• Journal of Species Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.4-34
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• 2012

Parastenocaris koreana sp. nov. is described based on examination of numerous adult specimens of both sexes from several localities in Korea. Scanning electron micrographs are used to examine intra- and interpopulation variability of micro-characters, in addition to light microscopy. The new species is most closely related to the Japanese P. biwae Miura, 1969, which we redescribe based on newly collected material from the Lake Biwa drainage area. The two species differ in size, relative length of the caudal rami, shape of the anal operculum, shape of the genital double somite, relative length of the inner distal process on the female fifth leg, as well as relative length of the apical setae on the second, third, and fourth legs exopods in both sexes. Detailed examinations of three disjunct populations of P. koreana reveal also some geographical variation, especially in the surface ornamentation of somites, which may indicate some population structuring or even cryptic speciation. Lack of intraspecific variability in the number and position of sensilla on somites, as well as their potential phylogenetic significance, is a novel discovery. Both species examined here belong to the brevipes group, which we redefine to include 20 species from India (including Sri Lanka), Australia, East Asia, Northern Europe, and North America. A key to species of this group is also provided. In order to test the monophyly of the redefined brevipes group with highly disjunct distribution, as well as relationship between different species, a cladistics analysis is performed based on 39 morphological characters and with help of three outgroup taxa. Six equally parsimonious cladograms are generated, all of which show that the ingroup is well defined by at least three synapomorphies. Reconstructed phylogeny questions the previously suggested hypothesis about the origin of this group in South East Asia, with one Australian species showing the most basal position. We speculate that the present distribution of this group may be a combination of ancient vicariance and subsequent dispersal, with a possible origin in the Gondwanaland, in the rift valley between Australia and India.

• Mycobiology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2017

Most known species in the Physalacriaceae are saprotrophs that grow on decaying leaves and wood, and approximately 21 genera in the Physalacriaceae have been reported worldwide. During an ongoing survey of indigenous fungi in Korea, four specimens belonging to the Physalacriaceae were collected on Ulleung Island. These specimens were identified as three species based on morphological characteristics and molecular analysis of rDNA-internal transcribed spacer sequences. Three species in three genera were shown to be new records in Korea: Hymenopellis orientalis, Paraxerula hongoi, and Ponticulomyces orientalis. The latter two are the first records of these genera in Korea. In this study, we provide detailed morphological descriptions of these species and describe their phylogenetic position within the Physalacriaceae.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2017

As a part of the research program 'Survey of freshwater organisms and specimen collection', freshwater samples were collected from Lakes Soyang and Chungju in 2016. Hundreds of bacterial strains were isolated from the samples and were identified based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. Among the bacterial isolates, strains showing higher than 98.7% sequence similarity with validly published bacterial species not reported in Korea were selected as unrecorded bacterial species. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, 17 strains were identified as unrecorded bacterial species in Korea. The 17 bacterial strains were phylogenetically diverse and belonged to four phyla, seven classes, 13 orders, 14 families, and 16 genera. At generic level, the unreported species were affiliated with Caulobacter, Paracoccus, and Mesorhizobium of the class Alphaproteobacteria, Deefgea, Undibacterium, Chitinimonas, Inhella, and Sphaerotilus of the class Betaproteobacteria, Vibrio and Cellvibrio of the class Gammaproteobacteria, Sanguibacter and Clavibacter of the phylum Actinobacteria, Lactococcus of the phylum Firmicutes, Deinococcus of the class Deinococci, and Chryseobacterium and Flavobacterium of the phylum Bacteroidetes. The unreported species were further characterized by examining Gram reaction, colony and cell morphology, biochemical properties, and phylogenetic position. The detailed description of the 17 unreported species are also provided.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.6 no.spc
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• pp.185-214
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• 2017

The genus Phyllopodopsyllus T. Scott, 1906 is nearly cosmopolitan and contains around 60 valid species, but has not been previously recorded in Korea. One of the reasons is probably the paucity of research in marginal habitats, such as marine interstitial. I describe two new species here. Numerous specimens of both sexes of P. kitazimai sp. nov. were collected from a beach near Yeongdeok, while only two females of P. busanensis sp. nov. were collected from a beach near Busan. The new species differ in numerous macro-morphological characters, such as the segmentation and armature of the antennula, armature of the mandibula, maxillula, maxilliped, and the first three swimming legs, as well as the shape of the caudal rami and the female genital field. However, they show very little difference in the number and position of cuticular organs (pores and sensilla) on all somites, which might prove these rarely used micro-characters to be useful in the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships in this group of harpacticoids. Both species have their closest relatives in Japan. Phyllopodopsyllus kitazimai is morphologically most similar to P. punctatus Kitazima, 1981, but can be distinguished by much longer third exopodal segments of the third and fourth swimming legs. Phyllopodopsyllus busanensis shares the largest number of morphological similarities with P. setouchiensis Kitazima, 1981, but can be distinguished by shorter caudal rami. A key to species is also provided.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.287-293
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• 2008

The cDNA of the aquabirnavirus, GC-1 isolated from rockfish Sebastes schlegeli in Korea, was synthesized using the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences were determined from cDNA of the VP2-NS-VP3 coding region of genome segment A. The nucleotide sequences of the segment A were 3,086 base pairs (bp) in length and contained large open reading frame (ORF) and terminal sequences. The large ORF was comprised of 2,916 bp nucleotides and composed of 972 deduced amino acid sequences. Pairwise comparisons were made with other aquabirnavirus sequences published previously. The study of genetic relationships between GC-1 and aquabirnaviruses in the large ORF and VP2 coding regions demonstrated that the GC-1 has the nearest genetic relationship with the marine birnaviruses (MABV strains), and the GC-1 and MABV strains can be clustered as the same genogroup. GC-1 can be included in MABV, which is the 7th genogroup of family Aquabirnaviridae.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1816-1821
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• 2003

Reliable PCR based identification of lactobacilli has been described utilizing the sequence of 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region. Those sequence comparisons showed a high degree of difference in homology among the strains of L. rhamnosus, L. casei, L. acidophilus and L. helveticus whose 16S-23S rRNA intergenic small SR's sizes were 222 bp, 222 bp, 206 bp and 216 bp respectively. The sequence of 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region of L. rhamnosus ATCC 53103 revealed the close relatedness to those of L. casei strains by the homology ranges from 95.4% to 97.2%. 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region nucleotide sequence of L. acidophilus showed some distant relatedness with L. rhamnosus ATCC 53103 with the homology ranges from 40.3% to 41.8% and that with L. helveticus was shown to be 30% of homology, which exists at the most distant phylogenetic relatedness. The identification of species and strain of lactobacilli was possible on the basis of these results. The common sequences among the 17 strains were CTAAGGAA located in the initiating position of the DNA and some discrepancies were found between the same strains based on these results.

• ALGAE
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.209-217
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• 2008

Two different molecular markers, the plastid rbcL and mitochondrial cox1 genes, were used to define the taxonomic position of the northwest Pacific Ocean species currently named Gracilaria chorda. We analyzed both genes (1,222 bp for rbcL and 1,245 bp for cox1) from 18 specimens collected in Korea, Japan, and China. Phylogenetic reconstruction revealed that this organism should be classified in the genus Gracilariopsis, rather than in the Gracilaria. Thus, Gracilariopsis chorda (Holmes) Ohmi is the legitimate name for Gracilaria chorda Holmes. Within the species, the sequences differed by 8 bp (0.7%) in rbcL and 5 bp (0.4%) in cox1. Six haplotypes of cox1 tended to be geographically organized. Gp. chorda is characterized by coarse, elongate terete axes, short filiform branchlets usually at irregular intervals, an abrupt transition in cell size from medulla to cortex, cystocarps without tubular nutritive cells connecting the gonimoblast to the upper pericarp, and relatively large gonimoblast cells of the cystocarp in the specimens collected from Wando in southern Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.515-523
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• 2001

The dinoflagellates have some primitive nuclear features and are evolutionarily intermediate between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The small subunit ribosomal RAN gene, the 5.8S ribosomal RNA gene, and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of Gonyaulax polyedra were cloned, and their sequences were analyzed to better understand their evolutionary position. The small subunit ribosomal RNA gene was 1,794 nt long, the large subunit ribosomal RNA gene was approximately 3,500 nt long, and the 5.8S ribosomal RNA gene was 159 nt long. The first internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) was 191 nt long, and the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) was 185 nt long. The intergenic spacer of the ribosomal RNA gene (IGS) was about 2,200 nt long, indicating that 5,800 nt of transcribed sequences were separated by roughly 2,200 nt of intergenic spacer. The ribosomal RNA genes were repeated many times and arranged in a head-to-tail, tandemly repeated manner. The repeating unit of ribosomal RNA gene of G. polyedra was proposed to be 8,000 nt long. Based on the lengths of ribosomal RNA, sequence alignments with representative organisms, and phylogenetic analysis on ribosomal RNA, G. polyedra appears to be one of the alveolates branched from the eukaryotic crown and, among dinoflagellates, it seems to not have emerged early.

• Mycobiology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2016

Ganoderma lucidum has a long history of use as a traditional medicine in Asian countries. However, the taxonomy of Ganoderma species remains controversial, since they were initially classified on the basis of their morphological characteristics. Recently, it was proposed that G. lucidum from China be renamed as G. sichuanense or G. lingzhi. In the present study, phylogenetic analysis using the internal transcribed spacer region rDNA sequences of the Ganoderma species indicated that all strains of the Korean 'G. lucidum' clustered into one group together with G. sichuanense and G. lingzhi from China. However, strains from Europe and North American, which were regarded as true G. lucidum, were positioned in a clearly different group. In addition, the average size of the basidiospores from the Korean cultivated Yeongji strains was similar to that of G. lingzhi. Based on these results, we propose that the Korean cultivated Yeongji strains of 'G. lucidum' should be renamed as G. lingzhi.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.569-575
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• 2006

The 530 stem-loop is a 46 nucleotide stem-loop structure found in all small-subunit ribosomal RNAs. Phylogenetic and mutational studies by others suggest the requirement for Watson-Crick interactions between the nucleotides 505-507 and 524-526 (530 pseudoknot), which are highly conserved. To examine the nature and functional significance of these interactions, a random mutagenesis experiment was conducted in which the nucleotides in the proposed pseudoknot were simultaneously mutated and functional mutants were selected and analyzed. Genetic analysis revealed that the particular nucleotide present at each position except 524 was not exclusively critical to the selection of functional mutants. It also indicated that basepairing interactions between the positions 505-507 and 524-526 were required for ribosomal function, and much weaker base-pairing interactions than those of the wild-type also allowed high ribosomal function. Our results support the hypothesis that the 530 pseudoknot structure may undergo a 'conformational switch' between folded and unfolded states during certain stages of the protein synthesis process by interacting with other ligands present in its environment.