• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.304-313
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• 2016

One of the issues currently facing nuclear power plants is how to store spent nuclear waste materials which are contaminated with radionuclides such as $^{134}Cs$, $^{135}Cs$, and $^{137}Cs$. Bioremediation processes may offer a potent method of cleaning up radioactive cesium. However, there have only been limited reports on $Cs^+$ tolerant bacteria. In this study, we report the isolation and identification of $Cs^+$ tolerant bacteria in environmental soil and sediment. The resistant $Cs^+$ isolates were screened from enrichment cultures in R2A medium supplemented with 100 mM CsCl for 72 h, followed by microbial community analysis based on sequencing analysis from 16S rRNA gene clone libraries(NCBI's BlastN). The dominant Bacillus anthracis Roh-1 and B. cereus Roh-2 were successfully isolated from the cesium enrichment culture. Importantly, B. cereus Roh-2 is resistant to 30% more $Cs^+$ than is B. anthracis Roh-1 when treated with 50 mM CsCl. Growth experiments clearly demonstrated that the isolate had a higher tolerance to $Cs^+$. In addition, we investigated the adsorption of $0.2mg\;L^{-1}$ $Cs^+$ using B. anthracis Roh-1. The maximum $Cs^+$ biosorption capacity of B. anthracis Roh-1 was $2.01mg\;g^{-1}$ at pH 10. Thus, we show that $Cs^+$ tolerant bacterial isolates could be used for bioremediation of contaminated environments.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.796-803
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• 2013

Property changes and bacterial characterizations by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) were investigated during the fermentation of Makgeollies by 5 isolated yeast strains. Changes of pH were large between day 0 (pH 6) and day 2 (pH 3) and showed less variation after then. ANOVA analyses revealed that pHs were statistically different with fermentation times (p<0.001), while strains (p=0.60) did not. Acidities were changed from 0.19 to 1.04% and showed rather high increase from day 2, and fermentation times (p<0.001) and strains (p=0.006) represented statistical differences. All strains showed less than 0.150% at amino-type nitrogen contents except S strain showed 0.442% at day 8, and there were no statistical differences with fermentation times (p=0.4558) and strains (p=0.3513). Saccharinities of C strain were higher from day 4, and fermentation times (p<0.0001) and strains (p=0.007) showed statistical differences. Large variation of alcohol concentrations (%) were observed between day 0 (0%) and day 2 (10%) and showed less variation after day 2, and there was no statistical difference with strains. Dominant prokaryotes were Lactobacillus fermentum and Pediococcus pentosaceus, which producing acids and functional materials. Dominant eukaryote was Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which might be resulted from addition of yeasts.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.198-206
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• 2017

From June 2007 to May 2008, seasonal variations of bacterial abundance and heterotrophic nanoflagellate (HNF), together with environmental factors, were investigated at weekly and monthly intervals in Kyeonggi Bay. During the study period, the water temperature and salinity varied from $1.9^{\circ}C{\sim}29.0^{\circ}C$ and 31~35.1 psu, respectively. The concentration of ammonia, nitrate+nitrite, phosphate, and silicate ranged from 0.01 to $3.22{\mu}M$, 2.03 to $15.34{\mu}M$, 0.06 to $1.82{\mu}M$, and 0.03 to $18.3{\mu}M$, respectively. The annual average concentration of Chl. a varied from $0.86{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ to $37.70{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$; the concentration was twice as much at the surface than at the deeper layers. The abundance of bacteria and HNF ranged from $0.29{\times}10^6$ to $7.62{\times}10^6cells\;mL^{-1}$ and $1.00{\times}10^2$ to $1.26{\times}10^3cells\;mL^{-1}$, respectively. In particular, there were significant correlations between bacteria and HNF abundance (p<0.05), and then the high abundance of HNF was frequently observed with an increase of bacterial abundance in summer (p<0.001). Our results therefore indicate that bacterial abundance in the bay was mainly controlled by resources supplied as organic and inorganic substances from Lake Shihwa due to the daily water exchange after dike construction. Also, the bacterial abundance was significantly controlled by HNF grazing pressure (top-down) in the warm seasons, i.e. excluding winter, in the Kyeonggi Bay.