• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.43 no.6
• /
• pp.475-486
• /
• 2005

Fungal secondary metabolites constitute a wide variety of compounds which either playa vital role in agricultural, pharmaceutical and industrial contexts, or have devastating effects on agriculture, animal and human affairs by virtue of their toxigenicity. Owing to their beneficial and deleterious characteristics, these complex compounds and the genes responsible for their synthesis have been the subjects of extensive investigation by microbiologists and pharmacologists. A majority of the fungal secondary metabolic genes are classified as type I polyketide synthases (PKS) which are often clustered with other secondary metabolism related genes. In this review we discuss on the significance of our recent discovery of chalcone synthase (CHS) genes belonging to the type III PKS superfamily in an industrially important fungus, Aspergillus oryzae. CHS genes are known to playa vital role in the biosynthesis of flavonoids in plants. A comparative genome analyses revealed the unique character of A. oryzae with four CHS-like genes (csyA, csyB, csyC and csyD) amongst other Aspergilli (Aspergillus nidulans and Aspergillus fumigatus) which contained none of the CHS-like genes. Some other fungi such as Neurospora crassa, Fusarium graminearum, Magnaporthe grisea, Podospora anserina and Phanerochaete chrysosporium also contained putative type III PKSs, with a phylogenic distinction from bacteria and plants. The enzymatically active nature of these newly discovered homologues is expected owing to the conservation in the catalytic residues across the different species of plants and fungi, and also by the fact that a majority of these genes (csyA, csyB and csyD) were expressed in A. oryzae. While this finding brings filamentous fungi closer to plants and bacteria which until recently were the only ones considered to possess the type III PKSs, the presence of putative genes encoding other principal enzymes involved in the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis (viz., phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, cinnamic acid hydroxylase and p-coumarate CoA ligase) in the A. oryzae genome undoubtedly prove the extent of its metabolic diversity. Since many of these genes have not been identified earlier, knowledge on their corresponding products or activities remain undeciphered. In future, it is anticipated that these enzymes may be reasonable targets for metabolic engineering in fungi to produce agriculturally and nutritionally important metabolites.

• Mycobiology
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.276-287
• /
• 2020

An algific talus slope is composed of broken rocks with vents connected to an ice cave, releasing cool air in summer and relatively warmer air in winter to maintain a more stable microclimate all year round. Such geological features create a very unusual and delicate ecosystem. Although there are around 25 major algific talus slopes in Korea, lichen ecology of these areas had not been investigated to date. In this study, we report the first exploration of lichen diversity and ecology at an algific talus slope, Jangyeol-ri, in Korea. A total of 37 specimens were collected over 2017-2018. Morphological and sequencing analysis revealed 27 species belonging to 18 genera present in the area. Of particular interest among these species was Solorina saccata, as it has previously not been reported in Korea and most members of genus Solorina are known to inhabit alpine regions of the Northern Hemisphere. We provide here a taxonomic key for S. saccata alongside molecular phylogenetic analyses and prediction of potential habitats in South Korea. Furthermore, regions in South Korea potentially suitable for Solorina spp. were predicted based on climatic features of known habitats around the globe. Our results showed that the suitable areas are mostly at high altitudes in mountainous areas where the annual temperature range does not exceed 26.6 ℃. Further survey of other environmental conditions determining the suitability of Solorina spp. should lead to a more precise prediction of suitable habitats and trace the origin of Solorina spp. in Korea.

• ALGAE
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.57-73
• /
• 2014

Amphora Ehrenberg ex Kutzing sensu lato is a common and widespread benthic diatom genus with a taxonomy that has been under continual revision, particularly based on molecular analyses. Although Amphora species have been studied using modern microscopy in recent years, there has not been much progress on molecular characterization of the species, especially in Asia. In this study of Amphora, sampling was carried out from September 2009 to August 2010 in Korean coastal waters. The morphological and molecular characteristics of eight Amphora sensu lato were examined: Amphora marina, A. proteus, Halamphora costata, H. coffeaeformis, H. eunotia, H. holsatica, H. terroris, and Halamphora sp. Based on previous accounts, morphology suggested that A. marina and A. proteus belong to the subgenus Amphora Cleve, which have smooth girdle bands and rather coarse and very distinct areolae on the valve. The other species, H. coffeaeformis, H. costata, H. eunotia, H. holsatica, H. terroris, and Halamphora sp. belong to the subgenus Halamphora Cleve, which was recently elevated to generic status by Levkov 2009, have plicate girdle bands, puncta which do not form straight longitudinal lines, valves which have a narrow ventral portion and apices that are generally rostrate-capitate and recurved. In agreement with analysis based on morphological characteristics, phylogenetic analysis based on small subunit rDNA suggested that the eight Amphora sensu lato species were not a monophyletic group as the morphological classification. Also, the results of molecular work and statistical analysis on all these Amphora sensu lato combined with phylogenic analysis on our geographically representative samples give strong evidence that Halamphora Levkov is independent of Amphora Cleve. Furthermore, in this study, Amphora terroris was transferred Halamphora as Halamphora terroris (Ehrenberg) Wang comb. nov. and Amphora marina was recorded for the first time in Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.31 no.9
• /
• pp.1210-1217
• /
• 2021

Two gram-negative, catalase-positive, strictly aerobic, and white colony-forming bacteria, strains H242^T and B156^T, were isolated from soil in South Korea. Cells of strain H242^T were oxidase-positive and non-motile short rods, while those of strain B156^T were oxidase-negative and long non-motile rods. Ubiquinone-8 was identified as the sole isoprenoid quinone in both strains. C_16:0, cyclo-C_17:0, andsummed feature 3 (C_16:1 ω7c and/or C_16:1 ω6c) and phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, and diphosphatidylglycerol were identified in both strains as the major cellular fatty acids and polar lipids, respectively. The DNA G+C contents of strains H242^T and B156^T were 69.4 mol% and 69.3 mol%, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA and 92 concatenated core gene sequences revealed that strains H242^T and B156^T formed distinct phylogenic lineages from other Ramlibacter type strains. The DNA-DNA hybridization (DDH) value between strains H242^T and B156^T was 24.6%. Strains H242^T and B156^T were most closely related to Ramlibacter ginsenosidimutans BXN5-27^T and Ramlibacter monticola G-3-2^T with 98.4% and 98.6% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, respectively. Digital DDH values between strain H242^T and R. ginsenosidimutans and between strain B156^T and R. monticola were 23.5% and 26.1%, respectively. Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and molecular analyses indicated that strains H242^T and B156^T represent two novel species of the genus Ramlibacter, for which the names Ramlibacter terrae sp. nov. and Ramlibacter montanisoli sp. nov., respectively, are proposed. The type strains of R. terrae and R. montanisoli are H242^T (=KACC 21667^T=JCM 33922^T) and B156^T (=KACC 21665^T=JCM 33920^T), respectively.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.753-758
• /
• 2008

Genus Hemerocallis is a herbaceous species and some species among their taxa are very important herbal medicines. We evaluated representative samples of the eight taxa in Korea with inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers to estimate phylogenetic relationships within taxa of this genus. The studied taxa were Hemerocallis fulva L., H. fulva for. kwanso, H. dumortieri Morren, H. coreana Nakai, H. hongdoensis M.G.Chung & S.S.Kang, H. middendorffi Trautv. et Mayer, H. thunbergii Baker, H. minor Miller. In addition, we investigated the genetic variation and structure of Korean populations of these taxa. The mean genetic diversity was 0.098 across species, varying from 0.068 to 0.123. A low level of genetic variation was found in populations of Hemerocallis species. Specially, gene diversity for H. minor was maintained the highest among genus Hemerocallis. An indirect estimate of the number of migrants per generation (Nm=0.218) indicated that gene flow was not extensive among Korean populations of Hemerocallis species. The phylogenic tree showed distinct three clades. One includes H. fulva, H. fulva for. kwanso and H. middendorffi. Another includes three Hemerocallis species, H. dumortieri, H. thunbergii and H. minor. The H. coreana and H. hongdoensis were shown as the sister group to the second clades. Although the size of sampling was not large enough for eight Korean Hemerocallis species, the analyses of ISSRs will certainly provide an enhanced view on the phylogeny of species.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.169-176
• /
• 2016

Although chemical fertilizers have a quick effect and broad applicability to agricultural fields, they have caused many problems like increasing soil acidity or decreasing soil organic matters. Environmental-friendly agriculture has been attempted in various ways such as organic agriculture, natural farming, low input and sustainable agriculture. The common interest of all environmental-friendly systems is to decrease burden to agricultural environment by low input of agricultural labor and materials. This study was conducted to estimate overwintering capacity and genetic distance among Chinese Milk Vetch (Astragalus sinicus, CMV) collections based on morphological characteristics and AFLP (Amplified fragment length polymorphism) analysis. Furthermore, the effect of CMV as green manure was observed in mix-cultured paddy fields with rice, sesame and sweet-potato. An another objective of this study was also to compare the pattern of weed occurrence in paddy fields with or without CMV and different rice transplanting times. The CMV collected from Paju district in central region of Korea was successively occurring through self-reseeding without artificial management. However, there was no noticeable difference in growth habit between Paju native CMV and introduced CMV from China which is currently used in farm fields. On the basis of multi-dimensional scaling and tree analyses, there are no significant difference of agricultural growth characteristics among Paju and chinese collections only excepting leaf angle and root length. The flowering time of Gurye collection was fast for 1 week as compared to other collections. AFLP that was commonly used for plant classfication, was applied to exam the genetic variation of CMV collections. Total 579 PCR products and 336 polymorphic fragments were generated using 8 primer pairs.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.20 no.11
• /
• pp.1697-1703
• /
• 2010

Asarum consists of low-growing herbs and is a genus in the Aristolochiaceae family with species found in the north temperate zones with most species in Asia. We evaluated the nine taxa with the trnL - trnT region of the chloroplast genome to estimate phenotypic relationships within genus Asarum in Korea. Alignment of the DNA sequences required the addition of numerous gaps. Sequence variation within the Asarum was mostly due to nucleotide inserts/deletions, although several indels and inserts were found. Another source of sequence divergence was length variation due to stretches of short repeats that occur at the trnL - trnT region in all the Asarum. A + T content for nine Korean species of genus Asarum ranged between 74.7% and 78.3%. These values were higher than those for the angiosperm alignments of the total trnL and trnT region (64.5~67.1%). Within genus Asarum, A. patens was strikingly different from the others in the three phylogenetic analyses (MP, ML, and NJ). However, some internal nodes were poorly supported. Within Korean Asarum, four species were unsolved portions. Possible reasons for the striking non-congruence between the previous morphological traits and the trnL - trnT based on phylogeny were discussed.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
• /
• v.56 no.4
• /
• pp.371-376
• /
• 2017

In a nationwide survey of the occurrence and density of the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria), high density was continuously observed in the reclaimed areas of Mangun-myeon in Muan-gun, Jeollanam-do, and Sanye-myeon in Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do, Korea. We have analyzed the nucleotide sequences of NADH dehydrogenase subunit (NAD) 2, NAD4, and NAD5 genes in order to determine the origins of the migratory locusts at two sites. According to the analysis, the migratory locusts in Haenam-gun were closely related with those in Liaoning Province and Heilongjiang Province in the northeast China. In contrast, the migratory locusts in Muan-gun were most similar to those in Japan. Because Korean migratory locusts were not included in the previous global study on the evolution and migration of migratory locusts, we did not know the origin of Korean migratory locusts, earlier. Phylogenetic analyses this study suggested that the migratory locusts from the northeast Chinese population might have migrated and settled in Haenam-gun in Korea. Moreover, another northeast Chinese population might have migrated to Muan-gun in Korea though Sakhalin, Russia and Hokkaido, Japan. However, the possibility that the migratory locusts moved from northeast China might be isolated from each other in Korea, and that the Muan population might migrate to Japan cannot be excluded.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.40-47
• /
• 2010

To investigate genetic relationships either interspecies or intraspecies of 14 Korean Phytophthora species, sequence analyses of nuclear DNA (ypt gene and rDNA-IGS region) and mitochondrial DNA (Cox gene, $\beta$-tubuline gene, and EF1A gene) were performed. All of 14 Korean Phytophthora species clearly clustered into foreign isolates of each species. These Korean isolates in Phytophthora species also showed no correlation between molecular classification and morphological classification like as in case of foreigners. P. palmivora KACC 40167 reported previously from genetic groups of Phytophthora species in Korea was not consistent with the classification system, and therefore was required re-examination for the genetic group analysis. Korean isolates of P. drechsleri KACC 40195 showed very close relationship with P. cryptogea KACC 40161 above 94% bootstrap value in P. cryptogea-P. drechsleri complex group. Identification of these isolates is still unclear, because P. cryptogea and P. drechsleri were not differentiated in this study. On the other hand, it was required to unify species for these two species, since P. parasitica and P. nicotianae were clustered into a group on the level of 99 to 100% sequence homology. Comparing to the sequences of foreigners, Korean isolates were newly divided to ten groups in the phylogenic system. These results could be prepared useful informations to understand genetic diversity of Phytophthora species in Korea.