• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.121-128
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• 2022

Fusarium wilt disease caused by Fusarium species is a major problem affecting cultivated cucurbit plants worldwide. Fusarium species are well-known soil-borne pathogenic fungi that cause Fusarium wilt disease in several cucurbit plants. In this study, we aimed to identify and classify pathogenic Fusarium species from cultivated Korean cucurbit plants, specifically watermelon and cucumber. Thirty-six Fusarium isolates from different regions of Korea were obtained from the National Institute of Horticulture and Herbal Science Germplasm collection. Each isolate was morphologically and molecularly identified using an internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA, elongation factor-1α, and the beta-tubulin gene marker sequence. Fusarium species that infect the cucurbit plant family could be divided into three groups: Fusarium oxysporum (F. oxysporum), Fusarium solani (F. solani), and Fusarium equiseti (F. equieti). Among the 36 isolates examined, six were non-pathogenic (F. equiseti: 15-127, F. oxysporum: 14-129, 17-557, 17-559, 18-369, F. solani: 12-155), whereas 30 isolates were pathogenic. Five of the F. solani isolates (11-117, 14-130, 17-554, 17-555, 17-556) were found to be highly pathogenic to both watermelon and cucumber plants, posing a great threat to cucurbit production in Korea. The identification of several isolates of F. equiseti and F. oxysporum, which are both highly pathogenic to bottle gourd, may indicate waning resistance to Fusarium species infection.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1293-1303
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• 2013

Antibiotic resistance of soilborne Acinetobacter species has been poorly explored. In this study, norfloxacin resistance of a soil bacterium, Acinetobacter oleivorans DR1, was investigated. The frequencies of mutant appearance of all tested non-pathogenic Acinetobacter strains were lower than those of pathogenic strains under minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). When the quinolone-resistance-determining region of the gyrA gene was examined, only one mutant (His78Asn) out of 10 resistant variants had a mutation. Whole transcriptome analysis using a RNA-Seq demonstrated that genes involved in SOS response and DNA repair were significantly up-regulated by norfloxacin. Determining the MICs of survival cells after norfloxacin treatment confirmed some of those cells were indeed persister cells. Ten colonies, randomly selected from among those that survived in the presence of norfloxacin, did not exhibit increased MIC. Thus, both the low mutation frequency of the target gene and SOS response under norfloxacin suggested that persister formation might contribute to the resistance of DR1 against norfloxacin. The persister frequency increased without a change in MIC when stationary phase cells, low growth rates conditions, and growth-deficient dnaJ mutant were used. Taken together, our comprehensive approach, which included mutational analysis of the target gene, persister formation assays, and RNA sequencing, indicated that DR1 survival when exposed to norfloxacin is related not only to target gene mutation but also to persister formation, possibly through up-regulation of the SOS response and DNA repair genes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.3093-3097
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• 2014

Background: Cancer is a major threat to the public health whether in developed or in developing countries. As the most common primary malignant tumor, the morbidity and mortality rate of lung cancer continues to rise in recent ten years worldwide. Chemotherapy is one of the main methods in the treatment of lung cancer, but this is hampered by chemotherapy drug resistance, especially MDR. As a component of the 60S large ribosomal subunit, ribosomal protein L39-L gene was reported to be expressed specifically in the human testis and human cancer samples of various tissue origins. Materials and Methods: Total RNA of cultured drug-resistant and susceptible A549 cells was isolated, and real time quantitative RT-PCR were used to indicate the transcribe difference between amycin resistant and susceptible strain of A549 cells. Viability assay were used to show the amycin resistance difference in RPL39-L transfected A549 cell line than control vector and null-transfected A549 cell line. Results: The ribosomal protein L39-L transcription level was 8.2 times higher in drug-resistant human lung cancer A549 cell line than in susceptible A549 cell line by quantitative RT-PCR analysis. The ribosomal protein L39-L transfected cells showed enhanced drug resistance compared to plasmid vector-transfected or null-transfected cells as determined by methyl tritiated thymidine (3H-TdR) incorporation. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: The ribosomal protein L39-L gene may have effects on the drug resistance mechanism of lung cancer A549 cells.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.698-704
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• 2019

Phytophthora root and stem rot (PRSR) caused by Phytophthora sojae is one of the most destructive diseases of soybean. PRSR recently became an issue as soybean cultivation in paddy fields increased in South Korea. The management of PRSR mainly involves R-gene-mediated resistance, however, little is known about the resistance in Korean cultivars. Major Korean soybean cultivars were investigated for the presence or absence of R-gene-mediated resistance to four P. sojae isolates, two of which were new isolates. Isolate-specific reactions were observed following P. sojae inoculation. Of 21 cultivars, 15-20 cultivars (71.4-95.2%) showed susceptible reaction for each isolate. Ten cultivars were susceptible to all the isolates, and six cultivars were identified to have R-gene-mediated resistance to one or two isolates. The results of this study would provide a framework for the discovery of resistant cultivars, development of new cultivars resistant to P. sojae, and investigation of pathogenic diversity of P. sojae population in South Korea.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.13.1-13.11
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• 2023

Background: Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) is an extremely contagious and high mortality rates in chickens resulting in substantial economic impact on the poultry sector. Therefore, it is necessary to elucidate the pathogenic mechanism of HPAIV for infection control. Objective: Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) can effectively avoid the limitations of subjective screening for differential gene expression. Therefore, we performed GSEA to compare HPAI-infected resistant and susceptible Ri chicken lines. Methods: The Ri chickens Mx(A)/BF2(B21) were chosen as resistant, and the chickens Mx(G)/BF2(B13) were selected as susceptible by genotyping the Mx and BF2 genes. The tracheal tissues of HPAIV H5N1 infected chickens were collected for RNA sequencing followed by GSEA analysis to define gene subsets to elucidate the sequencing results. Results: We identified four differentially expressed pathways, which were immune-related pathways with a total of 78 genes. The expression levels of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12), chemokines (CCL4 and CCL5), type interferons and their receptors (IFN-β, IFNAR1, IFNAR2, and IFNGR1), Jak-STAT signaling pathway genes (STAT1, STAT2, and JAK1), MHC class I and II and their co-stimulatory molecules (CD80, CD86, CD40, DMB2, BLB2, and B2M), and interferon stimulated genes (EIF2AK2 and EIF2AK1) in resistant chickens were higher than those in susceptible chickens. Conclusions: Resistant Ri chickens exhibit a stronger antiviral response to HPAIV H5N1 compared with susceptible chickens. Our findings provide insights into the immune responses of genetically disparate chickens against HPAIV.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.155-168
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• 2012

Therapeutic cancer is a long lasting and turbulent history accompany with the milestones in surgical intervention, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In the past decade, however, metastatic cancer still obstinately exists challenging the professional scientist. Beside the major forms of cancer treatment, Diphtheria toxin (DT) which is produced by a pathogenic strain of bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheria to shield themselves against the other dangerous organism, have been researched as a potential candidate to overcome the drawback such as non-specific, non-effect to drug resistant cancer cell and side effects when using chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In the context of suicide gene therapy, the DT expression under controlling of tissue-specific promoter will be targeted in cancer cell but defect in normal cell. The molecular mechanism, characteristic of DT-bases therapy and prominent achievements of preclinical and clinical studies for the past decade are summarized and discussed in this review.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.125-130
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• 2001

A putative protein encoded by Arabidopsis AtMTN3 gene, a homologue of Medicago truncatula MTN3, consists of 285 amino acid residues, and has a predicted molecular mass of 31.5 kDa and a calculated pI of 9.1. Primary amino acid sequence analyses have revealed that the protein contains seven putative transmembrane regions with N-terminus oriented to the outside of the membrane. The AtMTN3 protein shows overall 16.4% of amino acid identity with the rat GALR3 protein, known to be a G-protein-coupled receptor. The gene is present as a single copy in the Arabidopsis genome, and expressed in aerial parts but not in roots of Arabidopsis. Therefore, AtMTN3 appears not to be specifically involved in Rhizobium-induced nodule development, as was predicted for the MTN3 gene. These proteins possibly mediate signal transmission through G-protein-coupled pathways during general interactions between plants and symbiotic or pathogenic microbes.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Vermamoeba vermiformis is a very important free-living amoeba for human health in association with Legionnaires' disease and keratitis. This interesting amoeba was firstly isolated from a freshwater of Dokdo (island), which was historically used for drinking water. Trophozoites and cyst forms of V. vermiformis strain MG1 are very similar to previous reported species. Trophozoites of V. vermiformis strain MG1 showed cylindrical shape with prominent anterior hyaline region. The average ratio of length and width was about 6.5. Typically, cysts of the strain MG1 showed a spherical or slightly ovoidal shape with smooth wall, and lacked cyst pores. Some cysts had crenulate-walled ectocyst, which was separated from endocyst wall. Further, 18S rRNA gene sequence of V. vermiformis strain MG1 showed very high similarity to other V. vermiformis species (99.4%-99.9% identity). Molecular phylogenetic analysis based on 18S rRNA gene sequences clearly confirmed that the isolate was one strain of V. vermiformis with maximum bootstrap value (maximum likelihood: 100%) and Bayesian posterior probability of 1. Thus, the freshwater of Dokdo in Korea could harbor potentially pathogenic amoeba that may cause diseases in humans.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.102-108
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• 2014

The bacterial strain T-9, which shows strong antifungal activity, is isolated from the soils of Samcheok, Gangwondo and identified as Paenibacillus kribbensis according to morphological and taxonomic characteristics and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The P. kribbensis strain T-9 strongly inhibits the growth of various phytopathogenic fungi including Botrytis cinerea, Colletotricum acutatum, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici, Magnaporthe oryzae, Phytophthora capsici, Rhizoctonia solani, and Sclerotium cepivorum in vitro. Also, the P. kribbensis strain T-9 exhibited similar or better control effects to plant diseases than in fungicide treatment through in vivo assays. In the 2-year greenhouse experiments, P. kribbensis strain T-9 was highly effective against clubroot. In the 2-year field trials, the P. kribbensis strain T-9 was less effective than the fungicide, but reduced clubroot on Chinese cabbage when compared to the control. The above-described results indicate that the strain T-9 may have the potential as an antagonist to control various phytopathogenic fungi.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.323-331
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• 2008

Plants are continually exposed to a variety of potentially pathogenic microbes, and the interactions between plants and pathogenic invaders determine the outcome, disease or disease resistance. To defend themselves, plants have developed a sophisticated immune system. Unlike animals, however, they do not have specialized immune cells and, thus all plant cells appear to have the innate ability to recognize pathogens and turn on an appropriate defense response. Using genetic, genomic and biochemical methods, tremendous advances have been made in understanding how plants recognize pathogens and mount effective defenses. The primary immune response is induced by microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). MAMP receptors recognize the presence of probable pathogens and evoke defense. In the co-evolution of plant-microbe interactions, pathogens gained the ability to make and deliver effector proteins to suppress MAMP-induced defense responses. In response to effector proteins, plants acquired R-proteins to directly or indirectly monitor the presence of effector proteins and activate an effective defense response. In this review we will describe and discuss the plant immune responses induced by two types of elicitors, PAMPs and effector proteins.