• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.361-367
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• 2010

Bacterial contamination of cooked rice was analyzed to evaluate the microbial safety. Thirty raw rice samples were collected in Korea and cooked in an electric rice cooker. Mesophilic aerobe, food-poisoning Bacillus cereus group, and their toxin genes were determined on cooked rice. The percentage of total mesophilic aerobe based on 1-3 log CFU/g was 27% among the samples. Bacillus spp. in MYP selective medium was similar to the number of mesophilic aerobe, whileas Bacillus spp. was detected in most samples after enrichment. Thirty-seven isolates from 30 cooked rices were identified as B. thuringiensis, B. cereus, B. valismortis, B. pumilus, B. coagulans, B. licheniformis, Geobacillus stearothermophilus, and Brevibacillus laterosporus. Twenty isolates (54%), more than half of the isolates, were B. thuringiensis while nine (27%) were identified as B. cereus. All B. thuringiensis isolates possessed non-hemolytic toxin genes and interestingly, seven B. cereus among nine isolates possessed emetic toxin genes. More B. thuringiensis was present on the cooked rice than B. cereus and most B. cereus possessed emetic toxin genes rather than diarrheal toxin genes. Therefore, food-borne outbreak due to B.cereus on the cooked rice kept at room temperature might be examples of emetic food-poisoning.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 1992

A $\alpha$-l, 4-D-glucan maltohydrolase $(\beta$-amylase), secreted by the mesophilic aerobic bacterium Bacillus polymyxa No.26, was purified and characterized. The enzyme production was increased after a logarithmic phase of bacterial growth and paralleled with the onset of bacterial sporulation. By applying anion exchange chromatography and gel filtration the enzyme was purified 16.7-fold and had a specific activity of 285.7 units/mg. Two enzyme activities were eluted on a column of DEAE-Sephadex chromatography, and they were designated as E-I for a major enzyme peak and E-II for a minor peak. Of them, E-I enzyme peak was further purified by using gel chromatography. The molecular mass of this enzyme was determined to be 64, 000 daltons and consisted of a single subunit, showing an isoelectric point of 8.9. The enzyme was able to attack specifically the $\alpha$-l, 4-glycosidic linkages in soluble starch and caused its complete hydrolysis to maltose and $\beta$-limited dextrin. This amylolytic enzyme displayed a temperature optimum at $45^\circ{C}$ and a pH optimum at 7.0. The amino acid composition of the purified enzyme was quite similar to the other bacterial $\beta$-amylases reported. Surprisingly, the purified enzyme from this aerobe only exhibited hydrolytic activity on soluble starch, not on starch granules. The degradation of from starch by $\beta$-amylase was greatly stimulated by pullulanase addition. These results differentiated from other $\beta$-amylases reported. Based on a previous result that showed the enzyme system involves in effective degradation of raw starch granules, this result strongly suggested that the purified enzyme (E-I) can be a synergistic part of starch granule-digestion and E-II plays a crucial role in digestion of starch granules.