• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.64-74
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• 2015

Beetles Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis Kolbe (Coleoptera: Cetoniidae) and Allomyrina dichotoma Linn. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are widely used in traditional medicine, and the number of insect-rearing farms is increasing in South Korea. The purpose of this study was to establish a multiplex PCR-based assay for rapid simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens causing insect diseases. Six insect parasites such as fungi Beauveria bassiana (Bals.-Criv.) Vuill. (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae) and Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschn.) Sorokin (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae), bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bacillales: Bacillaceae), Pseudomonas aeruginosa Migula (Pseudomonadales: Pseudomonadaceae), and Serratia marcescens Bizio (Enterobacteriales: Enterobacteriaceae), and Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus were chosen based on the severity and incidence rate of insect diseases in South Korea. Pathogen-specific primers were designed and successfully applied for simultaneous detection of multiple infectious agents in farm-bred insects P. b. seulensis and A. dichotoma using multiplex PCR and high resolution capillary electrophoresis. Our results indicate that multiplex PCR is an effective and time-saving method for simultaneous detection of multiple infections in insects, and the QIAxcel capillary electrophoresis system is useful for quantitative evaluation of the individual impact of each infectious agent on the severity of insect disease. The approach designed in this study can be utilized for rapid and accurate diagnostics of infection in insect farms.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.147-152
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• 1991

Trichophyton mentagrophytes was described as a primary cause of mycotic dermatitis in two young goats housed together in a humid, ill-ventilated and unhygienic byre. The diagnosis in both the cases was established on the detection of fungal element in the skin scrapings by potassium hydroxide technique and isolation of the pathogen in pure growth on mycological medium at 30$^{\circ}C$. The lesions were found on the face of one kid and on the neck and ear of another one. Two adult goats housed in the same enclosure were found to be free from this disease. Further, there was no evidence of ringworm in the goat owner and his family members. Genetic crossing of both the isolates on modified sunflower seed medium indicated that they belonged to (―) mating type. Hair performation test revealed the keratolytic activity of both the strains of T. mentagrophytes. The public health significance and chemotherapy are also discussed. The question of source of infection could not be emphatically established.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.75-77
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• 1984

An undescribed Cercospora leaf spot of pepper grown in a greenhouse was observed at Jinju area in 1983. The symptom of this disease showed frog eyes spot on lower leaves of pepper. Leaves and petiole of pepper plant inoculated with spore suspension of this pathogen app­eared leaf spot after 2 weeks and exhibited cicular, brown frog eyes spot. This fungus was grown slowly on PDA and produce condia on infected leaves. The occurrence of this disease was responsi­ble for factors with high temperature and humidity conditions in the ill-ventilated greenhouse. This causal fungus was identified as Cercospora capsici Heald et. Wolf from the shape and length of the conidiophores, the length of the condia, and pathogenic behaviors.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2001

Colletotrichum species are important fungal pathogens that cause great damages on various host plant species worldwide. In Korea, Colletotrichum species cause massive economic losses on apple, peach, grape, and especially, sweet persimon productions. In the past, identification of the pathogen and the studies on the genetic relationships among the pathogenic isolates were mainly based on morphology, cultural characteristics, and the difference in pathogenicity. However, in recent years, these traditional methods have been replaced with molecular methods including AFLP. AFLP method with the merits of both RAPD and RFLP has been widely used for the genetic relationship studies of various organisms. Therefore, in this study, AFLP method was employed for the studies of genetic relationships among the different isolates of Colletotrichum species collected from various parts of sothern Korea. As a result, two specific band pattern groups were observed among different isolates of Colletotrichum species.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.85-87
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• 2011

The opportunistic human pathogen Candida albicans has the ability to convert from yeast-form to pseudohyphal or true hyphal form. The morphological transition is considered as an important virulence factor, because the decrease or lack in dimorphism causes the reduction of virulence. Our previous study revealed that the disruption of dual specificity kinase gene caused the reduction of dimorphism in C. albicans. Therefore we tested the effect of dual specificity kinase in virulence using mouse model. The mean survival time for kinase-defective strains was about 15 days in comparison with those of wild-type, 3.9 days. Moreover the fungal burden on kidneys for kinase-defective strains was decreased by ten-fold than that for wild-type. These results suggest possible involvement of dual specificity kinase in a novel signal transduction pathway for morphological transition and virulence of C. albicans.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.259-269
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• 2012

Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), a family of serine/threonine protein phosphatases, plays an important role in balancing the phosphorylation status of cellular proteins for regulating diverse biological functions in eukaryotic organisms. Despite intensive studies in mammals, limited information on its role is available in filamentous fungi. Here, we investigated the functional roles of genes for a putative B' delta regulatory subunit (FgPP2AR) and a catalytic subunit (FgPP2AC) of PP2A in a filamentous ascomycete, Fusarium graminearum. Molecular characterization of an insertional mutant of this plant pathogenic fungus allowed us to identify the roles of FgPP2AR. Targeted gene replacement and complementation analyses demonstrated that the deletion of FgPP2AR, which was constitutively expressed in all growth stages, caused drastic changes in hyphal growth, conidia morphology/germination, gene expression for mycotoxin production, sexual development and pathogenicity. In particular, overproduction of aberrant cylindrical-shaped conidia is suggestive of arthroconidial induction in the ${\Delta}FgPP2AR$ strain, which has never been described in F. graminearum. In contrast, the ${\Delta}FgPP2AC$ strain was not significantly different from its wild-type progenitor in conidiation, trichothecene gene expression, and pathogenicity; however, it showed reduced hyphal growth and no perithecial formation. The double-deletion ${\Delta}FgPP2AR;{\Delta}FgPP2AC$ strain had more severe defects than single-deletion strains in all examined phenotypes. Taken together, our results indicate that both the putative regulatory and catalytic subunits of PP2A are involved in various cellular processes for fungal development in F. graminearum.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.42-44
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• 2002

A very destructive lily disease was occurred at Daekwallyong alpine areas in 1999. We have performed experiments to identify the causal pathogen of lily disease and to find a way to control the disease chemically. Twelve fungal isolates from the infected lily were identified as Phytophthora cactorum. Mycelial growth of all isolates were completely inhibited on potato dextrose agar with $10{\mu}g/mL$ metalaxyl. Among 11 fungicides tested, $10{\mu}g/mL$ of dimethomorph, ethaboxam, and oxadixyl inhibited mycelial growth of P. cactorum. PC-1. Therefore, spray of phenylamide fungicides such as metalaxyl and other commercial fungicides should be a effective way to control the Phytophthora blight of lily.

• Asian Journal of Turfgrass Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.170-175
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• 2010

A total of 24 isolates of S. homoeocarpa were isolated from 16 golf courses in Korea. Chemical resistance of 24 isolates was determined by in vitro fungal growth on fungicide-amended media with thiophanatemethyl (Benzimidazole fungicide family), tebuconazole (demethylation inhibitor fungicide family: DMI), and iprodione (dicarboximide fungicide family). Results indicated that 83.3% of 24 isolates were resistant to iprodione, 62.5% resistant to thiophanate-methyl and 0% resistant to tebuconazale. The dual resistance of iprodione and thiophanate-methyl was 58.3.%. Occurrence rate of fungicide resistance of thiophanate-methyl and iprodione had no relation to turfgrass varieties and isolated locations of pathogen. In the filed test, procymidone, boscalid, and fluquinconazole+pyrimethanil effectively controlled the dollar spot of creeping bentgrass.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.564-574
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• 2019

Like many fungal pathogens, the conidium and appressorium play key roles during polycyclic dissemination and infection of Magnaporthe oryzae. Ran-binding protein microtubule-organizing center (RanBPM) is a highly conserved nucleocytoplasmic protein. In animalia, RanBPM has been implicated in apoptosis, cell morphology, and transcription. However, the functional roles of RanBPM, encoded by MGG_00753 (named MoRBP9) in M. oryzae, have not been elucidated. Here, the deletion mutant ΔMorbp9 for MoRBP9 was generated via homologous recombination to investigate the functions of this gene. The ΔMorbp9 exhibited normal conidial germination and vegetative growth but dramatically reduced conidiation compared with the wild type, suggesting that MoRBP9 is involved in conidial production. ΔMorbp9 conidia failed to produce appressoria on hydrophobic surfaces, whereas ΔMorbp9 still developed aberrantly shaped appressorium-like structures at hyphal tips on the same surface, suggesting that MoRBP9 is involved in the morphology of appressorium-like structures from hyphal tips and is critical for development of appressorium from germ tubes. Taken together, our results indicated that MoRBP9 played a pleiotropic role in polycyclic dissemination and infection-related morphogenesis of M. oryzae.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.48-52
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• 2020

In July 2019, typical rot symptom was observed on peach fruits harvested from the fields at Andong, Korea. As the disease progressed, white and purple colored mycelial mat developed on the surface of the infected fruits. A causal pathogen was isolated from the infected fruit and cultured on potato dextrose agar media for identification. Fungal colonies on potato dextrose agar produced 3 pigments, including purple, yellow, and white colors. The isolate incited fruit rot symptoms on artificially inoculated peach fruits, from which the same fungus was isolated, fulfilling Koch's postulates. Based on the morphological characteristics and sequence analysis of rDNA internal transcribed spacer, translation elongation factor 1-alpha, and β-tubulin, the causal agent of the disease was identified as Fusarium avenaceum. This study is the first report of fruit rot of peach fruits caused by Fusarium avenaceum in Korea.