• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.231-237
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• 2003

Listeria (L.) monocytogenes in samples could not be detected occasioally by faster growth of other Listeria spp. especially L. innocua. The aim of this study was to develop the differential media and multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for the rapid detection of L. monocytogenes. L. monocytogenes colonies were characterized by their ${\beta}$-hemolysis with fluorescence under 366 nm UV light on the Listeria hemolysis agar (LHA). L. innocua, a species commonly present in foods, did not produce ${\beta}$-hemolysis on LHA. Therefore, one or more colonies of L. monocytogenes were easily distinguished from large populations of L. innocua. The multiplex PCR assays were developed to distinguish from L. monocytogenes and other Listeria spp. with two pairs of primers. The primers were designed in 16S rRNA and listeriolysin O gene for specific amplification of all members of the genus Listeria and L. monocytogenes, respectively. The multiplex PCR assays produced 560 and 938 bp products in L. monocytogenes; only 938 bp products in the genus Listeria. The multiplex PCR assays could detect as little as 50 pg of L monocytogenes DNA. These results indicated that the differential media and multiplex PCR assays might be useful diagnostic tools for the rapid detection of L. monocytogenes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.1165-1169
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• 2012

In April 2009, the H1N1 pandemic influenza virus emerged as a novel influenza virus. The aim of this study was to compare the performances of several molecular assays, including conventional reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), two real-time reverse transcription (rRT)-PCRs, and two multiplex RTPCRs. A total of 381 clinical specimens were collected from patients (223 men and 158 women), and both the Seeplex RV7 assay and rRT-PCR were ordered on different specimens within one week after collection. The concordance rate for the two methods was 87% (332/381), and the discrepancy rate was 13% (49/381). The positive rates for the molecular assays studied included 93.1% for the multiplex Seeplex RV7 assay, 93.1% for conventional reverse transcription (cRT)-PCR, 89.7% for the multiplex Seeplex Flu ACE Subtyping assay, 82.8% for protocol B rRT-PCR, and 58.6% for protocol A rRT-PCR. Our results showed that the multiplex Seeplex assays and the cRT-PCR yielded higher detection rates than rRT-PCRs for detecting the influenza A (H1N1) virus. Although the multiplex Seeplex assays had the advantage of simultaneous detection of several viruses, they were time-consuming and troublesome. Our results show that, although rRT-PCR had the advantage, the detection rates of the molecular assays varied depending upon the source of the influenza A (H1N1)v virus. Our findings also suggest that rRT-PCR sometimes detected virus in extremely low abundance and thus required validation of analytical performance and clinical correlation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.816-824
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• 2017

Human noroviruses are widespread and contagious viruses causing nonbacterial gastroenteritis. Real-time reverse transcription quantitative PCR (real-time RT-qPCR) is currently the gold standard for the sensitive and accurate detection of these pathogens and serves as a critical tool in outbreak prevention and control. Different surveillance teams, however, may use different assays, and variability in specimen conditions may lead to disagreement in results. Furthermore, the norovirus genome is highly variable and continuously evolving. These issues necessitate the re-examination of the real-time RT-qPCR's robustness in the context of accurate detection as well as the investigation of practical strategies to enhance assay performance. Four widely referenced real-time RT-qPCR assays (Assays A-D) were simultaneously performed to evaluate characteristics such as PCR efficiency, detection limit, and sensitivity and specificity with RT-PCR, and to assess the most accurate method for detecting norovirus genogroups I and II. Overall, Assay D was evaluated to be the most precise and accurate assay in this study. A ZEN internal quencher, which decreases nonspecific fluorescence during the PCR, was added to Assay D's probe, which further improved the assay performance. This study compared several detection assays for noroviruses, and an improvement strategy based on such comparisons provided useful characterizations of a highly optimized real-time RT-qPCR assay for norovirus detection.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1107-1113
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• 2010

Because conventional methods for detecting emetic-toxin-producing B. cereus are laborious and costly, various PCR assays, which are easy and cheap, have recently been reported. Therefore, this study estimated and compared the ability of various PCR assays to detect emetic-toxin-producing B. cereus strains isolated in Korea. The PCR assays were performed on 160 B. cereus strains, including 40 emetic-toxin-producing strains. Although the species-specific PCR assays were all shown to be highly specific, the sensitivities varied greatly. The accuracies of the primers were 97.5% (CER), 95.6% (EM1), 96.3% (RE234), 89.4% (CES), and 83.1% (Ces3R/CESR2). Moreover, the CER primer had a higher sensitivity (100%) than all the other primers tested, and a specificity of 96.7%. Thus, the CER primer was shown to be the most effective for screening the emetic-toxin-producing B. cereus strains tested in this study. However, the ability of these PCR assays to identify emetic-toxin-producing B. cereus should also be confirmed using other methods.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.295-300
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• 2018

Human sparganosis was diagnosed by morphological and genetic analyses in Korea. The complete mitochondrial genomes of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens isolated in Korea have been recorded. Present study was performed to provide information to diagnose the etiologic agent of sparganosis by multiplex PCR using mitochondrial genome sequences of S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens. In an effort to examine the differential diagnosis of spirometrid tapeworms, multiplex PCR assays were performed on plerocercoid larvae of S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens. The PCR products obtained using species-specific primers were positively detected in all PCR assays on mixture of S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens DNA. S. erinaceieuropaei-specific bands (239 bp and 401 bp) were obtained from all PCR assays using a mixture of S. erinaceieuropaei-specific primers (Se/Sd-1800F and Se-2018R; Se/Sd-7955F and Se-8356R) and S. erinaceieuropaei template DNA. S. decipiens-specific bands (540 bp and 644 bp) were also detected in all PCR assays containing mixtures of S. decipiens-specific primers (Se/Sd-1800F and Sd-2317R; Se/Sd-7955F and Sd-8567R) and S. decipiens template DNA. Sequence analyses on these species-specific bands revealed 100% sequence identity with homologous regions of the mtDNA sequences of S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens. The multiplex PCR assay was useful for differential diagnosis of human sparganosis by detecting different sizes in species-specific bands.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2015

Pseudomonas coronafaciens causes halo blight on oats and is a plant quarantine bacterium in many countries, including the Republic of Korea. Using of the certificated seed is important for control of the disease. Since effective detection method of P. coronafaciens is not available yet, PCR and TaqMan PCR assays for specific detection of P. coronafaciens were developed in this study. PCR primers were designed from the draft genome sequence of P. coronafaciens LMG 5060 which was obtained by the next-generation sequencing in this study. The PCR primer set Pc-12-F/Pc-12-R specifically amplified 498 bp from the 13 strains of P. coronafaciens isolated in the seven different countries (Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Germany, and New Zealand) and the nested primer set Pc-12-ne-F/Pc-12-ne-R specifically amplified 298 bp from those strains. The target-size PCR product was not amplified from the non-target bacteria with the PCR and nested primer sets. TaqMan PCR with Pc-12-ne-F/Pc-12-ne-R and a TaqMan probe, Pc-taqman, which were designed inside of the nested PCR amplicon, generated Ct values which in a dose-dependent manner to the amount of the target DNA and the Ct values of all the P. coronafaciens strains were above the threshold Ct value for positive detection. The TaqMan PCR generated positive Ct values from the seed extracts of the artificially inoculated oat seeds above 10 cfu/ml inoculation level. PCR and TaqMan PCR assays developed in this study will be useful tools to detect and identify the plant quarantine pathogen, P. coronafaciens.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.122-129
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• 2004

Harmful Cochlodinium polykrikoides is a notorious harmful algal bloom (HAB) species that is causing mass mortality of farmed fish along the Korean coast with increasing frequency. We analyzed the sequence of the large subunit (LSD) rDNA D1-D3 region of C. polykrikoides and conducted phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian inference of phylogeny and the maximum likelihood method. The molecular phylogeny showed that C. polykrikoides had the genetic relationship to Amphidinium and Gymnodinium species supported only by the relatively high posterior probabilities of Bayesian inference. Based on the LSU rDNA sequence data of diverse dinoflagellate taxa, we designed the C. polykrikoides-specific PCR primer set, CPOLY01 and CPOLY02 and developed PCR detection assays for its sensitive, accurate HAB monitoring. CPOLY01 and CPOLY02 specifically amplified C. polykrikoides and did not cross-react with any dinoflagellates tested in this study or environmental water samples. The effective annealing temperature $(T_{p})$ of CPOLY01 and CPOLY02 was $67^{\circ}C$. At this temperature, the conventional and nested PCR assays were sensitive over a wide range of C. polykrikoides cell numbers with detection limits of 0.05 and 0.0001 cells/reaction, respectively.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.24.1-24.7
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• 2023

Assays of clinical diagnosis and species identification using molecular markers are performed according to a quantitative method in consideration of sensitivity, cost, speed, convenience, and specificity. However, typical polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay is difficult to quantify and have various limitations. In addition, to perform quantitative analysis with the quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) equipment, a standard curve or normalization using reference genes is essential. Within the last a decade, previous studies have reported that the digital PCR (dPCR) assay, a third-generation PCR, can be applied in various fields by overcoming the shortcomings of typical PCR and qRT-PCR assays. We selected Stilla Naica System (Stilla Technologies), Droplet Digital PCR Technology (Bio-Rad), and Lab on an Array Digital Real-Time PCR analyzer system (OPTOLANE) for comparative analysis among the various droplet digital PCR platforms currently in use commercially. Our previous study discovered a molecular marker that can distinguish Hanwoo species (Korean native cattle) using Hanwoo-specific genomic structural variation. Here, we report the pros and cons of the operation of each dPCR platform from various perspectives using this species identification marker. In conclusion, we hope that this study will help researchers to select suitable dPCR platforms according to their purpose and resources.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.21.1-21.7
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• 2022

Newcastle disease (ND), infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) and avian metapneumovirus (aMPV) can be similar making it critical to quickly differentiate them. Herein, we adapted pre-existing molecular-based diagnostic assays for NDV and ILTV, and developed new assays for aMPV A and B, for use under synchronized thermocycling conditions. All assays performed equivalently with linearity over a 5 log₁₀ dynamic range, a reproducible (R² > 0.99) limit of detection of ≥ 10 target copies, and amplification efficiencies between 86.8%-98.2%. Using biological specimens for NDV and ILTV showed 100% specificity. Identical amplification conditions will simplify procedures for detection in diagnostic laboratories.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.399-405
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• 2004

Haemophilus somnus, Mycoplasma bovis and Pasteurella multocida were responsible for respiratory diseases in bovine. Methods for identifying these bacteria had poor sensitivity and specificity. In this paper, PCR assays were applied for rapid identification of H. somnus, M. bovis, P. multocida B:2 and P. multocida capsular types. The specific PCR products were amplified from H. somnus, but not from other bacteria. Ten-fold diluted H. somnus were mixed with P. multocida and then the mixed cultures were inoculated on agar plates. After incubation, PCR was performed with harvest from agar plates and could detect as few as 3.4 CFU/ml of H. somnus. The primers MboF and MboR produced an amplification product unique to M. bovis and sensitivity of PCR was as low as 100 pg of DNA. Only serotype B:2 of P. multocida, the causal agent of haemorrhagic septicemia in bovine, was specifically amplified in PCR among the 16 reference serotypes. The multiplex capsular PCR typing for P. multocida was produced the P. multocida specific product as well as the capsular serogroup-specific product. The present PCR assays should be useful for the rapid identification of bacterial pathogens from bovine respiratory diseases.