• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.252-256
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• 2013

We tested the possibility of utilizing Korea domestic wheat (winter wheat variety "keumkangmil") as a source of vinegar production. After saccharification of the whole-wheat flour with wheat malt, the saccharized liquid undergoes alcoholic fermentation, followed by acetic fermentation. Acetic acid bacterium A8, which showed the highest acetic acid production (4.56%) with domestic wheat as substrate, was selected from conventional vinegars. The strain A8 was identified as Acetobacter pasteurianus A8 through phylogenetic study using 16S rDNA sequencing analysis. The optimal condition for the malt enzyme was found to be $15^{\circ}C$ for germination periods of 6 days; its amylase activity was 608.4 U. Acetic acid production from domestic wheat substrate supplemented with 5% ethyl alcohol reached 5.8% after 24 days of static fermentation at $30^{\circ}C$ with a seeding rate of 5%.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.249-263
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• 2017

This study aims to examine the potential reasons for the current prevalence of the fusarium wilt in the oriental melon. Twenty-seven Fusarium isolates obtained from oriental melon greenhouses in 2010-2011 were identified morphologically and by analysis of elongation factor-1 alpha gene (EF-$1{\alpha}$) and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA sequences as 6 Fusarium species (8 isolates of F. oxysporum, 8 F. commune, 5 F. proliferatum, 3 F. equiseti, 2 F. delphinoides, and 1 F. andiyazi), which were classified as same into 6 EF-$1{\alpha}$ sequence-based phylogenetic clades. Pathogenicity of the Fusarium isolates on the oriental melon was highest in F. proliferatum, next in F. oxysporum and F. andiyazi, and lowest in the other Fusarium species tested, suggesting F. proliferatum and F. oxysporum were major pathogens of the oriental melon, inducing stem rots and vascular wilts, respectively. Oriental melon and watermelon were more susceptible to F. oxysporum than shintosa and cucumber; and cucumber was most, oriental melon and watermelon, medially, and shintosa was least susceptible to F. proliferatum, whose virulence varied among and within their phylogenetic subclades. Severe root-knot galls were formed on all the crops infected with Meloidogyne incognita; however, little indication of vascular wilts or stem and/or root rots was shown by the nematode infection. These results suggest the current fungal disease in the oriental melon may be rarely due to virulence changes of the fusarium wilt pathogen and the direct cause of the severe root-knot nematode infection, but may be potentially from other Fusarium pathogen infection that produces seemingly wilting caused by severe stem rotting.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.48-52
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• 2020

In July 2019, typical rot symptom was observed on peach fruits harvested from the fields at Andong, Korea. As the disease progressed, white and purple colored mycelial mat developed on the surface of the infected fruits. A causal pathogen was isolated from the infected fruit and cultured on potato dextrose agar media for identification. Fungal colonies on potato dextrose agar produced 3 pigments, including purple, yellow, and white colors. The isolate incited fruit rot symptoms on artificially inoculated peach fruits, from which the same fungus was isolated, fulfilling Koch's postulates. Based on the morphological characteristics and sequence analysis of rDNA internal transcribed spacer, translation elongation factor 1-alpha, and β-tubulin, the causal agent of the disease was identified as Fusarium avenaceum. This study is the first report of fruit rot of peach fruits caused by Fusarium avenaceum in Korea.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.257-264
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• 2009

Gardenia yellow, extracted from gardenia fruit, has been widely used as a coloring agent for foods, and thus, safety of its usage is of prime importance. In the current study, short-term genotoxicity assays were conducted to evaluate the potential genotoxic effects of gardenia yellow. The gardenia yellow used was found to contain 0.057 mg/g of genipin, a known biologically active compound of the gardenia fruit extract. Ames test did not reveal any positive results. No clastogenicity was detected by a chromosomal aberration test, even on evaluation at the highest feasible concentration of gardenia yellow. Gardenia yellow was also shown to be non-genotoxic using an in vitro comet assay and a micronucleus test with L5178Y cells, although a marginal increase in DNA damage and micronuclei frequency was reported in the respective assays. Additionally, in vivo micronucleus test results clearly demonstrated that oral administration of gardenia yellow did not induce micronuclei formation in the bone marrow cells of male ICR mice. Taken together, our results indicate that gardenia yellow is not mutagenic to bacterial cells, and that it does not cause chromosomal damage in mammalian cells, either in vitro or in vivo.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4553-4557
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• 2013

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify genes related to bladder cancer with samples from normal and disease cases by microarray chip. Methods: After downloading the gene expression profile GSE3167 from Gene Expression Omnibus database which includes 50 bladder samples, comprising 9 normal and 41 disease samples, differentially expressed genes were identified with packages in R language. The selected differentially expressed genes were further analyzed using bioinformatics methods. Firstly, molecular functions, biological processes and cell component analysis were researched by software Gestalt. Then, software String was used to search interaction relationships among differentially expressed genes, and hub genes of the network were selected. Finally, by using plugins of software Cytoscape, Mcode and Bingo, module analysis of hub-genes was performed. Results: A total of 221 genes were identified as differentially expressed by comparing normal and disease bladder samples, and a network as well as the hub gene C1QBP was obtained from the network. The C1QBP module had the closest relationship to production of molecular mediators involved in inflammatory responses. Conclusion: We obtained differentially expressed genes of bladder cancer by microarray, and both PRDX2 and YWHAZ in the module with hub gene C1QBP were most significantly related to production of molecular mediators involved in inflammatory responses. From knowledge of inflammatory responses and cancer, our results showed that, the hub gene and its module could induce inflammation in bladder cancer. These related genes are candidate bio-markers for bladder cancer diagnosis and might be helpful in designing novel therapies.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.146-152
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• 2004

Ghrelin is an acylated peptide recently identified as the endogenous ligand for the growth hormone (GH) secretagogues receptor 1a (GHS-R1a) and is involved in a novel system for regulating GH release. To understand the long-term effects of ghrelin, here we constructed six myogenic expression vectors containing the cDNA of swine mature ghrelin (pGEM-wt-sGhln, pGEM-wt-hGhln), ghrelin mutant of $Ser^3$ with $Trp^3$ (pGEM-mt-sGhln, pGEM-mt-hGhln) and truncated ghrelin derivative (pGEM-tmtsGhln, pGEM-tmt-hGhln) encompassing the first 7 residues of ghrelin (including $Ser^3$ substituted with $Trp^3$) and adding a basic amino acid, Lys (K) in the C-terminus. The constructs, pGEM-wt-sGhln, pGEM-mt-sGhln and pGEM-tmt-sGhln were linked with the ghrelin leader sequence, while the pGEM-wt-hGhln, pGEM-mt-hGhln and pGEM-tmt-hGhln were linked with a leader sequence from the human growth hormone releasing hormone (hGHRH). Intramuscular injection of 200 ${\mu}g$ pGEM-wt-sGhln or pGEM-tmt-sGhln augmented growth over 3 weeks in normal rats and peaked at day 21 or 14 post-injection respectively, whose body weight gains were on average approximately 6% or 19% heavier over controls. However, other injectable vectors had no such enhanced growth effects. Our results suggested that the efficacy of the ghrelin leader sequence was more effective than that of hGHRH in our system. Moreover, the results indicated that skeletal muscle might have the ability to posttranslationally modify the in vivo expressed ghrelin. And the most strikingly, the short ghrelin analog seems to mimic the biological effects more efficiently when compared with the full-length ghrelin.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.199-204
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• 2002

A microsporidium, from cabbage white bntteflies, Pieris rapae, collected in Korea, was purified and characterized according to its gene structure, spore morphology and pathogenicity. From the observation of the isolate by SEM and TEM, the endospores, exospores and nuclei, about 12 polar filament coils of the polar tube and posterior vacuoles were all identified. The nucleotide sequence was determined for a portion of genomic DNA which spans the V4 variable region of the small subunit rRNA gene. Comparison with the GenBank database for 15 other microsporidia species suggests that this isolate is most closely related to Nosema species. The pathogenicity against cabbage white butterflies was quantified by inoculating variable doses of spores to the second instar larvae. Peroral inoculation at a dosage of 10$\^$8/ spores/ml resulted in the death of all larvae prior to adult eclosion, but at lower spore dosages of 10$\^$4/-10$\^$5/ spores/ml, many adults successfully emerged. The median lethal dose (LD$\_$50/) was deter-mined to be 4.6$\times$10$\^$6/ spores/ml and the isolate also transmitted transovarially to the progeny eggs at a frequency of 92%.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2192-2198
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• 2016

The myeloid-specific IgA Fc receptor ($Fc{\alpha}R$) is a cell surface molecule on immunocytes that provides a fundamental connection between humoral and cellular immunity. In this study, the full-length cDNA sequence of swine $Fc{\alpha}RI$ ($swFc{\alpha}RI$) was isolated and characterized and found to contain a 792-base-pair open reading frame, encoding a 264-amino-acid transmembrane glycoprotein with a predicted molecular mass of 29.4 kDa. The $swFc{\alpha}RI$ shares high amino acid sequence homology (>50%) with its counterparts from cattle, seal, and horse. Rosetting analysis confirmed that COS-7 cells transfected with an $swFc{\alpha}RI$ expression plasmid was able to combine with chicken erythrocytes sensitized with porcine IgA, but not IgG.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.182-187
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• 2004

Strain NR $15-1^T$ isolated from traditional Korean Nuruk is described as a new species and named as Aspergillus coreanus NR $15-1^T$ sp. novo Strain NR $15-1^T$ grew rapidly to form yellow-green colonies whose surfaces were velvety on Czapek solution agar. Conidial heads were yellow to light and elliptical, whereas the conidiophore was colorless and typically long. In addition, vesicles were from flask-shaped to globose, and sterigmata are uniseriate. Conidia were spherical and deep yellow-green, and their surfaces were lightly roughened. The G＋C content of strain NR $15-1^T$ was 51 mol% and strain NR $15-1^T$contained a dihydrogenated ubiquinone with Q9 (94.9%) as a major quinone. The nucleotide sequences of strain NR $15-1^T$ in the two Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS 1 and 2) and 5.8S rDNA showed highest similarity when compared with that of A. tubingensis and A. phoenicis NRRL $365^T$. However, based on morphological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, this strain was different from A. tubingensis and A. phoenicis NRRL $365^T$. On the basis of the data presented, it is proposed that strain NR $15-1^T$ should be placed in the genus Aspergillus as a new species, Aspergillus coreanus sp. novo Therefore, the type strain of the new species is strain NR $15-1^T$ (=KCTC 18075P^T,=KCCM 80006^T$.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.88-93
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• 2009

In 2008, leaf rot and blight on pepper seeding ("Dokya-chungchung") occurred in a pepper farm at Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. The typical symptom is water-soaking and dark brown leaf blight at edges and tips of leaves. The fungal colonies isolated from infected tissues were pinkish at first and turned gradually to gray. Conidia were fusiform, non-septum, and $8.1-17.0{\times}2.0-3.8{\mu}m$ in size. Several specific PCR primers derived from the sequence of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rDNA, such as CaINT, CgINT and CcINT were used for the identification of the fungal pathogen. The C. acutatum-specific primer CaINT was amplified single fragment of 496 bp that discriminated C. acutatum from the other species. The pathogenicity test was performed on seedlings and fruits of red pepper. On the basis of the morphological, molecular characteristics and pathogenicity test, we identified as Colletotrichum acutatum. This is the first report on leaf rot and blight on pepper seedling caused by C. acutatum in Korea.