Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs), important protein components of bee royal jelly (RJ) and exclusive nourishments for queen, exhibit various biological and pharmacological activities. RJ is one of the most studied bee products, but the crucial roles for MRJP2 as an antimicrobial and antioxidant agents remain largely unknown. Here we demonstrated the antimicrobial and antioxidant functions of the Asiatic honeybee (Apis cerna) MRJP2 (AcMRJP2). Recombinant AcMRJP2 of approximately 53 kDa was expressed in baculovirus-infected insect cells, and it exhibited antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and yeast via binding to microbial surfaces and inducing structural damage in microbial cell walls. AcMRJP2 protected mammalian and insect cells against oxidative damage through shielding of cell membranes. Interestingly, AcMRJP2 exhibited DNA protection activity and DPPH radical-scavenging activity. Altogether, our data demonstrated that AcMRJP2 functions as antimicrobial and antioxidant agents.

Honeybee (Apis mellifera) egg-yolk protein vitellogenin (Vg) plays roles in immunity, antioxidation, and life span beyond reproduction, but it also acts as an allergen Api m 12 in venom. Here we established antimicrobial and antioxidant roles of honeybee Vg in the body and venom. Using the cDNA encoding Vg identified from Asiatic honeybee (A. cerana) workers, recombinant A. cerana Vg (AcVg) protein of approximately 180 kDa was produced in baculovirus-infected insect cells. In A. cerana worker bees, AcVg was expressed in the fat body and venom gland and was present in the secreted venom. AcVg induced structural damage in microbial cell walls via binding to microbial surfaces and exhibited antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi. AcVg protected mammalian and insect cells against oxidative damage through direct shielding of cell membranes. Interestingly, AcVg exhibited DNA protection activity against reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, the transcript level of AcVg was upregulated in the fat body, but not in the venom gland, of worker bees with antimicrobial peptides and antioxidant enzymes in response to microbial infection and oxidative stress. Our data indicate that AcVg is involved in innate immunity upon infection and in a defense system against ROS, supporting a crucial role of honeybee Vg as an antimicrobial and antioxidant agent in the body and venom.

Exudative epidermitis (EE) is a generalized skin disease of pigs, mainly caused by Staphylococcus hyicus (S. hyicus). Antibiotic resistant S. hyicus leads to the failure of antimicrobial treatments. This necessitates proper identification of the strains in the field and determination of their antimicrobial susceptibility. This study was carried out to isolate Korean S. hyicus and determine its antimicrobial resistance. Isolate was sensitive to ceftiofur, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, gentamicin, neomycin, and tylosin, but remarkably resistant to amoxicillin, lincomycin, penicillin, streptomycin, and tetracycline. Our study contributes to the understanding of the characteristics and antimicrobial resistance of Korean S. hyicus, which in turn will provide an antimicrobial treatment strategy to control EE.

Onion vinegar, which has an undesirable flavor and taste formed through alcohol and acetic acid fermentation, possesses additives that can improve sensory quality. Thus, the objective of this study was to present an optimized blending ratio using response surface methods for an onion vinegar beverage by adding Omija extracts. This study was performed to formulate an Omija-onion vinegar beverage (OOVB) and investigate its antioxidant properties and antimicrobiological effects. The experimental design was conducted using an optimal mixture model of response surface methodology which generated eighteen experimental trials with overall acceptance as the responses. According to the statistical analyses, OOVB demonstrated a ratio containing onion vinegar, water, brown sugar, apple extracts and Omija extracts of 10, 72.3, 4.4, 12.2 and 1.1 (weight ratio), respectively. The OOVB revealed desirable nutrition values (phenolics compounds 19.3 mg/100 g, total flavonoids 3.1 mg/100 g, quercetin 1.9 mg/100). The OOVB displayed antibacterial effects in Gram negative Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Gram positive Staphylococcus aureus. The findings revealed that OOVB was 18% in DPPH radical inhibitionand 11% in superoxide dismutase-like activity thus, OOVB has nutritional value and good quality as well as potential biological activities for functional beverages.

The ability of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella strains to cause invasive disease can be attributed to various virulence genes. In this study, the virulence genes located in SPI-1, SPI-2, SPI-5, SPI-11 were found in all antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella isolates. This suggests that these genes play important roles in Salmonella invasion, growth, or survival in the host. The association between the presence of virulence genes and antimicrobial resistance was assessed using the Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and there is a positive association between the gatC, tcfA, hylE, spiA, pagC, msgA, invA, sipB, prgH, spaN, orgA, tolC, iroN, sitC, lpfC, and sopB genes, and resistance to CF, NA and S. This suggests that the association between antimicrobial agents and virulence genes has been shown to vary with the types of antibiotics that are commonly used in different countries. These different associations can be explained by the mechanisms underlying pathogenicity and the acquisition of resistance genes by Salmonella.

This study measured dyeing properties under different dyeing conditions and levels of antimicrobial activity when man-made fibers are dyed with gallnut, including rayon, tencel, tencel blended fabric, soybean fiber, and nylon non-mordanted. The dye up-take (K/S), color (L*a*b*), and color differences (△E) were measured with a colorimeter, and the number of bacteria present in the dyed fabrics were determined using Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia as strains. The results are as follows: First, the optimal dyeing conditions for man-made fibers dyed with gallnut are 60 minutes of dyeing time and a 80℃ dyeing temperature. Second, gallnut dye is most effective on soybean fiber and then, in descending order of effectiveness, on nylon, rayon, tencel, and tencel blended fabric. This means that dyeing properties of nitrogen containing fibers are excellent when using gallnut. Third, all man-made fibers are dyed brown with gallnut. This implies dyeing possibility of man-made fibers about gallnut dye, so development and supply of natural dyed goods of man-made fibers can be increased. Fourth, in all man-made fibers dyed with gallnut extract, both Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia show 99.9% reduction ratios of fungistasis, which indicate antimicrobial activity. Therefore, safe, functional, man-made materials can be developed to relieve symptoms from and treat patients with skin ailments.

We have analyzed the transcriptome of Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans using RNA sequencing and identified severalantimicrobial peptide candidates. Among the peptides, named scolopendrasins, were selected based on the physicochemicalproperties of antimicrobial peptides via an in silico analysis. As a result, we evaluated the antimicrobial activities ofscolopendrasins against Gram positive and negative bacteria including Candida albicans by radial diffusion assay and colonycount assay. We also investigated the cytotoxicity of scolopendrasins through hemolysis assay. We found that the actionof scolopendrasins involved binding to the surface of microorganisms via a specific interaction with lipopolysaccharides,lipoteichoic acid, and peptidoglycans, which are components of the bacterial membrane. These results will provide a basisfor developing therapeutic agents such as peptide antibiotics.

Although the grasshopper Oxya chinensis sinuosa has long been used as a food in Korea, there is little data on itsfunctional effects. Thus we prepared and analyzed total RNA from the whole body of adult Escherichia coli non-immunizedand immunized Oxya chinensis sinuosa strains. Using an Illumina Hiseq sequencer, we generated a total of 66,555 pooledtranscriptome and singletons with and without Escherichia coli immunization, respectively. Then, we performed in silicoanalysis of the Oxya chinensis sinuosa transcriptome, using bioinformatics tools for screening putative antimicrobial peptides(AMPs) and 38 AMPs were finally selected and tested their antimicrobial activity of Gram positive, Gram negative bacteriaand antifungal activity with radial diffusion assay. As a result, 5 out of 38 AMPs showed the highest antimicrobial activityand antifungal activity against microbes and it also evidenced with no hemolytic activity.

Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) are important protein components of bee royal jelly (RJ) and exhibit various biologicaland pharmacological activities. The antimicrobial activities of royalisins and the jelleines contained within MRJP 1 andMRJP 2 in RJ have been elucidated. However, the antimicrobial effects of other bee RJ MRJPs remain largely unknown.In this study, we demonstrated that the Asiatic honeybee (Apis cerana) MRJP 4 (AcMRJP4) exhibits antimicrobial activitiesagainst bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Recombinant AcMRJP4 was expressed as a 63-kDa protein in baculovirus-infected insectcells. However, some of the recombinant AcMRJP4 proteins were cleaved into two fragments (i.e., 48-kDa (AcMRJP4-48)and 15-kDa (AcMRJP4-15) proteins) by the proteolytic cleavage of the C-terminus of the recombinant AcMRJP4. Interestingly,AcMRJP4, AcMRJP4-48, and AcMRJP4-15 exhibited antimicrobial activities, with AcMRJP4-15 exhibiting the highestantimicrobial activity, followed by AcMRJP4. AcMRJP4-15, which is a hydrophilic peptide with 88 amino acid residuesthat contains a high content of Asn and positively charged amino acids, induced structural damage in the cell walls ofthe assayed bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Altogether, our data demonstrated that AcMRJP4 functions as an antimicrobial agent.

The culture filtrate of Lentinula edodes showed potent antimicrobial activity against the plant pathogenic bacteria and fungi. To purify antibacterial compound, the culture filtrate was subjected to Octadecyl-silica (ODS) column chromatography and was eluted with different concentrations from 5 to 100% methanol and each 50 μL aliquot of the methanol elutes did not show antimicrobial effect on the bacteria, but the water fraction that passed through the column maintained antibacterial activity on the bacteria. The pH of the passed fraction was 3.9, speculating the low pH can be caused by an organic acid. Qualitative analyses of organic acids from culture filtrate of L. edodes were carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC). Nine organic acids including oxalic acid, phytic acid, malonic acid, and fumaric acid were identified and oxalic acid was a dominant component in culture filtrate of L. edodes and it made up 50% from HPLC analysis data. Oxalic acid concentrations over 300mg/L exhibited antimicrobial activities on eight phytopathogenic bacteria and different fungi. The quantitative analysis by HPLC revealed that the content of oxalic acid was more highly detected in water extract from spent mushroom substrate than that of liquid culture.

The emergence of antimicrobial resistant Escherichia (E.) coli is a major problem in pig farms. To tackle this issue, in July 2011, the Korean government banned the use of antimicrobials for growth promotion of animals in farms. Moreover, E. coli encoding the Stx2e gene cause edema disease which results in high mortality and morbidity in pig farms. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among E. coli encoding the Stx2e gene isolated from weaned piglets with diarrhea before and after the ban on antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in Korea from 2007 to 2016. In this period, 479 E. coli isolates were obtained from weaned piglets with diarrhea, and of them, 144 E. coli isolates encoding the Stx2e gene were detected by polymerase chain reaction. The susceptibility of the E. coli isolates to antibiotics were tested using the standard Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. The most frequently observed resistances in isolates obtained from weaned piglets in the last 10 years were to tetracycline (92.4%) and chloramphenicol (88.9%). The prevalence of resistance to colistin (3.1% to 16.5%) and tetracycline (86.2% to 97.5%) was also observed to have increased over this period. Additionally, multi-drug resistance was also found to have increased (87.7% to 97.5%) after the ban on AGPs. These findings provide useful data for designing prevention and treatment strategies for postweaning diarrhea and edema disease, and can be used in future studies on antimicrobial resistance in Korea.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activities (FRAP, ABTS, and DPPH), and antibacterial properties of lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) extracts. Lotus leaves, stems, and seed pods were extracted with deionized water at 95℃, and with 70.5% ethanol at 85℃. The TPC ranged from 8.12 to 215.12 GAE mg/g. The ethanol extract of the seed pod had the highest TPC, and the TPC of the corresponding deionized water extract was 161.45 mg/g. FRAP values ranged from 104.03 to 3,546.39 TEAC μmol/g, ABTS radical cation scavenging activities ranged from 105.11 to 3,956.94 TEAC μmol/g, and DPPH radical scavenging activities ranged from 37.29 to 2,549.46 TEAC μmol/g. EC50 values ranged from 0.26 to 9.63 mg/mL, and 0.31 to 21.21 mg/mL for ABTS and DPPH, respectively. The ethanol and deionized water extracts of the seed pod showed higher TPC and stronger antioxidant properties (FRAP, ABTS, and DPPH) than those of characteristic of the leaf extracts. The ethanol and deionized water extracts of the seed pod showed antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa with inhibition zones of 9.0 to 14.0 mm, and the ethanol extract of the leaf showed antimicrobial activity against B. subtilis and S. aureus with inhibition zones of 9.0 and 10.0 mm, respectively. Thus, the lotus seed pod could be used to produce novel teas, and could be a potential source of therapeutic ingredients for food and medicine.