Antimicrobial resistance has been a well-recognized problem ever since the introduction of penicillin into clinical use. History of antimicrobial development can be categorized based on the major antibiotics that had been developed against emerging resistant $pathogens^1$. In the first period from 1940 to 1960, penicillin was a dominating antibiotic called as a "magic bullet", although S.aureus armed with penicillinase led antimicrobial era to the second period in 1960s and 1970s. The second stage was characterized by broad-spectrum penicillins and early generation cephalosporins. During this period, nosocomial infections due to gram-negative bacilli became more prevalent, while those caused by S.aureus declined. A variety of new antimicrobial agents with distinct mechanism of action including new generation cephalosporins, monobactams, carbapenems, ${\beta}$-lactamase inhibitors, and quinolones characterized the third period from 1980s to 1990s. However, extensive use of wide variety of antibiotics in the community and hospitals has fueled the crisis in emerging antimicrobial resistance. Newly appeared drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (DRSP), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), extended-spectrum ${\beta}$-lactamase-producing Klebsiella, and VRSA have posed a serious threat in many parts of the world. Given the recent epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance and its clinical impact, there is no greater challenge related to emerging infections than the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Problems of antimicrobial resistance can be amplified by the fact that resistant clones or genes can spread within or between the species as well as to geographically distant areas which leads to a global concern$^2$. Antimicrobial resistance is primarily generated and promoted by increased use of antimicrobial agents. Unfortunately, as many as 50 % of prescriptions for antibiotics are reported to be inappropriate$^3$. Injudicious use of antibiotics even for viral upper respiratory infections is a universal phenomenon in every part of the world. The use of large quantities of antibiotics in the animal health industry and farming is another major factor contributing to selection of antibiotic resistance. In addition to these background factors, the tremendous increase in the immunocompromised hosts, popular use of invasive medical interventions, and increase in travel and mixing of human populations are contributing to the resurgence and spread of antimicrobial resistance$^4$. Antimicrobial resistance has critical impact on modem medicine both in clinical and economic aspect. Patients with previously treatable infections may have fatal outcome due to therapeutic failure that is unusual event no more. The potential economic impact of antimicrobial resistance is actually uncountable. With the increase in the problems of resistant organisms in the 21st century, however, additional health care costs for this problem must be enormously increasing.

Strain BH5 was isolated from naturally fermented Kimchi and identified as a bacteriocin producer, which has bactericidal activity against Micrococcus flavus ATCC 10240. Strain BH5 was identified tentatively as Lactococcus lactis by the API test and some characteristics. Lactococcus lactis BH5 showed a broad spectrum of activity against most of the non-pathogenic and pathogenic microorganisms tested by the modified deferred method. The activity of lacticin BH5, named tentatively as the bacteriocin produced by Lactococcus lactis BH5, was detected at the mid-log growth phase, reached its maximum during the early stationary phase, and decreased after the late stationary phase. Lacticin BH5 also showed a relatively broad spectrum of activity against non-pathogenic and pathogenic microorganisms as tested by the spot-on-lawn method. Its antimicrobial activity on sensitive indicator cells was completely disappeared by protease XIV or ${\alpha}$-chymotrypsin. The inhibitory activities of lacticin BH5 were detected during treatments up to 100$^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. Lacticin BH5 was very stable over a pH range of 2.0 to 9.0 and was stable with all the organic solvents examined. The cell concentration and bacteriocin production in strain BH5 were maximum when grown at 30$^{\circ}C$ in a modified MRS medium supplemented with 0.5% tryptone, 1.0% yeast extract, and 0.5% beef extract as nitrogen sources. It demonstrated a typical bactericidal mode of inhibition against Micrococcus flavus ATCC 10240. Lacticin BH5 was purified through ammonium sulfate precipitation, ethanol precipitation, and CM-Sepharose column chromatography. The apparent molecular mass of lacticin BH5 was estimated to be in the region of 3.7 kDa, by the direct detection of bactericidal activity after SDS-PAGE. Mutant strain NO141 which was isolated by nitrosoguanidine mutagenesis produced about 4 fold more bacteriocin than the wild type.

D-Tagatose is a potential bulking agent in food as a non-calorific sweetener. To produce D-tagatose from cheaper resources, plasmids harboring the L-arabinose isomerase gene (araA) from Escherichia coli was constructed because L-arabinose isomerase was previously suggested as an enzyme that mediates the bioconversion of galactose to tagatose as well as that of arabinose to ribulose. In the cultures of recombinant E.coli with pTC101, which harboring araA of E.coli, tagatose was produced from galactose in 9.9 % yield. The enzyme extract of E.coli containing pTC101 also converted galactose into tagatose in 96.4 % yield. For the economic production of D-tagatose, an L-arabinose isomerase of E.coli was immobilized using covalent binding on agarose. While the free L-arabinose isomerase produced tagatose with the rate of 0.48 mg/U$.$day, the immobilized one stably converted galactose into average 7.5 g/l$.$day of tagatose during 7 days with higher productivity of 0.87 mg/U$.$day. In the scaled up immobilized enzyme system, 99.9 g/l of tagatose was produced from galactose with 20 % equilibrium in 48 hrs. The process was stably repeated additional 2 times with tagatose production of 104.1 and 103.5 g/l.

Protein secretion in filamentous fungi has been shown to be restricted to actively growing hyphal tips. To determine whether an increase in the amount of growing surface area of a fungus can lead to an increase in the amount of protein secretion, we examined secretion in a temperature-sensitive Neurospora crassa mcb mutant that shows a loss of growth polarity when incubated at restrictive-temperature. Incubation of the mcb mutant at restrictive-temperature results in a three- to five-fold increase in the level of extracellular protein and a 20- fold increase in carboxymethyl cellulase activity relative to a wild-type strain. A mutation in the cr-l gene has been shown previously to suppress the apolar growth phenotype of the mcb mutant, and we find that the level of extracellular protein produced by a mcb; cr-l double mutant was reduced to that of the wild-type control. Immunolocalization of a secreted endoglucanase revealed that proteins are secreted mainly at hyphal tips in hyphae exhibiting polar growth and over the entire surface area of bulbous regions of hyphae that are produced following a shift of the mcb mutant to restrictive-temperature. These results support the hypothesis that secretion of extracellular protein by a filamentous fungus can be significantly increased by mutations that alter growth polarity.

Bioluminescence is being used as a prevailing reporter of gene expression in microorganisms and mammalian cells. Bacterial bioluminescence draws special attention from environmental biotechnologists since it has many advantageous characteristics, such as no requirement of extra substractes, highly sensitive, and on-line measurability. Using bacterial bioluminescence as a reporter of toxicity has replaced the classical toxicity monitoring technology of using fish or daphnia with a cutting-edge technology. Fusion of bacterial stress promoters, which control the transcription of stress genes corresponding to heat-shock, DNA-, or oxidative-damaging stress, to the bacterial lux operon has resulted in the development of novel toxicity biosensors with a short measurement time, enhanced sensitivity, and ease and convenient usage. Therefore, these recombinant bioluminescent bacteria are expected to induce bacterial bioluminescence when the cells are exposed to stressful conditions, including toxic chemicals. We have used these recombinant bioluminescent bacteria in order to develop toxicity biosensors in a continuous, portable, or in-situ measurement from for air, water, and soil environments. All the data obtained from these toxicity biosensors for these environments were found to be repeatable and reproducible, and the minimum detection level of toxicity was found to be ppb (part per billion) levels for specific chemicals.

In a recently developed strategy for in-situ treatment of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), bioaugmentation was used in conjunction with a surfactant, sorbitan trioleate, as a carbon source for the degrader bacteria, along with the monoterpene, carvone, and salicylic acid as inducing substrates. Two bacteria were used for soil inoculants, including Arthrobacter sp. st. B1B and Ralstonia eutrophus H850. This methodology achieved 60% degradation of PCBs in Aroclor 1242 after 18 weeks in soils receiving 34 repeated applications of the degrader bacteria. However, an obvious limitation was the requirement for soil mixing after every soil inoculation. In the research reported here, bioaugmentation and biostimulation treatment strategies were modified by using the earthworm, Pheretima hawayana, as a vector for dispersal and mixing of surface-applied PCB-degrading bacteria and soil chemical amendments. Changes in microbial biomass and microbial community structure due to earthworm effects were examined using DNA extraction and PCR-DGGE of 16S rDNA. Results showed that earthworms effectively promoted biodegradation of PCBs in bioaugmented soils to the same extent previously achieved using physical soil mixing, and had a lesser, but significant effect in promoting PCB biodegradation in biostimulated soils treated with carvone and salicylic acid. The effects of earthworms were speculated to involve many interacting factors including increased bacterial transport to lower soil depths, improved soil aeration, and enhanced microbial activity and diversity.

Freshwater borne bacteria transformed with luxAB-containing plasmid were optimized for the toxicity tests of various organic carbons and heavy metals. The EC$\sub$50/ values obtained from tests using the most sensitive bacterium to toxicants, YH9-RC, revealed to be much less than those from the Microtox$\^$/. In addition, some physiological characteristics of this bacterium under the toxic stress conditions such as potential bioluminescence, specific growth rate, and intracellular ATP contents, reproducibly and reliably correlated to the toxicity of the chemicals exposed. The higher concentrations of COD in wastewater samples, the lower EC$\sub$50/ values, therefore the developed toxicity test was found to be easily applicable to the toxicity test for wastewater samples and effluents. The conditions for constructing 384-multiwell plate containing freeze-dried bacterium were also optimized through the addition of 0.16 M trehalose before freeze-drying. Consequently, the advanced test system featuring a continuous measurement of the toxicity, an automated real-time monitoring of its results, and an alerting function was designed and constructed in combination with the microbiological, mechanical, and electronic compartment.

The purpose of this work was to investigate the induction of stress shock proteins (SSPs) in Burkholderia sp. YK-2 in response to 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), and Pseudomonas sp. DJ-12 to benzoate, 4-chlorobenzoate (4-CBA), 4-hydroxybenzoate, and biphenyl. The SSPs, which contribute to the resistance of the cytotoxic effect of the toxic aromatic compounds including 2,4-D and 4-CBA, were induced at different concentrations of the compounds in exponentially growing cultures of Burkholderia sp. YK-2 or Pseudomonas sp. DJ-12. This response involved the induction of a 43 kDa DnaK and 41 kDa GroEL proteins in Burkholderia sp. YK-2, characterized by SDS-PAGE and Western blot using the anti-DnaK and anti-GroEL monoclonal antibodies. In Pseudomonas sp. DJ-12, 70 kDa DnaK and 60 kDa GroEL proteins was induced as SSPs, respectively. The total SSPs were analyzed by 2-D PAGE. Survival of Burkholderia sp. YK-2 or Pseudomonas sp. DJ-12 with time in the presence of different concentrations of the compounds was monitored, and viable counts paralleled the induction of the SSPs in these strains. Cells treated with the increased concentrations of toxic compounds showed some destructive openings on the cell envelopes.

In the course of flora analysis of soil Archaea, we found very strange 16S rDNA clones, which could possibly constitute a sister clade from known two archael, Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota, lineages. Overall signature sequences showed that the clones were closely related to domains Archaea and Eucarya. However, at least nine nucleotides distinguished the novel clones from domains Archaea and Eucarya. Phylogenetic trees drawn by maximum parsimony, neighbor joining and maximum likelihood methods also showed unique phylogenetic position of the clones. A very specific primer set was synthesized to detect the presence of the novel group of organisms in terrestrial environments. A specific DNA fragment was amplified from all of paddy soil DNAs, and this fact suggests that the novel organisms inhabit paddy soils.

Global Biodiversity is common interest of humans for better health and sustainable development of the society. To provide access and analysis on microbial diversity information, Bacteriology Insight Orienting System (BIOS) has been developed. BIOS contains 6402 species and subspecies names of bacteria and archaea, 2606 names of cyanobacteria by March 2000. BIOS of which web based analytical tool provides windows to compare the results of phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequence and the results of cluster analysis on proteome profiling. The sequence data and 2 dimensional gel electrophoresis analysis data were accumulated in BIOS database content for cyanobacteria reclassification and taxonomy. (BIOS URL: http.://www-sp2000ao.nies.go.jp/bios/index.html).

Recent molecular and polyphasic taxonomic approaches toward bacterial systematics have played a significant role in revolutionizing our insight in the taxonomy of bacterial organisms. This advance has also contributed greatly to delineation of new taxa from bacterial organisms isolated from a variety of natural sources of Korea. Recently, many bacterial organisms have isolated from soil, seawater, foods, wastewaters and humans of Korea and have been subjected to polyphasic taxonomic study. From the results of this study, some isolates have been found to be members of new genera and new species.

Oligotrophic bacteria isolated from forest soil showed a specific community consisting of various taxonomic groups compared with those in other soil or aquatic habitats. Based on the cell shape, the isolates were divided into four groups: regular rod, curved/spiral rod, irregular rod, and prosthecate bacteria. The cellular fatty acids 60 oligotrophic isolates were analyzed. The 30 fatty acids which were identified or characterized are classified. At the dendrogram based on cellular fatty acid composition, four clusters(I-IV) were separated at a euclidian distance of about 50. Cluster 3 and 4-a strains were containing Q-8, these strains are accommodated in the Proteobacteria gamma and beta subdivision. The chemotaxonomic profiles of the cluster 4-a strains showed good agreement with those of the genus Burkholderia. Cluster 3 was characterized by the presence of branched-chain fatty acids, iso-C15:0, iso-C17:1, and iso-C17:0 as the major components. These chemotaxonomy suggested the close relationship of the isolates with Xathomonas/Sterotrophomonas group. Based on the 16S rDNA sequence analysis, the two representative strains(MH256 and MA828) of cluster 3 showed the close relation to genera, Xathomonas/Sterotrophomonas, but were not included in these genera. These strains were even further away from core Xanthomonas, and clearly were seen to branch outside the cluster formed by the Sterotrophomonas maltophilia. MH256 and MA828 16S rDNA sequence was different enough to put new genus on a separate branch. The isolates with Q-10 were also studied. They are corresponded to the two large groups in Proteobacteria alpha subdivision. One was incorporated in the genus Bradyrhizobium cluster, which also includes Agromonas, a genus for oligotrophic bacteria. The strains of the other group showed high similarity to the genus Agrobacterium.

A thermostable chitosanase gene from the isolated strain, Bacillus sp. CK4, was cloned, and its complete DNA sequence was determined. The thermostable chitosanase gene was composed of an 822-bp open reading frame which encodes a protein of 242 amino acids and a signal peptide corresponding to a 30 kDa enzyme in size. The deduced amino acid sequence of the chitosanase from Bacillus sp. CK4 exhibits 76.6%, 15.3%, and 14.2% similarities to those from Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus ehemensis, and Bacillus circulans, respectively. C-terminal homology analysis shows that Bacillus sp. CK4 belongs to the Cluster III group with Bacillus subtilis. The size of the gene was similar to that of a mesophile, Bacillus subtilis showing a higher preference for codons ending in G or C. The functional importance of a conserved region in a novel chitosanase from Bacillus sp. CK4 was investigated. Each of the three carboxylic amino acid residues were changed to E50D/Q, E62D/Q, and D66N/E by site-directed mutagenesis. The D66N/E mutants enzymes had remarkably decreased kinetic parameters such as $V_{max}$ and k$\sub$cat/, indicating that the Asp-66 residue was essential for catalysis. The thermostable chitosanase contains three cysteine residues at position 49, 72, and 211. Titration of the Cys residues with DTNB showed that none of them were involved in disulfide bond. The C49S and C72S mutant enzymes were as stable to thermal inactivation and denaturating agents as the wild-type enzyme. However the half-life of the C211S mutant enzyme was less than 60 min at 80$^{\circ}C$, while that of the wild type enzyme was about 90 min. Moreover, the residual activity of C211S was substantially decreased by 8 M urea, and fully lost catalytic activity by 40% ethanol. These results show that the substitution of Cys with Ser at position 211 seems to affect the conformational stability of the chitosanase.

The thermal stability and catalytic activity of phospholipase A$_1$ from Serratia sp. MK1 were improved by an evolutionary molecular engineering. Two thermostable mutants were isolated after sequential rounds of error-prone PCR to introduce random mutations and filter-based screening of the resultant mutant library, and identified as having six (mutant TA3) and seven (mutant TA13) amino acid substitutions, respectively. Different types of the substitutions were found in two mutants, resulting in the increase of nonploar residues (mutant TA3) or changes between side chains within polar or charged residues (mutant TA13). The wild-type and mutant enzymes were purified, and the effect of temperature on their stability and catalytic activity was investigated. The T$\sub$m/ values of TA3 and TA13 were increased by 7 and 11$^{\circ}C$, respectively. Thus, evolutionary molecular engineering was found to be an effective and efficient approach to increasing thermostability without compromising enzyme activity.

In order to develop the novel gene expression system, we introduced new control elements which could influence the foreign gene expression in animal cells. When the foreign genes are introduced into the genome of higher eukaryotic cells, the expressions from these integrated genes are often low and can vary greatly depending on the positions of the integration sites due to the complex nature of the chromatin structures (1). First we screened the various DNA sequence elements which can function as an insulator of gene expression from these position effects and can cooperate with the SV40 enhancer/promoter. Among the several DNA elements from the various sources, we identified the particular DNA element which confers the increased frequency of the positive colonies, assayed by the reporter gene from stable selections indicating significantly reduced position effects. This element also showed the several fold-increased expression level as well as the copy-number dependent expression with host cell specificity. Second we modified the transcription termination element where we introduced the specific terminator in combination with SV40 polyA signal. This modified terminator showed the increased efficiency and the level of the gene expression. By combining these two elements, we made the animal cell expression system and tested successfully for the recombinant protein productions of TGF ${\beta}$-soluble receptor, Antithrombin III, and single chain Pro-Urokinase. [Supported by grants from MOCIE]

PCBs를 분해하는 bphABC유전자를 plasmid vactor pMFB2에 유전자조작한 Pseudomonas putida AC30(pMFB2)를 PCBs에 오염된 연안해역의 해수와 저니로 만든 microcosm에 도입한 결과, 각각 도입 4일과 7일만에 사멸하였다. 그러나, 도입한 P. putida AC30(pMFB2)는 사멸하였지만, 연안해수와 저니 microcosm에서 plasmid pMFB2가 전이한 토착미생물이 검출되었다. 도입한 P. putida AC30(pMFB2)의 생잔실패의 원인을 분석한 결과 공경 0.2$\mu\textrm{m}$의 filter를 통과하는 물질과 생물이 가장 크게 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 유전자조작 P. putida AC30(pMFB2)의 도입과 bphABC유전자의 토착미생물로의 전이에 따른 토착미생물군집에 미치는 영향을 개체수 변동으로 조사한 결과, 토착미생물 군집에 미치는 영향은 보이지 않았다. P. putida AC30(pMFB2)의 도입에 의한 PCBs의 생분해성을 분석하였다. 그러나, 도입한 유전자조작 균주가 생잔에 실패함으로써 잔류하고 있는 PCBs의 농도변화는 보이지 않았다.

The strategies of commercial development have been focused on the economy of scale for a process. The design of media has been recognized as a key in assuring mass production of entomopathogenic nematodes. Media optimization was conducted with insect host, proteins, lipids, and symbiotic bacteria mass. G. mellonella (insect host) produced about 290,000 infective juveniles per one. Complex media produced about 250,000 infective juveniles / ml in liquid culture within 8 days (one generation).

Penicillium fellutanum produces a phosphorylated, choline-containing extracellular peptido-polysaccharide, peptidophosphogalactomannan (pPxGM) (8). The $\^$13/C-methyl labeled pPxGM ([methyl-$\^$13/C]pPxGM) was prepared from the cultures supplemented with L-[methyl-$\^$13/C]methionine or [2-$\^$13/C]glycine and was used as a probe to monitor the fate of phosphocholine in this polymer. Addition of purified [methyl-$\^$l3/C]pPxGM to growing cultures in low phosphate medium resulted in the disappearance of [methyl-$\^$13/C]phosphocholine and -N,N'-dimethyl-phosphoethanolamine from the added [methyl-$\^$13/C]pPxGM. Two $\^$l3/C-methyl-enriched cytoplasmic solutes, choline-O-sulfate and glycine betaine, were found in mycelial extracts, suggesting that phosphocholine-containing extracellular pPxGM of P.fellutanum is a precursor of intracellular choline-O-sulfate and glycine betaine and thus of phosphatydilcholine (l0). $\^$13/C-Methyl-labeled cells grown in 3 M NaCl-containing medium showed 2.6- and 22-fold more accumulation of $\^$13/C-methyl labeled choline-O-sulfate and glycine betaine, respectively, originated from the extracellular [$\^$13/C-methyl]pPxGM than those grown without added NaCl. The results suggest that, in addition to glycerol and erythritol, glycine betaine and choline-O-sulfate and thus choline are also osmoprotectants and hence that pPxGM is involved in osmotolerance of this fungus (11). Taken collectively, the $\^$l3/C- and $\^$31/P-NMR analyses of cytosolic solute pools and structural modulation of extracellular pPxGM corresponding to environmental stimuli in P. fellutanum, provided evidence that pPxGM is involved in cellular choline metabolism, osmotolerance, and recycling of metabolites.