• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2002

This study was carried out to isolate antagonistic bacterium against Sclerotium cepivorum causing Allium fistulosum white rot. Total of 146 strains were isolated from A. fistulosum roots. The isolates were screened for antagonism to S. cepivorum and the isolated strain No. AL-1 was selected among these bacteria. It was identified as Serratia plymuthica based on morphological and physiological characteristics according to the Bergey's mannual of systematic bacteriology and 16S rDNA sequences methods. Serratia plymuthica AL-1 showed broad spectrum of antifungal activities against plant pathogenic fungi Alternaria altrata, Colletotrichum gleosporioids, Phoma sp., Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Stemphylium solani, Fusarium oxysporium niveum but not inhibited Didymella bryoniae. When S. plymuthica AL-1 cultivated in the TSB medium containing 1％ colloidal chitin, the high molecular fraction (>10 kDa) have chitinase activity (3.2 units/ml) and the low molecular fraction (<10 kDa) have not chitinase activity. Oppositely, after heat treatment (80℃ for 30 min) of the cultivation supernatant, the high molecular fractions have not antifungal activity but the low molecular fractions have antifungal activity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.1519-1528
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• 2013

Bacillus pumilus SG2, a halotolerant strain, expresses two major chitinases designated ChiS and ChiL that were induced by chitin and secreted into the supernatant. The present work aimed to obtain a mutant with higher chitinolytic activity through mutagenesis of Bacillus pumilus SG2 using a combination of UV irradiation and nitrous acid treatment. Following mutagenesis and screening on chitin agar and subsequent formation of halos, the mutated strains were examined for degradation of chitin under different conditions. A mutant designated AV2-9 was selected owing to its higher chitinase activity. To search for possible mutations in the whole operon including ChiS and ChiL, the entire chitinase operon, including the intergenic region, promoter, and two areas corresponding to the ChiS and ChiL ORF, was suquenced. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the complete chitinase operon from the SG2 and AV2-9 strains showed the presence of a mutation in the catalytic domain (GH18) of chitinase (ChiL). The results demonstrated that a single base change had occurred in the ChiL sequence in AV2-9. The wild-type chitinase, ChiL, and the mutant (designated ChiLm) were cloned, expressed, and purified in E. coli. Both enzymes showed similar profiles of activity at different ranges of pH, NaCl concentration, and temperature, but the mutant enzyme showed approximately 30% higher catalytic activity under all the conditions tested. The results obtained in this study showed that the thermal stability of chitinase increased in the mutant strain. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to predict changes in the stability of proteins caused by mutation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1424-1431
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• 2009

Shrimp Jeot-Gal is a popular traditional Korean fermented seafood and has been used for seasoning. We isolated a bacterium showing strong extra-cellular fibrinolysis and chitinase activity from shrimp Jeot-Gal and the strain was designated SC082. SC082 was identified as Bacillus licheniformis by 16S rRNA sequence homology search. B. licheniformis SC082 exhibited optimum temperature, pH, and salt concentration at $37^{\circ}C$, pH 7.0, and 6%, respectively. Substrate specificity of the culture supernatant from B. licheniformis SC082 was detected in fibrin, skim milk, and chitin plate. The fibrinolytic activity was highly maintained up to $50^{\circ}C$ at a pH of 7.0 for 3 hr and was stable up to pH 9.0 at $37^{\circ}C$ for 3 hr. The chitinase activity was remarkably induced by addition of 1.0% colloidal chitin and the pH and temperature optima of the enzyme were 5.0 and $45^{\circ}C$, respectively. In sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and zymogram analysis, this strain produced three fibrinolytic isozymes and two chitinase isozymes. The approximate molecular weights of the putative fibrinolytic enzymes were 23.0, 62.0, and 72.0 kDa and those of the chitinases were 62.0 and 55.0 kDa, respectively. The antioxidant activity of SC082 was also measured by using 2,2-diphenyl-l-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical. The DPPH radical scavenging was slightly increased in a dose-dependent manner.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.80-86
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• 1995

The bacterial strain WC-17 able to produce chitinase was isolated from soil using an enrichment technique. The isolated strain was identified as Acinetobacter sp. judging by their morphological and physiological characterisitics. The optimal culture conditions for the production of chitinase of Acinetobacter sp. WC -17 are 1.5% colloidal chitin and 1 % tryptone at $30^{\circ}C$ with pH 6.5. Since the enzyme was rapidly produced in a culture supplied with chitin, glucose, or N-acetylglucosamine but not with other polymers and monosaccharide, the enzyme was considered to be an inducible enzyme. Notably N- acetylglucosamine and glucose were found to be effective inducers at low concentrations but repressors at excessive concentrations. The cultural supernatant of Acinetobacter sp. WC-17 inhibited the growth of phytopathogenic fungi such as P.oryzae, R.solani, and F.solani. Among the phytopathogenic fungi tested, P.oryzae was the most sensitive. The conventional agar plate (PDA containing 1 % colloidal chitin) method also produced the same result.

• BMB Reports
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.207-208
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• 2018

Chitinase-Like Proteins (CLPs) are an evolutionarily conserved protein which lose their enzymatic activity for degrading chitin macromolecules. Chitinase-3-like-1 (Chi3l1) is a type of CLP that is highly expressed in epithelial cells, macrophages, etc., and is known to have correlations with type 2 inflammation and cancer. Although the increased level of Chi3l1 in the blood was reported in various disease patients, the function of Chi3l1 in adaptive immunity has been totally unknown. Recently, we found that Chi3l1 is expressed in T cells and has a negative regulatory role in T-cell activation and proliferation. A genetic ablation study of Chi3l1 in T cells showed hyperresponsiveness to TcR stimulation, which increased proliferation and Th1 differentiation. A significant increase of $IFN{\gamma}$ signaling in Chi3l1-deficient T cells synergistically increased Th1 and CTL functions against melanoma cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition, targeted knockdown by Chi3l1 siRNA complexed with the cell-penetrating peptide dNP2, which showed decreased pulmonary melanoma metastasis with increased infiltration of Th1 and CTL in the lung. This study first suggests that Chi3l1 is a novel regulator of Th1/CTL responses and could be a target for treating cancer to increase tumor immunity.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2006

The white cottony stem rot pathogen Sclerotinia scierotiorum was subjected to 70 different isolates of actinomycetes indigenous to Jordan as biological control agents. Forty of them demonstrated chitinase activity on crab shell chitin agay (CCA) media and they were segregated into three groups: 14 highly active, 12 moderately active, and 14 with low activity, with average clearing zones of (4.7-8.3), (3.7-4.3), and (2.3-3.3) mm surrounding colonies on CCA, respectively. Further, these isolates were able to inhibit radial mycelium growth of the pathogen and were categorized into three antagonistic groups: 13 strong, 13 moderate, and 14 weak antagonists, with antibiosis inhibition Bones of (32.0-45.7), (22.7-31.3), and (3.7-22.3) mm, respectively. High levels of chitinase activity of the isolates Ma3 (8.3 mm), Jul (7.7 mm), and Sa8 (7.7 mm) with their antagonistic activity against mycelium growth of 45.7, 44.3, and 40.7 mm were observed, respectively. These isolates exhibited fungicidal activity against sclevotia of S. sclerotiorum. On the other hand, isolates Na5, Aj3, and Aj2 that produced no chitinase showed fungistatic effect only.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.325-327
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• 2012

Experiments for growth inhibition of two different plant pathogenic fungal species, Alternaria alternata (KCTC26781) and Fusarium graminearum ZO3639 (type culture) and ASR1R1 (isolate from rice), by a chitinase (Chi2) expressed in the autolysing tissue of Coprinellus congregatus were carried out. In liquid media, Chi2 ($50{\mu}g/ml$) inhibited more than 90% of germination of A. alternata spore, and the growth of each fungal strain was totally inhibited by the addition of Chi2 at the concentrations of $70{\mu}g/ml$. When $6{\mu}g$ of Chi2 was added twice a day at the hyphal tip zone, both strains of F. graminearum showed growth inhibition as well as decreased hyphal branching.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.197-203
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• 1992

Studies of the pretreatment of chitin and its subsequent hydrolysis by Aspergillus carneus chitinase are reported. Ball milling was found to be the most effective way among the pretreatment methods tested. Data are presented describing the effect of enzyme and substrate concentrations on the rate and extent of the hydrolysis process. It was found that the successive addition of enzyme improved the saccharification yield. Significant product inhibition of the chitinase was observed when N-acetylglucosamine concentration was 3.6％ or higher. Adsorption of enzymes to the substrate occurred during a 24 hr hydrolysis period. An initial rapid and extensive adsorption occurred, followed by gradual desorption which increased during the time of reaction. Intermediate removal of the hydrolyzate and continuation of the hydrolysis by adsorbed enzyme on the residual chitin was also investigated. A total of 75.4 g/l reducing sugars, corresponding to 69.2％ saccharificaton yield (as N-acetylglucosamine) was obtained. In addition an increase in the amount of recoverable enzymes was observed under these conditions. Evidence presented here suggests that the technique, whereby the free enzymes in the recovered hydrolyzate are re-adsorbed onto the new substrate, may provide a means of recirculating the dissolved enzymes.

• Mycobiology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.182-186
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• 2011

Four Trichoderma strains (CH2, SH16, PQ34, and TN42) were isolated from soil samples collected from Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces in Vietnam. The strains exhibited high chitinolytic secretion. Strain PQ34 formed the largest zone of chitinase-mediated clearance (> 4 cm in diameter) in agar containing 1% (w/v) colloidal chitin. Analysis of the internal transcribed spacer regions of these strains indicated that they were Trichoderma asperellum. The molecular weights of the chitinases were approximately 42 kDa. Chitinase genes (chi42) of T. asperellum strains TN42, CH2, SH16, and PQ34 were 98~99% homologous to the ech42 gene of T. harzianum CB-Pin-01 (accession No. DQ166036). The deduced amino acid sequences of both T. asperellum strains SH16 and TN42 shared 100% similarity.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.226-229
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• 2016

The growth of two different fungal species, human pathogenic Cryptococcus neoformans and plant pathogenic Alternaria alternata were inhibited by a chitinase (Chi2) expressed in the autolysing tissue of Coprinellus congregatus. The cell wall thickness was reduced (up to 32%) in C. neoformans compared with that of normal cell, and polysaccharide fibers located outside of the cell wall were also severely removed. The hyphal growth of A. alternata on agar plate was stopped by the enzyme. The allergic inflammation induced by A. alternata was reduced by the enzyme reaction when compared with untreated control in a mouse model.