• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.181-186
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• 2003

This study was performed to analyze quantitatively the number of living bacteria in forest soil samples collected from Mt. Keryong using improved direct viable count (DVC) and plate count (PC) methods. The number of living bacteria by DVC comprised 18～44% of the total direct count (TDC), whereas the number of living bacteria by PC was less than 1% of TDC. These results showed that viable but non-culturable (VBNC) bacteria existed in the soil with high percentages. Besides, DVC was proved to make it possible to make a quantitative detection of the VBNC bacteria. On the other hand, upon measuring the value from the conventional nutrient broth (NB) and $10^{-2}$ folded diluted nutrient broth (DNB), the values from the DNB showed 5 to 10 times higher than those from the conventional NB medium. These results indicate that oligotrophic bacterial groups, which could multiply in the low nutrient broth, abundantly exist in the soil ecosystem. It would also be possible to apply this kind of method to other substrate to make a quantitative detection of soil bacterial groups.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.262-266
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• 1997

Total, direct viable count, and acid-tolerant epiphytic bacterial population sizes were quantified on leaves of chestnut tree (Castanea crenata S. et Z.) near Taejon Industrial Estate affected by acid precipitation and deposition as well as in the clean natural forest area, Mt. Kyejok, in Taejon city from August 1996 to August 1997. Geometric mean numbers of total, direct viable count, and acid-tolerant epiphytic bacteria were $9.9{\times}10^5cell/cm^2$, $1.6{\times}10^6cell/cm^2$, and $7.1{\times}10^3cfu/cm^2$ respectively, being 1.5, 2, and 2.6 times those in the clean area. Acid-tolerant epiphytic bacterial numbers at pH 5.6 by MPN method were $3.3{\times}10^4$ in the industrial area, about the same as the number, $3.4{\times}10^4MPN/cm^2$, of the clean area. Acid-tolerant bacterial number at pH 4.0 was $1.9{\times}10^{-1}MPN/cm^2$ in the industrial area, whereas none was detected in the clean area. Acid-tolerant bacteria at pH 3.0 were not detected at all in the industrial area as well as in the clean area. Epiphytic bacterial population sizes were generally the greatest in May when leaves are emerged and grew hut the lowest in November when defoliation occurs. These results showed that air pollutant deposition on leaves did not cause a decrease of epiphytic bacteria at least and acid deposition on leaves did cause an increase of acid-tolerant bacteria.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.459-465
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• 1999

The inhibition degree of the isolated bacteria on plaque formation of Streptococcus mutans, and the effect of these bacterial genus on the concentration of total bacteria in saliva were assessed with the following. The effectiveness of the isolated bacteria on the inhibition of plaque formation was assessed culturing Streptococcus mutans in the beaker with orthodontic wires. The mean weight of plaque produced on a wire was 152mg in the culture of Streptococcus mutans only, whereas being reduced to 4mg, 78mg, or 72mg in the combined culture of Streptococcus mutans and Enterococcus durans, Lactobacillus acidophilus, or Streptococcus oralis. The colony forming units (CFU) of Streptococcus mutans were $3.6{\times}10^8$ per ml in the culture of Streptococcus mutans, only, wheras being $1.4{\times}10^6,\;5.6{\times}10^6,\;or\;3.8{\times}10^6$ per ml in the combined culture of Streptococcus mutans and Enterococcus durans, Lactobacillus acidophilus, or Streptococcus oralis. When saliva from children was inoculated on brain heart infusion agar, the colony forming units of bacteria were $4.8{\times}10^6\;to\;1.3{\times}10^9$ per ml of saliva. The concentration of Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, or Streptococcus inhibiting Streptococcus mutans in saliva was not proportioned to that of total bacteria replicated on brain heart infusion agar. These results indicate that the isolated bacteria inhibited the replication of Streptococcus mutans, resulting into inhibiting the formation of plaque, but the concentration of Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, or Streptococcus inhibiting Streptococcus mutans, in saliva might not affect the total bacterial concentration of saliva.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.14-18
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• 1989

Comparative effects of gamma irradiation and ethylene oxide treatments on the sterilization and physicochemical propperties of the condiment for soup of instant noodle (ramen) were investigated. The number of microorganisms contaminated ranged from $10^3\;to\;10^7\;CFU/g$ in total bacterial count, which were mainly composed of thermophiles and acid tolerant bacteria by over 90%. The yeast & molds were contaminated by $10^2\;to\;10^3\;CFU/g$. In the sterilizing effect of an irradiation on the microorganisms contaminated, 7 to 10 kGy gamma irradiation could eliminated yeast & molds, and also bring about the reduction of total bacterial count to below $10^3\;CFU/g.\;D_{10}$values of total bacteria! count of the samples ranged from 2.33 to 3.33 kGy. In comparative effects of irradiation and ethylene oxide treatments on the physicochemical properties of the sample, both treatments affected more or less rancidity, color, and amino-Ncontent, but less than 10 kGy irradiation was shown to be safe than ethylene oxide.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.612-617
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• 2009

Fresh vegetable juice is a non-heat treated product and the only step to reduce microbial growth is washing. Therefore, the materials for fresh vegetable juice including Angelica keiskei, Brassica loeracea var. acephala, and Daucus carota L. were treated by ozone after the first washing process and investigated for microbial and chemical changes. The number of the total aerobic bacteria in materials after selection step were $8.2{\times}10^5{\sim}5.0{\times}10^6\;CFU/g$, which was a higher contamination level than the limit of Korea food code ($10^5\;CFU/g$). However, after the 1st washing process and ozone treatment, the total aerobic bacterial number was reduced to $4.7{\times}10^4{\sim}6.7{\times}10^4\;CFU/g$, which showed 2 log microbial reduction. After the 2nd washing step followed by ozone treatment, there was no difference in microbial number. The number of colifroms in the materials of fresh vegetable juice were $8.0{\times}10^3{\sim}3.5{\times}10^3\;CFU/g$ initially but showed $1.5{\times}10^2{\sim}3.0{\times}10^2\;CFU/g$ after the ozone treatment (1 log reduction). On the other hand, there was no changes in the contents of ascorbic acid, flavonoids, polyphenols, minerals (cadmium and lead) during all processes. In addition, no color changes were observed during washing process. Therefore, ozone treatment in the materials of fresh vegetable juice decreased the microbial numbers. Also, chemical characteristics of ozone treated sample were not different when compared with control.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.90-96
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• 2008

To retain the fresh taste and flavor of Kimchi, ozone treatment was applied for kimchi food materials. In this study, Chinese cabbage and salted Chinese cabbage, the highest portion of Kimchi materials, were treated by ozone ($3{\sim}9$ ppm) and their microbiological and chemical characteristics were investigated. Initial number of total aerobic bacteria of Chinese cabbage and salted Chinese cabbage were $1.3{\sim}10^7$ and $7.1{\sim}10^6$ CFU/g, respectively. However, when ozone was treated, the number was decreased and this decrease of bacterial number was maintained during storage. Yeast and mold populations were $6.0{\times}10^3$ and $1.2{\times}10^3$ CFU/g in Chinese cabbage and salted Chinese cabbage, respectively; however, an ozone treatment also decreased the yeast and mold populations. Other physical and chemical characteristics of ozone treated sample such as color, hardness, contents of ascorbic acid and reducing sugar of Chinese cabbage and salted Chinese cabbage were not different when compared with control.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1128-1133
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• 2010

The diversity and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in activated sludge were compared using PCR-DGGE and real-time PCR assays. Activated sludge samples were collected from five different types of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) mainly treating textile, paper, food, and livestock wastewater or domestic sewage. The composition of total bacteria determined by PCR-DGGE was highly diverse between the samples, whereas the community of AOB was similar across all the investigated activated sludge. Total bacterial numbers and AOB numbers in the aerated mixed liquor were in the range of $1.8{\times}10^{10}$ to $3.8{\times}10^{12}$ and $1.7{\times}10^6$ to $2.7{\times}10^{10}$ copies/l, respectively. Activated sludge from livestock, textile, and sewage treating WWTPs contained relatively high amoA gene copies (more than $10^5$ copies/l), whereas activated sludge from food and paper WWTPs revealed a low number of the amoA gene (less than $10^3$ copies/l). The value of the amoA gene copy effectively showed the difference in composition of bacteria in different activated sludge samples and this was better than the measurement with the AOB 16S rRNA or total 16S rRNA gene. These results suggest that the quantification of the amoA gene can help monitor AOB and ammonia oxidation in WWTPs.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.154-161
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• 1998

To investigate whether the introduced genetic marker is useful to detect the survivalship and activity of the natural bacteria under the stressed conditions, one Gram-negative isolate, KP964 was transformed to the luminous phenotype by transferring luxAB gene. Under the starvation-stress this luminous bacterial culturability (determined by colony-forming-units [CFU] on agar plate) decreased rapidly below the detection limit by 37 days, while its total cell number (determined by AODC) remained almost the same as its initial inocular size. At that time period, the viable cell number was estimated to be 1400 times higher than its CFU number. The bioiuminescence (determined by relative light units [RLU]) produced under the same condition was also monitored and found to decrease more rapidly than the culturability by 5-fold. Under the other stresses, e.g., osmotic shocks, acid shock, and exposure to toxic chemicals, this bacterial strain did not show the reliable correlation between CFU and RLU. These results might not suggest the direct estimation of bioiuminescence from the stressed bacteria be an index of both the survivalship and its activity. However, when the stressed bacterial cells were incubated under the favorable condition by relieving from the existing stress, the potential bioiuminescence (the lag periods before the increase of bioiuminescence, the increase rates of bioiuminescence, and the maximal levels of bioiuminescence) was shown to be highly dependent upon the strengths of the stresses exposed to the bacterial cells. Therefore, analysis of the potential bioiuminescence from the stressed bacteria revealed good relationships with survival as well as activity.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.74-81
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• 2011

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of red wine on the color, hardness, springiness, chewiness, pH, volatile basic nitrogen (VBN) content, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value, and total bacterial number of pork meat stored at $4^{\circ}C$ for 10 days. Pork meat was treated with 25% water (control), 20% water and 5% red wine (RW5), 15% water and 10% red wine (RW10), or 10% water and 15% red wine (RW15). The lightness ($L^*$), redness ($a^*$) and yellowness ($b^*$) values tended to decrease with longer storage period (p<0.05). The $L^*$ values of RW10 and RW15 were higher than those of control and RW5 on the first day of storage, whereas the control and RW5 had higher $L^*$ values compared to RW10 and RW15 after 10 days (p<0.05). Hardness of RW5 was the lowest after 10 days of storage (p<0.05). The pH levels were not significantly different among the samples. The VBN contents increased with longer storage period (p<0.05), and those of RW10 and RW15 were lower than those of the control and RW5 after 10 days of storage (p<0.05). The TBARS values increased with longer storage period (p<0.05), and those of the control, RW5, RW10, and RW15 were 0.61, 0.45, 0.35 and 0.33 mg MA/kg, respectively, after 10 days of the storage. The total bacterial numbers increased with longer storage period, and those of RW5, RW10 and RW15 were lower compared to the control (p<0.05). Taste, tenderness, juiciness, and palatability were not significantly different among the samples, but the flavor of RW5 had the highest value after 10 days of storage (p<0.05). These results suggest that red wine can inhibit protein degradation, lipid oxidation, and bacterial growth when used as an additive of seasoned pork meat.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.690-700
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• 2012

The experiment was conducted by in vitro fermentation and bacterial community analysis to investigate the reduction of odorous compounds in response to the use of feed additives (FA) during carbohydrate overload in growing pigs. Soluble starch at 1% (control) and various FA at 0.1% Ginseng meal (FA1); Persimmon leaf (FA2); Gingko nut (FA3) and Oregano lippia (FA4) were added to fecal slurry and incubated anaerobically for 12 and 24 h. In vitro parameters and microbial diversity of the dominant bacteria following fermentation were analyzed using Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE), band cloning and sequencing of the V3 region. Results showed that total gas production increased with the advancement of incubation (p<0.05). pH values of FAs and control groups were decreased except the FA4 group which increased somewhat from 12 to 24 h (p<0.05). Ammonia nitrogen ($NH_3$-N) and $H_2S$ gas concentrations were comparatively lower in both stages in FA4 treatment than in the other groups (p<0.05). Hence, $NH_3$-N concentrations in liquid phases were increased (p<0.05) from 12 to 24 h, but the trend was lowest in FA4 than in the other groups at both stages. The total VFA production was comparatively lower and butyrate levels were moderate in FA4 group than in the the other groups during both stages (p<0.05). Indirect odor-reducing compounds such as $NO_2$, $NO_3$ and $SO_4$ concentrations were higher in the FA4 and FA3 than in the other groups at 24 h (p<0.05). After fermentation, ten dominant bands appeared, six of which appeared in all samples and four in only the FA4 treated group. The total number of DGGE bands and diversity was higher in the FA4-group compared to other groups. Additionally, similarity indices were lowest (71%) in the FA4, which represented a different bacterial community compared with the other groups. These findings indicate that $NH_3$-N, $H_2S$ and VFA production was minimal, and pH was also better in the FA4 group than in the other groups. Furthermore, the conversion of odor-reducing indirect compounds or their intermediates was higher in the FA4 group in compared to the other groups. FA4 group generated less odorous products and more indirect products by in vitro fermentation at 24 h, and their microbial pattern appeared to differ from that of the other groups. These findings suggest that this particular FA could change the microbial population, which may have a beneficial effect on odor reduction. It is recommended that the oregano lippia may be supplied to growing pigs as FA along with excess carbohydrate sources to reduce the production of odorous compounds.