• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.440-445
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• 2013

Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) is a kind of mountain herbs whose roots have restorative properties and the cultivating acreage of balloon flower has been steadily increasing in Korea. More frequent rain and high amount of rainfalls as a result of climate changes predisposed balloon flower to the outbreaks of root rot at high-density cultivation area in recent years. Root crowns were usually discolored into brown to blackish brown at first and the infected plants showed slight wilting symptom at early infection stage. Severely infected roots were entirely rotted and whole plants eventually died at late infection stage. The overall disease severities of root rot of balloon flower were quite variable according to the surveyed fields in Jeonnam, Gyeongnam and Jeju Provinces, which ranged from 0.1% to 40%. The root rot occurred more severely at the paddy or clay soils than the sandy soils and their severities were much higher at lowland than upland in the same localty. The disease increased with aging of the balloon flower. The causal fungi were identified as Fusarium solani and F. oxysporum on the basis of their mycological characteristics. The optimum temperature ranges of their mycelial growths was found to be $24^{\circ}C$. The pathogenic characters of F. solani and F. oxysporum treated by artificial wounding inoculation on healthy roots of balloon flower revealed that F. solani was more virulent than F. oxysporum. This study identified the causal agents of root rot of balloon flower as Fusarium solani and F. oxysporum, probably for the first time.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.63-66
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• 2004

Ginseng (Panax ginseng) is one of the most widely cultivated medicinal herbs in Korea. However, yield losses reached up to 30-60％ due to various diseases during 3 or 5 years of ginseng cultivation in the country. Therefore, successful production of ginseng roots depends primarily on the control of diseases. The objective of this study was to select potential biocontrol agents from rhizobacteria isolated from various plant internal root tissues for the control of multiple ginseng diseases as an alternative to fungicides. Among 106 Bacillus strains, two promising biocontrol agents, Bacillus pumilus strain B1141 and Paenibacillus lentimobus strain B1146, were selected by screening against root rot of ginseng caused by Cylindrocarpon destructans in a greenhouse. Pre-inoculation of selected isolates to seed or l-year-old root of ginseng resulted in stimulation of shoot and/or root growth of seedlings, and successfully controlled root rot caused by C. destructans (P<0.05). Furthermore, drenching of cell suspension of the selected isolates on seedling-growing pots reduced the incidence of Phytophthora blight after the seedlings were challenged with zoospores of Phytophthora cactorum (P<0.05). P. lentimorbus strain B1146 showed antifungal activity against various soil-borne pathogens in vitro, while B. pumilus strain B1141 did not show any. Results of this study suggest that some rhizobacteria can induce resistance against various plant diseases on ginseng.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 1994.06a
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• pp.27-49
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• 1994

Root colonization of biocontrol agents via seed treatment was investigated and a compatible combination, Gliocladium virens G872B and Pseudomonas putida Pf3, in colonizing cucumber rhizosphere was confirmed through the study. Much higher number of fungal and bacterial propagules were detected when two isolates were inoculated together. The presence of Pf3 in root system was greatly helpful to G872B to colonize at root tip. The mechanism of this phenomenon is partially elucidated through the results of in vitro experiments and the observations of scanning electron and fluorescence microscope. Addition of Pf3 cells resulted earlier germination of G872B conidia and increased mycelial growth. And the more number of germinated conidia on seed coat, the more vigorous hypal streching and sporulation on the root surface were observed in coinoculated treatment. The propagules of G872B on the cucumber root when they were challenged against the pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum, were even higher than that of G872B treated alone, and the magnitude of such a difference was getting grater toward the root ip and the population of F. oxysporum on the root was reduced by seed inoculation of G872B. The rhizosphere competence was obviously reflected to disease suppression and plant growth promotion that induced by the given isolate. Green house experiments revealed that the combined treatment provided long-term disease suppression with greater rate and the larger amount of fruit yield than single treatments. Through this study the low temperature growing Pseudomonas fluorescens M45 and MC07 were evaluated to apply them to the winter crops in field or plastic film house. In vitro tests reveal that M45 and MC07 inhibited the mycelial growth of Pythium ultimum, Rhizoctona solani and Phytophthora capsici and enhanced growth of cucumber cotyledon in MS agar. This effect was more pronounced when the bacteria were incubated at 14$^{\circ}C$ than at 27$^{\circ}C$. And disease suppression and plant growth promotion in green house were also superior at low temperature condition. Seed treatment of M45 or soil treatment of MC07 brought successful control of damping-off and enhanced seedling growth of cucumber. The combined treatment of two isolates was more effective than any single treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 1991

The present study was conducted to obtain some basic information on the shoot formation from crown gall callus and the characteristics of teratoma shoot derived from crown gall induced by inoculation of Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58. Crown gall callus could be continuously cultured on the phyohormone free basic medium. The growth of crown gall callus was inhibited when BA were added to the cultural media. Shoot formation from crown gall callus fail to be initiated except teratoma shoot which induced on the phytohormone free medium after several subculture on rare occasions. Teratoma shoot could not form root and grow as normal shoot. Addition of BA to cultural media was not effective for shoot elongation, reduction in multiple shoot formation, but IBA was somewhat effective for shoot elongation of teratoma shoot, never for root formation.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.387-393
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• 2000

The process by which Agrobacterium tumefaciens genetically transforms plants involves a complex series of reactions communicated between the pathogen and the plants. To identify plant factors involved in agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation, a large number of T-DNA inserted Arabidopsis thaliana mutant lines were investigated for susceptibility to Agrobacterium infection by using an in vitro root inoculation assay. Based on the phenotype of tumorigenesis, twelve T-DNA inserted Arabidopsis mutants(rat) that were resistant to Agrobacterium transformation were found. Three mutants, rat1, rat3, and rat4 were characterized in detail. They showed low transient GUS activity and very low stable transformation efficiency compared to the wild-type plant. The resistance phenotype of rat1 and rats resulted from decreased attachment of Agrobacterium tumefaciens to inoculated root explants. They may be deficient in plant actors that are necessary for bacterial attachment to plant cells. The disrupted genes in rat1, rat3, and rat4 mutants were coding a arabinogalactan protein, a likely cell wall protein and a cellulose synthase-like protein, respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.549-557
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• 2016

Aphids are a large group of hemipteran pests that affect the physiology, growth, and development of plants by using piercing mouthparts to consume fluids from the host. Based an recent data, aphids modulate the microbiomes of plants and thereby affect the overall outcome of the biological interaction. However, in a few reports, aboveground aphids manipulate the metabolism of the host and facilitate infestations by rhizosphere bacteria (rhizobacteria). In this study, we evaluated whether aphids alter the plant resistance that is mediated by the bacterial community of the root system. The rhizobacteria were affected by aphid infestation of pepper, and a large population of gram-positive bacteria was detected. Notably, Paenibacillus spp. were the unique gram-positive bacteria to respond to changes induced by the aphids. Paenibacillus polymyxa E681 was used as a rhizobacterium model to assess the recruitment of bacteria to the rhizosphere by the phloem-sucking of aphids and to test the effect of P. polymyxa on the susceptibility of plants to aphids. The root exudates secreted from peppers infested with aphids increased the growth rate of P. polymyxa E681. The application of P. polymyxa E681 to pepper roots promoted the colonization of aphids within 2 days of inoculation. Collectively, our results suggest that aphid infestation modulated the root exudation, which led to the recruitment of rhizobacteria that manipulated the resistance of peppers to aphids. In this study, new information is provided on how the infestation of insects is facilitated through insect-derived modulation of plant resistance with the attraction of gram-positive rhizobacteria.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.181-183
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• 2003

Corky root symptoms caused by Pyrenochaeta lycopersici were observed on the roots and stem base of tomato plants in Korea. Symptoms on infected plants typically appeared as stunting and generally lacking vigor, and infected plants die back from the foliage tips after fruits have set. Brown lesions appearing with bands around the roots were characteristic symptoms of the disease. The lesions become swollen and cracked along the length of the root with corky appearance. Based on cultural and morphological characteristics, the fungus from the diseased plants was identified as Pyrenochaeta lycopersici. Pycnidia were solitary, globose to subglobose, brown to black, darker around the neck region, and measured 173-215 $\mu\textrm{m}$ in diameter with septate setae up to 102-132$\times$6.5 $\mu\textrm{m}$. Conidia were hyaline, unicellular, and 4.2-4.7$\times$l.5-2.0 $\mu\textrm{m}$ long. Optimum temperature for mycelial growth of the p. lycopersici isolates ranged from $20^{\circ}C$ to $25^{\circ}C$. Fifteen isolates off lycopersici were tested for pathogenicity to susceptible and tolerant cultivars of tomato plants by artificial inoculation. Three isolates of P. lycopersici induced typical corky root discoloration on susceptible tomato cultivars but not on tolerant tomato. This is the Erst report in Korea of tomato corky root disease caused by P. lycopersici.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.163-170
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• 2014

The potential ability of Button mushroom compost (BMC) to solubilize heavy metals was estimated with metal contaminated soils collected from abandoned mines of Boryeong area in South Korea. The bacterial strains in BMC were isolated for investigating the mobilization of metals in soil or plant by the strains and identified according to 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. When metal solubilization potential of BMC was assessed in a batch experiment, the BMC was found to be capable of solubilizing metals in the presence of metals (Co, Pb and Zn) and the results showed that inoculation of BMC could increase the concentrations of water soluble Co, Pb and Cd by 35, 25 and 45% respectively, than those of non-inoculated soils. BMC-assisted growth promotion and metal uptake in sunflower (Helianthus annuus) was also evaluated in a pot experiment. In comparison with non-inoculated seedlings, the inoculation led to increase the growth of H. annuus by 27, 25 and 28% respectively in Co, Pb and Zn contaminated soils. Moreover, enhanced accumulation of Co, Pb and Zn in the shoot and root systems was observed in inoculated plants, where metal translocation from root to the above-ground tissues was also found to be enhanced by the BMC. The apparent results suggested that the BMC could effectively be employed in enhancing phytoextraction of Co, Pb and Zn from contaminated soils.

• 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 Life Science
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.582-589
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• 2003

The effect of useful rhizobacterium added in bed soil on the early growth promotion of red pepper plug seedlings was investigated. Total 540 colonies of rhizobacteria from 385 samples of eggplant family roots were isolated. Among these, 5 isolates were selected for antifungal activity against pathogenic fungi such as Alternaria solani, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporium, Phytophthora capsici, and Sclerotia sclerotiorum. Of all the isolates, MJ-3 having the most pronounced growth-promoting ability for red pepper was finally selected and identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens through characterization of biochemical and bacteriological aspects and 16S rDNA sequence. The plant height, stem diameter, root length and fresh weight of red pepper plants which were grown with inoculation of B. amyloliquefaciens MJ-3 were higher than those without inoculation. Especially the root weight of the inoculated red pepper plant increased by 44.3%, the content of endogenous plant hormone (CA$_1$) being 0.556 ng/g (dry weight).