• Advances in nano research
• /
• 제4권1호
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2016

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (Nps), composed of magnetite, $Fe_3O_4$, or maghemite, ${\gamma}-Fe_2O_3$, core and biocompatible polymer shell, such as dextran or chitozan, have recently found wide applications in magnetic resonance imaging, contrast enhancement and hyperthermia therapy. For different diagnostic and therapeutic applications, current attempt is focusing on the synthesis and biomedical applications of various ferrite Nps, such as $CoFe_2O_4$ and $MnFe_2O_4$, differing from iron oxide Nps in charge, surface chemistry and magnetic properties. This study is focused on the synthesis of manganese ferrite, $MnFe_2O_4$, Nps by most commonly used chemical way pursuing better control of their size, purity and magnetic properties. Co-precipitation syntheses were performed using aqueous alkaline solutions of Mn(II) and Fe(III) salts and NaOH within a wide pH range using various hydrothermal treatment regimes. Different additives, such as citric acid, cysteine, glicine, polyetylene glycol, triethanolamine, chitosan, etc., were tested on purpose to obtain good yield of pure phase and monodispersed Nps with average size of ${\leq}20nm$. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), $M\ddot{o}ssbauer$ spectroscopy down to cryogenic temperatures, magnetic measurements and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry were employed in this study.

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

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제31권1호
• /
• pp.154-162
• /
• 2021

L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF) is one of the biological active forms of folate, which is widely used as a nutraceutical. However, low yield and serious pollution associated with the chemical synthesis of 5-MTHF hampers its sustainable supply. In this study, 5-MTHF production was improved by engineering the 5-MTHF biosynthesis pathway and NADPH supply in Lactococcus lactis for developing a green and sustainable biosynthesis approach. Specifically, overexpressing the key rate-limiting enzyme methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase led to intracellular 5-MTHF accumulation, reaching 18 ㎍/l. Next, 5-MTHF synthesis was further enhanced by combinatorial overexpression of 5-MTHF synthesis pathway enzymes with methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, resulting in 1.7-fold enhancement. The folate supply pathway was strengthened by expressing folE encoding GTP cyclohydrolase I, which increased 5-MTHF production 2.4-fold to 72 ㎍/l. Furthermore, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase was overexpressed to improve the redox cofactor NADPH supply for 5-MTHF biosynthesis, which led to a 60% increase in intracellular NADPH and a 35% increase in 5-MTHF production (97 ㎍/l). To reduce formation of the by-product 5-formyltetrahydrofolate, overexpression of 5-formyltetrahydrofolate cyclo-ligase converted 5-formyltetrahydrofolate to 5,10-methyltetrahydrofolate, which enhanced the 5-MTHF titer to 132 ㎍/l. Finally, combinatorial addition of folate precursors to the fermentation medium boosted 5-MTHF production, reaching 300 ㎍/l. To the best of our knowledge, this titer is the highest achieved by L. lactis. This study lays the foundation for further engineering of L. lactis for efficient 5-MTHF biosynthesis.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• 제14권1호
• /
• pp.35-45
• /
• 2023

Biofilms significantly affect the performance of wastewater treatment processes in which biodegradability of numerous microorganisms are actively involved, and various technologies have been applied to secure microbial biofilms. Understanding changes in biofilm characteristics by regulating expression of signaling molecules is important to control and regulate biofilms in membrane bioreactor, i.e., biofouling. This study investigated effects of addition of acyl-homoserine lactones (AHL) as a controllable factor for the microbial signaling system on biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and multiple strains in membrane bioreactor. The addition of three AHL, i.e., C4-, C6-, and C8-HSL, at a concentration of 200 ㎍/L, enhanced the formation of the PAO1 biofilm and the degree of increases in the biofilm formation of PAO1 were 70.2%, 76.6%, and 72.9%, respectively. The improvement of biofilm formation of individual strains by C4-HSL was an average of 68%, and the microbial consortia increased by approximately 52.1% in the presence of 200 ㎍/L C4-HSL. CLSM images showed that more bacterial cells were present on the membrane surface after the AHL application. In the COMSTAT results, biomass and thickness were increased up to 2.2 times (PAO1) and 1.6 times (multi-strains) by C4-HSL. This study clearly showed that biofilm formation was increased by the application of AHL to individual strain groups, including PAO1 and microbial consortia, and significant increases were observed when 50 or 100 ㎍/L AHL was administered. This suggests that AHL application can improve the biofilm formation of microorganisms, which could yield an enhancement in efficiency of biofilm control, such as in various biofilm reactors including membrane bioreactor and bioflocculent systems in water/wastewater treatment processes.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• 제15권12호
• /
• pp.4420-4438
• /
• 2021

Image dehazing is an ill-posed problem which is far from being solved. Traditional image dehazing methods often yield mediocre effects and possess substandard processing speed, while modern deep learning methods perform best only in certain datasets. The haze removal effect when processed by said methods is unsatisfactory, meaning the generalization performance fails to meet the requirements. Concurrently, due to the limited processing speed, most dehazing algorithms cannot be employed in the industry. To alleviate said problems, a lightweight fast dehazing network based on a multiple scale-patch framework (MSP) is proposed in the present paper. Firstly, the multi-scale structure is employed as the backbone network and the multi-patch structure as the supplementary network. Dehazing through a single network causes problems, such as loss of object details and color in some image areas, the multi-patch structure was employed for MSP as an information supplement. In the algorithm image processing module, the image is segmented up and down for processed separately. Secondly, MSP generates a clear dehazing effect and significant robustness when targeting real-world homogeneous and nonhomogeneous hazy maps and different datasets. Compared with existing dehazing methods, MSP demonstrated a fast inference speed and the feasibility of real-time processing. The overall size and model parameters of the entire dehazing model are 20.75M and 6.8M, and the processing time for the single image is 0.026s. Experiments on NTIRE 2018 and NTIRE 2020 demonstrate that MSP can achieve superior performance among the state-of-the-art methods, such as PSNR, SSIM, LPIPS, and individual subjective evaluation.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• 제47권3호
• /
• pp.469-478
• /
• 2023

Background: Nitrogen (N) is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. To support agricultural production and enhance crop yield, two major N sources, nitrate and ammonium, are applied as fertilizers to the soil. Although many studies have been conducted on N uptake and signal transduction, the molecular genetic mechanisms of N-mediated physiological roles, such as the secondary growth of storage roots, remain largely unknown. Methods: One-year-old P. ginseng seedlings treated with KNO₃ were analyzed for the secondary growth of storage roots. The histological paraffin sections were subjected to bright and polarized light microscopic analysis. Genome-wide RNA-seq and network analysis were carried out to dissect the molecular mechanism of nitrate-mediated promotion of ginseng storage root thickening. Results: Here, we report the positive effects of nitrate on storage root secondary growth in Panax ginseng. Exogenous nitrate supply to ginseng seedlings significantly increased the root secondary growth. Histological analysis indicated that the enhancement of root secondary growth could be attributed to the increase in cambium stem cell activity and the subsequent differentiation of cambium-derived storage parenchymal cells. RNA-seq and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed that the formation of a transcriptional network comprising auxin, brassinosteroid (BR)-, ethylene-, and jasmonic acid (JA)-related genes mainly contributed to the secondary growth of ginseng storage roots. In addition, increased proliferation of cambium stem cells by a N-rich source inhibited the accumulation of starch granules in storage parenchymal cells. Conclusion: Thus, through the integration of bioinformatic and histological tissue analyses, we demonstrate that nitrate assimilation and signaling pathways are integrated into key biological processes that promote the secondary growth of P. ginseng storage roots.

• 식물병연구
• /
• 제29권2호
• /
• pp.200-203
• /
• 2023

양파 생육후기 중 가뭄에 의한 피해가 발생할 때 Bacillus aryabhattai H19-1를 관주처리할 경우, 양파의 수량이 대조구 대비 유의하게 증가하였고, 수확한 양파의 규격이 증가하여 상품성이 증가하였다. 또한, 수확한 양파에 함유되어 있는 아스코르브산과 카로티노이드 함량이 H19-1 처리 시 증가하여, 이에 따라 가뭄 스트레스에 의한 피해가 경감했을 가능성이 있음을 제시하였다. 따라서, 이후 연구에서는 H19-1의 건조피해 저감과 관련한 작용 기작에 대한 연구를 수행할 예정이다.

• 멤브레인
• /
• 제33권6호
• /
• pp.305-314
• /
• 2023

화학 반응의 수율 향상을 위해 부산물을 제거하는 다양한 방법이 연구되고 있다. 특히 산업적으로 중요한 반응에서 주로 부산물로 물이 생성되기 때문에 넓은 범위의 온도에서 안정적으로 물을 분리하는 기술이 필요하다. 흡수제의 사용, 탈수 반응의 도입 등 다양한 방법이 제안되었으나 추가적인 에너지 및 시간 소요, 전환율의 지속 가능성 등의 문제로 한계를 가지고 있다. 그에 반해 운전 및 설치가 용이하고, 낮은 유지비용 등의 장점을 가지고 있는 분리막 기술은 다양한 촉매 반응에 도입되었을 때 안정적으로 부산물을 제거할 수 있어 반응의 효율을 향상시킬 수 있는 좋은 방안이다. 따라서 본 총설에서는 분리막을 이용한 부산물 제거 및 이를 통한 효과에 대해 논의하였다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제34권3호
• /
• pp.710-724
• /
• 2024

Flavobacterium can synthesize xanthophyll, particularly the pigment zeaxanthin, which has significant economic value in nutrition and pharmaceuticals. Recently, the use of carotenoid biosynthesis by bacteria and yeast fermentation technology has shown to be very efficient and offers significant advantages in large-scale production, cost-effectiveness, and safety. In the present study, JSWR-1 strain capable of producing xanthophyll pigment was isolated from a freshwater reservoir in Wanju-gun, Republic of Korea. Based on the morphological, physiological, and molecular characteristics, JSWR-1 classified as belonging to the Flavobacterium species. The bacterium is strictly aerobic, Gram-negative, rod-shaped, and psychrophilic. The completed genome sequence of the strain Flavobacterium sp. JSWR-1 is predicted to be a single circular 3,425,829-bp chromosome with a G+C content of 35.2% and 2,941 protein-coding genes. The optimization of carotenoid production was achieved by small-scale cultivation, resulting in zeaxanthin being identified as the predominant carotenoid pigment. The enhancement of zeaxanthin biosynthesis by applying different light-irradiation, variations in pH and temperature, and adding carbon and nitrogen supplies to the growth medium. A significant increase in intracellular zeaxanthin concentrations was also recorded during fed-batch fermentation achieving a maximum of 16.69 ± 0.71 mg/l, corresponding to a product yield of 4.05 ± 0.15 mg zeaxanthin per gram cell dry weight. Batch and fed-batch culture extracts exhibit significant antioxidant activity. The results demonstrated that the JSWR-1 strain can potentially serve as a source for zeaxanthin biosynthesis.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
• /
• 제36권1호
• /
• pp.61-66
• /
• 2008

Flask 배양으로 기본 유청 배지MSM를 배지로 하고 첨가한 각 탄소원의 PS-7생산 효과를 살펴보면 fructose, glucose와 sucrose의 첨가가 PS-7의 생산을 다른 당에 비해 향상시킴을 알 수 있었다. 그러나 galactose의 경우 첨가량이 증가될수록 오히려 PS-7의 생산량이 감소되는 경향을 나타내었다. 여러 가지 배양 변수를 고려한 결과 glucose씨 첨가가 최적임을 확인하였다. 5L 발효조에 의한 PS-7 생산의 경우 유청과 glucose를 함께 첨가한 것이 유청과 glucose만을 배지의 탄소원으로 사용했을 때 보다 PS-7의 생산량이 월등히 향상되는 것을 알 수 있었으며, 유청 1%와 glucose 1%배지의 경우 PS-7생산량이 3 g/L를 생산하였다. 유청 1%와 glucose 2%배지의 경우 4 g/L의 PS-7의 생산하였으나 잔당량이 $30{\sim}40%$가 남아 생산효율(yield)면에서는 떨어짐을 알 수 있었다. 배지내 Glucose농도 변화에 따른 점성(viscosity)의 변화는 PS-7의 생산량의 변화와 비슷한 패턴을 보이지만 분자량 증대에 따른 점도의 증가는 훨씬 높게 나타났다. 본 실험의 결과 일반적으로 C/N ratio가 다당류인 PS-7생산에 중요한 역할을 하고 있으며, 유청 1%+glucose 1% 배지를 사용할 때 높은 점도와 수율의 PS-7을 얻을 수 있는 최적 배지임을 알 수 있었다.