• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.251-263
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• 2022

Sea cucumbers are worm-like, leathery bodied, benthic, marine organisms with a branched gonad. There are over 900 species, and these organisms are capable of changing their mechanical state, regenerating their small appendages, and digestive tract. Additionally, sea cucumbers possess both commercial and therapeutical value. Furthermore, it is thought that the metabolites these organisms possess may give rise to their therapeutical value. The use of sea cucumbers in therapy can be traced back to the Ming dynasty, where they were eaten for their tonic properties against constipation, hypertension, and rheumatism. A plethora of studies have been conducted, whereby different metabolites were extracted from sea cucumbers and tested for different therapeutic properties. Herein, we review and discuss the anti-cancer, anti-microbial, anti-coagulant, anti-diabetic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties of the sea cucumber by assessing literature on PubMed and Google Scholar. Furthermore, the genome and epigenome of these remarkable species is discussed. With the immense data supporting the therapeutic properties of sea cucumbers, further studies are warranted, in order to develop novel and innovative therapeutic compounds for the benefit of human health from these fascinating marine organisms.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.79-90
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to investigate degree of the concept formation on cell in elementary school teachers and to clarify the patterns of their misconceptions. Data were collected by interview with 120 elementary school teachers, ranged from twenties to fifties in age, working in Taegu city. The instrument was developed by researchers and was categorized into four: cell as the basic units of life, morphology of cell, function of cell, growth of individual from the viewpoint of cell. The results are as follows: First, about 80% of teachers had two perspective outcome of cell: Cells are the basic units of life on earth. But the potato and meat, which we used to eat as food, are not constructed of cells but aggregated of nutrients. Second, most of elementary school teachers recognized that shapes of the cell in organisms were diverse, but some of them only could present several kinds of shape on cell. The 35% of teachers had misconception that shape of cell is all the same in a individual. It shows that this result is caused by lack of opportunity to observe the various kinds of cells. Third, most teachers understood tell can be seen only through a microscope. Yet in comparison with relative size, it was revealed that misconception of cell size was induced by the term of 'basic unit'. In addition, they thought that large organisms are built from large cells, and small organisms from small cells. Fourth, Elementary school teachers used to confuse the terms between chloroplast and chlorophyll, and believed that the genetic material was contained only in the reproductive cells and seeds. It was also revealed that they thought the nutrients such as starch and fat are located at intercellular space. Fifth, the 60% of teachers conceived correctly that growth of individual depends on mitosis and increase in cell number. The rest of them, however, misunderstood that it is due to the increase of tell volume.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.498-502
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• 2004

The current study was conducted to monitor the possibility of the gene transfer among soil bacteria, including the effect of drift due to rain and surface water, in relation to the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment. Four types of bacteria, each with a distinct antibiotic marker, kanamycin-resistant P. fluorescens, rifampicin-resistant P. putida, chloramphenicol-resistant B. subtilis, and spectinomycin-resistant B. subtilis, were plated using a small-scale soil-core device designed to track drifting microorganisms. After three weeks of culture in the device, no Pseudomonas colonies resistant to both kanamycin and rifampicin were found. Likewise, no Bacillus colonies resistant to both chloramphenicol and spectinomycin were found. The gene transfer from glyphosate-tolerant soybeans to soil bacteria, including Rhizobium spp. as a symbiotic bacteria, was examined by hybridization using the DNA extracted from soil taken from pots, in which glyphosate-tolerant soybeans had been growing for 6 months. The results showed that 35S, T-nos, and EPSPS were observed in the positive control, but not in the DNA extracted from the soilborne microorganisms. In addition, no transgenes, such as the 35S promoter, T-nos, and EPSPS introduced into the GMO soybeans were detected in soilborne bacteria, Rhizobium leguminosarum, thereby strongly rejecting the possibility of gene transfer from the GMO soybeans to the bacterium.

• ALGAE
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.303-313
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• 2019

Floating seaweed rafts are a surface-pelagic habitat that serve as substrates for benthic flora and fauna. Since 2008, Sargassum horneri clumps have periodically invaded the Korea Strait. In this study, the polymerase chain reaction-free small-organelles enriched metagenomics method was adopted to identify the species of epibiotic eukaryotes present in floating S. horneri fronds. A total of 185 species were identified, of which about 63% were previously undetected or unreported in Korean waters. The rafts harbored a diverse assemblage of eukaryotic species, including 39 Alveolata, 4 Archaeplastida, 95 Opisthokonts, 4 Rhizaria, and 43 Stramenopiles. Of these 185 taxa, 48 species were found at both Sargassum rafts collection stations and included 24 Stramenopiles, 17 Alveolata, and 7 Opisthokonts. Among these, the highest proportion (50%) of species was photo-autotrophic in basic trophic modes, while the proportion of phagotrophic, osmo- or saprotrophic, and parasitic modes were 43.8%, 4.2%, and 2.1%, respectively. This study demonstrates the contribution of floating Sargassum rafts as dispersal vectors that facilitate the spread of alien species.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 1995

A probability identification matrix of acidophilic Streptomyces was constructed. The phenetic data of the strains were derived from numerical classification described by Seong et al. The minimum number of diagnostic characters was determined using computer programs for calculation of different separation indices. The resulting matrix consisted of 25 clusters versus 53 characters. Theoretical evaluation of this matrix was achieved by estimating the chuster overlap and the identification scores for the Hypothetical Median Organisms (HMO) and for the representatives of each cluster. Cluster overlap was found to be relatively small. Identification scores for the HMO and the randomly selected representatives of each cluster were satisfactory. The matrix was assessed practically by applying the matrix to the identification of unknown isolates. Of the unknown isolates, 71.9% were clearly identified to one of eight clusters. The numerical classification data was also used to design a selective isolation medium for antibiotic-producing organisms. Four chemical substances including 2 antibiotics were determined by the DLACHAR program as diagnostic for the isolation of target organisms which have antimicrobial activity against Micrococcus luteus. It was possible to detect the increased rate of selective isolation on the synthesized medium. Theresults show that the numerical phenetic data can be applied to a variety of purposes, such as construction of identification matrix and selective isolation medium for acidophilic antinomycetes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.791-797
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• 2014

Sixty-two conserved orthologous groups (OGs) of proteins, in 63 prokaryotes and seven eukaryotes were analyzed to identify essential proteins in the mitochondria of eukaryotes, and their counterparts in prokaryotes. Twenty OGs were common in eukaryotic mitochondria, and all were translation related. Encephalitozoon cuniculi, an obligate parasitic eukaryote, shares no common mitochondrial OGs with the other 69 organisms. Seventeen conserved OGs were mitochondria related in the 69 organisms. Mitochondria related- and nonrelated-OGs were divided into prokaryotic genomes (p<0.001, paired t-test) unlike eukaryotic genomes in the distance value analysis. The most commonly conserved mitochondria-related OG was COG0048-KOG1750 (ribosomal small subunit S12), whereas it was COG0100-KOG0407 (ribosomal small subunit S11) in nonrelated OGs. These results could be applied in scientific research to determine phylogenetic relationships and in areas such as drug development.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2012.11a
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• pp.145-146
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• 2012

Recently the problem of the fouling organisms, especially Sn-compounds is expanded to environmental problems from the chemical reaction with imposex and secondary contamination. One of the existing antifouling system, antifouling paints, is regulated from 2012, July because of seriousness about toxic substances such as TBT, mercury, copper and so on. TBT is known that causes a variety of biological inhibition in various chemicals even a very small amount of concentration. So it has been developed to replace it. In this paper, we try to develope a new system with the environmental background and the research of the adhesion characteristics of fouling organisms using a low current, high frequency high voltage pulse power, not toxic compounds.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.278-284
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• 1994

Streptomyces spp. purchased from American Type Culture Collection and Institute for Fermentation in Osaka, and donated from Northem Regional Research Laboratory, and those isolated from soil samples were assayed to isolate many plasmids harboring streptomycetes. Among these qrganisms, 5 small size-plasmid carrying organisms SNUS 8810-597A, 8810-600, 8810-754, 8811-344, and 8811-347 were characterized and their plasmids pSJ597, pSJ600, pSJ754, pSJ344, and pSJ347 were isolated in a large scale. The plasmid harboring organisms were sensitive to neomycin, kanamycin, gentamicin, and thiostreptone, but some of them showed weak or strong resistance against streptomycin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, and tetracycline. It was confirmed that pSJ597 and pSJ600 do not carry antibiotic biosynthetic genes. pSJ600 showed a pock-forming character.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.207-216
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• 2017

Several bioassays have been performed for assessment of the impact of polluted sediments. The direct exposure method using sediments is limited by difficulty controlling feeding and its effects on organisms. Furthermore, only macro-organisms and benthic organisms are used. To evaluate the potential application of sediment elutriate as a complementary strategy for impact assessment, copepods, small organisms with a short life cycle, were exposed to sediment elutriates, and several end-points were measured. As a result, sediment elutriates prepared from polluted sites caused growth retardation in marine copepods. In terms of molecular biomarkers, antioxidant-related and chaperone protein gene expression levels were increased in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Thus, we suggest that sediment elutriate tests can provide an effective alternative for toxicity assessment using whole sediment samples. Further studies are required to obtain sufficient data for future applications.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.244-248
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• 2020

To retain valuable resources, organisms adopt several strategies including coprophagy. Cells covering the outer skin and internal digestive lumen are actively recycled to maintain their integrity. In present study, we suggested that the small intestine can consume dead cells in a manner similar to how it consumes protein from the diet. We examined the eluates from five segments of the mouse small intestine and cecum and 2 segments of the large intestine and small intestine tissue, and detected immunoreactivity with eukaryotic caveolin-1 and β-actin antibodies only in the cecum and 2 segments from the large intestine. Bacterial agitation of the mouse intestine with Shigella disrupted the architecture and absorptive function of the small intestine. Small intestine eluates were immunoreactive with murine caveolin-1 and contained heme as determined by dot blot analysis. We concluded that the body conserves resources in the small intestine by disposing of and recycling shedded cells.