• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제61권3호
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• pp.272-281
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• 2023

Chigger mites are the vector of scrub typhus. This study estimates the infestation status and ecological characteristics of chiggers on the chestnut white-bellied rat Niviventer fulvescens in Southwest China between 2001 and 2019. Chiggers were identified under the microscope, and infestation indices were calculated. The Preston's log-normal model was used to fit the curve of species abundance distribution. A total of 6,557 chiggers were collected in 136 of 342 N. fulvescens rats, showing high overall infestation indices (prevalence=39.8%, mean abundance=19.2, mean intensity=48.2) and high species diversity (S=100, H'=3.0). Leptotrombidium cangjiangense, Neotrombicula japonica, and Ascoschoengastia sifanga were the three dominant chigger species (constituent ratio=42.9%; 2,736/6,384) and exhibited an aggregated distribution among different rat individuals. We identified 100 chigger species, with 3 of them (Leptotrombidium scutellare, Leptotrombidium wenense, and Leptotrombidium deliense) as the main vectors of scrub typhus in China and nine species as potential vectors of this disease. Disease vector occurrence on N. fulvescens may increase the risk of spreading scrub typhus from rats to humans. Chigger infestation on N. fulvescens varied significantly in different environments. The species abundance distribution showed a log-normal distribution pattern. The estimated number of chigger species on N. fulvescens was 126 species.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.216-220
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• 2002

Seed decay of soybean caused by Diaporthe phaseolorum, Colletotrichum truncatum and Cercospora kikuchii is a serious disease when soybean is harvested under warm and wet weather conditions. Benomyl has been used for controlling the disease, however, benomyl application may be limited due to common occurrence of resistance. The efficacy of 21 fungicides against the pathogens was evaluated in vitro. Among the fungicides tested, benomyl, carbendazim, fluazinam, iprodione+propineb, thiophanate-methyl, and triflumizole were found effective and were evaluated for their ability to control the seed pathogens. Fluazinam completely inhibited mycelial growth at a concentration of 100 $\mu\textrm{g}$/$\textrm{m}{\ell}$ for D. phaseolorum; and at a concentration of 500 $\mu\textrm{g}$/$\textrm{m}{\ell}$ for C. truncatum and C. kikuchii. $EC_90$ values of fluazinam were similar to that of benomyl. Because fluazinam, iprodione+propineb, and triflumizole were found effective against the seed pathogens, these were subjected for field-testing. Suppression of pod and seed infection by fluazinam and iprodione+propineb was as high as that of benomyl without any reduction in agronomic characters of soybean. This study shows that fluazinam and iprodione+propineb may be used in combination with benomyl to control seed pathogens, manage resistance, and ensure production of high quality soybean seeds.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제23권1호
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• pp.1-10
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• 2007

Invading pathogens are recognized by diverse germline-encoded pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) which are distributed in three different cellular compartments: extracellular, membrane, and cytoplasmic. In mammals, the major extracellular PRRs such as complements may first encounter the invading pathogens and opsonize them for clearance by phagocytosis which is mediated by membrane-associated phagocytic receptors including complement receptors. The major membrane-associated PRRs, Toll-like receptors, recognize diverse pathogens and generate inflammatory signals to coordinate innate immune responses and shape adaptive immune responses. Furthemore, certain membrane-associated PRRs such as Dectin-1 can mediate phagocytosis and also induce inflammatory response. When these more forefront detection systems are avoided by the pathogens, cytoplasmic PRRs may play major roles. Cytoplasmic caspase-recruiting domain (CARD) helicases such as retinoic acid-inducible protein I (RIG-I)/melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5), mediate antiviral immunity by inducing the production of type I interferons. Certain members of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors such as NALP3 present in the cytosol form inflammasomes to induce inflammatory responses upon ligand recognition. Thus, diverse families of PRRs coordinately mediate immune responses against diverse types of pathogens.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.5-14
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• 2009

The availability of effective vaccines has had the most profound positive effect on improving the quality of public health by preventing infectious diseases. Despite many successful vaccines, there are still old and new emerging pathogens against which there is no vaccine available. A better understanding of how vaccines work for providing protection will help to improve current vaccines as well as to develop effective vaccines against pathogens for which we do not have a proper means to control. Recent studies have focused on innate immunity as the first line of host defense and its role in inducing adaptive immunity; such studies have been an intense area of research, which will reveal the immunological mechanisms how vaccines work for protection. Toll-like receptors (TLRs), a family of receptors for pathogen-associated molecular patterns on cells of the innate immune system, play a critical role in detecting and responding to microbial infections. Importantly, the innate immune system modulates the quantity and quality of long-term T and B cell memory and protective immune responses to pathogens. Limited studies suggest that vaccines which mimic natural infection and/or the structure of pathogens seem to be effective in inducing long-term protective immunity. A better understanding of the similarities and differences of the molecular and cellular events in host responses to vaccination and pathogen infection would enable the rationale for design of novel preventive measures against many challenging pathogens.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• 제38권1호
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• pp.37-44
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• 2020

The antimicrobial activity of the ethanol extract of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. (Roselle) powder against various food-borne pathogens was tested using the lawn diffusion assay. The results showed that the ethanol extract exhibited antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus (total inhibition), Salmonella enteritidis (partial inhibition), Listeria monocytogenes (partial inhibition), Escherichia coli (partial inhibition), Cronobacter sakazakii (partial inhibition), and Bacillus cereus (partial inhibition). Therefore, it is strongly recommended that Hibiscus sabdariffa L. (Roselle) should be considered for use as a natural food-grade additive for the inhibition of various food-borne pathogens, including both gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens, and the improvement of the overall quality of various dairy products, including milk.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.286-289
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• 2000

Mechanol extracts of three cold-tolerant eucalyptus trees-Eucalyptus darlympleana, E. gunnii and E. unigera were screened for antimicrobial activity against twenty two phyto-pathogenic fungi and six food-borne bacterial pathogens. E. unigera showed the antagonistic activity against all the tested pathogens. Among the tested fungal pathogens, Pythium species were highly sensitive to the leaf extracts. Especially, P. vanterpoolii, a causal agent of leaf blight in creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris), was completely inhibited by the extracts. The eucalyptus extracts were also effective in inhibiting the fungal growth of Botrytis cinerea and Phomopsis sp. isolated from the lesions of kiwifruit soft rot during post-harvest storage. Escherichia coli O-157 was less sensitive to the inhibition than the other bacterial pathogens tested. It was likely that Gram positive bacteria-Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus mutans were more sensitive to the eucalyptus extracts than Gram negative bacteria-Escherichia coli, Salmonella enteritidis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Our findings suggest that the cold-tolerant eucalyptus species have antimicrobial properties that can serve the development of novel fungitoxic agents or food preservatives.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.1-6
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• 2002

Plants have developed a sophisticated battery of defence responses to protect themselves against attempted pathogen ingress. Manipulation of these defence mechanisms may provide significant opportunities for crop improvement. While plant resistance genes have had a long service history in plant breeding, they possess significant limitations. Recent advances are now providing significant insights into strategies designed to increase the field durability of this class of genes. Hypersensitive cell death is a common feature underlying the deployment of plant defence responses against biographic pathogens. In contrast, necrotrophic pathogens actively kill plant cells. Recently, transgenic plants have been developed that either promote or suppress cell death, providing resistance against either biotrophic or necrotrophic pathogens respectively. Methyl-jasmonate is a key signalling molecule in the establishment of resistance against some fungal pathogens. Increasing the concentration of this molecule in plant cells has been shown to increase resistance against Botrytis cineria, without significantly imparting plant growth or development. Due to the multifarious infection strategies employed by plant pathogens, how-ever, it is unlikely a single commercial product will prove a panacea for global disease control. Future stategies will more likely entail an integrated disease management approach.

• 한국임상수의학회지
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• 제34권3호
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• pp.161-164
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• 2017

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the most important diseases in calves. It causes a huge economic loss in farms. BRD in calves is concentrated during winter because of the cold weather and lack of ventilation. However, BRD during summer in calves has continuously been a problem in farms. But there is no study about pathogens of summer pneumonia in calves and antimicrobial susceptibility in Korea. Therefore, aims of this study were to identify the pathogens and their antimicrobial susceptibility in calves with summer pneumonia. One hundred and one calves (2 weeks to 5 months after birth) with clinical sign of BRD from 5 farms were selected. After sampling by deep nasal swab, bacterial isolation and identification was conducted. Also, antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed. Pasteurella spp (49.4%), Staphylococcus spp (21.5%), Actinomyces spp (12.9%), E coli (10.7%), and Mannheimia haemolytica (5.3%) were isolated. The patterns of isolated pathogens from each farm were various. Also, the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics was showed a variety of patterns in each farm.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.73-83
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• 2005

Disease resistance in plants is often controlled by gene-for-gene mechanism in which avirulence (avr) gene products encoding by pathogens are specifically recognized, either directly or indirectly by plant disease resistance (R) gene products and sequential signal transduction pathways activating defense responses are rapidly triggered. As a results, not only exhibit a resistance against invading pathogens but also plants maintain the systemic acquired resistance (SAR) to various other pathogens. This molecular interaction between pathogen and plant is commonly compared to innate immune system of animal. Recent studies arising from molecular characterization of a number of R genes from various plant species that confer resistance to different pathogens and corresponding avr genes from various pathogens resulted in the accumulation of a wealth of knowledge on molecular mechanism of gene-for-gene interaction. Furthermore, new technologies of genomics and proteomics make it possible to monitor the genome-wide gene regulation and protein modification during activation of disease resistance, expanding our ability to understand the plant immune response and develop new crops resistant to biotic stress.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.297-312
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• 2014

Food safety is increasingly becoming an important public health issue, as foodborne diseases present a widespread and growing public health problem in both developed and developing countries. The rapid and precise monitoring and detection of foodborne pathogens are some of the most effective ways to control and prevent human foodborne infections. Traditional microbiological detection and identification methods for foodborne pathogens are well known to be time consuming and laborious as they are increasingly being perceived as insufficient to meet the demands of rapid food testing. Recently, various kinds of rapid detection, identification, and monitoring methods have been developed for foodborne pathogens, including nucleic-acid-based methods, immunological methods, and biosensor-based methods, etc. This article reviews the principles, characteristics, and applications of recent rapid detection methods for foodborne pathogens.