• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2001

Bacillus anthracis is a gram-positive spore-forming bacterium that causes the disease anthrax. The anthrax toxin contains three components, including the protective antigen (PA), which binds to eucaryotic cell surface receptors and mediates the transport of toxins into the cell. In this study, the entire 2,294-nucleotide protective antigen gene (pag) was sequenced from 4 of B. anthracis strains to identify potential variation in the toxin and to further our understanding of B. anthracis evolution in Korea. Sequence alignment of the entire PA gene from 30 strains representative of the four B. anthracis diversity groups revealed mutations. The mutation of B. anthracis BAK are located adjacent to a highly antigenic region crossing the junction between PA domains 3 and 4 shown to be critical to LF binding. The different mutational combinations observed in this study give rise to 11 PA genotypes and 4PA phenotypes. Three-dimensional analysis of all the amino acid changes (Ala to Val) observed in BAK indicated that these changes are not only close sequentially but also very close in three-dimensional space to the antigenic region importan tfor LF binding. Phylogenetic (cladistic) analysis of the pag corresponded with previous strain grouping based on chromosomal variation, suggesting that plasmid evolution in B. anthracis has occurred with little or no horizontal transfer between the different strains.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.318-327
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• 1987

Taxonomic composition and diversity were wxamined by statistical analysis for bacterial communities in surface waters of the Sudong Stream, a tributary of North Han River. For total 282 isolates, Flavobacterium, Aeromonas and Enterobacteriaceae was identified by the deterministic schemes as a major group above 50% of total isolates in all sampling sites. Morphological, biochemical and physiological characteristics were numerically analyzed for bacterial isolates from each site and clustered into 15-28 groups. Not all statistically clustered groups were identical to the groups derived from deterministic identification. Especially, consistent relationship was not found in dendrograms for the groups with each a single strain which gas peculiar sugar-degrading activity. At a level of 80% similarity, bacterial diversity (H) was ranged as 2.37-3.14, and it was suggested that the research area was oligotrophic-mesotrophic status. Regional distribution of bacterial community was most heterogeneous at the site where large input of allochthonous materials or bacteria were occurred. And that was the significant factor for the compositions of bacterial communities in the Sudong stream.

• ALGAE
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.291-304
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• 2018

Lyngbya C. Agardh ex Gomont is a nonheterocytous cyanobacterial genus whose evolutionary history is still poorly known. The traditionally defined Lyngbya has been demonstrated to be polyphyletic, including at least five distinct clades, some of which have been proposed as new genera. Intraspecific diversity is also clearly underestimated in Lyngbya due to the lack of unique morphological characters to differentiate species. In this study, we describe the new genus Capillus T. A. Caires, C. L. Sant'Anna et J. M. C. Nunes from benthic marine environments, including two new Brazilian species (here described as C. salinus T. A. Caires, C. L. Sant'Anna et J. M. C. Nunes, and C. tropicalis T. A. Caires, C. L. Sant'Anna et J. M. C. Nunes), and two species yet to be described, one of them from India (Capillus sp. 2.1), and the other from United States of America, based on strain PCC 7419. Capillus species presented cross-wise diagonal fragmentation, assisted or not by necridic cells, which has not been previously mentioned for Lyngbya. Ultrastructural analyses showed that C. salinus and C. tropicalis have numerous gas vesicles, which are rarely described for benthic marine species. The new genus formed a well-supported clade, and the D1-D1' and Box B secondary structures of internal transcribed spacer also supported the proposal of its new species. These findings help to clarify the diversity of species in the Lyngbya complex and the taxonomy of the group, and highlight the need of further floristic surveys in tropical coastal environments, which remain poorly studied.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1617-1621
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• 2007

The 21 Kimchi samples collected by a contest for the best Kimchi homemaker in Jeonju were analysed to find major microbial composition and the correlation between sensory scores and the microbial properties, which include total microbial numbers, dominant strain number, subdominant strain number, yeast strain numbers, and floral diversity. The most common microbial composition of the Kimchi samples was Leuconostoc mesenteroides as dominant strain, and Lactobacillus sakei as subdominant strain, the pattern of which was also observed in all three Kimchi samples with the highest sensory scores, but not in all three Kimchi samples with the lowest sensory scores. However none of the other examined properties showed any significant correlation to sensory scores. This result means that the taste of fermented Kimchi depends mainly on the composition of bacterial species and that of Leuconostoc mesenteroides as dominant strain and Lactobacillus sakei as subdominant strain is the best for good taste. Yeast strains were found in the range of $3.8{\sim}4.6log\;CFU/g$ from 8 Kimchi samples and all the strains were identified to be Saccharomyces servazzii. However, fungi were not detected from any of the Kimchi. samples.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.18-25
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• 2002

The pikromycin biosynthetic system in Streptomyces venezuleae is unique for its ability to produce two groups of antibiotics that include the 12-membered ring macrolides methymycin and neomethymycin, and the 14-membered ring macrolides narbomycin and pikromycin. The metabolic pathway also contains two post polyketide-modification enzymes, a glycosyltransferase and P450 hydroxylase that have unusually broad substrate specificities. In order to explore further the substrate flexibility of these enzymes a series of hybrid polyketide synthases were constructed and their metabolic products characterized. The plasmid-based replacement of the multifunctional protein subunits of the pikromycin PKS in S. venezuelae by the corresponding subunits from heterologous modular PKSs resulted in recombinant strains that produce both 12- and 14-membered ring macrolactones with predicted structural alterations. In all cases, novel macrolactones were produced and further modified by the DesVII glycosyltransferase and PikC hydroxylase leading to biologically active macrolide structures. These results demonstrate that hybrid PKSs in S. venezuelae can produce a multiplicity of new macrolactones that are modified further by the highly flexible DesVII glycosyltransferase and PikC hydroxylase tailoring enzymes. This work demonstrates the unique capacity of the S. venezuelae pikromycin pathway to expand the toolbox of combinatorial biosynthesis and to accelerate the creation of novel biologically active natural products. The polyketide backbone of rifamycin B is assembled through successive condensation and ${\beta}$-carbonyl processing of the extender units by the modular rifamycin PKS. The eighth module, in the RifD protein, contains nonfunctional DH domain and functional KR domain, which specify the reduction of the ${\beta}$-carbonyl group resulting in the C-21 bydroxyl of rifamycin B. A four amino acid substitution and one amino acid deletion were introduced in the putative NADPH binding motif in the proposed KR domain encoded by rifD. This strategy of mutation was based on the amino acid sequences of the corresponding motif of the KR domain of module 3 in the RifA protein, which is believed dysfunctional, so as to introduce a minimum alteration and retain the reading frame intact, yet ensure loss of function. The resulting strain produces linear polyketides, from tetraketide to octaketide, which are also produced by a rifD disrupted mutant as a consequence of premature termination of polyketide assembly. Much of the structural diversity within the polyketide superfamily of natural products is due to the ability of PKSs to vary the reduction level of every other alternate carbon atom in the backbone. Thus, the ability to introduce heterologous reductive segments such as ketoreductase (KR), dehydratase (DH), and enoylreductase (ER) into modules that naturally lack these activities would increase the power of the combinatorial biosynthetic toolbox. The dehydratase domain of module 7 of the rifamycin PKS, which is predicted to be nonfunctional in view of the sequence of the apparent active site, was replaced with its functional homolog from module 7 of rapamycin-producing polyketide synthase. The resulting mutant strain behaved like a rifC disrupted mutant, i.e., it accumulated the heptaketide intermediate and its precursors. This result points out a major difficulty we have encountered with all the Amycolatopsis mediterranei strain containing hybrid polyketide synthases: all the engineered strains prepared so far accumulate a plethora of products derived from the polyketide chain assembly intermediates as major products instead of just analogs of rifamycin B or its ansamycin precursors.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2012

This study was carried to identify a correct species and asses genetic diversity within the same species of Polyporus spp. preserved in Division of applied Microbiology. Contaminated isolates showed different growth rates, morphology and color of hyphae. We have reconstructed the phylogenetic tree of a select group of Polyporus spp. using nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region(ITS) region. The phylogenetic tree was constructed by using the neighbor-joining method. PELF primers of 20-mer were used to assess genetic diversity of preserved isolates. Sequence analysis showed that three strains were different species and four strains were identified completely different nomenclature. According to the analysis of ITS sequences, the genus Polyporus clustered into five distinct group, most of which correlated with species-groups identified by RAPD method. Four isolates included strain PM02 showed high similarity with P. arcularius, four isolates included strain PM03 high similarity with P. alveolaris, three isolates included strain PM01 high similarity with P. tuberaster, and PM 06 and PM04 high similarity with P. brumalis and P. squamossus. Isolates were collected in the United States(PM10, PM11) was identified as P. alveolarius and P. arcularius. RAPD analysis of genetic polymorphisms of genus Polyporus showed a very different band patterns. As the result of RAPD and ITS region sequences analysis for preserved isolates, it seems likely that 6 isolates of Polyporus spp. may be need to reclassify or eliminate from preserved catalogue.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1606-1608
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• 2014

During an investigation of the fungal diversity of Korean soils, four Penicillium strains could not be assigned to any described species. The strains formed monoverticillate conidiophores with occasionally a divaricate branch. The conidia were smooth or finely rough-walled, globose to broadly ellipsoidal and $2.5-3.5{\times}2.0-3.0{\mu}m$ size. Their taxonomic novelty was determined using partial ${\beta}$-tubulin gene sequences and the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the isolates belonged to section Lanata-Divaricata and were most closely related to Penicillium raperi. Phenotypically, the strains differed from P. raperi in having longer and thicker stipes and thicker phialides. Strain KACC $47721^T$ from bamboo field soil was designated as the type strain of the new species, and the species was named Penicillium koreense sp. nov., as it was isolated from various regions in Korea.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.351-364
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• 2019

Here we describe indigenous prokaryotic species in Korea, a total of 42 bacterial strains affiliated to the class Alphaproteobacteria isolated from various environmental samples: fermented vinegar, sea water, beach sand, fresh water, salt flats, moss, algae, activated sludge, and soil. From the high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (>98.7%) and formation of a robust phylogenetic clade with the closest species, it was determined that each strain belonged to predefined bacterial species. There is no official report that these 42 species included in Alphaproteobacteria in Korea: 15 species of 6 genera in the order Rhodospirillales, 12 species of 10 genera in the order Rhizobiales, 10 species of 8 genera in the order Rhodobacterales, 4 species of 4 genera in the order Sphingomonadales and 1 species of 1 genus in the order Caulobacterales. Gram reaction, colony and cell morphology, basic biochemical characteristics, isolation source, and strain IDs are also described in the species description section.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.12-22
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• 2021

During a comprehensive investigation of indigenous prokaryotic species in Korea, 25 and 10 bacterial strains assigned to the classes Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria, respectively, were isolated from diverse environmental habitats, including soil, mud, tidal field, sea water, sand, rusted iron, and leaf. Based on their high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities (>98.7%) and the formation of robust phylogenetic clades with type species, each strain was assigned to an independent and predefined bacterial species. Since there were no published or official reports regarding these 35 isolates in Korea, they - 25 species of 14 families in the 5 orders of Alphaproteobacteria and 10 species of 3 families in the two orders of Betaproteobacteria - have been reported as unrecorded species in Korea. In addition, Gram reaction, colony and cell morphology, basic biochemical characteristic, isolation source, and strain ID of each species are also described in the species description sections.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.191-200
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• 2021

To study the biodiversity of bacterial species, here we report indigenous prokaryotic species of Korea. A total of 23 bacterial strains affiliated to the class Alphaproteobacteria were isolated from various environmental sources including seaweeds, seawater, fresh water, wetland/marsh, tidal sediment, plant roots, sewage and soil. Considering higher than 98.8% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities and formation of a well-defined phylogenetic clade with named species, it was confirmed that each strain belonged to the predefined bacterial species of the class Alphaproteobacteria. There is no official report of these 23 species in Korea; 20 species of 16 genera (Mameliella, Yangia, Paracoccus, Ruegeria, Loktanella, Phaeobacter, Dinoroseobacter, Tropicimonas, Lutimaribacter, Litoreibacter, Sulfitobacter, Roseivivax, Labrenzia, Hyphomonas, Maricaulis, Thalassospira) in the order Rhodobacterales and 3 species of a single genus (Brevundimonas) in the order Caulobacterales. Gram-staining, cell morphology, basic biochemical characteristics, isolation sources, optimum temperature, growth media, and strain IDs are detailed in the species description as well as Table 1.