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The aim of this study was to determine the in vitro anti-inflammatory effect of hot water extract from Cordyceps militaris fruiting bodies (CMWE) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated nitric oxide (NO) production, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) release in RAW 264.7 cells. The treatment of macrophages with various concentrations of hot CMWE significantly reduced LPS-induced production as well as NO, TNF-α and IL-6 secretion in a concentration-dependent manner. These results suggest that CMWE have potent inhibitory effects on the production of these inflammatory mediators.

Although Fursarium oxysporum causes diseases in economically important plant hosts, identification of F. oxysporum formae speciales has been difficult due to confusing phenotypic classification systems. To resolve these complexity, we evaluated genetic relationship of nine formae speciales of F. oxysporum with random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), and translation elongation factor-1 alpha (EF-1α) gene. In addition, the correlation between mycotoxin content of fusaric acid and isolates based on molecular marker data was evaluated using the modified Mantel's test. According to these result, these fusaric acid-producing strains could not identify clearly, and independent of geographic locations and host specificities. However, in the identification of F. oxysporum formae speciales, especially, AFLP analysis showed a higher discriminatory power than that of a the RAPD and EF-1α analyses, all three techniques were able to detect genetic variability among F. oxysporum formae speciales in this study.

Sikhae is a Korean traditional beverage of saccharified rice. Its factory waste (SFW) is usually thrown away instead of being used. We developed a cheap substrate of SFW for use in liquid spawn tha...

The nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the ribosomal DNA including the 5.8S ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) have been determined for 11 species in order to analyze t...

Genus Phellinus taxonomically belongs to Aphyllophorales and some species of this genus have been used as a medicinal ingredients and Indian folk medicines. Especially, P. linteus and morphological-related species are well-known medicinal fungi that have various biological activities such as humoral and cell-mediated, anti-mutagenic, and anti-cancer activities. However, little is known about the rapid detection for complex Phellinus species. Therefore, this study was carried out to develop specific primers for the rapid detection of P. linteus and other related species. Designing the species-specific primers was done based on internal transcribed spacer sequence data. Each primer set detected specifically P. linteus (PL2/PL5R) and P. baumii (PB1/PB4R). These primer sets could be useful for the rapid detection of specific-species among unidentified Phellinus species. Moreover, restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the ITS region with HaeIII was also useful for clarifying the relationship between each 5 Phellinus species.

Analysis of phylogenetic relationship was performed among Phellinus species based on 18S ribosomal subunit sequence data. Twenty-five strains of 19 Phellinus species including P. linteus were examined in this study. Regions of 18S ribosomal subunit were very conserved, but some variable regions between Phellinus species were observed. The species-specific detection primers, modified by 2 or 3 nucleotides in sense primer were designed based on 18S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence data. The 210 bp PCR bands were detected with annealing temperature 48 o C. The 18S 2F-18S 4R detection primer set distinguished P. linteus from various Phellinus species but some species like P. baumii , P. weirianius , P. rhabarberinus and P. pomaceus also had weak reactivity on this primer set. The 18S 3F-18S 4R primer set distinguished only P. linteus from various Phellinus species, although sensitivity with this primer set was lower than that of 18S 2F-18 4R primer set. These primer sets would be useful for the detection of only P. linteus among unknown Phellinus species rapidly.

oC to 55 o C. The length of PCR products (P. linteus and P. baumii) using designed combinative primer sets of PL1F, PL2R, PB1F, PB2R, ITS5F and ITS4R, were from 520 bp to 730 bp. Fifteen strains of Phellinus species including P. linteus, P. baumii , P. weirianus, P. johnsonianus, P. rhabarberinus, P. pini , P. gilvus, P. igniarius, P. nigricans and P. laevigatus were examined in this study. Five strains, including two isolated strains of P. linteus (MPNU 7001 and MPNU 7002), and two isolated strains of P. baumii (MPNU 7004 and MPNU 7005) were shown to have about 520 bp (PL1F-PL2R), 700 bp (ITS5F-PL2R) and 600 bp (PB1F-ITS4R) -sized PCR single bands respectively. This molecular genetic technique provided a useful method for rapid detection and identification of P. linteus and P. baumii.

Species of Phellinus were known to harmful fungi causing white pocket rot and severe plant disease such as canker or heartrot in living trees in the West, but some species have been used to traditional medicines in the Orient for a long time. In this study the partial D1-D2 nucleotide sequences of 28S ribosomal DNA from 13 Phellinus strains were determined and compared with the sequences of 21 strains obtained from GenBank database. According to the neighbor-joining (NJ) method comparing the sequence data the phylogenetic tree was constructed. The phylogenetic tree displayed the presence of four groups. Group I includes P. ferreus , P. gilvus and P. johnsonianus, Group II contains P. laevigatus, P. conchatus and P. tremulae, Group III possesses P. linteus, P. weirianus, P. baumii , P. rhabarbarinus and P. igniarius, and Group IV comprises P. pini, P. chrysoloma. P. linteus and P. baumii, which were used mainly in traditional medicine, belong to the same group, but exactly speaking both were split into two different subgroups. To detect P. linteus only, we developed the PCR primer, D12HR. The primer showed the specific amplification of P. linteus, which is permitted to medicinal mushroom in the East. The results make a potential to be incorporated in a PCR identification system that could be used for the rapid identification of this species from its related species, P. linteus especially.