• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.851-865
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• 2018

This study investigated the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in slaughterhouses, and determined serovars and genotypes, and antibiotic resistance of the isolates obtained from slaughterhouses and humans in Korea. Two hundred ninety samples were collected from feces (n=136), carcasses [n=140 (cattle: n=61, swine: n=79)], and washing water (n=14) in nine slaughterhouses. Eleven human isolates were obtained from hospitals and the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Listeria monocytogenes was enriched and identified, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 16S rRNA sequencing. Serovars and presence of virulence genes were determined, and genetic correlations among the isolates were evaluated by the restriction digest patterns of AscI. Antibiotic resistance of L. monocytogenes isolates were examined against 12 different antibiotics. Of 290 slaughterhouse samples, 15 (5.17%) carcass samples were L. monocytogenes positive. Most L. monocytogenes isolates possessed all the virulence genes, while polymorphisms in the actA gene were found between carcass and human isolates. Serovars 1/2a (33.3%) and 1/2b (46.7%) were the most frequent in carcass isolates. Genetic correlations among the isolates from carcass and clinical isolates were grouped within serotypes, but there were low geographical correlations. Most L. monocytogenes isolates were antibiotic resistant, and some strains showed resistance to more than four antibiotics. These results indicate that L. monocytogenes are isolated from carcass and human in Korea, and they showed high risk serotypes and antibiotic resistance. Therefore, intensive attentions are necessary to be aware for the risk of L. monocytogenes in Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.798-802
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• 2010

Recently, a total of 74 Staphylococcus pseudintermedius isolates were collected from clinical cases of canine pyoderma and otitis externa in Korea. In this study, we examined in vitro fluoroquinolone resistance among those isolates using a standard disc diffusion technique. The results demonstrated that, except for one isolate, approximately 18.9% to 27.0% of the isolates possessed bacterial resistance to both veterinary- and human-licensed fluoroquinolones including moxifloxacin (18.9% resistance), levofloxacin (20.3% resistance), ofloxacin (24.3% resistance), ciprofloxacin (25.7% resistance), and enrofloxacin (27.0% resistance). Most surprisingly, 14 out of 74 (18.9%) isolates were resistant to all the five fluoroquinolones evaluated. Moreover, a PCR detection of the methicillin resistance gene (mecA) among the 74 isolates revealed that 13 out of 25 (52.0%) mecApositive isolates, but only 7 out of 49 (14.3%) mecA-negative isolates, were resistant to one or more fluoroquinones. Taken together, our results imply that bacterial resistance to both veterinary- and human-use fluoroquinolones becomes prevalent among the S. pseudintermedius isolates from canine pyoderma and otitis externa in Korea, as well as that the high prevalence of the mecA-positive S. pseudintermedius isolates carrying multiple fluoroquinolones resistance could be a potential public health problem.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.106-113
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• 2002

One-hundred and twenty-four trimethoprim-resistant Shigella sonnei isolates extracted in Korea during the last two decades were investigated for their epidemiological relationship and mechanisms of resistance to trimethoprim. The S. sonnei isolates were distributed into two groups by three different epidemiological tools: biotyping, antibiogram, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. One group contained the isolates from the 1980s and the other group included the isolates from the 1990s. The geometric mean MICs of trimethoprim in S. sonnei isolates from the 1980s and 1990s were found to be $672.9{\mu}g/ml\;and\;>2,048{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. Trimethoprim resistance was associated with dfrA5, dfrA12, and dfrA13 genes in the isolates from the 1980s, dfrA1, dfrA5, and dfrA12 in the isolates from 1991, and dfrA1 and dfrA12 in the isolates from 1992 to 1999. The dfrA1 gene was located downstream of the intI2 gene in Tn7, which was located on chromosome. Some dfrA12 genes were found as gene cassettes in the class 1 integron. The dfrA5 and dfrA13 genes were located on conjugative plasmids. These results suggested that a clonal change occurred in S. sonnei isolates in Korea during the last two decades and that dfr genes located on different transposable genetic elements had gradually changed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.751-758
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• 2003

Mutations in the rdxA gene had been reported to be associated with metronidazole resistance in Helicobacter pylori. In this study, sensitivity to metronidazole, RAPD profiles, and DNA sequences of the rdxA gene of 32 local H. pylori isolates were analyzed. Of these, 13 were found to be resistant, while 19 were sensitive to metronidazole. Among the 32 isolates, 10 were paired isolates from the antrum and body of the stomach of individual patients. Interestingly, the RAPD profiles of isolates from individual patients were distinctly different from each other, whereas paired isolates from the same patient were identical regardless of their sensitivities to metronidazole. DNA sequences of the rdxA gene of all 32 isolates showed 95% to 97% homology when compared with the HP0954 locus of H. pylori 26695 genome. From the 19 metronidazole-sensitive strains, 10 (with $MIC{\le}0.5\;\mu\textrm{g}/ml$ metronidazole) were selected and induced to become metronidazole resistant by sequentially passaging through serial 2-fold increasing concentrations of metronidazole. Nine of the 10 induced paired isolates showed mutations in the rdxA sequences which resulted in truncated protein or changes in the translated amino acid sequences. However, the changes did not occur at any specific site in the DNA or amino acid sequences of the rdxA gene of all the isolates analyzed. The results show that the rdxA gene cannot be a definitive marker for metronidazole resistance in H. pylori isolates of an Asian population, and that other factors may contribute to resistance to metronidazole.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.207-213
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• 2005

Cultural, morphological and pathogenic variation in Indian isolates of Ascochyta rabiei, the causal agent of blight of chickpea, was investigated. Fungal isolates representative of seven agroclimatic regions in north western plain zones (NWPZ) of India showed variation in colony colour as mouse gray with green hue, light mouse gray with slate gray centre and gray with dark brown centre, when grown on chickpea dextrose agar (CDA). Conidiomatal color of the isolates varied from brown to slate gray and black. The number of conidiomata and conidia formed on CDA ranged from 49.7 to 90.7 and $5.5\times10^4\;to\;3\times10^5cm^{-2}$, respectively. The size of conidiomata and conidia of A. rabiei isolates varied from $274\times232{\mu}m\;to\;156\times116{\mu}m$, and from $14.0\times6.2{\mu}m\;to\;10.7\times4.6{\mu}m$, respectively. Fourteen A. rabiei isolates from the seven agroclimatic regions of NWPZ were evaluated for their virulence on 180 chickpea genotypes in controlled environment. Cluster analysis based on the disease rating on a 1-9 scale indicated higher similarity coefficient (> 0.65) between isolates from different agroecological regions, while few isolates from the same region had less similarity. The 14 isolates were grouped into eight pathotypes at > 0.5 similarity coefficient. Sixteen genotypes were identified as probable differentials to distinguish A. rabiei isolates.

• Mycobiology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.215-222
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• 2005

Variability in growth and sporulation of five isolates of Arthrobotrys dactyloides was studied on five agar, 6 bran and 5 grain media. Potato dextrose agar (PDA) supported maximum growth of isolate A, C and E, while growth of isolate Band D was significantly lower on this medium. On Czapek's agar and yeast glucose agar media the differentiation in the isolates in relation to growth was poor than PDA. The other two media showed much poorer differentiation. On Czapek's agar medium, sporulation was recorded in isolate B only, whereas other isolates showed rare sporulation. Among the bran media, pea bran agar medium supported maximum growth of all the isolates except isolate B. Gram and rice bran agar media were next best. However, the growth of isolate B on the gram bran agar medium was more or less equal as other isolates. On pigeon pea bran agar medium, isolate E failed to grow while other isolates recorded poor growth. On lentil bran agar medium, only isolate Band D recorded little growth, whereas other isolates failed to grow. All the isolates recorded good sporulation on bran agar media except pigeon pea and lentil bran agar media. The grain agar media supported moderate to very good growth of all the isolates. In general isolate B remained slow growing on these media except gram grain and sorghum grain agar media on which growth of this isolate was comparable to other isolates. Sporulation in general, was good on all the grain agar media. Among different substrates screened, barley grain and pea bran were found superior to others for mass culture of isolate A of A. dactyloides.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.173-179
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• 1999

As a result of PCR-RFLP, the isolates used in this study were classified into five groups. Isolates 1 and 3 were included in AG-5 with 97% genetic similarity. Isolates 12 and 13 were included in AG-1 wilh 100% genetic similarily. Isolates 10 and AG-2-2 showed 97% similarity Isolates 7, 8, 11. 13, and 15 were included in AG-1. When isolates of 4, 5, 7 and 8 were restricted with Hae I. there was a single 700 bp fragment matched with AG-1. A 517 bp restriction fragment of isolate 9 was matched with AG-2-1. Based on the result of southem hybridization of genomic DNAs, all isolates restricted with Msp I showed more variable restriction differences than those restricted with Hae Ill. Isolates AG-2-1 and 9 showed 200 bp restriction fragment, and isolates 3 and AG-1 showed 1 kb restriction fragments.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.229-236
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• 1999

In order to refer to the basic information regarding the identification of isolates obtained from a contact lens container in Korea, the isoelectric focusing gel electrophoresis was employed to compare the isoenzyme band patterns among Acanthamoeba spp. including eight isolates and the simple pairwise dissimilarity analysis was carried out. For an alkaline phosphate development, isolate 7 and Acanthamoeba polyphaga showed homologous band patterns, and isolates 1, 2, and 3 showed the same patterns. For lactate dehydrogenase, similar patterns were observed in isolates 2 and 3. Isolates 3 and 5 showed homologous band patterns for malate dehydrogenase and glucose phosphate isomerase. For hexokinase, isolates 4, 7, and A. hatchetti showed the same band patterns. In others, a considerable number of interstrain polymorphisms was observed in nine isoenzyme band patterns. In Acanthamoeba group II, genetic distances among isolates 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 ranged from 0.104 to 0.200. In comparison to A. castellanii, A. hatchetti, and A. poIyphaga, genetic distances of isolates 7 and 8 were 0.254 and 0.219, respectively. In Acanthamoeba group III, including A. culbertsoni, A. healyi, and A. royreba, isolate 6 had genetic distances which ranged from 0.314 to 0.336. Finally, when comparing to the six reference Acanthamoeba, it was possible to classify isolates 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, as genetically close-related species and as independent species group. Furthermore, isolates 6, 7 and 8 were identified as independent species as well.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.67-73
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• 2000

This study was carried out to elucidate the preliminary ecosystem of the heterotrophic bacterial flora in Kunsan Bay located in western costal area of Korea. Samples were collected at 5 sampling stations. Among 123 bacterial isolates, 9 genera of bacteria were appeared as follows; Vibrio spp.(44 isolates/35.7%), Pseudomonas spp.(42 isolates/34.1%), Aeromonas spp.(11 isolates/8.9%), Moraxella spp.(9 isolates/7.3%), Enterobacteria spp.(6 isolates/4.8%), Bordetella spp.(3 isolates/2.4%), Alkaligenesis spp.(3 isolates/2.4%), Flavobacterium spp.(2 isolates/1.6%), and Staphylococcus spp.(3 isolates/2.4%) respectively. Total viable heterotrophic bacteria was ranged from $5{\times}10^3$ to $1{\times}10^5$ CFU/ml and the most abundant viable counts of bacterial population were showed at the stations 2 and 3. This result indicates that the coastal area around Kunsan bay is getting to contaminate far more by municipal wastewaters and industrial byproducts. and so the outbreak of the bacterial diseases will be increased in fish farms.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2001

Occurrence of Fusarium wilt was surveyed in fields of cruciferous vegetable crops in Korea from 1996 to 1998. The disease severely occurred up to 40% in fields of Chinese cabbage and radish but slightly in Fields of cabbage. A total of 123 isolates was obtained from roots of the diseased plants and identified as Fusarium oxysporum based on the morphological and cultural characteristics. Pathogenicity of nine isolates selected from the isolates was tested by artificial inoculation to the hosts. All the isolates had similar virulence on Chinese cabbage and cabbage, although there were some differences in virulence on cultivars tested among the isolates. The isolates from radish were more virulent to radish than those from Chinese cabbage and cabbage. All isolates from the crucifers were not virulent to eight species of vegetable crops except the crucifers. The results of pathogenicity tests showed that the pathotype of Chinese cabbage-infecting isolates was identical to that of cabbage-infecting isolates, but somewhat different from that of radish-infecting isolates.