• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.112-122
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• 2007

It is known that coal-derived fly ashes have the unique chemical composition and mineralogical characteristics. Since iron oxides in coal fly ash are enriched with heavy metals, the subsurface media including soils, underground water, and sea water are highly likely contaminated with heavy metals when the heavy metals are leached from fly ashes by water-fly ash interactions. The purpose of this study was to investigate how indigenous bacteria affect heavy metal leaching and mineralogy in fly ash slurry during the fly ash-seawater interactions in the ash pond located in Dangjin seashore, Korea. The average pH of ash pond seawater was 8.97 in nature. Geochemical data showed that microbial activity sharply increased after the 7th day of the 60-day course batch experiments. Compared with other samples including autoclaved and natural samples, ${SO_4}^{2-}$ was likely to decrease considerably in the fly ash slurry samples when glucose was added to stimulate the microbial activity. Geochemical data including Eh/pH, alkalinity, and major and trace elements showed that the bacteria not only immobilize metals from the ash pond by facilitating the chemical reaction with Mn, Fe, and Zn but may also be able to play an important role in sequestration of carbon dioxide by carbonate mineral precipitation.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.227-232
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• 1999

A total of 136 coliform bacteria isolated from spring water (112 strains) and ground water (24 strains), submitted to Seoul Health and Environmental Research Institute from June to July in 1997, were characterized biochemically and microbiologically. Colonical characteristics of each isolate were also noted, including color and texture on EMB agar. Among the 136 isolates, 50.7% were greenish metallic sheen color, 44.2% were pink and 5.1% were violet. The sixty four percent were smooth, 34.6% were mucoid and 0.7%. were rough. Twenty three bacterial species were identified by IMViC and API 20E test. Among the 136 coliform bacteria known to species, 39 isolates (28.6%) were Escherichia spp., 32 isolates (23.5%) were Klebsiella ssp., 30 isolates (22.1%) were Enterobacter spp., 19 isolates (14.0%) were Serratia spp., 6 isolates (4.4%) were Citrobacter spp., 4 isolates (3.0%) were Kluyvera spp. and 7 isolates (5.1%) were other bacterial species. Strains, which were gas-positive in lactose broth but gas-negative in Kligler Iron Agar were Ent. intermedium, Ser. liquefaciens, Ser. marcescenes and Salmonella arizoae. Strains, which were H2S production were also Kleb. pneumoniae, Kleb. oxytoca, Kleb. ornithinolytica, Ent. sahazahii, Ent. cloacae, Ser. liquefaciens, Ser. fica ria, Cit. freundii and Sal. arizoae. In the present study, most of coliform isolated from spring and ground water were E. coli, Klebsiella spp. and Enterobacter spp. Since coliform with pink colony in EMB agar was isolated as frequent as coliform with greenish metallic sheen colony, coliform with pink colony should be considered as important colony. Our results suggested that new coliform strains may be emerging on the basis of biochemical and microbiological testes.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.91-99
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• 2013

Steel industry which has been accomplishes the base of our country economy, automobile and electronic industry are taking charge of the role, whose electroplating is important. Large amount of wastewater and various metal salts, including hazardous materials was generated from the electroplating pre-treatment, plating, washing and post-plating. Currently, the general wastewater follows in the environmental law and neutralization after controlling, sludge where the various metal is mixed reclaims below multiple regulative and trust it is controlling. The sludge which includes the gas price metal reclaims in the field and trust it controls. a reclamation price of land it is insufficient but and the control expense holds plentifully and it loses the gas price metal which is valuable. Consequently, The research regarding to recover a gas price metal actively from this waste water, it is advanced. A new method to recover valuable metals from electroplating wastewater synthesis of metal sulfides using topical methods utilizing iron oxidizing bacteria, reagent of sulfides and solvent extraction using an organic solvent, such as the development of the law to recover these metals and metal sulfides of wastewater using selective recovery have been studied. By using these wastewater treatment method under frequency above 95%, it has been obtained the valuable metal from the wastewater, where the metal ion of Fe, Cu, Zn and Ni complexes was mixed. As we discuss the wastewater, which has been discharged from electroplating process, it is important and will be applied to the resources of metal in the urban mine.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.490-494
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• 2004

An efficacy test of PRP (polyribosylribitol phosphate)-TT (Tetanus toxoid) conjugate vaccines was carried out using BALB/c mice as an animal model by inoculating Haemophilus in­fluenzae type b (Hib) with a virulence enhancement factor (VEF). Three administrations of the conjugate vaccines at 2-week intervals elicited a significantly high level of PRP antibodies (P>0.0001). The protective activity of the PRP immunization was challenged with either Hib with iron dextran (Hib/) or with a combination of mucin and hemoglobin (Hibmh) as a VEF. The me­dium lethal dose $(LD_{50})$ for Hibmh and Hibiwas measured as 10 CFU (Colony Forming Unit) and $2.5{\times}10^{8}$ CFU respectively. Each immunized animal was challenged with five or ten times the $LD_{50}$ level of bacteria with a VEF. A significant difference in mortality between the immunized and control mice (P> 0.01) was observed with the Hibmh challenge inoculation but not with the Hibi challenge inoculation. These results show that a combination of mucin and hemoglobin was able to enhance the virulence of Hib in BALB/c mice to cause a lethal infection, thus suggesting that BALB/c mice introduced to this method can be an effective model animal for testing the protective efficacy of H. influenzae conjugate vaccines.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.124-130
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• 1999

To evaluate the technical of microbial coal desulfurization during the storage in coal dumps, microbial pyrite oxidation in a packed column reactor with Thiobacillus ferrooxidans has been investigated. For microbial desulfurization in a packed reactor system, coal particle size over 1.0 mm with uniform size distribution seems to be most suitable as fas as drainage behavior and accessability of pyrite are concerned. When coal samples of 1∼2 and 2∼4 mm particle size were size were used, about 32∼42% of pyritic sulfur was removed within 70 days. The rate of pyritic sulfur oxidation was in the range of 348∼803 mg S/kg coal ·d, and the sulfur removal rates in packed columns were about 15∼25% of those in suspension cultures. Without any circulation of liquid medium, microbial coal desulfurization could be possible by the inoculation of T. ferrooxidans along on the coal dump. It was concluded that a microbial percolation process is one of possible processes for the desulfurization of high sulfur coal during a long-term storage.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.391-397
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• 2014

Acid mine drainage occurrence is a serious environmental problem by mining industry; it usually contain high levels of metal ions, such as iron, copper, zinc, aluminum, and manganese, as well as metalloids of which arsenic is generally of greatest concern. It causes mine impacted soil pollution with mining and smelting activities, fossil fuel combustion, and waste disposal. In the present study, three bacterial strains capable of producing urease were isolated by selective enrichment of heavy metal contaminated soils from a minei-mpacted area. All isolated bacterial strains were identified Sporosarcina pasteurii with more than 98% of similarity, therefore they were named Sporosarcina sp. KM-01, KM-07, and KM-12. The heavy metals detected from the collected mine soils containing bacterial isolates as Mn ($170.50mg\;kg^{-1}$), As ($114.05mg\;kg^{-1}$), Zn ($92.07mg\;kg^{-1}$), Cu ($62.44mg\;kg^{-1}$), and Pb ($40.29mg\;kg^{-1}$). The KM-01, KM-07, and KM-12 strains were shown to be able to precipitate calcium carbonate using urea as a energy source that was amended with calcium chloride. SEM-EDS analyses showed that calcium carbonate was successfully produced and increased with time. To confirm the calcium carbonate precipitation ability, urease activity and precipitate weight were also measured and compared. These results demonstrate that all isolated bacterial strains could potentially be used in the bioremediation of acidic soil contaminated by heavy metals by mining activity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1197-1206
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• 2005

Vibrio vulnificus is an opportunistic pathogen that causes a septicemia and expresses numerous virulence factors, in which luxS and smcR are genes encoding for components responsible for quorum-sensing regulation. In the present study, null mutants were constructed with lesions in each or both of these two genes from the V. vulnificus Vv$\Delta$Z strain, which is a lacZ$^{-}$ and chloramphenicol/streptomycin-resistant derivative of the wild-type ATCC29307 strain, and their phenotypes related to virulence were compared with those of the parental cells. $LD_{50}$ and histopathological findings of luxS-, smcR-, or luxS- smcR- deficient mutant were not different from those of the parent strain, a lacZ-deficient streptomycin-resistant strain in mice. However, time of death in mice was delayed, and numbers of bacteria survived in bloodstream after intraperitoneal injection in mice were decreased by mutation, especially luxS and smcR double mutant (VvSR$\Delta$ZSR). These phenomena were supported by increased serum sensitivity and delayed bacterial proliferation in both murine blood and iron-restricted medium. These results suggest that the luxS and luxR homologous genes in V. vulnificus could playa role in bacterial survival in host by enhancing proliferation and adjusting to changed environment.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.40-44
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• 2018

An isolate capable of inhibiting the growth of gram-positive bacteria was obtained from the soil of Mushim stream, Cheongju. The isolate was identified as Pseudomonas otitidis PS by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. P. otitidis PS produced antibiotics as a secondary metabolite when cultured in 1% soybean meal with 0.5% glucose. The maximum yield was about 0.1%. The antibiotic substance of P. otitidis PS extracted using ethyl acetate displayed a minimum inhibitory concentration of $2{\mu}g/ml$ for Staphylococcus aureus KCTC 1261. The antibiotic substance produced an orange halo on chrome azurol S agar due to siderophore activity. Growth inhibition was decreased when the iron was depleted. Since the antibiotic activity was lost upon the addition of the reducing agent ascorbic acid or during anaerobic culture, it was considered that antibiotic of P. otitidis PS strain exerts its bactericidal effect by the generation of reactive oxygen species.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1046-1054
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• 2001

Bioleaching is the process in which insoluble metal sulfide is oxidized by specialized iron- and/or sulfur-oxidizing lithotrophic bacteria in acidic, metal-rich environments. Most of these processes are carried out by the genus Thiobacillus. Three novel Thiobacillus strains (Thiobacillus thiooxidans AZ11, Thiobacillus thiooxidans MET, and thiobacillus thiooxidans TAS) associated with bioleaching have been isolated from soil and sludge (Korean patent No. 1999-0073060 for T. thiooxidans AZ11, Korean patent No. 1999-0005798 for T. thiooxidans MET, and Korean patent No. 1999-0073059 for T. thiooxidans TAS). A partial sequence of 16S ribosomal RNA gene (16S rDNA) and the entire sequence of 16S/23S intergenic spacer region (ISR) were determined in the three above novel strains and in Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC19859 as a reference strain. When phylogenetic analysis was performed based on G+C contents and sequence alignments, T. ferroxidans ATCC19859 was found to be closely related to previously registered T. ferrooxidans strains in a monophyletic manner, while the three novel T. thiooxidans strains were classified in a paraphyletic manner. Close examination on the base composition of 16S/23S ISR revealed that the 5\` part (nucleotide residues 21-200) was specific for the genus Thiobacillus. On the other end, the 3\` part (nucleotide residues 201-520) showed specificity in T. ferrooxidans strains, but not in T. thiooxidans strains. These results suggest that the proximal and distal halves of 16S/23S could be used as a genetic marker for the identification of the genus Thiobacillus and the species T. ferrooxidans, respectively.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

Harmful algal blooms (HABs or red tides), caused by uncontrolled proliferation of marine phytoplankton, impose a severe environmental problem and occasionally threaten even public health. We sequenced the genome of an EPS-producing marine bacterium Hahella chejuensis that produces a red pigment with the lytic activity against red-tide dinoflagellates at parts per billion level. H. chejuensis is the first sequenced species among algicidal bacteria as well as in the order Oceanospirillales. Sequence analysis indicated a distant relationship to the Pseudomonas group. Its 7.2-megabase genome encodes basic metabolic functions and a large number of proteins involved in regulation or transport. One of the prominent features of the H. chejuensis genome is a multitude of genes of functional equivalence or of possible foreign origin. A significant proportion (${\sim}23%$) of the genome appears to be of foreign origin, i.e. genomic islands, which encode genes for biosynthesis of exopolysaccharides, toxins, polyketides or non-ribosomal peptides, iron utilization, motility, type III protein secretion and pigment production. Molecular structure of the algicidal pigment was determined to be prodigiosin by LC-ESI-MS/MS and NMR analyses. The genomics-based research on H. chejuensis opens a new possibility for controlling algal blooms by exploiting biotic interactions in the natural environment and provides a model in marine bioprospecting through genome research.