• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.171-179
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• 2016

In this study, we compared the virulence-associated factors of Acinetobacter baumannii complex species. Sixty-three isolates of five A. baumannii complex species, including 19 A. baumannii, 15 A. nosocomialis, 13 A. seifertii, 13 A. pittii, and 3 A. calcoaceticus isolates, were included in this study. For all isolates, biofilm formation, A549 cell adherence, resistance to normal human serum, and motility were evaluated. A. baumannii complex isolates showed diversity in biofilm formation, A549 cell adherence, and serum resistance, and no strong positive relationships among these virulence characteristics. However, A. seifertii showed relatively consistent virulence-associated phenotypes. In addition, A. baumannii clone ST110 exhibited consistently high virulence-associated phenotypes. Motility was observed in seven isolates, and all four A. baumannii ST110 isolates showed twitching motility. Although some inconsistencies in virulence-associated phenotypes were seen, high virulence characteristics were observed in A. seifertii, which has been mainly reported in Korea and shows high rates of colistin resistance.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.133-142
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• 2018

Objectives: The pathogenic Vibrios genus denotes halophilic bacteria that are distributed in aquatic environments, including both sea and freshwater. Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio vulnificus, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus are the most important species since they can be potent human pathogens and leading causes of septicemia, wound infections, and seafood borne gastroenteritis. The recent emergence of a potential pandemic clone, V. cholera serotype O1 and the cholera outbreak in South Korea in 2016 indicates the importance of consistent surveillance of pathogenic Vibrio genus within coastal areas. Methods: The present study was undertaken to determine where and how vibrios live in the aquatic environment adjacent to coastal areas of South Korea. For this survey, a total of 838 samples were obtained at 35 different sites in South Korean coastal areas during the period from January 2016 to December 2016. Pathogenic vibrios was determined using the real-time PCR method, and its clones were isolated using three selective plating media. We also monitored changes in seawater and atmospheric temperature, salinity, turbidity, and hydrogen ion concentration at the collection points. Results: The total isolation rates of V. vulnificus, V. cholera (non-pathogenic, non-O1, non-O139 serogroups), and V. parahaemolyticus from seawater specimens in 2016 were 14.2, 13.48, and 67.06%, respectively. Conclusions: The isolation rates of pathogenic vibrios genus showed a positive correlation with temperature of seawater and atmosphere but were negatively correlated with salinity and turbidity.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.232-239
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• 2019

In general, cloned pigs have been produced using the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique with various types of somatic cells; however, the SCNT technique has disadvantages not only in its low efficiency but also in the development of abnormal clones. This study aimed to compare early embryonic development and quality of SCNT embryos with those of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) NT embryos (iPSC-NTs). Ear fibroblast cells were used as donor cells and iPSCs were generated from these cells by lentiviral transduction with human six factors (Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc, Nanog, Klf4 and Lin28). Blastocyst formation rate in iPSC-NT (23/258, 8.9%) was significantly lower than that in SCNT (46/175, 26.3%; p < 0.05). Total cell number in blastocysts was similar between two groups, but blastocysts in iPSC-NT had a lower number of apoptotic cells than in SCNT (2.0 ± 0.6 vs. 9.8 ± 2.9, p < 0.05). Quantitative PCR data showed that apoptosis-related genes (bax, caspase-3, and caspase-9) were highly expressed in SCNT than iPSC-NT (p < 0.05). Although an early development rate was low in iPSC-NT, the quality of cloned embryos from porcine iPSC was higher than that of embryos from somatic cells. Therefore, porcine iPSCs could be used as a preferable cell source to create a clone or transgenic animals by using the NT technique.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2004

A cDNA clone for a salicylic acid-induced gene in Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis) was isolated and characterized. The cabbage gene encoding a protein of 392 amino acids contained a tandem array of two thiJ-like sequences. ThiJ is a thiamin biosynthesis enzyme that catalyzes the phosphorylation of hydroxymethylpyrimidine (HMP) to HMP monophosphate. Although the cabbage gene shows a similarity to bacterial thiJ genes, it also shares a similarity with the human DJ-1, a multifunctional protein that is involved in transcription regulation, male fertility, and parkinsonism. The cabbage thiJ-like gene is strongly induced by salicylic acid and a nonhost pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, which elicits a hypersensitive response in Chinese cabbage. Treatment of the cabbage leaves with BTH, methyl jasmonate, or ethephon showed that the cabbage thiJ-like gene expression is also strongly induced by BTH, but not by methyl jasmonate or ethylene. This indicates that the cabbage gene is activated via a salicylic acid-dependent signaling pathway. Examination of the tissue-specific expression revealed that the induction of the cabbage gene expression by BTH occurs in the leaf, stem, and floral tissues but not in the root.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.106-112
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• 2006

In this study, the genetic diversities of multi-resistant Salmonella typhimurium (ST) isolates were analyzed via the application of both pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis methods, using 6 kinds of primers (REP, ERIC, SERE, BOX, P-1254 and OPB-17). And their discriminative abilities (DA) were also compared in order to determine the most effective and reliable analysis method. 118 S. typhimurium isolates, cultured from diverse animals and human patients in Korea beginning in 1993, were analyzed and subjected to a comparison of Simpson's index of diversity (SID), using both PFGE and PCR methods. PFGE by XbaI enzyme digestion allowed for discrimination into 9 pulsotypes, with high SID values (0.991) on the genomic DNA level. This shows that PFGE is a very discriminative genotypic tool, and also that multiple clones of S. typhimurium isolates had existed in domestic animals and humans in Korea since 1993. However, we could ultimately not to trace the definitive sources or animal reservoirs of specific S. typhimurium isolates examined in this study. Depending on the SID values, the combined method (7 kinds of method) was found to be the most discriminative method, followed by (in order) SERE-PCR, REP-PCR, ERIC-PCR, PFGE & OPB-17 (RAPD), P-1254 (RAPD), and BOX-PCR at the $80\%$ clone cut-off value. This finding suggests that the REP-PCR method (which utilizes 4 primer types) may be an alternative tool to PFGE for the genotyping of S. typhimurium isolates, with comparable cost, time, and labor requirement. The establishment of a highly reliable and discriminatory method for epidemiologic analysis is considered necessary in order for researchers to trace the sources of specific pathogens and, consequently, to control and prevent the spread of epidemic S. typhimurium isolates to humans.

• BMB Reports
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.184-187
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• 2000

Prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$) plays an important role in the regulation of various gastric functions, and the growth-inhibitory activities on tumor cells are studied in vitro and in vivo. Although the mechanisms have attracted many researchers in the past decade, the molecular mechanisms of cell cycle arrest, or induction of apoptosis by $PGE_2$, is unclear. We investigated the effects of $PGE_2$ on the growth of the human gastric carcinoma cell line SNU1 and genes that are regulated by $PGE_2$ and isolated them using differential display RT-PCR (DD RT-PCR). FACS analysis suggested that SNU1 cells were arrested at the G1 phase by $PGE_2$ treatment. This growth inhibitory effect was in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Treatment of SNU1 cells with $10\;{\mu}g/ml$ $PGE_2$, followed by DD RT-PCR analysis, revealed differently expressed bands patterns from the control. Among the differently expressed clones, we found an unidentified cDNA clone (HGP-27) overexpressed in $PGE_2$-treated cells. The full-length cDNA of HGP-27 was isolated using RACE, which consisted of a 30-nt 5'-noncoding region, a 891-nt ORF encoding the 296 amino acid protein, and a 738-nt 3'-noncoding region including a poly(a) signal. This gene was localized on the short arm of chromosome number 11. Using the Motif Finder program, a myb-DNA binding repeat signature was detected on the ORF region. The COOH-terminal half was shown to have similarity with the $NH_3$-terminal domain of thioredoxin (Trx). This relation between HGP-27 and Trx implied a potential role for HGP-27 in modulating the DNA binding function of a transcription factor, myb.

• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.244-249
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• 2011

The quality of a phage-displayed antibody library deteriorates with clonal variations, which are caused by differentially expressed Escherichia coli antibody genes. Using the human Fab SP114 against the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex-E2 (PDCE2), we created four E. coli TOP10F' clones with a pCMTG phagemid encoding Fab-pIII (pCMTG-Fab), Fd ($V_H+C_{H1}$)-pIII (pCMTG-Fd), or light chain (L) (pCMTG-L), or the vector only (pCMTG-${\Delta}Fab$) to investigate the effect of clonal variations in a defined manner. Compared to the others, the E. coli clone with pCMTG-Fab was growth retarded in liquid culture, but efficiently produced phage progenies by Ex12 helper phage superinfection. Our results suggest that an antibody library must be cultured for a short duration before helper phage superinfection, and that the Ex12 helper phage helped to alleviate the detrimental effect of clonal variation, at least in part, by preferentially increasing functional phage antibodies during phage amplification.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1995.07a
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• pp.57-86
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• 1995

Molecular mapping of plant genomes has progressed rapidly since Bostein et al.(1980) introduced the idea of constructing linkage maps of human genome based on restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers. In recent years, the development of protein and DNA markers has stimulated interest for the new approaches to plant improvement. While classical maps based on morphological mutant markers have provided important insights into the plant genetics and cytology, the molecular maps based on molecular markers have a number of inherent advatages over classical genetic maps for the applications in genetic studies and/or breeding schemes. Isozymes and DNA markers are numerous, discrete, non-deleterious, codominant, and almost entirely free of environmental and epistatic interactions. For these reasons, they are widely used in constructing detailed linkage maps in a number of plant species. Plant breeders improve crops by selecting plants with desirable phenotypes. However a plant's phenotyes is often under genetic control, positioning at different "quantitative trait loci" (QTLs) together with environmental effects. Molecular maps provide a possible way to determine the effect of the individual gene that combines to produce a quantitative trait because the segregation of a large number of markers can be followed in a single genetic cross. Using market-assisted selection, plants that contain several favorable genes for the trait and do not contain unfavourable segments can be obtained during early breeding processes. Providing molecular maps are available, valuable data relevant to the taxonomic relationships and chromosome evolution can be accumulated by comparative mapping and also the structural relationships between linkage map and physical map can be identified by cDNA sequencing. After constructing high density maps, it will be possible to clone genes, whose products are unknown, such as semidwarf and disease resistance genes. However, much attention has to be paid to level-up the basic knowledge of genetics, physiology, biochemistry, plant pathology, entomology, microbiology, and so on. It must also be kept in mind that scientists in various fields will have to make another take off by intensive cooperation together for early integration and utilization of these newly emerging high-techs in practical breeding. breeding.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.620-627
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• 2014

In the contemporary age, social environment has changed from analog to digital. As a media is developed, the public is more familiar to digital than analog. In this society, media art rises as new art. One of the most useful methods in the media art is projection mapping. In this paper, I propose a realization process of artwork 'Cloned Me' that is realized by projection mapping method. Artwork is formed by projecting image contents that are visualized a music on a steel structure. It is different from media facade that the object projected contents has a story composition. It is a strength that the object and contents are connected by story and composition. Also it can be modified each other easily for harmony because the structure is assembly-type. A face that is projected by beam projection is consist of unique structure not fixed rectangular frame. Artwork 'Cloned Me' has significance that it reflects the present age to develop digital cloning.

• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.18-18
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• 2003

In human, sudden infant death syndrome(SIDS) is synonyms for the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death of an infant. The incidence of SIDS has been estimated to be from 1 to 3%. Cloning has a relatively high rate of late abortion and early postnatal death, particularly when somatic cells are used as donors of nuclei and rates as high as 40 to 70% have been reported. However, the mechanisms for SIDS in cloned animals are not known yet. To date, few reports provide detailed information regarding phenotypic abnormality of cloned pigs. In this study, most of the cloned piglets were alive at term and readily recovered respiration. However, approximately 82% of male cloned piglets (81/22) died within a week after birth. Significant findings from histological examinations showed that 42% of somatic cloned male piglets died earlier than somatic cloned female piglets, most probably due to severe congestion of lung and liver or neutrophilic inflammation in brain, which indicates that unexpected phenotypes can appear as a result of somatic cell cloning. No anatomical defects in cloned female piglets were detected, but three of the piglets had died by diarrhea due to bacterial infection within 15 days after birth. Although most of male cloned piglets can be born normal in terms of gross anatomy, they develop phenotypic anomalies that include leydig cell hypoplasia and growth retardation post-delivery under adverse fetal environment and depigmentation of hair- and skin-color form puberty onset. This may provide a mechanism for development of multiple organ system failure in some cloned piglets. Th birth weights of male cloned pig in comparison with those of female cloned piglets are significantly reduced(0.8 vs 1.4kg) and showed longer gestational day(120 vs 114). In conclusion, brain meningitis and hepatopneumonic congestion are a major risk factor for SIDS and such pregnancy in cloned animals requires close and intensive antenatal monitoring.