• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.289-295
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• 2011

Produce, including leafy vegetables, has been implicated in several outbreaks of food illness. To evaluate microbiological safety of lettuce and it's cultivation area, a total of 147 samples were collected from lettuce farms and post harvest facility at Icheon, Gyeonggi province. The collected samples were assessed for presence of sanitary indicator microorganisms (Aerobic plate count, coliform count, Escherichia coli) and foodborne pathogens (Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus). The population of APC was over 4.0 log CFU from most of the samples. While the numbers of APC, and coliform of lettuce at 62 days after transplanting were 4.18 log CFU/g, and 1.00 log CFU/g, respectively, those of 10 days after transplanting were 5.37 log CFU/g, and 2.87 log CFU/g, respectively. B. cereus was highly detected from soil and balance which were contaminated with 3.5 log CFU/g, and 2.6 log CFU/100 $cm^2$, respectively. The number of E. coli recovered from gloves was 3.5 log CFU/hand. However, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., and L. monocytogenes were not detected. These data suggested that risk management system should be introduced to lettuce farms to enhance safety of lettuce.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.63-68
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• 2018

Purpose - Lettuce (Lactuca sativ L.) is one of the economically important vegetable crops, which worldwide market value is over 100 billion U.S. dollar. In Korea, about 89.7 kilo ton of lettuce was produced in 3400ha in 2016, recoded as No. 1 vegetable crop in domestic green house production. However, recently, domestic lettuce production and cultivation areas are all getting decreased. Thus, novel approaches are needed to be implemented to revive the production. Research design, data and methodology - In this review paper, we first prioritized the end-user traits which are imperative to positively stimulate the domestic lettuce market and discussed relevant genomics strategies. Especially, we assessed a possibility whether school meal program would be a potential niche market. Results - The genomics technologies, which become widely applied in the crop biotechnology since 2008 when next generation sequencing method was developed, may be a good solution in the crop improvement, efficiently gathering valuable information of agriculturally useful traits. Significantly, in lettuce, the high quality whole genome sequence, based on Lactuca sativa cv. Salinas, is publically available and this genomics platform, thus, would be implemented in lettuce breeding program to innovate relevant end-user traits both for the farmers and customers, including the disease resistance to the Fusarium wilt, productivity under hot weather conditions, various nutritional qualities and so forth. These improvements will boost domestic lettuce industries in the near future. Conclusions - Due to the nutritional distinctions comparing to the western style lettuces, domestic leaf lettuces could be one of the important vegetables in the school meal programs. To make it happen, we would better devise diverse recipes to make a salad with it, instead of only using as a wrap vegetable. Meanwhile, novel lettuce varieties need to be developed, which are favorable to the students and also easy to be handled with while processing. Overall, to achieve international competence in the lettuce industries, we need to create elite lettuce varieties that satisfies domestic farmers as well as customers, suitable to various niche markets, such as school meal program. Thus, efficient breeding programs using genomics approaches should be established in advance and careful monitoring on the preference of the related customers for a niche market be continued persistently.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.1301-1305
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• 2006

The development of rapid, infallible, and sensitive methods of detecting foodborne pathogens has received much impetus in recent years owing to an increased public awareness of the health hazards. For the rapid and simultaneous detection of these foodborne pathogens, a multiplex PCR method was developed. Yersinia enterocolitica, Staphylococcus aureus, and Shigella spp. are bacteria of concern because of their specific growing condition that enables them to live at low temperatures. In order to detect each pathogenic bacterium, specific primers from Y. enterocolitica, St. aureus, and Sh. flexneri were selected and validated successfully. To apply this method to food stored at low temperature, Y. enterocolitica, St. aureus, and Sh. flexneri were artificially inoculated in lettuce and incubated for enrichment. The multiplex PCR assays were able to simultaneously detect three pathogens, and the presence of three bands was observed at initial inoculation levels of approximately 1$\times$10$^1$ CFU/g in lettuce. Therefore, this method could be used for simultaneous detection of Y. enterocolitica, St. aureus, and Shigella spp. contaminated in lettuce during cultivation, transportation, preservation, and storage.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.142-146
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• 2002

The effect of potassium phosphonate ($KH_2PO_3 or $K_2 HPO_3$) on the control of Phytophthora root rot of lettuce was evaluated in a liquid hydroponic culture. Phosphonate 100 ppm strongly inhibited mycelial growth of Phytophthora species in vitro but did not affect normal growth of lettuce in a greenhouse test. Application of the chemical before infection showed over 94% control value, while it was less than 35% when applied after infection. In a field trial, phosphonate 100 ppm, which was directly supplemented into the nutrient solution, satisfactorily controlled the disease as it did not develop until 28 days after transplanting and remained at less than 2% infection rate at the end of cultivation. Meanwhile, in the control plot, the disease initiated at 7 days after transplanting and developed rapidly reaching over 70% infection rate at 28 days. Population density of the causal pathogen, R drechsleri, in a heavily infested farm was 22.0-25.0 cfu/100 ml of nutrient solution. However, it decreased to 1.3-2.0 cfu/100 ml at 7 days after treatment with phosphonate 200 ppm.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.252-260
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• 1987

Incidence of lettuce drop was observed throughout the growing season in the vinylhouse at the southern part of Korea, Kimhai. Occurrence of this disease was especially severe at the seedling stage. Number of sclerotia in surface soil $(30\times30\times5cm)$ was 22.0 at the seedling stage, and 5.3 at harvest in the infected area. Temperature for mycelial growth ranged from 5 to $30^{\circ}C$ with optimum temperature at $25^{\circ}C$. Sclerotia were formed fewer at low temperature, but their size was larger resulting in heavier dry weight than that at high temperature. The apothecia were formed from the sclerotia that were buried in March, April and September upto 3cm soil depth, but formed from those buried only 1 em soil depth in October. Sclerotia buried in June and December did not form apothecia regardless of soil depth by 90 days. The sclerotia buried in the 5cm of soil depth did not form apothecia. Sclerotia that were embedded in wet or flooded soil at $25^{\circ}C$ and $30^{\circ}C$ for 5 weeks lost their viability. Infection of lettuce was possible with mycelia originated from sclerotia on autoclaved lettuce plant fragments. The fungus was pathogenic on 25 plant species in 8 families in artificial inoculation tests. Lettuce seedlings appeared to be infected by airborne ascospore originated from sclerotia on crops and weeds around paddy fields, because sclerotia existing in soil might perish under long flood conditions during rice cultivation.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2018

This study was conducted to evaluate the microbiological safety of leafy vegetables (perilla leaf and lettuce) in relation to cultivation methods. A total of 2,304 samples were collected from plants, harvesting tools and soil mulching film during the production and harvest stages from organic- and conventional- farms. From the samples, sanitary indicator microorganisms (total aerobic bacteria, coliforms, E. coli., Environmental Listeria, and yeast and mold) and pathogenic microorganisms (S. aureus, B. cereus, Salmonella spp., Clostridium spp., and L. monocytogenes) were analyzed. In the production stage of leafy vegetables, the sanitary indicator microorganisms was not detected regardless of cultivation method or it was detected to be less than $3.4\;Log\;CFU/100cm^2$. B. cereus and S. aureus were found to be 0.22~1.55 Log CFU/g in perilla leaf and lettuce produced by organic farms, and S. aureus was not detected and B. cereus was found to be 0.42~2.19 Log CFU/g in conventional farms. There were no significant differences between two cultivation methods. In the harvesting tools and soil mulching film, the contamination levels of sanitary indicator microorganisms and pathogenic microorganisms was low regardless of the cultivation method. However, there was a positive correlation ($R^2=0.4526$) in that the higher the microbial contamination level in the harvesting tool, the higher the microbial contamination on the surface of the plant. In addition, sanitary indicator microorganisms and pathogenic microorganisms were not detected or low in soil mulching during the production of organic leafy vegetables. As a result of this study, microbial hygiene control by soil mulching and harvesting tools was more important than difference of cultivation method in production of leafy vegetables.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2017

Tetracycline (TC) groups, widely used veterinary antibiotics, can enter into environment through animal manure application. TC forms a ligand complex with multivalent metal cations via chelation that can affect sorption and mobility of TC in soil. So far, however, it has been confirmed through the reaction of the soil outside in the aqueous solution and the evaluation of the performance in the soil cultivation process is insufficient. The purpose of this study was to examine effects of copper on TC toxicity to lettuce growth. In this research, $750mg\;kg^{-1}$ of TC and 2.5, 7.5, $17.5mg\;kg^{-1}$ of Cu are treated in soil and lettuce was cultivated in the treated soil. Growth difference of lettuce by treatment was observed. As a result, $750mg\;kg^{-1}$ of TC treated soil showed toxic effect to lettuce and the effect is alleviated by copper treatment.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2018

The veterinary antibiotics treated to livestock have a potential risk to reach to soil and water environment, and eventually be taken up by plants. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of zeolite and shell meal fertilizer amendment on antibiotic uptake by plant when veterinary antibiotics in chicken manure compost were applied to agricultural land. Model antibiotics used in the study were chlortetracycline (CTC), tylosin (TYL), and sulfamethazine (SMT). Chlortetracycline level in lettuce was decreased to less than $0.08ug\;kg^{-1}$ by application of zeolite as compared with about $0.26ug\;kg^{-1}$ for control without amendment on 33 days after transplanting. Tylosin was not detected for all the treatment. Sulfamethazine levels in lettuce ranged from 11 to $19{\mu}g\;kg^{-1}$ on a fresh weight basis and gradually decreased with time. Zeolite application decreased the SMT levels in lettuce by greater extent than shell meal fertilizer amendments. Results from the 61-d greenhouse experiment imply that application of zeolite at a rate of $1.5Mg\;ha^{-1}$ or shell meal fertilizer at a rate of $2.0Mg\;ha^{-1}$ can reduce CTC and SMT concentration in lettuce cultivated in soil fertilized with antibiotic-contaminated chicken manure compost.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.146-155
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• 2016

The field feasibility tests for a phytoextraction process were performed to identify the effect of citric acid as a chelate on the uranium (U) transfer into the plant for the naturally U contaminated soil in Duckpyeongri, Korea. For the feasibility tests, lettuce and Chinese cabbage were cultivated for 49 days on four testing grounds ($1m{\times}1m{\times}0.5m$ in each) in 2016. The citric acid solution was added to two testing grounds (one for lettuce and the other for Chinese cabbage) increasing the U transfer in two crop plants and their results were compared to those without the citric acid solution. When without the citric acid solution, the U concentration of plant after the cultivation was low (< $45{\mu}g/kg$ for leaves and < $450{\mu}g/kg$ for roots). However, with the addition of 50 mM citric acid solution, the U concentration of lettuce leaves and roots increased by 24 times and 1.8 times, and the U concentration of Chinese cabbage leaves and roots increased by 86.7 times and 5.4 times. The absolute accumulated U amount (${\mu}g$) in lettuce and Chinese cabbage also increased by 8.7 times and 50 times, compared to those without citric acid solution. Less than 8% of the U amount of exchangeable/carbonate phases was removed by using the lettuce and Chinese cabbage when the citric acid solution was not applied. However 52% and 66% of the U amount in exchangeable/carbonate phases were removed by the lettuce and the Chinese cabbage when the citric acid solution was added. The effect of the citric acid on the U transfer capability into the plants was quantitatively investigated by the field feasibility test, suggesting that U existing as exchangeable/carbonate phase in soil can be successfully removed by the phytoextraction process using Chinese cabbage with citric acid.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2008

Powdery mildew of lettuce that is a newly reported disease became a threat to organic cultivation of lettuce in Korea since the disease caused by Podosphaera fusca resulted in a half of yield loss in heavily infected fields. To improve micro-environmental conditions around lettuce, ACF (air-circulation fan) was installed on inside roof of plastic house at 6 m intervals. The ACF increased 57% of lettuce yield and reduced 71.4% of lettuce seedling death. COY (cooking oil and yolk mixture) consisted of cooking oil 0.3% and egg yolk 0.08% reduced lettuce seedling death from 89.3% to 92.9% under the greenhouse. Seven-day interval spray of COY resulted in high control values of powdery mildew of lettuce ranging from 89.6% to 96.3%, which was comparable to a fungicide, Azoxystrobin. Lettuce yield was increased about two times compared to a non-treated conventional cultivation. Qualities of lettuce such as hardness and chlorophyll content were also improved by COY and ACF combination. Effect of COY on control of the disease was improved when $CaCO_3$ or $SiO_2$ 1,000 ppm was supplemented. Results indicated that the COY made of cooking oil such as canola emulsified with yolk was highly effective on control of powdery mildew of lettuce and suitable for organic agriculture, especially when combined with ACF.