• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.887-892
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• 2011

This study was to find out influence of heavy metal concentration in plant on microbial activities during decomposition of Artenmisia princeps var. orientalis and Equisetum arvense collected from an abandoned mine and control site in Cheongyang-gun Chungcheongnam-do. Microbial respiration rate showed the highest value at the time of the first collection, and then tended to decline over time. The highest microbial respiration rate appeared in leaf litters with low heavy metal contents, and A. princeps var. orientalis and E. arvense collected and decomposed at the control site showed the fastest decomposition rate. For both A. princeps var. orientalis and E. arvense, litters with low heavy metal content appeared to have higher microbial biomass. There was apparent quantitative correlation between decomposition rate and cumulative respiration rate of leaf litters, and between decomposition rate and microbial biomass of leaf litters. Thus, the study result showed that leaf litter with higher heavy metal content had a negative impacts on the growth and activity of microbial decomposer during decomposition processes.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2007

The object of this study was to determine the influence of supplementation of concentrate containing high levels of cassava chip on rumen ecology, microbial protein and digestibility of nutrients. Four, rumen fistulated crossbred beef steers with initial body weight of 400${\pm}$10 kg were randomly assigned according to a 4${\times}$4 Latin square design. The dietary treatments were concentrate cassava chip based offering at 0, 1, 2 and 3% BW with urea-treated rice straw fed ad libitum. It was found that ruminal pH was significantly decreased with increase of concentrate. Volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentration in the rumen was significantly different among treatments. In addition, a molar proportion of propionate was higher in supplemented groups at 2 and 3% BW (p<0.05), leading to significantly decreased acetate:propionate ratio. Furthermore, microbial N supply was significantly improved and was highest at 2% BW supplementation. The efficiency of rumen microbial-N synthesis based on organic matter (OM) truly digested in the rumen was highest in level of concentrate supplementation at 2% BW (80% of cassava chip in diets). Moreover, bacterial populations such as amylolytic bacteria was linearly increased, while cellulolytic bacteria was linearly decreased (p<0.01) when cattle received concentrate supplementation in all levels. The total protozoal counts were significantly increased, while fungal zoospores were dramatically decreased in cattle receiving increased levels of concentrate. In conclusion, cassava chip can be use as energy source at 80% in concentrate and supplementation of concentrate at 2% BW with urea-treated rice straw as roughage could improve rumen fermentation efficiency in beef cattle.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1086-1095
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• 2017

There is growing interest in groundwater resources to overcome the loss of surface water resources due to climate change. An understanding of the microbial community of aquifers is essential for monitoring and evaluating groundwater contamination, as well as groundwater management. Most microorganisms that inhabit aquifer ecosystems are attached to sediment particles rather than planktonic, as is the case in groundwater. Since sampling aquifer sediment is not easy, groundwater, which contains planktonic microorganisms, is generally sampled in microbial community research. Although many studies have investigated microbial communities in contaminated aquifers, there are only a few reports of microbial communities in uncontaminated or pristine aquifers, resulting in limited information on aquifer microbial diversity. Such information is needed for groundwater quality improvement. This paper describes the ecology and community structure of groundwater bacteria in uncontaminated aquifers. The diversity and structures of microbial communities in these aquifers were affected by the concentration or distribution of substrates (e.g., minerals, organic matter, etc), in addition to groundwater characteristics and human activities. Most of the microbial communities in these uncontaminated aquifers were dominated by Proteobacteria. Studies of microbial communities in uncontaminated aquifers are important to better understand the biogeochemical processes associated with groundwater quality improvement. In addition, information on the microbial communities of aquifers can be used as a basis to monitor changes in community structure due to contamination.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.897-904
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• 2007

The aim of this paper is to discuss the methodology of our investigation of the dynamics of protein degradation and the total in situ protealytic activity in meso/eutrophic, eutrophic, and hypereutrophic freshwater environments. Analysis of the kinetics and rates of enzymatic release of amino acids in water samples preserved with sodium azide allows determination of the concentrations of labile proteins $(C_{LAB})$, and their half-life time $(T_{1/2})$. Moreover, it gives more realistic information on resultant activity in situ $(V_{T1/2})$ of ecto- and extracellular proteases that are responsible for the biological degradation of these compounds. Although the results provided by the proposed method are general y well correlated with those obtained by classical procedures, they better characterize the dynamics of protein degradation processes, especially in eutrophic or hypereutrophic lakes. In these environments, processes of protein decomposition occur mainly on the particles and depend primarily on a metabolic activity of seston-attached bacteria. The method was tested in three lakes. The different degree of eutrophication of these lakes was clearly demonstrated by the measured real proteolytic pattern and confirmed by conventional trophic state determinants.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.247-254
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• 2015

Changes in land-use type can affect soil and water properties in stream ecosystems. This study examined the effects of different land-use types on biogeochemical properties and microbial activities of a stream. We collected water and sediment samples in a stream at three different sites surrounded by varying land-use types; a forest, a radish field and a rice paddy. Nitrogen contents, such as nitrate, nitrite and total nitrogen in the stream water body, showed significant differences among the sampling sites. The highest nitrogen values were recorded at the site surrounded by cropland, as fertilizer runoff impacted the stream. Soil organic matter content in the sediment showed significant differences among sites, with the highest content exhibited at the forest mouth site. These differences might be due to the organic matter in surrounding terrestrial ecosystems. Microbial activities determined by extracellular enzyme activities showed similar values throughout all sites in the water body; however, the activities in the sediments exhibited the highest values near the forest site and mirrored the soil organic matter content values. From these results, we conclude that different land-use types are important factors affecting water and sediment properties in stream ecosystems.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

New technologies are providing unprecedented knowledge into microbial community structure and functions. Even though nucleic acid based approaches provide a lot of information, metaproteomics could provide a high-resolution representation of genotypic and phenotypic traits of distinct microbial communities. Analyzing the metagenome from different microbial ecosystems, metaproteomics has been applied to seawater, human guts, activated sludge, acid mine drainage biofilm, and soil. Although these studies employed different approaches, they elucidated that metaproteomics could provide a link among microbial community structure, function, physiology, interaction, ecology, and evolution. These approaches are reviewed here to help gain insights into the function of microbial community in ecosystems.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.858-868
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• 2009

The abundance, biomass, size distribution, and taxonomic composition of bacterial and protistan (heterotrophic and autotrophic nanoflagellates and ciliates) communities were investigated in six lakes of Masurian Lake District (north-eastern Poland) differing in trophic state. Samples were taken from the trophogenic water layer during summer stratification periods. Image analysis techniques with fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) as well as [$^3H$]-methyl-thymidine incorporation methods were applied to analyze differences in the composition and activity of bacterial communities. The greatest differences in trophic parameters were found between the humic lake and remaining non-humic ones. The same bacterial and heterotrophic nanoflagellate (HNF) cell size classes dominated in all the studied lakes. However, distinct increases in the contributions of large bacterial (>$1.0{\mu}m$) and HNF (>$10{\mu}m$) cells were observed in eutrophic lakes. The bacterial community was dominated by the ${\beta}$-Proteohacteria group, which accounted for 27% of total DAPI counts. Ciliate communities were largely composed of Oligotrichida. Positive correlations between bacteria and protists, as well as between nanoflagellates (both heterotrophic and autotrophic) and ciliates, suggest that concentrations of food sources may be important in determining the abundance of protists in the studied lakes.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.129-138
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• 1999

If rumen bacteria can be manipulated to utilize nutrients (i.e., ammonia and plant cell wall carbohydrates) more completely and efficiently, the need for protein supplementation can be reduced or eliminated and the digestion of fiber in forage or agricultural residue-based diets could be enhanced. However, these approaches require a complete and accurate description of the rumen community, as well as methods for the rapid and accurate detection of microbial density, diversity, phylogeny, and gene expression. Molecular ecology techniques based on small subunit (SSU) rRNA sequences, nucleic acid probes and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can potentially provide a complete description of the microbial ecology of the rumen of ruminant animals. The development of these molecular tools will result in greater insights into community structure and activity of gut microbial ecosystems in relation to functional interactions between different bacteria, spatial and temporal relationships between different microorganisms and between microorganisms and reed panicles. Molecular approaches based on SSU rRNA serve to evaluate the presence of specific sequences in the community and provide a link between knowledge obtained from pure cultures and the microbial populations they represent in the rumen. The successful development and application of these methods promises to provide opportunities to link distribution and identity of gastrointestinal microbes in their natural environment with their genetic potential and in situ activities. The use of approaches for assessing pupulation dynamics as well as for assessing community functionality will result in an increased understanding and a complete description of the gastrointestinal communities of production animals fed under different dietary regimes, and lead to new strategies for improving animal growth.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.877-884
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• 2004

Although gut microbial functions have been analyzed through cultivation of isolated microbes, molecular analysis without cultivation is becoming a popular approach in recent years. Gene cloning studies have partially revealed the mechanisms involved in fiber digestion of individual microbe. The molecular approach finally made it possible to analyze full genomes of the representative rumen cellulolytic bacteria Fibrobacter and Ruminococcus. The coming database may contain useful information such as regulation of gene expression relating to fiber digestion. Meanwhile, unculturable bacteria are still poorly characterized, even though they are main constituents of gut microbial ecosystem. The molecular analysis is essential to initiating the studies on these unculturable bacteria. The studies dealing with rumen and large intestine are revealing considerable complexity of the microbial ecosystems with many undescribed bacteria. These bacteria are being highlighted as possibly functional members contributing to feed digestion. Manipulation of gut bacteria and gut ecology for improving animal production is still at challenging stage. Bacteria newly introduced in the rumen, whether they are genetically modified or not, suffer from poor survival. In one of these attempts, Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens expressing a foreign dehalogenase was successfully established in sheep rumen to prevent fluoroacetate poisoning. This expands choice of forages in tropics, since many tropic plants are known to contain the toxic fluoroacetate. This example may promise the possible application of molecular breeding of gut bacteria to the host animals with significance in their health and nutrition. When inoculation strategies for such foreign bacteria are considered, it is obvious that we should have more detailed information of the gut microbial ecology.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.89-92
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• 2005