• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.1507-1514
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• 2008

Cholesterol oxidase catalyses the conversion of cholesterol to 4-cholesten-3-one. This enzyme has been used for clinical assay of human serum cholesterol and for reduction of cholesterol level in foods and feeds. In order to search the microorganism which has a high extracellular and stable activity of cholesterol oxidase, soil microorganisms were screened. As a result, the one with the highest extracellular cholesterol oxidase activity was obtained and named as the BEN 115. The BEN 115 strain was identified as one of the Nocardia species based on our taxonomic studies. The cholesterol oxidase from this strain was shown to have two bands of extracellular proteins on SDS-PAGE and Western blot. Their molecular masses were estimated to be about 55 and 57 kDa, respectively. In addition, this cholesterol oxidase was considerably stable at the broad range of pH $3.5{\sim}9.5$ and at the temperature of $25{\sim}55^{\circ}C$. The optimum pH and temperature of this cholesterol oxidase were pH 5.5 and $35^{\circ}C$, respectively. The activity of extracellular cholesterol oxidase could be enhanced 1.6 to 2.0 folds by the addition of nonionic detergent such as Triton X-114, Triton X-100, or Tween-80 into the culturing broth. The substrate specificities against campesterol, sitosterol and stigmasterol were measured to be 50%, 50%, and 27%, respectively, compared to the cholesterol. These results suggest that Nocardia sp. BEN 115 may be useful as a microbial source of cholesterol oxidase production.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.97-107
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• 2015

Wetlands constitute a transitional zone between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and have unique characteristics such as frequent inundation, inflow of nutrients from terrestrial ecosystems, presence of plants adapted to grow in water, and soil that is occasionally oxygen deficient due to saturation. These characteristics and the presence of vegetation determine physical and chemical properties that affect decomposition rates of organic matter (OM). Decomposition of OM is associated with activities of various extracellular enzymes (EE) produced by bacteria and fungi. Extracellular enzymes convert macromolecules to simple compounds such as labile organic carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and sulfur (S) that can be easily taken up by microbes and plants. Therefore, the enzymatic approach is helpful to understand the decomposition rates of OM and nutrient cycling in wetland soils. This paper reviews the physical and biogeochemical factors that regulate extracellular enzyme activities (EEa) in wetland soils, including those of ${\beta}$-glucosidase, ${\beta}$-N-acetylglucosaminidase, phosphatase, arylsulfatase, and phenol oxidase that decompose organic matter and release C, N, P, and S nutrients for microbial and plant growths. Effects of pH, water table, and particle size of OM on EEa were not significantly different among sites, whereas the influence of temperature on EEa varied depending on microbial acclimation to extreme temperatures. Addition of C, N, or P affected EEa differently depending on the nutrient state, C:N ratio, limiting factors, and types of enzymes of wetland soils. Substrate quality influenced EEa more significantly than did other factors. Also, drainage of wetland and increased temperature due to global climate change can stimulate phenol oxidase activity, and anthropogenic N deposition can enhance the hydrolytic EEa; these effects increase OM decomposition rates and emissions of $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ from wetland systems. The researches on the relationship between microbial structures and EE functions, and environmental factors controlling EEa can be helpful to manipulate wetland ecosystems for treating pollutants and to monitor wetland ecosystem services.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.482-493
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• 2005

Biomass is originally photosynthesized from inorgainic compounds such as $CO_2$, minerals, water and solar energy. Recent studies have shown that anaerobic bacteria have the ability to convert recalcitrant biomass such as cellullosic or chitinoic materials to useful compounds. The biomass containing agricultural waste, unutilized wood and other garbage is expected to utilize as feed, food and fuel by microbial degradation and other metabolic functions. In this study we isolated several anaerobic, cellulolytic and chitinolytic bacteria from rumen fluid, compost and soil to study their related enzymes and genes. The anaerobic and cellulolytic bacteria, Clostridium thermocellum, Clostridium stercorarium, and Clostridium josui, were isolated from compost and the chitinolytic Clostridium paraputrificum from beach soil and Ruminococcus albus was isolated from cow rumen. After isolation, novel cellulase and xylanase genes from these anaerobes were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The properties of the cloned enzymes showed that some of them were the components of the enzyme (cellulase) complex, i.e., cellulosome, which is known to form complexes by binding cohesin domains on the cellulase integrating protein (Cip: or core protein) and dockerin domains on the enzymes. Several dockerin and cohesin polypeptides were independently produced by E. coli and their binding properties were specified with BIAcore by measuring surface plasmon resonance. Three pairs of cohesin-dockerin with differing binding specificities were selected. Two of their genes encoding their respective cohesin polypeptides were combined to one gene and expressed in E. coli as a chimeric core protein, on which two dockerin-dehydrogenase chimeras, the dockerin-formaldehyde dehydrogenase and the dockerin-NADH dehydrogenase are planning to bind for catalyzing $CO_2$ reduction to formic acid by feeding NADH. This reaction may represent a novel strategy for the reduction of the green house gases. Enzymes from the anaerobes were also expressed in tobacco and rice plants. The activity of a xylanase from C. stercorarium was detected in leaves, stems, and rice grain under the control of CaMV35S promoter. The digestibility of transgenic rice leaves in goat rumen was slightly accelerated. C. paraputrificum was found to solubilize shrimp shells and chitin to generate hydrogen gas. Hydrogen productivity (1.7 mol $H_2/mol$ glucos) of the organism was improved up to 1.8 times by additional expression of the own hydrogenase gene in C. paraputrficum using a modified vector of Clostridiu, perfringens. The hydrygen producing microflora from soil, garbage and dried pelletted garbage, known as refuse derived fuel(RDF), were also found to be effective in converting biomass waste to hydrogen gas.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2005

Enterobacter intermedium oxidizes glucose to gluconic acid and sequentially converts gluconic acid to 2-ketogluconic acid (2-KGA) under aerobic condition. Shaking incubation of E. intermedium in a broth medium containing 22.5 g glucose, 8.2 g gluconic acid and 40 g rock phosphate per liter resulted in $1028mg\;L^{-1}$ soluble phosphate. The culture broth was used as phosphate bio-fertilizer (PBF) in this experiment. To evaluate PBF produced by E. intermedium on lettuce growth, five treatments (PBF1/3, PBF2/3, PBF3/3, BP, and MF) were used. In MF and BP treatments, $P_2O_5$ 5.9 kg of mineral fertilizer per 10a was added, while in PBF1/3, PBF2/3, and PBF3/3 treatments, culture broth containing one third, two third, and same amount of soluble $P_2O_5$ 5.9 kg per 10a was applied, respectively. At 20, 35, and 50 days after transplanting of lettuce, plant growth components, biomass, enzyme activities and soil chemical properties were analyzed. Dehydrogenase activity and available phosphate concentration of rhizosphere in phosphate bio fertilizer treatments (PBF1/3, PBF2/3, PBF3/3) were generally higher compared to MF and BP treatments. Soil biomass in PBF3/3 treatment was significantly higher than MF and BP treatments at early growth stage. However, there was no significant difference among all treatments with time. Plant fresh weights in PBF1/3, PBF2/3, and MF treatments were better than those in BP and PBF3/3 treatments. However, in PBF2/3 treatment the highest fresh weight was discovered where alkaline phosphatase activity was generally higher than other treatments at 35 and 50 days. Enhancement of lettuce growth at 35 and 50 days in PBF2/3 treatment was associated with greater phosphate uptake in lettuce tissue. As regarding all results, PBF showed better lettuce growth compared to mineral phosphate fertilizer where PBF2/3 treatment resulted in increase of lettuce fresh weight by 23% and phosphate uptake by 50%.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.111-129
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• 1970

As a series of studies on the nucleic acids and their related substances 210 samples were collected from 76 places such as farm soil, compost of heap, nuruk and meju to obtain microbial strains which produce 5'-phosphodiesterase. From these samples total of 758 strains were isolated by the use of dilution pour plate method. For all isolated strains primary screening of the productivity of RNA depolymerase was performed and useful strains with regard to 5'-phosphodiesterase productivities were identified. For these useful strains optimum condition, the effect of various compounds on the activity of 5'-phosphodiesterase, and the optimum condition for enzyme reaction were discussed. The quantitative of 5'-mononucleotides produced by the action of 5'-phosphodiesterase was performed using anion-exchange column chromatography and their identified was done by paper chromatography, thinlayer chromatography, ultra violet spectrophotometry, and characteristic color reaction using carbazole and schiff's reagent. (1) Penicillium citreo-viride PO 2-11 and Streptomyces aureus SOA 4-21 from soil were identified as a potent 5'-phosphodiesterase producing strains. (2) Optimum culture conditions for Penicillium citreo-viride PO 2-11 strain isolated were found to be pH 5.0 and $30^{\circ}C$, and the optimum conditions for enzyme action of 5'-phosphodiesterase were pH 4.2 and $60^{\circ}C$. Best carbon source for the production of 5'-phosphodiesterase was found to be sucrose and ammonium nitrate for nitrogen source. Addition of 0.01% corn steep liquor or yeast extract exhibited 20% increase in the amount of 5'-phosphodiesterase production compared to the control. 5'-phosphodiesterase produced by this strain was activated by $Mg^{++},\;Ca^{++},\;Zn^{++},\;Mn^{++}$ and was inhibited by EDTA, citrate, $Cu^{++},\;CO^{++}$. 5'-phosphodiesterase produced 5'-mononucleotide from RNA at a rate of 65.81%, and among the 5'-mononucleotides accumulated 5'-GMP only was found to have flavorous and the strain was also found lack of 5'-AMP deaminase. Productivity of flavorous 5'-GMP was found to be 186.7mg per gram of RNA. (3) Optimum culture canditions for the isolated Streptomyces aureus SOA 4-21 strain were pH 7.0 and $28^{\circ}C$, and the optimum conditions for the action of 5'-phosphodiesterase were pH 7.3 and $50^{\circ}C$. The best carbon source for 5'-phosphodiesterase production was found to be glucose and that of nitrogen was asparagine. Addition of 0.01% yeast extract exhibited increased productivity of 5'-phosphodiesterase by 40% compared to the non-added control. 5'-phosphodiesterase produced by this strain was activated by $Ca^{++},\;Zn^{++},\;Mn^{++}$ and was inhibited by citrate, EDTA, $Cu^{++}$. It was also found that the strain produce 5'-AMP deaminase in addition to 5'-phosphodiesterase. For this reason although decomposition rate was 63.58% the accumulation of 5'-AMP, 5'-CMP, 5'-GMP and 5'-UMP occurred by the breakdown of RNA. In the course of these reaction 5'-AMP deaminase converted 60% of 5'-AMP thus produced into 5'-IMP and flavorous 5'-mono nucleotide production was significantly increased by this strain over the above mentioned one. Production rates were found to be 171.8mg per grain of RNA for 5'-IMP and 148.2mg per gram of RNA for 5'-GMP, respectively.