• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.697-706
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• 2018

Lactobacillus pentosus K1-23 was selected from among 25 lactic acid bacterial strains owing to its high inhibitory activity against several pathogenic bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, S. gallinarum, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Clostridium perfringens, and Listeria monocytogenes. Additionally, among 13 strains of Aureobasidium spp., A. pullulans NRRL 58012 was shown to produce the highest amount of ${\beta}$-glucan ($15.45{\pm}0.07%$) and was selected. Next, the optimal conditions for a solid-phase mixed culture with these two different microorganisms (one bacterium and one yeast) were determined. The optimal inoculum sizes for L. pentosus and A. pullulans were 1% and 5%, respectively. The appropriate inoculation time for L. pentosus K1-23 was 3 days after the inoculation of A. pullulans to initiate fermentation. The addition of 0.5% corn steep powder and 0.1% $FeSO_4$ to the basal medium resulted in the increased production of lactic acid bacterial cells and ${\beta}$-glucan. The following optimal conditions for solid-phase mixed culture were also statistically determined by using the response surface method: $37.84^{\circ}C$, pH 5.25, moisture content of 60.82%, and culture time of 6.08 days for L. pentosus; and $24.11^{\circ}C$, pH 5.65, moisture content of 60.08%, and culture time of 5.71 days for A. pullulans. Using the predicted optimal conditions, the experimental production values of L. pentosus cells and ${\beta}$-glucan were $3.15{\pm}0.10{\times}10^8CFU/g$ and $13.41{\pm}0.04%$, respectively. This mixed culture may function as a highly efficient antibiotic substitute based on the combined action of its anti-pathogenic bacterial and immune-enhancing activities.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.16-19
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• 1996

The yeast strains isolated for Choungju brewing in the previous report were examined for their microbiological characteristics, together with some comparative tests with Japanese sake yeasts. The isolates KP-16, 21 and 54 were identified as the strains belong to Saccharomyces cerevisae according to the morphological and physiological properties described in Lodder's 'The Yeasts - A texanomic study'. The isolates were grouped into the pink-colored strains by 2,3,5-tripheny tetrazolium chloride over-lay method. The strains KP-16 and 21 were found to be distinguished from the strain KP-54 in aspects of fermentation of sugars, assimilation of carbon sources, and pellicle formation on malt extract broth. ${\alpha}-methyl-D-glucoside$ was not assimilated or fermented by the isolated yeast strains and this is one of the different characters from the Japanese sake yeasts. The isolated strains appeared to have the requirements for biotin and pantothenate, and to have higher tolerance to ethanol than the Japanese sake yeasts. The biotin requirement was not found in the sake yeasts.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.163-169
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• 2009

A total of 155 microbial strains were isolated from the Korean traditional soybean paste based on their morphological features on the growth of agar plate. Among the isolated strains, a total of 28 strains were capable of hydrolyzing isoflavone glycoside to isoflavone aglycone efficiently in the soybean paste. Finally, two strains, K123-1 and SI, were selected because of their resistance to 15% NaCl and ability to convert isoflavone glycoside to isoflavone aglycone efficiently during the fermentation of soybean paste. The isolated strains K123-1 and SI were identified to be Pichia guilliermondii and Candida fermentati, respectively, using the partial 26S rDNA sequence analysis and phylogenic analysis. Pichia guilliermondii K123-1 and Candida fermentati SI converted daidzin to daidzein up to 96% and 95%, respectively, and genistin to genistein up to 92% when soybean pastes were fermented at $30^{\circ}C$ for 20 days with a single isolated strain. Pichia guilliermondii K123-1 and Candida fermentati SI were able to grow in the presence of 15% NaCl on both liquid medium and agar plate. We think that Pichia guilliermondii K123-1 and Candida fermentati SI might be one of good candidates for making functional soybean paste because they are isolated from the Korean traditional soybean paste and have a good ability to convert isoflavone glycosides to isoflavone aglycones and a high salt tolerance.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.271-276
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• 1999

Several Streptomyces strains were tested for potent antifungal agents active against phytopathogenic fungi. Among the tested, S. hygroscopicus MJM1004 showed a potent antifungal activity when assayed using Candida albicans as indicator organism. With the strain of MJM1004, fermentation medium for the production of an antifungal agent was developed with varying carbon sources, nitrogen sources, and mineral elements, which resulted in the highest productivity in the medium containing 2% soybean meal, 1% glucose, 2% starch, 0.3% $CaCO_3$, 0.05% $MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$, 0.05% $K_2HPO_4$. The active compound showed a broad spectrum of antifungal activity against several plant pathogenic fungi. The antifungal compound was purified and showed the physicochemical characteristics similar to azalomycin F complex in NMR and MS analysis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.1108-1113
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• 2015

Cadaverine (1,5-diaminopentane) is an important industrial chemical with a wide range of applications. Although there have been many efforts to produce cadaverine through fermentation, there are not many reports of the direct cadaverine production from lysine using biotransformation. Whole-cell reactions were examined using a recombinant Escherichia coli strain overexpressing the E. coli MG1655 cadA gene, and various parameters were investigated for the whole-cell bioconversion of lysine to cadaverine. A high concentration of lysine resulted in the synthesis of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) and it was found to be a critical control factor for the biotransformation of lysine to cadaverine. When 0.025 mM PLP and 1.75 M lysine in 500 mM sodium acetate buffer (pH6) were used, consumption of 91% lysine and conversion of about 80% lysine to cadaverine were successfully achieved.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.1084-1092
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• 2015

In the present work, the in vitro prebiotic activity of xylooligosaccharides (XOS) derived from corn cobs combined with Lactobacillus plantarum, a probiotic microorganism, was determined. These probiotics exhibited different growth characteristics depending on strain specificity. L. plantarum S2 cells were denser and their growth rates were higher when cultured on XOS. Acetate was found to be the major short-chain fatty acid produced as the end-product of fermentation, and its amount varied from 1.50 to 1.78 mg/ml. The antimicrobial activity of XOS combined with L. plantarum S2 was determined against gastrointestinal pathogens. The results showed that XOS proved to be an effective substrate, enhancing antimicrobial activity for L. plantarum S2. In vivo evaluation of the influence of XOS and L. plantarum S2, used both alone and together, on the intestinal microbiota in a mouse model showed that XOS combined with L. plantarum S2 could increase the viable lactobacilli and bifidobacteria in mice feces and decrease the viable Enterococcus, Enterobacter, and Clostridia spp. Furthermore, in the in vitro antioxidant assay, XOS combined with L. plantarum S2 possessed significant 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, 2,2'-azino-bis, and superoxide anion radical-scavenging activities, and the combinations showed better antioxidant activity than either XOS or L. plantarum S2 alone.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.1221-1225
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• 2007

A ${\beta}$-ionone-resistant mutant strain isolated from the red yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous KCTC 7704 was used for batch and continuous fermentation kinetic studies with glucose media in a 2.5-1 jar fermentor at $22^{\circ}C$ and pH 4.5. The kinetic pattern of growth and carotenoid concentration in the batch fermentations exhibited a so-called mixed-growth-associated product formation, possibly due to the fact that the content of intracellular carotenoids depends on the degree of physical maturation toward adulthood. To determine the maximum specific growth rate constant (${\mu}_m$) and Monod constant ($K_s$) for the mutant, glucose-limited continuous culture studies were performed at different dilution rates within a range of $0.02-0.10\;h^{-1}$. A reciprocal plot of the steady-state data (viz., reciprocal of glucose concentration versus residence time) obtained from continuous culture experiments was used to estimate a ${\mu}_m$ of $0.15\;h^{-1}$ and $k_s$ of 1.19 g/l. The carotenoid content related to the residence time appeared to assume a typical form of saturation kinetics. The maximum carotenoid content ($X_m$) for the mutant was estimated to be $1.04\;{\mu}g/mg$ dry cell weight, and the Lee constant ($k_m$), which was tentatively defined in this work, was found to be 3.0 h.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.1379-1385
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• 2017

The content of taxol in the bark of yews is very low, and this is not affordable from the environmental point of view. Thus, it is a necessity to look for alternative sources of taxol production to solve its supply. Currently, a large portion of the taxol in the market comes from chemical semi-synthesis, but the semi-synthetic precursors such as baccatin III and 10-deacetyl-baccatin III are extracted from needles and twigs of yew trees. Taxol-producing fungi as a renewable resource is a very promising way to increase the scale of taxol production. Our group has obtained a taxol-producing endophytic fungus, Aspergillus niger subsp. taxi HD86-9, to examine if A. niger can produce the taxanes. Six compounds from the fermentation broth of strain HD86-9 were isolated and identified by $^1H$ NMR, $^{13}C$ NMR, and ESI-MS. The results showed that the six compounds included four taxane diterpenoids (taxol, cephalomannine, baccatin III, and 10-deacetyl-baccatin III) and two non-taxane compounds (${\beta}-sitosterol$ and flavonoid isovitexin). The study verified that the taxanes can be produced by the A. niger, which is very important to taxol production via chemical semi-synthesis. Additionally, the finding is potentially very significant to solve the taxol semi-synthetic precursors extracted from needles and twigs of yew trees, and the precursor production can be easily increased through the culture condition optimization, genetic breeding, and metabolic engineering of the A. niger.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2014

The green microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtti is well-known specie in the terms of $H_2$ production by photo fermentation and has been studying for a long time. Although the $H_2$ production yield is promising; there are some bottlenecks to enhance the yield and efficiency to focus on a well-designed, sustainable production and also scaling up for further studies. D1 protein of photosystem II (PSII) plays an important role in photosystem damage repair and related to $H_2$ production. Because Chlamydomonas is the model algae and the genetic basis is well-studied; metabolic engineering tools are intended to use for enhanced production. Mutations are focused on D1 protein which aims long-lasting hydrogen production by blocking the PSII repair system thus $O_2$ sensitive hydrogenases catalysis hydrogen production for a longer period of time under anaerobic and sulfur deprived conditions. Chlamydomonas CC124 as control strain and D1 mutant strains(D240, D239-40 and D240-41)are cultured photomixotrophically at $80{\mu}mol\;photons\;m^{-2}s^{-1}$, by two sides. Cells are grown in TAP medium as aerobic stage for culture growth; in logarithmic phase cells are transferred from aerobic to an anaerobic and sulfur deprived TAP- S medium and 12 mg/L initial chlorophyll content for $H_2$ production which is monitored by the water columns and later detected by Gas Chromatography. Total produced hydrogen was $82{\pm}10$, $180{\pm}20$, $196{\pm}20$, $290{\pm}30mL$ for CC124, D240, D239-40, D240-41, respectively. $H_2$ production rates for mutant strains was $1.3{\pm}0.5mL/L.h$ meanwhile CC124 showed 2-3 fold lower rate as $0.57{\pm}0.2mL/L.h$. Hydrogen production period was $5{\pm}2days$ for CC124 and mutants showed a longer production time for $9{\pm}2days$. It is seen from the results that $H_2$ productions for mutant strains have a significant effect in terms of productivity, yield and production time.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.489-493
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• 1988

To obtain a new yeast strain that is able to efficiently produce ethanol from starch, the glucoamylase gene of Saccharomyces diastaticus was transformed into S. cerevisiae without a cloning vector. The competent cells of S. cerevisiae, induced by the treatment of Li$_2$SO$_4$, were transformed with the partial BamHI-digests of chromosomal DNA of S. diastaticus, and the transformants were selected by their abilities to utilize and ferment starch. The transformants, which appeared at a frequency of 8.5$\times$10$^{-7}$, were able to withstand up to 800 ppm of copper sulfate like the recipient and retained the phenotypic expression of the recipient with the exception of the acquisition of STA gene and MAL gene, as regards fermentation of carbohydrates. The enzymatic properties of glucoamylases produced by transformants were very similar to those produced by S. diastaticus as based on optimium pH and temperature.