• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.99-108
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• 2023

Several challenges arise in DNA extraction and gene amplification for airborne fungal metagenome analysis from a particulate matter (PM) samples. In this study, various conditions were tested to optimize the DNA extraction method from PM samples and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) conditions with primer set and annealing temperature. As a result of comparative evaluation of DNA extraction under various conditions, chemical cell lysis using buffer and proteinase K for 20 minutes and bead beating treatment were followed by using a commercial DNA extraction kit to efficiently extract DNA from the PM filter samples. To optimize the PCR conditions, PCR was performed using 10 primer sets for amplifying the ITS2 gene region. The concentration of the PCR amplicon was relatively high when the annealing temperature was 58℃ with the ITS3tagmix3/ITS4 primer set. Even under these conditions, when the concentration of the PCR product was low, nested PCR was performed using the primary PCR amplicon as the template DNA to amplify the ITS2 gene at a satisfactory concentration. Using the methods optimized in this study, DNA extraction and PCR were performed on 15 filter samples that collected PM2.5 in Seoul, and the ITS2 gene was successfully amplified in all samples. The optimized methods can be used for research on analyzing and interpreting the fungal metagenome of atmospheric PM samples.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.788-797
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• 2001

The usefulness of three PCR methods were evaluated for the epidemiological typing of Staphylococcus aureus: an enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR (ERIC-PCR), repetitive extragenic palindromic element PCR (REP-PCR), and 16S-23S intergenic spacer PCR (ITS-PCR). The analysis was performed using a collection of S. aureus strains comprised of 6 reference and 79 isolates from patients with various diseases. Among the 85 S. aureus strains tested, 6 references and 6 isolates were found to be susceptible to methicillin, whereas the remaining 73 isolates were resistant to it. PCR methods are of special concern, as conventional phenotypic methods are unable to clearly distinguish among methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains. The ability of the techniques to detect different unrelated types was found to be as follows: ERIC-PCR, 19 types; REP-PCR, 36 types; and ITS-PCR, 14 types. On the basis of combining the ERIC, REP, and ITS fingerprints, the 85 S. aureus strains were grouped into 56 genetic types (designated G1 to G56). The diversities for the 85 S. aureus strains, calculated according to Simpson\`s index, were 0.88 for an ERIC-PCR, 0.93 for a REP-PCR, and 0.48 for an ITS-PCR, and the diversity increased up to 0.97 when an ERIC-PCR and REP-PCR were combined. The above discrimination indices imply that the genetic heterogeneity of S. aureus strains is high. Accordingly, this study demonstrates that DNA sequences from highly conserved repeats of a genome, particularly a combination of ERIC sequences and REP elements, are a convenient and accurate tool for the subspecies-specific discrimination and epidemiologic tracking of S. aureus.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 2003

Cylindrocarpon destructans is the major pathogen inducing the root rot disease in ginseng. Up to now, there is no reliable and convenient method to analyze the spore density or population of this pathogen in ginseng-growing soil or any contaminated farmlands. Therefore, it will be very valuable to develop a new and reliable method in detecting the spore of this pathogen. In this study, a molecular biological technique using two step nested PCR method, was developed. Two universal ITS primers, ITS5F and ITS4R were used in the first round of PCR to amplify a fragment of ITS region from the genomic DNA of C. destructans. The specific prmers Nest 1 and Nest 2 were designed and used in the second round of PCR to amplify a inner fragment from the first round PCR product of C. destructans. C. destructans spore, only soil samples from the diseased ginseng farm produced the positive bands, suggesting its usefulness in detecting the C. destructans spores in soil samples. Thus it is recommended to first extract the whole genomic DNA from soil samples and use it for the PCR reaction, thereby eliminating the inhibitory activity of soil components.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.40-45
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• 2010

The application of PCR analysis on the herbal medicine Moutan Cortex (Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews) was evaluated by the comparison of the genetic relationship based on the DNA sequence with Paeoniae Radix (Paeonia lactiflora Pallas) following development of specific primers. Moutan Cortex and Paeoniae Radix were distinguished through the PCR analysis based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS-PCR) from nuclear ribosomal DNA region. The 294 bp PCR products both of Moutan Cortex and Paeoniae Radix was amplified by MIF1 and MIR1. And a Moutan Cortex specific 225 bp PCR amplification product was amplified by MIF2 and MIR1 primers. The 225 bp sequence could be successfully amplified from Mortan Cortex of dried herbal preparations. PCR analysis based on ITS (ITS-PCR) may be an efficient tool for the discrimination of Moutan Cortex.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.96 no.4
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• pp.425-431
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• 2007

To investigate genetic diversity and PCR detection of Rhizina undulata, PCR detection and sequence analysis of rDNA ITS region of R. undulata in soil were analyzed and developed. The length of partial 18S rDNA from four R. undulata isolates were 1,375 nt. The sequence similarity of R. undulata isolates was 100%. The rDNA ITS regions of R. undulata isolates were 585 nt long. Nucleotide sequencing of the ITS regions showed that PDK-1, PTT-1 and PDJ-9 isolates had 100% sequence identity. But, PDS-5 isolate differed from the three isolates by two nucleotide substitution. R. undulata-specific primers designed by the sequence of ITS region were used in PCR detection of R. undulata. PCR products about 525 bp size, which is specific to R. undulata, were amplified from total DNAs of R. undulata isolates. To assay the sensitivity of PCR detection by R. undulata ITS-specific primer, purely cultured mycelial suspension of R. undulata was serially diluted and mixed with 100g of sterile sandy loam soil, respectively. And then, PCR products of total DNAs extracted from each mycelium-soil mixtures were analysed. The PCR protocol could detected up to 1ng mycelium of R. undulata within 100g of soil.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.157-160
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• 2003

To estimate genetic relationships within the genus Rhizopus, genetic variations in 20 strains were investigated by DGGE and PCR-RFLP of rDNA ITS region (ITSI, ITS2,5.8S). The size of the amplified products showed the interspecific polymorphisms, 650 bp,700 bp, and 900 bp. The DGGE approach allowed the separation of PCR amplicons of the same length according to their sequence variations. When the rDNA ITS region was digested with six restriction enzymes, 20 strains were classified into five RFLP haplotypes. The range of similarity between the 20 strains by PCR-RFLP was 42.3-100%. Based on the results of DGGE aud PCR-RFLP, the 20 strains were divided into four groups, R. oryzae, R. stolonifer, R. microsporus and R. homothallicus. Further study of R. homothallicus is required.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.259-266
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• 2019

Emulsion polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is performed on compartmentalized DNA, allowing a large number of PCR reactions to be carried out in parallel. Emulsion PCR has unique advantages in DNA amplification. It can be applied in many molecular biological assays, especially those requiring highly sensitive and specific DNA amplification. This review discusses the principle of emulsion PCR and its applications in biotechnology. Related technologies are also discussed.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.99-103
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• 2004

The aim of the present study was to develop a sensitive and specific assay for the diagnosis of alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1) which is a cause agent of malignant catarrhal fever in ruminants. A1HV-1 is a gamma herpesvirus, which is frequent latent, and it is often difficult to detect its antigens or specific nucleic acids because of its low genomic copies in the infected tissues. In this study, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-dot blot hybridization (DBH) assay for detecting AlHV-1 DNA was developed and evaluated for its sensitivity and specificity as comparison with PCR and DBH alone. The developed PCR-DBH was more sensitive than PCR or DBH alone and also very specific. The results showed that the sensitivity of PCR-DBH were higher and stronger than those of PCR and DBH alone. This PCR-DBH assay can be applied efficiently to confirm the presence of AlHV-1 virus on clinical samples and to differentiate specifically between AlHV-1 infection and other viral infections.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.119-129
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• 2011

Phylogenetic studies were conducted to evaluate the taxonomic relationships among 27 taxa, including 2 outgroups of Korean Campanulaceae, using PCR-RFLP analysis and ITS sequences. In the PCR-RFLP analysis, 15 restriction endonucleases produced 244 restriction sites and size variations from the chloroplast DNA, and 59 restriction sites (24%) showed polymorphism. The length of the ITS regions ranged from 588 bp to 797 bp. The sequence divergence including the outgroups is 0-39.36%. Phylogenetic analyses based on PCR-RFLP and ITS data suggest that Campanulaceae is monophyletic; Codonopsis and Platycodon forms an independent clade; the Peracarpa and Asyneuma clade is a sister to the Adenophora-Hanabusaya clade; Campanula is monophyletic; and Wahlenbergia basally branches within the ITS tree, whereas they are placed between Campanula and the Codonopsis-Platycodon clade in the PCR-RFLP tree; Hanabusaya is placed within the Adenophora clade; and Adenophora is paraphyletic and shows discordance to the infrageneric classifications based on morphological data. The present results show two data sets, largely congruent at the generic level, but their phylogenetic positions, in particular the Wahlenbergia and Hanabusaya and the infrageneric classifications in Adenophora, show some incongruence.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.145-153
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• 2010

Prevalence of a protozoan parasite Perkinsus olseni in Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum was surveyed from July to December 2009 on the west and south coast of Korea. P. olseni infection was diagnosed using two primer sets, P.olseni NTS Forward/P.olseni NTS Reverse set and PolsITS-140F/PolsITS-600R set in polymerase chain reaction(PCR). The results using PolsITS-140F and PolsITS-600R primer set was retained up to 60% at all stations from July to December, except for Padori. Especially, Goheung showed 100% prevalence from October to December. The results about comparison of the 4 station's DNA sequences which were analyzed from PCR products(457bp) using PolsITS-140F and PolsITS-600R primer set, there were only 2base differences at Sunjedo.