• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.333-340
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• 2011

Herbicide-tolerant Zoysia grass has been previously developed through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. We investigated the effects of genetically modified (GM) Zoysia grass and the associated herbicide application on bacterial community structure by using culture-independent approaches. To assess the possible horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of transgenic DNA to soil microorganisms, total soil DNAs were amplified by PCR with two primer sets for the bar and hpt genes, which were introduced into the GM Zoysia grass by a callus-type transformation. The transgenic genes were not detected from the total genomic DNAs extracted from 1.5 g of each rhizosphere soils of GM and non-GM Zoysia grasses. The structures and diversities of the bacterial communities in rhizosphere soils of GM and non-GM Zoysia grasses were investigated by constructing 16S rDNA clone libraries. Classifier, provided in the RDP II, assigned 100 clones in the 16S rRNA gene sequences library into 11 bacterial phyla. The most abundant phyla in both clone libraries were Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria. The bacterial diversity of the GM clone library was lower than that of the non- GM library. The former contained four phyla, whereas the latter had seven phyla. Phylogenetic trees were constructed to confirm these results. Phylogenetic analyses of the two clone libraries revealed considerable difference from each other. The significance of difference between clone libraries was examined with LIBSHUFF statistics. LIBSHUFF analysis revealed that the two clone libraries differed significantly (P<0.025), suggesting alterations in the composition of the microbial community associated with GM Zoysia grass.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제26권7호
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• pp.1303-1310
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• 2016

Although many studies on the effects of genetically modified (GM) crops on soil microorganisms have been carried out over the past decades, they have provided contradictory information, even for the same GM crop, owing to the diversity of the soil environments in which they were conducted. This inconsistency in results suggests that the effects of GM crops on soil microorganisms should be considered from many aspects. In this study, we investigated the effects of the GM drought-tolerant rice MSRB2-Bar-8, which expresses the CaMSRB2 gene, on soil microorganisms based on the culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. To this end, rhizosphere soils of GM and non-GM (IM) rice were analyzed for soil chemistry, population densities of soil microorganisms, and microbial community structure (using pyrosequencing technology) at three growth stages (seedling, tillering, and maturity). There was no significant difference in the soil chemistry between GM and non-GM rice. The microbial densities of the GM soils were found to be within the range of those of the non-GM rice. In the pyrosequencing analyses, Proteobacteria and Chloroflexi were dominant at the seedling stage, while Chloroflexi showed dominance over Proteobacteria at the maturity stage in both the GM and non-GM soils. An UPGMA dendrogram showed that the soil microbial communities were clustered by growth stage. Taken together, the results from this study suggest that the effects of MSRB2-Bar-8 cultivation on soil microorganisms are not significant.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제22권11호
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• pp.1557-1567
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• 2012

Glutathione reductase (GR, E.C. 1.6.4.2) is an important enzyme that reduces glutathione disulfide (GSSG) to a sulfydryl form (GSH) in the presence of an NADPH-dependent system. This is a critical antioxidant mechanism. Owing to the significance of GR, this enzyme has been examined in a number of animals, plants, and microbes. We performed a study to evaluate the molecular properties of GR (OsGR) from rice (Oryza sativa). To determine whether heterologous expression of OsGR can reduce the deleterious effects of unfavorable abiotic conditions, we constructed a transgenic Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain expressing the GR gene cloned into the yeast expression vector p426GPD. OsGR expression was confirmed by a semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (semiquantitative RT-PCR) assay, Western-blotting, and a test for enzyme activity. OsGR expression increased the ability of the yeast cells to adapt and recover from $H_2O_2$-induced oxidative stress and various stimuli including heat shock and exposure to menadione, heavy metals (iron, zinc, copper, and cadmium), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), ethanol, and sulfuric acid. However, augmented OsGR expression did not affect the yeast fermentation capacity owing to reduction of OsGR by multiple factors produced during the fermentation process. These results suggest that ectopic OsGR expression conferred acquired tolerance by improving cellular homeostasis and resistance against different stresses in the genetically modified yeast strain, but did not affect fermentation ability.

• 농업과학연구
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• 제42권3호
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• pp.159-165
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• 2015

The cultivation area and use of genetically modified (GM) crops have been increased continuously over the world and concerns about the potential risks of GM crops are also increasing. One of the major concern in risk assessment is the possible development of hybrids through interspecific and intergeneric crosses with related species. This study was conducted to investigate the pollinator have an influence on insect-mediated gene transfer from GM soybeans. Hybrid was induced from GM soybeans by honeybee and western flower thrips, and non-GM soybeans were used as pollen receptor. The analysis for gene-flow was conducted by herbicide selection, immunostrip test, and PCR analysis. In the result of the analysis, three hybrids were detected on the distance 15, 75, 105 cm from pollen source in western flower thrips treatment. In honeybee treatment, one hybrid was detected in the farthest distance (300 cm). These results suggested honeybee and western flower thrips have a possibility they can transfer the introduced gene from GM soybeans to non-GM soybeans.

• 농업과학연구
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• 제46권4호
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• pp.715-722
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• 2019

This study was done to compare the effects of the dietary supplementation of non-genetically modified organism (non-GMO) beet pulp and canola meal on reproduction performance in gestation-lactation sows. A total of 16 lactating sows (Landrace × Yorkshire) were randomly allotted to 1 of 2 dietary treatments with 8 replicates per treatment. Treatments consisted of genetically modified organism (GMO) basal diet (CON) and GMO basal diet supplemented with Non-GMO beet pulp and canola meal (NO). The experiment lasted from 4 weeks prior to farrowing, to day 21 of lactation. The ambient environments in the dry sow accommodation and the farrowing house were kept at a fairly constant temperature of 19 - 21℃, and 60% relative humidity. In the current study, inclusion of non-GMO feed ingredients diets showed comparable effects on the reproductive performance of the sows as that of the basal diet. There was no difference in reproduction performance in sows fed the non-GMO diets compared with CON diets when the feed ingredients were replaced with the feed by-product sugar-beet pulp (SBP) and canola meal (CM). In addition, there was also no significant difference in the growth performance of the piglets fed Non-GMO diets compared with the CON diet (p > 0.05). In conclusion, the results of the current study indicate a comparable effect of non-GMO sugar-beet pulp, and canola meal diet with basal diet on reproduction performance in gestation-lactation sows.

• 한국환경과학회지
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• 제20권9호
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• pp.1183-1190
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• 2011

This study was aimed to establish the evaluating protocol and standard assessment for genetically modified (GM) hot pepper and to find out a proper statistic method to analyze for equality of agricultural characters between GM and non-GM pepper lines. GM and non-GM hot pepper lines were cultivated in two GMO fields in the middle region of Korea and total of 52 agricultural characters were collected during the plant growing season for 4 years, 2007 to 2010. Levene's test was conducted to confirm the homogeneity of raw data before statistic analysis. Two-way ANOVA in the multivariate tests and t-test were conducted to analyze 52 agricultural characters in order to find out the equality between H15 and P2377. From the statistical analysis through two-way ANOVA, 16 out of 16 plant growth traits, 9 out of 18 green fruit traits and 7 out of 18 red fruit traits among 4 years and 9 out of 16 plant growth traits, 4 out of 18 green fruit traits and 3 out of 18 red fruit traits between H15 and P2377 have shown the statistic differences. With the same raw data of 52 agricultural characters, t-test was also conducted. Based on the result from t-test, only 1 out of 16 plant growth traits, 2 out of 18 green fruit traits and 1 out of 18 red fruit traits have shown the differences between H15 and P2377, so that it was concluded that there is no statistic difference between H15 and P2377 in terms of agricultural characters. Also, the t-test is a proper statistic method to analyze each trait between GM and its control lines in order to evaluate agricultural characters.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.431-443
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• 2005

This study was performed to investigate the perceptions of the opinion leaders, such as government officials, researchers, NGO workers, and journalists on the risks of endocrine disrupters (EDs) and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as well as the related policies on these two hazards or potential hazards. The opinion leaders generally considered the EDs as the most serious hazard among twenty-one environmental health hazards in Korea, and agreed that the EDs would continuously be the most serious hazard. On overall average, the GMOs were ranked the 11th among the twenty-one health hazards. Further investigation indicated that the GMOs were variously ranked by the group of respondents: they were ranked the 2nd by the NGO workers, the 7th by the journalists, the 9th by the researchers and the 11th by the government officials. In general, the respondents considered the dioxin as a hazard with the highest risk while the GMOs were considered less hazardous. The opinion leaders considered that although the risks of the GMOs and EDs were not fully verified, the risks should be controlled through the legislation. The EDs and GMOs should be separately regulated for the time being, while the EDs should put under more strengthened regulation. It is recommended that a web-site containing the information on the EDs and the GMOs be prepared for the journalists. In addition, a training program in relation to the EDs and the GMOs needs to be organized by the Korean Press Foundation and the Korea Food and Drug Administration to educate the journalists. A committee consisting of government officials, scientists, and NGO workers needs to be established, and it should provide framework of future policies and public relations programs.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.954-958
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• 2006

A comprehensive safety evaluation was conducted to assess the potential allergenicity of newly introduced proteins in genetically modified (GM) crops. We assessed the allergenicity of CP4 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) in GM soybeans. This assessment was performed by IgE immunoblotting with soy-allergic children's sera, amino acid sequence homology with known allergens, and the digestibility of CP4 EPSPS. No differences in IgE-antigen binding by immunoblotting were found between GM soy samples and the corresponding non-GM samples. Based on the comparison of EPSPS amino acid sequence homology with current allergen databases, no known allergen was found. In addition, CP4 EPSPS protein was rapidly digested by simulated gastric fluid (SGF). Taken together, these results indicate that GM soybeans have no allergenicity in children and are as safe as conventional soybeans.

• 한국환경농학회지
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• 제33권2호
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• pp.121-128
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• 2014

BACKGROUND: The disease resistant (OsCK1) rice was generated by inserting choline kinase (CK1) and phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT) genes isolated from Oryza sativa and Streptomyces hygroscopicus into the genome of the rice, Nakdongbyeo. With the potential problems of safeties, the evaluations on non-target organisms are essentially required for the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops. In the present study, we conducted the evaluation of acute toxicity on Daphnia magna that commonly used as a model organism in ecotoxicological studies for non-target organism evaluation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Effect of acute toxicity to Daphnia magna by each concentration were investigated in the disease resistant (OsCK1) rice and non-genetically modified (non-GM) rice, Nakdongbyeo, as concentration (0, 1,000, 1,800, 3,240, 5,830, 10,500 and 20,000 mg/L). The OsCK1 rice used for the test was confirmed to express the OsCK1/PAT gene by the PCR(Polymerase chain reaction) and western blot analysis. Feeding test showed that no significant differences in cumulative immobility and abnormal response of Daphnia magna fed on OsCK1 rice or non-GM rice. The 48hr-$EC_{50}$ values showed no difference between OsCK1 rice (3,147.18 mg/L) and non-GM rice (3,596.27 mg/L). CONCLUSION: This result suggested that there was no significant difference in toxicity to Daphnia magna between OsCK1 rice and non-GM counterpart.

• 한국축산식품학회지
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.658-662
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• 2011

In this study, 543 samples of press hams, sausages, processed ground meat and processed cheese acquired from retail markets in Seoul and Gyeonggi province in Korea from 2005 to 2010 were monitored using a one-step multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method that involves the amplification of specific soya or maize endogenous genes and the amplification of 35S promoter (p35S) and nopaline synthase terminator (tNOS) for GMO detection. Among the 543 samples, 477 samples were amplified for maize and/or soybean endogenous genes. Although one sausage sample collected in 2008 showed amplification of tNOS, the result was assumed to be false positive based on the results from further tests of other sausage samples of the same brand. Our results demonstrate the absence of GM soya and/or maze of livestock products in the Korean market during 2005-2010. In addition, the one-step multiplex PCR using previously constructed primer sets appears to be useful as a screening method for the detection of GMOs in processed livestock products. However, more specific methods should be established and employed to detect the event-specific GM gene for positive reaction samples by screening tests in processed livestock products.