• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.79-86
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• 2012

ErmSF is one of the Erm family proteins which catalyze S-adenosyl-$_L$-methionine dependent modification of a specific adenine residue (A2058, E. coli numbering) in bacterial 23S rRNA, thereby conferring resistance to clinically important macrolide, lincosamide and streptogramin B ($MLS_B$) antibiotics. $^{222}FXPXPXVXS^{230}$ (ErmSF numbering) sequence appears to be a consensus sequence among the Erm family. This sequence was supposed to be involved in direct interaction with the target adenine from the structural studies of Erm protein ErmC'. But in DNA methyltarnsferase M. Taq I, this interaction have been identified biochemically and from the complex structure with substrate. Arginine 223 and 227 in this sequence are not conserved among Erm proteins, but because of the basic nature of residues, it was expected to interact with RNA substrates. Two amino acid residues were replaced with Ala by site-directed mutagenesis. Two mutant proteins still maintained its activity in vivo and resistant to the antibiotic erythromycin. Compared to the wild-type ErmSF, R223A and R227A proteins retained about 50% and 88% of activity in vitro, respectively. Even though those arginine residues are not essential in the catalytic step, with their positive charge they may play an important role for RNA binding.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2013

The Erm family of adenine-$N^6$ methyltransferases (MTases) is responsible for the development of resistance to macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B antibiotics through the methylation of 23S ribosomal RNA. Recently, it has been proposed that well conserved amino acids in ErnC' located in concave cleft between N-terminal 'catalytic' domain and C-terminal 'RNA-binding' domain interacts with substrate RNA. We carried out the site-directed mutagenesis and studied the function of the ErmSF R237 mutant in vitro and in vivo. R237 amino acid residue is located in the concave cleft between two domains. Furthermore this residue is very highly conserved in almost all the Erm family. Purified mutant protein exhibited only 51% enzyme activity compared to wild-type. Escherichia coli with R237A mutant protein compared to the wild-type protein expressing E. coli did not show any difference in its MIC (minimal inhibitory concentration) suggesting that even with lowered enzyme activity, mutant protein was able to efficiently methylate 23S rRNA to confer the resistance on E. coli expressing this protein. But this observation strongly suggests that R237 of ErmSF probably interacts with substrate RNA affecting enzyme activity significantly.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.18 no.1 s.38
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• pp.55-61
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• 1979

Since rice high yielding practices with blast resistant varieties induced severe and earlier infestation of sheath blight recently, it is strongly suggested to spray at least 10 days earlier than the present recommendation and more than 2 sprays from early July to early August seems to be essential for the efficient control of sheath blight in the future. Among organo-arsenic fungicides, MAFe (Neo Asozin) is known as the most effective and economic as well as with the advantages of free phytotoxicity and safe residure on rice, and applications of the mixed formulation with other fungicide and insecticide is suitable for the one-hit control of rice diseases and insect pests in connection with cooperative mass control system. Present level of arsenic $(As_2O_3)$ residue in .ice is summarized as 0.2ppm to 0.65 ppm in highest average, and there are more possibilities of extensive MAFe fungicide uses for the efficient and economic control of this disease. During the past few years, the acreage of sheath blight control has been extended several times while the increase of the fungicides used for sheath blight showing about 10 times in quantity and mort than 15 times in amount, and also the fungicide cost estimated for the control is differ from 1 to 12 billion 1on by the use of MAFe or antibiotic fungicide in a year.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.71-80
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• 2021

Cephalexin, a semi-synthetic cephalosporin antibiotic, has long been used in fish aquaculture in various countries under legal authorization. The drug is thus widely available for use in other aquatic species except fishes like the crustacean whiteleg shrimp. This study aims to develop a sensitive method for laboratory residue studies to adopt in withdrawal period determinations. Through repeated trials from the existing methods developed for other food animal tissues, it was possible to achieve a sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method. The results showed that at a concentration of 0.1 mg/kg, the recovery rate was 81.79%, and C.V. value was 8.2%, which meet the recovery rate and C.V. recommended by Codex guideline. After satisfactory validation of analytical procedures, applicability to the shrimp tissue was confirmed in experimentally cephalexin-treated whiteleg shrimp. As a result, most muscle samples were detected below the limit of quantification (0.05 mg/kg) after day 3, and most hepatopancreas samples were detected below the limit of quantification after day 14. In particular, the limit of quantification 0.05 ppm with the presently developed method suggests sufficient sensitive over the current legal maximum residue limit of 0.2 mg/kg set for fishes.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.294-299
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• 2007

Eighty seven strains were isolated from 164 dried marine products(dried squid and dried alaska pollack etc) in Seoul Garak wholesale market. Among 87 isolates, twenty four E. faecalis and 4 E. faecium were identified by API strep kit. Twenty eight strains of E. faecalis, and E. faecium were resistant in streptomycin (95.6%), kanamycin (84.5%), gentamycin (66.7%), cephaloxin (97.8%), ampicillin/sulbactam (88.9%), ticarcillin(66.7%), amikacin (97.8%), sulfonamides (97.8%), ceftriaxone (75.6%), nalidixic acid (100.0%), and cefoxitin (100.0%), and were susceptible in amoxicillin/clavulanic acid(97.8%), chloramphenicol(95.6%), sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (97.8%), and tetracycline (71.1%). Also, ten strains of E. faecalis was resistant in $S-K-GM-CF-SAM-TIC-An-S_3-CRO-NA-FOX$ drugs simultaneously. Conclusively, E. faecalis strains from dried marine products were resistant on antibiotic drugs residue.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 1994

Studies on the food-safety of pheasant and mallard, which belong to wild fowl as new meat resources. were carried out. The results were summarized as follows : 1. Food poisoning bacteria including Salmonella spp, was not detected from the inspections of small intestine, cecum, and rectum. 2. Parasite inspection tests on blood, feces, digestive organ, and thoracic organs were negative. 3. Antibiotic residues from the carcass muscle by simplified disk methods were not detected. 4. Seven different pesticide residue tests, such as DDT and BHT, on the muscle and liver were negative. 5. Four different kinds of toxic heavy metals such as Cd were much lower than the permissible concentration. Studies on the food safety tests and inspections from the pheasant and mallard were revealed that from taking this new food resources, the toxicities would be very low for the human health by the direct influences.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.69-75
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• 2013

Enrofloxacin is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic approved for the treatment of infections in animals. Because of the side effects to consumers of animal products, the maximum residue limits (MRLs) of enrofloxacin in animal tissues for consumption are regulated. In this study, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) against enrofloxacin was prepared and characterized for the development of a direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The obtained mAb, Enro44, was highly specific for enrofloxacin and had a 50% inhibition concentration ($IC_{50}$) of 1.99 ng/ml in a competitive ELISA, and the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.50 ng/ml. The cross-reactivity of the mAb with other quinolones and fluoroquinolones was lower than 0.01%. The subclass of the mAb Enro44 was identified as IgG1. The antigen (Ag)-captured direct competitive ELISA using the mAb Enro44 was tested on different spiked samples, including chicken muscle, cattle milk, and cattle urine, and the assay demonstrated recoveries of 82-112%, 80-125%, and 78-124%, respectively. Furthermore, the quantitation of enrofloxacin obtained from the ELISA and from high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was in good agreement, with the linear regression coefficient between 0.933 and 1.056. The cDNAs encoding a heavy-chain Fd fragment (VH and CH1) and a light chain of the mAb Enro44 were cloned and sequenced. Taken together, the results obtained reveal a potential use of this mAb in an ELISA for the detection of enrofloxacin in food samples. The information of amino acid sequence of this mAb will be useful for further modification and production of the mAb in a bioreactor.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.200-208
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• 2011

Most problematic antibiotic resistance mechanism for MLS (macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramn B) antibiotics encountered in clinical practice is mono- or dimethylation of specific adenine residue at 2058 (E. coli coordinate) of 23S rRNA which is performed by Erm (erythromycin ribosome resistance) protein through which bacterial ribosomes reduce the affinity to the antibiotics and become resistant to them. ErmSF is one of the four gene products produced by Streptomyces fradiae to be resistant to its own antibiotic, tylosin. Unlike other Erm proteins, ErmSF harbors idiosyncratic long N-terminal end region (NTER) 25% of which is comprised of arginine well known to interact with RNA. Furthermore, NTER was found to be important because when it was truncated, most of the enzyme activity was lost. Based on these facts, capability of NTER peptide to inhibit the enzymatic activity of ErmSF was sought. For this, expression system for two different proteins to be expressed in one cell was developed. In this system, two plasmids, pET23b and pACYC184 have unique replication origins to be compatible with each other in a cell. And expression system harboring promoter, ribosome binding site and transcription termination signal is identical but disparate amount of protein could be expressed according to the copy number of each vector, 15 for pACYC and 40 for pET23b. Expression of NTER peptide in pET23b together with ErmSF in pACYC 184 in E. coli successfully gave more amounts of NTER than ErmSF but no inhibitory effects were observed suggesting that there should be dynamicity in interaction between ErmSF and rRNA rather than simple and fixed binding to each other in methylation of 23S rRNA by ErmSF.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.3267-3274
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• 2014

In order to investigate the effects of the double replacement of $\small{L}$-Pro, $\small{D}$-Pro, $\small{D}$-Leu or Nleu (the peptoid residue for Leu) in the hydrophobic face (positions 9 and 13) of amphipathic ${\alpha}$-helical non-cell-selective antimicrobial peptide $L_8K_9W_1$ on the structure, cell selectivity and mechanism of action, we synthesized a series of $L_8K_9W_1$ analogs with double replacement of $\small{L}$-Pro, $\small{D}$-Pro, $\small{D}$-Leu or Nleu in the hydrophobic face of $L_8K_9W_1$. In this study, we have confirmed that the double replacement of $\small{L}$-Pro, $\small{D}$-Pro, or Nleu in the hydrophobic face of $L_8K_9W_1$ let to a great increase in the selectivity toward bacterial cells and a complete destruction of ${\alpha}$-helical structure. Interestingly, $L_8K_9W_1$-$\small{L}$-Pro, $L_8K_9W_1$-$\small{D}$-Pro and $L_8K_9W_1$-Nleu preferentially interacted with negatively charged phospholipids, but unlike $L_8K_9W_1$ and $L_8K_9W_1$-$\small{D}$-Leu, they did not disrupt the integrity of lipid bilayers and depolarize the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane. These results suggested that the mode of action of $L_8K_9W_1$-$\small{L}$-Pro, $L_8K_9W_1$-$\small{D}$-Pro and $L_8K_9W_1$-Nleu involves the intracellular target other than the bacterial membrane. In particular, $L_8K_9W_1$-$\small{L}$-Pro, $L_8K_9W_1$-$\small{D}$-Pro and $L_8K_9W_1$-Nleu had powerful antimicrobial activity (MIC range, 1 to $4{\mu}M$) against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRPA). Taken together, our results suggested that $L_8K_9W_1$-$\small{L}$-Pro, $L_8K_9W_1$-$\small{D}$-Pro and $L_8K_9W_1$-Nleu with great cell selectivity may be promising candidates for novel therapeutic agents, complementing conventional antibiotic therapies to combat pathogenic microorganisms.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.158-167
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• 2015

A lateral flow immunoassay kit based on antigen-antibody interactions was developed to detect residues of beta-lactams, quinolones, tetracyclines, and sulfonamides in farmed fish. Group-specific antibodies showing cross-reactivity with other antibiotics in the same group were produced in rabbits. The rabbits were immunized eight times to obtain the maximum titers. Antibodies were extracted from the antisera collected from the immunized rabbits and produced group-specific reactions with antibiotics from the four groups. A kit was prepared that optimize conditions for the antigen-antibody reaction, using colloidal gold conjugated antibodies, and was designed to detect the four groups of antibiotics simultaneously. The kit enabled the detection of antibiotics in the four groups at below maximum residue limits (MRLs), which were $200{\mu}g/kg$ for tetracyclines, $100{\mu}g/kg$ for sulfonamides, $50{\mu}g/kg$ for beta-lactams, and $100{\mu}g/kg$ for quinolones. The cross-reactivity of the antibodies ranged from 10-80% for the sulfonamides, 20-100% for tetracyclines, 38-100% for quinolones, and 20-100% for the beta-lactams, confirming that the antibodies were group specific. The test kit was used 30 times to examine spiked antibiotics at the limits of detection (LODs) and all produced positive results, indicating high sensitivity. The LODs for the assay ranged from 4-20 ng/mL for beta-lactams, 25-50 ng/mL for sulfonamides, 20-100 ng/mL for tetracyclines, and 30-80 ng/mL for quinolones, and there were no false negative reactions at above these LODs. In addition, all of the LODs of the developed kit were correlated with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) data. Our lateral flow immunoassay kit can simultaneously detect antibiotic residues from a large number of fish samples rapidly, strengthening the safety of domestic farmed and imported fish.