• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.477-486
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• 2017

This review provides an overview of dietary nucleotides as an alternative to in-feed antibiotics for weaning pigs. Dietary nucleotides are composed of DNA or RNA molecules and are normally contained in protein-rich feed ingredient, brewer's yeast, yeast extract, and milk. Weaning pigs are suffering from several stresses, such as environmental challenges (i.e. crowding, transportation, and feeding). Such stressors can damage the intestinal epithelium and cause an invasion by Escherichia coli, secondary inflammatory responses, and post weaning diarrhea. To overcome weaning disorder, people often use antibiotics which reduce symptoms and boost growth performance. However, since antibiotics were banned due to concerns of antibiotic resistant bacteria, researchers are studying alternative materials to antibiotics. Dietary nucleotides are one of the alternative materials for replacing antibiotics and can be used in abnormal conditions, such as weaning diarrhea, low digestibility, and disease condition. Nucleotides have substances that have important roles in cell division and cell growth, affecting growth performance, intestinal condition, and immunological effect at the weaning stage. However, nucleotides' composition is very different between sources and this aspect makes it difficult to utilize nucleotides at the weaning stage. Therefore, this review paper focuses on i) the characteristics and functions of dietary nucleotides and ii) the effect of dietary nucleotides on the growth performance and immune system of pigs.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 1976

Two hundred and fourty eight strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from clinical materials at Department of Bacteriology in National Medical Center and Han-il Hospital during January to November in 1973, were typed serologically by Hommo's agglutination method utlizing a routine set of 13 standard sera. In addition, their susceptibitily to several kinds of antibiotics were determind. The following results were obtained; One hundred seventy eight strains(71.77%) were typable with an occurence of type $T_8$ in 41 strains(16.53%), type $T_5$ in 36(14.52%), type $T_3$ in 24 strains(9.68%) and small numbers of strains were distributed in lither types. Seventy strains(28.23%) were nontypable. The rate of isolation of Pseudomonas by clinical meterials was shown as 49.19% in ous, 16.53% in sputum and 8.87% in urine; the isolation rate of 1.21-3.15% was shown in other clinical meterals and the definite distribution rate could not be observed in the serotype by different materials. Majorities of strains used in this experiment of isolates were resistant to common antibiotics but Gentamycin and Carbenicillin, known relatively as sensitive antibiotics to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, were observed resistance of 2.44-10.5% and 16.69-57.8%. Moreover any particular relationship between serotype and the sensitivity of antibiotics was not identified.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.125-127
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• 2005

In order to improve the transformation efficiency of the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)-Escherichia coli (E. coli) shuttle vector, pHT3101, we intended to minimize replication origin of Bt in pHT3101. For this, two modified shuttle vectors, pHT1K and pHT261, in which 2.9 kb of replication origin of Bt were shortened to 1 kb and 261 bp, respectively as previously reported. Whereas the pHT1K could efficiently transform Bt into the antibiotic resistant, no transformants were obtained with pHT261. Furthermore, pHT1K showed higher transformation efficiency compared to that of parent vector, pHT3101. Therefore, pHT1K might be a very useful Bt-E. coli shuttle vector carrying minimal replication origin of Bt.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.1057-1062
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• 2004

The entomopathogenic bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis is the most widely used biopesticide. Insecticidal proteins, coded by genes located in plasmids, form typical parasporal, crystalline inclusions during sporulation. We isolated a Bacillus thuringiensis strain having insecticidal activity against larvae of the house fly (M. domestica) from the soils at a pig farm in Korea, and named it Bacillus thuringiensis SM. The culture filtrate from Bacillus thuringiensis SM showed strong lethality (83.3%) against M. domestica larvae. The parasporal crystal is enclosed within the spores' outermost envelope, as determined by transmission electron microscopy, and exhibited a bipyramidal form. The crystal proteins of strain SM consisted of five proteins with molecular weights of approximately ~130, ~80, ~68, ~42, and ~27 kDa on a 10% SDS-PAGE (major band, a size characteristic of Cry protein). Examination of antibiotic resistance revealed that the strain SM showed multiple resistant. The strain SM had at least three different plasmids with sizes of 6.6, 9.3, and 54 kb. Polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) revealed the presence of cry1, cry4A2, and cry11A1 genes in the strain SM. The cry1 gene profile of the strain SM appeared in the three respective products of 487 bp [cry1A(c)], 414 bp [cry1D], and 238 bp [cry1A(b)]. However, the strain SM has not shown the cry4A2 md cry11A1 genes. In in vivo toxicity assays, the strain SM showed high toxicity on fly larvae (M. domestic) [with $LC_{50}$ of 4.2 mg/ml, $LC_{90}$ of 8.2 mg/ml].

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.803-811
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• 2014

Concerns over drug-resistant bacteria have stimulated interest in developing alternative methods to control bacterial infections. Endolysin, a phage-encoded enzyme that breaks down bacterial peptidoglycan at the terminal stage of the phage reproduction cycle, is reported to be effective for the control of bacterial pathogenic bacteria. Bioinformatic analysis of the SPN9CC bacteriophage genome revealed a gene that encodes an endolysin with a domain structure similar to those of the endolysins produced by the P1 and P22 coliphages. The SPN9CC endolysin was purified with a C-terminal oligo-histidine tag. The endolysin was relatively stable and active over a broad temperature range (from $24^{\circ}C$ to $65^{\circ}C$). It showed maximal activity at $50^{\circ}C$, and its optimum pH range was from pH 7.5 to 8.5. The SPN9CC endolysin showed antimicrobial activity against only gram-negative bacteria and functioned by cutting the glycosidic bond of peptidoglycan. Interestingly, the SPN9CC endolysin could lyse intact gram-negative bacteria in the absence of EDTA as an outer membrane permeabilizer. The exogenous lytic activity of the SPN9CC endolysin makes it a potential therapeutic agent against gram-negative bacteria.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1563-1572
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• 2018

Gold nanoparticles (AuNP) and their conjugates have been gaining a great deal of recognition in the medical field. Meanwhile, extended-spectrum ${\beta}$-lactamases (ESBL)-producing bacteria are also demonstrating a challenging problem for health care. The aim of this study was the biosynthesis of AuNP using Rosa damascenes petal extract and conjugation of ceftriaxone antibiotic (Cef-AuNP) in inhibiting ESBL-producing bacteria and study of in vitro anticancer activity. Characterization of the synthesized AuNP and Cef-AuNP was studied. ESBL-producing strains, Acinetobacter baumannii ACI1 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PSE4 were used for testing the efficacy of Cef-AuNP. The cells of MCF-7 breast cancer were treated with previous AuNP and Cef-AuNP at different time intervals. Cytotoxicity effects of apoptosis and its molecular mechanism were evaluated. Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy established the formation of AuNP and Cef-AuNP. Transmission electron microscope demonstrated that the formed nanoparticles were of different shapes with sizes of 15~35 nm and conjugation was established by a slight increase in size. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of Cef-AuNP against tested strains were obtained as 3.6 and $4{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. Cef-AuNP demonstrated a decrease in the MIC of ceftriaxone down to more than 27 folds on the studied strains. The biosynthesized AuNP displayed apoptotic and time-dependent cytotoxic effects in the cells of MCF-7 at a concentration of $0.1{\mu}g/ml$ medium. The Cef-AuNP have low significant effects on MCF-7 cells. These results enhance the conjugating utility in old unresponsive ceftriaxone with AuNP to restore its efficiency against otherwise resistant bacterial pathogens. Additionally, AuNP may be used as an alternative chemotherapeutic treatment of MCF-7 cancer cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1293-1303
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• 2013

Antibiotic resistance of soilborne Acinetobacter species has been poorly explored. In this study, norfloxacin resistance of a soil bacterium, Acinetobacter oleivorans DR1, was investigated. The frequencies of mutant appearance of all tested non-pathogenic Acinetobacter strains were lower than those of pathogenic strains under minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). When the quinolone-resistance-determining region of the gyrA gene was examined, only one mutant (His78Asn) out of 10 resistant variants had a mutation. Whole transcriptome analysis using a RNA-Seq demonstrated that genes involved in SOS response and DNA repair were significantly up-regulated by norfloxacin. Determining the MICs of survival cells after norfloxacin treatment confirmed some of those cells were indeed persister cells. Ten colonies, randomly selected from among those that survived in the presence of norfloxacin, did not exhibit increased MIC. Thus, both the low mutation frequency of the target gene and SOS response under norfloxacin suggested that persister formation might contribute to the resistance of DR1 against norfloxacin. The persister frequency increased without a change in MIC when stationary phase cells, low growth rates conditions, and growth-deficient dnaJ mutant were used. Taken together, our comprehensive approach, which included mutational analysis of the target gene, persister formation assays, and RNA sequencing, indicated that DR1 survival when exposed to norfloxacin is related not only to target gene mutation but also to persister formation, possibly through up-regulation of the SOS response and DNA repair genes.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.42-47
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• 2012

$Mycoplasma$ $pneumoniae$ (MP), the smallest self-replicating biological system, is a common cause of upper and lower respiratory tract infections, leading to a wide range of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary manifestations. MP pneumonia has been reported in 10 to 40% of cases of community-acquired pneumonia and shows an even higher proportion during epidemics. MP infection is endemic in larger communities of the world with cyclic epidemics every 3 to 7 years. In Korea, 3 to 4-year cycles have been observed from the mid-1980s to present. Although a variety of serologic assays and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques are available for the diagnosis of MP infections, early diagnosis of MP pneumonia is limited by the lack of immunoglobulin (Ig) M antibodies and variable PCR results in the early stages of the infection. Thus, short-term paired IgM serologic tests may be mandatory for an early and definitive diagnosis. MP infection is usually a mild and self-limiting disease without specific treatment, and if needed, macrolides are generally used as a first-choice drug for children. Recently, macrolide-resistant MP strains have been reported worldwide. However, there are few reports of apparent treatment failure, such as progression of pneumonia to acute respiratory distress syndrome despite macrolide treatment. The immunopathogenesis of MP pneumonia is believed to be a hyperimmune reaction of the host to the insults from MP infection, including cytokine overproduction and immune cell activation (T cells). In this context, immunomodulatory treatment (corticosteroids or/and intravenous Ig), in addition to antibiotic treatment, might be considered for patients with severe infection.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1457-1466
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• 2012

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) exert antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, fungi, and viruses by various mechanisms. AMPs commonly possess particular characteristics by harboring cationic and amphipathic structures and binding to cell membranes, resulting in the leakage of essential cell contents by forming pores or disturbing lipid organization. These membrane disruptive mechanisms of AMPs are possible to explain according to the various structure forming pores in the membrane. Some AMPs inhibit DNA and/or RNA synthesis as well as apoptosis induction by reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Specifically, mitochondria play a major role in the apoptotic pathway. During apoptosis induced by AMPs, cells undergo cytochrome c release, caspase activation, phosphatidylserine externalization, plasma or mitochondrial membrane depolarization, DNA and nuclei damage, cell shrinkage, apoptotic body formation, and membrane blebbing. Even AMPs, which have been reported to exert membrane-active mechanisms, induce apoptosis in yeast. These phenomena were also discovered in tumor cells treated with AMPs. The apoptosis mechanism of AMPs is available for various therapeutics such as antibiotics for antibiotic-resistant pathogens that resist to the membrane active mechanism, and antitumor agents with selectivity to tumor cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.1381-1385
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• 2013

The centipede Scolopendra subpinipes mutilans is a medicinally important arthropod species. However, its transcriptome is not currently available and transcriptome analysis would be useful in providing insight into a molecular level approach. Hence, we performed de novo RNA sequencing of S. subpinipes mutilans using next-generation sequencing. We generated a novel peptide (scolopendrasin II) based on a SVM algorithm, and biochemically evaluated the in vitro antimicrobial activity of scolopendrasin II against various microbes. Scolopendrasin II showed antibacterial activities against gram-positive and -negative bacterial strains, including the yeast Candida albicans and antibiotic-resistant gram-negative bacteria, as determined by a radial diffusion assay and colony count assay without hemolytic activity. In addition, we confirmed that scolopendrasin II bound to the surface of bacteria through a specific interaction with lipoteichoic acid and a lipopolysaccharide, which was one of the bacterial cell-wall components. In conclusion, our results suggest that scolopendrasin II may be useful for developing peptide antibiotics.