• Mycobiology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.203-209
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• 2015

Three new fungal species of the genus Mortierella, Mortierella zychae, Mortierella ambigua, and Mortierella indohii, have been reported in Korea. The fungi were encountered during a study on the fungal community of soil samples collected from different locations in Korea. The species were identified based on molecular and morphological analyses. This study presents detailed descriptions of the morphological observations and molecular phylogenetic analysis of these three fungi. All three species were found to be sensitive to triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. M. zychae demonstrated the highest intensity of mycelial staining, indicating that this species has the highest potential to produce arachidonic acid of the three species. The staining results indicated that the newly recorded species could potentially be useful for arachidonic acid production.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.308-324
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• 2023

This study investigated unrecorded freshwater bacterial species in Korea. Water and sediment samples were collected from the Nakdong River basin from 2020-2022. Bacterial isolates obtained through the conventional culture method with commercial media were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing to identify unrecorded bacterial species. Results of 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the bacterial isolates revealed that a total of 44 bacterial isolates shared 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of more than 98.65%, with validly published bacterial species not reported in Korea yet. These isolates were phylogenetically assigned to 4 phyla, 7 classes, 21 orders, 33 families, and 42 genera. A total of 2, 6, 12, and 24 species belonged to phyla Bacillota, Bacteroidota, Actinomycetota, and Pseudomonadota, respectively. Here, we provide details of these 44 unrecorded bacterial species, including Gram staining, colony and cellular morphologies, biochemical properties, and phylogenetic position.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1156-1163
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• 2008

We performed RT-nested PCR to study the distribution of human enteric viruses in urban rivers in Korea. During 2002-2003, water samples were collected from four rivers in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Among 58 samples, 45 (77.6%), 32 (55.2%), 12 (20.7%), 2 (3.4%), 4 (6.9%), and 4 (6.9%) showed positive results with adenoviruses (AdVs), enteroviruses (EVs), reoviruses (ReVs), hepatitis A viruses (HAVs), rotaviruses (RoVs), and sapoviruses (SVs), respectively. According to the binary logistic regression model, the occurrence of each enteric virus, except ReVs and HAVs, was not statistically correlated with the water temperature and levels of fecal coliforms (P<0.05). AdVs were most often detected; only 4 samples (6.9%) were negative for AdVs while positive for other enteric viruses in the studied sites. Our results indicated that monitoring human enteric viruses is necessary to improve microbial quality, and that AdVs detection by PCR can be a useful index for the presence of other enteric viruses in aquatic environments.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.81-91
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• 2000

Residents who live near petrochemical industrial areas are exposed to a variety of petrochemicals, including benzene or benzene-containing liquids. It is a serious concern because some VOCs are carcinogens naturally present in petroleum and gasoline. The aim of this study was to assess the exposure to VOCs, measured by personal/indoor/outdoor air sampling, and to estimate the relationship between the air samples and biological monitoring data. Through biological monitoring, we investigated VOCs in blood and s-phenylmercapturic acid (s-PMA) , minor urinary metabolites of benzene. The external benzene exposure of subjects was measured using passive dosimeters and urinary s-PMA and blood-benzene were determined by GC/MS. More than 80% of subjects were detected for m-xylene, ethylbenzene, and toluene in blood samples and not detected at all for chloroform, 1 , 1 , 1 -trichloroethylene, and tetrachloroethylene. The mean concentration of benzene in the breathing zone of residents was 6.3 $\mu\textrm{g}$/m$^3$, personal, indoor and outdoor concentrations were strongly correlated to each other. s-PMA detected in all subject samples was affected by personal exposure (p< 0.05) and the level was different by age (p< 0.01). Blood benzene was not affected by external benzene during these periods .

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.410-417
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• 2013

In 2011-2012, sixty nine samples were collected from alfalfa plants showing viral infection symptoms in Riyadh region. Mechanical inoculation with sap prepared from two collected samples out of twenty five possitive for Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) by ELISA were produced systemic mosaic on Vigna unguiculata and Nicotiana tabacum, local lesion on Chenopodium amaranticolor and C. quinoa. Vicia faba indicator plants that induce mosaic and mottle with AMV-Sagir isolate and no infection with AMV-Wadi aldawasser isolate. Approximately 700-bp was formed by RT-PCR using AMV coat protein specific primer. Samples from infected alfalfa gave positive results, while healthy plant gave negative result using dot blot hybridization assay. The nucleotide sequences of the Saudi isolates were compared with corresponding viral nucleotide sequences reported in GenBank. The obtained results showed that the AMV from Australia, Brazil, Puglia and China had the highest similarity with AMV-Sajer isolate. While, the AMV from Spain and New Zealaland had the lowest similarity with AMV-Sajer and Wadi aldawasser isolates. The data obtained in this study has been deposited in the GenBank under the accession numbers KC434083 and KC434084 for AMV-Sajer and AMV-Wadialdawasser respectively. This is the first report regarding the gnetic make up of AMV in Saudi Arabia.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.745-752
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• 2005

Green tea has various medical effects. It was selected as new natural dyes guessing the effects of the biological activities are still appeared on dyeing. It was examined whether they have the function of Uv-blocker or not. Cotton, linen & Hanji were dyed with Green tea. Al, Cr, Cu, Fe and Sn were selected as the mordant and the UV blocking rate of dyed samples was measured. The results of this study as follows; 1 . The color of dyed samples with Green tea changed yellowish red except Hanji and linen mordanted with Fe. 2. K/S values of dyed samples with Green tea increased by the number of dyeing treatment(p<.01). 3. UVA and UVB blocking rate increased by the number of dyes. Cotton and Linen could block the UV radiation over $93\%$ and Hanji could block over $95\%$ after three times of dyeing. These results suggest that Hanji has possibility far various practical uses of clothing material in beautiful and functional aspect. It could have the biological effects when we put on dyed clothing material with Green tea.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.369-375
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• 2012

The current study was carried out to investigate the impact of extraction conditions on the free amino acid level and type in beef longissimus muscle. The sample blocks were chiller aged for 1 d and 7 d at $4^{\circ}C$. There are three homogenization speeds (11,000, 19,000 and 24,000 rpm) for bigger and two speeds (11,000 and 13,000 rpm) for smaller homogenizer's dispersing tools were used for evaluation. Results showed that chiller ageing greatly (p<0.05) increased extractable free amino acids, except cystine. Homogenization with the bigger dispersing tool at 24,000 rpm resulted in the highest free amino acid levels for both 1 and 7 d samples. Significant differences (p<0.05) in the mean values of most amino acids due to the effect of speed and interactions between ageing times. However, the speed effect and interaction between ageing with homogenization speed were not significant (p>0.05) for most of the amino acids except valine and isoleucine when using the smaller dispensing tools. The current data indicated that a standardized method for free amino acid types and levels of aged beef samples. In addition, the results also suggested that utilization of a big dispensing tool at high homogenization speed is a better condition for releasing free amino acid contents in beef samples.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 1999

Microbiological quality of commercial white ginseng was examined, together with investigation on its water absorption pattern and radiosensitivity of molds isolated from the samples. Comparative effects of phosphine fumigation and gamma irradiation on microbial control and disinfestation of the samples packed in a commercial laminated film and stored for six months at ambient(20oC, 70% RH) and accelerated(40oC, 90% RH) conditions were studied. Commercial white ginseng was contaminated with coliforms by 103~104CFU/g and molds by 102~104CFU/g and thus decontamination process was required for hygienic quality and storage stability. Phosphine fumigation showed no sterilizing effects on microbes contaminated, while gamma irradiation at around 5kGy was effective for decontaminating microorganisms, showing D10 values of 0.48~0.60kGy for isolated molds. Even though the storage insects, Plodia interpuctella Hubner and Lasioderma serricorne(cigarette beetle) were easily destroyed by phosphine fumigation, gamma irradiation less than 5kGy was found effective for both purposes to improve biological quality of stored white ginseng, thereby extending the storage life of packed samples resulting from increased critical moisture content by about 1%(Aw 0.76).

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.54-58
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• 2000

Methanol extracts of 27 Brazilian plant samples and 10 oriental medicinal plant samples (27 families), using spectrophotometric and paper disc agar diffusion methods under anaerobic conditions, were tested in vitro for their growth-inhibiting activities against Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium adolescentis, Clostridium perfringens, and Bacteroides fragilis. The responses varied with bacterial strains, plant species, and tissues sampled. In a test with B. longum and B. bifidum(20 mg/disc), extracts of Acanthopanax sessilifolinus stem bark and Ampelozizyphus amazonicus leaves strongly inhibited the growth of B. longum, whereas other plant samples did not inhibit any intestinal bacteria tested. At 5 mg/disc, adding extracts of Aralia eleta, Euterpe oleracea, and Syzygium guineense to the media strongly inhibited the growth of C. perfringens and B. fragilis without growth inhibition of B. adolescentis, B. longum, and B. bifidum. Extracts of Jacaranda mimosifolia and Ulmus paraifolia significantly inhibited the growth of C. perfringens and B. fragilis as well as B. adolescentis. These results may be indications of at least one of the pharmacological actions of the five Brazilian plants but not oriental medicinal plants tested.

• ALGAE
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2019

DNA metabarcoding is currently used for large-scale taxonomic identification to understand the community composition in various marine ecosystems. However, before being widely used in this emerging field, this experimental and analytic approach still has several technical challenges to overcome, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) bias, and lack of well-established metabarcoding markers, a task which is difficult but not impossible to achieve. In this study, we present an adapted PCR-free small-organelles enriched metagenomics (SoEM) method for marine biodiversity assessment. To avoid PCR bias and random artefacts, we extracted target DNA sequences without PCR amplification from marine environmental samples enriched with small organelles including mitochondria and plastids because their genome sequences provide a valuable source of molecular markers for phylogenetic analysis. To experimentally enrich small organelles, we performed subcellular fractionation using modified differential centrifugation for marine environmental DNA samples. To validate our SoEM method, two marine environmental samples from the coastal waters were tested the taxonomic capturing capacity against that of traditional DNA metabarcoding method. Results showed that, regardless of taxonomic levels, at least 3-fold greater numbers of taxa were identified in our SoEM method, compared to those identified by the conventional multi-locus DNA metabarcoding method. The SoEM method is thus effective and accurate for identifying taxonomic diversity and presents a useful alternative approach for evaluating biodiversity in the marine environment.