• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1561-1572
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• 2022

Plastic pollution has been recognized as a serious environmental problem, and microbial degradation of plastics is a potential, environmentally friendly solution to this. Here, we analyzed and compared microbial communities on waste plastic films (WPFs) buried for long periods at four landfill sites with those in nearby soils to identify microbes with the potential to degrade plastics. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectra of these WPFs showed that most were polyethylene and had signs of oxidation, such as carbon-carbon double bonds, carbon-oxygen single bonds, or hydrogen-oxygen single bonds, but the presence of carbonyl groups was rare. The species richness and diversity of the bacterial and fungal communities on the films were generally lower than those in nearby soils. Principal coordinate analysis of the bacterial and fungal communities showed that their overall structures were determined by their geographical locations; however, the microbial communities on the films were generally different from those in the soils. For the pulled data from the four landfill sites, the relative abundances of Bradyrhizobiaceae, Pseudarthrobacter, Myxococcales, Sphingomonas, and Spartobacteria were higher on films than in soils at the bacterial genus level. At the species level, operational taxonomic units classified as Bradyrhizobiaceae and Pseudarthrobacter in bacteria and Mortierella in fungi were enriched on the films. PICRUSt analysis showed that the predicted functions related to amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism and xenobiotic degradation were more abundant on films than in soils. These results suggest that specific microbial groups were enriched on the WPFs and may be involved in plastic degradation.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2007

The bacterial diversity inherent to the biofilm community structure of a modified rotating biological contactor wastewater treatment process, referred to as the Rotating Activated Bacillus Contactor (RABC) process, was characterized in this study, via both culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. On the basis of culture-dependent methods, Bacillus sp. were found to exist in large numbers on the biofilm (6.5% of the heterotrophic bacteria) and the microbial composition of the biofilms was quite simple. Only three phyla were identified-namely, the Proteobacteria, the Actinobacteria (High G+C Gram-positive bacteria), and the Firmicutes (Low G+C Gram-positive bacteria). The culture-independent partial 16S rDNA sequence analysis revealed a considerably more diverse microbial composition within the biofilms. A total of eight phyla were recovered in this case, three of which were major groups: the Firmicutes (43.9%), the Proteobacteria (28.6%), and the Bacteroidetes (17.6%). The remaining five phyla were minor groups: the Planctomycetes (4.4%), the Chlorobi (2.2%), the Actinobacteria (1.1%), the Nitrospirae (1.1%), and the Verrucomicrobia (1.1%). The two most abundant genera detected were the endospore-forming bacteria (31.8%), Clostridium and Bacillus, both of which are members of the Firmicutes phylum. This finding indicates that these endospore-forming bacteria successfully colonized and dominated the RABC process biofilms. Many of the colonies or clones recovered from the biofilms evidenced significantly high homology in the 16S rDNA sequences of bacteria stored in databases associated with advanced wastewater treatment capabilities, including nitrification and denitrification, phosphorus accumulation, the removal of volatile odors, and the removal of chlorohydrocarbons or heavy metals. The microbial community structures observed in the biofilms were found to correlate nicely with the enhanced performance of advanced wastewater treatment protocols.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.355-370
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• 2020

We conducted a field survey to analyze the ecological structure and spatial distribution of microplankton (phytoplankton and ciliates) in relation to water masses at 21 stations on the surface and chlorophyll-a maximum layers (CML) in the Northern East China Sea (nECS; 32°-33°N; 124°00'-127°30'E) from August 3 to August 6, 2019. The results showed that the water masses were divided into Chinese Coastal Waters (CCW) and the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC). The CCW showed the environmental characteristics of high temperature and low salinity, and the TWC showed high temperature and high salinity. The characteristics of the phytoplankton community in the CCW showed various community structures related to the nutrients supplied from the large rivers of the Chinese continent. However, the TWC had simple community structures because it originated near the equator and moved northward. The standing crops of phytoplankton and ciliates were very high in the CCW but showed low at the TWC. In particular, from the higher standing crops of protozoa than plant plankton at the TWC, the energy flow at the lower tropic levels caused by the microbial loop that fed on heterotrophic bacteria played an important role in the production of resource organisms. In other words, the marine ecological structure of the nECS in summer could be estimated as a bottom-up system at the CCW and a top-down system at the TWC.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.341-346
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• 2018

The microbiome makes a significant contribution to plant health and endophytes may generate positive effects for the host. However, there is a limited knowledge available concerning the kiwifruit endophyte. Therefore, we discuss endophyte microbiome community structures among the kiwifruit cultivars. Total reads numbered 17620 in cv. Hayward, 11515 in cv. Haegeum and 13613 in cv. Jecygold. The number of OTUs was follows: 112 in cv. Hageum; and 87 in cvs. Hayward and Jecygold. Most of the identified OTUs were phylum Proteobacteria and it emerged that Actinobacteria, Firmicute and Bacteroidetes were mainly present. While the largest difference in Proteobacteria content is between cv. Haegeum and cv. Jecygold, they shared more OTUs than cv. Hayward. As well, this study revealed the presence of remarkably dominated OTU of Pseudomonas spp. in kiwifruit sap regardless of cultivars. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first tone to investigate the kiwifruit endophyte-microbiome community.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.171-179
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• 2016

Recent succession of soil microorganisms and vegetation has occurred in the glacier foreland, because of glacier thawing. In this study, whole microbial communities, including bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, from the glacier foreland of Midtre Lovénbreen in Svalbard were analyzed by metagenome sequencing, using the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine (PGM) platform. Soil samples were collected from two research sites (ML4 and ML7), with different exposure times, from the ice. A total of 2,798,108 and 1,691,859 reads were utilized for microbial community analysis based on the metagenomic sequences of ML4 and ML7, respectively. The relative abundance of microbial communities at the domain level showed a high proportion of bacteria (about 86−87%), whereas archaeal and eukaryotic communities were poorly represented by less than 1%. The remaining 12% of the sequences were found to be unclassified. Predominant bacterial groups included Proteobacteria (40.3% from ML4 and 43.3% from ML7) and Actinobacteria (22.9% and 24.9%). Major groups of Archaea included Euryarchaeota (84.4% and 81.1%), followed by Crenarchaeota (10.6% and 13.1%). In the case of eukaryotes, both ML4 and ML7 samples showed Ascomycota (33.8% and 45.0%) as the major group. These findings suggest that metagenome analysis using the Ion Torrent PGM platform could be suitably applied to analyze whole microbial community structures, providing a basis for assessing the relative importance of predominant groups of bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic microbial communities in the Arctic glacier foreland of Midtre Lovénbreen, with high resolution.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.118-126
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• 2002

To evaluate the correlations of microbial populations with soil healthiness and crop production and establish the criteria for microbial population of soil types. We analyzed the microbial community structure of 13 soils which were different in physical and chemical properties and cultivation methods. According to the analysis of microbial population suing the dilution plate method, the large differences of the microbial population structures among soil types were shown: aerobic bacteria $2-27{\times}10^6$, fluorescent Pseudomonas $1-1,364{\times}10^5$, Gram negative bacteria $1-126{\times}10^4$, and mesophilic Bacillus $1-110{\times}10^5$. The density of Gram negative bacteria was highest on red pepper cultivating soils (sample no. 4 and 6) of Umsung and Gesan, Chungbuk, and the density of the fluorescent Pseudomonas was highest on greenhouse soil (sample no. 7) of Jinju, Kyungnam. The crop productivity of three soils was high as compared with those of other soils. It was supposed that the density of fluorescent Pseudomonas and mesophilic Bacillus were correlated with the incresed crop production. By MIDI analysis, 579 strains isolated from 13 soils composed of a variety of microbes including 102 isolates of Agrobacterium, 112 isolates of Bacillus, 32 isolates of Pseudomonas, 44 isolates of Kocuria, and 34 isolates of Pseudomonas. Among the 624 isolates of Gram negative bacteria, Pseudomonas including P. putida and p. fluorescens occupied the highest density (51%), and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Burkholderia cepacia also appeared at high density. From RAPD analysis, the fluorescent Pseudomonas strains isolated from 13 soil types showed a high level of strain diversities and were grouped into 2 - 14 patterns according to soil types. Many of unknown bacteria were recovered from the paddy soil, and needed to be further characterized on the molecular basis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1140-1151
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• 2010

Differences in DNA banding patterns, obtained by ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA), and nitrification were followed in a moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) receiving municipal landfill leachate. Complete nitrification (>99%) to nitrate was obtained in the two-stage MBBR system with an ammonium load of 1.09 g N-$NH_4/m^2{\cdot}d$. Increasing the ammonium load to 2.03 g N-$NH_4/m^2{\cdot}d$or more caused a decline in process efficiency to 70-86%. Moreover, at the highest ammonium load (3.76 g N-$NH_4/m^2{\cdot}d$), nitrite was the predominant product of nitrification. Community succession was evident in both compartments in response to changes in ammonium load. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) supported by similarity analysis (ANOSIM) showed that microbial biofilm communities differed between compartments. The microbial biofilm was composed mainly of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), with Nitrosomonas europeae and N. eutropha being most abundant. These results suggest that high ammonium concentrations suit particular AOB strains.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.221-230
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• 2015

Ground bed cultivation method for shiitake mushroom (Phogo; Lentinula edodes) has been advanced to use the oak-sawdust composted by microorganisms. This method has some advantages in saving the labors and improving productivity. The aim of this study is to analyze microbial community in oak sawdust and to provide the information for efficient cultivation of shiitake mushroom. In process of composting, the proportions of thermophiles increased from 10% to 80%. This results show the microbial community succession from mesophilic bacteria to thermophilic bacteria. T-RFLP analysis and nucleotide sequencing of 16S rRNA gene demonstrated that the change of dominant bacteria coupled with shifts in each stages. The family of Enterobacteriaceae as a mesophilic bacteria were dominant (100%) in oak sawdust sample, but Amycolatopsis (49.0%) and Saccharopolyspora (26.5%) as a thermophilic Actinomycetes were dominant in the last day of composting. In hyphal growth stage, Leuconostoc (psychrophilic bacteria) was dominant (75.0%). The composting process of sawdust is very important for growth of mushroom mycelium. Therefore, there is need for the further study for the Amycolatopsis as thermophilic Actinomycetes.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: Soil carbon sequestration has been investigated for a long time because of its potential to mitigate the greenhouse effect. No- or reduced tillage, crop rotations, or cover crops have been investigated and practiced to sequester carbon in soils but the roles of soil biota, particularly microorganisms, have been mostly ignored although they affect the amount and stability of soil organic matters. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study we analyzed the organic matter and microbial community in organically cultivated corn field soils where no-tillage (NT) or conventional tillage (CT) had been practiced for about three years. The amounts of organic matter and recalcitrant carbon pool were 18.3 g/kg dry soil and 4.1 g C/kg dry soil, respectively in NT soils, while they were 12.4 and 2.5, respectively in CT soils. The amounts of RNA and DNA, and the copy numbers of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and fungal ITS sequences were higher in NT soils than in CT soils. No-tillage treatment increased the diversities of soil bacterial and fungal communities and clearly shifted the bacterial and fungal community structures. In NT soils the relative abundances of bacterial phyla known as copiotrophs, Betaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, increased while those known as oligotrophs, Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, decreased compared to CT soils. The relative abundance of a fungal phylum, Glomeromycota, whose members are known as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, was about two time higher in NT soils than in CT soils, suggesting that the higher amount of organic matter in NT soils is related to its abundance. CONCLUSION: This study shows that no-tillage treatment greatly affects soil microbial abundance and community structure, which may affect the amount and stability of soil organic matter.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.158-161
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• 2004

Chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs) especially perchlorethylene (PCE) and trichlooethylene (TCE) are common groundwater contaminants in Korea. PCE and TCE were often reductively dechiorinated in an aquifer. Several isolates dechlorinate PCE to TCE or cis-1,2 dichloroethylene (c-DCE) were obtained from contaminated and pristine sites in USA and Europe. However in Korea, no information on indigenous microorganism being involved in reductive dechlorination of PCE and TCE is available and different dechlorinating microorganisms might be reside in Korea, since geochemical, and hydrogeological conditions are different, compared to those in the other sites. So we evaluate that: 1) if reductive dechlorinating microorganisms are present in PCE-contaminated site in Korea, 2) if so, what kinds of microorganisms are present; 3) to what extent PCE is reductively dechlorinated. As a results in some PCE-contaminated aquifers in Korea other dechlorinating microorganisms but Dehalococcoides ethenogenes may be responsible for PCE dechlorination. More detailed molecular works are required to evaluate that different dechlorinating microorganisms would reside in Korea.