• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.1166-1173
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• 2011

Meju is a traditional Korean fermented soy product used as a key element for soy sauce and doenjang. Bacilli with antimicrobial activity were isolated from meju prepared by traditional methods at Sunchang county, Jeollabukdo, Korea. Six isolates were identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens by recA gene sequencing and RAPD-PCR. One isolate, B. amyloliquefaciens MJ5-41, showed the strongest fibrinolytic activity. A 27 kDa active fibrinolytic enzyme, AprE5-41, was purified from the culture supernatant of MJ5-41 grown on LB by chromatographic methods. The optimum pH and temperature for purified AprE5-41 were 7.0 and $45^{\circ}C$, respectively. AprE5-41 quickly degraded $A{\alpha}$ and $B{\beta}$ chains but not the ${\gamma}$-chain of fibrinogen. AprE5-41 exhibited the highest specificity for N-succinyl-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe p-nitroanilide, a known substrate for ${\alpha}$-chymotrypsin, cathepsin G, and subtilisin BPN'. The structural gene, aprE5-41, was cloned by PCR and successfully expressed in B. subtilis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.1395-1400
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• 2012

In this study, we investigated various cultural and operational factors to enhance electricity generation in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) using Geobacter sulfurreducens. The pure culture of G. sulfurreducens was cultivated using various substrates including acetate, malate, succinate, and butyrate, with fumarate as an electron acceptor. Cell growth was observed only in acetate-fed medium, when the cell concentrations increased 4-fold for 3 days. A high acetate concentration suppressed electricity generation. As the acetate concentration was increased from 5 to 20 mM, the power density dropped from 16 to $13mW/m^2$, whereas the coulombic efficiency (CE) declined by about half. The immobilization of G. sulfurreducens on the anode considerably reduced the enrichment period from 15 to 7 days. Using argon gas to create an anaerobic condition in the anode chamber led to increased pH, and electricity generation subsequently dropped. When the plain carbon paper cathode was replaced by Pt-coated carbon paper (0.5 mg $Pt/cm^2$), the CE increased greatly from 39% to 83%.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.859-865
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• 2008

Bacterial glycosyltransferases have drawn growing attention as economical enzymes for oligosaccharide synthesis, with their easy expression and relatively broad substrate specificity. Here, we characterized a glycosyltransferase homolog (Fnu_GT) from a human oral pathogen, Fusobacterium nucleatum. Bioinformatic analysis showed that Fnu_GT belongs to the glycosyltransferases family II. The recombinant Fnu_GT (rFnu_GT) expressed in Escherichia coli displayed the highest glycosylation activity when UDP-galactose (Gal) was used as a donor nucleotide-sugar with heptose or N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) as an acceptor sugar. Interestingly, rFnu_GT transferred the galactose moiety of UDP-Gal to a nonreducing terminal GlcNAc attached to the trimannosyl core glycan, indicating its potential as an enzyme for human-type N-glycan synthesis.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.88-96
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• 2003

Cheese flavor is derived from three main pathways, that are proteolysis, lipolysis and glycolysis, the extent of which varies according to the cheese variety. Proteolysis is the most complex of the three primary events during cheese ripening. The basis of EMC technology is the use of specific enzymes acting at optimum conditions to produce required cheese flavors from suitable substrates. These enzymes consist of proteinases, peptidases, lipases, esterases. The key factors in EMC production are the type of cheese flavor required, the type and specificity of enzyme or cultures used, their concentration and some processing parameters, such as pH, temperature, agitation, aeration, and incubation time. The emulsifiers, bacteriocins, flavor compounds, and precursors also effect to it importantly. The dosage of enzyme or starter culture used is dependent on the intensity of flavor required, processing time and temperature and the quality of the initial substrate. To produce a consistent EMC product it is necessary to have a highly controlled process, and a detailed knowledge of the enzymatic reactions under the conditions used must be fully understood.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.162-166
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• 1985

Three isozymes of Carboxymethyl Cellulase $(FI^*,\;FII^*,\;FIII)$ and two fractious of ${\beta}-1,4-D-Cellobiohydrolase$(CI, CIl) from Aspergillus niger were purified by Sephadex G-150, DEAE-Sephadex and Sephadex G-75 column chromatography. From the results of enzymatic hydrolysis and X-ray diffraction, ${\beta}-1,4-D-Cellobiohyarolase$ has a high activity toward highly crystalline cellulose such as filter paper and acts synergistically with Cx enzyme.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 2008

The tetrachloroethylene (PCE) dehalogenase of Clostridium bifermentans DPH-1 (a halorespiring organism) was purified, cloned, and sequenced. This enzyme is a homodimer with a molecular mass of ca. 70 kDa and exhibits dehalogenation of dichloroethylene isomers along with PCE and trichloroethylene (TCE). Broad range of substrate specificity for chlorinated aliphatic compounds (PCE, TCE, cis-1,2-dichloroethylene, trans-1,2-dichloroethylene, 1,1-dichloroethylene, 1,2-dichloropropene, and 1,1,2-trichloroethane) for this enzyme was also observed. A mixture of propyl iodide and titanium citrate caused a light-reversible inhibition of enzymatic activity suggesting the involvement of a corrinoid cofactor. A partial sequence (81 bp) of the encoding gene for PCE dehalogenase was amplified and sequenced with degenerateprimers designed from the N-terminal sequence (27 amino acid residues). Southern analysis of C. bifermentans genomic DNA using the polymerase chain reaction product as a probe revealed restriction fragment bands. A 5.0 kb ClaI fragment, harboring the relevant gene (designated pceC) was cloned (pDEHAL5) and the complete nucleotide sequence of pceC was determined. The gene showed homology mainly with microbial membrane proteins and no homology with any known dehalogenase, suggesting a distinct PCE dehalogenase. So, C. bifermentans could play some important role in the initial breakdown of PCE and other chlorinated aliphatic compounds in sites contaminated with mixtures of halogenated substances.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.257-263
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• 1984

A strain producing an extracellular cytosine deaminase was isolated from soil samples. The enzyme obtained from the strain possessed the substrate specificity to both cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine. From the results of its morphological, cultural, physiological, and biochemical properties, the strain was thought to be the genus Arthrobacter. Therefore, it was named as Arthrobacter sp. JH-13. The composition of optimum medium for the enzyme formation was 0.5% of peptone, 0.5% of meat extract, 0.5% of soluble starch, and 0.1% of KCl. The optimum pH for the enzyme formation was 8.0. When the microoganism was cultured aerobically in the above medium, enzyme production reached at maximum in 54 hours at $30^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.349-352
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• 2003

Recent studies have shown that some of the PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl)-degraders are able to effectively degrade PCB in the presence of monoterpenes, which act as inducers for the degradation pathway. Rhodococcus sp. T104, an effective PCB degrader, has been shown to induce the degradation pathway by utilizing limonenes, cymenes, carvones, and pinenes as sole carbon sources which can be found in the natural environment. Moreover, the strain T104 proved to possess three separate oxidation pathways of limonene, biphenyl, and phenol. Of these three, the limonene can also induce the biphenyl degradation pathway. In this work, we report the presence of three distinct genes for aromatic oxygenase, which are putatively involved in the degradation of aromatic substrates including biphenyl, limonene, and phenol, through PCR amplification and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The genes were differentially expressed and well induced by limonene, cymene, and plant extract A compared to biphenyl and/or glucose. This indicates that substrate specificity must be taken into account when biodegradation of the target compounds are facilitated by the plant natural substrates.

• Journal of Korean Vacuum Science & Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.133-138
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• 2002

The growth of Au films grown on a Si(100)-2x1 surface and Si films on a Ge(100)-2x1 substrate is studied using Positron-annihilation induced Auger Electron Spectroscopy(PAES), Electron induced Auger Electron Spectroscopy(EAES), and Low Energy Electron Diffraction(LEED). Previous work has shown that PAES is almost exclusively sensitive to the top-most atomic layer due to the trapping of positrons in an image potential well just outside the surface before annihilation. This surface specificity is exploited to profile the surface atomic concentrations during the growth of Au on Si(100) and Si on Ge(100) and EAES provides concentrations averaged over the top 3-10 atomic layers simultaneously. The difference in the probe-depth makes us possible to use PAES and EAES in a complementary fashion to estimate the surface and near surface concentration profiles. The results show that (i) the intermixing of Au and Si atoms occurs during the room temperature deposition, (ii) the segregated Ge layer is observed onto the Si layers deposited at 300k. In addition, the prior adsorption of hydrogen prevents the segregation of Ge on top of the deposited Si and that the hydrogen adsorption is useful in growing a thermally stable structure.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.554-558
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• 2010

In the study, the protease activity of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa Planch) cultivated in Korea was estimated, with specific examination of proteolytic effects on myofibrilar protein. The crude protease extract of kiwifruit was prepared in two ways; one in which the kiwifruit was homogenized with buffer followed by centrifugation, and the other were the supernatant was precipitated by saturated ammonium sulfate followed by dialysis. The former had 21.23 mM/mL of protease activity, which corresponded to 112.28 mM/g kiwifruit utilized, and the latter had 11.58 mM/mL and 45.80 mM/g of kiwifruit. The crude protease extract of the kiwifruit showed high specificity for casein substrate followed by bovine serum albumin, egg white, collagen, and elastin, in order. The enzyme lost proteolytic activity in acidic conditions such as pH 2-3, and at high temperatures over $60^{\circ}C$. It showed optimal activity in both pH 3.0 and pH 7.5 as well as at $40^{\circ}C$ for casein substrate and at $50^{\circ}C$ for myofibrilar protein substrate. The proteolytic activity toward casein was high with up to 0.5M salt, followed by a sharp decrease beyond this concentration. On the other hand the proteolytic activity for myofibrilar protein decreased steadily with increasing of salt concentration. Kiwifruit has been used as a for meat tenderizer for in home cooking and these results support the its tenderizing effectiveness of kiwifruit especially for Korean style marinating of meat for cooking.