• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.1271-1283
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• 2007

A fibrinolytic protease (PoFE) was purified from the cultured mycelia of the edible oyster mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus, using a combination of various chromatographies. The purification protocol resulted in an 876-fold purification of the enzyme, with a final yield of 6.5%. The apparent molecular mass of the purified enzyme was estimated to be 32 kDa by SDS-PAGE, fibrin-zymography, and size exclusion using FPLC. The optimal reaction pH value and temperature were pH 6.5 and $35^{\circ}C$, respectively. PoFE effectively hydrolyzed fibrinogen, preferentially digesting the $A{\alpha}$-chain and the $B{\beta}$-chain over the ${\gamma}$-chain. Enzyme activity was enhanced by the addition of $Ca^{2+},\;Zn^{2+},\;and\;Mg^{2+}$ ions. Furthermore, PoFE activity was potently inhibited by EDTA, and it was found to exhibit a higher specificity for the chromogenic substrate S-2586 for chymotrypsin, indicating that the enzyme is a chymotrypsin-like metalloprotease. The first 19 amino acid residues of the N-terminal sequence were ALRKGGAAALNIYSVGFTS, which is extremely similar to the metalloprotease purified from the fruiting body of P. ostreatus. In addition, we cloned the PoFE protein, encoding gene, and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The cDNA of cloned PoFE is 867 nucleotides long and consists of an open reading frame encoding 288 amino acid residues. Its cDNA showed a high degree of homology with PoMEP from P. ostreatus fruiting body. The mycelia of P. ostreatus may thus represent a potential source of new therapeutic agents to treat thrombosis.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.300-307
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• 2015

For selecting Bacillus strains producing high-quality Cheonggukjang, 8 strains were isolated from the different Cheonggukjang samples. Seven of them exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity value of over 99.9% to Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis and one of them showed the similarity to B. licheniformis. All the strains showed positive activities for amylase, cellulase, protease and lipase, and 6 strains are positive for fibrinolytic activity. To confirm the safety of the strains isolated from the samples of Cheonggukjang which are manufactured by traditional method, strains were analyzed for the presence of seven toxin genes of Bacillus cereus and results were found negative. And 7 strains did not produce at all or merely produce both histamine and tyramine, the representative biogenic amines. Biogenic amine degradation analysis by HPLC revealed that, most of them exhibited tyramine degradation activity. For Cheonggukjang fermented by artificial inoculation of selected strains, fermentation property, sensory test, volatile basic nitrogen production and metabolic profiles by $^1H-NMR$ were tested. Seven strains were confirmed to make high-quality Cheonggukjang.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.36 no.8
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• pp.1070-1076
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• 2007

Soymilk cake (SMC) fortified with defatted soy flour was fermented by a novel Bacillus subtilis GT-D in the solid-state fermentation with chlorella, mulberry leaves or green tea as food ingredient. The fermentation of SMC resulted in higher content of tyrosine and higher activities of protease, amylase and fibrinolytic enzymes. Fermented SMC including mucilage indicated six-fold higher content of dietary fiber compared to that of non-fermented SMC. The SMC fermented without additional ingredient allowed the highest spread ratio and width of cookies. Cookies prepared without SMC showed the lowest value of spread ratio and width compared to those of fermented SMC. In addition, these cookies showed the highest hardness value of 8,975 g, and thickness value of 5.97 and slightly higher bright color. Cookies fortified with SMC fermented with chlorella or mulberry leaves showed higher sensory evaluation value. Fortification of SMC fermented without additional ingredient resulted in the highest preference in the sensory evaluation of cookies.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.3248-3252
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• 2012

Vibrio extracellular metalloprotease (vEP), secreted from Vibrio vulnificus, shows various proteolytic function such as prothrombin activation and fibrinolytic activities. Premature form of vEP has an N-terminal (nPP) and a C-terminal (C-ter100) region. The nPP and C-ter100 regions are autocleaved for the matured metalloprotease activity. It has been proposed that two regions play a key role in regulating enzymatic activity of vEP. Especially, C-ter100 has a regulatory function on proteolytic activity of vEP. C-ter100 domain has been cloned into the E. coli expression vectors, pET32a and pGEX 4T-1 with TEV protease cleavage site and purified using gel-filtration chromatography followed by affinity chromatography. To understand how C-ter100 modulates proteolytic activity of vEP, structural studies were performed by heteronuclar multi-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. Backbone $^1H$, $^{15}N$ and $^{13}C$ resonances were assigned by data from standard triple resonance and HCCH-TOCSY experiments. The secondary structures of vEP C-ter100 were determined by TALOS+ and CSI software based on hydrogen/deuterium exchange. NMR data show that C-ter100 of vEP forms a ${\beta}$-barrel structure consisting of eight ${\beta}$-strands.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.666-674
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• 2016

The bacterial strains were screened as potential starters for fermenting low-salt doenjang (a Korean traditional fermented soybean paste) using Korean doenjang based on proteolytic and antipathogenic activities under 6.5-7.5% NaCl conditions. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that they all belonged to the genus Bacillus. Proteolytic and antipathogenic activities against Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Aspergillus flavus, as well as fibrinolytic, amylase, and cellulase activities of the 10 strains were quantitatively evaluated. Of these, strains D2-2, JJ-D34, and D12-5 were selected, based on their activities. The functional, phenotypic, and safety-related characteristics of these three strains were additionally investigated and strains D2-2 and D12-5, which lacked antibiotic resistance, were finally selected. Strains D2-2 and D12-5 produced poly-γ-glutamic acid and showed various enzyme activities, including α-glucosidase and β-glucosidase. Growth properties of strains D2-2 and D12-5 included wide temperature and pH ranges, growth in up to 16% NaCl, and weak anaerobic growth, suggesting that they facilitate low-salt doenjang fermentation. Strains D2-2 and D12-5 were not hemolytic, carried no toxin genes, and did not produce biogenic amines. These results suggest that strains D2-2 and D12-5 can serve as appropriate starter cultures for fermenting low-salt doenjang with high quality and safety.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.147-156
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• 2023

Tetragenococcus halophilus CY54, an isolate from jeotgal, grows best in media with 5% NaCl and can grow at 18% and higher salt concentration. Three different doenjang samples were prepared with multiple starters including T. halophilus CY54. TBZA doenjang was prepared with T. halophilus, Bacillus subtilis, Zygosaccharomyces rouxii and Aspergillus oryzae. BZA doenjang was prepared with the same 3 starters except T. halophilus. KACC doenjang was prepared with a single starter, B. subtilis KACC16750. During 16 weeks of fermentation at 25℃, the viable counts were maintained in the range of 7-8 log CFU/g in all 3 samples. As fermentation progressed, pH decreased and titratable acidity (TA) gradually increased. Crude protein contents decreased slightly. TBZA doenjang showed higher amino-type nitrogen (ANN) and volatile basic nitrogen (VBN) contents, and KACC doenjang showed higher ammonia-type nitrogen (AMN) content. TBZA doenjang showed higher fibrinolytic and protease activity than other doenjang samples. Metabolites analyses by GC/MS showed that doenjang samples were separated from each other by partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) analysis. Seventeen major metabolites involved in the differences between samples were identified and they included organic acids, amino acids, sugars, fatty acids and alcohols. TBZA doenjang showed higher contents for most metabolites responsible for flavor and taste of fermented foods including doenjang. These results showed that T. halophilus could be useful as a starter for doenjang and can improve the product quality by accelerating the fermentation processes.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.607-612
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• 2012

Dandelions were fermented for 120 days at $15-20^{\circ}C$ in batches containing thirty and fifty percent raw sugar (FD30 and FD50). The total phenolic concentration of FD30 and FD50 were about $78.9{\pm}2.17$ and $59.35{\pm}2.56$ mg/g, respectively, both being higher than the 2$54.{\pm}1.49$ mg/g determined for DWE (dandelion water extract). The DPPH radical scavenging activity of FD30 and FD50 showed $IC_{50}$ values of $118.7{\pm}2.03$ and $123.40{\pm}2.15{\mu}g/mL$, respectively, and FD30 displayed the highest antioxidant activity. 2 mg/mL of FD30 and FD50 showed $8.8{\pm}1.72$ and $11.8{\pm}2.87{\mu}M$ production of NO, respectively, compared with $4.9{\pm}1.20{\mu}M$ of the dandelion extract. The protease, ${\alpha}$-amylase, and lipase activity of FD50 was the highest. The fibrinolytic activity of FD30 and FD50 were $0.56{\pm}0.28$ and $1.39{\pm}0.20$ unit/mg protein, respectively, which was substantially higher than the 0.28 unit/mg protein of DWE. In conclusion, the dandelions fermented by sugar showed improved antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and enzymatic activities.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2016

Two Bacillus strains, CJW15 and SSD8, with strong antibacterial activities were isolated from cheonggukjang. Both were identified as B. amyloliquefaciens strains after gene sequencing of rRNA and recA. CJW15 strongly inhibited the growth of B. cereus (ATCC14579), Listeria monocytogenes (ATCC19111), and Lactococcus lactis (ATCC11454). In comparison, SSD8 inhibited the growth of B. cereus (ATCC14579) and Enterococcus faecium (ATCC19953). The antibacterial activities of the two strains were not affected when exposed to a temperature of $100^{\circ}C$ for 15 min and were quite stable in acidic (pH 3) and alkaline (pH 12) pH conditions. Enzymatic treatments (trypsin, pepsin, proteinase K, and protease) had no effect on the activity of CJW15, but reduced the activity of SSD8 by half. Both isolates possess genes involved in the synthesis of lipopeptides (e.g. surfactin, fengycin, iturin, and iturin A), and genes encoding subtilin, a bacteriocin. Moreover, both isolates have fibrinolytic activities as well.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.1025-1030
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• 2006

In other to develop new functional doenjangs, two types of the isolated nuruk doenjangs were prepared with protease and amylase-producing Aspergillus oryzae D-2 and antihyperlipidemia Bacillus subtilis LK-12 and then changes of its quality and physiological functionalities were investigated during 2 months of fermentation and compared with those of the commercial nuruk doenjangs made by commercial Aspergillus oryzae and antihyperlipidemia Bacillus subtilis LK-12. ${\alpha}-Amylase$ activity of the isolated nuruk doenjangs during fermentation were decreased slightly, whereas proteases activities were increased significantly to $1.8{\sim}2.8$ Unit per mL after 1 month of fermentation. These ${\alpha}-amylase$ activities and proteases activities were similar with those of the commercial nuruk doenjangs. Amino-nitrogen content and reducing sugar content of the doenjangs after 2 months of fermentation were approximate $1.63{\sim}1.72\;mg%$ and $0.77{\sim}0.81%$, respectively. Antihypertensive angiotensin-Ⅰ converting enzyme inhibitory activities of the isolated nuruk doenjangs were slightly decreased from $85.6{\sim}87.2%$ to $84.0{\sim}85.1%$ after 2 months of fermentation and the commercial nuruk doenjangs were also significantly decreased from $85.7{\sim}88.0%$ to $69.1{\sim}79.7%$, lower than the isolated nuruk doenjangs. Fibrinolytic activity and HMG-CoA reductase inhibitory activity of the isolated nuruk doenjangs were very low and it were also similar with those of the commercial nuruk doenjangs. Antioxidant activity of the isolated nuruk doenjangs were showed $17{\sim}22%$, lower than that of the commercial nuruk doenjangs $(22{\sim}26%)$.