• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.229-235
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• 1990

A rapid and sensitive method to detect the extracellular enzymatic activity of bacteria colonies grown on agar plates is described. Selective agar media supplemented with protein, starch, chitin, Tween-80, etc. are conventionally used to detect biochemical properties of bacteria. It has been experimentally demonstrated with bacteria pure cultures that fluorogenic Methylumbelliferyl (MUF)-substrates are excellent substrate analogues for normally occurring polymers. Based on MUF-substrate hydrolysis the new method provides reliable qualitative estimates of extracellular enzymatic properties of bacteria within minutes using pure cultures as well as agar p;ates prepared for colony counts. Extracellular enzyme activities of heterotrophic bacteria from freshwater ecosystems and marine sediment using this method are discussed.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.283-289
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• 2004

This study was conducted to evaluate the annual population variation and identification of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the lower artificial Lake Geumgang from January to December, 2002. Samples were taken from the surface waters at 3 stations near the estuarine barrage. The results were as follows; the population densities of heterotrophic bacteria varied from 4.1±1.0×10² to 6.7±1.1×10³ cfu ml/sup -1/ during the investigation periods. The population densities of antibiotic-resistant bacteria ranged from 1.5±0.7×10 to 4.3±0.3×10³ cfu ml/sup -1/ for ampicillin; from 0 to 6.4±0.4× 10² cfu ml/sup -1/ for chloramphenicol; from 0 to 2.8±0.3×10³ cfu ml/sup -1/ for gentamicin; from 0 to 4.5±1.0×10³ cfu ml/sup -1/ for kanamycin; and from 1.0±0.4 × 10 to 2.3±0.5×10³ cfu ml/sup -1/ for streptomycin, respectively. Of the sixty isolates, 90% were Gram negative. Dominant genera by 16S rDNA analysis were identified Aeromonas spp. (14 strains), Bacillus spp. (6 strains), Enterobacter spp. (4 strains), and Stenotrophomonas spp. (6 strains). These strains were clustered into 12 groups based on relatedness by average linkage method. Of the 60 isolates, 85% had the resistance to ampicilin and 32% were shown resistance to more than 2 kinds of antibiotics.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2005

To investigate the seasonal distribution and grazing impacts of benthic protozoa in mud flat, their abundance, biomass and grazing rates of benthic protozoa were evaluated at interval of two or three month in Gangwha Island from April, 2002 to April, 2004. Heterotrophic flagellates and ciliates accounted for an average 98% of benthic protozoa biomass. Abundance and carbon biomass of heterotrophic flagellates ranged from $0.2{\times}10^5$ to $5.9{\times}10^5\;cells\;cm{-3}$ and from 0.02 to $9.2\;{\mu}gC\;cm^{-3}$, respectively. Biomass of heterotrophic flagellates was high in spring and fall, and showed no differences among stations. Abundance and biomass of heterotrophic flagellates decreased with the depth and were high within the surface 2.5 m sediment layer. The majority of heterotrophic flagellates were less than $10\;{\mu}m$ in length, and few euglenoid flagellates were larger than $20\;{\mu}m$. Abundance and carbon biomass of ciliates ranged from $0.1{\times}10^3$ to $17.8{\times}10^3\;cells\;cm^{-3}$ and from 0.02 to $9.1\;{\mu}gC\;cm^{-3}$, respectively, and those of ciliates were high in spring and fall. Biomass of ciliates was high within the surface 2.5 mm sediment layer and was higher at st. J2 and st. J3 than st. J1. Among the revealed benthic ciliates, the hypotrichs were the most important group in terms of abundance and biomass. During the sampling periods, an average 66% of benthic protozoa biomass was covered by ciliates. The seasonal distribution of benthic protozoa showed an almost similar fluctuation pattern to that of chlorophyll-a. The results suggest that the biomass of benthic protozoa were mainly controlled by prey abundance, for example, diatoms. Based on ingestion rates, benthic protozoa removed from 13.4 to 40.7% of bacterial production and from 20.1 to 36.4% of primary production. Ingestion rates of benthic protozoa on bacteria and microphytobenthos were high in April. Benthic protozoa in this study area may play a pivotal role in the carbon flow of the benthic microbial food web during spring.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.211-216
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• 2012

Quantification of the airborne microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) at a swine wastewater treatment plant was performed. Microbial samples were collected at three different phases of the treatment process over a 1-yr period. Cultivation methods based on the viable counts of mesophilic heterotrophic bacteria and fungi were performed. The concentrations of airborne bacteria ranged up to about $5{\times}10^3$ colony-forming unit (CFU)/$m^3$, and those of airborne fungi ranged up to about $9{\times}10^2CFU/m^3$. The primary treatment (e.g., screen, grit removal, and primary sedimentation) was found to be the major source of airborne microorganisms at the site studied, and higher levels of airborne bacteria and fungi were observed in summer. High levels of the respirable bioaerosol (0.65 to $4.7{\mu}m$ in size) were detected in the aeration phase. Among the environmental factors studied, temperature was strongly associated with fungal aerosol generation (with a Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.90 and p-value <0.01). Occupational biorisks are discussed based on the observed field data.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1656-1664
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• 2009

Bioaugmentation of bioreactors focuses on the removal of numerous organics, with little attention typically paid to the maintenance of high and stable nitrite accumulation in partial nitrification. In this study, a bioaugmented membrane bioreactor (MBR) inoculated with enriched ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) was developed, and the effects of dissolved oxygen (DO) and temperature on the stability of partial nitrification and microbial community structure, in particular on the nitrifying community, were evaluated. The results showed that DO and temperature played the most important roles in the stability of partial nitrification in the bioaugmented MBR. The optimal operation conditions were found at 2-3 mgDO/l and $30^{\circ}C$, achieving 95% ammonia oxidization efficiency and nitrite ratio ($NO_2^-/{NO_x}^-$) of 0.95. High DO (5-6 mg/l) and low temperature ($20^{\circ}C$) had negative impacts on nitrite accumulation, leading to nitrite ratio drop to 0.6. However, the nitrite ratio achieved in the bioaugmented MBR was higher than that in most previous literatures. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) were used to provide an insight into the microbial community. It showed that Nitrosomonas-like species as the only detected AOB remained predominant in the bioaugmented MBR all the time, and coexisted with numerous heterotrophic bacteria. The heterotrophic bacteria responsible for mineralizing soluble microbial products (SMP) produced by nitrifiers belonged to the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides (CFB) group, and $\alpha$-, $\beta$-, and $\gamma$- Proteobacteria. The fraction of AOB ranging from 77% to 54% was much higher than that of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (0.4-0.9%), which might be the primary cause for the high and stable nitrite accumulation in the bioaugmented MBR.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.313-319
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• 2004

The distribution and characteristics of acidotolerant heterotrophic and naphthalene-degrading bacteria were investigated in two forest areas, one near Ulsan petrochemical industrial complex (Sunam) and the other in countryside (Daeam). Average values of soil pH at Sunam and Daeam were 3.8 and 4.6, respectively. When het­erotrophic and naphthalene-degrading bacteria were enumerated by most probable number (MPN) procedures at Sunam, the median values of heterotrophs growing at pH 7.0 and pH 4.0 were $5.3{\times}10^7\;and\;3.3{times}10^7$ MPN/g, whereas those of naphthalene-degraders were $5.6{\times}10^4\;and\;4.0{times}10^5$ MPN/g, respectively. While the medians of heterotrophs at Daeam were larger than those at Sunam, the concentrations of naphthalene-degraders were higher at Sunam compared to those at Daeam. From the MPN tubes and enrichment cultures, we obtained 17 isolates of naphthalene-degraders which were identified as Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Brevundimonas vesic­ularis, Burkholderia cepacia, Ralstonia pickettii, Pseudomanas fluorescens, and Chryseomonas luteola. Among them, 6 isolates showed higher naphthalene-degrading activity on minimal media of pH 4 compared to pH 7, whereas the extent of growth was not greater at pH 4 than at pH 7 when they were inoculated on nutrient-rich media. It is plausible that the pH may affect naphthalene-degrading activity of the isolates by changing fatty acid composition of bacterial membrane.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.200-206
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• 1998

The distributions and characteristics of bacteria on the deodorizing biofilters were studied as a part of biofiltration research for odor gas removal. The odor gas originated from a currently operating nightsoil treatment plant were mainly nitrogenous compounds of ammonia and amines. The filter media were consisted various ratio of pine bark, nightsoil cast and compost, and were sampled before and after operation of 153 days. Before operation, the level of bacteria on nitrification agar medium, nutrient agar medium and thiosulfate agar medium were around $10^7{\sim}10^8cfu/g$ media. After operation, the level decreased but still high as $10^5{\sim}10^7cfu/g$ media. The bacteria from reactors before and after operations were either rod or coccus after growth on nitrification agar media. The 45 isolated heterotrophic bacteria were further characterized and Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Flavobacterium, Alcaligenes were dominant genera. Genus Alcaligenes was particularly dominant when the isolates were incubated on nitrification agar media first and then transfered to nutrient media. The portion of Alcaligenes in the biofilter increased after operation, and was higher in the media contained nightsoil cast, which showed better treatment than the media with pine bark only.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.409-414
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• 2006

Sulfur-oxidizing bacteria were enumerated and isolated from a steady-state anaerobic master culture reactor (MCR) operated for over six months under a semi-continuous mode and nitrate-limiting conditions using thiosulfate as an electron donor. Most are Gram-negative bacteria, which have sizes up to 12 m. Strains AD1 and AD2 were isolated from the plate count agar (PCA), and strains BD1 and BD2 from the solid thiosulfate/nitrate medium. Based on the morphological, physiological, FAME and 16S rDNA sequence analyses, the two dominant strains, AD1 and AD2, were identified as Paracoccus denitrificans and Paracoccus versutus (formerly Thiobacillus versutus), respectively. From the physiological results, glucose was assimilated by both strains AD1 and AD2. Heterotrophic growth of strains AD1 and AD2 could be a more efficient way of obtaining a greater amount of biomass for use as an inoculum. Even though facultative autotrophic bacteria grow under heterotrophic conditions, autotrophic denitrification would not be reduced.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.286-293
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• 1983

The glucose application remarkably increased the heterotrophic acetylene reducing activities during one month incubation. The amount of the increases varied between the soils. Application of rice straw brought about the significant increases during incubation time. Compost contained the largest amount of available-N among the C-sources, and thereby brought the smallest increase in all soils. The cumulative fixed nitrogen with application of rice straw at 30 days incubation in the three experimented soils were highest in Hwadong clay soil, i.e, $2.2mg^N/100g$, intermediate in Ratchaburi soil $0.85mg^N$, and least in Konosu soil $0.80mg^N/100g$. On the other hand, nitrogen fixing heterotrophic, bacteria, such as Clostridia, aerobes and anaerobes, were remarkably increased by application of rice straw while Azotobacter and Beijerinkia were not. The cumulative fixed nitrogen was more pronounced in the clay soil than in the coarse loamy soil. More pronounced nitrogen fixing activities in light condition(heterotrophic + photosynthetic) than that in dark(heterotrophic) condition have been observed both in the coarse loamy and clay soils. The nitrogen fixing ability of photosynthetic microbes in paddy soil is probably higher in coarse loamy soil than in clay soil.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.166-174
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• 2016

In order to find an efficient bacterial strain that can carry out nitrification and denitrification simultaneously, we isolated many heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria from wastewater treatment plant. One of isolates NS13 showed high removal rate of ammonium and was identified as Alcaligenes faecalis by analysis of its 16S rDNA sequence, carbon source utilization and fatty acids composition. This bacterium could remove over 99% of ammonium in a heterotrophic medium containing 140 mg/L of ammonium at pH 6-9, $25-37^{\circ}C$ and 0-4% of salt concentrations within 2 days. It showed even higher ammonium removal at higher initial ammonium concentration in the medium. A. faecalis NS13 could also reduce nitrate and nitrous oxide by nitrate reductase and nitrous oxide reductase, respectively, which was confirmed by detection of nitrate reductase gene, napA, and nitrous oxide reducase gene, nosZ, by PCR. One of metabolic intermediate of denitrification, $N_2O$ was detected from headspace of bacterial culture. Based on analysis of all nitrogen compounds in the bacterial culture, 42.8% of initial nitrogen seemed to be lost as nitrogen gas, and 46.4% of nitrogen was assimilated into bacterial biomass which can be removed as sludge in treatment processes. This bacterium was speculated to perform heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification simultaneously, and may be utilized for N removal in wastewater treatment processes.