• Title/Summary/Keyword: species-specificity

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16S/23S Intergenic Spacer Region as a Genetic Marker for Thiobacillus thiooxidans and T.ferrooxidans

  • Lee, Hye-Won;Choi, Won-Young;Cho, Kyung-Suk;Choi, Won-Ja
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.11 no.6
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    • pp.1046-1054
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    • 2001
  • Bioleaching is the process in which insoluble metal sulfide is oxidized by specialized iron- and/or sulfur-oxidizing lithotrophic bacteria in acidic, metal-rich environments. Most of these processes are carried out by the genus Thiobacillus. Three novel Thiobacillus strains (Thiobacillus thiooxidans AZ11, Thiobacillus thiooxidans MET, and thiobacillus thiooxidans TAS) associated with bioleaching have been isolated from soil and sludge (Korean patent No. 1999-0073060 for T. thiooxidans AZ11, Korean patent No. 1999-0005798 for T. thiooxidans MET, and Korean patent No. 1999-0073059 for T. thiooxidans TAS). A partial sequence of 16S ribosomal RNA gene (16S rDNA) and the entire sequence of 16S/23S intergenic spacer region (ISR) were determined in the three above novel strains and in Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC19859 as a reference strain. When phylogenetic analysis was performed based on G+C contents and sequence alignments, T. ferroxidans ATCC19859 was found to be closely related to previously registered T. ferrooxidans strains in a monophyletic manner, while the three novel T. thiooxidans strains were classified in a paraphyletic manner. Close examination on the base composition of 16S/23S ISR revealed that the 5\` part (nucleotide residues 21-200) was specific for the genus Thiobacillus. On the other end, the 3\` part (nucleotide residues 201-520) showed specificity in T. ferrooxidans strains, but not in T. thiooxidans strains. These results suggest that the proximal and distal halves of 16S/23S could be used as a genetic marker for the identification of the genus Thiobacillus and the species T. ferrooxidans, respectively.

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A Real-Time PCR Assay for the Quantitative Detection of Ralstonia solanacearum in Horticultural Soil and Plant Tissues

  • Chen, Yun;Zhang, Wen-Zhi;Liu, Xin;Ma, Zhong-Hua;Li, Bo;Allen, Caitilyn;Guo, Jian-Hua
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.193-201
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    • 2010
  • A specific and rapid real-time PCR assay for detecting Ralstonia solanacearum in horticultural soil and plant tissues was developed in this study. The specific primers RSF/RSR were designed based on the upstream region of the UDP-3-O-acyl-GlcNAc deacetylase gene from R. solanacearum, and a PCR product of 159 bp was amplified specifically from 28 strains of R. solanacearum, which represent all genetically diverse AluI types and all 6 biovars, but not from any other nontarget species. The detection limit of $10^2\;CFU/g$ tomato stem and horticultural soil was achieved in this real-time PCR assay. The high sensitivity and specificity observed with field samples as well as with artificially infected samples suggested that this method might be a useful tool for detection and quantification of R. solanacearum in precise forecast and diagnosis.

Evaluation of Various PCR Assays for Detection of Emetic-Toxin-Producing Bacillus cereus

  • Kim, Jung-Beom;Kim, Jae-Myung;Park, Yong-Bae;Han, Jeong-A;Lee, Soon-Ho;Kwak, Hyo-Sun;Hwang, In-Gyun;Yoon, Mi-Hye;Lee, Jong-Bok;Oh, Deog-Hwan
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.20 no.7
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    • pp.1107-1113
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    • 2010
  • Because conventional methods for detecting emetic-toxin-producing B. cereus are laborious and costly, various PCR assays, which are easy and cheap, have recently been reported. Therefore, this study estimated and compared the ability of various PCR assays to detect emetic-toxin-producing B. cereus strains isolated in Korea. The PCR assays were performed on 160 B. cereus strains, including 40 emetic-toxin-producing strains. Although the species-specific PCR assays were all shown to be highly specific, the sensitivities varied greatly. The accuracies of the primers were 97.5% (CER), 95.6% (EM1), 96.3% (RE234), 89.4% (CES), and 83.1% (Ces3R/CESR2). Moreover, the CER primer had a higher sensitivity (100%) than all the other primers tested, and a specificity of 96.7%. Thus, the CER primer was shown to be the most effective for screening the emetic-toxin-producing B. cereus strains tested in this study. However, the ability of these PCR assays to identify emetic-toxin-producing B. cereus should also be confirmed using other methods.

Design, Optimization and Verification of 16S rRNA Oligonucleotide Probes of Fluorescence in-situ Hybridization for Targeting Clostridium spp. and Clostridium kluyveri

  • Hu, Lintao;Huang, Jun;Li, Hui;Jin, Yao;Wu, Chongde;Zhou, Rongqing
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.28 no.11
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    • pp.1823-1833
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    • 2018
  • Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) is a common and popular method used to investigate microbial communities in natural and engineered environments. In this study, two specific 16S rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes, CLZ and KCLZ, were designed and verified to quantify the genus Clostridium and the species Clostridium kluyveri. The optimal concentration of hybridization buffer solution for both probes was 30% (w/v). The specificity of the designed probes was high due to the use of pellets from pure reference strains. Feasibility was tested using samples of Chinese liquor from the famed Luzhou manufacturing cellar. The effectiveness of detecting target cells appears to vary widely in different environments. In pit mud, the detection effectiveness of the target cell by probes CLZ and KCLZ was 49.11% and 32.14%, respectively. Quantitative analysis by FISH technique of microbes in pit mud and fermented grains showed consistency with the results detected by qPCR and PCR-DGGE techniques, which showed that the probes CLZ and KCLZ were suitable to analyze the biomass of Clostridium spp. and C. kluyveri during liquor fermentation. Therefore, this study provides a method for quantitative analysis of Clostridium spp. and C. kluyveri and monitoring their community dynamics in microecosystems.

Detection of Prevotella intermedia and Prevotella nigrescens using Pn17 and Pn34 DNA Probes

  • Park, Chan-Ho;Kim, Pan-Soon;Kim, Hwa-Sook;Min, Jeong-Bum;Hwang, Ho-Keel;Jang, Hyun-Sun;Cho, Ki-Woon;Baek, Dong-Heon;Kook, Joong-Ki
    • International Journal of Oral Biology
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    • v.35 no.1
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    • pp.13-19
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    • 2010
  • The DNA probes Pn17 and Pn34 were evaluated for their ability to specifically detect clinical strains of P. intermedia and P. nigrescens from a Korean population by dot blot hybridization. These probes were sequenced by extension termination and their specificity was determined by Southern blot analysis. The results revealed that the Pn17 sequence (2,517 bp) partially encodes an RNA polymerase beta subunit (rpoB) and that Pn34 (1,918 bp) partially encodes both rpoB (1-169 nts) and the RNA polymerase beta subunit (rpoB'; 695-1918 nts). These probes hybridized with both HindIII- and PstI-digested genomic DNAs from the strains of P. intermedia and P. nigrescens used in this study. Interestingly, each of the hybrid bands generated from the HindIII-digested genomic DNAs of the two bacterial species could be used to distinguish between them via restriction fragment length polymorphism. These results thus indicate that Pn17 and Pn34 can simultaneously detect P. intermedia and P. nigrescens.

Detection of Mycobacterium leprae by Nested PCR Targeting M. leprae-Specific Repetitive Element (RLEP) Sequence

  • Wang, Hye-Young;Kim, Yeun;Bang, Hye-Eun;Kim, Hyun-Chul;Cho, Sang-Nae;Lee, Hye-Young
    • Biomedical Science Letters
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.33-38
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    • 2007
  • The aim of this work was to validate a rapid and an accurate method for detecting Mycobacterium leprae in clinical specimens using nested PCR targeting M. leprae-specific repetitive element (RLEP) sequence. The primers were derived from the RLEP sequence which yield a 272 bp outer product and a 230 bp inner product. The specificity and the sensitivity of the nested PCR were compared with those of single PCR for detecting M. leprae using DNAs isolated from reference strain and various species of Mycobacterium. The results showed that the sensitivity of the nested PCR was about 100 to 1,000 times higher than that of the single PCR and also showed that both the single and the nested PCR were highly specific to M. leprae. Subsequently, the usefulness of the single and nested PCR was evaluated with clinical samples isolated from leprosy patients. The number of positive detections by the single and the nested PCR with a total of 20 specimens from leprosy patients were 9 (45%) and 20 (100%), respectively. The results clearly showed that nested PCR has highest sensitivity in detecting M. leprae from clinical specimens. Therefore, nested primers targeting RLEP sequence developed in this study seems to be useful to detect the presence of M. leprae.

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Development of Detection Method for Cyclomaltodextrinase Family Genes using Degenerate PCR Primers

  • Oh, Su-Won;Jang, Myoung-Uoon;Jeong, Chang-Ku;Yuk, Jeong-Bin;Park, Jung-Mi;Park, Kwan-Hwa;Kim, Tae-Jip
    • Food Science and Biotechnology
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    • v.15 no.6
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    • pp.967-974
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    • 2006
  • Cyclomaltodextrinases (CDases), maitogenic amylases, and neopullulanases share highly conserved primary structures and similar characteristics, and are thus classified into the same family. BLAST search has showed that a variety of bacterial strains harbor putative CDase family genes with several well-conserved motif amino acid sequences. In this study, four degenerate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer sets were designed for the detection of CDase genes, on the basis of their highly conserved amino acid blocks (WYQIFP, DGWRLD, LGSHDT, and KCMVW). The PCR detection conditions were optimized and the detection specificity of each for the primer sets was tested against the genomic DNAs isolated from 23 different Bacillus-associated species. Consequently, all tested primer sets evidenced successful amplification of specific PCR products in length, which share 55-98% amino acid sequence identity with known and putative CDases. The primers developed herein, therefore, can be applied for the easy and efficient detection and isolation of CDase family genes for the modification of functional food carbohydrates.

Establishment and characterization of porcine mammary gland epithelial cell line using three dimensional culture system (3차원 배양 시스템을 이용한 돼지 유선 상피 세포 주 특성과 설정)

  • Chung, Hak-Jae
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.18 no.10
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    • pp.551-558
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    • 2017
  • To study and validate tissue-specific promoters and vectors, it is important to develop cell culture systems that retain the tissue and species specificity. Such systems are attractive alternatives to transgenic animal models. This study established a line of porcine mammary gland epithelial cells (PMECs) from a primary culture based on the cellular morphology and mRNA levels of porcine beta-casein (CSN2). The selected PMECs were stained with the cytokeratin antibody, and were shown to express milk protein genes (CSN2, lactoferrin, and whey acidic protein). In addition, to confirm the acini structure of PMEC932-7 in 3D culture, live cells were stained with SYTO-13 dye, which binds to nucleic acid. The acini of these PMECs on matrigel were formed by the aggregation of peripheral cells and featured a hollow lumens. The system was demonstrated by testing the effects of the culture conditions to cell culture including cell density and matrigel methods of the PMECs. These results suggest that PMECs possess the genetic and structural features of mammary epithelial cells.

Cloning, Expression, and Characterization of a Cold-Adapted Lipase Gene from an Antarctic Deep-Sea Psychrotrophic Bacterium, Psychrobacter sp. 7195

  • Zhang, Jinwei;Lin, Shu;Zeng, Runying
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.604-610
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    • 2007
  • A psychrotrophic strain 7195 showing extracellular lipolytic activity towards tributyrin was isolated from deep-sea sediment of Prydz Bay and identified as a Psychrobacter species. By screening a genomic DNA library of Psychrobacter sp. 7195, an open reading frame of 954 bp coding for a lipase gene, lipA1, was identified, cloned, and sequenced. The deduced LipA1 consisted of 317 amino acids with a molecular mass of 35,210 kDa. It had one consensus motif, G-N-S-M-G (GXSXG), containing the putative active-site serine, which was conserved in other cold-adapted lipolytic enzymes. The recombinant LipA1 was purified by column chromatography with DEAE Sepharose CL-4B, and Sephadex G-75, and preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, in sequence. The purified enzyme showed highest activity at $30^{\circ}C$, and was unstable at temperatures higher than $30^{\circ}C$, indicating that it was a typical cold-adapted enzyme. The optimal pH for activity was 9.0, and the enzyme was stable between pH 7.0-10.0 after 24h incubation at $4^{\circ}C$. The addition of $Ca^{2+}\;and\;Mg^{2+}$ enhanced the enzyme activity of LipA1, whereas the $Cd^{2+},\;Zn^{2+},\;CO^{2+},\;Fe^{3+},\;Hg^{2+},\;Fe^{2+},\;Rb^{2+}$, and EDTA strongly inhibited the activity. The LipA1 was activated by various detergents, such as Triton X-100, Tween 80, Tween 40, Span 60, Span 40, CHAPS, and SDS, and showed better resistance towards them. Substrate specificity analysis showed that there was a preference for trimyristin and p-nitrophenyl myristate $(C_{14}\;acyl\; groups)$.

Expression and regulation of self-incompatible genes in Brassica (배추과 작물의 자가불화합성 유전자의 발현 및 조절)

  • Park, Jong-In;Lee, In-Ho;Watanabe, Masao;Nou, Ill-Sup
    • Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.186-195
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    • 2010
  • In most self-incompatible plant species, recognition of self-pollen is controlled by a single locus, termed the S-locus. The self-incompatibility (SI) system in Brassica is controlled sporophytically by multiple alleles at a single locus, designated as S, and involves cell-cell communication between male and female. Two highly polymorphic S locus genes, SLG (S locus glycoprotein) and SRK (S receptor kinase), have been identified, both of which are expressed predominantly in the stigmatic papillar cell. Gain-of-function experiments have demonstrated that SRK solely determines S haplotype-specificity of the stigma, while SLG enhances the recognition reaction of SI. The sequence analysis of the S locus genomic region of B. campestris (syn. rapa) has led to the identification of an anther-specific gene, designated as SP11/SCR, which is the male S determinant. Molecular analysis has demonstrated that the dominance relationships between S alleles in the stigma were determined by SRK itself, but not by the relative expression level. In contrast, the expression of SP11/SCR from the recessive S allele was specifically suppressed in the S heterozygote, suggesting that the dominance relationships in pollen were determined by the expression level of SP11/SCR. Furthermore, recent studies on recessive allele-specific DNA methylation of Brassica self-incompatibility alleles demonstrate that DNA methylation patterns in plants can vary temporally and spatially in each generation. In this review, we firstly present overview of self incompatibility system in Brassica and then describe dominance relationships in Brassica self- incompatibility regulated by allele-specific DNA methylation.