• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.711-717
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• 2008

To speed up the conversion of rice straw into feeds in a low-temperature region, a start culture used for ensiling rice straw at low temperature was selected by continuous enrichment cultivation. During the selection, the microbial source for enrichment was rice straw and soil from two places in Northeast China. Lab-scale rice straw fermentation at $10^{\circ}C$ verified, compared with the commercial inoculant, that the selected start culture lowered the pH of the fermented rice straw more rapidly and produced more lactic acid. The results from denatured gradient gel eletrophoresis showed that the selected start culture could colonize into the rice straw fermentation system. To analyze the composition of the culture, a 16S rRNA gene clone library was constructed. Sequencing results showed that the culture mainly consisted of two bacterial species. One (A) belonged to Lactobacillus and another (B) belonged to Leuconostoc. To make clear the roles of composition microbes in the fermented system, quantitative PCR was used. For species A, the DNA mass increased continuously until sixteen days of the fermentation, which occupied 65%. For species B, the DNA mass amounted to 5.5% at six days of the fermentation, which was the maximum relative value during the fermentation. To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first report on ensiling rice straw with a selected starter at low temperature and investigation of the fermented characteristics.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.58-62
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• 2017

The two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) has sustained damage on more than 200 host plants worldwide. Many farmers have relied on chemical acaricides to control mite, but the abuse of acaricides has caused serious resistance to mite. To overcome this problem, microbial control using entomopathogenic fungi have been studied. Entomopathogenic fungi have been an important role against the control of pest, and most of their culture products have been demonstrated to have virulence against pest population. In this study, we evaluated and compared the virulence of culture filtrates, aerial conidia and blastospores of selected Metarhizium anisopliae 4-2 and Beauveria bassiana 2R-3-3-1, respectively, among two-spotted spider mite-pathogenic fungi. As a result, the virulence was confirmed in all treatments, and the accumulated mortality rates were between 77 and 100% within 7 days. Especially, treatment with the fungal culture filtrate alone exhibited quite high virulence, and combined treatment with aerial conidia or blastospores enhanced activity. However, the median lethal time of treatments was not significantly different. When two isolates were compared, M. anisopliae 4-2 showed higher virulence than B. bassiana 2R-3-3-1. These results suggest that the selected two fungal isolates and their culture products could be used effectively for the control of two-spotted spider mite.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.1423-1432
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• 2021

To elucidate the role and mechanism of microbes, we combined culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches to investigate differences in gut bacterial composition between sows and weaned pigs. Under anaerobic conditions, several nonselective and selective media were used for isolation from fecal samples. All isolated bacteria were identified and classified through 16S rRNA sequencing, and the microbiota composition of the fecal samples was analyzed by metagenomics using next generation sequencing (NGS) technology. A total of 278 and 149 colonies were acquired from the sow and weaned pig fecal samples, respectively. Culturomics analysis revealed that diverse bacterial genus and species belonged to Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes were isolated from sow and weaned pigs. When comparing culture-dependent and culture-independent analyses, 191 bacterial species and 2 archaeal bacterial species were detected through culture-independent analysis, and a total of 23 bacteria were isolated through a culture-dependent approach, of which 65% were not detected by metagenomics. In conclusion, culturomics and metagenomics should be properly combined to fully understand the intestinal microbiota, and livestock-derived microbial resources should be informed by culturomic approaches to understand and utilize the mechanism of host-microbe interactions.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.387-400
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• 2023

Ruminal protozoa, especially entodiniomorphs, engulf other members of the rumen microbiome in large numbers; and they release oligopeptides and amino acids, which can be fermented to ammonia and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) by amino acid-fermenting bacteria (AAFB). Studies using defaunated (protozoa-free) sheep have demonstrated that ruminal protozoa considerably increase intraruminal nitrogen recycling but decrease nitrogen utilization efficiency in ruminants. However, direct interactions between ruminal protozoa and AAFB have not been demonstrated because of their inability to establish axenic cultures of any ruminal protozoan. Thus, this study was performed to evaluate the interaction between Entodinium caudatum, which is the most predominant rumen ciliate species, and an AAFB consortium in terms of feed degradation and ammonia production along with the microbial population shift of select bacterial species (Prevotella ruminicola, Clostridium aminophilum, and Peptostreptococcus anaerobius). From an Ent. caudatum culture that had been maintained by daily feeding and transfers every 3 or 4 days, the bacteria and methanogens loosely associated with Ent. caudatum cells were removed by filtration and washing. An AAFB consortium was established by repeated transfers and enrichment with casamino acids as the sole substrate. The cultures of Ent. caudatum alone (Ec) and AAFB alone (AAFB) and the co-culture of Ent. caudatum and AAFB (Ec + AAFB) were set up in three replicates and incubated at 39℃ for 72 h. The digestibility of dry matter (DM) and fiber (NDF), VFA profiles, ammonia concentrations, pH, and microscopic counts of Ent. caudatum were compared among the three cultures. The co-culture of AAFB and Ent. caudatum enhanced DM degradation, VFA production, and Ent. caudatum cell counts; conversely, it decreased acetate: propionate ratio although the total bacterial abundance was similar between Ec and the Ec + AAFB co-culture after 24 h incubation. The ammonia production and relative abundance of C. aminophilum and P. anaerobius did not differ between AAFB alone and the Ec + AAFB co-culture. Our results indicate that Ent. caudatum and AAFB could have a mutualistic interaction that benefited each other, but their interactions were complex and might not increase ammoniagenesis. Further research should examine how such interactions affect the population dynamics of AAFB.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.278-283
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• 2014

Cecropins (Cec) are antibacterial peptides and their expression is induced in a pig intestinal parasite Ascaris suum by bacterial infection. To explore the usefulness of its activity as an antibiotic, CecP4 cDNA was prepared and cloned into the pPICZ B expression vector and followed by the integration into AOX1 locus in Pichia pastoris. The supernatants from cell culture were collected after methanol induction and concentrated for the test of antimicrobial activity. The recombinant P. patoris having CecP4 showed antimicrobial activity when tested against Staphyllococcus aureus in disc diffusion assay. We selected one of the CecP4 clones (CecP4-2) and performed further studies with it. The growth of recombinant P. pastoris was optimized using various concentration of methanol, and it was found that 2% methanol in the culture induced more antibacterial activity, compared to 1% methanol. We extended the test of antimicrobial activity by applying the concentrated supernatant of CecP4 culture to Pseudomonas aeruginosa and E. coli respectively. Recombinant CecP4 also showed antimicrobial activity against both Pseudomona and E. coli, suggesting the broad spectrum of its antimicrobial activity. After improvements for the scale-up, it will be feasible to use recombinant CecP4 for supplementation to the feed to control microbial infections in young animals, such as piglets.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.361-371
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• 2014

Mycoplasma is well recognized as one of the most prevalent and serious microbial contaminants of biologic manufacturing processes. Conventional methods for mycoplasma testing, direct culture method and indirect indicator cell culture method, are lengthy, costly and less sensitive to noncultivable species. In this report, we describe a new TaqMan probe-based real-time PCR method for rapid and quantitative detection of mycoplasma contamination during manufacture of biologics. Universal mycoplasma primers were used for mycoplasma PCR and mycoplasma DNA was quantified by use of a specific TaqMan probe. Specificity, sensitivity, and robustness of the real-time PCR method was validated according to the European Pharmacopoeia. The validation results met required criteria to justify its use as a replacement for the culture method. The established real-time PCR assay was successfully applied to the detection of mycoplasma from human keratinocyte and mesenchymal stem cell as well as Vero cell lines artificially infected with mycoplasma. The overall results indicated that this rapid, specific, sensitive, and robust assay can be reliably used for quantitative detection of mycoplasma contamination during manufacture of biologics.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.150-159
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• 2016

Knowledge of the distribution and biodiversity of environmental bacteria and the ecosystem that influences them is crucial for predicting an ecosystem. However, bacterial culture methods can only analyze approximately 0.1% of the existing microorganisms, those that are readily cultured under laboratory conditions. By contrast, next-generation sequencing (NGS) has generally been known to obtain more diverse profiling of bacterial composition. We compared the bacterial communities using both a culture-dependent (MALDI-TOF) and culture-independent (NGS) methods. Environmental specimens were obtained from both freshwater and seawater. Water samples were also analyzed by both pyrosequencing and MiSeq sequencing, in order to select one NGS platform which could analyze comparatively more diverse microbiota. Bacterial distribution analyzed with MALDI-TOF showed no difference between the microbiota of freshwater and seawater, whereas the results analyzed with NGS distinguished between the two. The diversity indexes of MiSeq sequencing were higher than for Pyrosequencing. This indicated that MiSeq sequencing is capable of analyzing a comparatively wider diversity of bacteria. The genus of Flavobacterium and Planktophila were identified as being unique to freshwater, whereas EU801223 and OM43 were found in the seawater. Difference between the bacterial composition of the freshwater and seawater environments was identified by MiSeq sequencing analysis.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.236-242
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• 2004

1,2-benzopyrone can stimulate macrophages to increase the ability of phagocytosis. Peripheral blood polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) and macrophages destroy microbial organisms with reactive oxygen species (ROS), called oxidative burst activity (OBA). This study was undertaken to determine whether 1,2-benzopyrone affects the OBA on the phagocytic response of canine peripheral blood phagocytes. The OBA of phagocytes in the addition or absence of latex beads was analyzed by flow cytometry system using dihydrorhodamine 123 (DHR). The direct treatments of 1,2-benzopyrone have no effect on the OBA of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), PMN and monocyte-rich cells regardless of addition of latex beads. When latex beads are added to PMN, the OBA of PMN was remarkably enhanced by culture supernatant from PBMC but not PMN treated with 1,2-benzopyrone. Similary, it was also enhanced by human recombinant (hr) $TNF-\alpha.$ However, when latex beads were not added to PMN, its OBA was not enhanced by culture supernatant from either PBMC or PMN treated with 1,2-benzopyrone. The OBA of latex beads-phagocytized PBMC and monocyte-rich cells was not enhanced by culture supernatant from either PBMC or PMN treated with 1,2-benzopyrone. These results strongly suggested that 1,2-benzopyrone has an immunoenhancing effect on the OBA of PMN when phagocytic response occurred only. This enhanced OBA may be mediated through active humoral substance(s), such as $TNF-\alpha,$ produced by PBMC stimulated with 1,2-benzopyrone.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.233-236
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• 2000

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is the most widely used microbial insecticide in the biological control market. Cultivation of the microorganism to high cell densities offers potential for enhancing the rate of formation as well as the concentration of the desired products In the fermentation broths in bioreactor. With this objective, we developed the new bioreactor incorporating ceramic membrane module for the retention of cell mass. Cell yield and spore formation of Bacillus thuringiensis was improved markedly by adopting this new bioreactor based on glucose -limited feeding operation. It was possible to grow the cell and the heat-resistant spore to above $1.2\;{\times}\;10^{10}\;CFU/ml$ density. With glucose-limited operation, we studied the growth behavior of Bacillus thuringiensis during the cell retention culture. Linear growth of Bacillus thuringiensis was observed under glucose-limited culture, which matched well with simple mathematical model of cell retention culture.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2001

Staphylokinase (SAK) was produced in B. subtilis using two different promoter systems, i.e. the P43 and sacB promoters. To maximize SAK expression in B. subtilis, fermentation control strategies for each promoter were examined. SAK, under P43, a vegetative promoter transcribed mainly by $\sigma$(sup)B containing RNA polymerase, was overexpressed at low dissolved oxygen (D.O.) levels, suggesting that the sigB operon is somewhat affected by the energy charge of the cells. The expression of SAK at the 10% D.O. level was three times higher than that at the 50% D.O. level. In the case of sacB, a sucrose-inducible promoter, sucrose feeding was used to control the induction period and induction strength. Since sucrose is hydrolyzed by two sucrose hydrolyzing enzymes in the cell and culture broth, the control strategy was based on replenishing the loss of sucrose in the culture. With continuous feeding of sucrose, WB700 (pSAKBQ), which contains the SAK gene under sacB promoter, yielded ca. 35% more SAK than the batch culture. These results present efficient promoter-dependent control strategies in B. subtilis host system for foreign protein expression.