• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2022

Bacteria communicate with each other through an intricate communication mechanism known as quorum sensing (QS). QS regulates different behavioral aspects in bacteria, such as biofilm formation, sporulation, virulence gene expression, antibiotic production, and bioluminescence. Several different chemical signals and signal detection systems play vital roles in promoting highly efficient intra- and interspecies communication. Gram-negative bacteria coordinate gene regulation through the production of acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs). Gram-positive bacteria do not code for AHL production, while some gram-negative bacteria have an incomplete AHL-QS system. Despite this fact, these microbes can detect AHLs owing to the presence of LuxR solo receptors. Various studies have reported the role of AHLs in interspecies signaling. Moreover, as bacteria live in a polymicrobial community, the production of extracellular compounds to compete for resources is imperative. Thus, AHL-mediated signaling and inhibition are considered to affect virulence in bacteria. In the current review, we focus on the synthesis and regulation mechanisms of AHLs and highlight their role in interspecies bacterial signaling. Exploring interspecies bacterial signaling will further help us understand host-pathogen interactions, thereby contributing to the development of therapeutic strategies intended to target chronic polymicrobial infections.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.369-378
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• 2010

School lunch programs at middle schools have increased in quantity. However, the quality of them is in fact not enough to reach the satisfactory standard, especially in the aspect of environment of school meals. It is true that there seems to be little attention to the environment. In this study, degree of satisfaction about school lunch program was surveyed for students in one middle school. Focus of survey was sanitary condition about the dining room and classroom where they have lunch. First, in order to investigate the degree of satisfaction about their dining place, questionnaire was sent out to the students at one middle school in Seoul. Questionnaire was made with reference to previous research. Second, for the study on environmental sanitation, dropping bacteria (general bacteria) is measured in three parts of dining place (entrance, serving table, dining table). Petriplate film was exposed to the responsible places for 15 minutes and then cultivated at the temperature of $32^{\circ}C$ for 48 hours before counting the number of bacteria formed. For the statistical analysis, SPSS 12.0 was used. The results of the study show that students had more satisfaction in dining room service than in classroom service. Important factors for the meal program such as "taste of food", "amount of food per student", "state of keeping warm", "appearance of food", "diversity of menu", and "kindliness of feeding staff" had more points in dining room than in classroom. For the environmental and sanitary aspect, the result of dropping bacteria (general bacteria) in dining room and classroom showed that table (5.00) and fooddistribution corner (8.67) of dining room were cleaner than those of classroom (P < 0.05). Making a good environment for school feeding will have a positive effect on the improvement of satisfaction and sanitation of school feeding. There should be expansion of dining room service for the students.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.169-178
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• 2010

The microbial community structure in Thailand soils contaminated with low and high levels of arsenic was determined by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. Band pattern analysis indicated that the bacterial community was not significantly different in the two soils. Phylogenetic analysis obtained by excising and sequencing six bands indicated that the soils were dominated by Arthrobacter koreensis and $\beta$-Proteobacteria. Two hundred and sixty-two bacterial isolates were obtained from arsenic-contaminated soils. The majority of the As-resistant isolates were Gramnegative bacteria. MIC studies indicated that all of the tested bacteria had greater resistance to arsenate than arsenite. Some strains were capable of growing in medium containing up to 1,500 mg/l arsenite and arsenate. Correlations analysis of resistance patterns of arsenite resistance indicated that the isolated bacteria could be categorized into 13 groups, with a maximum similarity value of 100%. All strains were also evaluated for resistance to eight antibiotics. The antibiotic resistance patterns divided the strains into 100 unique groups, indicating that the strains were very diverse. Isolates from each antibiotic resistance group were characterized in more detail by using the repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR (rep-PCR) DNA fingerprinting technique with ERIC primers. The PCR products were analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis. The genetic relatedness of 100 bacterial fingerprints, determined by using the Pearson product-moment similarity coefficient, showed that the isolates could be divided into four clusters, with similarity values ranging from 5-99%. Although many isolates were genetically diverse, others were clonal in nature. Additionally, the arsenic-resistant isolates were examined for the presence of arsenic resistance (ars) genes by using PCR, and 30% of the isolates were found to carry an arsenate reductase encoded by the arsC gene.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.462-468
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• 2013

Jeotgal is a generic term given to the high-salt-fermented seafood of Korea. This study aimed at developing an overview of the bacterial community present in Ojingeo-jeotgal, a highly consumed type of jeotgal, which is made with squid. Bacteria were isolated and purified from two samples on six different kinds of media and identified by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Among the 121 total isolates, the most dominant genus was Bacillus, followed by coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) and lactic acid bacteria (LAB). CNS were detected in both samples, but LAB were observed in only a single sample. Six strains of Bacillus species inhibiting the growth of food pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, were selected from the 121 isolates. These were found to inhibit the growth of both pathogens in addition to displaying proteolytic activities on media containing 6% NaCl and 2% skim milk.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.1252-1264
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• 2020

Objective: To effectively utilize crop by-product resources to address the shortage of animal feed during the dry season in Africa, the community of natural lactic acid bacteria (LAB) of corn stover and sugarcane tops and fermentation characteristics of silage were studied in Mozambique. Methods: Corn stover and sugarcane tops were obtained from agricultural field in Mozambique. Silage was prepared with LAB inoculant and cellulase enzyme and their fermentation quality and microbial population were analyzed. Results: Aerobic bacteria were the dominant population with 10⁷ colony-forming unit/g of fresh matter in both crops prior to ensiling, while 10⁴ to 10⁷ LAB became the dominant bacteria during ensiling. Lactobacillus plantarum was more than 76.30% of total isolates which dominated silage fermentation in the LAB-treated sugarcane top silages or all corn stover silages. Fresh corn stover and sugarcane tops contain 65.05% to 76.10% neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and 6.52% to 6.77% crude protein (CP) on a dry matter basis, and these nutrients did not change greatly during ensiling. Corn stover exhibits higher LAB counts and water-soluble carbohydrates content than sugarcane top, which are naturally suited for ensiling. Meanwhile, sugarcane tops require LAB or cellulase additives for high quality of silage making. Conclusion: This study confirms that both crop by-products contain certain nutrients of CP and NDF that could be well-preserved in silage, and that they are potential roughage resources that could cover livestock feed shortages during the dry season in Africa.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.51-65
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• 2008

The increasing demand for energy in the near future has created strong motivation for environmentally clean alternative energy resources. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have opened up new ways of utilizing renewable energy sources. MFCs are devices that convert the chemical energy in the organic compounds to electrical energy through microbial catalysis at the anode under anaerobic conditions, and the reduction of a terminal electron acceptor, most preferentially oxygen, at the cathode. Due to the rapid advances in MFC-based technology over the last decade, the currently achievable MFC power production has increased by several orders of magnitude, and niche applications have been extended into a variety of areas. Newly emerging concepts with alternative materials for electrodes and catalysts as well as innovative designs have made MFCs promising technologies. Aerobic bacteria can also be used as cathode catalysts. This is an encouraging finding because not only biofouling on the cathode is unavoidable in the prolonged-run MFCs but also noble catalysts can be substituted with aerobic bacteria. This article discusses some of the recent advances in MFCs with an emphasis on the performance, materials, microbial community structures and applications beyond electricity generation.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.265-271
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• 1989

Bacteria isolated from Cheonsu Bay at 4 seasons were analyzed by numerical taxonomic method. Results of 48 morphological, physiological and biochemical tests showed different adaptability of bacteria to temperature in consequence with sampling season and isolated bacteria were able to survive at various environmental conditions, Identification results revealed that Enterobacteriaceae, Aeromonas, Pseudomonas and Vibrio were dominant genera in geterotrophic bacterial community. For each season, Aeromonas was most dominant in spring and autumn, Pseudomonas and Enterobacteriaceae in summer and winter, respectively. Cluster ananlysis was performed and all vacteria were clustered into 29 phenetic groups. Seasonal characteristics were distict in each group. Different physiological characteristics and species compositions for each season contribute to the stability and diversity of environmental ecosystem.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.938-945
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• 2005

For elucidating excessive growth of biofilm that subsequently leads to the clogging problem in a small town's sewer lines of Wisconsin, the FISH method was employed. At the beginning of the simulated experiments, ${\beta}$-subclass proteobacteria prevailed in runs fed with industrial wastewater, while ${\gamma}$-subclass proteobacteria dominated in runs with domestic wastewater. However, the bacterial community structure changed significantly over six weeks; Cytophaga-Flavobacterium (CF)­group bacteria dominated in most runs fed with the small town's wastewater regardless of their source, while CF-group decreased strongly in run fed with domestic sewage from another city (Madison). It was also microscopically confirmed that most of those clogging materials was toilet tissue, which in turn may lead to vigorous growth of cellulose-degrading CF-group bacteria. This dominant presence of CF-group bacteria in the small town's sewer indicates that the main constituent of biofilm, toilet tissue (cellulose) in sewage, might have induced the unique pattern of their microbial community structure. Therefore, it suggests that molecular technique is useful for monitoring the clogging problems in sewer lines.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.115-121
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• 2007

A novel hydrogen fermentation technique by using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel beads as a biomass carrier was investigated. The hydrogen gas was stably produced throughout the experimental period in a continuous reactor. Even though the hydrogen productivity was suddenly decrease by experimental troubles, the bacteria attached to the PVA gel beads played as an inoculum, it was promptly recovered. The hydrogen yield per glucose was not very high ($1.0-1.2mol-H_2/mol-glucose$), thus the optimization of the experimental conditions such as ORP and HRT should be considered to improve the hydrogen productivity. Bacterial community was stable during experimental period after the PVA gel beads applying, which indicated that applying of biomass carrier was specific to keep not only the biomass but also the bacteria commonly. Clostridium species were phylogenetically detected, which suggested that these bacteria contributed to the hydrogen production in the biofilm attached to the PVA gel beads.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.364-372
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• 2016

Sand tubules, made up of sand grains cemented by microbe-induced calcium carbonate precipitation, have been found in China's Ningxia Province. Sand tubules grow like a tree's roots about 40-60 cm below the surface. The properties of sand tubules and their bacterial community were examined. X-Ray diffraction analysis revealed that the sand tubules were associated with crystalline calcite. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the crystalline solid had a lamellar structure and lacked the presence of cells, suggesting that no bacteria acted as nucleation sites, nor that the crystalline solid was formed by the aggregation of bacteria. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis showed 11 of the 12 detectable bands were uncultured bacteria by BLAST analysis in the GenBank database, and the rest were closely related to Paenibacillus sp. (100% identity). By cultivation techniques, the only strain isolated from the sand tubule was suggested to be related to Paenibacillus sp.; no archaea were found. Furthermore, Paenibacillus sp. was demonstrated to induce calcium carbonate precipitation in vitro.