• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.994-1002
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• 2009

A bacteriocin-producing bacterium identified as Bacillus licheniformis was isolated from soybean sauce. Antibacterial activity was confirmed by paper disc diffusion method, using Micrococcus luteus as a test organism. The bacteriocin also showed antibacterial activities against Bacillus sphaericus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus planiarum, Paenibacillus polymyxa, and Pediococcus dextrinicus. Optimal culture conditions for the production of bacteriocin was attained by growing the cells in an MRS medium at a pH of 6.5~ 7.0 and a temperature of 37$^\circ$C for 36$\sim$48 hr. Solvents such as chloroform, ethanol, acetone, and acetonitrile had little effect on bacteriocin activity. However, about 50% of bacteriocin activity diminished with treatment of methanol and isopropanol at the final concentration of 50% at 25$^\circ$C for 1 hr. It was stable against a pH variation range from 3.0 and 7.0, but the activity reduced to 50% at a pH range from 9.0 to 11.0. It's activity was not affected by heat treatment at 100$^\circ$C for 30 min and 50% of activity was retained after heat treatment at 100$^\circ$C for 60 min, showing high thermostability. The bacteriocin was purified to a homogeneity through ammonium sulfate precipitation, SP-Sepharose ion-exchange chromatography, and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The entire purification protocol led to a 75-fold increase in specific activity and a 13.5% yield of bacteriocin activity. The molecular weight of purified bacteriocin was estimated to be about 2.5 kDa by tricine-SDS-PAGE.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1027-1033
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• 2010

Liriope platyphylla has traditionally been used in Korea and China as a therapeutic drug for the treatment of coughing, sputum, neurodegenerative disorders, obesity, and diabetes. In an effort to assess the functions of a novel extract from Liriope platyphylla in diabetes therapy, the insulin secretion abilities of 10 extracts were screened via measurements of insulin concentration in the culture supernatant using an Insulin ELISA kit. The results of this assay showed the highest levels of insulin in the LP9M80-H treated group, followed by the LP-H, LP-M, LP-E and LP9M80-C treated groups, whereas other extracts did not induce insulin secretion in the HIT-T15 cells. However, the extracts capable of stimulating insulin secretion simultaneously evidenced high apoptotic activity as compared with other extracts. Therefore, one of these extracts, LP9M80-H, was initially selected as the optimal candidate for a therapeutic drug and its optimal concentration was determined. The results of the ELISA and MTT assay demonstrated that a concentration of approximately 100-125 ug/ml of LP9M80-H was optimal with regards to cell viability and insulin secretion in the HIT-T15 cells. These results suggest that LP9M80-H could be considered as an excellent candidate for a diabetes-therapeutic drug that could induce insulin secretion in pancreatic $\beta$-cells.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.988-994
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• 2014

The effluents of chemical and petroleum industries often contain non-biodegradable aromatic compounds, with phenol being one of the major organic pollutants present among a wide variety of highly toxic organic chemicals. Phenol is toxic upon ingestion, contact, or inhalation, and it is lethal to fish even at concentrations as low as 0.005 ppm. Phenol biodegradation has been studied in detail using bacterial strains. However, these microorganisms suffer from substrate inhibition at high concentrations of phenol, whereby growth is inhibited. A phenol-degrading bacterium, P21, was isolated from oil-contaminated soil. The phenotypic characteristics and a phylogenetic analysis indicated the close relationship of strain P21 to Rhodococcus pyridinovorans. Phenol biodegradation by strain P21 was studied under shaking condition. The optimal conditions for phenol biodegradation by strain P21 were 0.09% $KNO_3$, 0.1% $K_2HPO_4$, 0.3% $NaH_2PO_4$, 0.015% $MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$, 0.001% $FeSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$, initial pH 9, and $20-30^{\circ}C$, respectively. When 1,000 ppm of phenol was added to the optimal medium, the strain P21 completely degraded it within two days. Rhodococcus pyridinovorans P21 could grow in up to 1,500 ppm of phenol as the sole carbon source in a batch culture, but it could not grow in a medium containing above 2,000 ppm. Moreover, strain P21 could utilize toxic compounds, such as toluene, xylene, and hexane, as a sole carbon source. However, no growth was detected on chloroform.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.210-218
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• 1990

The survival and transfer of chromosomal genes coding for the synthesis of amino acids (threonine, tryptophan, histidine, leucine, methionine) and of plasmid-borne genes coding for resistance to antibiotics (chloramphenicol, kanamycin, erythromycin) by transformation in sterile and nonsterile soil (the soil was amended to 12% vol/vol with the clay mineral, montmorillonite) was studied. In pure culture, the numbers of vegetative cells of the Bacillus subtilis strains decreased by 1 to 1.5 orders of magnitude within one week, but spores of each strain showed lesser decreases. In sterile soil, the populations of vegetative cells and spores decreased by 1.5 to 3 orders of magnitude within 2 to 4 days and then showed little additional decreased. The transformation frequencies (number of transformants/numbers of donors and recipients) of individual amino acid-genes invitro ranged from $1.3{\pm}0.6{\times}10^{-6}$ to $6.0{\pm}2.36{\times}10^{-6}$, of two amino acid-genes from $8.5{\pm}0.7{\times}10^{-8}$ to $3.1{\pm}0.6{\times}10^{-7}$, and of the antibiotic-resistance genes from $1.5{\pm} 0.2{\itmes} 10^{-7}$ to $1.4{\pm} 0.4{\times} 10^{-5}$ . In sterile soil, the frequencies of transfer of individual amino acid-genes ranged from $2.0{\times} 10^{-7}$ to $2.0{\times} 10^{-5}$ and of the antibiotic-resistance genes from $2.0{\times} 10^{-7}$ to $9.4{\pm} 4.7{\times} 10^{-6}$. The transfer of two amino acid-genes in sterile soil was detected at a frequency of $2.0{\times} 10^{-6}$ to $4.5{\times} 10^{-6}$, but only in three instances. The transformation frequencies of antibiotic-resistance genes in nonsterile soil were essentially similar to those in sterile soil. However, to detect transformants in nonsterile soil, higher concentrations of antibiotics were needed, as the result of the large numbers of indigenous soil bacteria resistant to the concentration of antibiotics used in the sterile soil and in vitro studies. The results of these studies show that genes can be transferred by transformation in soil and that this mechanism of transfer must be considered in risk assessment of the release of genetically engineered microorganisms to the environment.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.351-359
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• 2014

A beverage was produced by the fermentation of mixed extracts from the various fruits, vegetables, algae, and medical herbs. The physicochemical properties of the fermented beverage of plant extracts (FBPE) and microbial diversity were analyzed in cultures enriched from FBPE using 16S and 26S rRNA gene sequence analyses. The pH, acidity, $^{\circ}brix$, reducing sugar, and alcohol contents of the FBPE were determined to be the 3.48, 1.68%, 70.0, 1,026 g/L, and 3.5%, respectively. The most abundant free sugar and organic acid in the FBPE were glucose (567.83 g/L) and tartaric acid (93.68 mg/L), respectively. Lactobacillus homohiochii was the predominant species in all enriched culture samples: 100% of the species in 0B (0% sugar) and 40B (40% sugar) libraries and 95.6% of 20B library (20% sugar). Lactobacillus fructivorans was detected in the 20B library. The predominant species in the samples of enrichment cultures collected from FBPE with three different sugar concentrations were: Candida zeylanoides (45.2%) in the 0Y library (0% sugar), Candida lactis-condensi (35.7%) and C. zeylanoides (35.7%) in the 20Y library (20% sugar), and C. lactis-condensi (38.1%) in the 40Y library (40% sugar). This result may provide a useful frame of reference for further analyses of microbial population dynamics in FBPE.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.55-63
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• 2018

Most people today search for information on the Internet about the goods or services they want to purchase and then assess the replies posted by other people who have experience with those goods or services. These replies serve as an important reference point that can affect purchase decisions. Replies are divided broadly into two types: first, market normative replies about whether a person experiences satisfaction with (or more than) the price paid for goods or services (positive) or not (negative); and the second is non-market normative replies about whether the goods or service provider morally deserves the profits gained from providing them (positive) or not (negative). Previous studies on replies have focused on market normative replies (whether the food is delicious), and there have only been some studies on the effect of non-market normative replies (the owner is morally good). This research was undertaken to re-examine the effect of market normative replies identified by previous studies in a restaurant visit intention evaluation (Experiment 1), to examine the effect of non-market normative replies not investigated in previous studies (Experiment 2), and to compare the effect of market normative replies and non-market normative replies (the meta-analysis) In conclusion, restaurant visit intention was stronger when market normative replies were positive (delicious) than when they were negative (not delicious) (Experiment 1). Furthermore, restaurant visit intention was stronger when non-market normative replies were positive (the owner is moral) than when they were negative (the owner is immoral) (Experiment 2). On the other hand, it was found that restaurant visit intention was stronger when non-market normative replies were positive than when market normative replies were positive, and restaurant visit intention was weaker when non-market normative replies were negative than when market normative replies were negative. This implies that people are more likely to be affected by non-market normative replies than market normative replies. In addition, this study suggested that the mood changed more before and after checking non-market normative replies than before and after checking market normative replies, and due to this difference, people could be affected more by non-market normative replies than market normative replies.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.6 s.89
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• pp.471-477
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• 2004

Oldenlandia diffusa is a Chinese medicinal herb with antitumor activity capable of suppressing the growth of some cancer cell lines. Oleanolic acid and ursolic acid are triterpenoid compounds that exist in Oldenlandia diffusa. Recently, these have been noted for anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and hepato-protective effects. Application of both plant growth regulators, 2,4-D and kinetin, was found to be essential for the initiation of callus and suspension cells. Leaf blades of Oldenlandia diffusa was transformed into callus on Schenk and Hildebrandt medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/L 2,4-D and 0.1 mg/L kinetin, while optimum initiation condition for suspension cells of Oldenlandia diffusa was determined to be 0.75 mg/L 2,4-D and 0.1 mg/L kinetin. Chromatographic separation of oleanolic acid from its derivatives was achieved using Rexchrom S5-100-ODS column. Analytical conditions for oleanolic acid were determined as follows: flow rate at 1.0 mL/min, UV length at 200 nm and mobile phase of $80\%$ acetonitrile and $20\%$ water. Production of secondary metabolites was found to be increased by the treatment with elicitors or signal transducers. The maximum production of oleanolic acid was 99.6 mg/L in cultures with 0.5 mM salicylic acid. It is 1.74 times higher than that of control.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.204-211
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• 2006

For the production of the recombinant human interferon-gamma(rhIFN-${\gamma}$) in Escherichia coli, human glucagon and ferritin heavy chain were used as fusion partners. Even though rhIFN-${\gamma}$ is expressed as an inclusion body form in E. coli because of strong hydrophobicity of itself, over 50% of fused rhIFN-${\gamma}$ was expressed as soluble form in E. coli $Origami^{TM}$(DE3) harboring pT7FH(HE)-IFN-${\gamma}$ which encodes ferritin heavy chain-fused rhIFN-${\gamma}$. In the case of using glucagon-ferritin heavy chain hybrid mutant as a fusion partner, 6X His-tag was additionally introduced to N-terminus of GFHM(HE)-IFN-${\gamma}$ for enhancing purification yields of rhIFN-${\gamma}$. Fusion protein HGFHM(HE)-IFN-${\gamma}$ with two 6X His-tag was more effectively bound to Ni-NTA agarose bead than GFHM(HE)-IFN-${\gamma}$ with a 6X His-tag. rhIFN-${\gamma}$ was completely purified from enterokinase-treated HGFHM(HE)-IFN-${\gamma}$ by Ni-NTA affinity column. For high-level production of rhIFN-${\gamma}$, glucose was used as the sole carbon source with simple exponential feeding rate($2.4{\sim}7.2g/h$) in fed-batch process. The effective lactose concentration for the expression of the rhIFN-${\gamma}$ was $10{\sim}20mM$. Under the fed-batch culture conditions, rhIFN-${\gamma}$ production yield reached 11 g DCW/L for 6 hours after lactose induction.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 1998

Taxol, the extract from the Taxus brevifolia which is a Pacific yew tree has aroused the interest of the tumor investigators since the 1960s. As well, it is shown to have broad antitumor activity in preclinical experimental models. Its action mechanism is an anti-microtubule effect by duplication of tubulin. The most impressive antitumor activity of taxol has been observed in advanced ovarian cancer and metastatic breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine how taxol acts on malignant bone tumor cell lines, to compare its cytotoxic effect with those of other chemotherapeutic agents, and to ascertain the its combination effect with adriamycin. Cell lines used in this study were G-292(osteosarcoma, human), SaOS-2(osteosarcoma, primary, human), and HT-1080(fibrosarcoma, human). Methotrexate, adriamycin, cisplatinum, ifosfamide and taxol were used as testing chemotherapeutic agents and their maximum test concentration were $500{\mu}g/ml$, $200{\mu}g/ml$, $500{\mu}g/ml$, $1000{\mu}g/ml$, and $600{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. The media for cell culture was RPMI-1640 with 10% fetal bovine serum and gentamycin. The results were as follows. The $IC_{50}$ of methotrexate, ifosfamide, cisplatinum, adriamycin and Taxol in G-292 were $2.3{\times}10^{-1}{\mu}g/ml$, $8.0{\times}10^0{\mu}g/ml$, $3.5{\times}10^0{\mu}g/ml$, $9.8{\times}10^{-1}{\mu}g/ml$, $2.7{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/ml$ respectively, in SaOS-2 $3.5{\times}10^{-1}{\mu}g/ml$, $1.5{\times}10^1{\mu}g/ml$, $2.8{\times}10^0{\mu}g/ml$, $9.9{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/ml$, $1.0{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/ml$, respectively, in HT-1080 $4.2{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/ml$, $5.4{\times}10^1{\mu}g/ml$, $3.8{\times}10^0{\mu}g/ml$, $5.5{\times}10^{-3}{\mu}g/ml$, $1.1{\times}10^{-3}{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. In conclusion, taxol had very potent cytotoxic effect on the malignant bone tumor cell lines with adriamycin, and was more potent than methotrexate, cisplatinum and ifosfamide. There were synergistic antitumor effects on G-292 and SaOS-2 cell lines in combination test of taxol and adriamycin. From the above results, it would be estimated that taxol could be a new antitumor drug for the malignant bone tumors, providing measures against the side effects and followed by the clinical tests.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.143-150
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• 2003

Korea has plentiful precipitation but rainfall events concentrate on several months of rainy season in her weather condition. Korea, therefore, experiences drought for a given period every year. Moreover the soil has usually low water holding capacity, as it is composed coarse particles originated from the granite. Response of several oaks and the Korean red pine (Pinus densiflora) on water stress showed that water budget was significant factor determining vegetation distribution. In addition, dehydration level due to cold resistance mechanism of several evergreen plants during the winter season was closely related to their distribution in natural condition. Experimental result under water stress showed that the Korean red pine was very tolerant to desiccation but the seedlings showed high mortality during the dry season. The mortality tended to proportionate to soil moisture content of each site. A comparison between soil moisture content during June when it is severe dry season and moisture content of the culture soil when the pine seedlings reached the permanent wilting point due to water withheld proved that high mortality during the dry season was due to water deficit. Water potential of sample plants measured during the exposure experiment to the air pollutant showed a probability that water related factors would dominate the occurrence of visible damage and the tolerance level of sample plants. In both field survey and laboratory experiment, plants exposed to air pollution showed more rapid transpiration than those grown in the unpolluted condition. The result would due to injury of leaf surface by air pollutants. Aluminum (Al/sup 3+/) increased in the acid soil not only inhibits root growth but also leads to abnormal distribution of root system and thereby caused water stress. The water stresses due to air pollution and soil acidification showed a possibility that they play dominating roles in inducing forest decline additionally to the existing water deficit due to weather and soil conditions in Korea. Sludge, which can contribute to improve field capacity, as it is almost composed of organic matter, showed an effect ameliorating the retarded growth of plant in the acidified soil. The effect was not less than that of dolomite known in widely as such a soil ameliorator. Litter extract contributed also to mitigate the water stress due to toxic Al/sup 3+/. We prepared a model showing the potential interaction of multiple stresses, which can cause forest decline in Korea by synthesizing those results. Furthermore, we suggested restoration plans, which can mitigate such forest decline in terms of soil amelioration and vegetation restoration.