• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.207-217
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• 1998

Total of 78 strains were characterized based on the morphological characteristics of colonies isolated on Schroth, and New & Kerr's media for selection of hypervirulent wild-type Agrobacterium spp from galls, hairy root-like process and soil of Populus, Malus, Salix and Diopyros in Korea. Among them, 48 strains were able to induce tumors in carrot disc. Hypervirulent A. tumefaciens SP101 and SM042 were identified as biotype 1 and biotype 2, respectively, These strains formed fast growing, larger tumors as compared to those induced by other strains. The binary vector pGA643 with kanamycin resistant gene was mobilized from E. coli MC100 into A. tumefaciens strain SM042 isolated from soil, and/or disarmed vector PC2760 using a triparental mating method with E. coli HB101/pRK2013, and transconjugants, A. tumefaciens SM643 and PC643 were obtained in minimal media containing kanamycin and tetracycline. Tobacco tissues were cocultivated with conjugant Agrobacterium and then transferred to selective medium with 2,4-D and kanamycin to induce the transformants. Calli were formed more efficiently in cocultivation with A. tumefaciens SM643 than that with A. tumefaciens PC643. Most of calli transformed with A. tumefaciens PC643 were friable and regenerated into normal plantlets, while the calli transformed with A. tumefaciens SM643 were compact, hard, and mixed with friable calli. The friable calli formed normal shoots, while compact calli did not form shoots but only grew to typical compact tumor calli. When the shoots formed directly from tobacco stems without callus induction after transformation by A. tumefaciens SM643 with wild-type Ti-plasmid, normal transformed plants can be induced without using disarmed Ti-plasmid.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.417-427
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• 2012

We compared the transcriptome in response to propanol stress in wild-type and propanol-resistant mutant Escherichia coli using the DNA microarray technique. The correlation value of RNA expression between the propanol-treated wild type and the untreated-one was about 0.949, and 50 genes were differentially expressed by more than twofold in both samples. The correlation value of RNA expression between the propanol-treated mutant and the untreated one was about 0.951, and 71 genes in two samples showed differential expression patterns. However, the values between the wild type and mutant, regardless of propanol addition, were 0.974-0.992 and only 1-2 genes were differentially expressed in the two strains. The representative characteristics among differentially expressed genes in W3110 or P19 treated with propanol compared to untreated samples were up-regulation of hest shock response genes and down-regulation of genes relating to ribosome biosynthesis. In addition, many genes were regulated by transcription regulation factors such as ArcA, CRP, FNR, H-NS, GatR, or PurR and overexpressed by sigma factor RpoH. We confirmed that RpoH mediated an important host defense function in propanol stress in E. coli W3110 and P19 by comparison of cell growth rate among the wild type, rpoH disruptant mutant, and rpoH-complemented strain.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.672-680
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• 2015

As a global regulatory gene in Streptomyces, afsR can activate the biosynthesis of many secondary metabolites. The effect of afsR on the biosynthesis of a phenazine metabolite, lomofungin, was studied in Streptomyces lomondensis S015. There was a 2.5-fold increase of lomofungin production in the afsR-overexpressing strain of S. lomondensis S015 N1 compared with the wild-type strain. Meanwhile, the transcription levels of afsR and two important genes involved in the biosynthesis of lomofungin (i.e., phzC and phzE) were significantly upregulated in S. lomondensis S015 N1. The optimization of metal chlorides was investigated to further increase the production of lomofungin in the afsR-overexpressing strain. The addition of different metal chlorides to S. lomondensis S015 N1 cultivations showed that CaCl₂, FeCl₂, and MnCl₂ led to an increase in lomofungin biosynthesis. The optimum concentrations of these metal chlorides were obtained using response surface methodology. CaCl₂ (0.04 mM), FeCl₂ (0.33 mM), and MnCl₂ (0.38 mM) gave a maximum lomofungin production titer of 318.0 ± 10.7 mg/l, which was a 4.1-fold increase compared with that of S. lomondensis S015 N1 without the addition of a metal chloride. This work demonstrates that the biosynthesis of phenazine metabolites can be induced by afsR. The results also indicate that metal chlorides addition might be a simple and useful strategy for improving the production of other phenazine metabolites in Streptomyces.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.77-85
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• 2009

Pseudomonas fluorescens strain Gpf01, isolated from ginseng rhizosphere showed antiviral activity against Cucumber mosaic virus, when tested in a local host of CMV, Chenopodium amaranticolor. Transposon mutant library of Gpf01 was prepared using pGS9::Tn5 and the mutant Gpf01-RS19 was found to loose antiviral production. We developed primers from the flanking region of Tn5 and found a cosmid clone pAV1123, harboring 1.2 kb antiviral compound producing (avcf01) locus. When a sub-clone pPH9, which carried 9.3 kb region of pAV1123, was introduced into antivirus deficient P. fluorescens wild type strain B16, it exhibited antiviral activity. Using Tn3-gus mutagenesis and complementation analysis, it was found that the genes related to antiviral activity production resided in a 9.3 kb HindIII-HindIII fragment of pAV1123, indicating that the plasmid carries an essential genes promoting antiviral activity.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 2010

Rhizobacterial strain isolated from barren soil, Bacillus subtilis RFO41 exhibits a high level of phosphate solubilizing activity and produces some phytohormones. Its promoting effect on the growth of Xanthium italicum Moore, a wild plant growing at lakeside barren land and thus a good candidate plant for revegetation of barren lakeside was evaluated in the in situ test for 19 weeks at Lake Paro, Kangwon-do. Strain RFO41 could enhance the dry weight of X. italicum by 67.7%. It also increased the shoot length of X. italicum plant by 21.1% compared to that of uninoculated control. Both growth enhancements had statistical significance. However, the inoculation did not show any effect on the root growth, which might be due to the breakage of tiny root. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis showed that the inoculated bacteria were maintained in the soils, and the indigenous bacterial community did not exhibit any significant change. This plant growth promoting capability may be utilized as an environment-friendly and low cost revegetation method, especially for the sensitive areas such as barren lakeside lands.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.259-269
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• 2012

Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), a family of serine/threonine protein phosphatases, plays an important role in balancing the phosphorylation status of cellular proteins for regulating diverse biological functions in eukaryotic organisms. Despite intensive studies in mammals, limited information on its role is available in filamentous fungi. Here, we investigated the functional roles of genes for a putative B' delta regulatory subunit (FgPP2AR) and a catalytic subunit (FgPP2AC) of PP2A in a filamentous ascomycete, Fusarium graminearum. Molecular characterization of an insertional mutant of this plant pathogenic fungus allowed us to identify the roles of FgPP2AR. Targeted gene replacement and complementation analyses demonstrated that the deletion of FgPP2AR, which was constitutively expressed in all growth stages, caused drastic changes in hyphal growth, conidia morphology/germination, gene expression for mycotoxin production, sexual development and pathogenicity. In particular, overproduction of aberrant cylindrical-shaped conidia is suggestive of arthroconidial induction in the ${\Delta}FgPP2AR$ strain, which has never been described in F. graminearum. In contrast, the ${\Delta}FgPP2AC$ strain was not significantly different from its wild-type progenitor in conidiation, trichothecene gene expression, and pathogenicity; however, it showed reduced hyphal growth and no perithecial formation. The double-deletion ${\Delta}FgPP2AR;{\Delta}FgPP2AC$ strain had more severe defects than single-deletion strains in all examined phenotypes. Taken together, our results indicate that both the putative regulatory and catalytic subunits of PP2A are involved in various cellular processes for fungal development in F. graminearum.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-36
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• 2007

To improve insecticidal activity of B. thuringiensis 2385-1 (Bt 2385-1), a recombinant plasmid, pHT1K-1Ac, was introduced into lepidopteran toxic Bt 2385-1 by electroporation. The presence of the recombinant plasmid in Bt 2385-1 after electroporation was confirmed by PCR. Bt 2385-1 transformant was named as Bt pHT1K-1Ac/2385-1 (1K-1Ac/2385-1). The 1K-1Ac/2385-1 transformant produced bipyramidal-shaped parasporal inclusion as like the wild-type strain, Bt 2385-1, and showed an 130 kDa band of Cry1Ac protein. The insecticidal activity of 1K-lAc/2385-1 against S. exigua was similar to that of Bt 2385-1 but the $LC_{50}$ value of transformant against P. xylostella was 1.8 times lower. Through these bioassay results, it was confirmed that toxicity of Bt 2385-1 transformant showed synergistic effect by introducing Cry1Ac. These results suggested that the multiple expressions of Cry proteins in a promising Bt strain may interact synergistically in insect midgut, resulting in increase of toxicity and expansion of host spectrum.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1841-1848
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• 2006

Insights into gene expression have the potential for improvement of antibiotic yield and the development of robust production hosts for use in recombinant biomolecule production. $Cubicin^{TM}$ (daptomycin for injection) is a recently approved antibiotic active against many Gram(+) pathogens, including those resistant to methicillin, vancomycin, and fluoroquinolones. Daptomycin is produced as a secondary metabolite by Streptomyces roseosporus. A 128 kb region of DNA including the daptomycin biosynthetic gene cluster (dpt) has been cloned. and sequenced. Using a selected array of nucleic acid probes representing this region, we compared the expression levels of the dpt genes between S. roseosporus wild-type (WT) and derived S. roseosporus high-producer of daptomycin (HP). We observed that the majority of the biosynthetic genes were upregulated in HP compared with WT; a total of 12 genes, including those encoding daptomycin synthetase, showed consistently and significantly higher expression levels, at least 5-fold, in HP compared with WT. In contrast, some genes, flanking the dpt cluster, were expressed at higher levels in the WT strain. The expression of housekeeping genes such as S. roseosporus rpsL, rpsG, and 16S (positive controls) and presumptive intergenic regions in the dpt cluster (negative control) were identical in the two strains. In addition, we compared transcription during the early, mid-log, and early-stationary phases of growth in the HP strain. The same set of genes was upregulated and downregulated under all conditions examined; housekeeping genes showed no relative change in expression level over the periods of growth tested. Analyses of this type would be of value in studies of strain improvement and also for the identification of gene regulation processes that are important for secondary metabolite production.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.429-436
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• 2003

Pediocin K1 is a bacteriocin produced by Pediococcus sp. KCA 1303-10, isolated from traditionally fermented flatfish in Korea. Pediocin K1-dependent antibiosis and pediocin K1-independent antibiosis against Listeria monocyrogenes were investigated by comparing antibiosis potential of the ped＋ wild-type strain of Pediococcus sp. KCA1303-10 with that of the ped- mutant strain in 3 different media at 3 different temperatures. In the synthetic MRS-APT medium, bacteriocin (pediocin K1)-dependent antibiosis (BDA) acted as the major driving force of overall antibiosis at the initial stage before the pH of the media was not sufficiently lowered, while bacteriocin-independent antibiosis (BIA) took over the major role at the late stage of antibiosis by killing otherwise resistant cells in the modium. The role of BDA increased as the temperature of the system decreased. The antibiosis potential of BDA among the overall antibiosis of Pediococcus against Listeria at $37^{\circ}C$ was calculated as 46%, and as 75% at $25^{\circ}C$. In the skim milk medium, antibiosis of Pediococcus against Listeria was weakened more than 4 log cycles compared to that of the synthetic medium; however, BDA worked as the main antibiosis force regardless of the culturing temperature in the skim milk medium. In the bean soup medium, BDA also worked as the major killing mechanism against Listeria, but BIA played as another suppressing mechanism against otherwise pediocin-resistant Listeria population. These results suggest that a large portion of the inhibitory action of the ped+Pediococcus sp. KCA1303-10 was attributable to the bacteriocin produced by the strain and that viable Pediococcus sp. KCA1303-10 was superior to the purified bacteriocin in suppressing the occurrence of the bacteriocin-resistant Listeria monocytogenes in food systems.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.35-39
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• 2006

One of the fermentative metabolism of enteric Escherichia coli was imitated after rumen bacteria, which have high C4 metabolism. E. coli expresses phosphenolpyruvate carboxylase (PPC) for the pathway between phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) and oxaloacetate (OAA) during glycolytic condition while expresses phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PCK) during gluconeogenic condition. In contrast to enteric E. coli, rumen bacteria express the PEP-OAA pathway only by PCK. To verify the effect of the regulation imitation on the C4 metabolism of E. coli, PPC-deficient E. coli strain with PCK expression in glycolytic condition was constructed. The PEP-OAA regulation modified E. coli strain increased 2.5-folds higher C4 metabolite than the wild type strain. The potential use of C4 metabolism by regulation control is discussed.