• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.75-81
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• 2012

Molds cause severe cheese deterioration, even though some white and blue molds are used for the manufacture of Camembert and Blue cheese, respectively. The species of Geotrichum, Moniliella, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Mucor, Fusarium, Phoma, and Cladosporium are the main fungi that affect contamination during cheese ripening. Once deteriorated by fungal spoilage, cheese becomes toxic and inedible. Fungal deterioration of cheese decreases the nutritional value, flavor profiles, physicochemical and organoleptic properties, and increases toxicity and infectious disease. Fungal contamination during cheese ripening is highly damaging to cheese production in Korean farmstead milk processing companies. Therefore, these companies hesitate to develop natural and ripened cheese varieties. This article discusses the recent and ongoing developments in the removal techniques of fungal contamination during cheese ripening. There are 2 categories of antifungal agents: chemical and natural. Major chemical agents are preservatives (propionic acid, sodium propionate, and calcium propionate) and ethanol. Among the natural agents, grapefruit seed extract, phytoncide, essential oils, and garlic have been investigated as natural antifungal agents. Additionally, some studies have shown that antibiotics such as natamycin and Delvocid$^{(R)}$, have antifungal activities for cheese contaminated with fungi. Microbial resources such as probiotic lactic acid bacteria, Propionibacterium, lactic acid bacteria from Kimchi, and bacteriocin are well known as antifungal agents. In addition, ozonization treatment has been reported to inhibit the growth activity of cheese-contaminating fungi.

• Fibers and Polymers
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.8-11
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• 2006

It has been reported for several decades that microbes, which naturally contaminate cotton fibres during crop growth and subsequent storage can have an adverse effect on the structural quality of cotton lint. Although several studies have analysed the relationship between numbers of Gram-negative bacteria or bacterial endotoxin and particular physical properties, these studies have been limited to cotton from the United States, and the possible effects of fungal contamination have not been examined in detail. This study quantified the Gram-negative bacteria and fungal cells, as well as measuring concentrations of bacterial endotoxin and fungal glucan, on cotton lint samples from international sources. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients calculated between these results and quality data analysed by an automated testing instrument revealed several significant correlations. Findings included inverse correlations between the biological contamination parameters and fibre elongation, micronaire and reflectance. The possible causes and implications of these findings were also discussed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.351-357
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• 2019

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to investigate fungal contamination in a 31-year old university building in Seoul, Korea, and to study the inactivation of fungi using cold atmospheric pressure plasma(CAP). Methods: To investigate the fungal contamination in a university building, air samples were collected from five locations in the building, including two study rooms, a storage room, a laboratory, and a basement. The sampling was performed in a dry season(February to April) and in a wet season(July). To study the inactivation efficacy of fungi by CAP, airborne fungal concentrations were measured before and after the operation of the CAP generator. Results: Humidity was an important factor affecting fungal growth. The airborne fungal concentrations determined in the wet season(July) were significantly higher than those determined in the dry season(February to April). In the basement, the values determined in the dry and wet season were 319 and $3,403CFU/m^3$, respectively. The inactivation efficiency of fungi by CAP was 83-90% over five to nine days of operation. Conclusions: The university building was highly contaminated by airborne fungi, especially in summer. It is concluded that humidity is an important factor affecting fungal growth and CAP is a highly useful technique for inactivation of indoor airborne fungi.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 2015

Purpose: Fungal secondary metabolite (mycotoxin) contamination in foods can pose a serious threat to humans and animals. Spectroscopic techniques have proven to be potential alternative tools for early detection of mycotoxins. Thus, the aim of this review is to provide an overview of the current developments in nondestructive food safety testing techniques, particularly regarding fungal contamination testing in grains, focusing on the application of spectroscopic techniques to this problem. Methods: This review focuses on the use of spectroscopic techniques for the detection of fungi and mycotoxins in agricultural products as reported in the literature. It provides an overview of the characteristics of the main spectroscopic methods and reviews their applications in grain analysis. Results: It was found that spectroscopy has advantages over conventional methods used for fungal contamination detection, particularly when combined with chemometrics. These advantages include the rapidness and nondestructive nature of this approach. Conclusions: While spectroscopy offers many benefits for the detection of mycotoxins in agricultural products, a number of limitations exist, which must be overcome prior to widespread adoption of these techniques.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.356-366
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• 2018

The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is one of the most common and economically important pests of stored cereal products worldwide. Furthermore, these beetles can act as vectors for several fungal post-harvest diseases. In this study, we collected T. castaneum from 49 rice processing complexes (RPCs) nationwide during 2016-2017 and identified contaminating fungal species on the surface of the beetles. Five beetles from each region were placed on potato dextrose agar media or Fusarium selection media after wet processing with 100% relative humidity at $27^{\circ}C$ for one week. A total of 142 fungal isolates were thus collected. By sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region, 23 fungal genera including one unidentified taxon were found to be associated with T. castaneum. The genus Aspergillus spp. (28.9%) was the most frequently present, followed by Cladosporium spp. (12.0%), Hyphopichia burtonii (9.2%), Penicillium spp. (8.5%), Mucor spp. (6.3%), Rhizopus spp. (5.6%), Cephaliophora spp. (3.5%), Alternaria alternata (2.8%) and Monascus sp. (2.8%). Less commonly identified were genera Fusarium, Nigrospora, Beauveria, Chaetomium, Coprinellus, Irpex, Lichtheimia, Trichoderma, Byssochlamys, Cochliobolus, Cunninghamella, Mortierella, Polyporales, Rhizomucor and Talaromyces. Among the isolates, two known mycotoxin-producing fungi, Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium spp. were also identified. This result is consistent with previous studies that surveyed fungal and mycotoxin contamination in rice from RPCs. Our study indicates that the storage pest, T. castaneum, would play an important role in spreading fungal contaminants and consequently increasing mycotoxin contamination in stored rice.

• Mycobiology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.345-356
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• 2022

The fungal distribution, diversity, and load were analyzed in the geographically segregated island groundwater systems in Korea. A total of 79 fungal isolates were secured from seven islands and identified based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences. They belonged to three phyla (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Chlorophyta), five classes, sixteen orders, twenty-two families, and thirty-one genera. The dominant phylum was Ascomycota (91.1%), with most fungi belonging to the Cladosporium (21.5%), Aspergillus (15.2%), and Stachybotrys (8.9%) genera. Cladosporium showed higher dominance and diversity, being widely distributed throughout the geographically segregated groundwater systems. Based on the diversity indices, the genera richness (4.821) and diversity (2.550) were the highest in the groundwater system of the largest scale. As turbidity (0.064-0.462) increased, the overall fungal count increased and the residual chlorine (0.089-0.308) had low relevance compared with the total count and fungal diversity. Cladosporium showed normal mycelial growth in de-chlorinated sterilized samples. Overall, if turbidity increases under higher fungal diversity, bio-deterioration in groundwater-supplying facilities and public health problems could be intensified, regardless of chlorine treatment. In addition to fungal indicators and analyzing methods, physical hydrostatic treatment is necessary for monitoring and controlling fungal contamination.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.53-57
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• 2016

Major diseases in grafted cacti have been reported and Fusarium oxysporum, Bipolaris cactivora, Phytophthora spp. and Collectotrichum spp. are known as causal pathogens. These pathogens can lead to plant death after infection. Therefore, some European countries have quarantined imported cacti that are infected with specific fungal pathogens. Consequently, we developed PCR detection methods to identify four quarantined fungal pathogens and reduce export rejection rates of Korean grafted cacti. The pathogen specific primer sets F.oF-F.oR, B.CF-B.CR, P.nF-P.nR, and P.cF-P.CR were tested for F. oxysporum, B.cactivora, P. nicotinae, and P. cactorum, respectively. The F.oF-F.oR primer set was designed from the Fusarium ITS region; the B.CF-B.CR and P.nF-P.nR primers respectively from Bipolaris and Phytophthora ITS1; and the P.cF-P.CR primer set from the Ypt1protein gene region. The quarantine fungal pathogen primer pairs were amplified to the specific number of base pairs in each of the following fungal pathogens: 210-bp (F. oxysporum), 510-bp (B. cactivora), 313-bp (P. nicotinae), and 447-bp (P. cactorum). The detection limit for the mono- and multiplex PCR primer sets was 0.1 ng of template DNA under in vitro conditions. Therefore, each primer set successfully diagnosed contamination of quarantine pathogens in export grafted cacti. Consequently, our methodology is a viable tool to screen contamination of the fungal pathogen in exported grafted cacti.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.33-33
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• 2016

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi. They can be present in where agricultural-based commodities are contaminated with toxigenic fungi. These mycotoxins cause various toxicoses in human and livestock when consumed. Small grains including corn, barley, rice or wheat are frequently contaminated with mycotoxins due to infection mainly by toxigenic Fusarium species and/or under environment favorable to fungal growth. One of the most well-known Fusarium toxin groups in cereals is trichothecenes consisting of many toxic compounds. Deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV), T-2 toxin, and various derivatives belong to this group. Zearalenone and fumonisin (FB) are also frequently produced by many species of the same genus. In order to monitor Korean cereals for contamination with Fusarium and other mycotoxigenic fungal species as well, barley, corn, maize, rice grains, and soybean were collected from fields at harvest or during storage for several years. The fungal colonies outgrown from the grain samples were identified based on morphological and molecular characteristics. Trichothecene chemotypes of Fusarium species or presence of FB biosynthetic gene were determined using respective diagnostic PCR to predict possible toxin production. Heavy grain contamination with fungi was detected in barley, rice and wheat. Predominant fungal genus of barley and wheat was Alternaria (up to 90%) while that of rice was Fusarium (~40%). Epicoccum also appeared frequently in barley, rice and wheat. While frequency of Fusarium species in barley and wheat was less than 20%, the genus mainly consisted of Fusarium graminearum species complex (FGSC) which known to be head blight pathogen and mycotoxin producer. Fusarium composition of rice was more diverse as FGSC, Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex (FIESC), and Fusarium fujikuroi species complex (FFSC) appeared all at considerable frequencies. Prevalent fungal species of corn was FFSC (~50%), followed by FGSC (<30%). Most of FFSC isolates of corn tested appeared to be FB producer. In corn, Fusarium graminearum and DON chemotype dominate within FGSC, which was different from other cereals. Soybeans were contaminated with fungi less than other crops and Cercospora, Cladosporium, Alternaria, Fusarium etc. were detected at low frequencies (up to 14%). Other toxigenic species such as Aspergillus and Penicillium were irregularly detected at very low frequencies. Multi-year survey of small grains revealed dominant fungal species of Korea (barley, rice and wheat) is Fusarium asiaticum having NIV chemotype.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.407-417
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• 2021

In order to investigate frequency of fungal contamination in ginseng sprout, we collected 18 types of retail ginseng sprouts and analyzed them. Overall frequency of fungal contamination ranged from 113.3 to 174.1% with the highest occurrence of Penicillium spp. Fungal detection rate was significantly higher in moss than in stem, leaf and root of ginseng sprout. Penicillium spp. occurred in leaf and stem with the highest incidence and Fusarium spp., in root. Among Penicillium spp. and Fusarium spp., P. olsonii and F. oxysporum were dominant, respectively. Nine Fusarium species, Aspergillus westerdijkiae, Aspergillus flavus, and 11 Penicillium species were identified by phylogenetic analysis. PCR screening of mycotoxigenic potential revealed that 19 out of 25 isolates tested were positive for respective mycotoxin biosynthetic gene. Two 2 A. flavus and 11 A. westerdijkiae isolates produced varying amount of aflatoxin or ochratoxin A in czapek yeast extract brothsome of which showed high levels of mycotoxin production. These results suggests a need for continuous monitoring and management program to control fungal contamination in the ginseng sprout production chain.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2013.11a
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• pp.170-172
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• 2013

To be applied to a humid environment such as bathroom and kitchen, sealant should have good adhesion, tensile strength, etc., it also have the resistance to fungal contamination from the environment. It is important to select right material for sanitary sealing application in order to prevent premature discoloration and fungal activities. Especially for high humidity conditions, it is crucial to have longer mildew and fungal resistance. In this article, we intended to give guide lines for developing right sanitary sealing material and practical test method for evaluating anti-fungal performances reflecting Korean residential life style.