (ORF) of the Tod gene was composed of 2,505 nucleotides and encoded a protein (843 amino acids) with a predicted molecular weight of 93,795 Da. The deduced amino acid sequence of Tod showed 98% and 86% identities to the Thermus thermophilus HB8 DNA pol and Thermus aquaticus DNA pol, respectively, The Tod gene was expressed under the control of the bacteriophage $\lambda$ promoters PR and PL on the expression vector pJLA503 in Escherichia coli strain BL21 (DE3) codon plus. The expressed enzyme was purified by heat treatment, $HiTrap^{TM}$ Q column, and $HiPrep^{TM}$ Sephacryl S-200 HR 26/60 column chromatographies. The optimal temperature and pH for DNA polymerase activity were found to be $75{\sim}80^{\circ}C$ and 9.0, respectively. The optimal concentrations of $Mg^{2+}$ and $Mn^{2+}$ were 2.5 mM and 1 mM, respectively. The enzyme activity was activated by divalent cations, and was inhibited by monovalent cations. The result of the PCR experiment with Tod DNA polymerase indicates that this enzyme might be useful in DNA amplification and PCR-based applications.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.89-93
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• 1990

To improve the stability of recombinant pBR322-trip$^+$ plasmid (pLTW24) in E. coli culture, a positive selection system was devised. A DNA fragment containing pheW$^+$ gene (a structural gene for tRNA$^{phe}$ was isolated and inserted into the pBR322-trip$^+$ plasmid(pLTP24). A temperature sensitive host strain. LC901-pheS$^{-ts}$, was constructed for this plasmid by transducing pheS$^{-ts}$ allele (phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase) to E. coli LC901 using P1kc bacteriophage. The LC901-pheS$^{-ts}$ cells were unable to grow at a restrictive temperature when they had lost the pBR322 :: pheW$^+$ (pLTP24) plasmid. The effects of pheW$^+$ gene on the plasmid stability and the expression level of trip$^+$ gene in LC901-pheS$^{-ts}$ strain were investigated. The proportion of Trip$^+$ colonies among LC901-pheS$^{-ts}$ strain carrying plasmid pLTP24 was 99%, whereas that of LC901 strain carrying plasmid pLTW24 was 7% at the end of 20 generations. After 100 generations of growth, the strain LC901-pheS$^{-ts}$ carrying plasmid pLTP24 showed little loss of plasmids. While the majority of plasmid pLTW24 in LC901 strain were lost in the same period. The activities of tryptophan synthetase (T. Sase) and anthranilate synthetase (A. Sase) in LC901 strain carrying pLTW24 were about 1.2 times and 1.8 times respectively of those in LC901-pheS$^{-ts}$ strain carrying pLTP24.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.123-128
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• 1993

Genes for dinitrogenase reductase (nifH) and dinitogenase a subunit (nifD) were found to be located on 7.9 kb of EcoRI, 6.5 kb of Sail, 7.3 kb of HindlII and 4.4 kb of Pstl fragments of the genomic blot of Rhizobium sp. SNU003. a symbiotic strain from root nodule of Canavalia lineata. Nine recombinant phage nif-clones were selected from the genomic library constructed by using EMBL-3 BamHI arms of bacteriophage lambda. Among them. Rnif-6 had insert DNA of 15.3 kb. in which 7.6 kb of BamHI!SacI fragment contained nifHD region. Therefore, the 7.6 kb fragment was subcloned into pUC19 and partial restriction map was constructed. As the results, nifH and nifD were found to be located continuously on 4.5 kb of BamHI/BglIl in the genome of Rhizobium sp. SNU003 strain.