• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 2001

Biological Treatment of Wastewater Containing Chlorinated Phenols by a Mixed Culture. Lee, Wan-Seok1, Sang-Wook Jung, Chan-Sun Park, Byung-Dae Yoon, Jang-Eok Kim\ and Hee-Mock Oh*. Environmental Bioresources Laboratory, Korea Research Institute of Biosicence and Biotechnology, Taejon, Korea, 1 Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Kyungpool< National University, Taegu, Korea - The biodegradation of chlorinated phenols in an artificial wastewater was investigated using a mixed culture. The mixed culture was composed of 8 microorganisms isolated from the soil contaminated with various chlorinated phenols. Pseudomonas sp. BM as a main constituent of a mixed culture was Gram-negative, catalase- and oxidase-positive, and rod-shaped, and did not grow at 41°C. It degraded 99% of initial 500 mg!1 of pentachlorophenol (PCP) in the minimal salts medium as a sole source of carbon and energy within 3 days. The degradation efficiency of Pseu.domon.as sp. BM was not affected by the other organic carbon and nitrogen compounds. Pseudomonas sp. BM was able to grow in a broad range of pH 5 - 8, and degrade 2,000 mg/1 PCP. In the experiment with an artificial wastewater containing chlorinated phenols, the degradation efficiency of the mixed culture was the range of 73% (2,4-dichlorophenol) -96% (2-chlorophenol) during an incubation of 7 days. In a continuous culture experiment, the degradation efficiency of mixed culture plus activated sludge was about 2 times higher than that of the control containing only activated sludge. These results indicate that it is possible to apply the mixed culture to other wastewaters containing chlorinated phenols. Key words: Biodegradation, chlorinated phenols, pentachlorophenol, Pseudomonas sp. BM

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.78-83
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• 2004

In order to screen microorganisms producing phopholipase D (PLD) had high transphosphatidylation activity, about 1,000 Actinomycetes strains were isolated from the 63 soil samples, collected over 6 local area in Korea. When the hydrolytic activity in the supernatant was determined, 131 strains produced PLD more than 0.3U/$m\ell$. Among 131 culture broths tested, 23 ones had transphosphatidylation activity higher than 20% and finally one strain (Actinomycetes KF923), which had highest hydrolytic and transphophadylation activity, was selected. Actinomycetes KF923 showed the highest hydrolytic activity (13U/$m\ell$) and phosphatidylation activity (95%) after 48 h fermentation using the P medium (yeast extract 1%, peptone 1%, glucose 1.5%, glycerol 1%, $CaCO_3$ 0.4%, pH 7.2). PLD was purified from the culture broth of Actinomycetes KF923 and the specific activity of purified PLD was 567U/mg. The molecular weight of PLD was about 55kD and the optimum pH and temperature were pH 6.0 and $60^{\circ}C$, respectively. The stability of PLD toward pH and temperature were high around pH 8.0 and below $40^{\circ}C$ Special metal ions were not necessary to the PLD activity.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.131-137
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• 2006

This experiment was conducted to select prominent microorganisms with a good insecticidal activity among the ten species, which isolated from soil at the near of Chung-buk, Chung-nam, and Gang-won provinces and made protein crystal endotoxin. As a result, GB-413 strain was finally selected, which showed the high insecticidal activity against susceptible diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella), beet army worm (Spodoptera exigua) and tobacco cutworm (Spodoptera litura) as well as resistant diamondback moth strains. By modifying the cultivation process f.g. lowing the glucose concentration at early cultivation stage and adding the carbon after inducing the spores, the percentage of making spore as well as the number of active spore were increased and the time for cultivation and spore forming was reduced without a reduction of insecticidal activity. These results were not only applied successfully for the optimized cultivation process for a fermentation tank containing five tons capacity, but also improved the possibility of mass cultivation for commercial production.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.177-184
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• 1977

Arylsulfatase catalyzes the release of SO$\sub$4//sup2/- from sulfate esters of simple phenols. Arylsolfatase occurs widely in animal tissues and in microorganisms including soil bacteria. Its widespread distribution suggests that it has a rather fundamental function and environmental meaning. It has been shown previously that arylsulfatase of Klebsiella was purified and characterized. A condition of arylsulfatase synthesis was tested with several strains of Serratia. Serratia marcescens could not utilize some sugars, such as xylose, rhamnose, glucosamine and arabinose hut glucose and mannitol as a sole carbon source. However, arylsulfatase synthesis was repressed by glucose but not by mannitol. The enzyme synthesis was repressed ob inorganic sulfate and methionine, and this repression was relieved by addition of tyramine. Arylsulfatase of S. marcescen was purified by fractionation with ammonium sulfate and followed by chromatographies on DEAE-Cellulose CM-Cellulose, and DEAE-Sephadex A-25. The molecular weight of arylsulfatase was determined to be 46,000 by SDS-Gel electrophoresis and 49,000 by Sephadex G-100 column chromatography. The enzyme showed some different properties with that of K. aerogenes. The activity was maximum at pH 6.8. The Km and Vmax values for p-nitrophenyl sulfate were 2.5${\times}$10$\^$－4/ M and 20 nmoles/min/mg protein, respectively. The enzyme showed high activities toward phenyl sulfate, ο-and p-nitro phenyl sulfates, and p-nitrocatechol sulfate. The inhibition of enzyme was strongly affected by hydroxylamine, inorganic fluoride, sulfide and phosphate, but by inorganic sulfate. Like Klebsiella arylsulfatase, tyramine, octopamine, and dopamine gave signifcant inhibitory effect.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.363-370
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• 1992

Microorganisms capable of accumulating poly-p-hydroxybutyric acid(PHB) were isolated from soil by enrichment culture technique. Among them, the strain designated as FL-027 had high PHB productivity and was identified as Alcaligenes. The optimal medium composition for cell growth was 8.0 $g/\ell$ of fructose and 3.0 $g/\ell$ of $(NH_4)_2S0_4$, equivalent to C/N ratio 5.04 at pH 7.0 and $30^{\circ}C$. To investigate the optimal conditions for the PHB accumulation, we divided the process into two stages; the first stage for the growth of the cell in nutrient-rich medium and the second stage for the PHB accumulation in nutrient-deficiency medium. The optimal conditions for PHB accumulation were 8.0 $g/\ell$ of fructose and 0.25 $g/\ell$ of $(NH_4)_2S0_4$, equivalent to C/N ratio 60 at pH 6.5 and $30^{\circ}C$. PHB accumulation was stimulated by deficiency of nutrients such as $NH_4^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, $SO_4^{2+}$ in medium. Among them. $NH_4^+$ deficiency was chosen because of its effectiveness. We found the inhibition of cell growth by fructose in batch culture. In order to keep the fructose concentration at an optimal level, intermittent feeding fed-batch culture was employed, and the cell concentration as high as 10.83 $g/\ell$ whose PHB content was responsible for 43% of the dry cell weight. The purified PHB was identified as homopolymer of 3-hydroxybutyric acid by using IR and $^1H-NMR$.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.104-110
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• 2011

Actinomycetes, Gram positive soil bacteria, are valuable microorganisms which produce useful secondary metabolites including antibiotics, antiparasitic substances, anti-cancer drugs, and immunosuppressants. Although a major family of actinomycetes, known as streptomycetes, has been intensively investigated at the molecular level for several decades, a potentially valuable and only recently isolated non-streptomycetes rare actinomycetes (NSRA) family has been poorly characterized due to lack of proper genetic manipulation systems. Here we report that a PCR-based genome screening strategy was performed with approximately 180 independently isolated actinomycetes strains to isolate potentially valuable NSRA strains. Thanks to this simple PCR-based genome screening strategy we were able to identify only seven NSRA strains, followed by 16S rRNA sequencing for confirmation. Through further bioassays, one potentially valuable NSRA strain (tentatively named Nocardiopsis species MMBL010) was identified which possessed both antifungal and antibacterial activities, along with the presence of polyketide synthase and non-ribosomal peptide synthase genes. Moreover, Nocardiopsis species MMBL010, which was intrinsically recalcitrant to genetic manipulation, was successfully transformed via E. coli-driven conjugation. These results suggest that PCR-based genome screening, followed by the establishment of an E. coli-driven conjugation system, is an efficient strategy to maximize potentially valuable compounds and their biosynthetic genes from NSRA strains isolated from various environments.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1095-1100
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• 2014

Keratin wastes are generated in excess of million tons per year worldwide and biodegradation of keratin by microorganisms possessing keratinase activity can be used as an alternative tool to prevent environmental pollution. For practical use of keratinase, its physicochemical properties should be investigated in detail. In this study, we investigated characteristics of keratinase produced by Xanthomonas sp. P5 which is isolated from rhizospheric soil of soybean. The level of keratinase produced by the strain P5 increased with time and reached its maximum (10.6 U/ml) at 3 days. The production of soluble protein had the same tendency as the production of keratinase. Optimal temperature and pH of keratinase were $40^{\circ}C-45^{\circ}C$ and pH 9, respectively. The enzyme showed broad temperature and pH stabilities. Thermostability profile showed that the enzyme retained 94.6%-100% of the original activity after 1 h treatment at $10^{\circ}C-40^{\circ}C$. After treatment for 1 h at pH 6-10, 89.2%-100% of the activity was remained. At pH 11, 71.6% of the original activity was retained after 1 h treatment. Although the strain P5 did not degrade human hair, it degraded duck feather and chicken feather. These results indicate that keratinase from Xanthomonas sp. P5 could be not only used to upgrade the nutritional value of feather hydrolysate but also useful in situ biodegradation of feather.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.112-117
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• 2013

Phytophthora capsici is one of major limiting factors in production of pepper and other important crops worldwide by causing foliage blight and rot on fruit and root. Increased demand for the replacement of fungicides has led to searching a promising strategy to control the fungal diseases. To meet eco-friendly agriculture practice, we isolated microorganisms and assessed their beneficial effects on plant health and disease control efficacy. A total of 360 bacterial strains were isolated from rhizosphere soil of healthy pepper plants, and categorized to 5 representative isolates based on colony morphology. Among the 5 bacterial strains (GJ-1, GJ-4, GJ-5, GJ-11, GJ-12), three bacterial strains (GJ-1, GJ-11, GJ-12) presented antifungal activity against P. capsici in an fungal inhibition assay. In phosphate solubilization and siderophore production, the strain GJ-1 was more effective than others. The strain GJ-1 was identified as Bacillus sp. using 16S rDNA analysis. Bacillus sp. GJ-1 was also found to be effective in inhibiting other plant pathogenic fungi, including Rhizoctonia solani, Pythium ultimum and Fusarium solani. Therefore, the Bacillus sp. GJ-1 can serve as a biological control agent against fungal plant pathogens.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.384-390
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• 2018

Air and soil are being contaminated by the environmental pollution as a result of climate change and urbanization, resulting in water pollution reaching serious levels. In this studies, we investigated the use of antimicrobial copper for the removal of biological pollutants from water system. Specifically, we tested its effects against E. coli, B. subtilis, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa. Made a sphere shape having a diameter of 2cm using a strip-shaped copper wire of 0.5g, 1g and 2g. And then, to confirm the antimicrobial activities, each copper ball was equipped in the broth which inoculated each pathogens. The results showed that bacterial growth of the five test bacteria was inhibited by more than 99% after reaction with a 0.5 g copper ball for at least 20 minutes. Based on the these results, if perform the further experiment such cytotoxicity, it is expected that will be enough to be used as a filter for water quality purification. The developed technique is expected to be widely applied in various industries.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.100-109
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• 2016

Low impact development (LID) facilities are established for the purpose of restoring the natural hydrologic cycle as well as the removal of pollutants from stormwater runoff. Improved efficiency of LID facilities can be obtained through the optimized interaction of their major components (i.e., plant, soil, filter media, microorganisms, etc.). Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the performances of LID facilities in terms of runoff and pollutant reduction and also to provide an optimal maintenance method. The monitoring was conducted on four LID technologies (e.g., bioretention, small wetlands, rain garden and tree box filter). The optimal SA/CA (facility surface area / catchment area) ratio for runoff reduction greater than 40% is determined to be 1 - 5%. Since runoff reduction affects the pollutant removal efficiency in LID facilities, SA/CA ratio is derived as an important factor in designing LID facilities. The LID facilities that are found to be effective in reducing stormwater runoff are in the following order: rain garden > tree box filter > bioretention> small wetland. Meanwhile, in terms of removal of particulate matter (TSS), the effectiveness of the facilities are in the following order: rain garden > tree box filter > small wetland > bioretention; rain gardens > tree box filter > bioretention > small wetland were determined for the removal of organic matter (COD, TOC), nutrients (TN, TP) and heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn). These results can be used as an important material for the design of LID facilities in runoff volume and pollutant reduction.