Byeong-Seok Ha, Seon-Cheol Ko, A-Reum Jo, Seung-Rack Kim, Sang-woo Kim, Hyeon-Su Ro*
Department of Microbiology, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Republic of Korea
Correspondence to rohyeon@gnu.ac.kr
Korean Journal of Mycology (Kor J Mycol) June 30, 2013, 41(2):67-73.
https://doi.org/10.4489/KJM.2013.41.2.67
Received: November 11, 2012; Revised: June 1, 2013; Accepted: June 7, 2013
Published: June 30, 2013.
(Schabereiter-Gurtner et al., 2004). ©]]$ -7-
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Microbial diversity of soil samples from ancient stone-lined tombs was investigated. The tombs, discovered at Eoryung Ocheon-Ri site, Korea, were estimated to be belonged to middle class people from an ancient country, Gaya, which existed till AD 559 at the southern part of Korea. Nine fungal stains and 70 bacterial strains were isolated from the twelve soil samples, which were collected from the tomb Nos. 5 and 6. Ribosomal DNA sequence analysis discovered 5 fungal and 22 bacterial strains belonged to 10 genus groups from the tomb No. 5 while 1 fungal and 28 bacterial strains belonged to 6 genus from the tomb No. 6. The higher microbial diversity suggests that the tomb No. 5 was constructed warmer season than the tomb No. 6. Moreover, the discovery of Staphylococcus warneri, which is found as part of the skin flora on human and animals, and Bacillus aquimaris, which is a marine bacterium and can be discovered from tidal flat, from the surface of large dagger suggests that the ancient people may use meat and seafood at the burial ceremony.
Ancient tomb, Burial accessories, Gaya, Microbial diversity, Phylogenetic analysis