• KSBB Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.57-61
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• 2011

The principal objective of this study was to determine the optimal conditions for the production of biosurfactant by the indigenous bacterium, Pseudoalteromonas sp. HK-3, originating from oil-spilled areas. The relationship between total biosurfactant production and the factors affecting biosurfactant production were evaluated by statistical analysis using SPSS software. The effects of various supplemental carbon sources (e.g., glucose, dextrose, mannitol, citrate, acetate) on the maximal production of biosurfactant by the test culture of Pseudoalteromonas sp. HK-3 was then evaluated. As a result, mannitol was found in this study to be the best supplemental carbon source for the production of biosurfactant. A spot inoculation of crude cultural liquid containing the HK-3 cells generated the largest clear zone, whereas only small clear zones appeared around the spots inoculated with either supernatant only or cell pellets following centrifugation. Our results demonstrated that the HK-3 test culture supplemented with 2% mannitol at an initial pH of 6 generated the maximal amount of biosurfactant within 72 h of incubation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.334-340
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• 2000

In order to select multifunctional powerful antagonistic biocontrol agent against red-pepper rotting fungi Phytophthora capsici, we isolated an indigenous antagonistic bacterium which produces antifungal substances and siderophores from a local soil of Kyongju, Korea. The isolated strain was identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens biotype F. The antibiotic produced from P. fluorescens 2112 inhibited hyphae growth and the zoospore germination of Phytophthora capsici. The favorable carbon, nitrogen source and salts for the production of antibiotic from P. fluorescens 2112 were glycerol, beef extract and LiCi at 1.0%, 0.5% and 5 mM, respectively. And antagonistic activity of P. fluorescens 2112 was confirmed against P. capsici in vivo.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.1617-1626
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• 2013

The Bacterial community structure and its complexity of the enrichment culture during the isolation and screening of imidacloprid-degrading strain were studied using denaturating gradient gel electrophoresis analysis. The dominant bacteria in the original tea rhizosphere soil were uncultured bacteria, Rhizobium sp., Sinorhizobium, Ochrobactrum sp., Alcaligenes, Bacillus sp., Bacterium, Klebsiella sp., and Ensifer adhaerens. The bacterial community structure was altered extensively and its complexity reduced during the enrichment process, and four culturable bacteria, Ochrobactrum sp., Rhizobium sp., Geobacillus stearothermophilus, and Alcaligenes faecalis, remained in the final enrichment. Only one indigenous strain, BCL-1, with imidacloprid-degrading potential, was isolated from the sixth enrichment culture. This isolate was a gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium and identified as the genus Ochrobactrum based on its morphological, physiological, and biochemical properties and its 16S rRNA gene sequence. The degradation test showed that approximately 67.67% of the imidacloprid (50 mg/l) was degraded within 48 h by strain BCL-1. The optimum conditions for degradation were a pH of 8 and $30^{\circ}C$. The simulation of imidacloprid bioremediation by strain BCL-1 in soil demonstrated that the best performance in situ (tea soil) resulted in the degradation of 92.44% of the imidacloprid (100 mg/g) within 20 days, which was better than those observed in the ex situ simulations that were 64.66% (cabbage soil), 41.15% (potato soil), and 54.15% (tomato soil).

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.30-38
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• 2010

This study was conducted to determine the potential applicability of slowly released molasses (SRM) to treat nitratecontaminated groundwater. SRM was made by dispersing molasses in hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose-silicamicrocrystalline cellulose matrix. Column test indicated that SRM could continuously release molasses with slowly decreasing release rates of $64.6mg-COD/L{\cdot}h$ up to 65 hrs, $12.1mg-COD/L{\cdot}h$ up to 215 hrs, and $4.4mg-COD/L{\cdot}h$up to 361 hrs. A batch test using an isolated indigenous heterotrophic denitrifier Pseudomonas sp. KY1 having nitrite reductase (nirK) and liquid molasses demonstrated that the bacterium decreased 100 mg-N/L of nitrate to less than 10 mg-N/L at the C/N ratio of 10/1 in 48 hours. In a Pseudomonas sp. KY1-attached Ottawa sand column which continuously received molasses from a SRM-containing reservoir, the bacterium successfully removed nitrate from 20 mg-N/L to 3 mg-N/L during the 361 hours of column operation. The results showed the possibility that SRM can be used as a reliable, longterm extra carbon source for indigenous heterotrophic denitrifiers.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.387-394
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• 2008

The toxicity of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) and formaldehyde (FA) on the indigenous microbial community in forest soil was studied. MTBE, TBA and FA with different concentrations were added into microcosms containing forest soil samples. After 10 and 30 days, total viable cell number and dehydrogenase activity in the microcosms were evaluated. Bacterial communities in the microcosms were also analyzed using a denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Dehydrogenase activity and total viable cell number were decreased according to the increase of MTBE, TBA and FA concentrations (P<0.05). FA toxicity was the highest, but TBA toxicity was the lowest. The results of principal component analysis using DGGE fingerprints showed that the microbial communities contaminated MTBE, TBA and FA were grouped by exposure time not exposure concentration. Dominant species in the microcosms were as follows: Photobacterium damselae sub sp. and Bacillus sp. KAR28 for MTBE; Mycobacterium sp. and Uncultured Clostridium sp. for TBA; and Uncultured Paenibacillaceae bacterium and Anxynobacillus, Flavithermus for FA.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2014

As we are trying to in-situ treat (purify or immobilize) heavy metals or radionuclides in groundwater, one of the geochemical factors to be necessarily considered is the value of oxidation/reduction potential (ORP) of the groundwater. A biogeochemical impact on the characteristic ORP change of groundwater taken from the KAERI underground was observed as a function of time by adding electron-donor (lactate), electron-acceptor (sulfate), and indigenous bacteria in a laboratory condition. There was a slight increase of Eh (slow oxidation) of the pure groundwater with time under a $N_2$-filled glove-box. However, most of groundwaters that contained lactate, sulfate or bacteria showed Eh decrease (reduction) characteristics. In particular, when 'Baculatum', a local indigenous sulfate-reducing bacterium, was injected into the KAERI groundwater, it turned to become a highly-reduced one having a decreased Eh to around -500 mV. Although the sulfate-reducing bacterium thus has much greater ability to reduce groundwater than other metal-reducing bacteria, it surely necessitated some dissolved ferrous-sulfate and finally generated sulfide minerals (e.g., mackinawite), which made a prediction for subsequent reactions difficult. As a result, the ORP of groundwater was largely affected even by a slight injection of nutrient without bacteria, indicating that oxidation state, solubility and sorption characteristics of dissolved contaminants, which are affected by the ORP, could be changed and controlled through in-situ biostimulation method.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.427-434
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• 2009

Indigenous bacterium which shows a tolerance to high metal toxicity was isolated from soil concomitantly contaminated with oil and heavy metals. The characteristics of the bacterium for Pb and Cd biosorption was investigated under the various experimental conditions such as bacterial growth phase, the initial metal concentration, the input biomass amount, temperature and pH. The Langmuir adsorption isotherm modeling was described to know the capacity and intensity of biosorption. The low initial concentration of heavy metals and high biomass has a maximum heavy metal removal efficiency, but biosorption capacity of Pb and Cd has different values. Biosorption efficiency was highest in the end of the microbial growth stage and under pH 5~9 condition, but was less affected by temperature variation of 25~$35^{\circ}C$. The maximum biosorption capacity for Pb and Cd was 62.11 and 192.31 mg/g, respectively and each $R^2$ was calculated as 0.71 and 0.98 by applying Langmuir isothermal adsorption equation. Biosorption for Cd was considered as monomolecular adsorption to single layer on the surface of cells, whereas biosorption for Pb was considered as accumulation process into the cell by the microbial metabolism and precipitation reaction with anion of bacteria.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.991-994
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• 2000

Single cell of an indigenous phototrophic bacterium, Rhodovulum sulfidophilum, was incorporated in commercial fish feed for Oreochromis niloticus. The bacterial cell was analyzed for nutritional value and tested for toxicity and acceptability as an aquaculture feed supplement. The results showed higher survival rate and significantly higher growth rate (p<0.001) in O. niloticus fed with the bacteria incorporated fish feed. It is suggested that R sulfidophilum can be utilized as an aquaculture feed supplement.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.602-608
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• 2010

An atrazine-degrading bacterium, strain KU001, was obtained from a sugarcane field at the Cane and Sugar Research and Development Center at the Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus, Thailand. Strain KU001 had a rod-to-coccus morphological cycle during growth. Biolog carbon source analysis indicated that the isolated bacterium was Arthrobacter histidinolovorans. Sequence analysis of the PCR product indicated that the 16S rRNA gene in strain KU001 was 99% identical to the same region in Arthrobacter sp. The atrazine degradation pathway in strain KU001 consisted of the catabolic genes trzN, atzB, and atzC. Strain KU001 was able to use atrazine as a sole nitrogen source for growth, and surprisingly, atrazine degradation was not inhibited in cells grown on ammonium, nitrate, or urea, as compared with cells cultivated on growth-limiting nitrogen sources. During the atrazine degradation process, the supplementation of nitrate completely inhibited atrazine degradation activity in strain KU001, whereas ammonium and urea had no effect on atrazine degradation activity. The addition of strain KU001 to sterile or nonsterile soils resulted in the disappearance of atrazine at a rate that was 4- to 5-fold more than that achieved by the indigenous microbial community. The addition of citrate to soils resulted in enhanced atrazine degradation, where 80% of atrazine disappeared within one day following nutrient supplementation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.547-554
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• 2012

Chromium is generated from several industrial processes. It occurs in different oxidation states, but Cr(III) and Cr(VI) are the most common ones. Cr(VI) is a toxic, soluble environmental contaminant. Some bacteria are able to reduce hexavalent chromium to the insoluble and less toxic Cr(III), and thus chromate bioremediation is of considerable interest. An indigenous chromium-reducing bacterial strain, Rb-2, isolated from a tannery water sample, was identified as Ochrobactrum intermedium, on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The influence of factors like temperature of incubation, initial concentration of Cr, mobility of bacteria, and different carbon sources were studied to test the ability of the bacterium to reduce Cr(VI) under variable environmental conditions. The ability of the bacterial strain to reduce hexavalent chromium in artificial and industrial sewage water was evaluated. It was observed that the mechanism of resistance to metal was not due to the change in the permeability barrier of the cell membrane, and the enzyme activity was found to be inductive. Intracellular reduction of Cr(VI) was proven by reductase assay using cell-free extract. Scanning electron microscopy revealed chromium precipitates on bacterial cell surfaces, and transmission electron microscopy showed the outer as well as inner distribution of Cr(VI). This bacterial strain can be useful for Cr(VI) detoxification under a wide range of environmental conditions.