Japanese pine sawyer beetle (Monochamus alternatus) is an economically important pest in coniferous trees. Ophiostoma ips was isolated from the beetle and identified based on analysis of morphological properties and the β-tubulin gene sequence. The fungus easily produced perithecia with a long neck on malt extract agar and its ascospores were rectangular shaped. This is first report of Ophiostoma species associated with the pinewood nematode vector beetle in Korea.

Hantaanvirus (HTNV) is the prototype of the genus Hantavirus, which belongs to the family Bunyaviridae. Hantaviruses are carried and transmitted by rodents and are known to cause two serious disease syndromes in humans i.e., hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). HTNV is an enveloped virus that contains a tripartite genome consisting of three negative-sense RNA segments (L, M, S), and the S and M segment of HTNV, respectively, encode the viral nucleocapsid protein (NP) and envelope glycoproteins. Possible phosphorylation motifs of casein kinase II (CKII) and protein kinase C (PKC) were identified in HTNV NP through bioinformatics searches. Sucrose gradient SDS-PAGE analysis indicated that dephosphorylated HTNV NP migrated faster than non-dephosphorylated NP, suggesting that HTNV NP is phosphorylated in infected Vero E6 cells. Immunoblot anaylsis of HTNV particles with anti-phosphoserine antibody and anti-phosphothreonine antibody after immunoprecipitation showed that viral particles are readily phosphorylated at threonine residues. In vitro kinase assay further showed that HTNV NP is phosphorylated by CK II, but not by PKC. Full length or truncated HTNV NPs expressed in E. coli were phosphorylated in vitro by CKII suggesting that phosphorylation may occur in vivo at multiple sites. Site specific mutagenesis studies suggest that HTNV NP phosphorylation might occur at unknown sites excluding the site-directly mutagenized locations. Taken together, HTNV NP can be phosphorylated mainly at threonine residues in vivo by CK II treatment.

Fungi are the known sources of irritation associated with atopic diseases (e.g., asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and atopic eczema). To quantitatively estimate their presence in the indoor environment of atopic dermatitis-inflicted child patient's houses (ADCPHs), the high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters installed inside the air cleaners of three different ADCPHs were investigated for the presence of mold. The air cleaner HEPA filters obtained from the three different ADCPHs were coded as HEPA-A, -B, and -C, respectively, and tested for the presence of mold. The colony forming units (CFUs) corresponding to the HEPA-A, -B, and -C filters were estimated to be 6.51 × 102 ± 1.50 × 102 CFU/cm2, 8.72 × 102 ± 1.69 × 102 CFU/cm2, and 9.71 × 102 ± 1.35 × 102 CFU/cm2, respectively. Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Trichoderma, and other fungal groups were detected in the 2,494 isolates. The distribution of these fungal groups differed among the three filters. Cladosporium was the major fungal group in filters HEPA-A and -C, whereas Penicillium was the major fungal group in the filter HEPA-B. Nine fungal species, including some of the known allergenic species, were identified in these isolates. Cladosporium cladosporioides was the most common mold among all the three filters. This is the first report on the presence of fungi in the air cleaner HEPA filters from ADCPHs in Korea.

During an investigation of microorganisms and pests in plant culture media from imported anthurium pots, a fungal isolate (DUCC4002) was detected. Based on its morphological characters including colony shape on potato dextrose agar, the microstructures of spores observed by light and scanning electron microscopy and the results of phylogenetic analysis using an internal transcribed spacer rDNA sequence, the fungal isolate was identified as Myrothecium roridum. Pathogenicity testing on anthurium leaves revealed that the fungus could colonize and produce sporodochia on the inoculated leaves. This is the first report of M. roridum detected in imported plant culture medium in Korea.

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