• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.435-439
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• 2013

Rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, inflicts serious damage to global rice production. Due to high variability of this fungal pathogen, resistance of newly-released rice cultivars is easily broken down. To understand the population structure of M. oryzae, we analyzed the genetic diversity of the Korean population using multilocus microsatellite typing. Eleven microsatellite markers were applied to the population of 190 rice isolates which had been collected in Korea for two decades since the 1980's. Average values of gene diversity and allele frequency were 0.412 and 6.5, respectively. Comparative analysis of the digitized allele information revealed that the Korean population exhibited a similar level of allele diversity to the integrated diversity of the world populations, suggesting a particularly high diversity of the Korean population. Therefore, these microsatellite markers and the comprehensive collection of field isolates will be useful genetic resources to identify the genetic diversity of M. oryzae population.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.48-48
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• 2014

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi(AMF) is widespread symbiont forming mutualistic relationship with plant root in terrestrial forest in ecosystem. They provide improved absorption of nutrient and water, and enhance the resistance against plant pathogen or polluted soil, therefore AM fungi are important for survival and maintaining of individual or community of plant. For last decade, many studies about the functional variation of AM fungi on host plant growth response were showed that different geographic isolates, even same species, have different effect on host plant. However, little was known about functional variation of AM fungal isolates originated single population, which provide important insight about intraspecific diversity of AMF and their role in forest ecosystem. In this study, four AM fungal isolates of Rhizophagus clarus were cultured in vitro using transformed carrot (Daucus carota) root and they showed the difference between isolates in ontogenic characteristics such as spore density and hyphal length. The plant growth response by mycorrhizas were measured also. After 20 weeks from inoculation of these isolates to host plants, dry weight, Root:Shoot ratio, colonization rates and N, P concentration of host plant showed host plant was affected differently by AM fungal isolates. This results suggest that AM fungi have high diversity in their functionality in intraspecific level, even in same population.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.217-222
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• 2004

As Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which has long been used to transform plants, is known to transfer T-DNA to budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a variety of fungi were subjected to the A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation to improve their transformation frequency and feasibility. The A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation of chestnut blight fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, is performed in this study as the first example of transformation of a hardwood fungal pathogen. The transfer of the binary vector pBIN9-Hg, containing the bacterial hygromycin B phosphotransferase gene under the control of the Aspergillus nidulans trpC promoter and terminator, as a selectable marker, led to the selection of more than 1,000 stable, hygromycin B-resistant transformants per 1${\times}$10$\^$6/ conidia of C. parasitica. The putative transformants appeared to be mitotically stable. The transformation efficiency appears to depend on the bacterial strain, age of the bacteria cell culture and ratio of fungal spores to bacterial cells. PCR and Southern blot analysis indicated that the marker gene was inserted at different chromosomal sites. Moreover, three transformants out of ten showed more than two hybridizing bands, suggesting more than two copies of the inserted marker gene are not uncommon.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2008

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), one of the most important food crops, is susceptible to a number of devastating fungal pathogens in addition to bacterial and other pathogens. Producing disease-resistant cultivars has been an effective and useful strategy to combat the attack of pathogens. Potato was transformed with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA101 harboring chitinase, (ChiC) isolated from Streptomyces griseus strain HUT 6037 and bialaphos resistance (bar) genes in a binary plasmid vector, pEKH1. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis revealed that the ChiC and bar genes are integrated into the genome of transgenic plants. Different insertion sites of the transgenes (one to six sites for ChiC and three to seven for bar) were indicated by Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA from the transgenic plants. Expression of the ChiC gene at the messenger RNA (mRNA) level was confirmed by Northern blot analysis and that of the bar gene by herbicide resistance assay. The results obviously confirmed that the ChiC and bar genes are successfully integrated and expressed into the genome, resulting in the production of bialaphos-resistant transgenic plants. Disease-resistance assay of the in vitro and greenhouse-grown transgenic plants demonstrated enhanced resistance against the fungal pathogen Alternaria solani (causal agent of early blight).

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.511-518
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• 2020

This study was conducted to isolate and identify the fungal pathogen caused unreported post-harvest disease on apples (cv. Fuji) fruit in Korea. The disease symptoms on apples appeared as irregular, light to dark brown, slightly sunken spots. The three fungal strains were isolated from infected tissues of apple fruits and their cultural and morphological characteristics were completely consistent with those of Plenodomus collinsoniae. The phylogenetic analysis using the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions, beta-tubulin (TUB), and the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RPB2) sequences revealed the closest relationship of the isolates with Plenodomus collinsoniae at the species level. The pathogenicity test showed the same dark brown spots on Fuji apple cultivar. Therefore, P. collinsoniae is a newly reported fungal agent causing post-harvest disease on apples in Korea.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.132-142
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• 2022

Plantation forests are established by planting Eucalyptus tree species to provide timber and pulp for the construction industries and to meet the energy needs in Ethiopia. Besides the extensive Eucalyptus plantations in the country, fungal pathogen-related diseases are the main challenges to successful production and management. The disease survey was conducted in the Eucalyptus growing areas of Ethiopia during 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. The objective of this research was to assess the diseases associated with Eucalyptus plant species and identify the causal fungal species. Plants of E. camaldulensis were the dominant species in the survey fields and were severely associated with stem and branch canker diseases. Diseased samples were collected and fungal species were identified as Didymellaceae according to culture morphology and affirmed by internal transcribed spacer sequence analysis. In phylogeny, isolates in the study and a reference strain formed supportive monophyletic clades with strong 90% and 95% support with Didymella coffeae-arabicae and Didymella pinodella respectively. Pathogenicity tests revealed that Didymellaceae could infect E. camaldulensis. The findings are the first reports of Eucalyptus stem canker disease caused by Didymellaceae in Ethiopia.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.433-445
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• 2012

During the course of evolution, animals encountered the harmful effects of fungi, which are strong pathogens. Therefore, they have developed powerful mechanisms to protect themselves against these fungal invaders. ${\beta}$-Glucans are glucose polymers of a linear ${\beta}$(1,3)-glucan backbone with ${\beta}$(1,6)-linked side chains. The immunostimulatory and antitumor activities of ${\beta}$-glucans have been reported; however, their mechanisms have only begun to be elucidated. Fungal and particulate ${\beta}$-glucans, despite their large size, can be taken up by the M cells of Peyer's patches, and interact with macrophages or dendritic cells (DCs) and activate systemic immune responses to overcome the fungal infection. The sampled ${\beta}$-glucans function as pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and are recognized by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) on innate immune cells. Dectin-1 receptor systems have been incorporated as the PRRs of ${\beta}$-glucans in the innate immune cells of higher animal systems, which function on the front line against fungal infection, and have been exploited in cancer treatments to enhance systemic immune function. Dectin-1 on macrophages and DCs performs dual functions: internalization of ${\beta}$-glucan-containing particles and transmittance of its signals into the nucleus. This review will depict in detail how the physicochemical nature of ${\beta}$-glucan contributes to its immunostimulating effect in hosts and the potential uses of ${\beta}$-glucan by elucidating the dectin-1 signal transduction pathway. The elucidation of ${\beta}$-glucan and its signaling pathway will undoubtedly open a new research area on its potential therapeutic applications, including as immunostimulants for antifungal and anti-cancer regimens.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.07a
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• pp.10-18
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• 1998

For improvement of plants in disease resistance, it is most important to elucidate the mechanism to perceive and respond to the signal molecules of invaders. A model system with pea and its pathogen, Mycosphaerella pinodes, showed that the fungal elicitor induced defense responses in all plant species tested but that the suppressor of the fungus blocked or delayed the expression of defense responses and induced accessibility only in the host plant. In the world, many researchers believe that the pathogens` signals are recognized only on the receptors in the plasma membranes. Though we found that the ATPase and polyphosphoinositide metabolism in isolated plasma membranes responded to these fungal signals, we failed to detect specific actions of the suppressor in vitro on these plasma membrane functions. Recently, we found that ATPase (NTPases) and superoxide generating system in isolated cell wall were regulated by these fungal signals even in vitro, especially, by the suppressor in a strictly species-specific manner and also that the cell wall alone prepared an original defense system. The effects of both fungal signals on the isolated cell wall functions in vitro coincide perfectly with those on defense responses in vivo. In this treatise, we discuss the key role of the cell wall, which is plant-specific and the most exterior organelle, in determining host-parasite specificity and molecular target for improvement of plants.

• Mycobiology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.401-408
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• 2017

Colletotrichum gloeosporioides is an economically important fungal pathogen causing substantial yield losses indifferent host plants. To understand the genetic diversity and molecular epidemiology of this fungus, we have developed a novel, high-resolution multi-locus microsatellite typing (MLMT) method. Bioinformatic analysis of C. gloeosporioides unannotated genome sequence yielded eight potential microsatellite loci, of which five, CG1 $(GT)_n$, CG2 $(GT1)_n$, CG3 $(TC)_n$, CG4 $(CT)_n$, and CG5 $(CT1)_n$ were selected for further study based on their universal amplification potential, reproducibility, and repeat number polymorphism. The selected microsatellites were used to analyze 31 strains of C. gloeosporioides isolated from 20 different host plants from India. All microsatellite loci were found to be polymorphic, and the approximate fragment sizes of microsatellite loci CG1, CG2, CG3, CG4, and CG5 were in ranges of 213-241, 197-227, 231-265, 209-275, and 132-188, respectively. Among the 31 isolates, 55 different genotypes were identified. The Simpson's index of diversity (D) values for the individual locus ranged from 0.79 to 0.92, with the D value of all combined five microsatellite loci being 0.99. Microsatellite data analysis revealed that isolates from Ocimum sanctum, Capsicum annuum (chili pepper), and Mangifera indica (mango) formed distinct clusters, therefore exhibited some level of correlation between certain genotypes and host. The developed MLMT method would be a powerful tool for studying the genetic diversity and any possible genotype-host correlation in C. gloeosporioides.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.101-101
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• 2004