• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.907-911
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• 2011

Using silkworm Bombyx mori Bm5 cells, we established a stable cell line expressing the human keratinocyte growth factor (hKGF), named by the Bm5-hKGF cell, in which the protein hKGF is synthesized in the cell and secreted in the cell culture supernatant (CCS) at approximately 15-20 ng/ml. When the Bm5-hKGF cell was co-expressed with B. mori protein disulfide isomerase (bPDI) cDNA, its secretion increased by about two times the original amount. Through wound healing migration assay, it was demonstrated that the secreted hKGF included in the CCS has a very powerful biological activity of keratinocyte proliferation. We expect to produce useful human recombinant proteins from silkworm cultured cells in large quantities at low prices.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 1997

Vibrio mimicus is a closely related species with V. cholerae, and has been reported to be associated with gastrointestinal infections. Although extraintestinal infections of these vibrios have also been reported in Japan and Southeast Asia. But little research papers on V. mimicus was reported in Korea. Therefore, we tried to isolate V. mimicus from the environmental sea water from April to July in Pusan, Korea. Among the isolated strains, we selected the strongest hemolytic strain and then named V. mimicus SM-9. In this paper, we checked the antibiotic susceptibility and psychrotrophic characteristics of the isolated strain. Hemolytic activity of the hemolysin produced by the isolated strain was also measured. V. mimicus was not detected from the sea water samples in April and May, but its detection rate was relatively high in June and July in Pusan, Korea. The bacteriological characteristics of V. mimicus SM-9 were Gram-negative rods, motile, oxidase positive, Voges-Proskauer negative and sucrose negative. In 23 kinds of antibiotics susceptibility test, V. mimicus SM-9 showed susceptibility to the most of antibiotics submitted while it was resistive against lincomycin, oxacillin, rifampin and vancomycin. Hemolytic activity of the hemolysin produced by V. mimicus SM-9 was highest in stationary phase of the growth curve in BHI broth at 37$^{\circ}C$ and its activity was reached 18 HU per $m\ell$ of culture supernatant. For checking the psychrotrophic property of V. mimicus SM-9, the decreasing rate of the strain in phosphate buffer solution and yellowtail flesh homogenate was examined during the storage at 4, 0, -4 and -2$0^{\circ}C$. The decreasing rates of the selected strain stored in phosphate buffer solution were greater than those in fish homogenate. Decreasing rates of V. mimicus SM-9 stored in phosphate buffer solution were not significantly different by the storage temperatures. The viable cell counts of the strain were decreased as 5 log cycles after 120 hours at all the tested temperatures. While decreasing numbers of the strain in fish homogenates were 2*4 log cycles after 120 hours. The decreasing pattern of the strain numbers were very slow after 200 hours at all the stored temperatures.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.269-274
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• 2004

Serratia proteamaculans isolated from the midgut of a spider formed big halos around the bacterial colonies, indicating that the bacterial strain produces an extracellular protease. Activity staining of the extracellular pro­tein fractions using zymogram also demonstrated that the major protein with an estimated molecular mass of 52 kDa contained a high proteolytic activity. The protease was purified to near electrophoretic homogeneity from the culture supernatant after filtration and ion exchange and size exclusion chromatography. The purified enzyme had a relatively high proteolytic activity between pH 6.0 and 10.0 and at broad temperature range. The proteolytic activity of the enzyme was not inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride but strongly inhibited by 1, 10-phenanthroline and EDTA. The activity also was dependent on the presence of $Ca^{++}\;and\;Zn^{++}$ ions. These observations indicate that the enzyme is a metalloprotease.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2008

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen, causing a wide variety of infections including cystic fibrosis, microbial keratitis, and burn wound infections. The cell-to-cell signaling mechanism known as quorum sensing (QS) plays a key role in these infections and the QS systems of P. aeruginosa have been most intensively studied. While many literatures that introduce the QS systems of P. aeruginosa have mostly focused on two major acyl-homo serine lactone (acyl-HSL) QS signals, N-3-oxododecanoyl homoserine lactone (3OC12) and N-butanoyl homoserine lactone (C4), several new signal molecules have been discovered and suggested for their significant roles in signaling and virulence of P. aeruginosa. One of them is PQS (Pseudomonas quinolone signal; 2-heptyl-3-hydroxy-4-quinolone), which is now considered as a well-characterized major signal meolecule of P. aeruginosa. In addition, recent researches have also suggested some more putative signal molecules of P. aeruginosa, which are diketopiperazines (DKPs) and pyocyanin. DKPs are cyclic dipeptides and structurally diverse depending on what amino acids are involved in composition. Some DKPs from the culture supernatant of P. aeruginosa are suggested as new diffusible signal molecules, based on their ability to activate Vibrio fischeri LuxR biosensors that are previously considered specific for acyl-HSLs. Pyocyanin (1-hydroxy-5-methyl-phenazine), one of phenazine derivatives produced by P. aeruginosa is a characteristic blue-green pigment and redox-active compound. This has been recently suggested as a terminal signaling factor to upregulate some QS-controlled genes during stationary phase under the mediation of a transcription factor, SoxR. Here, details about these newly emerging signaling molecules of P. aeruginosa are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.249-253
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• 2016

The inky cap, Coprinellus congregatus, produces several laccase isozymes during its life cycle: both hyphal tip laccase and sclerotial laccase are involved in the fungal development. When this fungus was transferred to an acid liquid medium (pH 4.0-4.5), a new laccase was synthesized and secreted into the culture supernatant. In order to examine its regulation by external pH, green fluorescent protein gene was ligated at the downstream of the promoters having different lengths. These expression vectors having different promoter lengths were inserted into the fungal transformation vector, pBARGEM7-1. These expression vectors were introduced to the mating type a1 and a2 monokaryons, and the transformants were selected by the phosphinothricin resistance. Transformant a1 (a1TF) and transformant a2 (a2TF) were mated with each other to generate homozygotic dikaryon transformants. All these transformants were grown in neutral liquid medium for 5 days, and then the whole cell homogenates were transferred to the acidic liquid medium (pH 4.1). After 36 h incubation at $25^{\circ}C$, cells were harvested for the analysis of GFP expression. GFP expression was detected in the transformant having full-length promoter (2.0 kb), but other transformants having shorter length promoter (shorter than 1.29 kb) failed to show the fluorescence. Therefore, the acid-responsive element in the laccase promoter should be localized between -2.0 kb ~ -1.29 kb region.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.683-688
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• 2004

A bacteriocin-producing lactic acid bacteria was isolated from Kimchi on MRS selective media with the use of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii as an indicator strain. The strain YH-10 was identified as Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis through the API test. The crude bacteriocin (freeze-dried 50% ammonium sulfate precipitate of culture supernatant) produced by the strain was named as lacticin YH-10. Lacticin YH-10 showed the growth inhibitory activity against Gram positive pathogenic bacteria and other lactic acid bacteria. The bacteriocin was inactivated by proteases such as protamex and aroase AP-10 and partially inactivated by amylase, proteinase K, trypsin, and papain. The lacticin YH-10 remained its activity with the treatment of heat at 10$0^{\circ}C$ for 60 min or the changes of pH 2 to 11. However, the activity was lost at high pH combined with the exposure to 10$0^{\circ}C$. The bacteriocin production of the strain was started in the exponential phase and stopped in the stationary phase. The approximate molecular mass of the bacteriocin produced by the strain was approximate 14 kDa in the analysis on SDS-PAGE.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.147-155
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• 1991

Enterotoxigenic E. coli is one of the major causative agents of the infantile diarrhea and traveler's diarrhea. The heat-stable enterotoxin(ST) is thought to be a virulence factor in the pathogenesis of the diarrhea and to be a maker for identification of the enterotoxingeic E. coli from non pathogenic E. coli. The isolate of enterotoxigenlc E. coli was isolated from swine during 1989 year(from 5 to 10 month) in the Kyong-gi and Chung-Cheong provinces, and three strains(KM-4, KM-7 and KM-12) was selected from 189 isolates of ST producing E. coli. The detection of a ST produced of the isolated E. coli was performed by the infant mouse assay(IMA). This study was designed to know optimal conditions for the production of the ST and the molecular properties of plasmids of the enterotoxigenic E. coli. Amount of ST produced were the most at initial pH 8.5~9.0 of succinate salts medium culture. The cultural time of the same medium was accumulated the highest level of ST was at the 14 to 16 hours, and then stationary phase was at the 20 hours. From this experiment the KM-7 strain was selected among ST producing strains by IMA. Partial plasmid-curing experiment was done to select plasmid encoding for ST among other plasmids and then comparing the plasmid pattern of ST producing strain(KM-7) with those of other ST non-producing strains, it is found that ST gene exists on the about 80 Kbp plasmid. Each fragment of this plasmid digested with EcoRl was ligated to vector pBR 322 and transformed into E. coli K-12. A clone producing ST(eKT 53) was selected by IMA. The EcoRl digestion pattern of the isolated plasmid(pKD 37) from the ST producing clone it is indicated that the size of the inserted fragment in eKT 53 strain is 16 Kbp. The cultured supernatant of eKT 53 strain was positive result of ST production in IMA.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.311-314
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• 2010

Bartonella henselae is the causative agent of cat scratch disease. Although cats are the main zoonotic reservoirs of Bartonella spp., unusual cases of cat scratch disease caused by a domestic dog scratch have been recently reported. For the in vivo B. henselae infection, eight dogs were inoculated intradermally with $2{\times}10^8CFU$ of B. henselae Houston-1 suspended in 1 ml of phosphate buffered saline on day 0 and subsequent injections of the same amount given intradermally on days 21, 28, 36, 58 and 64. After in vivo canine B. henselae infection was confirmed by nested PCR, the IFN-$\gamma$ levels of the culture supernatant of PBMC stimulated with B. henselae was significantly higher in the B. henselae-PCR positive group than the B. henselae-PCR negative group. Our results showed that the canine immune responses against B. henselae were different from those of cats. Th1 activation by B. henselae stimulation was characterized in dog peripheral blood mononuclear cells, whereas Th2 activation was reported in B. henselae-infected cats.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.279-284
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• 2006

Photo-catalytic products have been widely used at home and hospital to prevent bacteria, virus and fungus. Activities of anti-bacteria, anti-viruses and anti-fungi are based upon direct contact of crystals and particles of titanium dioxide with pathogens, into which titanium is catalyzed by photo. Those antimicrobial activities of the photo-catalytic titanium dioxide have been proved in vitro. However, in vivo tests of those activities have not been carried out on dog skin. Aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activities of the catalytic titanium dioxide in vivo. Ten beagle dogs were divided into two groups. One group was sprayed with 10ml of titanium dioxide(1 mg/ml) whereas the other was not. The treated dogs were exposed under the sunlight for 120 min. A set of three hairs was taken 15, 30, 60 and 120 min after the exposure and the bacteria contaminated in hairs were amplified in, Muller Hilton broth at $35^{\circ}C{\pm}1$ for 3 h. The supernatant of the bacterial culture was diluted 1 : 10 in phosphafe-buffered saline. One milliliter of the diluents was transferred into triphenyltetrazolium medium(TTC) and incubated at $35^{\circ}C{\pm}1$ for 2 days. The number of bacteria was counted. The number of bacteria colonies was decreased compared to control group. To further investigate the longevity effect of titanium dioxide, the dogs were kept in indoor without sun light for 6 and 12 h, 1, 2, 3, 7, 14 days after exposure of the chemical during each 15, 30, 60 min. The number of bacteria colony in 1ml was counted. The number of bacterial colonies was decreased. Treated group is exposured by sun light during 15 min, the longevity effect of titanium dioxide is continued by 1 week. Treated group is exposured by sun light during 30, 60 min, the longevity effect of titanium dioxide is continued over 2 weeks. These data indicated that the photo-catalytic titanium dioxide may be used for prevent bacteria on dog skin.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.180-188
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• 2015

The bacterial strain isolated from Kimchi showed antibacterial activity against Micrococcus luteus IAM 1056. The selected strain was identified as Lactococcus lactis by 16S rRNA nucleotide sequence analysis and named as Lactococcus sp. KD 28. The treatment of culture supernatant with proteinase K removed antibacterial activity, indicating its proteinaceous nature, a bacteriocin. This bacteriocin was sensitive to hydrolytic enzymes such as ${\alpha}$-chymotrypsion, trypsin, proteinase K, lipase, ${\alpha}$-amylase and subtilisin A. The bacteriocin was highly thermostable and resistant to heating at $80^{\circ}C$ for up to an hour but 50 % of the total activity was remained at $100^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. The pH range from 2.0 to 8.0 had no effect on bacteriocin activity and it was not affected by solvents such as acetonitrile, isopropanol, methanol, chloroform and acetone up to 50% concentration. The bacteriocin showed antibacterial activity against M. luteus IAM 1056, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis KCTC 1058, Enterococcus faecium KCTC 3095, Bacillus cereus KCTC 1013, B. subtilis KCTC 1023, Listeria ivanovii subsp. ivanovii KCTC 3444, Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus KCTC 1916, B. megaterium KCTC 1098 and B. sphaericus KCTC 1184. The bacteriocin was purified through ammonium sulfate concentration, SP-Sepharose chromatography and RP-HPLC. The molecular weight was estimated to be about 3.4 kDa by tricine-SDS-PAGE analysis.