• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.299-305
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• 2006

Aromatic L-amino acid transaminase is an enzyme that is able to transfer the amino group from L-glutamate to unnatural aromatic ${\alpha}-keto$ acids to generate ${\alpha}-ketoglutarate$ and unnatural aromatic L-amino acids, respectively. Enrichment culture was used to isolate thermophilic Bacillus sp. T30 expressing this enzyme for use in the synthesis of unnatural L-amino acids. The asymmetric syntheses of L-homophenylalanine and L-phenylglycine resulted in conversion yields of >95% and >93% from 150 mM 2-oxo-4-phenylbutyrate and phenylglyoxylate, respectively, using L-glutamate as an amino donor at $60^{\circ}C$. Synthesized L-homophenylalanine and L-phenylglycine were optically pure (>99% enantiomeric excess) and continuously pre-cipitated in the reaction solution due to their low solubility at the given reaction pH. While the solubility of the ${\alpha}-keto$ acid substrates is dependent on temperature, the solubility of the unnatural L-amino acid products is dependent on the reaction pH. As the solubility difference between substrate and product at the given reaction pH is therefore larger at higher temperature, the thermophilic transaminase was successfully used to shift the reaction equilibrium toward rapid product formation.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.232-236
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• 2012

Comparative liquid chromatographic enantiomer separation of ${\alpha}$-amino acids, their esters and primary amino compounds was performed using two chiral stationary phases (CSPs) prepared by covalently bonding (+)-(18-crown-6)-2,3,11,12-tetracarboxylic acid (18-C-6-TA) of the same chiral selector. In general, the separation factors and resolution factors for these analytes on CSP 1 were greater than on CSP 2, while these capacity factors on CSP 2 were quite greater than on CSP 1. Except for leucine methyl ester and phenylalanine methyl ester, the elution orders of all analytes including ${\alpha}$-amino ${\alpha}$-alkyl acids and phenylglycine alkyl esters on CSP 1 are identical to those on CSP 2. This study showed that different connecting structures for these two CSPs might influence their ability to resolve the analytes depending on their structures related to the chiral recognition mechanism.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 1980

Ampliciline was synthesized from 6-amino-pencillanic acid (6-APA) and D-.alpha. phenylglycine methyl ester by using amplicilin synthesizing enzyme from Peudomonas melanogenum (IAM 1655). The whole cell enzyme was immobilized by entrapping it in the polyacrylamide gel lattices. The polymer used in the enzyme entrapment was made from 150 mg per ml of acrylamide monomer and 8 mg per ml of N, N'-methylenebisacrylamide. About 200 mg/whole cell enzyme was mixed in the polymer for entrapment. The maximal activity retention after immobilization was 56%. The optimal pH values for the whole cell enzyme and the immobilized whole cell enzyme were 6.0 and 5.9, respectively. The optimal temperature for the enzyme activity were the same for both type of preparations. The enzyme stabilities against pH and heat increased for immobilized whole cell enzyme. Immobilized cell was more stable especially in the acidic condition while both type were found to be very suceptible to thermal inactivation at a temperature above 4.deg.C. The kinetic constants obtained from Lineweaver-Burk plot based on two substate reaction mechanism showed somewhat higher value for immobilized whole cell enzyme as compared to the whole cell enzyme : the Km value for 6-APA were 7.0 mM and 12.5 mM while Km values for phenylglycine methyl ester were 4.5 mM and 8.2 mM, respectively. Using the immobilized whole cell enzyme packed in a column reactor, the productivity of ampiciline was studied by varying the flow rate of substrate solution. At the space velocity, SV, 0.14 hr$^{-1}$ the conversion was 45%. Operational stability found in terms of half life was 30 hr at SV = 0.2 hr.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.559-564
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• 1995

Twenty microbial strains producing the acylase were isolated from soil by using Micrococcus luteus ATCC 9341 as an indicator strain, using either D-($\alpha $)-phenylglycine methylester and 7-aminocephalosporanic acid (7-ACA) or glutaric acid dimethylester and 7-ACA as substrates. Among the isolates, only one strain was turned out to be the 7-ACA producer from either cephalosporin C or glutaryl 7-ACA as the substrates by using the overlay of 7-ACA sensitive strain (SS5). 7-ACA produced from cephalosporin C by an isolate (APS20) was detected by high performance liquid chromatography. The isolated strain (APS20) was identified to Bacillus macerans on the basis of cellular fatty acid profile by gas chromatography. Bacillus macerans APS20 had no $\beta $-lacta-mase activity on cephalosporin C, and that is very important for the enzymatic production process of 7-ACA. However, this strain was resistant up to 100 $\mu $g/ml of cephalosporin C.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.43-49
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• 2008

Flavonoids have been shown to affect calcium signaling in neurons. However, there are no reports on the effect of apigenin on glutamate-induced calcium signaling in neurons. We investigated whether apigenin affects glutamate-induced increase of free intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ concentration ($[Ca^{2+}]_i$) in cultured rat hippocampal neurons, using fura-2-based digital calcium imaging and microfluorimetry. The hippocampal neurons were used between 10 and 13 days in culture from embryonic day 18 rats. Pretreatment of the cells with apigenin ($1{\mu}M$ to $100{\mu}M$) for 5 min inhibited glutamate ($100{\mu}M$, 1 min) induced $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ increase, concentration-dependently. Pretreatment with apigenin ($30{\mu}M$) for 5 min significantly decreased the $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ responses induced by two ionotropic glutamate receptor agonists, alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic (AMPA, $10{\mu}M$, 1 min) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA, $100{\mu}M$, 1 min), and significantly inhibited the AMPA-induced peak currents. Treatment with apigenin also significantly inhibited the $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ response induced by 50 mM KCl solution, decreased the $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ responses induced by the metabotropic glutamate receptor agonist, (S)-3,5-dihydroxy-phenylglycine (DHPG, 100 $[Ca^{2+}]_i$, 90 s), and inhibited the caffeine (10 mM, 2 min)-induced $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ responses. Furthermore, treatment with apigenin ($30{\mu}M$) significantly inhibited the amplitude and frequency of 0.1 mM $[Mg^{2+}]_o$-induced $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ spikes. These data together suggest that apigenin inhibits glutamate-induced calcium signaling in cultured rat hippocampal neurons.