• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.242-247
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• 2011

Soil management for environment-friendly agriculture depends on the effects of soil microbial activities and soil fertility. To improve soil health for the upland crops, this study evaluated a relationship between soil chemical properties and soil microbial diversities at 25 sites in upland soils in Gyeongnam Province. The average nutrients in the upland soils were 1.7 times for available phosphorous, 1.4 times for exchangeable potassium and 1.5 times for exchangeable calcium higher compared to recommend concentrations in the upland soils. We found a significant positive correlation between the soil organic matter and the soil microbial biomass C (p<0.01). Contents of organic matter and dehydrogenase in the inclined piedmont soils were significantly higher than those in the other topographical soils (p<0.05). In addition, concentrations of organic matter and microbial biomass C in the loam soils were significantly higher than in the silt loam soils (p<0.05). In principal component analyses of chemical properties and microbial populations in the upland soils, our findings suggested that available phosphorous should be considered as potential factor responsible for the clear upland soils differentiation. The soil organic matter was positive correlation with Bacillus sp. and fungi, whereas soil pH was also positive correlation with Pseudomonas sp. in upland soils.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.254-261
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• 2012

The purpose of this research was to optimize electric current production of sediment microbial fuel cells by injecting glucose and to investigate its impact on microbial communities involved. It was shown that injection of proper concentration of glucose could increase electric current generated from sediment microbial fuel cells. When 1,000 mg/L of glucose, as opposed to higher concentrations, was injected, electric current increased up to 3 times. This increase is mainly attributed to the mutual relationship between fermenting bacteria and exoelectrogenic bacteria. Here the organic acids generated by fermenting bacteria could be utilized by exoelectrogenic bacteria, removing feedback inhibition caused by the organic acids. When glucose was injected, the population of Clostridium increased as to ferment injected glucose. Glucose fermentation can have either a positive or negative effect on electric current generation. When exoelectrogenic bacteria may readily utilize the end-product, electric current could increase. However, when the end-product was not readily removed, then detrimental chemical reactions (pH decrease, methane generation, organic acids accumulation) occurred: exoelctrogenic bacteria population declined and non-microbial fuel cell related microorganisms prospered. By injecting a proper concentration of glucose, a mutual relationship between fermenting bacteria, such as Clostridium, and exoelectrogenic bacteria, such as Geobacter, should be fulfilled in order to increase electricity production in mixed cultures of microorganisms collected from the aquatic sediments.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.283-294
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• 2007

Conventional culture-based methods of enumerating rumen microorganisms (bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and fungi) are being rapidly replaced by nucleic acid-based techniques which can be used to characterise complex microbial communities without incubation. The foundation of these techniques is 16S/18S rDNA sequence analysis which has provided a phylogenetically based classification scheme for enumeration and identification of microbial community members. While these analyses are very informative for determining the composition of the microbial community and monitoring changes in population size, they can only infer function based on these observations. The next step in functional analysis of the ecosystem is to measure how specific and, or, predominant members of the ecosystem are operating and interacting with other groups. It is also apparent that techniques which optimise the analysis of complex microbial communities rather than the detection of single organisms will need to address the issues of high throughput analysis using many primers/probes in a single sample. Nearly all the molecular ecological techniques are dependant upon the efficient extraction of high quality DNA/RNA representing the diversity of ruminal microbial communities. Recent reviews and technical manuals written on the subject of molecular microbial ecology of animals provide a broad perspective of the variety of techniques available and their potential application in the field of animal science which is beyond the scope of this treatise. This paper will focus on nucleic acid based molecular methods which have recently been developed for studying major functional groups (cellulolytic bacteria, protozoa, fungi and methanogens) of microorganisms that are important in nutritional studies, as well as, novel methods for studying microbial diversity and function from a genomics perspective.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.2089-2093
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• 2017

The past decades have been a golden era during which great tasks were accomplished in the field of microbiology, including food microbiology. In the past, culture-dependent methods have been the primary choice to investigate bacterial diversity. However, using culturein-dependent high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes has greatly facilitated studies exploring the microbial compositions and dynamics associated with health and diseases. These culture-independent DNA-based studies generate large-scale data sets that describe the microbial composition of a certain niche. Consequently, understanding microbial diversity becomes of greater importance when investigating the composition, function, and dynamics of the microbiota associated with health and diseases. Even though there is no general agreement on which diversity index is the best to use, diversity indices have been used to compare the diversity among samples and between treatments with controls. Tools such as the Shannon-Weaver index and Simpson index can be used to describe population diversity in samples. The purpose of this review is to explain the principles of diversity indices, such as Shannon-Weaver and Simpson, to aid general microbiologists in better understanding bacterial communities. In this review, important questions concerning microbial diversity are addressed. Information from this review should facilitate evidence-based strategies to explore microbial communities.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.200-204
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• 2006

The enzymology of an activated sludge system for a petroleum wastewater purification process was investigated. Leucine-aminopeptidase (L-AMP), ${\beta}$-glucosidase (${\beta}-GLC$), and lipase (LIP) were selected for the study. It was found that more than 81.7% of enzymatic activity was associated with microbial cells in the activated sludge floc. The metabolic response of a mixed microbial population to increased phenol concentration showed that L-AMP activity increased in the activated sludge, whereas activities of ${\beta}-GLC$ and LIP decreased, due to the inhibitory effect of the phenol which varied from 100 mg/l to 500 mg/l.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.453-458
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• 1994

Intestinal microbial flora comprise one third of the large intestinal contents in human. They play a significant effects through beneficial and harmful action on the human health. This is the first study which examined the composition of the microflora of the general population in Korea. Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium, Eubacterium, Peptostreptococcus, Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus, Clostridium perfringens, total aerobic bacteria and total anaerrobic bacteria were counted using various selective and non-selective media. Among the bacteria studied the number of Bifidobacterium were greatest in breast-fed infants(30-90 days old), whereas Streptocuccus and Bifidobacterium in bottle-fed infants. In 20-40 age group Bacteroides were predominant followed by Bifidobacterium and Eubacterium. In early group(over 65 years old) Bacteroides were predominant followed by Eubacterium and bifidobacterium. The frequency and number of Cl. perfringens were highest in dlderly group. These results confirm that the microfloral pattern in large intestine change during the life cycle of humans.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1481-1484
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• 2006

In this study, glucose and glutamate (copiotrophic conditions) were used to enrich electrochemically active bacteria (EAB) in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). The enriched population consisted primarily of ${\gamma}$-Proteobacteria (36.5%), followed by Firmicutes (27%) and O-Proteobacteria (15%). Accordingly, we compared our own enrichments done under many different conditions with those reported from the literature, all of which support the notion that electrochemically active bacteria are taxonomically very diverse. Enrichments with different types and levels of energy sources (fuels) have clearly yielded many different groups of bacteria.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 1999

The Biolog redox technology was carried out for evaluation of acidification effect on microbial communities at each stage of pH gradient microcosm. While the number of heterotrophic bacterial population and activities of extracellular enzyme decreased as the pH decreased, the number of total bacteria in the microcosm was not affected. The average color development of sample at each pH-gradient showed a sigmoidal curve, and at higher pH, more overall color development appeared in Biolog plates. Average color development value in Biolog plates was stabilized at 50 hours as an optimum incubation time. The color production in the Biolog plates was caused by cell density at above pH 5.0, but by cell activity below pH 4.0. Principal component analysis of color responses revealed distinctive patterns among the pH-gradient microcosm samples.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.45-51
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• 1981

The physico-chemical and biological factors of coastal sea water were measured bimonthly from 1976 to 1979 for elucidating the relationship between microbial distribution and environmental factors at Masan and Jinhae bay. The experimental results are summarized as followings : 1) The polulation size of bactriz in sea water were increasing as the water temperature increased, and that was higher at station 2 and 3 than at station 1. The number of fungi showed the highest value on July on bottom. The population size of yeast showed no seasonal variation and also showed a relation with the geographic distance. 2) The correlationship between microbial distribution and environmental factors showed little coefficiency in surface water. And the other hand, at bottom water, between general bacteria and water temperature and dissolved oxygen, and between yeast and salinity, there were relatively high coefficiecy.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.806-811
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• 2012

This study was conducted to evaluate effects of plant extracts on methanogenesis and rumen microbial diversity in in vitro. Plant extracts (Artemisia princeps var. Orientalis; Wormwood, Allium sativum for. Pekinense; Garlic, Allium cepa; Onion, Zingiber officinale; Ginger, Citrus unshiu; Mandarin orange, Lonicera japonica; Honeysuckle) were obtained from the Plant Extract Bank at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology. The rumen fluid was collected before morning feeding from a fistulated Holstein cow fed timothy and commercial concentrate (TDN; 73.5%, crude protein; 19%, crude fat; 3%, crude fiber; 12%, crude ash; 10%, Ca; 0.8%, P; 1.2%) in the ratio of 3 to 2. The 30 ml of mixture, comprising McDougall buffer and rumen liquor in the ratio of 4 to 1, was dispensed anaerobically into serum bottles containing 0.3 g of timothy substrate and plant extracts (1% of total volume, respectively) filled with $O_2$-free $N_2$ gas and capped with a rubber stopper. The serum bottles were held in a shaking incubator at $39^{\circ}C$ for 24 h. Total gas production in all plant extracts was higher (p<0.05) than that of the control, and total gas production of ginger extract was highest (p<0.05). The methane emission was highest (p<0.05) at control, but lowest (p<0.05) at garlic extract which was reduced to about 20% of methane emission (40.2 vs 32.5 ml/g DM). Other plant extracts also resulted in a decrease in methane emissions (wormwood; 8%, onion; 16%, ginger; 16.7%, mandarin orange; 12%, honeysuckle; 12.2%). Total VFAs concentration and pH were not influenced by the addition of plant extracts. Acetate to propionate ratios from garlic and ginger extracts addition samples were lower (p<0.05, 3.36 and 3.38 vs 3.53) than that of the control. Real-time PCR indicted that the ciliate-associated methanogen population in all added plant extracts decreased more than that of the control, while the fibrolytic bacteria population increased. In particular, the F. succinogens community in added wormwood, garlic, mandarin orange and honeysuckle extracts increased more than that of the others. The addition of onion extract increased R. albus diversity, while other extracts did not influence the R. albus community. The R. flavefaciens population in added wormwood and garlic extracts decreased, while other extracts increased its abundance compared to the control. In conclusion, the results indicated that the plant extracts used in the experiment could be promising feed additives to decrease methane gas emission from ruminant animals while improving ruminal fermentation.