• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.276-280
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• 2008

To elucidate the effects of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on molecular properties of ovalbumin, the molecular weight profile, secondary structure and tertiary structure of proteins were examined after irradiation by UV with 254 nm wavelength for 4, 8, 16 and 32 hrs, respectively. UV irradiation of protein solution caused the disruption on the native state of protein molecules. SDS-PAGE and gel permeation chromatography indicated that radiation caused initial fragmentation of polypeptide chains and as a result subsequent aggregation due to cross-linking of protein molecules. Circular dichroism (CD) study showed that UV irradiation caused the change on the secondary structure resulting in decrease of helical structure or compact denature on structure of protein depending on irradiation period. Fluorescence spectroscopy indicated that irradiation quenched the emission intensity excited at 280 nm. These results suggest that UV irradiation affect the molecular properties of ovalbumin and may have potential as a means to change the antigenicity of protein allergen.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2009

HP (2-20), a 19-residue peptide derived from the N-terminus of Helicobacter pylori Ribosomal Protein L1, has antimicrobial activity but is not cytotoxic to human erythrocytes. Previously, we have synthesized several analogue peptides to investigate the effects of substitutions on the structure and antimicrobial activity. Substitution of $Gln^{16}$ and $Asp^{18}$ with Trp (Anal 3) caused a dramatic increase in bacterial and fungal lytic activities. In this study, analogue peptides were synthesized to investigate the effects of substitution of Gin and Asp with Phe (Anal 6) or Tyr (Anal 7) in HP (2-20) on its structure and antimicrobial activity. Substitution of Gin and Asp with hydrophobic aromatic residues at position 16 and 18 of HP (2-20) caused increase in antibiotic activity without hemolytic effect. Substitution of Gin and Asp with Trp and Try increased antibiotic activity of HP (220) twice more compared to substitution with Phe. The tertiary structures of Anal 6 and Anal 7 in SDS micelles has been investigated using NMR spectroscopy. The structures revealed that substitutions of the aromatic residues at C-terminus resulted in longer and well defined alpha-helix and improved their antibacterial activities

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.624-631
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• 2005

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, continues to be one of the main diseases to mankind. It is urgent to discover novel drug targets for appropriate antimicrobial agents against this human pathogen. The shikimate pathway is onsidered as an attractive target for the discovery of novel antibiotics for its essentiality in bacteria and absence in mammalian cells. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis aroE-encoded shikimate dehydrogenase was cloned, expressed and purified. Sequence alignment analysis shows that shikimate dehydrogenase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis exhibit the pattern of G-X-(N/S)-V-(T/S)-X-PX-K, which is highly conserved within the shikimate dehydrogenase family. The recombinant shikimate dehydrogenase spectrum determined by CD spectroscopy showed that the percentages for $\alpha$-helix, $\beta$-sheet, $\beta$-turn, and random coil were 29.2%, 9.3%, 32.7%, and 28.8%, respectively. The enzymatic characterization demonstrates that it appears to be fully active at pH from 9.0 to 12, and temperature $63^{\circ}C$. The apparent Michaelis constant for shikimic acid and $NADP^+$ were calculated to be about $29.5\;{\mu}M$ and $63\;{\mu}M$. The recombinant shikimate dehydrogenase catalyzes the substrate in the presence of $NADP^+$ with an enzyme turnover number of $399\;s^{-1}$. Zymological studies suggest that the cloned shikimate dehydrogenase from M. tuberculosis has a pretty activity, and the work should help in the discovery of enzyme inhibitors and further of possible antimicrobial agents against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.412-418
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• 2007

Phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase (PHGPx) is an unique antioxidant enzyme that directly reduces lipid hydroperoxides in biomembranes. In the present work, the entire encoding region for Oryza sativa PHGPx was expressed in Escherichia coli M15, and the purified fusion protein showed a single band with 21.0 kD and pI = 8.5 on SDS- and IFE-PAGE, respectively. Judging from CD and fluorescence spectroscopy, this protein is considered to have a well-ordered structure with 12.2% $\alpha$-helix, 30.7%$\beta$-sheet, 18.5% $\delta$-turn, and 38.5% random coil. The optimum pH and temperature of the enzyme activity were pH 9.3 and 27$^{\circ}C$. The enzyme exhibited the highest affinity and catalytical efficiency to phospholipid hydroperoxide employing GSH or Trx as electron donor. Moreover, the protein displayed higher GSH-dependent activity towards t-Butyl-OOH and $H_2O_2$. These results show that OsPHGPx is an enzyme with broad specificity for hydroperoxide substrates and yielded significant insight into the physicochemical properties and the dynamics of OsPHGPx.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.107-113
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• 1995

Basement membrane laminin is a multidomain glycoprotein that interacts with itself, heparin and cells. The distal long arm plays major cell and heparin interactive roles. The long arm consists of three subunits (A, B1, B2) joined in a coiled-coil rod attached to a terminal A chain globule (G). The globule is in turn subdivided into five subdomains (Gl-5). In order to analyze the functions of this region, recombinant G domains (rG, rAiG, rG5, rGΔ2980-3028) were expressed in Sf9 insect cells using a baculovirus expression vector. A hybrid molecule (B-rAiG), consisting of recombinant A chain(rAiG) and the authentic B chains (E8-B)was assembled in vitro. The intercalation of rAiG into E8-B chains suppressed a heparin binding activity identified in subdomain Gl-2. By the peptide napping and ligand blotting, the relative affinity of each subeomain to heparin was assigned as Gl> G2= G4> G5> G3, such that G1 bound strongly and G3 not at all. The active heparin binding site of G domain in intact laminin appears to be located in G4 and proximal G5. Cell binding was examined using fibrosarcoma Cells. Cells adhered to E8, B-rAiG, rAiG and rG, did not bind on denatured substrates, poorly bound to the mixture of E8-B and rG. Anti-${\alpha}$6 and anti-${\beta}$1 integrin subunit separately blocked cell adhesion on E8 and B-rAiG, but not on rAiG. Heparin inhibited cell adhesion on rAiG, partially on B-rAiG, and not on E8. In conclusion, 1) There are active and cryptic cell and heparin binding activities in G domain. 2) Triple-helix assembly inactivates cell and heparin binding activities and restores u6131 dependent cell binding activities.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.169-176
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• 2014

A positional scanning synthetic peptide combinatorial library (PS-SCL) was screened in order to identify antimicrobial peptides against the cariogenic oral bacteria, Streptococcus mutans. Activity against Streptococcus gordonii and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans was also examined. The library was comprised of six sub-libraries with the format $O_{(1-6)}XXXXX-NH_2$, where O represents one of 19 amino acids (excluding cysteine) and X represents equimolar mixture of these. Each sub-library was tested for antimicrobial activity against S. mutans and evaluated for antimicrobial activity against S. gordonii and A. actinomycetemcomitans. The effect of peptides was observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Two semi-mixture peptides, RXXXXN-$NH_2$ (pep-1) and WXXXXN-$NH_2$ (pep-2), and one positioned peptide, RRRWRN-$NH_2$ (pep-3), were identified. Pep-1 and pep-2 showed significant antimicrobial activity against Gram positive bacteria (S. mutans and S. gordonii), but not against Gram negative bacteria (A. actinomycetemcomitans). However, pep-3 showed very low antimicrobial activity against all three bacteria. Pep-3 did not form an amphiphilic ${\alpha}$-helix, which is a required structure for most antimicrobial peptides. Pep-1 and pep-2 were able to disrupt the membrane of S. mutans. Small libraries of biochemically-constrained peptides can be used to generate antimicrobial peptides against S. mutans and other oral microbes. Peptides derived from such libraries may be candidate antimicrobial agents for the treatment of oral microorganisms.

• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.176-181
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• 2010

The primary sigma factor ($\sigma^{A}$) of Staphylococcus aureus, a potential drug target, was little investigated at the structural level. Using an N-terminal histidine-tagged $\sigma^{A}$ (His-$\sigma^{A}$), here we have demonstrated that it exits as a monomer in solution, possesses multiple domains, harbors primarily $\alpha$-helix and efficiently binds to a S. aureus promoter DNA in the presence of core RNA polymerase. While both N- and C-terminal ends of His-$\sigma^{A}$ are flexible in nature, two Trp residues in its DNA binding region are buried. Upon increasing the incubation temperature from 25$^{\circ}$ to 40$^{\circ}C$, $\sim$60% of the input His-$\sigma^{A}$ was cleaved by thermolysin. Aggregation of His-$\sigma^{A}$ was also initiated rapidly at 45$^{\circ}C$. From the equilibrium unfolding experiment, the Gibbs free energy of stabilization of His-$\sigma^{A}$ was estimated to be +0.70 kcal $mol^{-1}$. The data together suggest that primary sigma factor of S. aureus is an unstable protein. Core RNA polymerase however stabilized $\sigma^{A}$ appreciably.

• Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.34-34
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• 2003

Protein unfolding is a key step in several cellular processes, including protein translocation across some membranes and protein degradation by ATP-dependent proteases. C1pAP protease and the proteasome can actively unfold proteins in a process that hydrolyzes ATP, These proteases catalyze unfolding by processively unraveling their substrates from the attachment point of the degradation signal. As a consequence, the ability of a protein to be degraded depends on its structure as well as its stability. An ${\alpha}$-helix is easier to unravel than a ${\beta}$-strand. In multidomain proteins, independently stable domains are unfolded sequentially. The steric constraints imposed on substrate proteins during their degradation by the proteasome were investigated by constructing a model protein in which specific parts of the polypeptide chain were covalently connected through disulfide bridges. The cross-linked model proteins were fully degraded by the proteasome, but two or more cross-links retarded the degradation slightly. Our results suggest that the pore of the proteasome allows the concurrent passage of at least three stretches of a polypeptide chain, and also explain the limited degradation by the proteasome that occurs in the processing of the transcription factor NF-KB, and also implicate difficulty in degradation of amyloidal aggregates by the proteasome

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1801-1808
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• 2006

The interaction between whey carrier protein $\beta$-lactoglobulin type A and B (BLG-A and -B) and 2,2'-bipyridin n-hexyl dithiocarbamato Pd(II) nitrate (BPHDC-Pd(II)), a new heavy metal complex designed for anticancer property, was investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy combined with chemometry and circular dichroism (CD) techniques. A strong fluorescence quenching reaction of BPHDC-Pd(II) to BLG-A and -B was observed. Hence, BPHDC-Pd(II) complex can be bound to both BLG-A and -B, and quench the fluorescence spectra of the proteins. The quenching constant was determined using the modified Stern-Volmer equation. The binding parameters were evaluated by fluorescence quenching method. The results of binding study provided evidences presence of two and three sets of binding sites on the BLG-B and -A, respectively, for BPHDC-Pd(II) complex. Using fluorescence spectroscopy and chemometry, the ability of BLG-A and -B to form an intermediate upon interaction with BPHDC-Pd(II) complex was assessed. CD studies displayed that under influence of different concentrations of BPHDC-Pd(II) complex, the regular secondary structure of BLG-B had no significant changes, whereas for BLG-A a transition from $\alpha$-helix to $\beta$-structure was appeared. The results for both of BLG-A and -B displayed that BPHDC-Pd(II) complex can induce a conformational transition from the native form to an intermediate state with a slightly opened conformation, which is detectable with chemometry analyses.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2016

2-Oxoglutarate (2OG) acts as a signaling molecule and plays a critical role in secondary metabolism in a variety of organisms, including plants. Six 2-oxoglutarate (2OG) and Fe(II) oxygenase (2OGO) genes, VlCE2OGO1 [Vitis labruscana 2-oxoglutarate (2OG) and Fe(II) oxygenase 1], VlCE2OGO2, VlCE2OGO3, VlCE2OGO4, VlCE2OGO5, and VlCE2OGO6, which show different expression patterns upon transcriptome analysis of 'Campbell Early' grapevine exposed to low temperature for 4 weeks, were analyzed for their structure and expression. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences of the 2OGO genes from the V. labruscana transcripts revealed sequence similarities of 38.6% (VlCE2OGO1 and VlCE2OGO2) to 19.2% (VlCE2OGO2 and VlCE2OGO3). The lengths of these genes ranged from 1053 to 2298 bp, and they encoded 316 to 380 amino acids. The prediction of the secondary structure of the encoded proteins by Self-Optimized Prediction Method with Alignment (SOPMA) indicated that all the genes contained alpha helix (23.95 to 41.71%), extended strand (16 to 22.34%), beta turn (6.65 to 9.22%), and random coil (32.97 to 51.58%) in the analysis. Specific primers from unique regions in each gene obtained by alignment of nucleotide sequences were used in real time PCR for analysis of gene expression. All tested genes showed differential expression in grapevines exposed to low temperature. Of the six transcripts, VlCE2OGO1, VlCE2OGO2, and VlCE2OGO3 were up-regulated and VlCE2OGO4, VlCE2OGO5, and VlCE2OGO6 were down-regulated in response to cold treatments at all tested time points. The 2OG genes can be used for elucidation of mechanisms of tolerance to cold and as valuable molecular genetic resources for selection in breeding programs for cold-hardy grapevines.