• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2011

We investigated moth communities in Samcheok, Korea, to elucidate the influence of the East Coast Fire in 2000. Moths were collected with UV light traps 4 times a year from 2006 to 2009 at 3 sites: Unburned area (Site 1), Surface fire area (Site 2), and Crown fire area (Site 3) sites, respectively. A total of 3,804 individuals belonging to 727 species from 30 families were captured at the 3 study 1,727 individuals of 505 species (27 families) at Site 1, 1,193 individuals of 353 species (24 families) at Site 2, and 885 individuals of 340 species (25 families) at Site 3. Species richness and individuals of Noctuidae, Pyralidae, Geometridae, and Tortricidae were the highest at all 3 sites. All of species richness, individuals, and species diversity (H') were the highest in Site 1 for 4 years. The index of similarity (${\alpha}$-Index) was higher between Site 2 and 3 in 2006, while higher between Site 1 and 2 in 2009. Moths were grouped into 16 categories by hosts of the larval stage. Individuals of moths of herbaceous feeding habit continuously decreased at Site 3, but proportion of individuals of tree feeding habits continuously increased. The present results showed that moth communities was relatively recovered according to vegetation change after forest fire and regeneration of moth communities in surface fire area was more faster than in crown fire area.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.43 no.3 s.136
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• pp.217-223
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• 2004

Polydnavirus is a symbiotic virus of some endoparasitic wasps and plays crucial roles in inhibiting immune responses and retarding development of the parasitized hosts. Cotesia plutellae bracovirus (CpBV) is a polydnavirus suggesting a major causative to change developmental physiology of the parasitized host. Here, we investigated whether CpBV can interrupt development of non-natural host. Beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, is used as a non-permissible host for parasitization of C. plutellae. Extract from the calyx region of C. plutellae contained CpBV, which was confirmed by immunoblotting with a polyclonal antibody raised against CpBV. One female equivalent of CpBV extract was injected into hemocoel of late 4th instar larvae of S. exigua. The injected larvae showed delayed larval period, decrease of body weight gain, and inability of pupal metamorphosis. These inhibitory effect of the CpBV extract was rescued by injection along with CpBV antibody, though the antibody itself did not give any effect on development of the larvae. This result clearly shows that CpBV can interrupt developmental physiology of a non-natural host for its symbiotic wasp.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.69-82
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• 1987

The prevalences of the cuke belonging to genus Metagonimus hove been reported along the upper stream of inhabitants by several workers since 1980, however the taxonomical problems of the fluke was not yet settled. The larval flukes; cercaria and metacercaria as well as their intermediate hosts, and adult were studied in order to identify the Mepagonimus in the areas. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. The snails, Semisulcospira globus were collected (rom the three different localities along the upper stream of the River. The cercariae were found from 125(7.2%) out of 1,730 snails by natural emerging method, and were identified into 5 species including Metagenimus sp. (3.7%), Pseudexorchis major(1.4%), Cercaria nipponensis (0.9%), Cercaria incerpa(0.6%), and Cercaria yoshidae(0.6%). Cercariae of Metagonimus species had four to dye oral spines on its anterior of the first line. 2. The cercariae of Metagonimus were experimentally exposed to goldfish. nfection rate was 22.9% out of 105 goldfish, and the encysted metacercariae were found in fins(86.7%) and on scales (13.7%) of the fishes, but not in their muscle, head or visceral organs. 3. Seven species of ask were caught in the Daecheong Reservoir and the upper stream. Infestations with metacercaria of Metagonimus were found 100% in Opsariichtys widens and the parasitized numbers of the metacercariae were observed from 250 to 2,400 per fish. In the upper stream, Zacco termmincki, Z. platypus and Pseudogobio esocinus were infected 100% with the metacercaria, on the other hand, the fishes caught in the reservoir showed the lower infestation rates, and a few metacercariae found in the fishes Carassius carassius and Cyprinus carpio in the reservoir and the stream. The majority of metacercariae was detected only on the scales of fishes. 4. In order to know the infectivity and the distribution patterns in the intestine of hosts, rats and dogs were infected with the metacercariae obtained from O. bidens and Z. platypus. In addition the metacercariae obtained from Z. temmincki, P. esocinus and goldfish were given to the rats. The recovery rates of the worms in the small intestine of dogs were higher (63.3~65.8%) than those of the rats (3.5~31.6%). The flukes were found mostly in the middle and the lower part of small intestine of the rats and the dogs, but no worm was collected in the upper part of the intestine of rats. 5. The sixte of adult flukes varied by the hosts. In the adult cukes, oral sucker was smaller than ventral sucker, and the right and left testes were located diagonally, the uterine tubules circled around the upper left testis. The average egg sixte was $29.1{\times}1.7{\mu\textrm{m}}$. According to the above results, the cukes belonging to genus Metagonimus distributed along the Geum River was concluded to be identical with Miyata type of M. yokogawai as that Saito had proposed.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.181-187
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• 2007

A scanning electron microscopic study on the glochidium and glochidial encystment of Anodonta arcaeformis on the host fish Carassius auratus was conducted. The shape of the glochidium was apparently subtriangular and its average size was $270\;{\mu}m\;\times\;260\;{\mu}m\;\times\;145\;{\mu}m$. The glochidial shell valves were of the same size, kept together by a ligament that is 50.4 ${\mu}m$ in length and 5.5 ${\mu}m$ in width. Each of the glochidial shell valve had a long hook studded with many spines on the superior face. A large area of at the apex of the valve surrounding the base of the hook was provided with numerous small spines which became progressively smaller toward the periphery of the area. The glochidial shell valve consisted of two layers. The mantle cells line the glochidial shell valves and some of hair cells were observed. A larval thread was 2.3 ${\mu}m$ in diameter. In the artificial infection of the glochidia to one of the natural hosts, Carassius auratus, it took about three to four hours to encyst the glochidia with epithelial cells of the fish fins. The encystment method was the cell migration from the neighboring epithelial cells.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.95-98
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• 2017

Fasciola hepatica is a trematode that causes zoonosis, mainly in cattle and sheep, and occasionally in humans. Few recent studies have determined the infection status of this fluke in Korea. In August 2015, we collected 402 samples of freshwater snails at Hoenggye-ri (upper stream) and Suha-ri (lower stream) of Song-cheon (stream) in Daegwalnyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun in Gangwon-do (Province) near many large cattle or sheep farms. F. hepatica infection was determined using PCR on the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS-2). Among the 402 samples, F. hepatica 1TS-2 marker was detected in 6 freshwater snails; thus, the overall prevalence in freshwater snails was 1.5%. The prevalence varied between collection areas, ranging from 0.0% at Hoenggye-ri to 2.9% at Suha-ri. However, F. gigantica ITS-2 was not detected in the 6 F. hepatica-positive samples by PCR. The nucleotide sequences of the 6 F. hepatica ITS-2 PCR-positive samples were 99.4% identical to the F. hepatica ITS-2 sequences in GenBank, whereas they were 98.4% similar to F. gigantica ITS-2 sequences. These results indicated that the prevalence of F. hepatica in snail intermediate hosts was 1.5% in Gangwon-do, Korea; however the prevalence varied between collection areas. These results may help us to understand F. hepatica infection status in natural environments.

• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.87-95
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• 2011

Enzymatic catalysis has been pursued extensively in a wide range of important chemical processes for their unparalleled selectivity and mild reaction conditions. However, enzymes are usually costly and easy to inactivate in their free forms. Immobilization is the key to optimizing the in-service performance of an enzyme in industrial processes, particularly in the field of non-aqueous phase catalysis. Since the immobilization process for enzymes will inevitably result in some loss of activity, improving the activity retention of the immobilized enzyme is critical. To some extent, the performance of an immobilized enzyme is mainly governed by the supports used for immobilization, thus it is important to fully understand the properties of supporting materials and immobilization processes. In recent years, there has been growing concern in using polymeric materials as supports for their good mechanical and easily adjustable properties. Furthermore, a great many work has been done in order to improve the activity retention and stabilities of immobilized enzymes. Some introduce a spacer arm onto the support surface to improve the enzyme mobility. The support surface is also modified towards biocompatibility to reduce non-biospecific interactions between the enzyme and support. Besides, natural materials can be used directly as supporting materials owning to their inert and biocompatible properties. This review is focused on recent advances in using polymeric materials as hosts for lipase immobilization by two different methods, surface attachment and encapsulation. Polymeric materials of different forms, such as particles, membranes and nanofibers, are discussed in detail. The prospective applications of immobilized enzymes, especially the enzyme-immobilized membrane bioreactors (EMBR) are also discussed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.796-808
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• 2018

The intracellular bacterium Wolbachia pipientis is widespread in arthropods. Recently, possibilities of novel Wolbachia-mediated hosts, their distribution, and natural rate have been anticipated, and the coconut leaf beetle Brontispa longissima (Gestro) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), which has garnered attention as a serious pest of palms, was subjected to this interrogation. By adopting Wolbachia surface protein (wsp) and multilocus sequence type (MLST) genotypic systems, we determined the Wolbachia infection density within host developmental stages, body parts, and tissues, and the results revealed that all the tested samples of B. longissima were infected with the same Wolbachia strain (wLog), suggesting complete vertical transmission. The MLST profile elucidated two new alleles (ftsZ-234 and coxA-266) that define a new sequence type (ST-483), which indicates the particular genotypic association of B. longissima and Wolbachia. The quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed a higher infection density in the eggs and adult stage, followed by the abdomen and reproductive tissues, respectively. However, no significant differences were observed in the infection density between sexes. Moreover, the wsp and concatenated MLST alignment analysis of this study with other known Wolbachia-mediated arthropods revealed similar clustering with distinct monophyletic supergroup B. This is the first comprehensive report on the prevalence, infection dynamics, and phylogeny of the Wolbachia endosymbiont in B. longissima, which demonstrated that Wolbachia is ubiquitous across all developmental stages and distributed in the entire body of B. longissima. Understanding the Wolbachia infection dynamics would provide useful insight to build a framework for future investigations, understand its impacts on host physiology, and exploit it as a potential biocontrol agent.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.97-100
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• 1975

Korean white pine (Pinus koraiensis Sieb. & Zucc.), native to Korea and currently the most important timber species in Korea is being threatened by a blister rust discase caused by a Cronartium species. The fungus has been tentatively identified as Cronartium ribicola Fischer. The fungus alternates between P. koraiensis and Pedicularis resupinata L. (a herbaceous perennial) under natural conditions in Korea although experimentally it has been shown to infect several Ribes species. The taxonomic diagnosis of the causal fungus is not fully resolved. A review of the status of this rust disease on P. koraiensis and other possible hosts in Korea and its potential international significance along with present work underway in Korea is discussed.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.447-453
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• 2016

Acanthamoeba, a free-living amoeba, is widely distributed in the environment, water sources, soil, dust, and air. It can cause keratitis in contact lens wearers with poor hygiene and also fatal granulomatous amebic encephalitis (GAE) in immunocompromised hosts. The aim of this study was to gain some insights into the distribution and genotypes of the potentially pathogenic species of Acanthamoeba present in water sources in north of Iran. Total 43 Acanthamoeba species were isolated from 77 water samples taken from different water sources within the Mazandaran province in Northern Iran (Sari city and suburbs). Isolates were identified based on cyst and trophozoite morphological characteristics as well genetics. PCR fragments corresponding to the small-subunit 18S rRNA gene were sequenced for 20 of 43 positive isolates. The results revealed that 83.3% of sequenced isolates belonged to the T4 genotype and the rest belonged to the T2 genotype. Our results indicated that Acanthamoeba is widely distributed in Sari city. As the incidence in Iran of amoebic keratitis has increased in recent years, the exact estimation of the prevalence of this amoeba and its predominant genotype may play a crucial role in prevention of the disease. Sari city has several rivers, seashores, and natural recreational amenities, which attract visitors during the year. This is the first report of Acanthamoeba genotypes from water sources in Sari city, Mazandaran province of Iran, and the results suggest that more attention is needed to protect the visiting population and immunocompromised individuals.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.543-547
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• 2016

In the present study, we report on the occurrence of paramphistomes, Fischoederius cobboldi and Paramphistomum epiclitum, in Lao PDR with the basis of molecular data. Parasite materials were collected from bovines bred in Ban Lahanam area, Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR at Lahanam public market. Morphological observations indicated 2 different species of paramphistomes. The mitochondrial gene cox1 of the specimens was successfully amplified by PCR and DNA sequencing was carried out for diagnosis of 11 specimens. Pairwise alignment of cox1 sequences were performed and confirmed F. cobboldi and P. epiclitum infecting bovines in Laos. Although there were many limiting points, as the small number of worm samples, and the restricted access of the animal host materials, we confirmed for the first time that 2 species of paramphistomes, F. cobboldi and P. epiclitum, are distributed in Lao PDR. More studies are needed to confirm the paramphistome species present in Savannakhet and its hosts to clear the natural history of these parasites of ruminants in the region and measure the impact of this parasite infection in the life and health of the local people.