• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.255-269
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• 2018

Armillaria is a white-rot fungus that decomposes organics; it is also a root pathogen that kills trees. Recently, since the forest tending practice, the incidence of Armillaria infections on tree stumps has been increasing. Herein, we have examined the morphological features of Armillaria solidipes and A. gallica collected from 10 areas in Korea, and investigated the activities of the decomposing enzymes cellulase and laccase of these two Armillaria species. A. solidipes was found in eight host tree species including Pinus densiflora, Quercus serrata, and Castanea crenata at the altitude of 107~1,396 m, while A. gallica was found in three host species including P. densiflora and Fraxinus rhynchophylla at the altitude of 119~556 m. The fruiting bodies of A. solidipes are close with lamellae, and have brown to black hairs on the stipe, while those of A. gallica are distant with lamellae and clavate-shaped, and have yellow hairs on the base. The activites of cellulase of the two species were not different, but the activity of A. solidipes laccase was higher ($12.94{\pm}0.4U/mL$) than that of A. gallica laccase ($9.14{\pm}0.3U/mL$).

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.215-221
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• 2006

Gibberella zeae (anamorph: Fusarium graminearum) is an important pathogen of cereal crops. This fungus produces a broad range of secondary metabolites, including polyketides such as aurofusarin (a red pigment) and zearalenone (an estrogenic mycotoxin), which are important mycological characteristics of this species. A screen of G. zeae insertional mutants, generated using a restriction enzyme-mediated integration (REMI) procedure, led to the isolation of a mutant (Z43R606) that produced neither aurofusarin nor zearalenone yet showed normal female fertility and virulence on host plants. Outcrossing analysis confirmed that both the albino and zearalenone-deficient mutations are linked to the insertional vector in Z43R606. Molecular characterization of Z43R606 revealed a deletion of at least 220 kb of the genome at the vector insertion site, including the gene clusters required for the biosynthesis of aurofusarin and zearalenone, respectively. A re-creation of the insertional event of Z43R606 in the wild-type strain demonstrated that the 220-kb deletion is responsible for the phenotypic changes in Z43R606 and that a large region of genomic DNA can be efficiently deleted in G. zeae by double homologous recombination. The results showed that 52 putative genes located in the deleted genomic region are not essential for phenotypes other than the production of both aurofusarin and zearalenone. This is the first report of the molecular characterization of a large genomic deletion in G. zeae mediated by the REMI procedure.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.585-590
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• 2008

Human tropic Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses (PERVs) are the major concern in zoonosis for xenotransplantation because PERVs cannot be eliminated by specific pathogen-free breeding. Recently, a PERV A/C recombinant with PERV-C bearing PERV-A gp70 showed a higher infectivity (approximately 500-fold) to human cells than PERV-A. Additionally, the chance of recombination between PERVs and HERVs is frequently stated as another risk of xenografting. Overcoming zoonotic barriers in xenotransplantation is more complicated by recombination. To achieve successful xenotransplantation, studies on the recombination in PERVs are important. Here, we cloned and sequenced proviral PERV env sequences from pig gDNAs to analyze natural recombination. The envelope is the most important element in retroviruses as a pivotal determinant of host tropisms. As a result, a total of 164 PERV envelope genes were cloned from pigs (four conventional pigs and two miniature pigs). Distribution analysis and recombination analysis of PERVs were performed. Among them, five A/B recombinant clones were identified. Based on our analysis, we determined the minimum natural recombination frequency among PERVs to be 3%. Although a functional recombinant envelope clone was not found, our data evidently show that the recombination event among PERVs may occur naturally in pigs with a rather high possibility.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.18 no.2 s.39
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• pp.73-76
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• 1979

Two different isolates of Xanthomonas oryzae, KB 7785 of pathotype I and JN 7721 of pathotype III, that had been the most virulent isolates in the previous inoculation test, were reisolated from cultivar 'Milyang 23' and serially transferred to 10 times. They were inoculated to the 3 cultivars; 'Milyang 23' in Kinmaze group, 'Yushin' in Kogyoku group and 'Tongil' in Rantai-emas group cultivars. It was observed that the virulence of the isolate JN 7721 was more attenuated by the serial transfer on the Wakimoto's agar than the isolate KB 7785. The attenuation of virulence of the isolate JN 7721 was more significant at the cultivar 'Milyang23' than at the other cultivars. This suggests that the host-pathogen interactions and differences of the pathogenicity-maintenance ability among the pathogenic strains may be involved.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.34-45
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• 2012

In this paper, we proposed and modeled a video contents protection system based on the infectious information hiding(IIH) technique as using characteristics of biological viruses. Our proposed IIH System considered the requisite important information for video contents protection as the infectious virus, and suggested a new paradigm about video contents protection that transmitted infectious information from contents(host) or video CODECs(viral vector). Also, we modeled the Pathogen, Mutant and Contagion virus as the infectious information and defined technical tools about verification of infectious information, kernel based IIH, contents based IIH and creation/regeneration of infectious information as main techniques for our IIH system. Finally, through simulations that carried the infectious information by using conventional information hiding algorithms as kernel based and contents based IIH techniques, we verified possibilities of our proposed IIH system.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.375-384
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• 2017

Trichomonas vaginalis is a pathogen that triggers severe immune responses in hosts. T. vaginalis ${\alpha}$-actinin 2, $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2, has been used to diagnose trichomoniasis. This study was undertaken to examine the role of $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 as an antigenic molecule to induce immune responses from humans. Western blot analysis using anti-$Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 antibodies indicated its presence in the secreted proteins of T. vaginalis. ELISA was employed to measure cytokine production by vaginal epithelial cells, prostate cells, mouse dendritic cells (DCs), or T cells stimulated with T. vaginalis or $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 protein. Both T. vaginalis and $rTv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 induced cytokine production from epithelial cell lines, including IL-10. Moreover, $CD4^+CD25^-$ regulatory T cells (Treg cells) incubated with $rTv{\alpha}$-actinin 2-treated DCs produced high levels of IL-10. These data indicate that $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 modulates immune responses via IL-10 production by Treg cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1844-1854
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• 2017

Trichomonas vaginalis is a pathogen that triggers severe immune responses in hosts. T. vaginalis ${\alpha}$-actinin 2 ($Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2) has been used to diagnose trichomoniasis. $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 was dissected into three parts; the N-terminal, central, and C-terminal portions of the protein (#1, #2, and #3, respectively). Western blot of these $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 proteins with pooled patients' sera indicated that #2 and #3, but not #1, reacted with those sera. Immunofluorescence assays of two different forms of T. vaginalis (trophozoites and amoeboid forms), using anti-$Tv{\alpha}$- actinin 2 antibodies, showed localization of $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 close to the plasma membranes of the amoeboid form. Fractionation experiments indicated the presence of $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 in cytoplasmic, membrane, and secreted proteins of T. vaginalis. Binding of fluorescence-labeled Trichomonas to vaginal epithelial cells and prostate cells was decreased in the antibody blocking experiment using anti-$Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 antibodies. Pretreatment of T. vaginalis with anti-$rTv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 antibodies also resulted in reduction in its cytotoxicity. Flow cytometry, ligand-binding immunoblotting assay, and observation by fluorescence microscopy were used to detect the binding of recombinant $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 to human epithelial cell lines. Specifically, the truncated N-terminal portion of $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2, $Tv{\alpha}$-actinin 2 #1, was shown to bind directly to vaginal epithelial cells. These data suggest that ${\alpha}$-actinin 2 is one of the virulence factors responsible for the pathogenesis of T. vaginalis by serving as an adhesin to the host cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.130-130
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• 2003

Gummy stem blight pathogen is very difficult not only to monitor the inoculum levels prior to host infection, and also it is destructive and hard to control in field condition. We have applied RAPD technique to elucidate the genetic diversity of the genomic DNA of Didymella bryoniae and also to generate specific diagnostic DNA probe useful for identification and detection. The 40 primers produced clear bands consistently from the genomic DNA of twenty isolates of Didymella bryoniae, and two hundred seventy-three amplified fragments were produced with 40 primers. The combined data from 273 bands was analyzed by a cluster analysis using UPGMA method with an arithmetic average program of NTSYS-PC (Version 1.80) to generate a dendrogram. At the distance level of 0.7, two major RAPD groups were differentiated among 20 strains. RAPD group (RG) I included 8 isolates from watermelon except one isolate from melon. RAPD group (RG) IV included 12 isolates from squash, cucumber, watermelon and melon.. In amplification experiment with SCAR specific primer RG1F-RG1R resulted in a single band of 650bp fragment only for 8 isolates out of 20 isolates that should be designated as RAPD Group 1. However, same set of experiment done with RGIIF-RGIIR did not result in any amplified product.. Our attempts to detect intraspecific diversity of ITS region of rDNA by amplifying ITS region and 17s rDNA region for 20 isolates and restriction digestion of amplified fragment with 12 enzymes did not reveal polymorphic band. In order to develop RAPD markers for RGIV specific primer, a candidate PCR fragment( ≒1.4kb) was purified and Southern hybridized to the amplified fragment RGIV isolates. This promising candidate probe recognized only RGIV isolates

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.1187-1192
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• 2014

Pepper, consumed as a typical spice food around world, is mainly cultivated in warm countries, including Korea, China, and Mexico. Phytophthora capsici is a pathogen on several economically important crops, including pepper. The oomycete attacks the roots, stems, leaves, and fruit of the host plants. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying development of the disease, the genes expressed during pepper-P. capsici interaction were explored by analyzing expressed sequence tags (ESTs). A cDNA library was constructed from total RNA extracted from pepper leaves challenged with P. capsici for three days, resulting in an early stage of symptom development for comparable interaction. A comprehensive analysis of single-pass sequencing of 5,760 randomly selected cDNA clones extracted 5,148 high-quality entries for contig assembly, which generated 2,990 unigenes. A homology search of the unigenes with BLASTX resulted in 2,409 matches, of which 606 showed classified functional catalogs.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.112-117
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• 2015

Purpose: The incidence of acute poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis (APSGN) in Korea has changed. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiological and clinical changes of APSGN observed in a single Korean institution over two decades. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 99 children (0-15 years of age) who were admitted to our institution with APSGN between 1987 and 2013. The patients were selected based on the depression of serum complement 3 (C3, <70 mg/dL) and elevated titer of antistreptolysin O (ASO, >250 IU/dL) as evidence of previous streptococcal infection. Results: In the 99 patients, the mean age was $8.3{\pm}2.7$ years, and the male-to-female ratio was 2.2:1 (66:30). The annual number of cases fluctuated markedly, and most cases were observed during the late autumn and winter months. However, there have been few cases reported in the past 5 years. Clinical manifestations at presentation, including hypertension and generalized oedema, and the duration of hospitalization were higher and longer in patients admitted during the first half of the study period than during the most recent half-period, suggesting a more severe clinical course in the former group. Conclusions: APSGN has become a rare disease in Korea with a trend towards a less severe clinical course. This finding suggests that the prevalence of infection-related immune-mediated diseases could change over-time, together with environmental and possibly pathogen-host relationship changes.