• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.390-407
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• 2024

Kuflu cheese, a popular variety of traditional Turkish mold-ripened cheeses, is characterized by its semi-hard texture and blue-green color. It is important to elucidate the microbiota of Kuflu cheese produced from raw milk to standardize and sustain its sensory properties. This study aimed to examine the bacteria, yeasts, and filamentous mold communities in Kuflu cheese using high-throughput amplicon sequencing based on 16S and ITS2 regions. Lactococcus, Streptococcus, and Staphylococcus were the most dominant bacterial genera while Bifidobacterium genus was found to be remarkably high in some Kuflu cheese samples. Penicillium genus dominated the filamentous mold biota while the yeasts with the highest relative abundances were detected as Debaryomyces, Pichia, and Candida. The genera Virgibacillus and Paraliobacillus, which were not previously reported for mold-ripened cheeses, were detected at high relative abundances in some Kuflu cheese samples. None of the genera that include important food pathogens like Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria were detected in the samples. This is the first experiment in which the microbiota of Kuflu cheeses were evaluated with a metagenomic approach. This study provided an opportunity to evaluate Kuflu cheese, which was previously examined for fungal composition, in terms of both pathogenic and beneficial bacteria.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.188-192
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• 1980

In search of dextran-hydrolyzing enzymes, approximately 500 strains of molds were checked for their ability to produce extracellular dextranase. Seven strains capable of producing dextranase were screened, and among them, one strain belonging to Aspergillus genus showed greater activity than the other. The strain was identified to be Aspergillus ustus and the most suitable culture conditions for the enzyme production were determined.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.161-173
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• 2005

This study was carried out to clarify the effects of antifungal bacterial strains isolated from the greenhouse soil grown strawberry plants on the growth inhibition of plant pathogen, gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) infected in strawberry plants in Damyang and Jangheung districts. Antagonistic bacterial strains were isolated and investigated into the antagonistic activity against gray mold. Screened ten bacterial strains which strongly inhibited Botrytis cinerea were isolated from the greenhouse grown strawberry plants, and the best antifungal microorganism designated as SB 143 was finally selected. Antifungal bacterial strain SB 143 was identified to be the genus Bacillus sp. based on the morphological and biochemical characterization. Bacillus sp. SB 143 showed 59.4% of antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea. By the bacterialization of culture broth and heated filtrates of culture broth, Bacillus sp. SB 143 showed 93.1% and 32.1% of antagonistic activity against Botrytis cinerea.

• Mycobiology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.143-147
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• 2008

We have detected the slime mold, Diachea leucopodia (GNU06-10) in a strawberry greenhouse located in Sancheong-gun, Gyeongnam. Typical fruiting bodies had developed gregariously on the strawberry leaves, petioles, and plant debris on ground soil habitat, and also surprisingly on plastic pipes and a vinyl covering. Field samples were examined via stereomicroscopy, light microscopy, and SEM for the determination of morphological characteristics. Dark-brown to black spores formed gregariously within the stipitate cylindrical sporangium, and were covered by an iridescent peridium, which may be intact at maturity, or may have disintegrated. The upper portion of the peridium generally breaks up to expose the spores, whereas the lower portion was usually persistent. The results of energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) analysis showed that lime was present in the stalk and columella but absent from the spores, capillitium, and peridium. The above characteristics confirm its taxonomic position in the genus Diachea. However, this genus is intermediate in character between the Physarales and Stemonitales of the Myxogastromycetidae. Hence, this genus had been classified as a member of the Stemonitales until the mid-1970's, on the basis of its iridescent peridium and noncalcareous capillitial system, similar to Comatricha of the Stemonitaceae. By way of contrast, emphasis on morphological characteristics, most notably the calcareous stalk and typical columella, places Diachea within the order Physarales. The presence of a phaneroplasmodium during the trophic stage and lime deposition in its sporophores, as was confirmed in this work, supported the inclusion of Diachea in the Physarales, and the noncalcareous capillitial system verified its identification as a member of the Didymiaceae. Further characteristics of the species D. leucopodia include the following: phaneroplasmodium, spore globose 7.5 ${\mu}m$ in diameter, very minutely roughened; sporangia $500{\mu}m\times1mm$, more or less cylindrical, gregarious, stalked 1.2mm; stalk and columella white.

• Journal of odor and indoor environment
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.355-361
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• 2018

Mold grows more easily when humidity is higher in indoor spaces, and as such is found more often on wetted areas in housing such as walls, toilets, kitchens, and poorly managed spaces. However, there have been few studies that have specifically assessed the level of mold in the indoor spaces of water-damaged housing in the Republic of Korea. We investigated the levels of airborne mold according to the characteristics of water damage types and explored the correlation between the distribution of mold genera and the characteristics of households. Samplings were performed from January 2016 to June 2018 in 97 housing units with water leakage or condensation, or a history of flooding, and in 61 general housing units in the metropolitan and Busan area, respectively. Airborne mold was collected on MEA (Malt extract agar) at flow rate of 100 L/min for 1 min. After collection, the samples were incubated at $25^{\circ}C$ for 120 hours. The cultured samples were counted and corrected using a positive hole conversion table. The samples were then analyzed by single colony culture, DNA extraction, gene amplification, and sequencing. By type of housing, concentrations of airborne mold were highest in flooded housing, followed by water-leaked or highly condensed housings, and then general housing. In more than 50% of water-damaged housing, the level of airborne mold exceeded the guideline of Korea's Ministry of Environment ($500CFU/m^3$). Of particular concern was the fact that the I/O ratio of water-damaged housing was greater than 1, which could indicate that mold damage may occur indoors. The distribution patterns of the fungal species were as follows: Penicillium spp., Cladosporium spp. (14%), Aspergillus spp. (13%) and Alternaria spp. (3%), but significant differences of their levels in indoor spaces were not found. Our findings indicate that high levels of mold damage were found in housing with water damage, and Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium brevicompactum were more dominant in housing with high water activity. Comprehensive management of flooded or water-damaged housing is necessary to reduce fungal exposure.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.399-410
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• 2006

This study was carried out to identity the effects of antifungal bacteria isolated from the soil grown kiwi fruit plants on the growth inhibition of Botrytis cinerea causing gray mold in kiwi fruit plants in the southern districts of Jeonnam. Two hundred and fifty antagonistic microorganisms were isolated and examined into the antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea. We screened and isolated four bacterial strains which strongly inhibited Botrytis cinerea from the soil grown kiwi fruit plants. And the best antifungal bacterial strain which called CHO 163 was finally selected. Antagonistic microorganism CHO 163 was identified to be the genus Bacillus sp. based on the morphological and biochemical characterization. Bacillus sp. CHO 163 showed 86.9% of antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea. By the bacterialization of culture broth and heated filtrates of culture broth, Bacillus sp. CHO 163 showed almost all of antagonistic activity against Botrytis cinerea. And we also confirmed that in vitro the treatment of Bacillus sp. CHO 163 cultured by SD+B+P broth efficiently controled the growth of Botrytis cinerea causing gray mold in kiwi fruit plants.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.240-244
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• 2003

Conidia of molds within the Asian dust were captured in the ambient air of mid-west Korea, in springtime of 2000~2002. An eight-stage Cascade impactor and 0.22 $\mu\textrm{m}$ pore size membrane filters were used for the dust samples. Several kinds of molds grown from the samples were identified to the genus level. Those are Aspergillus, Basipetospora, Epicoccum, Fusarium, Monotospora and Penicillium. Relatively diversified mycelia of hyphomycetes were grown on the fine dust sample (1.1~2.1 $\mu\textrm{m}$) in the first year Asian dust episode (23~24 March, 2000). On the other hand, some fluffy molds and dark molds aggregations were grown on even the backup particle sample less than 0.43 $\mu\textrm{m}$ during the second year episode (24~26 April, 2001). The result of the last year episode (21~22 March, 2002) showed various mycelia grown on the sample contained from 1.1 to 2.1 $\mu\textrm{m}$ sized particles, just like the result of the first year episode (23~24 March, 2000). These variations between the episodes might be caused by the difference of the dust origins.

• Mycobiology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.218-224
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• 2015

Aspergillus is an important fungal genus used for the fermentation of Asian foods; this genus is referred to as koji mold in Japan and China. A. oryzae, A. sojae, and A. tamari are used in the production of miso and shoyu in Japan, but a comprehensive taxonomic study of Aspergillus isolated from Meju, a fermented soybean starting material for traditional soy sauce and soybean paste in Korea, has not been conducted. In this study, various Aspergillus species were isolated during a study of the mycobiota of Meju, and the aspergilli were identified based on phenotypic characteristics and sequencing of the ${\beta}$-tubulin gene. Most strains of Aspergillus were found to belong to the following sections: Aspergillus (n = 220), Flavi (n = 213), and Nigri (n = 54). The most commonly identified species were A. oryzae (n = 183), A. pseudoglaucus (Eurotium repens) (n = 81), A. chevalieri (E. chevalieri) (n = 62), A. montevidensis (E. amstelodami) (n = 34), A. niger (n = 21), A. tamari (n = 15), A. ruber (E. rubrum) (n = 15), A. proliferans (n = 14), and A. luchuensis (n = 14); 25 species were identified from 533 Aspergillus strains. Aspergillus strains were mainly found during the high temperature fermentation period in the later steps of Meju fermentation.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.545-553
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• 2021

In 2021, seven yeast strains were isolated from earthworm (Eisenia andrei) gut samples collected from the Nanji Water Regeneration Center in Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province, Korea. A total of seven yeasts were isolated, of which three strains have not been previously reported in Korea. To identify the yeasts, pairwise sequence comparisons of large subunit (LSU) rDNA sequences were performed using the basic local alignment search tool (BLAST). Assimilation test and cell morphology analysis were performed using the API 20C AUX kit and phase contrast microscope, respectively. Five of the seven strains were assigned to the genus Candida of the order Saccharomycetales of the class Saccharomycetes, and two to the genus Apiotrichum of the order Trichosporonales of the class Tremellomycetes. The yeast strain Candida sojae E2 belongs to the family Debaryomycetaceae, and Apiotrichum laibachii E8 and A. laibachii E9 belong to the family Trichosporonaceae. All strains were cultured in yeast mold agar for three days and showed different colony forms. C. sojae E2 was round and entire shaped, while A. laibachii E8 and A. laibachii E9 was round and convex shaped. This study focuses on the description of the three yeast strains that have not been officially reported in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.46-50
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• 1978

Aflatoxin, a mixture of the at least four toxic and carcinogenic metabolites, is known to be produced by only a few fungi. The toxins were designated aflatoxins because they were produced by the mold Aspergillus flavus(A. flavus). However, at least four other toxins and other species of the genus A. niger, A. parasiticus A. ruber and wentii have been reported to produce aflatoxins. And also the identical compounds may also be produced by molds, the Pencillium. At least four different species of Penicilliurn have been reported to produce aflatoxins (P. citrinurn, P. frequentans, P. puberulurn. and P. variable). So it is now known that the problem of Aflatoxin is not restricted to the single species A. flavus, even though that is a very common mold. Also additional aflatoxins have been discorvered. For sereral years, only four aflatoxins were known: $B_1, B_2, G_1$ and $G_2$, so designated by reason of their fluorescence and chromatographic charateristics. It is now known that there are really two new toxic materials in the milk. During the past year(1966) they were christened aflatoxin $M_1$ and $M_2$, since they were first found in milk. The two other and most recently discorvered aflatoxins were isolated late in 1966 from cultures of A. flavus, and were designated aflatoxin $B_2a$ and aflatoxin $G_2a$. In order to obtain a breaf information about extent of contamination of foodstuffs by aflatoxin which is known to produce eight different mold, aflatoxin detection of cereals and fermented foods on sale, such as polished rice, barley, wheat, wheat flour, lentil, red bean, soy bean, noodle, kochuj ang and Dwenjang (fermented soy bean paste) and chong Kuk, were carried out. The results of this investigation were summarized as follows: The hexane:$CHCl_3$ extracts of polished rice, barley wheat, wheat flour, lentil, red bean, noodle and kochujang yielded fluorescent spots on thin layer plates. However their Rfvalues were different from those of authentic aflatoxins. The fluorescent substances of the extract from soy bean, Dwenjang and chong kuk showed very similar Rf values to those of the standard aflatoxins. By two dimensional thin layer chromatography and comparison of ultra violet absorption spectra, it was found that these fluorescent substances were not aflatoxins. To conclude, aflatoxins themselves were not detected directly in those samples tested.