• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.35-38
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• 2005

The occurrence of Fusarium wilt in strawberry fields in Korea was assessed from 2001 to 2003. Fusarium wilt was found from June to August in nursery beds, from September to October after planting in production beds, and from January to March during harvesting period. The symptoms were root rots, discolored vascular tissue in the crown and deformation and yellowing of central leaflets. The disease occurred in up to 30% of plants in 37 of 214 fields surveyed. Fusarium wilt occurred from cvs. ‘Dochiodome’, ‘Maehyang’, ‘Redpearl’, ‘Samaberry ’ and ‘Akihime’ and more severe from cvs. ‘Samaberry’, ‘Maehyang’ and ‘Dochiodome’. Infested soils had high salt concentrations, high nitrogen, phosphate concentrations and low pH. The results of pathogenicity test showed that Fo47 and Fo79 isolated from cvs. ‘Dochiodome’ and ‘Samaberry’ were strong pathogenic to all of four cultivars, and ‘Dochiodome’, ‘Redpearl’, ‘Maehyang’ were relatively susceptible to the all isolates.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.371-378
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• 2004

The poultry farmers of rural area in Bangladesh usually prefer raising cockerel to broiler due to availability, low price of chicks, requirement of less space and feed, and high price of meat and the farmers believe that the cockerels are less susceptible to diseases in comparison to broilers. This study was carried out to observe the pathology of diseased cockerel in 3 farms of rural area in Bangladesh. A total of 974 birds were examined and the diagnoses of different disease/conditions were based on the history, clinical signs, characteristic gross, tissue alterations, clinical pathology and isolation and identification of the pathogenic organisms. The diseases in this study included infectious bursal disease, yolk sac infection, vitamin E deficiency, coccidiosis, and other diseases. The proportionate mortality rate were $7.29\%,\;0.62\%,\;0.72\%,\;0.21\%\;and\;0.10\%$, respectively, which indicated that most of the fatal causes of death were due to infectious bursal disease. Age group of 2-8 week old were the most susceptible to this disease and E coli was suggested as a cause of yolk sac infection. The data also suggested that the coccidiosis in rural areas of Bangladesh has decreased due to awareness of the farmers and routine use of coccidiostates.

• Mycobiology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.139-147
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• 2004

A severe damping-off disease of bush okra caused by Pythium aphanidermatum, was diagnosed in plastic houses in Der Attia village, 15 km southwest of El-Minia city, Egypt, during the winter of 2001. Bush okra seedlings showed low emergence with bare patches inside the plastic houses. Seedlings that escaped pre-emergence damping-off showed poor growth, stunting and eventually collapsed. Examination of the infected tissues confirmed only Pythium aphanidermatum, showing its typical intercalary antheridia, and lobulate zoosporangia. P. aphanidermatum was shown to be pathogenic on bush okra under pot and field experiments. Bacteria making inhibition zones against the damping-off fungus P. aphanidermatum were selected. Agar discs from rhizosphere soil of bush okra containing colonies were transferred onto agar plate culture of P. aphanidermatum. After 2 days of incubation, colonies producing clear zones of non-Pythium growth were readily detected. The two bacteria with the largest inhibition zones were identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens. Bush okra emergence(%) in both pot and plastic houses experiments indicated that disease control could be obtained by applying P. fluorescens to the soil or coating the bacteria to the bush okra seeds before sowing. In the plastic houses, application of the bacteria onto Pythium-infested soil and sowing bush okra seeds dressed with bacteria gave 100% emergence. In addition, This was the first reported disease of bush okra by this oomycete in Egypt.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.112-118
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• 1999

Eleven species of Pythium were isolated from leaf blight symptoms on creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustirs Huds.), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratenisis L.) and zoysiagrasses (Zoysia japonica Steud., and Z. matrella (L.) Merr.) planted on golf courses in Korea. Mycelial growth on potato carrot agar medium under various temperature conditions indicated that Pythium species obtained in this study could be divided into four groups based on their responses to temperature conditions. P. vanterpoolii was found to favor low temperature conditions with the optimum temperature of $25^{\circ}$, whereas P. aphanidermatum and P. myriotylum favored relatively high temperature conditions with the optimum temperature of $35^{\circ}$. Other species including P. arrhenomanes, P. catenulatum, P. graminicola, P. oligandrum, P. rostratum, P. torulosum, and P. ultimum were the intermediate group with the optimum temperature of 25~$35^{\circ}$. P. periplocum was similar to the intermediate group but the minimum temperature for its mycelial growth was $15^{\circ}$, which was approximately $5^{\circ}$ above that for the intermediate Pythium spp.group. In the pathogenicity tests conducted in the lab using potted plants, P. aphanidermatum, P.a arrhenomanes, P. catenulatum, P. graminicola, P. myriotylum, P. periplocum, P. rostratum, P. torulosum, P. ultimum, and P. vanterpoolii were found to be pathogenic to creeping bentgrass and Kentucky bluegrass. P. aphanidermatum, P. catenulatum, and P. graminicola were frequently isolated from leaf blight symptoms of creeping bentgrass and Kentucky bluegrass in golf courses during the warm and humid periods in July-August. On the other hand, P. vanterpoolii and P. torulosum were frequently isolated during the cool and humid periods in March-May, suggesting both species might be the major causes of leaf blight occurring in the spring time. Zoysiagrass was susceptible to P. arrhenomanes and the heterothallic Pythium sp. (Ht-F), showing stem and crown rot of turf-grasses at poorly drained areas under coool and humid or rainy conditions. P. oligandrum and the heterothallic Pythium sp. (Ht-L) isolated from creeping bentgrass were avirulent to all species of turfgrasses tested in this study.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.37.1-37.14
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• 2021

Background: Ticks are one of the most common external parasites in dogs, and are associated with the transmission of a number of major zoonoses, which result in serious harm to human health and even death. Also, the increasing number of pet dogs and pet owners in China has caused concern regarding human tick-borne illnesses. Accordingly, studies are needed to gain a complete understanding of the bacterial composition and diversity of the ticks that parasitize dogs. Objectives: To date, there have been relatively few reports on the analysis of the bacterial community structure and diversity in ticks that parasitize dogs. The objective of this study was to investigate the microbial composition and diversity of parasitic ticks of dogs, and assessed the effect of tick sex and geographical region on the bacterial composition in two tick genera collected from dogs in China. Methods: A total of 178 whole ticks were subjected to a 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) next generation sequencing analysis. The Illumina MiSeq platform targeting the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was used to characterize the bacterial communities of the collected ticks. Sequence analysis and taxonomic assignment were performed using QIIME 2 and the GreenGene database, respectively. After clustering the sequences into taxonomic units, the sequences were quality-filtered and rarefied. Results: After pooling 24 tick samples, we identified a total of 2,081 operational taxonomic units, which were assigned to 23 phyla and 328 genera, revealing a diverse bacterial community profile. The high, moderate and low prevalent taxa include 46, 101, and 182 genera, respectively. Among them, dominant taxa include environmental bacterial genera, such as Psychrobacter and Burkholderia. Additionally, some known tick-associated endosymbionts were also detected, including Coxiella, Rickettsia, and Ricketssiella. Also, the potentially pathogenic genera Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas were detected in the tick pools. Moreover, our preliminary study found that the differences in microbial communities are more dependent on the sampling location than tick sex in the tick specimens collected from dogs. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the need for future research on the microbial population present in ticks collected from dogs in China.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.570-583
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• 2021

Pyrococcus furiosus α-amylase can hydrolyze α-1,4 linkages in starch and related carbohydrates under hyperthermophilic condition (~ 100℃), showing great potential in a wide range of industrial applications, while its relatively low productivity from heterologous hosts has limited the industrial applications. Bacillus subtilis, a gram-positive bacterium, has been widely used in industrial production for its non-pathogenic and powerful secretory characteristics. This study was conducted to increase production of P. furiosus α-amylase in B. subtilis through three strategies. Initial experiments showed that co-expression of P. furiosus molecular chaperone peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase through genomic integration mode, using a CRISPR/Cas9 system, increased soluble amylase production. Therefore, considering that native P. furiosus α-amylase is produced within a hyperthermophilic environment and is highly thermostable, heat treatment of intact culture at 90℃ for 15 min was performed, thereby greatly increasing soluble amylase production. After optimization of the culture conditions (nitrogen source, carbon source, metal ion, temperature and pH), experiments in a 3-L fermenter yielded a soluble activity of 3,806.7 U/ml, which was 3.3- and 28.2-fold those of a control without heat treatment (1,155.1 U/ml) and an empty expression vector control (135.1 U/ml), respectively. This represents the highest P. furiosus α-amylase production reported to date and should promote innovation in the starch liquefaction process and related industrial productions. Meanwhile, heat treatment, which may promote folding of aggregated P. furiosus α-amylase into a soluble, active form through the transfer of kinetic energy, may be of general benefit when producing proteins from thermophilic archaea.

• Genes and Genomics
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.1149-1155
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• 2018

Epileptic encephalopathies are genetically heterogeneous disorders which leads to epilepsy and cause neurological disorders. Seizure threshold 2 (SZT2) gene located on chromosome 1p34.2 encodes protein mainly expressed predominantly in the parietal and frontal cortex and dorsal root ganglia in the brain. Previous studies in mice showed that mutation in this gene can confers low seizure threshold, enhance epileptogenesis and in human may leads to facial dysmorphism, intellectual disability, seizure and macrocephaly. Objective of this study was to find out novel gene or novel mutation related to the gene phenotype. We have identified a large consanguineous Saudi family segregating developmental delay, intellectual disability, epilepsy, high forehead and macrocephaly. Exome sequencing was performed in affected siblings of the family to study the novel mutation. Whole exome sequencing data analysis, confirmed by subsequent Sanger sequencing validation study. Our results showed a novel homozygous mutation (c.9368G>A) in a substitution of a conserved glycine residue into a glutamic acid in the exon 67 of SZT2 gene. The mutation was ruled out in 100 unrelated healthy controls. The missense variant has not yet been reported as pathogenic in literature or variant databases. In conclusion, the here detected homozygous SZT2 variant might be the causative mutation that further explain epilepsy and developmental delay in this Saudi family.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.548-557
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• 2019

Staphylococcus species have a ubiquitous habitat in a wide range of foods, thus the ability to identify staphylococci at the species level is critical in the food industry. In this study, we performed rapid identification of Staphylococcus species using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). MALDI-TOF MS was evaluated for the identification of Staphylococcus reference strains (n = 19) and isolates (n = 96) from various foods with consideration for the impact of sample preparation methods and incubation period. Additionally, the spectra of isolated Staphylococcus strains were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and a main spectra profile (MSP)-based dendrogram. MALDI-TOF MS accurately identified Staphylococcus reference strains and isolated strains: the highest performance was by the EX method (83.3~89.5% accuracy) at species level identification (EDT, 70.3~78.9% accuracy; DT, less than 46.3~63.2% accuracy) of 24-h cultured colonies. Identification results at the genus level were 100% accurate at EDT, EX sample preparation and 24-h incubation time. On the other hand, the DT method showed relatively low identification accuracy in all extraction methods and incubation times. The analyzed spectra and MSP-based dendrogram showed that the isolated Staphylococcus strains were characterized at the species level. The performance analysis of MALDI-TOF MS shows the method has the potential ability to discriminate between Staphylococcus species from foods in Korea. This study provides valuable information that MALDI-TOF MS can be applied to monitor microbial populations and pathogenic bacteria in the food industry thereby contributing to food safety.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.135-144
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• 2019

Low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI; H9N2) and Newcastle disease (ND) are economically important poultry diseases in Korea. In this study, we investigated pathological features and virus distribution in the lymphoid tissues of chicks experimentally infected with H9N2 and/or ND virus. Six-weeks-old SPF chickens were divided into 4 groups, Control (C), H9N2 (E1), NDV (E2), and H9N2+NDV (E3). E1 group was challenged with 0.1 ml A/Kr/Ck/01310/01 (H9N2) $10^{5.6}$ $EID_{50}$ intranasally, E2 group was challenged with 0.5 ml KJW (NDV) $10^{5.0}{\sim}10^{6.0}$ $ELD_{50}$ intramuscularly, and E3 group was challenged with H9N2, followed 7 days later by NDV. In histopathological examination, E1 group showed depletion and necrosis in bursa of Fabricius, thymus, cecal tonsil, and spleen, whereas E2 and E3 groups were noted severe lymphocyte depletion and necrosis with destruction of lymphoid organs structures. In TUNEL assay, apoptotic bodies were detected in lymphoid organs of all experimental groups, which was most severe in E3 group. H9N2 and ND viruses were predominantly detected in cecal tonsil of E1, E2, and E3 groups by PCR and immunohistochemistry (ICH). In conclusion, co-infection of H9N2 with NDV caused severe pathologic lesions and apoptosis in lymphoid tissues compared to single infections.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 2019

Trypanosomiasis is caused by a pathogenic protozoan of the genus Trypanosoma, being Trypanosoma vivax the most important agent for cattle. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the expansion of T. vivax infection in different mesoregions of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and describe the clinicopathological findings of trypanosomiasis in cattle. The diagnosis was based on visualization of the parasite in blood smears and DNA detection of T. vivax in the blood of live cows and tissues of necropsied animals by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Thirty suspected herds were tested, of which 11 were positive for T. vivax. The most frequent clinical signs were anemia, apathy, drop in milk production, weight loss, reproductive disorders, and nervous signs. Concomitant diseases, such as malignant edema, pneumonia and increased cases of mastitis were associated with T. vivax infection. Three cows were necropsied and the most significant findings were low body condition score, pale mucous and spleen with white pulp hyperplasia. The results demonstrated the expansion of T. vivax infection in Minas Gerais, that PCR-associated blood smears are promising for diagnosis, and that other diseases often occur concomitantly to T. vivax infection in regions with trypanosomiasis in cattle.