• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 1992

A field experiment was conducted to find out the influence of cropping systems under rotation of paddy-upland soil on soil microorganisms with specific reference to cations concentration in the soil. The results obtained was summarized as follows. 1. The number of soil bacteria and actinomycetes increased in fallow, continuous cultivation of rice and soybean while the number of fungi decreased. 2. Gram negative bacteria as Pseudomonas spp. and Rhizobium spp. remarkably incerased with increasing Gram positive bacteria of Bacillus subtilis in continuous cultivatio of soybean. 3. The relative population of soil born plant pathogen such as Fusarium spp. Rhizoctionia spp. and Phoma spp. to the total soil fungi was high in cultivation of potato and Chinese cabbage. The ratio of soil plant pathogen to the total soil fungi was high in cultivation of potato with Chinese cabbage. 4. The number of bacteria and actinomycetes was positively correlated with ratio of Ca＋Mg/K in soil while negatively correlated with soil fungi.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.179-184
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• 2007

Pasteurella multocida, a Gram-negative facultative anaerobic bacterium, is a causative animal pathogen in porcine atrophic rhinitis and avian fowl cholera. For the development of recombinant subunit vaccine against P. multocida, we cloned and analyzed the gene for outer membrane protein H (ompH) from a native strain of Pasteurella multocida in Korea. The OmpH had significant similarity in both primary and secondary structure with those of other serotypes. The full-length, and three short fragments of ompH were expressed in E. coli and the recombinant OmpH proteins were purified, respectively. The recombinant OmpH proteins were antigenic and detectable with antisera produced by either immunization of commercial vaccine for respiratory disease or formalin-killed cell. Antibodies raised against the full-length OmpH provided strong protection against P. multocida, however, three short fragments of recombinant OmpHs, respectively, showed slightly lower protection in mice challenge. The recombinant OmpH might be a useful vaccine candidate antigen for P. multocida.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.341-347
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• 2015

We evaluated the biological activities of five water extracts of tissue of the mottled anemone Urticina crassicornis. Most extracts exhibited broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity as determined by ultrasensitive radial diffusion assay (URDA) against gram-positive and -negative bacteria, including a fish pathogen, Aeromonas hydrophila, but no activity against fungi. The activity of the extracts was abolished by tryptic digestion, indicating that protein compounds were responsible for the antimicrobial activity. Furthermore, in a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical-scavenging activity assay, only the visceral tissue extract showed activity. However, no extract had hemolytic activity against human red blood cells. Consequently, this study suggests the water-soluble extract of mottled anemone to be a promising source of proteinaceous antimicrobial compounds that can be utilized for development of novel antibiotics.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.78-82
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• 2023

Edwardsiella (E) tarda belongs to the Enterobacteriaceae family and is a motile, gram-negative, rod-shaped, facultative anaerobe regarded as an opportunistic and food-borne pathogen in animals and humans. A 21-year-old male Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) died suddenly without any preliminary signs. Necropsy performed according to standard protocol revealed swollen abdomen with hemorrhagic congestions of the gastroenteric organs, ascites, and hemorrhagic exudates around the mouth. The liver showed discoloration, along with a severely swollen and multiple hemorrhages of the spleen, an elongated gallbladder, and a congested cortex and medullar lesion of kidneys. The stomach contained semi-liquid exudates and undigested chicken exuding a decayed odor. The stomach membranes were dark-gray in color with several cysts in the fundus lesions. Rod-shaped bacteria were found in the major organs by Giemsa staining, identified as E. tarda using a biochemical rapid diagnostic identification kit.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.70 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2011

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most frequent nosocomial infection in the intensive care unit (ICU), with an incidence ranging from 8% to 38%. Patients who acquire VAP have higher mortality rates and longer ICU and hospital stays. Because there are other potential causes of fever, leukocytosis, and pulmonary infiltrates, clinical diagnosis of VAP is overly sensitive. The only alternative approach to the clinical diagnosis of VAP is the Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS). Employing quantitative cultures of respiratory secretions in the diagnosis of VAP leads to less antibiotic use and probably to lower mortality. With respect to microbiologic diagnosis, however, it is not clear that the use of invasive sampling using bronchoscopy is associated with better outcomes. Delayed administration of antibiotic therapy is associated with an increased mortality, and inadequate antibiotic therapy is also associated with higher mortality. Therefore, prompt initiation of adequate antibiotic therapy is a cornerstone of the treatment of VAP. The initial antibiotic therapy should be based on the most common organisms in each hospital and the most likely pathogens for that specific patient. When final cultures and susceptibilities are available, de-escalation to less broad spectrum antibiotics should be done. Since clinical improvement usually takes 2 to 3 days, clinical responses to the initial empirical therapy should be evaluated by day 3. A short course of antibiotic therapy appears to be equivalent to a traditional course of more than 14 days, except when treating non-fermenting gram-negative organisms. If patients receive initially adequate antibiotic therapy, efforts should be made to shorten the duration of therapy to as short as 7 days, provided that the etiologic pathogen is not a non-fermenting gram-negative organism.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.232-239
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• 2007

$HrpN_{EP}$, from the gram-negative pathogen, Erwinia pyrifoliae, is a member of the harpin group of proteins, inducing pathogen resistance and hypersensitive cell death in plants. When the $hrpN_{EP}$ gene driven by the OsCc1 promoter was introduced into tobacco plants via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, their resistance to the necrotrophic fungal pathogen, Botrytis cinerea, increased. Resistance to B. cinerea was correlated with enhanced induction of SA-dependent genes such as PR-1a, PR2, PR3 and Chia5, of JA-dependent genes such as PR-1b, and of genes related to ethylene production, such as NT-EFE26, NT-1A1C, DS321, NT-ACS1 and NT-ACS2. However the expression of NPR1, which is thought to be essential for multiple-resistance, did not increase. Since the pattern of expression of defense-related genes in $hrpN_{EP}$-expressing tobacco differed from that in plants expressing $hpaG_{Xoo}$ from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae, these results suggest that different harpins can affect the expression of different defense-related genes, as well as resistance to different plant pathogens.

• BMB Reports
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.55-57
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• 2017

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) together with MD2, one of the key pattern recognition receptors for a pathogen-associated molecular pattern, activates innate immunity by recognizing lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Gram-negative bacteria. Although LBP and CD14 catalyze LPS transfer to the TLR4/MD2 complex, the detail mechanisms underlying this dynamic LPS transfer remain elusive. Using negative-stain electron microscopy, we visualized the dynamic intermediate complexes during LPS transfer-LBP/LPS micelles and ternary CD14/LBP/LPS micelle complexes. We also reconstituted the entire cascade of LPS transfer to TLR4/MD2 in a total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscope for a single molecule fluorescence analysis. These analyses reveal longitudinal LBP binding to the surface of LPS micelles and multi-round binding/unbinding of CD14 to single LBP/LPS micelles via key charged residues on LBP and CD14. Finally, we reveal that a single LPS molecule bound to CD14 is transferred to TLR4/MD2 in a TLR4-dependent manner. These discoveries, which clarify the molecular mechanism of dynamic LPS transfer to TLR4/MD2 via LBP and CD14, provide novel insights into the initiation of innate immune responses.

• Journal of the FoodService Safety
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2020

Salt is a common seasoning agent used in various processed foods, especially in kimchi and salted seafood (jeotgal). This study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of salt with antimicrobial substances (acetic acid, garlic extract, carvacrol, nisin, thymol, and their combination (acetic acid+nisin+thymol)) on improvement of antibacterial effects of salt against foodborne pathogens. Salt (10%) was prepared using six different types of 0.2% natural antimicrobial substances. The antibacterial effect of salt combined with natural antimicrobial substances was evaluated against foodborne pathogens using the broth micro-dilution method and growth curve plotted using absorbance measurements. For the five foodborne pathogens, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of salt without antimicrobial substances as control were in the range of 24~>50,000 ㎍/mL and >50,000 ㎍/mL, respectively. Salt with nisin, thymol, or garlic extract showed strong inhibitory effects and their MIC against L. monocytogenes were 49, 12,500, and 24 ㎍/mL, respectively. In particular, salt with nisin showed inhibitory activities against Gram-positive bacteria. However, all the antimicrobial substances were less effective against Gram-negative bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7 and S. Typhimurium than Gram-positive bacteria. These results could be used for the development of salt with natural antimicrobial substances especially targeted against L. monocytogenes. This would enable the lowering of saline concentration while improving the storability of food.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.427-433
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• 2014

Ethanol and hot water extracts were prepared from Lindera obtusiloba Blume (LO) and Zanthoxylum piperitum DC (ZP) and used to evaluate their antimicrobial activities and thermal stability against six foodborne pathogens (3 gram-positive and 3 gram-negative bacteria). The antimicrobial activities were assessed using the agar diffusion method, and the thermal stabilities of extracts were examined after heat treatment at 60, 70, 80, and $100^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. The zones of inhibition by the LO extract or the ZP extract of the tested microorganisms were in the range of 21-30 mm and 19-25 mm, respectively, at 100 mg/mL concentrations. The 60% ethanol extract and the hot water extracts from LO showed the strongest antimicrobial effects against MRSA and Staphylococcus aurues, respectively. For the extract from ZP, the strongest antimicrobial effect was shown against S. aurues by 60% ethanol, and the weakest antimicrobial effect was shown against E. coli by the hot water extracts. The ZP extracts showed that the gram-positive bacteria were more sensitive than gram-negative bacteria. For the thermal stability of the extracts, the antimicrobial effects stabilized after heat treatment. Overall, the data suggest that the extracts have a potential for application in various food products for which a natural antimicrobial additive is desired.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.778-783
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• 1999

Campylobacter is a pathogen for both humans and animals that can be transferred from animals to humans. Four isolates, which grew under 5-10% $CO_2$ and had small and translucent colonies, were obtained from swine gastric mucosa and characterized using various methods. These bacteria were gram negative, spirally shaped with round ends. One or two non-sheathed polar flagella were observed under electron microscopy. A PCR with species-specific protein (SSP) primers for 16S rRNA gene in Campylobacter produced a typical 462 bp fragment. The isolates had various biochemical and molecular characteristics which differentiated them from other Campylobacters. The isolates were catalase and oxidase positive, urease (rapid) negative, nitrate reduction positive, indoxyl acetate hydrolysis positive, y-glutamyl transpeptidase negative, and alkaline phosphatase negative. All four isolates showed growth at $37^{\circ}C{\;}and{\;}42^{\circ}C{\;}but{\;}not{\;}at{\;}25^{\circ}C$, were resistant to cephalotin and cefoperazone, and susceptible to carbenicillin. The isolates showed various results in the reduction of chloride to triphenyl tetrazolium (TTC) and a susceptibility to nalidixic acid. Western blot analysis of these isolates with antiserum raised against one isolate showed different patterns from those of reference strains. A dendrogram drawn with the RAPD results showed that these isolates belonged to a new Campylobacter spp. group different from those of C. jejuni, C. doylei, C. lari, and C. coli.