• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.559-573
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• 2023

Shiga toxin (Stxs)-producing enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) and Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 are major causative agents of severe bloody diarrhea (known as hemorrhagic colitis) and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) associated with extraintestinal complications such as acute renal failure and neurologic impairment in infected patients under 9 years of age. Extreme nephrotoxicity of Stxs in HUS patients is associated with severe outcomes, highlighting the need to develop technologies to detect low levels of the toxin in environmental or food samples. Currently, the conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or immunoassay is the most broadly used assay to detect the toxin. However, these assays are laborious, time-consuming, and costly. More recently, numerous studies have described novel, highly sensitive, and portable methods for detecting Stxs from EHEC. To contextualize newly emerging Stxs detection methods, we briefly explain the basic principles of these methods, including lateral flow assays, optical detection, and electrical detection. We subsequently describe existing and newly emerging rapid detection technologies to identify and measure Stxs.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.349-357
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• 2024

Foodborne pathogens, like Listeria monocytogenes, continue to inflict substantial financial losses on the food industry. Various methods for detecting Listeria in food have been developed and numerous studies have been conducted to compare the different methods. But, in recent years, new Listeria species have been identified, and currently the genus comprises 26 species. Therefore, it would be a more accurate approach to re-evaluate existing detection methods by considering new species. The present investigation involved the analysis of 42 ready-to-eat (RTE) foods, encompassing a variety of food categories, such as mezes, salads, dairy products, and meat products, with the aim of ascertaining the presence of Listeria. Among the traditional culture-dependent reference methods, the ISO 11290 method was preferred. The process of strain identification was conducted with the API Identification System. Furthermore, to ascertain the existence of L. monocytogenes and Listeria spp., the samples underwent additional analysis employing the VIDAS Immunoassay System, ELISA, and RT-PCR methodologies. Thus, four alternative approaches were employed in this study to compare not only the different methods used to determine Listeria while taking into account the newly identified Listeria species, but also to assess the compliance of retail RTE food items with microbiological criteria pertaining to the genus Listeria. Based on the conducted analyses, L. monocytogenes was conclusively determined to be present in one sample. The presence of Listeria spp. was detected in 30.9% of the samples, specifically in Turkish cig kofte, sliced salami, and salads.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.349-357
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• 2011

Since nesfatin-1/NUCB2 involved in the control of appetite and energy metabolism was discovered for the first time in hypothalamus, many reports have shown its expression in various tissues. We also recently demonstrated that nesfatin-1/NUCB2 was expressed in the reproductive organs of mouse. However, no data exist on nesfatin-1/NUCB2 expression, regulation, and secretion in the uterus. Therefore, we examined the expression of nesfatin-1/NUCB2 in mouse uterus and the effects of PMSG and estrogen on its expression. NUCB2 mRNA expression in the uterus was determined by conventional and real-time PCR and nesfatin-1 protein expression was detected by western blotting. In immunohistochemistry staining, nesfatin-1 protein was localized at the epithelial cells of the uterine glands and endometrium. Nesfatin-1 protein binding sites were displayed at the epithelial cells of uterine glands and specific granulocytes including neutrophils. Additionally, to examine if the nesfatin-1/NUCB2 expression in the uterus is regulated by gonadotropin or estrogen, ovariectomized mice were treated with PMSG or $17{\beta}$-estradiol. The expression levels of NUCB2 mRNA in the uterus was significantly increased in the control mice after PMSG treatment, but not in the ovariectomized mice. In contrast, NUCB2 mRNA expression was dramatically increased in the ovariectomized mice after treatment with $17{\beta}$-estradiol. We report here for the first time that nesfatin-1/NUCB2 mRNA and protein express in the mouse uterus and its expression is regulated by estrogen secreted from the ovary, but not gonadotropin from the pituitary.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.24 no.2 s.77
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• pp.155-165
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• 1996

This study was carried out to identify the phylogenetic relationship among several isolates of Pleurotus species by comparing ITS II region of ribosomal DNA(rDNA) repeat unit. Two primers from ribosomal DNA sequences were chosen to amplify the specific internal transcribed spacer (ITS) II region of Pleurotus spp. The exact ITS II region with an unique band from six species of Pleurotus genus could be amplified using the two primers taken from at the 3'-end of 5.8S rDNA and 5'-end of 28S rDNA. Six representative species of the Pleurotus genus were easily characterized according to the length differences of ITS II region. Furthermore, within P. ostreatus species, different sizes of ITS II region could be observed in the isolates of ASI 2025 and ASI 2095 although they were classified as P. ostreatus by the conventional observation. The nucleotide sequence analyses of PCR-amplified ITS II region indicated that the isolates ASI 2025 and ASI 2095 were different from other Pleurotus spp. When the nucleotide sequences of six Pleurotus species were compared, three typical ITS II regions were highly variable especially at both ends of this region. The phylogenetic tree obtained by the Neighbor program of Felsenstein PHYLIP package with all the nucleotide sequence of Pleurotus spp. indicated that P. ostreatus, P. florida, P. sajor-caju and P. eryngii were closely related to one phylogenetic branch and P. cystidious was related to other branch with P. cornucopiae. The isolates ASI 2025 and 2038, however, were not closely related to any other Pleurotus spp. and formed their own individual branches.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.142-148
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• 2002

Although ionizing radiation (IR) has been used to treat the various human cancers, IR is cytotoxic not only to cancer cells but to the adjacent normal tissue. Since normal tissue complications are the limiting factor of cancer radiotherapy, one of the major concerns of IR therapy is to maximize the cancer cell killing and to minimize the toxic side effects on the adjacent normal tissue. As an attempt to develop a method to monitor the degree of radiation exposure to normal tissues during radiotherapy, we investigated the transcriptional responses of human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) following IR using cDNA microarray chip containing 1,221 (1.2 K) known genes. Since conventional radiotherapy is delivered at about 24 h intervals at 180 to 300 cGy/day, we analyzed the transcriptional responses ex-vivo irradiated human PBL at 200 cGy for 24 h-period. We observed and report on 1) a group of genes transiently induced early after IR at 2 h, 2) of genes induced after IR at 6 h, 3) of genes induced after IR at 24 h and on 4) a group of genes whose expression patters were not changed after IR. Since Biological consequences of IR involve generation of various reactive oxygen species (ROS) and thus oxidative stress induced by the ROS is known to damage normal tissues during radiotherapy, we further tested the temporal expression profiles of genes involved in ROS modulation by RT-PCR. Specific changes of 6 antioxidant genes were identified in irradiated PBL among 9 genes tested. Our results suggest the potential of monitoring post-radiotherapy changes in temporal expression profiles of a specific set of genes as a measure of radiation effects on normal tissues. This type of approach should yield more useful information when validated in in vivo irradiated PBL from the cancer patients.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.2111-2111
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• 2001

A chemoinfometrical method for evaluating the quantitative determination of crystallinity one polymorphs based on fourie-transformed near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy was established. A direct comparison of the data with the ones collected from using the and compared with the conventional powder X-ray diffraction method was performed. [Method] The pPure a and g forms of indomethacin (IMC) were prepared by reportedusing published methods. Six kinds of standard samples obtained by physically mixing of a and g forms. After the powder X-ray diffraction profiles of samples have been measured, the intensity values were normalized to against the intensity of silicon powder as the as an external standard. The calibration curves for quantification of crystal content were based upon the total relative intensity of four diffraction peaks from of the form g crystal. FT-NIR spectra of six calibration sample sets were recorded 5 times with the NIR spectrometer (BRAN+LUEBBE). Chemoinfometric analysis was performed on the NIR spectral data sets by applying the principal component regression (PCR). [Results] The relation between the actual and predicted polymorphic contents of form g IMC measured using by the X-ray diffraction method shows a good straight linen linear relation., and it has slope of 0.023, an intercept of 0.131 and a correlation coefficient of 0.986. PCR analyses wereis was performed based on normalized NIR spectra sets offer standard samples of known content of IMC g form. IMC. A calibration equation was determined to minimize the root mean square error of the predictionthe prediction. Figure 1 shows a plot of the calibration data obtained by NIR method between the actual and predicted contents of form g IMC. The predicted values were reproducible and had a smaller standard deviation. Figure 2 shows that the plot for the predicted transformation rate (%) of form a IMC to form g as measured by X-ray diffractomeoy against to those as measured by NIR method. The plot has a slope of 1.296, an intercept of 1,109, and a correlation coefficient of 0.992. The line represents a satisfactory correlation between the two predicted values of form g IMC content. Thus NIR spectroscopy is an effective method for the evaluation to the pharmaceutical products of quantitative of polymorph.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2004

This study was carried out to establish a new breeding scheme which is connected with conventional breeding method and anther culture method. To develop a herbicide resistant and direct seeding rice, $F_1$ plants were subjected to anther culture and regenerated plants from 5 crosses were studied to confirm the introduction of bar gene. After PCR analysis, we selected 227 plants which were carrying herbicide resistance gene (bar) out of 1,508 regenerated plants from anther culture. Among 169 $A_2$ lines carrying herbicide resistant gene from 5 crosses including YR23235 (Dongjin Ds3(Ba $r^{R}$)/ Milyang165), 42 lines that had superior agronomic characters were selected for further research. Among them, YR23235Acp79 which showed herbicide resistance, direct seeding adaptability and superiority in major agronomic characters was named Milyang 204. This breeding scheme proved that the anther culture of $F_1$ plants crossed between transformant and cultivar or transform ant alone could be utilized in breeding programs for a rapid progeny fixation and development of a variety.y.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1145-1150
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• 2015

Associations of GSTT1, GSTM1 and CYP1A1 gene variants with risk of developing oral cancer were evaluated in this study. A case-control study was conducted in Pashtun population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan in which 200 hospital based oral cancer cases and 151 population based healthy controls exposed to similar environmental conditions were included. Sociodemographic data were obtained and blood samples were collected with informed consent for analysis. GSTM1 and GSTT1 were analysed through conventional PCR method while specific RT-PCR method was used to detect CYP1A1 polymorphisms. Results were analyzed for conditional logistic regression model by SPSS version 20. The study shows that patients with either GSTM1 or GSTT1 null genotypes have significantly higher risk of oral cancer (adjusted odds (OR): (3.019 (1.861-4.898) and 3.011(1.865-4.862), respectively), which further increased when either one or both null genes were present in combination (adjusted odds (OR): (3.627 (1.981-6.642 and 9.261 (4.495-19.079), respectively). CYP1A1 rs4646903 gene variants individually showed weak association OR: 1.121 (0.717-1.752); however, in the presence of GSTM1 and/or GSTT1 null genotypes further increasing the association (adjusted odds (ORs): 4.576 (2.038-10.273), 5.593 (2.530-12.362) and 16.10 (3.854-67.260 for GSTM/GSTT null and CYP1A1 wild type, GSTM/GSTT either null and CYP1A1 variant alleles, and all 3 gene polymorphisms combinations, respectively). Our findings suggest that presence of GSTM1 and/or GSTT1 null genotypes along with variant alleles of CYP1A1 may be the risk alleles for oral cancer susceptibility in Pashtun population.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.135-140
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• 2013

A less simple approach developed for generation of marker-free transgenic plants is to select transformants without the use of selective marker genes. Some results about development of marker-free transgenic plants were obtained using a non-selective approach in several crops such as rice, potato and tobacco. However, the study did not provide evidence on detailed characterization of introduced gene on genome, a critical step for confirming the stable integration and transmission of a foreign gene. In this study, we evaluated structure and integration sites of transgene (mCry1Ac) in the transgenic Bt rice plants which were made via conventional Agrobacterium-mediated transformation by non-selective method. Structure and integration sites of transgene in these transgenic plants had similar fashion as those recovered under selection.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2021

Tetracycline (TC) is one of the antibiotics used for treatment of bacterial infection in Korea. Inadequate usage and abuse cause the resistance to antibiotics, like Tetracycline, Erythromycin, and Fluoroquinolone. It can also affect severe economic loss in aquaculture field in Korea. We isolated 101 bacterial samples from diseased fish at aquaculture sites in Gyeonggi-do during 2015~2018. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method has been used to determine distribution and to identify bacterial isolates resistant to antibiotics including Oxytetracycline (OTC), Ampicillin (AMP), Clindamycin (CLI), Enrofloxacin (ENRO), Gentamycin (GEN). TC resistant isolates were confirmed antibiotic resistant genes by conventional PCR. Bacterial isolates were identified as Aeromonas spp. (43.5%), Pseudomonas spp. (4.0%) and Vibrio spp. (5.0%). It was confirmed that multi-resistant isolates (77.2%) were predominant over single-resistant one (22.8%). TC resistant genes like tet(A), tet(D), tet(E), tet(G), tet(M), and tet(S) were detected and tet(A) was the most prevalent. Aeromonas spp. is a dominant strain in bacterial infections in fishes of aquaculture sites, and further investigation on various antibiotic resistance genes will be needed for clear understanding of aquaculture sites in Gyeonggi-do.