• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.96 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2007

In order to examine the differences in antioxidant enzyme activities which represent defence mechanism to stressful environments, and soil properties between healthy and declining (or unhealthy) trees, we selected three sites, Witseorum, Youngsil and Sungpanak (Jindallebat). Antioxidant enzymes including Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and Glutathione Reductase (GR), forest soil properties including soil texture, soil pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphate, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable cation content and nutrient contents in leaves of Abies koreana (Korean fir) trees were analyzed. There were no significant differences between healthy and declining trees in GR activity. However, seasonal difference in antioxidant enzyme activity was observed. GR activity was lower in June and August than that of September. Soil chemical and physical properties of each site showed a tendency that organic content, total nitrogen content, available phosphorus, cation exchange capacity and cation content were lower at the site of declining trees than the site of healthy trees.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.944-951
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• 2019

Lipases are industrial enzymes that catalyze both triglyceride hydrolysis and ester synthesis. The overexpression of lipase genes is considered one of the best approaches to increase the enzymatic production for industrial applications. Subfamily I.2. lipases require a chaperone or foldase in order to become a fully-activated enzyme. The goal of this research was to isolate, clone, and co-express genes that encode lipase and foldase from Burkholderia territorii GP3, a lipolytic bacterial isolate obtained from Mount Papandayan soil via growth on Soil Extract Rhodamine Agar. Genes that encode for lipase (lipBT) and foldase (lifBT) were successfully cloned from this isolate and co-expressed in the E. coli BL21 background. The highest expression was shown in E. coli BL21 (DE3) pLysS, using pET15b expression vector. LipBT was particulary unique as it showed highest activity with optimum temperature of $80^{\circ}C$ at pH 11.0. The optimum substrate for enzyme activity was $C_{10}$, which is highly stable in methanol solvent. The enzyme was strongly activated by $Ca^{2+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, and strongly inhibited by $Fe^{2+}$ and $Zn^{2+}$. In addition, the enzyme was stable and compatible in non-ionic surfactant, and was strongly incompatible in ionic surfactant.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.5-11
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• 2016

Background: As the decomposition of lignocellulosic compounds is a rate-limiting stage in the nutrient mineralization from organic matters, elucidation of the changes in soil enzyme activity can provide insight into the nutrient dynamics and ecosystem functioning. The current study aimed to assess the effect of thinning intensities on soil conditions. Un-thinned control, 20 % thinning, and 30 % thinning treatments were applied to a Larix kaempferi forest, and total carbon and nitrogen, total carbon to total nitrogen ratio, extractable nutrients (inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, potassium), and enzyme activities (acid phosphatase, ${\beta}$-glucosidase, ${\beta}$-xylosidase, ${\beta}$-glucosaminidase) were investigated. Results: Total carbon and nitrogen concentrations were significantly increased in the 30 % thinning treatment, whereas both the 20 and 30 % thinning treatments did not change total carbon to total nitrogen ratio. Inorganic nitrogen and extractable calcium and magnesium concentrations were significantly increased in the 20 % thinning treatment; however, no significant changes were found for extractable phosphorus and potassium concentrations either in the 20 or the 30 % thinning treatment. However, the applied thinning intensities had no significant influences on acid phosphatase, ${\beta}$-glucosidase, ${\beta}$-xylosidase, and ${\beta}$-glucosaminidase activities. Conclusions: These results indicated that thinning can elevate soil organic matter quantity and nutrient availability, and different thinning intensities may affect extractable soil nutrients inconsistently. The results also demonstrated that such inconsistent patterns in extractable nutrient concentrations after thinning might not be fully explained by the shifts in the enzyme-mediated nutrient mineralization.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2006

In this study, we have purified and characterized the membrane bound nitrate reductase obtained from the denitrifying bacteria, Ochrobactrum anthropi SY509, which was isolated from soil samples. O. anthropi SY509 can grow in minimal medium using nitrate as a nitrogen source. We achieved an overall purification rate of 15-fold from the protein extracted from the membrane fraction, with a recovery of approximately 12% of activity. The enzyme exhibited its highest level of activity at pH 5.5, and the activity was increased up to $70^{\circ}C$. Periplasmic and cytochromic proteins, including nitrite and nitrous oxide reductase, were excluded during centrifugation and were verified using enzyme essay. Reduced methyl viologen was determined to be the most efficient electron donor among a variety of anionic and cationic dyestuffs, which could be also used as an electron donor with dimethyl dithionite. The effects of purification and storage conditions on the stability of enzyme were also investigated. The activity of the membranebound nitrate reductase was stably maintained for over 2 weeks in solution. To maintain the stability of enzyme, the cell was disrupted using sonication at low temperatures, and enzyme was extracted by hot water without any surfactant. The purified enzyme was stored in solution with no salt to prevent any significant losses in activity levels.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Dyers and Finishers Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.181-183
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• 2008

Four different subtilisins of protease were investigated to see their effects on the cleaning activity. The cleaning solution was formulated with various non-ionic surfactants and other additives such as propylene glycol, triethanolamine, pH balancer etc. to evaluate their effect on enzyme activity as well. Evaluation of formulated cleaning solution was carried under K0120 using pre-soiled textiles from EMPA. The results showed that the cleaning activity on soil removal was not severly influenced by surfactant but the enzyme mostly. In addition, the activity of enzymes was not much affected by the type of surfactants as long as the surfactants were non-ionic. Liquinase among the four enzymes used in this study showed the best performance on soil removal, especially blood stain.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.843-853
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• 2014

In the context of artificial groundwater recharge, a reactive soil column at pilot-scale (4.5 m depth and 3 m in diameter) fed by treated wastewater was designed to evaluate soil filtration ability. Here, as a part of this project, the impact of treated wastewater filtration on soil bacterial communities and the soil's biological ability for wastewater treatment as well as the relevance of the use of multi-bioindicators were studied as a function of depth and time. Biomass; bacterial 16S rRNA gene diversity fingerprints; potential nitrifying, denitrifying, and sulfate-reducing activities; and functional gene (amo, nir, nar, and dsr) detection were analyzed to highlight the real and potential microbial activity and diversity within the soil column. These bioindicators show that topsoil (0 to 20 cm depth) was the more active and the more impacted by treated wastewater filtration. Nitrification was the main activity in the pilot. No sulfate-reducing activity or dsr genes were detected during the first 6 months of wastewater application. Denitrification was also absent, but genes of denitrifying bacteria were detected, suggesting that the denitrifying process may occur rapidly if adequate chemical conditions are favored within the soil column. Results also underline that a dry period (20 days without any wastewater supply) significantly impacted soil bacterial diversity, leading to a decrease of enzyme activities and biomass. Finally, our work shows that treated wastewater filtration leads to a modification of the bacterial genetic and functional structures in topsoil.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.573-579
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• 1995

A Bacillus strain capable of producing an extracellular malto-oligosaccharides forming $\alpha $-amylase was isolated from soil and designated as Bacillus sp. SUH4-2. The enzyme was purified by ammonium sulfate fractionation, DEAE-Toyopearl and Mono-Q HR 5/5 column chromatographies using a FPLC system. The specific activity of the enzyme was increased by 16.1-fold and the yield was 13.5%. The optimum temperature for the activity of $\alpha $-amylase was 60-65$\circ$C and more than 50% of initial activity was retained after the enzyme was incubated at 60$\circ$C for 40 min. The enzyme was stable over a broad pH range of 5.0-8.0 and the optimum pH was 5.0-6.0. The molecular weight of the enzyme was determined to be about 63.6 kD and isoelectric point was around 5.8. The enzyme activity was strongly inhibited by Mn$^{2+}$, Ni$^{2+}$, and Cu$^{2+}$ ; slightly by Ca$^{2+}$. The purified enzyme produced starch hydrolyzates containing mainly maltose and maltotriose from soluble starch. The starch hydrolyzates were composed of 11% glucose, 59% maltose, 25% maltotriose and 5% maltotetraose.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.329-333
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• 2000

Alkaline bacterium producing a high pro-tease activity at low temperature was isolated by using enrichment culture from soil samples and identified as Bacil-lus sp. WRD-1 Cell growth was maximal at 10 hours and the optimal initial pH and culture time of culture condition for enzyme production was pH 7 and 10 hours, respectively. Temperature range of high enzyme activity were $10~40^{\circ}C$. The optimal pH and temperature for the enzyme activity were pH9 and $30^{\circ}C$.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.47-47
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• 2014

Dokdo island is located in the northeastern part of Ulleungdo, known as volcanic island. In total, 53 fungal isolates were isolated from Dokdo island soil sample, using dilution plate technique. The isolates were identified on the basis of morphological characteristics and rDNA ITS sequence analysis. Out of them, 41 isolates were identified at the level of species. The dominant fungal species and genera included Fusarium spp., Mucor sp., Clonostachys spp., and Trichoderma sp. The % sequence identity (the number of matches/the complete alignment length) values via NCBI BLAST searching of EML-IF9, EML-MF30-1 and EML-DDSF4 represented 97.19% (485/499) with Clonostachys cf. rosea (GenBank accession no. KC313107), 98.33% (472/480) with Metarhizium guizhouense (GenBank accession no. HM055445), and 100% (350/350) with Mortierella oligospora (GenBank accession no. JX976032), respectively. Three species of C. rosea, M. guizhouense and M. oligospora represented new records of fungi from Dokdo island, Korea. The antimicrobial activities of the fungal strains varied with tested. Two isolates (EML-MFS30-1 and EML-IF9) showed antifungal activity against several fungi including Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizotonia solani. Clonostachys rosea (EML-IF9) showed strong hydrolytic enzyme activity. Our results showed that the antagonistic fungi including Clonostachys rosea will be used as potential biocontrol agents for control of fungal diseases.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.341-346
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• 2011

To study the effects of salinity-sodicity on bacterial population and enzyme activities, soil samples were collected from the Bay of Yellow Sea, Incheon, South Korea. In the soils nearest to the coastline, pH, electrical conductivity ($EC_e$), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) were greater than the criteria of saline-sodic soil, and soils collected from sites 1.5-2 km away from the coastline were not substantially affected by the intrusion and spray of seawater. Halotolerant bacteria showed similar trends, whereas non-tolerant bacteria and enzymatic activities had opposite trends. Significant positive correlations were found between EC, exchangeable $Na^+$, and pH with SAR and ESP. In contrast, $EC_e$, SAR, ESP, and exchangeable $Na^+$ exhibited significant negative correlations with bacterial populations and enzyme activities. The results of this study indicate that the soil chemical variables related with salinity-sodicity are significantly related with the sampling distance from the coastline and are the key stress factors, which greatly affect microbial and biochemical properties.