Nonactin, as a radical-producing antibiotic, was isolated from the cultural broth of the strain JM-4151. This strain was identified as Streptomyces viridochromogenes and designated S. viridochromogenes JM-4151. The antibacterial activity of nonactin against Bacillus subtilis was antagonized by the activity opf quercetin, an oxygen radical scavenger. This result suggests that oxygen radical formation might be the cause for the antibacterial activity of nonactin.

We isolated a sphingonyelinase (SMase) inhibitor, which would be a potential reagent to regulate cell proliferation, oncogenesis, and inflammation, from a strain of Streptomyces sp.. In this paper, we report the optimal conditions for the production of SMase inhibitor, designed as sphinin, from Streptomyces sp. F50970. The optimal carbon and nitrogen source were 1% soluble starch and 0.05%-0.15% trypton. Most of monosaccharides and high concentration of soluble starch above 1.0% caused falling of pH and sphinin production. Zn2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Mn2+, and Co2+inhibited cell growth and the production of sphinin. Inorganic phosphate promoted the sphinin production. Optimal initial pH for the production of sphinin was 7.5-8.0. Addition of CaCO3 to the medium resulted in an increase of inhibitor production. Based on these results, we designed a fermentation medium for the production of a SMase inhibitor, sphinin, from Streptomyces sp. F50970.

Pseudomonas iodinum IFO 3558 adenosine deaminase(ADA) gene was cloned by the polymerase chain reaction and deduced the amino acid sequence of the enzyme. DNA sequence homology of Pseudomonas iodinum IFO 3558 ADA gene was compared to those of E. coli, human and mouse ADA genes. Unambiguous sequence from both strands of pM21 was obtained for the region believed to encode ADA. The sequence included a 804-nucleotide open reading frame, bounded on one end by sense primer and on the other end by two antisense primer. This open reading frame encodes a protein of 268 amino acids having a molecular weight of 29,448. The deduced amino acid sequence shows considerable similarity to those of E. coli, mouse and human ADA. Pseudomonas iodinum IFO 3558 nucleotide sequence shows 98.5% homology with that of the E. coli ADA sequence and 51.7% homology with that of the mouse ADA sequence and 52.5% homology with that of the human ADA sequence. The ADA protein sequence of Pseudomonas iodinum IFO 3558 shows 96.9% homology with that of the E. coli and 40.7% homology with that of the mouse and 41.8% homology with that of the human. The distance between two of the conserved elements, TVHAGE and SL(1)NTDDP has veen exactly conserved at 76 amino acids for all four ADAs. Two of the four conserved sequence elements shared among the four ADAs are also present in the yeast, rat, human (M), and Human(L) AMP deaminase. The SLSTDDP sequence differs only in the conservative substitution of a serine for an asparagine. A conserved cysteine with conserved spacing between these two regions is also found. Thus, sequence analysis of four ADAs and four AMP deaminases revealed the presence of a highly conserved sequence motif, SLN(S)TDDP, a conserved dipeptide, HA, and a conserved cysteine residue.

Tempting to further understand the molecular mechanism of pharmacological action of ethanol, we investigated the acute effects of ethanol on the GABA-activated current (IGABA) of the cultured Sprague-Dawley rat hippocampal neurons in primary culture using the whole-cell patch-clamp technique. Patch-clamp recordings revealed that ethanol potentiated the Cl- current in a concentration-dependent manner(1-300mM) in the majority of the cell studied. This study demonstrates that ethanol can potentiate IGABA in mammalian central neurons.

Bisphenol-A and related conpounds recently have been reported to be estrogenic since it has been demonstrared in laboratory stuides that they mimic the effects of estrogen. Bisphenol-A refered to as "environmental estrogen" are suspected of causing health effect in living body through disruption of endocdrine system. In this review, the occurrence, environmental fate, and biological effects of bisphenol-A are presented. To provide understanding to the potential for endocrine disruption due to environmental estrogen, the physiology of bisphenol-A mammalian and fish is also reviewed. For empty can, the migrationof bisphenol-A form food conducted epoxy coating was effected by the test conditions and it increased in order to water and 4% acetic acid. Extracts from foods packed in lacquer coated can also showed estrogenic activity. Bisphenol-A was found as a contaminant not only in the liquid food cans, but also in water autoclave in can. The used of coating certain food-packaging material may require closer scrutiny to determine when bisphenol-A contribute to advert exposure of consumers to estrogenic xenobiotics. Human breast cancer MCF cell added bisphenol-A cultivated to study the ability of bisphenol-A to elicit of bisphenol-A estrogenic bioresponse in this system. Bisphenol-A, similar to estradiol, induced PR activation in transiently transfected anterior and posterior pituitary cells.

The gastrointestinal tract of three Percida, Lateolabrax japonicus, Epinephelus septemfasciatus and Mugil cephalus, was investigated immunocytochemically for the occurrence of somatostatin-. seotonin-, gastrin-, pancreatic polypeptide(PP)-, cholecystokinin-8(CCK-8)- and glucagon-immunoreactive cells. In Lateolabrax japonicus and Epinephelus septemfasciatus, five endorcrine cell types, such as somatostatin-, serotonin-, gastrin-, PP- and CCk-8-immunoreactive cells were demonstrated. In Mugil cephalus, however, six endocrine cell types, such as somatostatin-, serotnin-gastrin-, PP-, CCK-8- and glucagon-immunoreactive cells were detected. Somatostatin- and serotonin-immunoreactive cells were detected in the gastric mucosa of all species. Glucagon-immunoreactive cells were found only in the gastric mucoas of Mugil cephalus. In the pyloric caeca, PP-and CCK-8-immnuoreactive cells fo all species. gastrin-immunoreactive cells of Epinephelus septemfasciatus and Mugil cephalus, and serotonin-immunoreactive cells of Epinephelus septemfasciatus were demonstrated. In the intestinal mucosa of all species, gastrin-, PP- and CCK-8-immunoreactive cells were detected, and in the intestinal mucosa of Epinephelus septemfasciatus serotonin-immunoreactive cells were also detected. The frequency of these immunoreactive cells differs from each portion of the gastrointestinal tract of all species.

The postsynaptic density (PSD) is a cytoskeletal specialization that is involved in the regulation of synaptic signal transduction. Mainly due to the hydrophobic nature of the PSD proteins, characterization of this intriguing structure at the molecular level has been very intractable until early 1990s. However, recent development in protein microchemistry and molecular cloning techniques allowed identification and characterization of the PSD proteins. As expected, cytoskeletal proteins constitute major components of the PSD. Other major PSD proteins have been identified by protein sequencing, and their genes were used to fish out associating proteins by yeast two-hybrid system expanding our knowledge on the molecular structure of the PSD significantly. In this review, I summarize proteins that are so far identified focusing on the glutamatergic synapses.

In the wastewater treatment experiment by anaerobic-aerobic packed bed unit, it was found that the high and stable removal efficiency of nitrogen could be obtained. The extent of nitrogen removal gradually decreased with the rise of recycle ratio and DO concentration. On the other hand, the extent of phosphorus increased with the increase of DO concentration. COD showed high removal efficiency over the entire range tested. The simulation of T-N behavior was carried out satisfactorily by using the kinetic equations for biofilm and the reactor model which considered the packed bed as a plug flow reactor.

The ionization of tyrosine residue is known to be involved in the stabilization of transition-state in catalysis of astacin based upon the astacin-transition state analog structure. Two tyrosine residues, Tyr-216 and Tyr-219, are conserved in all MMPs related with astacin family, We replaced Tyr-216 and Tyr-219 into phenylalanine, respectively and the zinc binding properties, kinetic parameters, and pH dependence of each mutant are determined in order to examine the role of tyrosine residue in matrilysin catalysis. Both mutants contain two zinc atoms per mol of enzyme, indicating that either tyrosime does not affect the zinc binding property of the enzyme. Y216F and Y219F mutants are highly active and the kcat/Km values are only decreased 1.1-1.5-fold compared to the wild-type enzyme. The decrease in the activity of the mutants is essentially due to the increase in Km value. The pH dependencies of the kcat/Km values for both mutants are similar to the corresponding dependencies obtained with the wild type enzyme. The pKa values at the alkaline side of both mutants are not changed. These kinetic and pH dependence results indicate that the ionization of active site tyrosine residue of matrilysin is not reflected in the kinetics of peptide hydrolysin as catalyzed by astacin.

Reactions of 2,6-Lutidine with active methyl group anilines in the presence of sulfur gave the desired thioamides 1. Reactions of synthesized thioamides 1 with sulfur and SiO2 or SeO2 gave the corresponding amide 2. We now report conversion of thioamide to amide by using oxidzing inorganic reagant

The Raf, a cytoplasmic serine/thereonine protein kinase, acts as an important mediator of signals involving cell proliferation, differentiation and development. Multiple regulatory elements should participate in the expression of D-raf, Drosophila homolog of human c-raf-1. In order to search regulatory factors involved in the D-raf promoter activation, we accomplished the yeast one-hybrid screening using D-raf promoter region from bp-330 to -309 with respect to the transcription initiation site as bait. After screening, sixteen independent positive clones of ${\beta}$-galactosidase activties were identified and sequenced. Two clones having 94-98% identity with daughterless and one clone having 93% identity with escargot by Blast search among these clones were screened.

This study was designed to develope the antioxidative activity on oxidation of human low density lipoprotein(LDL) from marine microbials. Bacillus KS-96 producign antioxidant have been isolated and identified from seawater, Bacillus sp. KS-96. The optimal medium pH was 7.0 and incubation temperature was 30$^{\circ}C$. The antiosidant of potential substance produced extracellularly in the culture broth by Bacillus sp. KS-96 was obtained by elution of silica gel culumn chromatography with hexane, ethylacetate and water. The ethylacetate faction are shown at highest level of antioxidant activity using thiocyanate method among them. By IR, NMR, and GC/MS, antioxidant purified from ehtylacetate fraction was identified and named as 2,6-dimethoxyphenol. 2,6-dimethoxyphenol inhibited the metal mediated oxidation of human LDL at concentration of 50∼100 ${\mu}$g/mL in the presence of 5uM CuSO4 with macrophage or J774 cells.

To overexpress E. coli ADA in host strain E. coli M15, the expression plasmid pQEADD was constructed. To analyze the expression characteristics of ADA, a time course of the expression was first examined. The protein was not detected in no inducted in no induction samples. After the addition of IPTG, a band corresponding to the expected size of ADA was appeared. Its molecular weight was about 36,000 dalton. Maximum expression level was revealed when the cell cultured for 3∼4hrs after induction. This result indicated that the efficient expression of add can be achieved by induction at early logarithmic phase. The effect of different IPTG concentration on the degree of ADA expression was investigated. The expression levels of add were not largely affected by IPTG concentration. Location of overexpression ADA was checked out. A protein band corresponding to the ADA was seen in only crude extract B(insoluble protein). This result suggests that ADA is in E. coli M15. The molecular weight of ADA estimated by SDS-PAGE was approximately 36,000 Da.

1. The analgesic effect of Haeuljowitang by acetic aced method was revealed significantly. 2. The anti-inflammatory effect of Haeuljowitang by yeast method was revealed significantly 3. The degree of occurrence of gastric ulcer in sample group insignificantly decreased compared with control group. 4. The plasma epinephrine contents of sample group significantly decreased compared with control group. 5. The plasma norepihrine contents of sample group significantly decreased compared with control group. 6. The plasma dopamine contents of sample group significantly decreased compared with control group. According to the above results, it is concluded that Heaujowitang has a anti-stress effect.

Using RT-PCR, a cDNA encoding tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) ACC oxidase has partially been cloned, sequenced and identified. The nucleotide suquence of the clone was in the coding region and shared about 80% of homology iwht the other ACC oxidase genes of tomato, and 70∼84% with those of other plants such as Oryza sativa, Nicotiana tabacum and Helianthus annuus. In the wounded tomato leaves, this nucleotide transcripts were accumulated rapidly and declined slowly thereafter. These results suggested that the predicted clone might be another member of tomato ACC oxidase gene family.

216 microorganisms which able to degrade wasted lubricant were isolated in the region of contaminated with wated lubricant such automobile repair shops, garages and gas stations in Taejon. Most activated strain among them is selected and used in this research. The microorganism in identified as Acinetobacter lwoffii 16C-1, which shows active growth and hydrocargon utilization withnormal alkane such as tetradecane, hexadecane and octadecane, and do not grow aromatic hydrocargons, cycloalkane, and branched alkane. In addition, A. lwoffii 16C-1 has resistance to heavy metals such as Ba, Li, Cr, and Mn more than 6.4mg/ml, and showed negligible tolerance against antibiotics. Effects of environmental conditions including concentration of wasted lubricnt, pH, NaCl concentration, nitrogen source and phosphate on microorganism growth and emulsification were studied. 2% of wasted lubricant, pH 7.0, 0-1% of NaCl, 0.2% of peptone, and 0.01% of K2HPO4 is turn out to be optimum condition. By the analysis of remaining oils, almost of hydrocarbons added to the media are removed by A. lwoffii 16C-1 at 30$^{\circ}C$ after 2 days of culture, which showed excellent oil degradation characteristics.

The effects of ethanol on 5-hydrosytryptamine(5-HT3) receptor-mediated ion current were evaluated in whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from NCB-20 neuroblastoma cells. The physiologic and pharmacologic properties of 5-HT-activated ion current in NCB-20 cells indicated that it was mediated by 5-HT3 receptors. Ethanol(25-100mM) potentiated 5-HT3 receptor-mediated current in a concentration-dependent manner.