• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.491-504
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• 2023

To explore fungal diversity in orchard soil where fire-blighted apple trees are buried, we collected soil samples from apple orchards in Chungju, Korea. Fungal isolates were obtained from DG18 agar and identified at the species level based on morphological features and phylogenetic analyses. The colony characteristics and microstructures were examined using a light microscope and a scanning electron microscope after culturing on potato dextrose agar (PDA), malt extract agar (MEA), Czapek yeast agar (CYA), and oatmeal agar (OA) The PCR-amplified products of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region and 28S large subunit of the nuclear ribosomal RNA gene, as well as partial sequences of the β-tubulin, calmodulin, and translation elongation factor 1-α genes were sequenced and analyzed phylogenetically. Seven previously unknown fungal species were explored in Korea. All samples, including Aspergillus aureolatus, Botryotrichum atrogriseum, Dactylonectria novozelandica, Fusarium denticulatum, Paecilomyces tabacinus, Sarcopodium tibetense and Talaromyces stollii, had ascomycetes. Herein, we report their descriptions and features.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.313-320
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• 2010

Genetic instability of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae has been suggested as a major factor underlying the rapid breakdown of host resistance in the field. However, little information is available on the mechanism of genetic instability. In this study, we assessed the stability of repetitive DNA elements and several key phenotypic traits important for pathogenesis after serially transferring two isolates though rice plants and an artificial medium. Using isolate 70-15, we obtained a total of 176 single-spore isolates from 10 successive rounds of culturing on artificial medium. Another 20 isolates were obtained from germ tubes formed at the basal and apical cells of 10 three-celled conidia. Additionally, 60 isolates were obtained from isolate KJ201 after serial transfers through rice plants and an artificial medium. No apparent differences in phenotypes, including mycelial growth, conidial morphologies, conidiation, conidial germination, appressorium formation, and virulence, or in DNA fingerprints using MGR586, MAGGY, Pot2, LINE, MG-SINE and PWL2 as probes were observed among isolates from the same parent isolate. Southern hybridization and sequence analysis of two avirulence genes, AVR-Pita1 and AVR-Pikm, showed that both genes were also maintained stably during 10 successive generations on medium and plants. However, one reversible loss of restriction fragments was found in the telomere-linked helicase gene (TLH1) family, suggesting some telomere regions may be more unstable than the rest of the genome. Taken together, our results suggest that phenotype and genotype of M. oryzae isolates do not noticeably change, at least up to 10 successive generations on a cultural medium and in host plants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1782-1786
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• 2015

A new improved PCR method has been developed for the rapid, reliable, and sensitive detection of Venturia nashicola, a destructive pathogen of scab disease in Japanese pear. The translation elongation factor-1 alpha gene-derived PCR primers specifically amplified a 257-bp-sized DNA band of the target gene from the genomic DNA of V. nashicola. No amplicon was produced from the genomic DNA of other Venturia spp. and reference fungal species tested. With the high detection limit of 10 fg DNA content, our real-time method could be used for the quarantine inspection and field monitoring of V. nashicola.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.26 no.4 s.87
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• pp.450-457
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• 1998

The cryparin of Cryphonectria parasitica belongs to a cell wall associated fungal hydrophobin. The cryparin, though it is encoded by a single copy gene, is known for the high expression during the liquid culture of C. parasitica, and it turns out that 22% of total mRNA was transcribed for cryparin at 48hr after the liquid culture. In addition, it is also known as one of down-regulated fungal proteins by the presence of double stranded RNA virus, Cryphonectria hypovirus 1. In previous studies (Kim et al., 1999), we have constructed a cryparin-null mutant by replacing the cryparin gene with hygromycin B resistance gene due to site directed homologous recombination. In order for the promoter analysis of cryparin which seems to be very strong as well as mycoviral specific, it is preferable to have a strain with only a target promoter replaced and a discernable target site for incoming vectors. However, the cryparin-null mutant revealed the presence of an additional copy of transforming vector except the one which replaced the cryparin gene. In addition, the cryparin-null mutant did not contain any markers for targeted integration of incoming vectors. This prompts us to design an experiment to obtain a strain for promoter analysis of cryparin gene. A different mating type strain EP6(Mata, $met^-$) was mated with the cryparin-null mutant ${\triangle}$Crp194-7(MatA, Crp${\triangle}$::hph) to make the progenies with only a single replacement vector and $met^-$ characteristic remained. Nutritional assay as well as Southern blot analysis revealed that the progeny, ${\triangle}$Crp194-a6, was the methionine auxotroph with a single replacing vector in genome. Northern blot analysis and PAGE showed that there was no cryparin produced in this bred strain either.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.404-409
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• 2008

The brown-rot basidiomycete Fomitopsis palustris is known to degrade crystalline cellulose (Avicel) and produce three major cellulases, exoglucanases, endoglucanases, and ${\beta}$-glucosidases. A gene encoding endoglucanase, designated as cel12, was cloned from total RNA prepared from F. palustris grown at the expense of Avicel. The gene encoding Cel12 has an open reading frame of 732 bp, encoding a putative protein of 244 amino acid residues with a putative signal peptide residing at the first 18 amino acid residues of the N-terminus of the protein. Sequence analysis of Cel12 identified three consensus regions, which are highly conserved among fungal cellulases belonging to GH family 12. However, a cellulose-binding domain was not found in Cel12, like other GH family 12 fungal cellulases. Northern blot analysis showed a dramatic increase of cel12 mRNA levels in F. palustris cells cultivated on Avicel from the early to late stages of growth and the maintenance of a high level of expression in the late stage, suggesting that Cel12 takes a significant part in endoglucanase activity throughout the growth of F. palustris. Adventitious expression of cel12 in the yeast Pichia pastoris successfully produced the recombinant protein that exhibited endoglucanase activity with carboxymethyl cellulose, but not with crystalline cellulose, suggesting that the enzyme is not a processive endoglucanase unlike two other endoglucanases previously identified in F. palustris.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.367-374
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• 2014

Genomes contain a large number of unique genes which have not been found in other species. Although the origin of such "orphan" genes remains unclear, they are thought to be involved in species-specific adaptive processes. Here, we analyzed seven orphan genes (MoSPC1 to MoSPC7) prioritized based on in planta expressed sequence tag data in the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. Expression analysis using qRT-PCR confirmed the expression of four genes (MoSPC1, MoSPC2, MoSPC3 and MoSPC7) during plant infection. However, individual deletion mutants of these four genes did not differ from the wild-type strain for all phenotypes examined, including pathogenicity. The length, GC contents, codon adaptation index and expression during mycelial growth of the four genes suggest that these genes formed during the evolutionary history of M. oryzae. Synteny analyses using closely related fungal species corroborated the notion that these genes evolved de novo in the M. oryzae genome. In this report, we discuss our inability to detect phenotypic changes in the four deletion mutants. Based on these results, the four orphan genes may be products of de novo gene birth processes, and their adaptive potential is in the course of being tested for retention or extinction through natural selection.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.209-214
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• 2011

Transgenic lettuce plants were successfully obtained from hypocotyl explants inoculated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which harbored a binary vector plasmid with Bcl-2 gene, related to apoptosis. After culture and selection on MS medium a number of kanamycin-resistant plantlets were regenerated. Polymerase chain reaction, Southern blot analysis and Northern blot analysis were used to identify and characterize the transgenic plants with the integrated Bcl-2 gene. Over 100 transgenic plants have been established in soil and flowered in the greenhouse. T1 progeny of 100 transgenic lettuce inbred lines were inoculated with Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Expression of the Bcl-2 peptide in transgenic lettuce plants provides high levels of field resistance against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, causal agent of the agronomically important fungal disease of lettuce.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.278-282
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• 2006

Bacillus vallismortis EXTN-1, a biocontrol agent in cucumber, tomato and potato was tested in rice pathosystem against rice fungal pathogens viz. Magnaporthe grisea, Rhizoctonia solani and Cochliobolus miyabeanus. Apart from increasing the yield in the bacterized plants (11.6-12.6% over control), the study showed that EXTN1 is effective in bringing about disease suppression against all the tested fungal pathogens. EXTN-l treatment resulted in 52.11% reduction in rice blast, 83.02% reduction in sheath blight and 11.54% decrease in brown spot symptoms. As the strain is proven as an inducer for systemic resistance based on PR gene expression in Arabidopsis and tobacco models, it is supposed that a similar mechanism works in rice, bringing about disease suppression. The strain could be used as a potent biocontrol and growth-promoting agent in rice cropping system.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.289-294
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• 2002

The fungal strain SW-3 having antimicrobial activity was isolated from soil of crucified plants in Pocheon, Kyungki-Do, Korea. Strain SW-3 was identified as Alternaria brassicicola by its morphological characteristics, and confirmed by the analysis of the 18S gene and ITS regions of rDNA. The fungus showed a similarity of 99% with Alternaria brassicicola in the 18S rDNA sequence analysis. A. brassicicola has been reported to produce an antitumor compound, called depudecin. We found that strain SW-3 produced antimicrobial metabolites, in addition to depudecin, during sporulation under different growth conditions. The metabolite of the isolated fungus was found to have strong antifungal activity against Microsporium canis and Trichophyton rubrum, and antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aerogenes. The amount and kind of metabolites produced by the isolate were affected by growth conditions such as nutrients and growth periods.

• Mycobiology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.132-134
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• 2001

Since it is known that Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which has long been used to transform plants, can transfer the T-DNA to yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae during tumourigenesis, a variety of fungi were subjected to transformation to improve their transformation frequency. In this study, I report the A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation of filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger. Transfer of the binary vector pBIN9-Hg, containing the bacterial hygromycin B phosphotransferase gene under the control of the Aspergillus nidulans trpC promoter and terminator as a selectable marker, led to the selection of $50{\sim}100$ hygromycin B-resistant transformants per $1{\times}10^7$ conidia of A. niger. This efficiency is improved $10{\sim}20$ fold more than reported elsewhere. In order to avoid the difficulties in selection transformant from the over-growing non-transformant, I used top agar containing 900 ${\mu}g/ml$ of hygromycin. Genomic PCR and Southern analysis showed that all transformants contained single T-DNA insert per fungal genome. This technique offers an easier and more efficient method than that of using protoplast.