• Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
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• 1997.07a
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• pp.23-23
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• 1997

Tolaasin, a 1.9 kDa peptide forming membrane pores, is produced by Pseudomonas tolaasii and causes a brown blotch disease on cultivated oyster mushroom. During the purification of peptide by a gel permeation chromatography, we have found that fractions of molecular weight ranges between ∼2 to 40 kDa have hemolytic activities and the fractions of higher M.W. showed faster hemolysis.(omitted)

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.348-352
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• 1995

Severe gray mold neck rot of onion occurred in most farmers' fields in the southern part of Korea, and 20∼50% of onions were infected by the disease at Goheung, Chonnam, in 1994. Symptoms of the disease appeared on the lower leaves near the soil surface in late February. The symptoms initially appeared as yellowish blotch with compact gray mold on the surface of the infected leaves and developed to blast of the aboveground parts of onions. As brown to dark brown symptoms progressed around the necks of onion later, the bulbs were rotting gradually. Botrytis sp. repeatedly isolated from the lesions produced the typical symptom on the neck of healthy onion 7 days after wound inoculation of conidial suspension of the fungus. The fungus reisolated from the bulbs was identified as Botrytis allii Munn based on the morphological and cultural characteristics and pathogenicity. This is first report of a gray mold neck rot of onion in Korea.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.392-396
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• 1994

The toxic substance causing blown blotching on the mushroom cap was extracted and purified from the culture broth of P.tolaasii. Purification and identification of the toxic compound was carried out with the silica gel chromatography, mass spectrum and NMR and appeared to be an aminobenzene in amylamine group. The purified toxic substance showed UV spectrum at 234nm and melting point at $76^{\circ}C$, respectively.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 1995

Tests were performed on 232 bacterial strains (71 strains of Pseudomonas tolaasii and 161 white line reacting organisms, WLRO) isolated from cultivated mushrooms. As results, P. tolaasii was divided into 5 groups on the basis of the phenotypical characteristics for the strains, and group 3 was the major one including 48 (62%) out of the total 71 strains. WLRO were classified into 23 groups, and group 10 was the major group (65 strains, 30% of the total WLRO tested). A white line was well formed at 22$^{\circ}C$ and at 4 mm distance between P. tolaasii and WLRO colonies in their dual culture on Pseudomonas agar F medium within 36-hr incubation, but not formed at $25^{\circ}C$ even for 72-hr incubation. The morphological, cultural and biological properties of P. tolaasii group 3, and the main group of WLRO, group 10, were different only in the light of pathogenicity. Also group 2 of P. tolaasii had the characteristics similar to group 24 of WLRO which was pathogenic to cultivated mushrooms, suggesting the P. tollaasiii and WLRO strains may be the same species although their white line forming ability and pathogenicity were more or less different from one another. Subculture of the strains in P. tolaasii group 1 induced the variation of their pathogenicity, white line forming ability and utilization of sodium benzoate and sodium tartrate, and thus it can be inferred that they were converted to strains having the characteristics of group 3 or WLRO groups.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.28-33
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• 2003

Pseudomonas tolaasii causing brown blotch disease was detected by PCR from water samples collected from the oyster mushroom cultivation farms to find the contamination level of the pathogen in water. Sixteen water samples (28.1%) contain less than 1,000 cfu, 31 samples (54.4%) contain 1,001-10,000 cfu, 6 samples (10.5%) contain 10,001-100,000 cfu, and 4 samples (7%) contain of bacteria per milliliter. P. tolaasii-specific DNA band was amplified in 3 samples (5.3%) by nested-PCR and in 20 samples (35.1%) by immunocapture (IC)-nested PCR respectively. These results suggest that IC-nested-PCR was much more sensitive than nested-PCR in detection of P. tolaasii and a quite few waters using for oyster mushroom cultivation were contaminated with P. tolaasii.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.255-262
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• 2016

Purpose: Fuji apples are one of the top selling exports for South Korea bringing in over $233.4 million in 2013. However, during the last few decades, about half of the Fuji apple orchards have been infected by Apple Marssonina Blotch disease (AMB), a fungal disease caused by Diplocarpon mali., which takes about 40 days to exhibit obvious visible symptoms. Infected leaves turn yellow and begin growing brown lesions. AMB promotes early defoliation and reduces the quality and quantity of apples an infected tree can produce. Currently, there is no prediction model for AMB on the market. Methods: The Precision Agriculture Laboratory (PAL) at the University of Florida (UF) has been working with the National Academy of Agricultural Science, Rural Development Administration, South Korea to investigate the use of hyperspectral data in creating an early detection method for AMB. The RDA has been researching hyperspectral techniques for disease detection at their Apple Research Station in Gunwi since 2012 and disseminates its findings to the local farmers. These farmers were surveyed to assess the state of knowledge of AMB in the area. Out of a population of about 750 growers, 111 surveys were completed (confidence interval of +/- 8.59%, confidence level of 95%, p-value of 0.05). Results: The survey revealed 32% of the farmers did not know what AMB was, but 45% of farmers have had their orchards infected by AMB. Twenty-five percent could not distinguish AMB from other symptoms. Overwhelmingly, 80% of farmers strongly believed an early detection method for AMB was necessary. Conclusions: The results of the survey will help to evaluate the outreach programs of the RDA so they can more effectively educate farmers on the identifying, treating, and mediating AMB.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2064-2070
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• 2018

Pseudomonas tolaasii 6264 is a representative strain that causes bacterial blotch disease on the cultivated oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus. Bacteriophages are able to sterilize the pathogenic P. tolaasii strains, and therefore, they can be applied in creating disease-free mushroom cultivation farms, through a method known as "phage therapy". For successful phage therapy, the characterization of phage-resistant strains is necessary, since they are frequently induced from the original pathogenic bacteria in the presence of phages. When 10 different phages were incubated with P. tolaasii 6264, their corresponding phage-resistant strains were obtained. In this study, changes in pathogenic, genetic, and biochemical characteristics as well as the acquired phage resistance of these strains were investigated. In the phylogenetic analyses, all phage-resistant strains were identical to the original parent strain based on the sequence comparison of 16S rRNA genes. When various phage-resistant strains were examined by three different methods, pitting test, white line test, and hemolytic activity, they were divided into three groups: strains showing all positive results in three tests, two positive in the first two tests, and all negative. Nevertheless, all phage-resistant strains showed that their pathogenic activities were reduced or completely lost.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.179-184
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• 2017

Tolaasin, a 1.9 kDa peptide toxin, is produced by Pseudomonas tolaasii and causes the brown blotch disease of cultivated oyster mushroom. It forms pores on the membrane and thus destroys cellular membrane structure, seriously reducing the productivity of mushroom cultivation. The mechanism of tolaasin-induced cytotoxicity is not known in detail. However, it has been reported to form a pore structure in the cytoplasmic membrane through the molecular multimerization. Therefore, food additives which can interact with tolaasin molecules may inhibit the pore formation by hydrophobic interactions with tolaasin molecules. In this study, various food additive materials have been identified as inhibitors of the tolaasin activity and named tolaasin-inhibitory factors (TIF). Most of TIFs are emulsifying agents for food processing procedures. Among various TIFs, polyglycerol and sucrose esters of fatty acids blocked effectively the cytotoxicity of tolaasins at the concentrations $10^{-4}-10^{-5}M$. These TIFs also successfully suppressed the blotch disease development in the shelf cultivation of oyster mushroom.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.351-356
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• 2016

Bacterial blotch caused by Pseudomonas tolaasii is one of the major diseases of oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus. Application of bacteriophages is a very useful tool to decrease the density of pathogens and it has been successful to making disease-free cultivation area, known as phage therapy. Effect of phages on pathogen sterilization is very limited to the specific host strains. Minor variations of the host strains may cause changes in phage sensitivity. The phage-resistant strains of P. tolaasii were isolated and their pathogenic characters were investigated to improve the effectiveness of phage therapy. In the phylogenetic analysis, both phage-resistant strains and the corresponding host strains were identical based on the sequence comparison of 16S rRNA genes. The pathogenic characters, such as hemolytic activity and brown blotch formation, were measured on the phage-resistant strains and no correlation between phage-resistance and pathogenic characters was observed. Nevertheless, pathogenic characters were sometimes changed in the phage-resistant strains depending on the host strains. In order to make the phage therapy successful, the bacteriophages having a wide host range should be isolated.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.375-380
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• 2006

In the survey from 1992 to 2000, twenty-eight parasitic diseases were observed in major apple producing areas in Korea. The predominant apple diseases were white rot(Botryosphaeria dothidea), Marssonina blotch(Marssonina mali), Valsa canker(Valsa ceratosperma), Alternaria leaf spot(Alternaria mali), and bitter rot(Collectotrichum gloeosporioides and C. acutatum). Apple scab that reappeared in 1990 after disappearance for 15 years was disappeared again since 1997. A viroid disease(caused by apple scar skin viroid) was newly found in this survey. The five diseases, fire blight(Erwinia amylovora), black rot(Botryosphaeria obtusa), scab(Cladosporium carpophilum), Monochaetia twig blight(Monochaetia sp.), and brown leaf spot(Hendersonia mali), which had once described in 1928 but no further reports on their occurrence, were not found in this survey. However, blossom blight(Monilinia mali), brown rot(Monilinia fructigena), and pink rot(Trichothecium roseum), which did not occur on apple after mid 1970s, were found in this survey.