• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2017

Nitrate ($NO_3^-$), a common surface water and groundwater pollutant, poses a serious environmental problem in regions with intensive agricultural activities and dense population. It is thus important to identify the source of nitrate contamination to better manage water quality. Due to the distinct isotope compositions of nitrate among different origins, the dual isotope analysis (${\delta}^{15}N$ and ${\delta}^{18}O$) of nitrate has been widely applied to track contamination sources. This paper provided the underlying backgrounds in the isotope analysis of nitrate, which included typical ranges of ${\delta}^{15}N$ and ${\delta}^{18}O$ from various nitrate sources, isotope fractionation, the analytical methods used to concentrate nitrate from samples, and the potential limitations of the dual isotope analysis along with the resolutions. To enhance the applicability of the dual isotope analysis as well as increase the ability to interpret field data, this paper also introduced several case studies. Furthermore, other environmental tracers including ${\delta}^{11}B$ and $Cl^-/Br^-$ ratios were discussed to accompany the dual isotope analysis for better assignment of contamination sources even when microbial transformation of nitrate and/or mixing between contaminant plumes occur.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.266-272
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• 2012

Hyperglycemia or high glucose (HG), is the hallmark of diabetes, known to induce oxidative stress, release of chemokines, and cytokines, which confer endothelial cell damage. On the other hand, microbial transformation of organic materials often leads to certain changes in their product structures which could enhance their biological activities. The aim of this study was to investigate the beneficial effects of fermented Gastrodia elata (FGE) in HG induced human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) dysfunction. GE, fermented by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which has an extensive history of safe use, exhibited higher phenolic compounds content than those of Gastrodia elata (GE). The HG-induced production of nitric oxide (NO) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) were significantly attenuated by FGE pretreatment to the cells, in a concentration dependent manner. In addition, FGE showed marked activity in free radical scavenging. These results suggest that FGE possesses beneficial effects in protecting against the oxidative stress, and inflammatory conditions in endothelial cells, caused by HG.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.341-347
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• 2007

Chinese milk vetch (CMV) is a winter legume that is commonly used as cover crop in Korea. Kill date of cover crop for addition into soil affects N content in cover crop and N availability in soil. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of CMV as green manure cover crop according to kill dates before growing corn without artificial fertilizer. Top of CMV cut three times on 13 April, 27 April, and 11 May were added into soil at a rate of 600 kg per 10a. Sugar content in CMV litter was persistently decreased from mid-April to late-May. The decrease of sugar content might be due to the transformation into starch and/or other storage or structural constituents. The decreased amount of sugars was greater than 12% and the increased amount of starch was less than 0.2%. Concentration of $NH_4^+$ in soil treated by CMV litter cut on May 11 was slightly higher than that in the treatment with early-cut (April 13) CMV, the concentration at 28 and 49 DAT (days after treatment) was higher in the treatment with late-cut CMV litter. Regardless of cut (kill) date of CMV, the phosphatase activity in the treatment of CMV litter was higher compared to the untreated control. Soil dehydrogenase activity was increased steadily by addition of CMV litter implying total microbial activities in the soil were increased. Our results demonstrate that the status of cover crop species at kill date is an important factor influencing soil enzyme activities derived from microorganisms. Therefore, the optimal kill date of cover crop should be examined to improve the efficiency of cover crop as green manure crop regarding the practical sequence in cropping system.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 1993

To investigate the organic matter transformation in aquatic environment, seasonal fluctuations of heterotrophic activity and microbia] extracellular enzyme activity were studied in Paldang Lake, Korea. The turnover time in the water column and the sediment at the station I fluctuated between 3 -I ,300 hrs and 17-170 hrs for glucose, 5 -1.900 hrs and 15-240 hrs for protein hydrolysate and 4-350 hrs and 15-230 hrs for acetic acid, respectively, indicating that the seasonal turnover time of organic substrates fluctuated drastically. The respiration ratios of glucose. protein hydrolysate and acetate were 23-32%, 38-41% and 22-28% in the water column and 34%, 61% and 41% in the sediment. respectively. These results showed that the respiration ratios in the sediment were higher than those in the water column regardless of kinds of organic substrates. The bacterial extracellular enzyme activities of $\alpha$-glucosidase. $\beta$-glucosidase, N-acetyl-$\beta$-D-glucosaminidase and aminopeptidase were 32-44%. 31-32%, 18-34% and 61-67% in the water column, and 34%. 40%, 23% and 65% in the sediment. respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.301-310
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• 2012

Prosopis juliflora and Parthenium hysterophorus are the two arid, exotic weeds of India that are characterized by distinct, profuse growth even in nutritionally poor soils and environmentally stressed conditions. Owing to the exceptional growth nature of these two plants, they are believed to harbor some novel bacterial communities with wide adaptability in their rhizosphere. Hence, in the present study, the bacterial communities associated with the rhizosphere of Prosopis and Parthenium were characterized by clonal 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The culturable microbial counts in the rhizosphere of these two plants were higher than bulk soils, possibly influenced by the root exudates of these two plants. The phylogenetic analysis of V1_V2 domains of the 16S rRNA gene indicated a wider range of bacterial communities present in the rhizosphere of these two plants than in bulk soils and the predominant genera included Acidobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Bacteriodetes in the rhizosphere of Prosopis, and Acidobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and Nitrospirae in the Parthenium rhizosphere. The diversity of bacterial communities was more pronounced in the Parthenium rhizosphere than in the Prosopis rhizosphere. This culture-independent bacterial analysis offered extensive possibilities of unraveling novel microbes in the rhizospheres of Prosopis and Parthenium with genes for diverse functions, which could be exploited for nutrient transformation and stress tolerance in cultivated crops.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.527-532
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• 2009

Lignocellulose represents a key sustainable source of biomass for transformation into biofuels and bio-based products. Unfortunately, lignocellulosic biomass is highly recalcitrant to biotransformation, both microbial and enzymatic, which limits its use and prevents. As a result, effective pretreatment strategies are necessary. The vast majority of pretreatment strategies have focused on achieving a reduction of lignin content. In this work, an ethanosolv pretreatment has been evaluated for extracting lignin from barley straw. 75% ethanol was used as a pretreatment solvent to extract lignin from barley straw. The influence on delignification of three independent variables are temperature, time, catalyst (1 M $H_2SO_4$) dose. The best pretreatment condition observed was $180^{\circ}C$, 120 min, 0.2% $H_2SO_4$ and delignification was 38%. A combined roasting and ethanosolv, 2-step pretreatment, was developed in order to improve the delignification. Roasting didn't increase the delignification but reduced the pretreatment time. X-ray diffraction results indicated that these physical changes enhance the enzymatic digestibility in the ethanosolv treated barley straw. The cellulose in the pretreated barley straw becomes more crystalline without undergoing ethanosolv.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2016

As of many organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls are ubiquitous organic contaminants, which can be found in the most environmental matrices. Their toxic effects include endocrinedisrupting activity. Most researches with these toxicants performed with mixtures of congeners, namely Aroclor and related study has been done in complex environmental matrix, rather than single biosystems or pure congeners. 5 congeners were synthesized and their fates in pure microbial culture (Aspergillus niger) were determined in this study. Among biphenyl and synthetic congeners, biphenyl, PCB-1 (2-chlorobiphenyl), and PCB-3 (4-chlorobiphenyl) were rapidly transformed to hydrophilic metabolites, followed by PCB-38 (3,4,5-trichlorobiphenyl), while the degradation of PCB-126 (3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl) was not observed. The amounts of transformation for biphenyl, PCB-1, PCB-3, and PCB-38 were 65, 38, 52, and 2% respectively. The major metabolites of the above congeners were identified as mono- and di-hydroxy biphenyls, which are known to give adverse endocrinological effects.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.770-774
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• 2020

Background: Fermentation has been shown to improve the biological properties of plants and herbs. Specifically, fermentation causes decomposition and/or biotransformation of active metabolites into high-value products. Polyacetylenes are a class of polyketides with a pleiotropic profile of bioactivity. Methods: Column chromatography was used to isolate compounds, and extensive NMR experiments were used to determine their structures. The transformation of polyacetylene in red ginseng (RG) and the production of cazaldehyde B induced by the extract of RG were identified by TLC and HPLC analyses. Results: A new metabolite was isolated from RG fermented by Chaetomium globosum, and this new metabolite can be obtained by the biotransformation of polyacetylene in RG. Panaxytriol was found to exhibit the highest antifungal activity against C. globosum compared with other major ingredients in RG. The fungus C. globosum cultured in RG extract can metabolize panaxytriol to Metabolite A to survive, with no antifungal activity against itself. Metabolites A and B showed obvious inhibition against NO production, with ratios of 42.75 ± 1.60 and 63.95 ± 1.45% at 50 µM, respectively. A higher inhibitory rate on NO production was observed for Metabolite B than for a positive drug. Conclusion: Metabolite A is a rare example of natural polyacetylene biotransformation by microbial fermentation. This biotransformation only occurred in fermented RG. The extract of RG also stimulated the production of a new natural product, cazaldehyde B, from C. globosum. The lactone in Metabolite A can decrease the cytotoxicity, which was deemed to be the intrinsic activity of polyacetylene in ginseng.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.140-147
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• 2009

In this study, anaerobic enrichment cultivation was performed with the sediments from the Gimpo and Inchon areas. Lactate as an electron donor and PCE as an electron acceptor was injected into the serum bottle with an anaerobic medium. After the incubation of 8 weeks, the reductive dechlorination of PCE was observed in 7 sites among 16 sites (43%). Three enrichment cultures showed completely dechlorination of PCE to ethene, while four enrichment culture showed transformation of PCE to cis-DCE. The bacterial community structure was analyzed by PCR-DGGE. Dechlorinating bacteria were detected by species-specific primers. The dominant species in seven anaerobic enrichments were found to belong to the genus of Dehalococcoides sp. and Geobacter sp., and Dehalobacter sp.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.209-215
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• 2005

Lactoferrin is an iron-binding glycoprotein with many biological roles, including the protection against microbial and virus infection, stimulation of the immune system. We developed the transgenic Siberian ginseng (Acanthopanax senticosus) cell cultures producing the human lactoferrin (hLf) protein following Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. A construct containing a targeting signal peptide from tobacco endoplasmic reticulum fused to hLf cDNA under the control of an oxidative stress-inducible SWPA2 promoter was engineered. Transgenic Siberian ginseng cultured cells to produce a recombinant hLf protein were successfully generated and confirmed by PCR and Southern blot analysis. ELISA and western blot analysis showed that full length-hLf protein was synthesized in the transgenic cells. The production of hLf increased proportionally to cell growth and reached a maximal (up to 3% of total soluble proteins) at the stationary phase. These results suggest that the transgenic Siberian ginseng cultured cells in this study will be biotechnologically useful for the commercial production of medicinal plant cell cultures to produce hLf protein.