• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.317-321
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• 2008

In a search for plant extracts with in vivo antifungal activity for plant diseases, we found that the methanol extract of Myristica malabarica fruit rinds effectively suppressed the development of several plant diseases. The methanol extract exhibited potent 1-day protective activity against rice blast, tomato late blight, wheat leaf rust and red pepper anthracnose. It also showed 7-day and 4-day protective activities against the plant diseases. Three antifungal resorcinols were isolated from the methanol extract of M. malabarica fruit rinds and identified as malabaricones A(MA), B(MB), and C(MC). Inhibitory activity of the three resorcinols against mycelial growth of plant pathogenic fungi varied according to compound and target species. All three compounds effectively reduced the development of rice blast, wheat leaf rust and red pepper anthracnose. In addition, MC was highly active for reducing the development of tomato late blight. This is the first report on the antifungal activities of malabaricones against filamentous fungi.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.671-676
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• 2005

In this study, we investigated the antioxidant effect of extract from Monascus pillosus, on the human wild-type p53 and p21 expressing A549 lung epithelial cell line and MCF-7 mammary adenocarcinoma cell line stimulated by NO. $P21^{waf/cip1}$ was identified as a gene induced in senescent cells. It is a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor and has been shown to cause cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. While p53-regulated stimulation of p21 appears to be central for the permanent growth-arrest, the role of p21 in p53-triggered cell death is unclear. Low dose of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) induced the development of senescence associated with increased expression of p53 and p21 in A549 cells. Inhibition of p21 transactivating activity requires high level correlates with the amount of p53 necessary to cause cell death. Association of p21 and p53 results in inhibition of p21-stimulated transcription. This requires a higher p53 level than is necessary for transcriptional activation of endogenous p53-responsive gene but correlates well with the level of p53 necessary to cause cell death. Exposure to W-1 inhibited oxidative stresses-induced senescence-like arrest, resulting in a significant reduction in p53 and p21 steady state levels. These results suggest that p53 and p21 play a central role in the onset of senescence. Thus, it is important to emphasize control of oxidative balance in tumor prevention and aging.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.337-337
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• 2011

Application of plasma technology on microbial sterilization has been frequently studied. In spite of accumulating number of studies, many have been focused on bacteria. Reports on eukaryotic yeasts and filamentous fungi are limited. In addition, mechanism of plasma effect still needs to be clarified. In this study, we analyzed the effect of non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma on the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae using DBD-type device. When yeast cells were exposed to plasma (at 2 mm distance) and then cultured on YPD-agar plate, number of cells survived (shown as colony) were reduced proportionally to exposure time. More than 50% reduction in number of colonies were observed after twice exposure of 5min. each. Colonies much smaller than those of control (no plasma exposure) were appeared after twice exposure of 5 min. each. It seems that small colonies are resulted from delayed cell growth due to the damage caused by plasma treatment. Microscopic analysis demonstrates that yeast cells treated with plasma for 5 min. twice have more rough and shrinked shape compared to oval shape with smooth surface of control.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.11-11
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• 2018

Cryphonectria parasitica, chestnut blight fungus, has a characteristic of decreasing pathogenicity when infected with Cryphonectria hypovirus 1. C. parasitica is known to be one of the most representative model systems used to observe the interaction between viruses, plants and fungi. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, which is well conserved in various organisms ranging from yeast to humans, functions in relaying phosphorylation-dependent signals within MAPK cascades to diverse cellular functions involved in the regulation of pheromone, cell wall integrity, and osmotolerance in filamentous fungi. Several genes in the MAPK pathway were revealed to be regulated by hypovirus, or to be involved in pathogenicity in C. parasitica. Among these pathways, the CWI pathway has aroused interest because CpBck1, an ortholog of yeast Bck1 (a CWI MAPKKK), was previously reported to be involved in cell wall integrity and sectorization. Interestingly, sporadic sectorization was observed in the CpBck1 mutant and sectored phenotypes were stably inherited in the progeny that were successively transferred from sectored mycelia. In this study, we analyzed the biological function of CpSlt2, downstream gene of CpBck1, to confirm whether the sectorization phenomenon occurred in the specific single gene or cell wall integrity (CWI) pathway. As results, the CpSlt2-null mutant exhibited marked changes in colonial growth, near absence of conidiation and aerial hyphae, abnormal pigmentation, CWI-related phenotypic defects, and dramatically impaired virulence. As cultivation of the mutant strains progressed, the majority of the colonies showed sporadic sectorization and mycelia from the sectored area stably maintained the sectored phenotype. These results suggest that the unique sectorization is CWI pathway-specific, though the components in the same CWI pathway have common and specific functions.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.184-190
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• 2004

The influences of impeller types on morphology and protein expression were investigated in a submerged culture of Aspergillus oryzae. The impeller types strongly affected mycelial morphology and protein production in batch and fed-batch fermentations. Cells that were cultured by propeller agitation grew in the form of a pellet, whereas cells that were cultured by turbine agitation grew in a freely dispersed-hyphal manner and in a clumped form. Pellet-grown cells showed high levels of protein production for both the intracellularly heterologous protein (${\beta}$-glucuronidase) and the extracellularly homologous protein (${\alpha}$-amylase). The feeding mode of the carbon source also influenced the morphological distribution and protein expression in fed-batch fermentation of A. oryzae. Pulsed-feeding mainly showed high protein expression and homogeneous distribution of pellet whereas continuous feeding resulted in less protein expression and heterogeneous distribution with pellet and dispersed-hyphae. The pellet growth with propeller agitation paralleling with the pulsed-feeding of carbon source showed a high level of protein production in the submerged fed-batch fermentation of recombinant A. oryzae.

• Mycobiology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.415-422
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• 2015

The study aimed to evaluate the probiotic properties, antioxidant activity and fermentative capacity of Acremonium charticola and Rhizopus oryzae isolated from the Indonesian fermented dried cassava, with particular application on poultry. A. charticola inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli and Aspergillus flavus. A. charticola and R. oryzae grew in potato dextrose agar (PDA) adjusted to pH 3 and 8 or in PDA supplemented with bile salt up to 0.8%. After soaking for 8 hr, the survival rate of A. charticola in the simulated gastric juice (pH 2) and bile solutions (2% bile salt) was lower than that of R. oryzae. A. charticola and R. oryzae exhibited strong antioxidant activities. Compared to unfermented cassava pulp (control), the fibre content of cassava pulp tended to be lower after fermentation with A. charticola for 14 days. The populations of A. charticola and R. oryzae were significantly higher in fermented cassava pulp than in unfermented one. Coliform was higher in cassava pulp fermented with R. oryzae or A. charticola + R. oryzae compared to control after 7 days of fermentation, however, the bacteria were not different between A. charticola-fermented cassava pulp and control. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were higher in A. charticola- and R. oryzae-fermented cassava pulp than those in control, however, no difference of LAB was observed between A. charticola + R. oryzae-fermented cassava pulp and control. In conclusion, A. charticola exhibited antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activity, gastrointestinal persistence and fermentative capacity that may be beneficial for poultry industry.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.207-214
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• 2012

Laccase- and peroxidase-free tyrosinase has commercial importance in the production of L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA), which is mainly used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. In the present study, isolation of an actinomycetes microbial strain capable of producing only tyrosinase is reported. Among all soil isolates, three individual colonies revealed black color around the colony in the presence of tyrosine. Further screening for laccase and peroxidase activities using syringaldazine denoted that one of the isolates, designated as RSP-T1, is laccase and peroxidase negative and produces only tyrosinase. The microbe was authenticated as Streptomyces antibioticus based on 16S ribotyping. Effective growth of this isolate was noticed with the use of medium (pH 5.5) containing casein acid hydrolysate (10.0 g/l), $K_2HPO_4$ (5.0 g/l), $MgSO_4$ (0.25 g/l), L-tyrosine (1.0 g/l), and agar (15 g/l). The scanning electron micrograph depicted that the microbe is highly branched and filamentous in nature. The enzyme production was positively regulated in the presence of copper sulfate. The impact of different fermentation parameters on tyrosinase production depicted that the maximized enzyme titer values were observed when this isolate was grown at 6.5 pH and at $30^{\circ}C$ temperature under agitated conditions (220 rpm). Among all the studied physiological parameters, agitation played a significant role on tyrosinase production. Upon optimization of the parameters, the yield of tyrosinase was improved more than 100% compared with the initial yield.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.77-81
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• 2007

In order to minimize the mycelial pellet size of a high phosphate-solubilizing fungus, Aspergillus sp. PS-104 in liquid media, one of the critical obstacles during the submerged culture of filamentous fungi, an investigation was focused on the culture conditions (media and inoculum size) and additives (different soils, surfactants and polyethylene glycol 200). When the fungus was cultured in PDB, SDB and YPD media. their pellet sizes decreased in the order of SDB=YPD>PDB. At the higher concentrations of initial inoculum ranging from $1{\times}10^3$ to $1{\times}10^7$ conidia/ml, the smaller size of pellet was formed in the PDB medium. In addition, the pellet size was effectively reduced by 1/6${\sim}$1/4 by the addition of 0.1% soil containing zeolite, diatomite, loess, kaoline and talc, excluding bentonite. The addition of 0.1% Tween 80, Triton X-100 and PEG 200 also decreased the pellet size, but SDS completely inhibited the fungal growth.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.313-316
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• 2002

Systemic virus symptoms caused by a Potexvirus were observed on leaves of infected hosta (Hasta spp.) plants cultivated in Seoul, Korea. Symptoms on diseased hosta plants include mosaic, mottle, irregular blotchy patches, and chlorotic spots on or distortion of the leaves. No other viruses, such as Cucumber mosaic virus, Lily symptomless virus, or Potyvirus, were detected from the same plants by electron microscopy and by Western blot and RT-PCR analyses, indicating that they were singly infected by the potexvirus. The symptoms differed among cultivars and species of hosta, and affected the quality of plants for commercialization, as well as, plant growth and flowering of susceptible cultivars. Most of the cultivars and species investigated were susceptible to the virus, while some were not infected by the virus at all. Purified virus particles were of filamentous type with unaggregated forms 540 nm in length, which is a typical potexviral morphology. The virus consisted of a single-stranded RNA molecule of 6 kb long for genome and single component of coat protein (CP) about 27 kDa. The CP strongly reacted with the antiserum against Hosta vims X (HVX), suggesting that the virus is an isolate of HVX. This is the first report of the occurrence and identification of HVX from hosta plants in Korea.

• Mycobiology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.151-160
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• 2021

Despite recent studies, relatively few are known about the diversity of fungal communities in the deep Atlantic Ocean. In this study, we investigated the diversity of fungal communities in 15 different deep-sea sediments from the South Atlantic Ocean with a culture-dependent approach followed by phylogenetic analysis of ITS sequences. A total of 29 fungal strains were isolated from the 15 deep-sea sediments. These strains belong to four fungal genera, including Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Alternaria. Penicillium, accounting for 44.8% of the total fungal isolates, was a dominant genus. The antiaflatoxigenic activity of these deep-sea fungal isolates was studied. Surprisingly, most of the strains showed moderate to strong antiaflatoxigenic activity. Four isolates, belonging to species of Penicillium polonicum, Penicillium chrysogenum, Aspergillus versicolor, and Cladosporium cladosporioides, could completely inhibit not only the mycelial growth of Aspergillus parasiticus mutant strain NFRI-95, but also the aflatoxin production. To our knowledge, this is the first report to investigate the antiaflatoxigenic activity of culturable deep-sea fungi. Our results provide new insights into the community composition of fungi in the deep South Atlantic Ocean. The high proportion of strains that displayed antiaflatoxigenic activity demonstrates that deep-sea fungi from the Atlantic Ocean are valuable resources for mining bioactive compounds.