• 생명과학회지
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.218-229
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• 2001

The cycle of the seminiferous epithelium and spermiogenesis in three species if the genus Crocidura, the lesser white-toothed shrew, C. suaveolens, the Japanese white-toothed shrew, C. dsinezumi and the big(=Ussuri) white-toothed shrew C. lasiura, in the breeding season were studied with light and electron microscopes. The three species examined are distinguished from each other in the morphology of the seminiferous epithelium and the spermiogenesis, suggesting that these morphological characteristics are useful for the identification of the species. C. dsinezumi and C. lasiura, however, share many characteristics which are not common in C. suaveolens, as follows: In both species, 1) the cycle of the seminiferous epithelium is composed of 10 stages against 11 stages in C. suaveloens; 2) the earliest intermediated type spermatogonia is observed at stage I against stage III in C. suaveolens; 3) the spermatids of step 5 is observed during the stages V-VI against stages V-VII in C. suaveolens; 4) the acrosomal extension occurs during the stages VIII-X against tages IX-XI in C. suaveolens; 5) the condensation of the nucleus occurs simultaneously whereas it begins from the middle and along the nuclear membrane in C. suaveolens; 6) the capitular length in acrosome phase is shorter(about 2/3 of the diameter of the proximal centriole) than in C. suaveolens(longer than the diameter of proximal centriole; 7) length of the post nuclear cap is shorter(less than a half of the nucleus) than in C. suaveolens(about a half on the nucleus). Hudging from the similarities in the spermatogenesis in C. dsinezumi and C. lasiura, the relationship between them seems to be close compared to those with C. suaveolens.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제29권7호
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• pp.1144-1154
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• 2019

There have been several studies regarding lichen-associated bacteria obtained from diverse environments. Our screening process identified 49 bacterial species in two lichens from the Himalayas: 17 species of Actinobacteria, 19 species of Firmicutes, and 13 species of Proteobacteria. We discovered five types of strong antimicrobial agent-producing bacteria. Although some strains exhibited weak antimicrobial activity, NP088, NP131, NP132, NP134, and NP160 exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against all multidrug-resistant strains. Polyketide synthase (PKS) fingerprinting revealed results for 69 of 148 strains; these had similar genes, such as fatty acid-related PKS, adenylation domain genes, PfaA, and PksD. Although the association between antimicrobial activity and the PKS fingerprinting results is poorly resolved, NP160 had six types of PKS fingerprinting genes, as well as strong antimicrobial activity. Therefore, we sequenced the draft genome of strain NP160, and predicted its secondary metabolism using antiSMASH version 4.2. NP160 had 46 clusters and was predicted to produce similar secondary metabolites with similarities of 5-100%. Although NP160 had 100% similarity with the alkylresorcinol biosynthetic gene cluster, our results showed low similarity with existing members of this biosynthetic gene cluster, and most have not yet been revealed. In conclusion, we expect that lichen-associated bacteria from the Himalayas can produce new secondary metabolites, and we found several secondary metabolite-related biosynthetic gene clusters to support this hypothesis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제31권8호
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• pp.1154-1162
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• 2021

The transcriptional capacities of target genes are strongly influenced by promoters, whereas few studies have focused on the development of robust, high-performance and cross-species promoters for wide application in different bacteria. In this work, four novel promoters (P_k.rtufB, P_k.r1, P_k.r2, and P_k.r3) were predicted from Ketogulonicigenium robustum and their inconsistency in the -10 and -35 region nucleotide sequences indicated they were different promoters. Their activities were evaluated by using green fluorescent protein (gfp) as a reporter in different species of bacteria, including K. vulgare SPU B805, Pseudomonas putida KT2440, Paracoccus denitrificans PD1222, Bacillus licheniformis and Raoultella ornithinolytica, due to their importance in metabolic engineering. Our results showed that the four promoters had different activities, with P_k.r1 showing the strongest activity in almost all of the experimental bacteria. By comparison with the commonly used promoters of E. coli (tufB, lac, lacUV5), K. vulgare (Psdh, Psndh) and P. putida KT2440 (JE111411), the four promoters showed significant differences due to only 12.62% nucleotide similarities, and relatively higher ability in regulating target gene expression. Further validation experiments confirmed their ability in initiating the target minCD cassette because of the shape changes under the promoter regulation. The overexpression of sorbose dehydrogenase and cytochrome c551 by P_k.r1 and P_k.r2 resulted in a 22.75% enhancement of 2-KGA yield, indicating their potential for practical application in metabolic engineering. This study demonstrates an example of applying bioinformatics to find new biological components for gene operation and provides four novel promoters with broad suitability, which enriches the usable range of promoters to realize accurate regulation in different genetic backgrounds.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• 제27권6호
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• pp.366-378
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• 2024

Application of commercial hormone failed to promote breeding in certain Pangasius species due to the differences of gonadotropin-releasing hormone specific peptide with species-specific bioactivities. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is a hypothalamic decapeptide in the reproductive system that plays a crucial role in the regulation of reproductive processes. This study was performed to determine and analyse the GnRH genes from commercially important Pangasius sp., Pangasianodon hypophthalmus and Pangasius nasutus. The GnRH1 and GnRH2 genes were amplified and cloned into TOPO vector, followed by phylogenetic analysis of a complete open reading frame (ORF) of GnRH genes. The GnRH1 and GnRH2 genes of P. hypophthalmus and P. nasutus were detected at 300 bp and 360 bp, encoded for 81 and 87 amino acids, respectively. Amino acid sequence identities revealed high homology of P. hypophthalmus and P. nasutus GnRH1 and GnRH2 genes in comparison with other fish and vertebrates. Phylogenetic tree showed that fish from various families were aggregated into a group of the same order due to their highest identity similarities. It revealed that the vertebrate formed clusters and are grouped according to their GnRH decapeptide and GnRH-associated peptide (GAP) region, indicating a close relationship among GnRH decapeptide and GAP in different vertebrate species.

• Mycobiology
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• 제42권3호
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• pp.241-248
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• 2014

NADPH oxidases (Noxes), transmembrane proteins found in most eukaryotic species, generate reactive oxygen species and are thereby involved in essential biological processes. However, the fact that genes encoding ferric reductases and ferric-chelate reductases share high sequence similarities and domains with Nox genes represents a challenge for bioinformatic approaches used to identify Nox-encoding genes. Further, most studies on fungal Nox genes have focused mainly on functionality, rather than sequence properties, and consequently clear differentiation among the various Nox isoforms has not been achieved. We conducted an extensive sequence analysis to identify putative Nox genes among 34 eukaryotes, including 28 fungal genomes and one Oomycota genome. Analyses were performed with respect to phylogeny, transmembrane helices, di-histidine distance and glycosylation. Our analyses indicate that the sequence properties of fungal Nox genes are different from those of human and plant Nox genes, thus providing novel insight that will enable more accurate identification and characterization of fungal Nox genes.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.323-335
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• 2001

Distribution features of foulers attached on 28 ships of 6 main shipping routes (SR) of the Far East Sea Basin were analyzed using various statistical methods. Collections obtained during 1976-1990 in the expeditions by the Institute of Marine Biology were used for the analyses. Samples were taken from the ships during anchorage by SCUBA diving and from dry-docks of Vladivostok ship-repairing yard. In all cases, the distribution patterns of most animals and algal species showed clear contagious patterns. Total biomass of fouling organisms and biomass of attached animals frequently increased along the horizontal direction of ship hulls, from the stem to the sternpost. Animal and algal species were usually located at different sites of the hulls. According to the increasing floating speed, there was, a clear tendency of the displacement in main fouling biomass from the stem to the stem. Any generalizations and deductions concerning the distribution patterns of the foulers from the same SR ships are not always substantiated, but one may see some similarities of the fouler distributions in many cases. Micro-scale turbulence generated by water flow around a ship hull for the distribution of fouling organisms is discussed.

• ALGAE
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.129-138
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• 2009

DNA-based discrimination of species is a powerful way for morphologically otherwise similar species, like centric diatoms. Here, the author sequenced long-range nuclear ribosomal DNAs, spanning from the 18S to the D5 region of the 28S rDNA, of Stephanodiscus, particularly including a Korean isolate. By comparisons, high DNA similarities were detected from the rDNAs of nine Stephanodiscus (>99.4% in 18S rDNA, >98.0% in 28S rDNA). Their genetic distances, however, were significantly different (Kruskal-Wallis test, p < 0.01) compared to two related genera, namely Cyclotella and Discostella. In addition, genetic distances of 18S rDNAs were significantly different (Student’s t-test, p = 0.000) against those of the 28S rDNAs according to individual genera (Cyclotella, Discostella, and Stephanodiscus). Phylogenetic analyses showed that Stephanodiscus and Discostella showed a sister taxon relationship, and their clade was separated from a cluster of Cyclotella (1.00 PP, 100% BP). This suggests that Stephanodiscus has highly conserved sequences of both 18S and 28S rDNA; however, Stephanodiscus is well-separated from other freshwater centric diatoms, such as Cyclotella and Discostella, at the generic level.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.23-26
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• 2018

Because of the potential negative influence on their hosts, ecto-parasites are of prime importance to numerous species. Ticks are among these, distributed worldwide, and potentially transmitting diseases while sucking blood of diverse hosts. The leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis euptilura Elliot, 1871) is the only felid left in the Republic of Korea following widespread anthropogenic disturbances that have resulted in the extinction of both Panthera species: the Siberian tiger(Panthera tigris altaica Temminck, 1844) and Amur leopard (P. pardus orientalis(Schlegel, 1857)). This study identifies ticks collected from a roadkill leopard cat retrieved in Seosan area in the Republic of Korea. Two ticks attached to the facial area of the carcass were identified as Japanese hard ticks, Ixodes nipponensis, based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I. The matching sample was from Japan with 99.7% similarities, and the only available sequence on GenBank. This study reconfirms that I. nipponensis parasitizes the endangered leopard cat P. bengalensis euptilura.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.1083-1094
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• 2020

Recognizing plant species based on leaf images is challenging because of the large inter-class variation and inter-class similarities among different plant species. The effective extraction of leaf descriptors constitutes the most important problem in plant leaf recognition. In this paper, a multi-scale angular description method is proposed for fast and accurate leaf recognition and retrieval tasks. The proposed method uses a novel scale-generation rule to develop an angular description of leaf contours. It is parameter-free and can capture leaf features from coarse to fine at multiple scales. A fast Fourier transform is used to make the descriptor compact and is effective in matching samples. Both support vector machine and k-nearest neighbors are used to classify leaves. Leaf recognition and retrieval experiments were conducted on three challenging datasets, namely Swedish leaf, Flavia leaf, and ImageCLEF2012 leaf. The results are evaluated with the widely used standard metrics and compared with several state-of-the-art methods. The results and comparisons show that the proposed method not only requires a low computational time, but also achieves good recognition and retrieval accuracies on challenging datasets.

• 한국응용곤충학회지
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• 제54권3호
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• pp.233-245
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• 2015

백두대간은 한반도의 다양한 생물 서식지이며 동물의 이동통로로 새로운 서식지로의 이주와 재서식을 하는데 중요한 역할을 할 것으로 기대되고 있다. 본 연구는 2013-2014년에 4월부터 9월까지 백두대간 구룡령(명계리)과 고직령(서벽리)의 나비군집을 모니터링 하고, 두 지역의 나비를 과거기록과 비교하여 분포지의 변화가 있는지를 알아보았다. 그 결과 명계리 65종 1098개체, 서벽리 63종 1161개체가 조사되었다. 두 지역의 비교에서 명계리에서만 출현한 종은 15종, 서벽리에서만 출현한 종은 13종으로 나타났다. 종 순위별 개체수에서는 명계리는 큰줄흰나비 127 (11.6%), 줄흰나비 100 (9.1%), 산제비나비 90 (8.2%), 서벽리는 뿔나비 146 (12.6%), 줄흰나비 134 (11.5%), 네발나비 69 (5.9%)종으로 나타났다. 그리고 3개체 이하를 보인 종은 명계리 24종, 서벽리 23종으로 나타나 높은 비율을 차지하였다. 두 지역의 유사도는 비교적 높게 나타나고 있을 뿐만 아니라 한국적색목록의 나비가 다수 분포하고 있으며, 출현종을 과거 분포자료와 비교한 결과 뚜렷한 변화는 없었다. 이에 백두대간의 나비는 아직까지 잘 보전되고 있는 것으로 보여 거시적으로 백두대간의 서식지 경관이 연속성을 유지하도록 하는 것이 필요하다.