• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.158-165
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• 2011

A sensitive reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) method to detect viable Escherichia coli O157:H7 in milk was established. The primer sets were designed based on the nucleotide sequences of the rfbE (per) and wbdN genes in the O157 antigen gene cluster of E. coli O157:H7. RT-PCR using five different primer sets yielded DNA with sizes of 655, 518, 450, and 149-bp, respectively. All five of the E. coli O157:H7 strains were detected by RT-PCR, but 11 other bacterial species were not. The sensitivity of RT-PCR was improved by adding yeast tRNA as a carrier to the crude RNA extract. The RT-PCR amplifying the 149-bp DNA fragment was the most sensitive for detecting E. coli O157:H7 and the most refractory to the bactericidal treatments. Heat treatment at $65^{\circ}C$ for 30 min was the least inhibitory of all bactericidal treatments. Treatment with RNase A strongly inhibited the RT-PCR of heated milk but not unheated milk. This study described RT-PCR methods that are specific and sensitive with a detection limit of 10 E. coli O157:H7 cells, and showed that pre-treating milk samples with RNase A improved the specificity to detect viable bacteria by RT-PCR.

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.238-244
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• 2007

Nowadays many people are concerned about being healthy, and many dairy products are taken as health supplementary foods. Among dairy products, kefir, also called as Tibet mushroom, is a yogurt fermented by kefir grain, which is a mixture of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts. Although there are many empirical evidences that kefir is very influential for human body, the exact reason is not definitively discovered. Therefore, it would be useful to understand characteristics of a kefir grain and to categorize bacteria in a kefir grain. In this paper, molecular biological apparatus such as PCR, electrophoresis, PCR purification, DNA sequencing were used to identify and classify the species of lactic acid bacteria and yeast in a kefir grain. We used PCR-based identification method using 16S rRNA primer and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) primer. We identified 6 different species which were selected on different medium. In addition, observation with scanning electron microscope (SEM) enabled us to grasp an external shape of the kefir grain. Although we found a limited number of microbial species, more intensive research are needed for extensive identification of microorganism species in Korean kefir grain.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.383-386
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• 2005

In 2003 typical phytoplasma symptoms of witches' broom and flower malformation were observed on statice (Limonium sinuatum) plants grown at commercial greenhouses in Busan, South Korea. The DNA extracted from the infected leaves was amplified using universal primer pair of Pl/P6 derived from conserved 16S rRNA gene of Mollicutes giving the expected Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product of 1.5 kb. In the nested PCR assays, the expected DNA fragment of 1.1 kb was amplified with the specific primer pair 16Fl/Rl that was designed on the basis of aster yellows (AY) phytoplasma 16S rDNA sequences. The 1.1 kb PCR products were cloned and nucleotide sequences were determined. The sequences were identical to that of Onion yellows OY phytoplasma (GenBank accession no. D12569) isolated from Onion in Japan. Electron microscopy of thin sections of leaf veins showed phytoplasma bodies in the phloem. Statice witches' broom symptom occurred on statice in commercial greenhouses in Korea was confirmed as infection of AY phytoplasma by transmission electron microscopy observation, and by determination of 16S rRNA gene sequences of phytoplasma.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.166-171
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• 2002

The genus Leuconostoc is generally recognized as a favorable microorganism associated with a good taste of Kimchi and Lactobacillus plantarum is responsible for the overripening and acidification of Kimchi. A rapid and reliable PCR-based method to monitor the change of these lactic acid bacterial populations during Kimchi fermentation was attempted. A Leuconostoc-specific primer set was chosen from the conserved sequences of 16S rRNA genes among Leuconostoc species. The Lb. plantarum-specific primer set was the internal segments of a Lb. plantarum-specific probe which was isolated after randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis and tested for identification. The specificity of this protocol was examined in DNA samples isolated from a single strain. In agarose gel, as little as 10 pg of template DNA could be used to visualize the PCR products, and quantitative determination was possible at the levels of 10 pg to 100 ng template DNA. For the semi-quantitative determination of microbial changes during Kimchi fermentation, total DNAs from the 2 h-cultured microflora of Kimchi were extracted for 16 days and equal amounts of DNA templates were used for PCR. The intensities of DNA bands obtained from PCR using Leuconostoc-specific and Lb. plantarum-specific primer sets marked a dramatic contrast at the 1 ng and 100 ng template DNA levels during Kimchi fermentation, respectively. As the fermentation proceeded, the intensity of the band for Leuconostoc species increased sharply until the 5th day and the levels was maintained until the 11 th day. The sharp increase for Lb. plantarum occurred after 11 days with the decrease of Leuconostoc species. The results of this study indicate that Leuconostoc species were the major microorganisms at the beginning of Kimchi fermentation and reach their highest population during the optimum ripening period of Kimchi.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.56-56
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• 2020

감초는 다년생 콩과(Leguminocae) 식물로 국내에서 시중가격이 높은 만주감초가 일부 재배되고 있다. 우리나라에서 감초 재배법이 불완전한 상황에서 한반도의 기후변화에 의한 온도 상승은 약용작물의 생산 및 품질에 많은 영향을 미칠 것으로 예상되므로 본 연구에서는 재배환경 중 온도 조건만 조절할 수 있는 온도구배터널(temperature gradient tunnel system)을 이용하여 4개의 T1(외기온도+0.5~1.3℃), T2(+1.3~2.2℃), T3(+2.2~3.2℃), T4(+3.2~4.0℃) 처리로 온도구배 하여 4년생 만주감초(Glycyrrhiza uralensis F.)를 재배하였다. 지하부가 오래된 모주와 신초1의 경우 저온(T1)과 중간구간(T2, T3)에서 초장과 총화수가 우세하였고, 번식이 가장 늦은 신초2의 경우 중간구간(T2, T3)에서의 생육 및 개화반응이 뚜렷했다. 각 온도처리구마다 3개의 감초 개체를 선발하여 모주의 정단으로부터 5개의 성엽을 채취하였다. Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR)은 AccuPower® GreenStar^TM RT-qPCR Master Mix (Bioneer, Korea)를 이용하여 진행되었다. Primer 디자인은 NCBI Primer-blast 프로그램을 사용해 제작하였고 ABI StepOne real time system (Applied Biosystem)의 melting curve analysis에서 one-peak test를 통해 gene specific primer임을 확인하였다. 각 온도처리구의 감초 잎에서 RNA를 추출하였고, RT-qPCR을 통해 감초의 유전자 발현양상을 비교, 분석하였다. Phytochrome interacting factor 4 (PIF4)는 식물 호르몬을 유발하는 전사조절을 조정함으로써 고온 신호전달에 핵심적인 역할을 수행한다. 활성화된 Phytochrome B(PhyB)는 PIF4의 활성을 억제한다고 알려졌다. Eukaryotic initiation factors(eIFs)는 mRNA 번역 개시인자로 유전자 발현과 특정 단백질 생산을 조절하는 역할을 한다. 본 결과는 온도조건에서 반응하는 생리적 변화를 전사체 수준에서 조사 분석하여 생리해석의 기초자료로 활용, 국내 감초 재배를 위한 환경조건 구명 및 적지 선정 기초자료로서 활용을 기대한다.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.461-466
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• 2011

In genetic and molecular breeding studies of plants, researchers need to design various kinds of primers based on their research purposes. So far many kinds of web- or script-based non-commercial programs for primer design are available. Because most of them do not include user interface for multipurpose usage including gene structure prediction and direct target selection on sequences, it has been a laborious work to design primers targeting on the exon or intron regions of interesting genes. Here we report a primer designing graphic user interface program, Pickprimer, that includes gene structure prediction and primer design modules by combining source codes of the Spidey and Primer3 programs. This program provides simple graphic user interface to input sequences and design primers. Genomic sequence and mRNA or coding sequence of genes can be copy and pasted or input as fasta or text files. Based on alignment of the input sequences using the Spidey module, a putative gene structure is graphically visualized along with exon-intron sequences of color codes. Primer design can be easily performed by dragging mouse on the displayed sequences or input primer targeting position with desirable values of primers. The output of designed primers with detailed information is provided by the Primer3 module. PCR evaluation of 24 selected primer sets successfully amplified single amplicons from six Brassica rapa cultivars. The Pickprimer will be a convenient tool for genetic and molecular breeding studies of plants.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.911-916
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• 2003

The mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) D-loop region was amplified from Duroc(Sus scrofa) by polymerase chain reaction(PCR). The oligonucleotide primer used to amplify the Sus scrofa mtDNA D-loop region was designed using tRNA-Pro and tRNA-Phe sequence in mtDNA regions highly conserved in many other animal species. There were 1,145 base pairs(bp) in the D-loop region. The middle of the region contained 10 tandem repeat of an 10-bp Sus scrofa-specific sequence, TACACGTGCG. We designed primers for PCR-mediated single stranded conformation polymorphism(SSCP) analysis that amplified a 345 bp fragment, which contained the most variable region according to our sequencing data. SSCP analysis of denatured amplification products was carried out by polyacrylamide(8%) gel electrophoresis followed by ethidium bromide staining. The SSCP analysis identified two band patterns(A and B) and comparision of these two nucleotide sequences identified 21 base substitutions. These results show that SSCP analysis of the D-loop region is useful for detecting the genetic polymorphism.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.308-313
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• 1998

Reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techiniques were used to identification and differentiation of cucumber mosaic virus isolated from Forsythia koreana (CMV-Fk). RT-PCT used by two set of 20-mer primers one was CMV-common primers and another was CMV subgroup I-specific primers designed in a conserved region of the 3' end of CMV RNA3, amplified about 490 bp and 200 bp DNA fragments from CMV-Fk, respectively. CMV could be detected by RT-PCR at a dilution as low as 10-4 in forsythia crude sap extracts. Restriction enzyme analysis of RT-PCR products using EcoRI and MspI showed that CMV-Fk belonged to CMV subgroup I. But, analysis of RNA fingerprinting by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (RAP-PCR) showed heterogeneity of RNA3 between CMV-Fk and CMV-Y as a member of subgroup I.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2016

A retron is a bacterial retroelement that encodes an RNA gene and a reverse transcriptase (RT). The former, once transcribed, works as a template primer for reverse transcription by the latter. The resulting DNA is covalently linked to the upstream part of the RNA; this chimera is called multicopy single-stranded DNA (msDNA), which is extrachromosomal DNA found in many bacterial species. Based on the conserved features in the eight known msDNA sequences, we developed a detection method and applied it to scan National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) RefSeq bacterial genome sequences. Among 16,844 bacterial sequences possessing a retron-type RT domain, we identified 48 unique types of msDNA. Currently, the biological role of msDNA is not well understood. Our work will be a useful tool in studying the distribution, evolution, and physiological role of msDNA.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.734-740
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• 2005

The blood samples were collected from dairy cows at the same milking stage. The single-strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) method was used to analyze for polymorphism at the 5'flanking region of the hsp70 gene. The mRNA expression levels of HSP70, HSF1, Bcl-2 and Bax-$\alpha$ at different daily-mean-temperature were analyzed by relative quantitative RTPCR. The DNA content, cell phase and the ratio of apoptosis of lymphocytes in peripheral blood of dairy cattle at different daily-meantemperature were determined by FCM. The PCR-SSCP products of primer pair 1 showed polymorphisms and could be divided into four genotypes: aa, ab, ac, cc, with the cis-acting element (CCAAT box) included. Mutations in the hsp70 5'flanking region (468-752 bp) had different effects on mRNA expression of HSP70, HSF1, Bcl-2 and Bax-$\alpha$. The ac genotypic cows showed higher expressions of HSP70mRNA, HSF1mRNA and Bcl-2mRNA/Bax-$\alpha$mRNA and lower ratio of apoptosis. These mutation sites can be used as molecular genetic markers to assist selection for anti-heat stress cows.