• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.347-354
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• 2011

Aeromonas salmonicida is an important fish pathogen commonly associated with furunculosis in salmonids. Typical A. salmonicida strains have the surface virulence A-layer protein, a major virulence determinant encoded by the vapA gene. In this study, 880 chum salmon Oncorhynchus keta were collected from the east coast of Korea during 2006-2011, including 560 wild adults and 320 artificially hatched fry pools, and the presence of typical A. salmonicida was examined by PCR using the typical A. salmonicida-specific vapA gene primers. The results demonstrated that 34.5% of the samples (304/880 samples) were PCR positive, implying that a typical A. salmonicida infection is highly prevalent among chum salmon in Korea. Twenty typical A. salmonicida isolates were recovered based on their brown pigmentation on Trypticase Soy Agar (TSA) plates, which indicates the existence of the A-layer protein. Further biochemical analyses with the four randomly selected typical A. salmonicida isolates revealed some variations in their amino acid decarboxylation and carbohydrate fermentation activity. A phylogenetic analysis based on the entire vapA gene sequence suggested that the A. salmonicida isolates from chum salmon were clustered with those isolated from Atlantic salmon in Europe. Further study is needed to resolve such an interesting relationship in detail.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.60-60
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• 2015

Hybrid histidine kinase is a part of two-component system that is required for various stress responses and pathogenesis of pathogenic fungi. In the present study, Tco1, a homologue of human pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans Tco1 encoding a hybrid histidine kinase, was identified in corn smut pathogen Ustilago maydis by bioinformatic analysis. To explore the role of Tco1 in the virulence of U. maydis, mutants in which the tco1 gene was partially deleted were constructed by allelic exchange. The U. maydis tco1 mutants did show unaltered growth rate on axenic medium but were unable to produce conjugation tubes and develop fuzzy filaments, resulting in impaired mating of compatible strains. The expression levels of prf1, pra1, and mfa1 which are involved in the pheromone pathway significantly decreased in the tco1 mutants. In inoculation tests to host, the tco1 mutants showed significantly reduced ability in the production of anthocyanin pigments and tumor development on maize leaves. Overall, the combined results indicated that Tco1 plays important roles in sexual development and virulence of U. maydis by regulating the expression of the genes involved in the pheromone pathway.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2060-2065
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• 2016

Characteristics of E. coli O157:H7-specific infection bacteriophages (O157 coliphages) and broad-host-range bacteriophages for other E. coli serotypes (broad-host coliphages) were compared. The burst sizes of the two groups ranged from 40 to 176 PFU/infected cell. Distributions of the virulence factors stx1, stx2, ehxA, and saa between the two groups were not differentiated. Broad-host-range coliphages showed lower stability at $70^{\circ}C$, in relation to O157 coliphages. However, O157 coliphages showed high acid and ethanol tolerance by reduction of only 22% and 11% phages, respectively, under pH 3 and 70% ethanol for 1 h exposure. Therefore, these results revealed that the O157 coliphages might be more stable under harsh environments, which might explain their effective infection of the acid-tolerant E. coli O157:H7.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.84-89
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• 2019

Two-component systems (TCSs) are critical to the pathogenesis of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). We mutated 55 of 62 genes annotated as responsive regulators (RRs) of TCSs in the genome of Xoo strain PXO99A and identified 9 genes involved in Xoo virulence. Four (rpfG, hrpG, stoS, and detR) of the 9 genes were previously reported as key regulators of Xoo virulence and the other 5 have not been characterized. Lesion lengths on rice leaves inoculated with the mutants were shorter than those of the wild type and were significantly restored with gene complementation. The population density of the 5 mutants in planta was smaller than that of PXO99A at 14 days after inoculation, but the growth curves of the mutants in rich medium were similar to those of the wild type. These newly reported RR genes will facilitate studies on the function of TCSs and of the integrated regulation of TCSs for Xoo pathogenesis.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.166-174
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• 2019

Bacterial species in the genus Xanthomonas infect virtually all crop plants. Although many genes involved in Xanthomonas virulence have been identified through molecular and cellular studies, the elucidation of virulence-associated regulatory circuits is still far from complete. Functional gene networks have proven useful in generating hypotheses for genetic factors of biological processes in various species. Here, we present a genome-scale co-functional network of Xanthomonas oryze pv. oryzae (Xoo) genes, XooNet (www.inetbio.org/xoonet/), constructed by integrating heterogeneous types of genomics data derived from Xoo and other bacterial species. XooNet contains 106,000 functional links, which cover approximately 83% of the coding genome. XooNet is highly predictive for diverse biological processes in Xoo and can accurately reconstruct cellular pathways regulated by two-component signaling transduction systems (TCS). XooNet will be a useful in silico research platform for genetic dissection of virulence pathways in Xoo.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.918-926
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• 2021

We isolated 28 Vibrio vulnificus strains from seawater and fisheries and investigated the positive rate of eight virulence genes. Additionally, we evaluated the susceptibility of these strains to 25 antimicrobials. The positive rates of fur, vvhA, tcp, rtxA, vcgC, viuB, vvp, and acfA were 100, 92.9, 92.9, 67.9, 64.3, 25.0, 14.3, and 7.1%, respectively. A disk diffusion susceptibility test revealed that, all the investigated strains had the highest resistance to amoxicillin and oxacillin, followed by that to streptomycin (96.4%), cefoxitin (92.9%), clindamycin (82.1%), amikacin (67.9%), vancomycin (46.4%), nalidixic acid (7.1%), penicillin G (7.1%), and ampicillin (3.6%). Moreover, they were susceptible to 10 other antimicrobials, including cefotaxime, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, gentamicin, and rifampicin. Notably, amoxicillin, oxacillin, and streptomycin had average minimum inhibitory concentrations of 132.6, 603.4, and 23.1 ㎍/mL against V. vulnificus, respectively. These observations provide new insights regarding the necessity for sanitation of commercial fisheries and can potentially, help reduce the risk posed by fisheries contaminated with bacteria resistant to antimicrobials.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.850-857
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• 2022

Seventy-five Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolates from the surface seawater of the Geum River Estuary area, on the west coast of Korea, were analyzed for the presence of virulence genes and susceptibility to 17 different antimicrobials. All 75 isolates were examined for the presence of two virulence genes (tdh or trh) using polymerase chain reaction; Only one of the isolates possessed the tdh or trh gene. According to the results of disk diffusion susceptibility tests, all of the strains were resistant to penicillin G, 92.0% were resistant to ampicillin, 82.7% were resistant to amoxicillin, 2.7% were resistant to ciprofloxacin, 2.7% were resistant to trimethoprim, 1.3% were resistant to cephalothin, and 1.3% were resistant to erythromycin. However, all of the strains were susceptible to amikacin, cefoxitin, chloramphenicol, gentamycin, kanamycin, nalidixic acid, nitrofurantoin, rifampin, streptomycin, and tetracycline. The average minimum inhibitory concentrations for ampicillin for V. parahaemolyticus was 557.6 ㎍/mL. These results not only provide novel insight into the necessity for seawater sanitation in Geum river estuary area, but they help reduce the risk of contamination of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.205-210
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• 1999

16brio cholerne is an important pathogenic organism that causes dimhea in human beings. V ciaoleroe KNIH002 was isolated from patients suffering with dian.heal disease in Korea. From Southern hybridization using the amplified PCR product of 307 bp as a probe. which was obtained from PCR reaction using primer detecting cholera toxin gene, we have found that the c b gene located in 4.5-kb fragmenl double digested with Pstl and BgllI of the chromosome. Therefore, we made mini-libraries of the isolate using PstI and Bgm restriction endonuclease and pBluescript SKU(+) vector. As a result. we cloned 4.5-kb PstI-BglII fragment containing the c a gene encoding a cholera toxin from the constructed mini-libraries of V olzolerae KNlH002 by colony hybridization using the same probes. This recombinant plasmid was named pCTX75. E. coii XL1- Blue harboring pCTX75 showed the cytotoxicity on Chinese Hamster Ovary cells. From the sequencing of he cloned recombinant plasmid, we confinned that it has virulence gene cassette consisting of ace, zot, ctx.4 and cf"~B gene. The ace and zot genes were composed of 291 hp and 1.200 bp with ATG initiation codon and TGA lennination codon, respectively. Nucleotide sequence of the ace gene exhibited 100% identity with that of V cholera E7946 El Tor Ogawa strains. But, nucleolide and amino acid sequence comparison of the zot gene exhibited 99% and 98.8% identity with that of V cholerae 395 Classical Ogawa stram, respectively. Specially. the Ala-100, Ala-272 and Ala-281 sites of Zoi polypeptide presented in V choleme 395 Classical Ogawa strain are replaced by Val in V cholerae KNIH002.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.341-344
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• 2010

Poultry and poultry products have been implicated as a major source of Salmonella infection in human, and infection due to Salmonella serotypes continue to be a major health problem. The presence of two virulence genes, invA and spvC, in 34 Salmonella isolates obtained from duck farms was investigated. All isolates contained the invA gene, and spvC gene was found in 20 (58.8%) of 34 Salmonella isolates : S. Typhimurium (n=8), S. Fyris (n=5), S. Enteritidis (n=3), S. Typhimurium var. copenhagen (n=1), S. Haardt (n=1) and S. Mbandaka (n=1). This study showed the presence of the spvC gene was widely distributed in between different Salmonella enterica isolates.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.808-816
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• 2006

A wbpO gene encoding a putative UDP-N-acetylo-galactosamine dehydrogenase was identified and cloned from Vibrio vulnificus. LPS production was altered by disruption of the wbpO gene through allelic exchanges. The function of the wbpO gene in virulence assessed in vitro and in mice revealed that WbpO is important in both the pathogenesis of V. vulnificus and the biosynthesis of LPS.