• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.490-496
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• 2008

Symbiobacterium toebii is a commensal symbiotic thermophile that cannot grow without support from a partner bacterium. We investigated the properties of Symbiobacterium growth-supporting factors (SGSFs) produced by the partner bacterium Geobacillus toebii. SGSFs occurred in both the cell-free extract (CFE) and culture supernatant of G. toebii and might comprise multifarious materials because of their different biological properties. The heavy SGSF contained in the cytosolic component exhibited heat- and proteinase-sensitive proteinaceous properties and had a molecular mass of >50 kDa. In contrast, the light SGSF contained in the extracellular component exhibited heat-stable, proteinase-resistant, nonprotein properties and had a molecular mass of <10 kDa. Under morphological examination using light microscopy, S. toebii cultured with the culture supernatant of G. toebii was filamentous, whereas S. toebii cultured with the CFE of G. toebii was rod-shaped. These results strongly suggest that the SGSFs produced by G. toebii comprise two or more types that differ in their growth-supporting mechanisms, although all support the growth of S. toebii. Upon the examination of the distribution of SGSFs in other bacteria, both cytosolic and extracellular components of Geobacillus kaustophilus, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus subtilis had detectable growth-supporting effects for S. toebii, indicating that common SGSF materials are widely present in various bacterial strains.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.46-53
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• 2001

A commensal thermophile, Symbiobacterium toebii, isolated from hay compost (toebii) in Korea commensally interacted with a thermophilic Geobacillus toebii sp. nov., which was a new species within the genus Geobacillus on the basis of the phenotypic traits and molecular systematic data. S. toebii required the crude extracts and/or culture supernatant of the Geobacillus toebii for axenic growth and could grow on the temperature between 45 and $70^{\circ}C$ (optimum: $60^{\circ}C$; 2.4 h doubling time) and pH 6.0 and 9.0 (optimum: pH 7.5). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was $65 mol\%$, and the major quinones were MK-6 and MK-7. A phylogenetic analysis of its 16S rDNA sequence indicated that Symbiobacterium toebii was closely related with solely reported Symbiobacterium thermophilum. The presence of the commensal thermophile 16S rDNA and accumulation of indole in all the enriched cultures indicate that Symbiobacterium toebii is widely distributed in the various soils. The genome of S. toebii constituted a circular chromosome of 3,280,275 base pairs and there was not an extra-chromosomal element (ECE). It contained about 4,107 predicted coding sequences. Of these protein coding genes, about $45.6\%$ was encoded well-known proteins and annotated the functional assignment of 1,874 open reading frames (ORFs), and the rest predicted to have unknown functions. The genes encoding thermostable tyrosine phenol-lyase and tryptophan indole-lyase were cloned from the genomic DNA of S. toebii and the enzymatic production of L-tyrosine and L-tryptophan was carried out with two thermostable enzymes overexpressed in recombinant E. coli.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.405-409
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• 2000

We have studied the genome of an obligately commensal thermophile, Symbiobacterium toebii. The chromosome was extracted from pure cultures of S. toebii recently established. Total DNA of S. toebii was resolved by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) into discrete numbers of fragments by digenstion with the endonuclease SspI, SpeI, XbaI, and HpaI. Estimated sizes of fragments produced by the four enzymes and their sum consistently yielded a total genome size of 2.8 Mb. Because restriction endonucleases NotI and SwaI, recognizing 8 bp, released too many fragments, these enzymes could not be used for the estimation of the genome size. Considering no mobility of undigested genome under PFGE, the genome of S. toebii appears to be circular. The presence of extrachromosomal DNA in S. toebii was excluded by the results of the conventional 1% agarose gel electrophoresis and the field inversion gel electrophoresis of undigested S. toebii DNA.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.1008-1012
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• 2003

Symbiobacterium toebii has been reported as a thermophile exhibiting a commensal interaction with Geobacillus toebii. The distribution of the commensal thermophiles in various soils was investigated using a denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Based on the DGGE analysis, the enrichment condition for the growth of Symbiobacterium sp. was found to also enrich populations of several other microbial spp. as well as Symbiobacterium sp. In the enrichment experiment, several different 16S rDNA sequences of commensal thermophiles were detected in all of the soil samples tested, indicating that commensal thermophiles are widely distributed in various soils.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2002.06b
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• pp.111-123
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• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.133-134
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• 2001

• The Korea Genome Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.45.2-45.2
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• 2003

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.116-122
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• 2007

An efficient enzyme system for the synthesis of L-tyrosine was developed using a fed-batch reactor with continuous feeding of phenol, pyruvate, and ammonia. A thermo- and chemostable tyrosine phenol-lyase from Symbiobacterium toebii was employed as the biocatalyst in this work. The enzyme was produced using a constitutive expression system in Escherichia coli BL21, and prepared as a soluble extract by rapid clarification, involving treatment with 40% methanol in the presence of excess ammonium chloride. The stability of the enzyme was maintained for at least 18 h under the synthesis conditions, including 75 mM phenol at pH 8.5 and $40^{\circ}C$. The fed-batch system (working volume, 0.51) containing 1.0 kU of the enzyme preparation was continuously fed with two substrate preparations: one containing 2.2 M phenol and 2.4 M sodium pyruvate, and the other containing 0.4 mM pyridoxal-5-phosphate and 4M ammonium chloride (pH 8.5). The system produced 130g/I of L-tyrosine within 30h, mostly as precipitated particles, upon continuous feeding of the substrates for 22 h. The maximum conversion yield of L-tyrosine was 94% on the basis of the supplied phenol.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.1013-1017
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• 2003

A thermophilic nonspore-forming rod isolated from hay compost in Korea was subjected to a taxonomic study. The microorganism, designated as $SC-1^T$, was identified as a nitrate-reducing and nonmotile bacterium. Although the strain was negatively Gram-stained, a KOH test showed that the strain $SC-1^T$ belonged to a Gram-positive species. Growth was observed between 45 and $70^{\circ}C$. The optimal growth temperature and pH were $60^{\circ}C$ and pH 7.5, respectively. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 65 mol% and the major quinone types were MK-6 and MK-7. A phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequences revealed that the strain $SC-1^T$ was most closely related to Symbiobacterium thermophilum. However, the level of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain $SC-1^T$ and the type strain for Symbiobacterium thermophilum was approximately 30%. Accordingly, on the basis of the phenotypic traits and molecular systematic data, the strain $SC-1^T$ would appear to represent a new species within the genus Symbiobacterium. The type strain for the new species is named $SC-1^T$ ($=KCTC\;0307BP^T;\;DSM15906^T$).

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.42-43
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• 2003