• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.963-969
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• 2013

Although it is popularly believed that vitamin C protects cells from various genotoxicants, the degrees and mechanisms of itsprotective actions are not fully understood. In this study, vitamin C's protective effects against various genotoxicants were quantified, together with subsequent analyses on the mechanisms of these protective effects. Comet assay was employed to measure the degree of DNA damage in Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO-K1) exposed to five genotoxicants, $H_2O_2$, $HgCl_2$, N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4NQO), and UV-irradiation. In cases cells were treated with $H_2O_2$, $HgCl_2$, and 4NQO together with vitamin C, the damage to DNA decreased to the level of the control group. In cases of UV-irradiation, the protective effect of vitamin C appeared, but did not reach the control levels. Interestingly, vitamin C did not have protective effects against the genotoxicity of MNNG. The degrees of DNA damage of cells treated with vitamin C prior to exposure togenotoxicants were 28~49% lower than those of cells treated with vitamin C after being exposed to genotoxicants. In conclusion, vitamin C had strong antioxidanteffects against genotoxicants by being a primary antioxidant blocking genotoxicity reaching the cells, rather than being a secondary antioxidant acting on post-exposure DNA repair processes. However, vitamin C's protective effects appearto be limited, as there are genotoxicants, such as MNNG, whosegenotoxicityis not affected by vitamin C. Therefore, the results of this study warrant furtherstudies on toxic mechanisms of genotoxicants and their interactions with protective mechanisms of vitamin C.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.916-923
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• 2022

Water samples were collected from three spots(Namcheon, Changwoncheon and Cheongwoonji) in Changwon and genomic DNA was isolated from them. Quantitative PCR was performed with the isolated DNA as template and primers targeting five different class A extended-spectrum beta-lactamase(ESBL) genes(bla_OXA-1, bla_SHV, bla_TEM, bla_CTX-M-1, bla_CTX-M-9). The number of total ESBL genes from each sample showed large variations between each sample. Thirty nanograms of DNA from Namcheon contained 1.93×10⁶ copies of ESBL genes whereas the same amount of DNA from Changwoncheon contained 1.47×10⁵ copies of ESBL genes. However, the same amount of DNA from Cheongwoonji pond contained only 9.5×10³ copies of ESBL genes. The ratio of each ESBL genes showed little difference between Namcheon river and Changwoncheon river, but DNA from Cheongwoonji pond showed a large difference from the rest. bla_OXA-1 gene was present at 65.3%, and bla_CTX-M-1 gene 33.6% for Namcheon comprising together almost 99%. bla_OXA-1 gene was present at 64.1%, and bla_CTX-M-1 gene 19.1% for Changwoncheon comprising together over 83%. bla_CTX-M-1 gene was present at 87.5% and bla_CTX-M-9 genes 9.8% for Cheongwoonji, a pond which is a closed and isolated environment.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Biology Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.163-176
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• 2002

광양만 및 주변해역의 참굴을 대상으로 환경생체지표를 측정하여 환경독성을 조사하였다. 광양만에서는 세포치사독성은 나타나지 않았으며, 라이소솜의 안정성은 남해도 주변정점은 70%내외 인데 반해서, 기준정점의 50% 내외의 상대적으로 낮은 안정성을 보인다. 에스테라제 활성은 광양내만 및 태인교 부근의 정점과 남해도의 정점 8, 9 들은 63-88 FU 정도로 낮아서 활성이 저해 받고 있음을 알 수 있다. 이중나선 DNA의 함량은 남해도의 정점들은 150 FU 내외의 값을 보이고, 광양만은 130FU 내외로 함량이 낮고, 정점간의 차이가 크지 않다. 전체적으로 기준정점 및 외양역의 정점 10은 독성물질에 의한 영향이 적은 데 반해서, 광양만은 독성물질에 의해서 특히 라이소솜 온전성, 에스테라제 활성 등에 영향을 받고 있는 것으로 사료된다. 그리고 남해도 주변의 인근해역은 광양만에 비해서는 적은 영향을 받고있는 것으로 사료된다. 다른 측정자료와 비교하여 볼 때 광양만지역은 거제도와 같은 청정해역보다는 독성물질의 영향을 더 받았고, 마산과 같은 극심하게 오염된 지역보다는 독성물질의 영향을 적게 받았다. 인접한 가막만과 유사하거나 조금 더 독성물질의 오염에 의한 영향을 나타내는 것으로 사료된다. 퇴적물 독성실험에서 200 mg/ml(이하 mg)이상의 농도에서 전정점에서 100 mg에서 부분적 및 세포치사독성이 나타났으며, 라이소솜 안정성은 50 mg에 노출 했을 때에는 정점, 12, 20, 26, 42 에서는 25% 내외의 낮은 값을 보이고, 대부분의 정점에서 50 % - 70% 내외의 온전성을 보인다. 에스테라제 활성은 100 mg에 노출했을 때 묘도와 광양제철 인근에 위치한 정점 10, 12, 16, 22에서는 50 %내외의 값을 보였고(정점 22: 36%로 최저), 내만에 위치한 정점들에서는 60% 내외의 활성을 보였다. 양식장이 있는 정점 2, 외양의 영향을 많이 받는 정점 46, 51, 54 등은 활성 값이 70% 이상으로 퇴적물 독성이 상대적으로 낮았다. 이중나선 DNA 함량은 28.4 % - 49%로 대조군에 비해서 감소가 크다. 대부분의 정점이 대조군의 30% 내외로 정점 간의 차이는 크지는 않다. 그러나 다른 측정자료와 같이 정점 22에서 18%로 최소치를 나타내고, 정점 2, 12에서 20% 내외의 값을 보인다. 종합적으로 볼 때 오염물질의 유입이 크고, 광양제철 인근 정점 들이 모두 다른 정점에 비해서 낮아서, 퇴적물 독성이 높은 정점으로 조사되었다.

• Journal of odor and indoor environment
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.54-63
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• 2017

The Automobile HVAC system is a habitat for odor-associated fungal communities. We investigated the odor-associated fungal community in an automobile HVAC system using a high-throughput DNA sequencing method. The fungal community structure was evaluated via metagenome analysis. At the phylum level, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were detected, accounting for 43.41% and 56.49% of the fungal community in the HVAC system, respectively. Columnosphaeria (8.31%), Didymella (5.60%), Davidiella (5.50%), Microxyphium (4.24%), unclassified Pleosporales (2.90%), and Cladosporium (2.79%) were abundant at phylum of Ascomycota and Christiansenia (36.72%), Rhodotorula (10.48%), and Sporidiobolus (2.34%) were abundant at phylum of Basidiomycota. A total of 22 genera of fungi were isolated and identified from the evaporators of the HVAC systems which support fungal growth and biofilm formation. Among them, Cladosporium, Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Alternaria are the most representative odor-associated fungi in HVAC systems. They were reported to form biofilm on the surface of HVAC systems with other bacteria by hypha. In addition, they produce various mVOCs such as 3-methyl-1-butanol, acetic acid, butanoic acid, and methyl isobutyl ketone. Our findings may be useful for extending the understanding of odor-associated fungal communities in automobile HVAC systems.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.349-364
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• 2017

Duckweed family (Lemnaceae Martinov), including the genus Lemna L., is a typical floating aquatic perennial plant, and about five genera and 40 species in the family are in wide distribution around the world except the polar regions. The genus Lemna is the smallest and the simplest plant among the angiosperms. It has a characteristic of doubling every three days with fast vegetative propagation, which helps the organisms to increase in rapid growth. As such, the plant is ideal for environmental pollution assessment and toxicity test. Although taxonomists and scholars have used different scientific names for the species, many of them have agreed that there is only one member of species of the genus Lemna in Korea. Paying attention to the external morphological variation observed in the Korean genus Lemna, we conducted a molecular phylogenetic analysis to identify the entity of the Korean Lemna species and to investigate the possibility of two or more members of the species existing in Korea. We determined and aligned the DNA sequences of the atpF-H region of the chloroplast DNA in 37 populations of the nationally distributed Lemna species. The results showed that the sequence length of the cp DNA atpF-H region was 463-483 bp, the length of the aligned sequences was 488 bp, and the number of variation site in nucleotide sequences was 47. There were two types of aligned sequences of the cp DNA atpF-H region from 37 populations of Lemna species in Korea. The maximum parsimony analysis revealed that the Korean Lemna consists of two clades, and one of them had two subclades. The results suggest that, contrary to the general understanding, at least two taxa (L.aequinoctialis, L.minor) exist in Korea.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.1052-1059
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• 2006

The heat shock response is induced by environmental stress, pathophysiological state and non-stress conditions and wide spread from bacteria to human. Although translations of most proteins are stopped under a heat shock response, heat shock proteins (HSPs) are produced to protect cell from stress. When heat shock response is induced, conformation of HSF1 was changed from monomer to trimer and HSF1 specifically binds to DNA, which was called a heat shock element(HSE) within the promoter of the heat shock genes. Human HSF1(hHSFl) contains five cysteine(Cys) residues. A thiol group(R-SH) of Cys is a strong nucleophile, the most readily oxidized and nitrosylated in amino acid chain. This consideration suggests that Cys residues may regulate the change of conformation and the activity of hHSF1 through a redox-dependent thiol/disulfide exchange reaction. We want to construct role of five Cys residues of hHSF by redox reagents. According to two studies, Cys residues are related to trimer formation of hHSF1. In this study, we want to demonstrate the correlation between structural change and DNA-binding activity of HSF1 through forming disulfide bond and trimerization. In this results, we could deduce that DNA binding activity of DNA binding domain wasn't affected by redox for always expose outside to easily bind to DNA. DNA binding activity of wild-type HSF's DNA binding domain was affected by conformational change, as conformational structure change (trimerization) caused DNA binding domain.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.270-276
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• 1999

Production of stress shock proteins in Burkholderia cepacia YK-2 in response to the phenoxyherbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid(2,4-D) as an environmental contaminant was investrigated. The stress schock proteins were synthesized at different 2,4-D concentrations in exponentially growing cultures of B. capacia YK-2. This response involved the production of 43kDa and 41kDa GroEL proteins. The proteins were characterized by SDS-PAGE and Western blot using the anti-DnaK nad anti-GroEL monoclonal antibodies. Total stress shock proteins were analyzed by 2-D PAGE. Survival of B. cepacia YK-2 with time in the presence of different concentrations of 2,4-D was monitored, and viable counts paralleled the production of the stress shock proteins in this bacterium.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.251-257
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• 2014

The aim of this study was to analyze the genetic diversity of Hericium species based on their rDNA ITS sequences. Hericium species were collected from various regions and the size of the ITS rRNA gene regions from different Hericium species varied from 450 to 500 bp. A phylogenetic trees based on the ITS region revealed that Hericium species could be classified into 4 different groups, H. erinaceus, H. coralloide, H. alpestre, H. americanum. Among them, ASI 48015 and ASI 48016 was identified as Sprassis and Lentinula genus, respectively, based on blast searches using their rDNA ITS sequences.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.277-284
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• 2006

The genetic toxicity of environmental pollutants, namely, nonylphenol (NP), bisphenol A (BPA) and chloropyriphos (CP) was investigated in aquatic sentinel species, freshwater crustacean, Daphnia magna, and larva of aquatic midge, Chironomus tentans, using Comet assay. Physiological effect of such pollutants was also investigated by studying the specimens' rates of reproduction, growth and survival. Acute toxicity results showed that, as expected, Daphnia was more sensitive than Chironomus to chemical exposure. The order of acute toxicity was CP > NP > BPA in D. magna and NP > CP > BPA in C. tentans. BPA may exert a genotoxic effect on D. magna and C. tentans, given that DNA strand breaks increased in both species exposed to this compound, whereas NP- and CP-induced DNA damage occurred only in C. tentans. In vivo genotoxic data obtained in aquatic sentinel species could provide valuable information for freshwater quality monitoring. The experiments with NP-exposed D. magna showed that the pollutant has long-term effects on reproduction, whereas no short-term effect on DNA integrity was found, being an example of a false-negative result from the biomarkers perspective. This result could be interpreted that other mechanism than genetic alteration might be involved in NP-induced reproduction failure in D. magna. False-positive results from the genotoxic biomarker obtained in BPA-exposed D. magna and in NP-exposed C. tentans make it difficult to use DNA integrity as an early warning biomarker. However, as the mere presence of genotoxic compounds, which are potentially carcinogenic, is of high concern to human and ecosystem health, it could also be important to rapidly and effectively detect genotoxic compounds in the aquatic system in ways that do not necessarily accompany a higher level of alteration. Considering the potential of D. magna and C. tentans as bioindicator species, and the importance of genotoxic biomarkers in ecotoxicity monitoring, DNA damage in these species could provide useful information for environmental risk assessment.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.59-64
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• 2001

A complementary DNA encoding metallothionein(MT), a heavy metal-responsive protein was cloned from a cartilaginous shark species. Scyliorhinus torazame. An expressed sequence tag(EST)from the shark liver, which showed high similarity with a MT gene, was isolated and its full-length sequence(390bp)was determined. The putative shark MT cDNA sequence contained an open reading frame consisting 68 amino acids and 182bp of 3-untranslated region including the poly (A+) signal. The deduced amino acid sequence was 41-54% identical to those of other animals including mammals and fish species. Tiger shark MT cDNA showed high conservation in the Cys regions. however, peculiarly contained not only additional five amino acids just prior to the conserved beta-domain but also a Ser residue at C terminal, which has not been seen in other MT sequences.