• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.1169-1179
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• 2020

In this study, two soybean genotypes, i.e., aluminum-tolerant Baxi 10 (BX10) and aluminumsensitive Bendi 2 (BD2), were used as plant materials and acidic red soil was used as growth medium. The soil layers from the inside to the outside of the root are: rhizospheric soil after washing (WRH), rhizospheric soil after brushing (BRH) and rhizospheric soil at two sides (SRH), respectively. The rhizosphere bacterial communities were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rRNA gene amplicons via Illumina MiSeq. The results of alpha diversity analysis showed that the BRH and SRH of BX10 were significantly lower in community richness than that of BD2, while the WRH exhibited no significant difference between BX10 and BD2. Among the three sampling compartments of the same soybean genotype, WRH had the lowest community richness and diversity while showing the highest coverage. Beta diversity analysis results displayed no significant difference for any compartment between the two genotypes, or among the three different sampling compartments for any same soybean genotype. However, the relative abundance of major bacterial taxa, specifically nitrogen-fixing and/or aluminum-tolerant bacteria, was significantly different in the compartments of the BRH and/or SRH at phylum and genus levels, indicating genotype-dependent variations in rhizosphere bacterial communities. Strikingly, as compared with BRH and SRH, the WRH within the same genotype (BX10 or BD2) always had an enrichment effect on rhizosphere bacteria associated with nitrogen fixation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.106 no.2
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• pp.121-129
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• 2017

The soil microbiome plays important roles in material cycling and plant growth in forest ecosystem. Although a lot of researches on forest soil fungi in Korea have been performed, the studies on forest soil bacterial communities have been limited. In this study, we conducted next generation sequencing (NGS) targeting 16S rRNA gene to investigate the soil bacterial communities from natural red pine (Pinus densiflora) forest in Mt. Janggunbong, Bonghwa-gun, Gyeongbuk, Korea. Our results showed that the entire bacterial communities in the study sites include the phyla Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Planctomycetes, which have been typically observed in forest soils. The composition ratio of Proteobacteria was the highest in the soil bacteria community. The results reflect that Proteobacteria is copiotroph, which generally favors relatively nutrient-rich conditions with abundant organic matter. Some rhizobia species such as Burkholderia, Bradyrhizobium, Rhizobium, which are known to contribute to soil nitrogen-fixation, exist in the study sites. As a result of correlation analysis between soil physicochemical characteristics and bacteria communities, the soil pH was significantly correlated with the soil bacteria compositions.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.193-201
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• 2018

Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (Pcc) causes bacterial soft rot on a wide range of crops worldwide, especially in countries with warm and humid climates. This study was conducted to establish an efficient screening method for resistant cultivars of radish (Raphanus sativus) to bacterial soft rot. Resistance degrees of 60 commercial radish cultivars to the Pcc KACC 10421 isolate were investigated. For further study, six radish cultivars (Awooriwoldong, YR Championyeolmu, Jeonmuhumu, Bitgoeunyeolmu, Sunbongaltari, Housecheongok) showing different level of resistance to the bacterium were selected. The development of bacterial soft rot on the cultivars was tested according to several conditions such as incubation temperature, seedling stage of radish, inoculum concentration to develop the disease. On the basis of the results, we suggest that an efficient screening method for resistant radish to Pcc is to inoculate twenty-day-old seedlings with a bacterial suspension of Pcc at a concentration of $8{\times}10^5cfu/ml$ and then to cultivate the plants in a growth room at $25^{\circ}C$ and 80% RH with 12-hour light per day.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.415-418
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• 2000

Productivity of a rice plant is greatly influenced by salt stress. One of the ways to achieve tolerance to salinity is to transfer genes encoding protective enzymes from other organisms, such as microorganisms. The bacterial gene, mtlD, which encodes mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase (Mtl-DH), was introduced to the cytosol of a rice plant by an imbibition technique to overproduce mannitol. The germination and survival rate of the imbibed rice seeds were markedly increased by transferring the mtlD gene when it was delivered in either a pBIN19 or pBmin binary vector. When a polymerase chain reaction was performed with the genomic DNAs of the imbibed rice leaves as a template and with mtlD-specific primers, several lines were shown to contain an exogenous mtlD DNA. However, a reverse transcription (RT)-PCR analysis revealed that not all of them showed an expression of this foreign gene. This paper demonstrates that the growth and germination of rice plants transiently transformed with the bacterial gene, mtlD, are enhanced and these enhancements may have resulted from the experssion of the mtlD gene. The imbibition method empolyed in this study fulfills the requirements for testing the function of such a putative gene in vivo prior to the production of a stable transgenic plant.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.849-862
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• 2017

With growing interests in using bacterial biopolymers in geotechnical practices, identifying mechanical properties of soft gel-like biopolymers is important in predicting their efficacy in soil modification and treatment. As one of the promising candidates, dextran was found to be produced by Leuconostoc mesenteroides. The model bacteria utilize sucrose as working material and synthesize both soluble and insoluble dextran which forms a complex and inhomogeneous polymer network. However, the traditional rheometer has a limitation to capture in situ properties of inherently porous and inhomogeneous biopolymers. Therefore, we used the particle tracking microrheology to characterize the material properties of the dextran polymer. TEM images revealed a range of pore size mostly less than $20{\mu}m$, showing large pores > $2{\mu}m$ and small pores within the solid matrix whose sizes are less than $1{\mu}m$. Microrheology data showed two distinct regimes in the bacterial dextran, purely viscous pore region of soluble dextran and viscoelastic region of the solid part of insoluble dextran matrix. Diffusive beads represented the soluble dextran dissolved in an aqueous phase, of which viscosity was three times higher than the growth medium viscosity. The local properties of the insoluble dextran were extracted from the results of the minimally moving beads embedded in the dextran matrix or trapped in small pores. At high frequency (${\omega}>0.2Hz$), the insoluble dextran showed the elastic behavior with the storage modulus of ~0.1 Pa. As frequency decreased, the insoluble dextran matrix exhibited the viscoelastic behavior with the decreasing storage modulus in the range of ${\sim}0.1-10^{-3}Pa$ and the increasing loss modulus in the range of ${\sim}10^{-4}-1\;Pa$. The obtained results provide a compilation of frequency-dependent rheological or viscoelastic properties of soft gel-like porous biopolymers at the particular conditions where soil bacteria produce bacterial biopolymers in subsurface.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2017

Objectives: Semecarpus anacardium Linn. is a plant well-known for its antimicrobial, antidiabetic and anti-arthritic properties in the Ayurvedic and Siddha system of medicine. This has prompted the screening of this plant for antibacterial activity. The main aims of this study were to isolate compounds from the plant's seeds and to evaluate their antibacterial effects on clinical bacterial test strains. Methods: The n-butanolic concentrate of the seed extract was subjected to thin layer chromatography (TLC) and repeated silica gel column chromatography followed by elution with various solvents. The compound was identified based on observed spectral (IR, $^1H$ NMR, $^{13}C$ NMR and high-resolution mass spectrometry) data. The well diffusion method was employed to evaluate the antibacterial activities of the isolated acyclic isoprenoid compound (final concentration: $5-15{\mu}g/mL$) on four test bacterial strains, namely, Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC 96), Bacillus cereus (MTCC 430), Escherichia coli (MTCC 1689) and Acinetobacter baumannii (MTCC 9829). Results: Extensive spectroscopic studies showed the structure of the isolated compound to be an acyclic isoprenoid ($C_{21}H_{32}O$). Moreover, the isoprenoid showed a remarkable inhibition of bacterial growth at a concentration of $15{\mu}g/mL$ compared to the two other doses tested (5 and $10{\mu}g/mL$) and to tetracycline, a commercially available antibiotic that was used as a reference drug. Conclusion: The isolation of an antimicrobial compound from Semecarpus anacardium seeds validates the use of this plant in the treatment of infections. The isolated compound found to be active in this study could be useful for the development of new antimicrobial drugs.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.713-725
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• 2018

Lower termites require symbiotic microbes in their gut. The microbial communities in the termites must adapt to the termite temperature. Reticulitermes speratus KMT001 from Bukhan Mountain in Seoul may require a special symbiotic microorganisms for growth in low temperature Korean habitat. A metagenomics analysis showed a dramatic change in the symbiotic bacterial flora in the gut of R. speratus KMT001 in response to low temperatures of $4^{\circ}C$ or $10^{\circ}C$. Elusimicrobia, which are endosymbionts of flagellate protists, is the dominant phylum in the termite gut at ${\geq}15^{\circ}C$ but its population decreased drastically at low temperature. Four representative bacterial strains isolated from R. speratus KMT001 in a previous study produced maximum ${\beta}$-glucosidase levels within the temperature range of $10^{\circ}C-30^{\circ}C$. Elizabethkingia sp. BM10 produced ${\beta}$-glucosidase specifically at $10^{\circ}C$. This strain supported the existence of symbiotic bacteria for the low temperature habitat of the termite. This identified bacterium will be a resource for studying low temperature adaptation of termites, studying the gene expression at low temperatures, and developing an industrial cellulase at low temperature.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.1097-1103
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• 2020

Bacterial surface display systems have been developed for various applications in biotechnology and industry. Particularly, the discovery and design of anchoring motifs is highly important for the successful display of a target protein or peptide on the surface of bacteria. In this study, an efficient display system on Escherichia coli was developed using novel anchoring motifs designed from the E. coli mipA gene. Using the C-terminal fusion system of an industrial enzyme, Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase, six possible fusion sites, V¹⁴⁰, V¹⁷⁶, K¹⁷⁹, V²²⁶, V²³², and K²³⁴, which were truncated from the C-terminal end of the mipA gene (MV¹⁴⁰, MV¹⁷⁶, MV¹⁷⁹, MV²²⁶, MV²³², and MV²³⁴) were examined. The whole-cell lipase activities showed that MV¹⁴⁰ was the best among the six anchoring motifs. Furthermore, the lipase activity obtained using MV¹⁴⁰ as the anchoring motif was approximately 20-fold higher than that of the previous anchoring motifs FadL and OprF but slightly higher than that of YiaTR232. Western blotting and confocal microscopy further confirmed the localization of the fusion lipase displayed on the E. coli surface using the truncated MV¹⁴⁰. Additionally the MV¹⁴⁰ motif could be used for successfully displaying another industrial enzyme, α-amylase from Bacillus subtilis. These results showed that the fusion proteins using the MV¹⁴⁰ motif had notably high enzyme activities and did not exert any adverse effects on either cell growth or outer membrane integrity. Thus, this study shows that MipA can be used as a novel anchoring motif for more efficient bacterial surface display in the biotechnological and industrial fields.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.22-27
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• 2001

It have been investigated how algal and bacterial symbiotic reaction influences on removal of organic carbon in river ecosystem. And artificial experimentation apparatus was made for algae'and bacteia'culture as lab scale. Investigating and researching minutely the change of concentration of organic carbon substrate and the change of population density of algae'and of bacteria'with this artificial experimentation apparatus, the next results could be obtained. 1. Successful decrease of DOC(dissolved organic carbon) could not be expected unless algal and bacterial biomass floe was nut formed effectively and unless biosorption was not proceeded effectively in the very culture system in which artificial synthetic wastewater was supplied continuously at constant rate. 2. In conditions of culture liquid of 1335 glucnse mg/L(type 1) and of 267 glucose mg:L(type 2), the algal dominant species was always Chlorella vulgaris in both types in which artificial synthetic wastewater were supplied continuously at constant rate and algae population density was around maximum 107 cells/mL. 3. It was around 108 ~ 107 cells/mL that the population density of heterotrophic bacterium. In culture medium systems type 1 and type 2 in which artificial wastewater were supplied continuously at constant rate, the same density appeared initially when using the population density of Escherichia coli w 3110 as indirect indicator. And this density decreased rapidly till the culturing date 35 days were passed away, while this density increased with gentle slope after same date and then the trend of change at type 2 was more severe than one at type 1. 4. When seeing such a change of population density of Escherichia coli w 3110, the growth of heterotrophic bacterium appeared as survival instinct pattern of broader requirement of nutrient at condition of low concentration of organic carbon substrate than condition of high concentration of same substrate.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 1969

English sole (Parophrvs vetulus) fillets packaged in polymylar bags were irradiated at 500 Krad, using a Cobalt-60 irradiator and the accumulation of spoilage indices substances and bacterial growth in the irradiated and unirradiated samples were measured during 36 days of storage at 0-2$^{\circ}C$. A casein agar plate technique was developed for a direct enumeration of proteolytic bacterial population, thus enabling the determination of relative proportion of proteolytic bacteria in the total microflora at each storage interval. Irradiation at 500 Krad resulted in a ten fold reduction of microflora and throughout the storage period the level of microflora lagged behind that of the unirradiated, by as much as one thousand fold. This was accompanied by a remarkable suppression of TVB and TMA accumulation in the irradiated, never reaching a spoliage level. Proteolytic bacterial population also was reduced to below one per cent of the total viable count and remained so throughout the storage period, while proteolytic bacteria in the unirradiated increased proportionately with the storage, comprising 85.5% of the total microflora by the twenty-second day. This selective removal of proteolytic bacteria must account for the reduced rate of proteolysis occurred in the irradiated during the storage.