• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.322-328
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• 2010

Fermented skate is a traditional Korean food popular in Southwestern area of Korea. It has a characteristic flavor and alkaline pH. In this study we tried to determine the microbial flora in fermented skate using two different approaches. In culture-independent method, we amplified V2 region of 16S rRNA gene by PCR and cloned them into pUC18 plasmid to construct 16S rDNA fragment library. BLAST searches for the sequences obtained from this library revealed that uncultured bacterium clone 054E11.b was the most dominant flora in this fermented fish. In culture-dependent method, we diluted suspension of skate and spreaded on MRS, PCA, and MacConkey plates. We identified colonies grown on those plates by using PCR amplification of V2 region of 16S rRNA and DNA sequencing. BLAST searches of those DNA sequences resulted in totally different species with the observations from the 16S rDNA library analysis. Discrepancies of results obtained from both approaches suggest that the agar plates used in culture-dependent method may be different from the real condition of fermented skate. Therefore, results from culture-independent approach using 16S rDNA fragment library analysis may reflect real microbial flora in fermented skate.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.139-144
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• 2003

Since water borne infection causes acute diseases and results in spread of diseases by secondary infection, the prevention is very important. Therefore, it is necessary to have a method that is rapid and effective to monitor pathogenic bacteria in drinking water. In this study, we employed a systematic method, Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis, to develop an effective monitoring system for possible bacterial contaminants in drinking water. For this purpose, PCR primers were derived from 992 bp region of the 16s rRNA gene that is highly conserved through the different species of prokaryotes. To test whether the PCR primers designed are indeed useful for detecting all the possible microbial contaminants in the water, the primers were used to amplify 16s rRNA regions of different microbial water-borne pathogens such as E. coli, Salmonella, Yersinia, Listeria, and Staphylococcus. As expected, all of tested microorganisms amplified expected size of PCR products indicating designed PCR primers for 16s rRNA indeed can be useful to amplify all different microbial water-borne pathogens in the water. Furthermore, to test whether these 16s rRNA based PCR primers can detect bacterial populations present in the water, water samples taken from diverse sources, such as river, tap, and sewage, were used for amplification. PCR products were for then subjected for cloning into a T-vector to generate a library containing 16s rRNA sequences from various bacteria. With cloned PCR products, RFLP analysis was done using PCR products digested with restriction enzyme such as Hae III to obtain species-specific RFLP profiles. After PCR-RFLP, the bacterial clones which showed the same RFLP profiles were regarded as the same ones, and the clones which showed distinctive RFLP profiles were subsequently subjected for sequence analysis for species identification. By this PCR-RFLP analysis, we were able to reveal diverse populations of bacteria living in water. In brief, in unsterilized natural river water, over 60 different species of bacteria were found. On the other hand, no PCR products were detected in drinking tap-water. The results from this study clearly indicate that the PCR-RFLP-sequence analysis can be a useful method for monitoring diverse, perhaps pathogenic bacteria contaminated in water in a rapid fashion.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.289-298
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• 2020

As part of the research program "2018 Rapid screening and identification of freshwater microorganisms using MALDI-TOF/MS library" freshwater samples were collected from a branch of the Nakdong River. Almost 300 antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains were isolated from freshwater samples and subsequently identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Seventeen strains among the isolates shared high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (>99.0%) with known species that were not previously recorded in Korea, and each of the isolates also formed a robust phylogenetic clade with the closest species. These species were phylogenetically diverse, belonging to four phyla, seven classes, 10 orders, and 13 genera. At the genus and class level, the previously unrecorded species belonged to Rhodovarius, Xanthobacter, and Shinella of the class Alphaproteobacteria; Ottowia, Simplicispira, and Zoogloea of Betaproteobacteria; Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and Shewanella of Gammaproteobacteria; Arcobacter of Epsilonproteobacteria; Sphingobacterium of Sphingobacteriia; Trichococcus of Bacilli; and Leucobacter of Actinobacteria. The previously unrecorded species were further characterized by examining their gram-staining, colony and cell morphology, biochemical properties, and phylogenetic position.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.26-35
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: Microbes that govern a unique biochemical process of oxidizing ammonia into dinitrogen gas, such as anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) have been reported to play a pivotal role in agricultural soils and in oceanic environments. However, limited information for anammox bacterial abundance and distribution in the terrestrial habitats has been known. METHODS AND RESULTS: Phylogenetic and next-generation sequencing analyses of bacterial 16S rRNA gene were performed to examine potential anammox bacteria in paddy soils. Through clone libraries constructed by using the anammox bacteria-specific primers, some clones showed sequence similarities with Planctomycetes (87% to 99%) and anammox bacteria (94% to 95%). Microbial community analysis for the paddy soils by using Illumina Miseq sequencing of 16S rRNA gene at phylum level was dominated by unclassified Bacteria at 33.2 ± 7.6%, followed by Chloroflexi at 20.4 ± 2.0% and Acidobacteria at 17.0 ± 6.5%. Planctomycetes that anammox bacteria are belonged to was 1.5% (± 0.3) on average from the two paddy soils. CONCLUSION: We suggest evidence of anammox bacteria in the paddy soil. In addition to the relatively well-known microbial processes for nitrogen-cycle, anammox can be a potential contributor on the cycle in terrestrial environments such as paddy soils.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.195-198
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• 2004

Molec-ular analysis was performed on the microflora found In the necrotic pulpal tissue collected from 5 infected root canals that were diagnosed as a periapical abscess. 16S rRNA coding gene (rDNA) library construction and sequencing were performed in order to identify the microflora, The 16S rDNA sequences from 278 clones were identified by a comparison with the database sequence in GenBank. Three phylum and 31 species, which were related to the oral microflora, were identified from the 3 samples (No. 87, 105, and 115). Dialister invisus (5.6％), Peptostreptococcus micron (18.3％), and Veillonella sp. (3.3％) were the organism present in all tee samples. Lac-tobacillusfementum (2.8％),Eubacterumsp./E. infirmum (6.7％), Shuttleworthiasatelles (3.9％), Psudorarnihacfer alactoiyticus (13.3％), Bulleidia moorei (2.8％), and Prevotella denticola (1.1％) were found in two samples. Two phylum and low species of environmental microflora were identified from 2 samples (No.95 and 101). The reason for this might be contamination of the samples with dental water. These results showed that molecular analysis could reveal more diverse microflora that are associated with endodontic infections than that revealed by conventional cultural methods. In addition, these results may of for the basic data to epidemiological studies related with endodontic infection.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1882-1889
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• 2006

A 16S rDNA clone library was generated to investigate the bacterial diversity in intertidal sediment from the coast of the Yellow Sea, P. R. China. A total of 102 clones were sequenced and grouped into 73 OTUs using a phylogenetic approach. The sequenced clones fell into 11 bacterial lineages: Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Spirochaetes, and candidate divisions of BRCl, OP3, and OP1l. Based on a phylogenetic analysis of these bacteria, together with the ten most closely related sequences deposited in the GenBank, it was concluded that intertidal bacteria are most likely derived from marine bacteria with a remarkable diversity, and some are particularly abundant in intertidal sediment.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 1997

Sporulation in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has been regarded as an important model of cellular development and differentiation. S. pombe cells proliferate by mitosis and binary fission on growth medium. Deprivation of nutrients especially nitrogen sources, causes the cessation of mitosis and initiates sexual reproduction by malting between two sexually compatible cell types. Meiosis is then followed in a diploid cell in the absence of nitrogen source. DNA fragment complemented with the mutations of sporulation gene was isolated from the S. pombe gene library constructed in the vector, pDB 248' and designated as pDB (spo 5)1. We futher analyzed six recombinant plasmids, pDB (spo 5)2, pDB(spo 5)3, pDB(spo 5)4, pDB(spo 5)5, pDB(spo 5)6, pDB(spo 5)7, and found each plasmids is able to rescue the spo 5-2, spo 5-3, spo 5-4, spo 5-5, spo 5-6, spo 5-7, mutations, respectively. Mapping of the integrated plasmid into the homologous site of the S. pombe chromosomes demonstrated that pDB (spo 5)1, and pDB (spo 5)R1 contained the spo 5 gene. Transcipts of spo 5 gene were analyzed by Northern hybridization. Two transcripts of 3.2 kb and 25 kb were detected with 5 kb Hind III fragment containing a part of the spo 5 gene as a probe. The small mRNA (2.5 kb) appeared only when a wild-type strain was cultured in the absence of nitrogen source in which condition the large mRNA (3.2 kb) was produced constitutively. Appearance of a 2.5 kb spo 5-mRNA depends upon the function of the mei1, mei2 and mei3 genes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.447-459
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• 2010

Bacterial diversity of two distinct wastewater treatment systems, conventional activated sludge (CAS) and membrane bioreactor (MBR), of petroleum refineries were investigated through 16S rRNA gene libraries. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis showed that the bacterial community composition of sludge samples was distinct between the two wastewater treatment systems. MBR clones belonged predominantly to Class Betaproteobacteria, represented mainly by genera Thiobacillus and Thauera, whereas CAS clones were mostly related to Class Alphaproteobacteria, represented by uncultured bacteria related to Order Parvularculales. Richness estimators ACE and Chao revealed that the diversity observed in both libraries at the species level is an underestimate of the total bacterial diversity present in the environment and further sampling would yield an increased observed diversity. Shannon and Simpson diversity indices were different between the libraries and revealed greater bacterial diversity for the MBR library, considering an evolutionary distance of 0.03. LIBSHUFF analyses revealed that MBR and CAS communities were significantly different at the 95% confidence level ($P{\leq}0.05$) for distances $0{\leq}D{\leq}0.20$. This work described, qualitatively and quantitatively, the structure of bacterial communities in industrial-scale MBR and CAS processes of the wastewater treatment system from petroleum refineries and demonstrated clearly differentiated communities responsible for the stable performance of wastewater treatment plants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.1290-1297
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• 2008

To investigate the diversities of Accumulibacter phosphatis and its polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase gene (phaC) in enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) sludge, an acetate-fed sequencing batch reactor was operated. Analysis of microbial communities using fluorescence in situ hybridization and 16S rRNA gene clone libraries showed that the population of Accumulibacter phosphatis in the EBPR sludge comprised more than 50% of total bacteria, and was clearly divided into two subgroups with about 97.5% sequence identity of the 16S rRNA genes. PAO phaC primers targeting the phaC genes of Accumulibacter phosphatis were designed and applied to retrieve fragments of putative phaC homologs of Accumulibacter phosphatis from EBPR sludge. PAO phaC primers targeting $G_{1PAO},\;G_{2PAO},\;and\;G_{3PAO}$ groups produced PCR amplicons successfully; the resulting sequences of the phaC gene homologs were diverse, and were distantly related to metagenomic phaC sequences of Accumulibacter phosphatis with 75-98% DNA sequence identities. Degenerate NPAO (non-PAO) phaC primers targeting phaC genes of non-Accumulibacter phosphatis bacteria were also designed and applied to the EBPR sludge. Twenty-four phaC homologs retrieved from NPAO phaC primers were different from the phaC gene homologs derived from Accumulibacter phosphatis, which suggests that the PAO phaC primers were specific for the amplification of phaC gene homologs of Accumulibacter phosphatis, and the putative phaC gene homologs by PAO phaC primers were derived from Accumulibacter phosphatis in the EBPR sludge. Among 24 phaC homologs, a phaC homolog (GINPAO-2), which was dominant in the NPAO phaC clone library, showed the strongest signal in slot hybridization and shared approximately 60% nucleotide identity with the $G_{4PAO}$ group of Accumulibacter phosphatis, which suggests that GINPAO-2 might be derived from Accumulibacter phosphatis. In conclusion, analyses of the 16S rRNA and phaC genes showed that Accumulibacter phosphatis might be phylogenetically and metabolically diverse.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.336-342
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• 2013

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a widely used substance in commercial and industrial applications, yet it must be removed from the contaminated soil and groundwater environment due to its toxic and carcinogenic nature. We investigated bacterial community structure, dominant bacterial strain, and removal efficiency in a TCE contaminated groundwater treatment system using immobilized carrier. The microbial diversity was determined by the nucleotide sequences of 16S rRNA gene library. The major bacterial population of the contaminated groundwater treatment system was belonging to BTEX degradation bacteria. The bacterial community consisted mainly of one genus of Pseudomonas (Pseudomonas putida group). The domination of Pseudomonas putida group may be caused by high concentration of toluene and TCE. Furthermore, we isolated a toluene and TCE degrading bacterium, named Pseudomonas sp. DHC8, from the immobilized carrier in bioreactor which was designed to remove TCE from the contaminated ground water. Based on the results of morphological and physiological characteristics, and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain DHC8 was identified as a member of Pseudomonas putida group. When TCE (0.83 mg/L) and toluene (60.61 mg/L) were degraded by this strain, removal efficiencies were 72.3% and 100% for 12.5 h, respectively. Toluene removal rate was 2.89 ${\mu}mol/g$-DCW/h and TCE removal rate was 0.02 ${\mu}mol/g$-DCW/h. These findings will be helpful for maintaining maximum TCE removal efficiency of a reactor for bioremediation of TCE.