• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.99-101
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• 2011

The ascomycetous fungus Taphrina wiesneri, the pathogen of cherry witches' broom, is highly pathogenic to Prunus yedoensis, the most widely planted cherry trees in Korea as park and roadside trees. A collection of 13 strains of the pathogen in Korea and Japan was characterized by 18S rDNA gene sequence and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. In cluster analysis based on 18S rDNA gene sequence the strains were divided into 2 clusters. In RFLP analysis of the rDNA-IGS region using HhaI, the strains were separated into four patterns, B, C, D and G, of which pattern G was new.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.294-300
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• 2003

Bacterial strains were isolated from diseased samples of shoot blight collected from different pear growing orchards of Chuncheon, Korea from 1995 to 1998. Forty-nine strains showed their pathogenicity on immature fruit and shoot of pear. Microbiological, physiological, and biochemical tests were performed on these pathogenic strains. One strain, designated as WT3 in this study, was selected as a representative strain as it was collected from the first outbreak area in Jichonri, Chuncheon in 1995. Further detailed characterization of the strain WT3 was done by PCR amplification using specific primers described previously for distinguishing Erwinia pyrifoliae from its close pathogen Erwinia amylovora. Based on phenotypical, biochemical, and molecular analyses, strain WT3 was identified as a shoot blight pathogen which was the same as E. pyrifoliae Ep16 previously described by a German group in 1999.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.78-82
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• 2015

In 2011, a leaf blight disease was observed on cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) leaves in Nonsan, Korea. The causal pathogen was isolated and identified based on morphological and molecular approaches. Morphological characteristics of the pathogen matched well with the Alternaria cosmosa and also easily distinguishable from Alternaria zinniae reported from cosmos seeds by producing branched beak. Phylogenetically, the pathogen could not be distinguished from A. passiflorae based on the sequence analysis of a combined data set of Alt a1 and gpd genes. However, A. passiflorae was distinguished from the present species by having conidiophores with 4 to 5 conidiogenous loci. The results indicate that the present Alternaria species is A. cosmosa. Pathogenicity tests revealed that the isolate was pathogenic to the leaves of Cosmos bipinnatus. This is the first report of Alternaria blight disease caused by A. cosmosa on cosmos in Korea.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2010

Past decade systemic mycoses caused by opportunistic human fungal pathogens, including Candida, Aspergillus, and Cryptococcus, have been a growing problem for both immunocompromised and immunocompetent individuals. Particularly, Cryptococcus neoformans has recently emerged as a major fungal pathogen, which can cause fungal pneumonia and meningitis that are lethal if not timely medicated. However, treatment for cryptococcosis has been difficult due to a lack of proper anti-cryptococcal drugs with fungicidal activity and less toxicity. In this review we introduced novel therapeutic methods for treating cryptococcosis by exploring pathogenomic signa1ing networks of C. neoformans with genome-wide transcriptome approaches as well as diverse molecular/genetic tools.

• Mycobiology
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2016

A new leaf spot disease was observed on leaves of Rheum palmatum (Chinese rhubarb) in Northwest China (Gansu Province) starting in 2005. A Septoria-like fungus was isolated and completion of Koch's postulates confirmed that the fungus was the casual agent of the leaf spot disease. Morphology and molecular methods were combined to identify the pathogen. The fungus produced conidiomata pycnidia and the conidia were 2~5 septate, $61.2{\sim}134.1{\mu}m$ in length and $3.53{\sim}5.3{\mu}m$ in width, which is much larger than the known Spetoria species that infects Polygonaceae species. Phylogenic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region confirmed that this Septoria-like fungus is within the Septoria genus but distinct from known Septoria species. Together, these morphological and phylogenetic data support that the R. palmatum infecting Septoria strain is a newly-described plant pathogenic species.

• Mycobiology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.161-170
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• 2009

Cryptococcus neoformans is a basidiomycete human fungal pathogen that causes meningoencephalitis in both immunocompromised and immunocompetent individuals. The ability to sense and respond to diverse extracellular signals is essential for the pathogen to infect and cause disease in the host. Four major stress-activated signaling (SAS) pathways have been characterized in C. neoformans, including the HOG (high osmolarity glycerol response), PKC/Mpk1 MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase), calcium-dependent calcineurin, and RAS signaling pathways. The HOG pathway in C. neoformans not only controls responses to diverse environmental stresses, including osmotic shock, UV irradiation, oxidative stress, heavy metal stress, antifungal drugs, toxic metabolites, and high temperature, but also regulates ergosterol biosynthesis. The PKC(protein kinase C)/Mpk1 pathway in C. neoformans is involved in a variety of stress responses, including osmotic, oxidative, and nitrosative stresses and breaches of cell wall integrity. The $Ca^{2+}$/calmodulin- and Ras-signaling pathways also play critical roles in adaptation to certain environmental stresses, such as high temperature and sexual differentiation. Perturbation of the SAS pathways not only impairs the ability of C. neoformans to resist a variety of environmental stresses during host infection, but also affects production of virulence factors, such as capsule and melanin. A drug(s) capable of targeting signaling components of the SAS pathway will be effective for treatment of cryptococcosis.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.98-102
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• 1990

A strain of Erwinia spp. was selected from the soil for the production of bacteriocin to the root rot plant pathogen. Bacteriocin producing gene was not located on plasmid but on chromosome. Genomic library of Erwinia spp. were made by using pLAFR 3 as a vector system for cloning of the gene. It was been cloned and expressed in E. coli DH 5 . Bacteriocin producing colony was composed of pLAFR 3 vector and 3.0 kb EcoRI fragment of Erwinia spp. ehromosomal DNA. The inserted fragment (3.0 kb) was possessed a EcoRI and BarnHI restriction sites.

• Mycobiology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.423-426
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• 2020

Cypripedium japonicum is known to be the indigenous plant to Korea, Japan, and China. However, C. japonicum represents the most critically endangered plant species in South Korea. The plant is esthetically pleasing due to its flower, which is larger than any other orchidaceous species. Disease symptoms relating to gray mold were observed on C. japonicum in May 2019. The suspected pathogen was successfully isolated from the symptomatic leaf tissue and conducted a pure culture of the fungi. The conidia formed consisted of a colorless or light brown single cell, which was either egg or oval-shaped with a size of 7.1 to 13.4 × 5.2 to 8.6 ㎛. Molecular phylogenetic relationship analysis was also confirmed that the pathogen concerned belonging to the family of Botrytis cinerea. Therefore, the findings confirmed that the pathogen isolated from C. japonicum was consistent with the unique properties of B. cinerea.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.301-307
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• 2002

Graft transmission and cytopathological studies of a severe pear disease, pear black necrotic leafspot（PBNLS), were carried out to determine the causal agent of the disease. No evidence was found that a fungal or bacterial pathogen could be the causal agent of the disease. Attempts to transmit the agent by sap-inoculation to other plants including herbaceous hosts failed. How-ever, the pathogen was readily graft-transmitted from symptomatic diseased pears to healthy pears. Graft transmission of the pathogen was also demonstrated by using an indicator plant, PS-95, developed in the laboratory through various grafting methods. Ultrastructural study of the disease revealed the consistent presence of flexuous rod-shaped virus-like particles (VLP) in the symptomatic leaves of both Niitaka cultivar and indicator pear, PS-95. The particles, approximately 12 nm in diameter with undetermined length, occurred in the cytoplasm of mesophyll parenchyma cells. Cells with VLPs also contained fibril-containing vesicles, which are common in cells infected with plant viruses with ssRNA genome. The vesicles were formed at the tonoplast. Based on the symptomatology, the presence of fibril-containing vesicles, and graft-transmissibility, it is believed that the VLPs that occurred on symptomatic leaves of black necrotic leafspot of pear are viral in nature, possibly those of a capillovirus.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 1967

In the present paper author investigated the symptom, pathogenic fungus and pathogenicity of Endothia canker of Carpinus laxiflora in Korea, and made clear the indistinct discription on its pathogen in the past. 1. The pathogen is identified as Endothia fluens (Schw.) Shear et Stevens. The discription is recorded as follows: Stromata cortical, erumpent, spherical or conical, outer yellowish-brown and inner yellowish, 0.5 to 2.5 mm in diameter; perithecia irregularly embeded in the bottom of stroma, 7 to 23 in a stroma usually spherical to elliptical or irregular, 235 to $370{\mu}$ in diameter, with black slender necks; each neck open the papilliate ostiole to the surface, about 250 to $400{\mu}$ in length; asci clavate or fusoid, colorless, 31.16 to 42.64 by 6.54 to $8.20{\mu}$ in size, average 37.02 by $6.84{\mu}$, with 8 ascospores in double line; ascospores elliptical, ovate or cylindrical, with rounded ends, hyaline, 1-septate, not constrict at the septum, 6.51 to 9.30 by 3.16 to $3.72{\mu}$, average 7.61 by $3.44{\mu}$ in size; pycnidia formed abundantly in stroma. spherical at first but later irregular large cavity by fussing each other; pycnospores oblong or rod-shaped, hyaline, non-septate, 3.8 by $1.9{\mu}$ in size; spore-horn formed abundantly under moist condition. 2. The pathogen is wound parasite invading the hosts through the wound. But after the infection is established, expanding the disease lesion is swiftly vigorus.