• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2014

One hundred forty four bacterial colonies which were able to degrade crude oil were isolated from soil samples that were contaminated with oil in Daejeon area. Among them, one bacterial strain was selected for this study based on its emulsification activity, growth rate and surface tension activity, and this selected bacterial strain was identified as Pseudomonas sp. HN37 through physiological- biochemical tests and analysis of its 16S rRNA sequence. Pseudomonas sp. HN37 utilize the several aliphatic hydrocarbons, 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid and 2,4-dichlorophooxyacetic acid as a sole carbon source. And this bacterial strain showed a high resistance to antibiotics such as ampicillin and chloramphenicol, as well as heavy metals such as Ba, Cr, Li and Mn. Also, it was found that the optimal pH and temperature for the cell growth, surface tension, and emulsification activity of Pseudomonas sp. HN37 were pH 6.0-9.0 and $30^{\circ}C$, respectively. The emulsification and surface tension activity was reached the maximum to 1% (V/V) crude oil and 1% (W/V) NaCl concentration. The surface tension of the culture broth was decreased from 62 to 27 dyne/cm after fifteen hours of inoculation in LB media.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2006

We investigated the effects of immobilization chemistry on the yield of immobilization and the bioactivity of the immobilized enzymes. Trypsin as a model protein and macroporous polymer beads(Toyopearl AF 650M, Tosho Co., Japan) was used as a model matrix. Four methods were used to immobilize trypsin; covalent conjugation by reductive amination(at pH 10.0 and pH 4.0) and affinity interaction via streptavidin-biotin, and double-affinity interaction via biotin-streptavidin-biotin system. The covalent conjugation immobilized $3{\sim}4$ mg/ml-gel, ca. 3-fold higher than the affinity method. However, the specific activity of the covalently(pH 10.0) and affinity-immobilized trypsin(via streptavidin-biotin) are ca. 37% and 50%, respectively, of that of the soluble enzyme(on the low-molecular-weight BAPNA substrate). When the molecular size of a substrate increased, the affinity-immobilized trypsin showed higher clavage activity on insulin and BSA. This result seemed to indicate the streptavidin-biotin system allowed more steric flexibility of the immobilized trypsin in its interaction with a substrate molecule. To confirm this, we studied the molecular flexibility of immobilized trypsin using quartz crystal microbalance-dissipation. Self-assembled monolayers were formed on the Q-sensor surface by aminoalkanethiols, and gultaraldehyde was attached to the SAMs. Trypsin was immobilized in two ways: reductive amination(at pH 10.0) and the streptavidin-biotin system. The dissipation shift of the affinity-immobilized trypsin was $0.8{\times}10^{-6}$, whereas that of the covalently attached enzyme was almost zero. This result confirmed that the streptavidin-biotin system allowed higher molecular flexibility. These results suggested that the bioactivity of the immobilized enzyme be strongly dependent on its molecular flexibility.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.85-106
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• 2017

The Lago Sofia conglomerate in southern Chile is a deep-marine gravelly deposit, which is hundreds of meters thick and kilometers wide and extends laterally for more than 100 km, filling the foredeep trough of the Cretaceous Magallanes Basin. For understanding the depositional processes and environments of this gigantic deep-sea conglomerate, detailed analyses on sedimentary facies, architecture and paleoflow patterns were carried out, highlighting the differences between the northern (Lago Pehoe and Lago Goic areas) and southern (Lago Sofia area) parts of the study area. The conglomerate bodies in the northern part occur as relatively thin (< 100 m thick), multiple units intervened by thick mudstone-dominated sequences. They show paleoflows toward ENE and S to SW, displaying a converging drainage pattern. In the southern part, the conglomerate bodies are vertically interconnected and form a thick (> 400 m thick) conglomerate sequence with rare intervening fine-grained deposits. Paleoflows are toward SW. The north-to-south variations are also distinct in sedimentary facies. The conglomerate bodies in the southern part are mainly composed of clast-supported conglomerate with sandy matrix, which is interpreted to be deposited from highly concentrated bedload layers under turbidity currents. Those in the northern part are dominated by matrix- to clast-supported conglomerate with muddy matrix, which is interpreted as the products of composite mass flows comprising a turbidity current, a gravelly hyperconcentrated flow and a mud-rich debris flow. All these characteristics suggest that the Lago Sofia conglomerate was formed in centripetally converging submarine channels, not in centrifugally diverging channels of submarine fans. The tributaries in the north were dominated by mass flows, probably affected by channel-bank failures or basin-marginal slope instability processes. In contrast, the trunk channel in the south was mostly filled by tractive processes, which resulted in the vertical and lateral accretion of gravel bars, deposition of gravel dunes and filling of scours and channels, similar to deposits of terrestrial gravel-bed rivers. The trunk channel developed along the axis of foredeep trough and its confinement within the trough is probably responsible for the thick, interconnected channel fills. The large-scale architecture of the trunk-channel fills shows an eastward offset stacking pattern, suggesting that the channel migrated eastwards most likely due to the uplift of the Andean Cordillera.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2013

A xylanase-producing bacterium was isolated from a soil sample collected in Yongin city, Korea. The strain was aerobic and gram positive, and grew between pH 5.0 and 11.0, forming a yellow-colored colony. The strain was classified as a novel subspecies bacterium of Paenibacillus barcinonensis by 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, phylogenetic analysis, phenotypic, and biochemical characteristics, and thus named Paenibacillus sp. HX-1. This strain produced extracellular endo-${\beta}$-1,4-xylanase, and the best xylanolytic activity (205.17 unit/ml) was obtained at 96 h in an optimized TNX medium containing 1% (w/v) bacto tryptone, 1% (w/v) NaCl, and 0.7% (w/v) beechwood xylan at pH 7.0, $37^{\circ}C$ and 200 rpm. The endo-${\beta}$-1,4-xylanase produced by the strain HX-1 yielded xylobiose as the end product from beechwood xylan hydrolysis. The enzyme exhibited optimum pH and temperature at pH 7.0 and $45^{\circ}C$, respectively. The remarkable enhancing effect of the TNX medium on xylanase production by HX-1, in spite of its simple formula, may have great advantages for industrial applications of xylanase.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2016

Quartz schist - quartzite is often intercalated in metasedimentary rocks of Ogcheon belt or aligned parallel to the boundary between Yeongnam massif and Ogcheon belt. However, stratigraphic sequence and or geologic age of the rocks has been still variable among authors as Precambrian or Paleozoic. In this study, we carried out SHRIMP U-Pb age data of detrital zircons from Yeongam and Yeongsanpo areas and compared ours with other zircon ages from other areas. The detrital zircons from the studied area show no age younger than 1.8 Ga but yielded clusters at Neoarchean (2.5 Ga) and Paleoproterozoic (1.8 Ga). On the other hand, the age range of zircon U-Pb dating of Paleozoic quartzites yielded from Archean to middle Paleozoic and clusters at Paleoproterozoic, Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic. The characteristics of the zircon age range and the dominant age peak might become a key to classify the Proterozoic to Paleozoic quartz schists-quartzites, which ages are still remained under controversy. Based on the statistical results of the zircon ages in this study, quartz schist - quartzite from Yeongam and Yeongsanpo is considered to be deposited during Proterozoic.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.56-59
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• 2017

During growing season of 2011 to 2013, Sclerotinia rot symptoms consistently have been observed on basil in Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do in Korea. The typical symptom formed initially brownish spot on leaf and stem, and then advancing margins, wilting the whole plant and blighting, eventually died. On the surface of diseased lesions was observed cottony, white, dense mat of mycelial growth, and sclerotia ($30-100{\mu}m$ diameter) formed on stem and leaf. Morphological and cultural characteristic on potato dextrose agar, color of colony was white and colorless chocolate, sclerotium of irregular shape of the oval was black and $5-50{\mu}m$ diameter in size. In pathogenicity test, necrosis and wilt of the inoculated stem were observed in all plants and the pathogen was reisolated from stems. On the basis of mycological characteristics, pathogenicity, and internal transcribed spacer rDNA sequence analysis, this fungus was identified as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. This is the first report of Sclerotinia rot on basil caused by S. sclerotiorum in Korea.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.78-81
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• 2011

Soft rot caused by Rhizopus oryzae occurred on unshiu orange (Citrus unshiu Marc.) sampled from commercial markets in Jinju, Korea, 2010. The first symptom of soft rot on orange is a water-soaked appearance of the affected tissue. The infected parts later disintegrated into a mushy mass of disorganized cells followed by rapid softening of the diseased tissue. The lesion on orange was rapidly softened and rotted, then became brown or dark brown. Optimum temperature for mycelial growth of the causal fungus on potato dextrose agar was $30^{\circ}C$ and growth was still apparent at $37^{\circ}C$. Sporangiophores were $6{\sim}20\;{\mu}m$ in diameter. Sporangia were globose and $40{\sim}200\;{\mu}m$ in size. The color of sporangia was brownish-grey to blackish-grey at maturity. Sporangiospores were sub-globose, brownish- black streaked and $4{\sim}10\;{\mu}m$ in size. Columella were globose to sub-globose and $85{\sim}120\;{\mu}m$ in size. On the basis of mycological characteristics, pathogenicity test, and the ITS sequence analysis, the causal fungus was identified as Rhizopus oryzae. To our knowledge, this is the first report of soft rot caused by R. oryzae on unshiu orange in Korea.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.845-852
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• 2014

Among various abiotic stress factors, soil salinity decreases the photosynthetic rate, growth, and yield of plants. Recently, many genes have been reported to enhance salt tolerance. The objective of this study was to characterize the Brassica rapa Salt Stress Resistance (BrSSR) gene, of which the function was unclear, although the full-length sequence was known. To characterize the role of BrSSR, a B. rapa Chinese cabbage inbred line ('CT001') was transformed with pSL94 vector containing the full length BrSSR cDNA. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that the expression of BrSSR in the transgenic line was 2.59-fold higher than that in the wild type. Analysis of phenotypic characteristics showed that plants overexpressing BrSSR were resistant to salinity stress and showed normal growth. Microarray analysis of BrSSR over-expressing plants confirmed that BrSSR was strongly associated with ERD15 (AT2G41430), a gene encoding a protein containing a PAM2 motif (AT4G14270), and GABA-T (AT3G22200), all of which have been associated with salt tolerance, in the co-expression network of genes related to salt stress. The results of this study indicate that BrSSR plays an important role in plant growth and tolerance to salinity.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.748-755
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• 2013

This study was conducted to find a salt tolerance gene in Brassica rapa. In order to meet this objective, we analyzed data from a KBGP-24K oligo chip [BrEMD (Brassica rapa EST and microarray database)] of the B. rapa ssp. pekinensis 'Chiifu' under salt stress (250 mM NaCl). From the B. rapa KBGP-24K microarray chip analysis, 202 salt-responsive unigenes were primarily selected under salt stress. Of these, a gene with unknown function but known full-length sequence was chosen to closely investigate the gene function. The selected gene was named BrSSR (B. rapa salt stress resistance). BrSSR contains a 285 bp open reading frame encoding a putative 94-amino acid protein, and a DUF581 domain. The pSL94 vector was designed to over-express BrSSR, and was used to transform tobacco plants for salt tolerance analysis. T1 transgenic tobacco plants that over-expressed BrSSR were selected by PCR and DNA blot analyses. Quantitative real-time RT PCR revealed that the expression of BrSSR in transgenic tobacco plants increased by approximately 3.8-fold. Similar results were obtained by RNA blot analysis. Phenotypic characteristics analysis showed that transgenic tobacco plants with over-expressed BrSSR were more salt-tolerant than the wild type control under 250 mM NaCl for 5 days. Based on these results, we hypothesized that the over-expression of BrSSR may be closely related to the enhancement of salt tolerance.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.413-419
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• 2017

Four imipenem-resistant bacteria were isolated from the clinical specimens of a patient with pneumonia. To identify the isolates, we used the GN card of Vitek II system and performed a phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence. The isolates were identified as P. aeruginosa (2 strains), P. monteilii (1 strain), and P. putida (1 strain), and were tested for antibiotic resistance after determining the MIC of imipenem to be $${\geq_-}8{\mu}g/mL$$ using the AST-N225 card of Vitek II system. The imipenem-resistant genotypes were determined using PCR products amplified using specific ${\beta}-Lactamase$ gene primers. The MBL gene was identified in all four isolates. One strain of P. aeruginosa exhibited the VIM and SHV-1 type genes, while the other strain exhibited both VIM and OXA group II genes. According to the antimicrobial susceptibility test, the bacteria were more susceptible to amikacin than other antibiotics. DNA fingerprint analysis using ERIC-PCR to analyze the epidemiological relationship between strains estimated that both the P. aeruginosa isolates were similar, but exhibited different DNA band types. It is uncommon to find four strains of imipenem-resistant bacteria with different DNA band types in a single patient.