• Title/Summary/Keyword: small organisms

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Classification of Antimicrobial Peptides among the Innate Immune Modulators (선천성 면역조절자인 항생펩타이드 분류)

  • Lee, Jong-Hwan
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.25 no.7
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    • pp.833-838
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    • 2015
  • Multidrug-resistant super bacterial, fungal, viral, and parasitic infections are major health threaten pathogens. However, to overcome the present healthcare situation, among the leading alternatives to current drugs are antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are abundantly produced via various species in nature. AMPs, small host defense proteins, are in charge of the innate immunity for the protection of multicellular organisms such as fish, amphibian, reptile, plants and animals from infection. The number of AMPs identified per year has increased steadily since the 1980s. Over 2,000 natural AMPs from bacteria, protozoa, fungi, plants, and animals have been listed into the antimicrobial peptide database (APD). The majority of these AMPs (>86%) possess 11–50 amino acids with a net charge from 0 to +7 and hydrophobic percentages between 31–70%. This report classified AMP into several categories including biological source, biological functions, peptide properties, covalent bonding pattern, and 3D structure. AMP functions not only antimicrobial activity but facilitates cell biological activity such as chemotatic activity. In addition, fibroblastic reticular cell (FRC) originated from mouse lymph node stroma induced the expression of AMP in inflammatory condition. AMP induced from FRC contained whey acidic protein (WAP) domain. It suggests that the classification of AMP will be done by protein domain.

THE GROWTH OF FOOD ORGANISMS FOR THE MASS PRODUCTION OF MOLLUSCAN SEEDLINGS 1. Phaeodactylum, Platymonas and Chlorella (패류 종묘의 대 생산시에 필요한 먹이 생물의 배양에 관한 연구 1. Phaeodactylum, Platymonas 및 Chlorella)

  • Yoo Sung Kyoo
    • Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.1-6
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    • 1970
  • A series of experiments have been made on the mass culture of Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Platymonas sp. and Chlorella sp. in the laboratory. The shortest lag phase was found In the culture of Ph. tricornutum followed by Platymonas sp. and Chlorella sp. As compared to the aeration culture, the stagnant culture, in general, showed long duration of the lag phase, short period of the exponential phase and extremely small daily increment. The relative growth constants of Ph. tricornutum, Chlorella sp. and Platymonas sp. were $0.302{\pm}0.028$, $0.226{\pm}0.013$, and $0.151{\pm}0.008$, respectively The maximum daily increment of the three species and then daily ages are as follows: Ph. tricornutum Maximum daily increment : 47.5, Daily age : 10, Platymonas sp. Maximum daily increment : 5.6, Daily age : 14, Chlorella sp. Maximum daily increment : 21.1, Daily age : 14 Comparing the packed cell volume with a certain number of cells, the largest value was found in the population of Ph. tricornutum followed by Platymenas sp. and Chlorella sp. A straight line relationship exists between the two values, and the magnitude of the relationship coincides well with the size of the cells. The culture of Ph. tricornutum was proved satisfactory for feeding the larvae of bivalves at about 12 days after innoculation and both of Platymenas sp. and Chlorella sp. were about 16 days respectively.

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Distribution Status and Habitat Characteristics of the Endangered Species, Lethenteron reissneri (Petromyzontiformes: Petromyzontidae) in Korea (멸종위기어류 다묵장어 Lethenteron reissneri (Petromyzontiformes: Petromyzontidae)의 분포 및 서식지 특성)

  • Ko, Myeong-Hun;Moon, Shin-Joo;Hong, Yang-Ki;Lee, Gun-Young;Bang, In-Chul
    • Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.189-199
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    • 2013
  • The distribution status and habitat characteristics of the endangered species, Lethenteron reissneri were investigated in 2011~2012 in Korea. During the study period, L. reissneri were collected 60 stations among 755 sampling stations investigated. The total numbers of ammocoetes and adults were 208 and 435, respectively from eight stations of the Han River drainage system, four stations of Geum River drainage system, 32 stations of Seomjin and Yeongsan River drainage systems, and 16 stations of Nakdong River drainage system. The Han and Geum river drainage systems, the Sapkyo Stream and independent streams running toward the East Sea were estimated to have suffered sudden reductions of population density, whereas the Seomjin River drainage system showed increased population density compared with historic occurrence records. L. reissneri inhabited the middle-upper stream of clean water with well-developed rapids and lots of aquatic organisms. According to IUCN Red List categories and criteria L. reissneri was assessed to be vulnerable (VU) [B2ab (ii,iii,iv,v);D1] because of the rapid reduction of the occupying areas and the small number of mature individuals. Besides the distribution status and habitat characteristics we discussed the conservation strategies of L. reissneri.

Fishing Characteristic of Beam Trawl Fishery in the Coastal Waters of Chungnam Province, Korea (충남 연안 조망어업의 어획특성)

  • Kim, Si-Yeop;Im, Yang-Jae;Jo, Hyun-Su;Cha, Byung-Yul;Kwon, Dae-Hyeon;Hwang, Hak-Jin
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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    • v.19 no.5
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    • pp.459-466
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    • 2013
  • To understand the fishery characteristics by a beam trawl off the coast of the Chungnam province, covering $125^{\circ}$ 50'~$126^{\circ}$ 05'E, $36^{\circ}$ 15'~$36^{\circ}$ 25'N, a beam trawl was deployed 2~4 times a month from March 2008 to February 2009. The catch was consisted of 96 species of 63 families belonging to 19 orders. Among these, organisms were identified as 54 species of fish, 27 species of crustaceans, 9 species of gastropoda, bivalves, and 6 species of cephalopods. Trachysalambria curvirostris which is the target species of the beam trawl fishery occupied only 2.1% of the total catch, showing a low ratio of catches. Most of T. curvirostris was harvested from July to November while small amount of T. curvirostris was captured from May to December. In this study, we concluded that the bycatch ratio except T. curvirostris in T. curvirostris fishery was relatively high, thus the fishery of T. curvirostris might affect the fishery resource management of bycaught species off the coast of Chungnam province.

Development of Genetic System for Isolation of SSU rRNA Mutants that Bypass SecM-Mediated Ribosome Stalling (SecM에서 유래한 접착펩타이드에 의한 라이보솜 정지를 우회하는 SSU rRNA 돌연변이체 발굴을 위한 유전학적 시스템 개발)

  • Ha, Hye-Jeong;Kim, Hong-Man;Yeom, Ji-Hyun;Lee, Kang-Seok
    • Korean Journal of Microbiology
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    • v.44 no.4
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    • pp.271-276
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    • 2008
  • Ribosome stalling by nascent sticky peptide has been reported in several organisms across the kingdom. To test whether small subunit (SSU) rRNA is involved in this phenomenon, we developed a genetic system that utilized the specialized ribosome system to isolate SSU rRNA mutants that enable ribosomes to bypass the SecM-derived sticky peptide in protein synthesis. In this system, CAT-SecM mRNA, which encodes CAT protein containing the sticky peptide derived from SecM, is only translated by specialized ribosomes. These ribosomes were shown to transiently stall on CAT-SecM mRNA followed by the synthesis of the sticky peptide. Expression of specialized ribosomes resulted in the decreased steady-state level of CAT-SecM mRNA, which is consistent with a notion that ribosome stalling induces mRNA degradation. Isolation and characterization of SSU rRNA mutations using this genetic system that are sufficient to circumvent ribosome stalling induced by the SecM-derived sticky peptide will provide evidence of SSU rRNA function in mRNA cleavage.

Micro-Spot Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Production for the Biomedical Applications

  • Hirata, T.;Tsutsui, C.;Yokoi, Y.;Sakatani, Y.;Mori, A.;Horii, A.;Yamamoto, T.;Taguchi, A.
    • Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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    • 2010.02a
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    • pp.44-45
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    • 2010
  • We are currently conducting studies on culturing and biocompatibility assessment of various cells such as neural stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells(IPS cells) on carbon nanotube (CNT), on nerve regeneration electrodes, and on silicon wafers with a focus on developing nerve integrated CNT based bio devices for interfacing with living organisms, in order to develop brain-machine interfaces (BMI). In addition, we are carried out the chemical modification of carbon nanotube (mainly SWCNTs)-based bio-nanosensors by the plasma ion irradiation (plasma activation) method, and provide a characteristic evaluation of a bio-nanosensor using bovine serum albumin (BSA)/anti-BSA binding and oligonucleotide hybridization. On the other hand, the researches in the case of "novel plasma" have been widely conducted in the fields of chemistry, solid physics, and nanomaterial science. From the above-mentioned background, we are conducting basic experiments on direct irradiation of body tissues and cells using a micro-spot atmospheric pressure plasma source. The device is a coaxial structure having a tungsten wire installed inside a glass capillary, and a grounded ring electrode wrapped on the outside. The conditions of plasma generation are as follows: applied voltage: 5-9 kV, frequency: 1-3 kHz, helium (He) gas flow: 1-1.5 L/min, and plasma irradiation time: 1-300 sec. The experiment was conducted by preparing a culture medium containing mouse fibroblasts (NIH3T3) on a culture dish. A culture dish irradiated with plasma was introduced into a $CO_2$-incubator. The small animals used in the experiment involving plasma irradiation into living tissue were rat, rabbit, and pick and are deeply anesthetized with the gas anesthesia. According to the dependency of cell numbers against the plasma irradiation time, when only He gas was flowed, the growth of cells was inhibited as the floatation of cells caused by gas agitation inside the culture was promoted. On the other hand, there was no floatation of cells and healthy growth was observed when plasma was irradiated. Furthermore, in an experiment testing the effects of plasma irradiation on rats that were artificially given burn wounds, no evidence of electric shock injuries was found in the irradiated areas. In fact, the observed evidence of healing and improvements of the burn wounds suggested the presence of healing effects due to the growth factors in the tissues. Therefore, it appears that the interaction due to ion/radicalcollisions causes a substantial effect on the proliferation of growth factors such as epidermal growth factor (EGF), nerve growth factor (NGF), and transforming growth factor (TGF) that are present in the cells.

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Morphogenetic Environment of Jilmoe Bog in the Odae Mountain National Park (오대산국립공원 내 "질뫼늪"의 지형생성환경)

  • Son, Myoung-Won;Park, Kyeong
    • Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.133-142
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    • 1999
  • The wetland is very important ecologically as a habitat of diverse organisms. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the morphogenetic environment of Jilmoe Bog found in the Odae Mountain National Park Jilmoe Bog is located in the high etchplain(1,060m) where Daebo Granite which had intruded in Jura epoch of Mesozoic era has weathered deeply and has uplifted in the Tertiary. The annual mean temperature of study area is $5.3^{\circ}C$, the annual precipitation is 2,888mm. The minimun temperature of the coldest month(january) is below $-30^{\circ}C$ and the depth of frozen soil is over 1.6m. Jilmoe bog consists of a large bog and a small bog. The length of the large bog is 63m and its width is 42m. The basal surface of Jilmoe bog is uneven. Jilmoe bog is a string bog fanned due to frost actions. In String bog, its surface is wavy with stepped dry hills and net-like troughs crossing hill slope. It seems that string bog is related to the permofrost or seasonal permofrost of cold conifer forest(taiga) zone(where the depth of frozen soil is very deep in the least in winters). String bog is a kind of thermokarst that frozen soil thaws differentially locally in declining permofrost and ground surface becomes irregular. There is turf-banked terracette of width $30{\sim}40cm$ in the headwall of small cirque-type nivation hollow formed at footslope of Maebong mountain around Jilmoe bog. This turf-banked terracette is formed by the frost growth of soil water below grass mat in periglacial climate environment. Where water is plentiful such as a nivation follow${\sim}$valley corridor and a headwall of valley, turf patterned grounds of width $30{\sim}50cm$ are found. This turf patterned ground is 'unclassified patterned ground', earth hummock. In conclusion, Jilmoe bog is a string bog of thermokarst that the relief of ground surface is irregular according to locally differentially thawing of permofrost(frozen soil). Jilmoe bog is high moor, its surroundings belongs to periglacial environment that turf-banked terracette and turf patterned ground are fanned actively.

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Biodiversity Conservation and the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem Project (생물다양성 보전과 황해 광역 해양생태계 관리계획)

  • Walton, Mark
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.335-340
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    • 2010
  • The paper describes the objectives of Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME) project, focusing on procedural and practical aspects. YSLME is a highly productive sea yet possibly one of the most impacted large marine ecosystems, in terms of anthropogenic stressors, due the enormous coastal population. The aim of the YSLME project is the reduction of ecosystem stress through identification of the environmental problems in the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) that are then addressed in the Strategic Action Programme (SAP). One of the major problems found to be affecting biological diversity is habitat modification through wetland reclamation, conversion and degradation. Since the early 1900's more than 40% of intertidal wetlands have been reclaimed in Korea, and 60% of Chinese coastal wetlands have been converted or reclaimed. Damaging fishing practices, pollution and coastal eutrophication have further degraded the coastal environment reducing the biological diversity. To combat this loss, the YSLME project has mounted a public awareness campaign to raise environmental consciousness targeted at all different levels of society, from politicians at parliamentary workshops, local government officer training events, scientific conferences and involvement of scientists in the project research and reporting, to university and high school students in our visiting internship programmes and environmental camps. We have also built networks through the Yellow Sea Partnership and by liaising and working with other environmental organizations and NGOs. NGO's are recognised as important partners in the environmental conservation as they already have extensive local networks that can be lacking in international organisations. Effective links have been built with many of these NGOs through the small grants programme. Working with WWF's YSESP project and other academic and research institutions we have conducted our own biodiversity assessments that have contributed to the science-based development of the SAP for the YSLME. Our regional targets for biodiversity outlined in the SAP include: Improvements in the densities, distributions and genetic diversity of current populations of all living organisms including endangered and endemic species; Maintenance of habitats according to standards and regulations of 2007; and a reduction in the risk of introduced species. Endorsement of the SAP and its successful implementation, during the proposed second phase of the YSLEM project, will ensure that biological diversity is here to benefit future generations.

Detection of Campylobacter jejuni in food and poultry visors using immunomagnetic separation and microtitre hybridization

  • Simard, Ronald-E.
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Fisheries Technology Conference
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    • 2000.05a
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    • pp.71-73
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    • 2000
  • Campylobacter jejuni is most frequently identified cause of cause of acute diarrhoeal infections in developeed countries, exceeding rates of illness caused by both salmonella and shigilla(Skirrow, 1990 ; Lior 1994). Previous studies on campylobacter jejuni contamination of commercial broiler carcasses in u.s.(Stern, 1992). Most cases of the disease result from indirect transmission of Campylobactor from animals via milk, water and meat. In addition to Campylobactor jejuni. the closely relates species Campylobactor coli and Campylobactor lari have also been implicated as agents of gastroenteritis in humans. Campylobactor coli represented only approximately 3% of the Campylobactor isolates from patients with Campylobactor enteritis(Griffiths and Park, 1990) whereas Campylobactor coli is mainly isolated from pork(Lmmerding et al., 1988). Campylobactor jejuni has also been isolated from cases of bacteremia, appendicitis and, recently, has been associated with Guillai-Barre syndrome(Allos and Blaser, 1994; von Wulffen et al., 1994; Phillips, 1995). Studies in volunteers indicated that the infectious dose for Campylobactor jejuni is low(about 500 organisms)(Robinson, 1981). The methods traditionally used to detect Campylobactor ssp. in food require at least two days of incubation in an enrichment broth followed by plating and two days of incubation on complex culture media containing many antibiotics(Goossens and Butzler, 1992). Finnaly, several biochemical tests must be done to confirm the indentification at the species level. Therfore, sensitive and specific methods for the detection of small numbers of Campylobactor cells in food are needed. Polymerase chain reaction(PCR) assays targeting specific DNA sequences have been developed for the detection of Campylobactor(Giesendorf and Quint, 1995; Hemandex et al., 1995; Winter and Slavidk, 1995). In most cases, a short enrichment step is needed to enhance the sensitivity of the assay prior to detection by PCR as the number of bacteria in the food products is low in comparison with those found in dinical samples, and because the complex composition of food matrices can hinder the PCR and lower its sensitivity. However, these PCR systems are technically demanding to carry out and cumbersome when processing a large number of samples simutaneously. In this paper, an immunomagnetic method to concentrate Campylobactor cells present in food or clinical samples after an enrichment step is described. To detect specifically the thermophilic Campylobactor. a monoclonal antibody was adsorbed on the surface of the magnetic beads which react against a major porin of 45kDa present on the surface of the cells(Huyer et al., 1986). After this partial purification and concentration step, detection of bound cells was achieved using a simple, inexpensive microtitre plate-based hybridization system. We examined two alternative detection systems, one specific for thermophilic Campylobactor based on the detection of 23S rRNA using an immobilized DNA probe. The second system is less specific but more sensitive because of the high copy number of the rRNA present in bacterial cell($10^3-10^4$). By using specific immunomagnetic beads against thermophilic Campylobactor, it was possible to concentrate these cells from a heterogeneous media and obtain highly specific hybridization reactions with good sensitivity. There are several advantages in using microtitre plates instead of filter membranes or other matrices for hybridization techniques. Microtitre plates are much easier to handle than filter membranes during the adsorption, washing, hybridization and detection steps, and their use faciilitates the simultanuous analysis of multiple sample. Here we report on the use of a very simple detection procedure based on a monoclonal anti-RNA-DNA hybrid antibody(Fliss et al., 1999) for detection of the RNA-DNA hybrids formed in the wells.

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Response of Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) to Vegetation Structure in Wildlife Crossings (생태통로 내부 식생구조에 대한 지표성 딱정벌레류(딱정벌레목: 딱정벌레과)의 반응)

  • Jung, Jong-Kook;Park, Yujeong;Lee, Sun Kyung;Lee, Hyoseok;Park, Young-gyun;Lee, Joon-Ho;Choi, Tae Young;Woo, Donggul
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.185-198
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    • 2016
  • Korea has put in significant efforts to increase the number of wildlife crossings between fragmented habitats to prevent loss of biodiversity and to encourage the habitat connectivity in Korea. However, there is a lack of biological data on the effect of vegetation structure in these wildlife crossings and guidelines for design and management of wildlife crossing structures in Korea. Therefore, we selected ground beetle assemblages as model organisms to compare the effect of vegetation structure in wildlife crossings, i.e. bare ground- and shrub-type corridors, in agro-forested landscapes. For this study, 4,207 ground beetles belonging to 33 species were collected through pitfall trapping along the northern forest-corridor-southern forest transects from late April to early September in 2015. Dominant species, abundance, and species richness of ground beetles were significantly higher in the shrub-type corridors than the bare ground-type corridors. Also, the species composition of bare ground-type corridor was significantly different compared to the other habitats such as shrub-type corridor and forests. Similarly, environmental variables were also influenced by vegetation management regimes or trap locations. Collectively, our study clearly indicates that the movement of forest associated ground beetles between forest patches can increase as the vegetation in wildlife crossings becomes complex. Although further studies are needed to verify this, there are indications that the current wildlife crossings that comply with the guidelines may be unfriendly to the movement of ground dwelling arthropods as well as ground beetles. To enhance the ecological function of wildlife crossings, the guidelines need to be rectified as follows: 1) Shrubs or trees should be planted along the corridor verges to provide refuge or movement paths for small mammals and ground dwelling arthropods, and 2) Open spaces should be provided in the middle of the corridors to be used as a path for the movement of large mammals.