• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.1727-1737
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• 2024

The quality of tobacco is directly affected by macromolecular content, fermentation is an effective method to improve biochemical properties. In this study, we utilized CBHA (cellobiohydrolase A) glycosylase, which was expressed by Pichia pastoris, as an additive for fermentation. The contents of main chemical components of tobacco leaves after fermentation were determined, and the changes of microbial community structure and abundance in tobacco leaves during fermentation were analyzed. The relationship between chemical composition and changes in microbial composition was investigated, and the function of bacteria and fungi in fermentation was predicted to identify possible metabolic pathways. After 48 h of CBHA fermentation, the contents of starch, cellulose and total nitrogen in tobacco leaf decreased by 17.60%, 28.91% and 16.05%, respectively. The microbial community structure changed significantly, with Aspergillus abundance decreasing significantly, while Filobasidum, Cladosporium, Bullera, Komagataella, etc., increased in CBHA treated group. Soluble sugar was most affected by microbial community in tobacco leaves, which was negatively correlated with starch, cellulose and total nitrogen. During the fermentation process, the relative abundance of metabolism-related functional genes increased, and the expressions of cellulase and endopeptidase also increased. The results showed that the changes of bacterial community and dominant microbial community on tobacco leaves affected the content of chemical components in tobacco leaves, and adding CBHA for fermentation had a positive effect on improving the quality of tobacco leaves.

• 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 Nutrition and Health
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.712-721
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• 2004

The objective of this study was to evaluate the microbiological quality of heating and after-heating processed foods for implementation of a HACCP system in day-care center foodservice operations. The evaluating points were microbial assessment and temperature of foods during receiving, cooking, and serving in heating process. In non-heating process, in addition to monitoring microbial assessment of food during preparation, cooking, and serving steps, the microbial populations of employees' hands and utensils and serving temperature were also evaluated. Microbiological quality was assessed using 3M Petrifilm$^{TM}$ to measure total plate count and coliforms for foods and utensils and Staphylococcus aureus for hands in five Gumi day-care centers. Microbiological quality assessment for foods and utensils is summarized as follows. Microbiological quality of the heating processed foods was satisfactory for cooking and serving steps. The internal temperature of food was above 74$^{\circ}C$. However, temperature control before the serving step was not achieved due to inappropriate time management between the cooking and serving steps. In the after-heating process, the total plate counts of boiled mungbean sprouts salad, blanched spinach salad, com vegetable salad were below the standard at the serving step. The majority of samples showed that coliforms exceeded the norm, which is thought to be the result of the cross-contamination from utensils. These results suggest that it is essential to educate employees on the importance of hand washing and of avoiding cross-contamination by using clean, sanitized equipment to serve food in the after-heating process. Establishing Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs) is an essential part of any HACCP system in day-care center foodservice operations.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.211-218
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• 2018

Different packaging methods and storage temperatures were tested to determine the storage stability of beef dry-aged for 21 days based on microbial, physicochemical, and sensory qualities. After completion of the dry aging, the dried surface of beef sirloin was trimmed off, and the beef was packaged using two different methods (oxygen-permeable wrap or vacuum packaging) and stored at different temperatures ($3{\pm}2^{\circ}C$ or $-23{\pm}2^{\circ}C$) for 0, 7, 14, or 21 days. Lipid oxidation and the sensory quality of the dry-aged beef were not affected by the packaging method and storage temperature during storage. No microbial growth was observed over the storage period in the vacuum-packaged dry-aged beef, regardless of the storage temperature. However, dry-aged beef in the oxygen-permeable wrap packaging showed microbial spoilage with 8.82 log CFU / g at day 7 of the refrigerated storage. The vacuum-packaged dry-aged beef showed the lowest values (p < 0.05) in $a^*$ and chroma at days 14 and 21 at $3^{\circ}C$, and days 7 and 14 at $-23^{\circ}C$, respectively. Therefore, it is recommended that dry-aged beef with wrap packaging stored in refrigerated conditions should be consumed as quickly as possible due to microbial growth. For long-term storage, dry-aged beef should be frozen because freezing can extend the color stability up to day 21 of storage without adverse effects on the hygienic or meat quality aspects of dry-aged beef.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.325-332
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• 2021

This study sought to investigate the effects of heat-moisture treatment (HMT) and ethanol treatment (EOH) for improving the quality and storage stability of Tteokbokki Tteok. The quality characteristics were evaluated by moisture, pH, color, texture profile analysis, and observing the microbial properties after the heat-moisture treatment or ethanol treatment. As the storage period increased, the moisture content of Tteokbokki Tteok tended to decrease except for the HMT group (p<0.05) while the pH did not show significant variation except for the EOH group (p<0.05). While measuring the color, the L-value tended to increase in all groups during the storage period. The a-value and the b-value showed the highest values in the HMT group and the control (CON) group, respectively. In the texture profile analysis, all groups showed a significant tendency to increase levels of hardness and chewiness as the storage period increased (p<0.05). The HMT group showed an increase in hardness and adhesiveness, which are characteristics of the HMT treatment. The results of examining the microbial properties of Tteokbokki Tteok showed that the total microbial count in the HMT group was 4.52 on the 8^th day of storage, which was lower than the level in the CON group and the EOH group on the 4^th day of storage. Yeast and mold were not measured during the storage period. Thus the results of this study showed that when manufacturing Tteokbokki Tteok, the heat-moisture treatment of rice powder increased the storage stability by delaying microbial growth and also had positive effects on quality.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.474-481
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• 2013

Understanding the microbial community structure of agricultural soils is important for better soil management in order to improve soil quality. Phospholipid fatty acid analysis has been popularly used in determining the microbial community structure in different ecosystems. The microbial community structure of paddy soil under long-term fertilizer treatments was investigated after 45 years using PLFA analysis. Treatments were control (no fertilization, Con), compost (COM), NPK, NPK+compost (NPKC), PK, NK, and NP. Soil chemical properties were mainly affected by the addition of compost and inorganic P fertilizer. Total nitrogen and organic matter contents were significantly higher in treatments with compost while available $P_2O_5$ and exchangeable calcium were significantly higher in treatments with added inorganic P fertilizer. It was found that microbial communities were responsive to the different fertilizer treatments. PLFA results showed that the soils were dominated by gram-negative bacteria, followed by the actinomycetes, then gram-positive bacteria, and fungi. Principal component analysis of the soil chemical properties and PLFA composition proved to be a more reliable tool because it was more responsive to the changes in soil chemical properties.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.1073-1085
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• 2012

Soil microbial communities are immensely diverse and complex with respect to species richness and community size. These communities play essential roles in agricultural soil because they are responsible for most of the nutrient cycles in the soil and influence the plant diversity and productivity. However, the majority of these microbes remain uncharacterized because of poor culturability. Next-generation sequencing techniques have revolutionized many areas of biology by providing cheaper and faster alternatives to Sanger sequencing. Among them, amplicon pyrosequencing is a powerful tool developed by 454 Life Sciences for assessing the diversity of complex microbial communities by sequencing PCR products or amplicons. This review summarizes the current opinions in amplicon sequencing of soil microbial communities, and provides practical guidance and advice on sequence quality control, aligning, clustering, OTU- and taxon-based analysis. The last section of this article includes a few representative studies conducted using amplicon pyrosequencing.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.490-496
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• 2000

In vivo digestibility, nitrogen retention and microbial protein yield from diets of 100% ammonia treated rice straw (ARS) ($D_1$); 65% untreated rice straw (URS)+30% rice bran (RB)+5% SBM ($D_2$) and 85% ARS+15% RB ($D_3$) were determined using three Japanese Corriedale wethers in a $3{\times}3$ Latin Square Design. Results showed that DM consumption and organic matter digestibility were highest in $D_3$; but did not promote high protein digestibility, which RB+SBM had effected in URS based-diet. Dry matter intake and OM digestibility were the same for $D_1$ and $D_3$. Solubility of fiber bonds was increased by ammoniation, resulting in higher NDF digestibility. Nitrogen retention and microbial protein yield of rice bran supplemented groups was higher than ARS, but supplementation did not significantly increase efficiency of microbial protein synthesis from ARS which did occur when RB+SBM was added to untreated straw. The quality of ammoniated rice straw could be improved through RB supplementation because of its positive effects on DM digestibility, nitrogen retention and microbial protein yield. However, the addition of RB+SBM to URS resulted to more efficient N utilization.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.325-328
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• 2007

Mesophilic aerobic bacterial counts were measured and compared for seasoned soybean sprouts produced in different seasons and sold in different market types. Very significant differences in microbial counts were found among seasoned soybean sprouts produced in different seasons (winter, spring, and summer) and among different market types (a traditional market, discount store, and department store). However, there was no significant difference among the stores within each market group. The interactions were significant at a 1% significance level. The variance of summer counts was much lower than spring and winter counts. Discount and department stores showed a higher variation in microbial counts than traditional markets. The microbial counts differed substantially from season to season in the same market group (summer > spring > winter) except between spring and summer in traditional markets. The microbial loads in the winter and spring seasons of seasoned soybean sprouts in traditional markets were clearly higher than in other market groups, while discount stores had the highest microbial count in summer.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1955-1970
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• 2018

Several genetic strategies have been proposed for the successful transformation and expression of microbial transgenes in model and crop plants. Here, we bring into focus the prominent applications of microbial transgenes in plants for the development of disease resistance; mitigation of stress conditions; augmentation of food quality; and use of plants as "bioreactors" for the production of recombinant proteins, industrially important enzymes, vaccines, antimicrobial compounds, and other valuable secondary metabolites. We discuss the applicable and cost-effective approaches of transgenesis in different plants, as well as the limitations thereof. We subsequently present the contemporary developments in targeted genome editing systems that have facilitated the process of genetic modification and manifested stable and consumer-friendly, genetically modified plants and their products. Finally, this article presents the different approaches and demonstrates the introduction and expression of microbial transgenes for the improvement of plant resistance to pathogens and abiotic stress conditions and the production of valuable compounds, together with the promising research progress in targeted genome editing technology. We include a special discussion on the highly efficient CRISPR-Cas system helpful in microbial transgene editing in plants.