• Mycobiology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.274-278
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• 2014

Penicillium georgiense was isolated from sandy beach soil from Batu Ferringhi beach, Penang Island, Malaysia. The identification was based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of internal transcribed spacer regions and ${\beta}$-tubulin sequences. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of P. georgiense in Malaysia.

• Mycobiology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.256-259
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• 2013

Three isolates of Penicillium pimiteouiense were recovered from sandy beach soil samples in Penang Island, Peninsular Malaysia. All the isolates were identified based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of internal transcribed spacer regions and ${\beta}$-tubulin gene. This is a first record of P. pimiteouiense in Malaysia.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.287-291
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• 2009

The ${\alpha}/{\beta}$-tubulin heterodimer is the basic subunit of microtubules in eukaryotes. Polyclonal antibodies specific to recombinant ${\alpha}$-tubulin of Giardia lamblia were made, and found effective as a probe to specifically detect G. lamblia by immunofluorescence assays. Nucleotide sequences of ${\alpha}$-tubulin genes were compared between G. lamblia WB and GS strains, prototypes of assemblage A and assemblage B, respectively. A set of primers was designed and used to amplify a portion of the ${\alpha}$-tubulin gene from G. lamblia. PCR-RFLP analysis of this ${\alpha}$-tubulin PCR product successfully differentiated G. lamblia into 2 distinct groups, assemblages A and B.Theresults indicate that ${\alpha}$-tubulin can be used as a molecular probe to detect G.lamblia.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.150-158
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• 2017

Pear scab caused by Venturia nashicola has been reported as an important disease of pear resulting in lowering the quality of pear fruits. In this study, it was conducted to investigate the relationship between resistance of V. nashicola and mutation of ${\beta}$-tubulin gene and the fungicide resistance in field isolate group in benzimidazole fungicides. Responce of V. nashicola to carbendazim could be classified into 3 groups as sensitive that does not grow at all on PDA amended with $0.16{\mu}g/ml$ of carbendazim, low resistance that could not grow in $4.0{\mu}g/ml$ medium, and high resistance that can grow even at $100{\mu}g/ml$. Thirty isolates of V. nashicola collected from 3 regions as Wonju, Naju, and Okcheon were highly resistant to carbendazim. Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of ${\beta}$-tubulin gene of V. nashicola showed that there was no difference in the nucleotide sequence between the sensitive and the low-resistant isolate, but GAG at codon 198 (glutamic acid) was replaced with GCG (alanine) in the high-resistant isolate. Among 10 isolates obtained from the Okcheon, 5 isolates showed the substitution of glycine for glutamic acid, which were resistant to carbendazim, but more sensitive to the mixture of carbendazim and diethofencarb than others. Through these results, all isolates of V. nashicola isolated in pear orchard were found to be resistant to benzimidazoles. Also, mutants E198A and E198G at ${\beta}$-tubulin were found to be important mechanisms of V. nashicola resistance against benzimidazole fungicides.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.219-223
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• 1998

We have established a transformation system for entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae, in order to develop mycoinsecticide by recombinant DNA techniques. Protoplasts of M. anisopliae would be transformed to a benomyl-resistant by introducing pBRG-4 plasmid DNA, which contains a ${\beta}-tubulin$ gene of Aspergillus flavus conferring resistance to benomyl and a pyr4 gene of Neurospora crassa, in the presence of 5% polyethylene glycol and 10 mM calcium chloride. Transformants occuring at a frequency of 10 colonies per $50\;{\mu}g$ pBRG-4 DNA grew on the $5\;{\mu}g/ml$ concentrations of benamyl, while the wild type was inhibited by $2.5\;{\mu}g/ml$. From the Southern analysis using genomic DNAs isolated from M. anisopliae transformants, the positive signals suggested that the ${\beta}-tubulin$ gene had integrated in the M. anisopliae genome by homologous recombination.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.455-462
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• 2004

Change in ${\beta}$-tubulin nucleic acid and protein sequences was the only known difference between Haemonchus contortus fenbendazole (FBZ)-resistant and -susceptible isolates. This change was sufficient to determine the pathologic effect induced by FBZ treatment. This research was initiated to investigate further differences from these two isolates. Since ${\beta}$-tubulin is involved in formation of microtubule, which has functions in secretory vesicle transport, DNase activities from excretory/secretory products (ESP) of the two isolates were compared, based on pH, sensitivity to DNase inhibitors, molecular masses and production of 3'-OH. The most significant difference detected was that a 38.5 kDa DNase activity was identified from ESP of H. contortus FBZ-susceptible isolates but not from those of H. contortus FBZ-resistant isolates. However, it was shown that the 38.5 kDa DNase is expressed with similar level of activity in intestine and whole worm of H. contortus FBZ-resistant and -susceptible isolates. This result demonstrated that the secretory transport pathway of the 38.5 kDa DNase was inhibited by unknown mechanisms, which may be related with ${\beta}$-tubulin sequence change in FBZ-resistant isolates. Other DNases of 34, 36 and 37 kDa were detected from ESP of both H. contortus FBZ-resistant and -susceptible isolates. Overall DNase activities found from ESP of these two isolates were not inhibited by 10 mM EDTA at pH 5.0, but largely inhibited by pH 7.0. In addition, DNase activities in two isolates produced DNA fragments with mixtures of 3'- hydroxyls (OH) and 3'-phosphates (P) at each pH although the 3'-end labeling ratios at pH 5.0 and 7.0 were shown different. Identification of inhibition of the 38.5 kDa DNase secretion in FBZ-resistant isolates suggests existence of further differences, in addition to ${\beta}$-tubulin sequence change, in two isolates. This shows complex effect of FBZ on H. contortus biological mechanisms.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.123-129
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• 2008

One of the sapstain fungal species isolated from the stained sapwood of a Japanese black pine in Korea was characterized. The fungal species is tolerant to cycloheximide and has Petosum-like synnema and Sporothrix type synanamorph which are found in the anamorphs of the Ophiostoma piceae complex group. But the species could not form perithecia on MEA. Based on cultural and morphological properties and analysis of the $\beta$-tubulin gene sequence, the fungal species was identified as Ophiostoma quercus. Here, we report mycological characteristics of the anamorphic stage of Ophiostoma quercus isolated in Korea.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.369-375
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• 2019

Microtubules form through the polymerization of ${\alpha}-$ and ${\beta}-tubulin$, and tubulin transport plays an important role in defining the rate of microtubule growth inside cellular appendages, such as the cilia and flagella. Heterotrimeric kinesin 2 is a molecular motor member of the kinesin superfamily (KIF) that moves along the microtubules to transport multiple cargoes. It consists of two motor subunits (KIF3A and KIF3B) and a kinesin-associated protein 3 (KAP3), forming a heterotrimeric complex. Heterotrimeric kinesin 2 interacts with many different binding proteins through the cargo-binding domains of the KIF3s, but these binding proteins have not yet been specified. To identify these proteins for KIF3A, we performed yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) screening and found a specific interaction with ${\beta}2-tubulin$ (Tubb2), a microtubule component. Tubb2 was found to bind to the cargo-binding domain of KIF3A but did not interact with KIF3B, KIF5B, or kinesin light chain 1 in the Y2H assay. The carboxyl-terminal region of Tubb2 is essential for interaction with KIF3A. Other Tubb isoforms, including Tubb1, Tubb3, Tubb4, and Tubb5, also interacted with KIF3A in the Y2H screening. However, ${\alpha}1-tubulin$ (Tuba1) did not interact with KIF3A. In addition, an antibody to KIF3A specifically co-immunoprecipitated the KIF3B and KAP3 associated with Tubb2 from mouse brain extracts. In combination, these results suggest that a heterotrimeric kinesin 2 motor protein is capable of binding to tubulin and may transport it in cells.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2008

Neural tissue has limited intrinsic capacity of repair after injury, and the identification of alternate sources of neural stem cells has broad clinical potential. We isolated mesechymal-like stem cells from human adipose tissues (AT-MSCs), and studied on transdifferentiation-promoting conditions in neural cells. Dopaminergic and cholinergic neuron induction of AT-MSCs was also studied. Neural differentiation was induced by adding bFGF, EGF, dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and butylated hydroxyanisole(BHA) in N2 Medium and N2 supplement. The immunoreactive cells for $\beta$-tubulin III, a neuron-specific marker, GFAP, an astrocyte marker, or Gal-C, an oligodendrocyte marker, were found. AT-MSCs treated with bFGF, SHH and FGF8 were differentiatied into dopaminergic neurons that were immunopositive for TH antibody. Differentiation of MSCs to cholinergic neurons was induced by combined treatment with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), retinoic acid (RA) and sonic hedgehog (Shh). AT-MSCs treated with DMSO and BHA rapidly assumed the morphology of multipolar neurons. Both immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR analysis indicated that the expression of a number of neural markers including neuro D1, $\beta$-tubulin III, GFAP and nestinwas markedly elevated during this acute differentiation. While the stem cell markers such as SCF, C-kit, and Stat-3 were not expressed after preinduction medium culture, we confirmed the differentiation of dopaminergic and cholinergic neurons by TH/$\beta$-tubulin III or ChAT/ $\beta$-tubulin III positive cells. Conclusively, AT-MSCs can be differentiated into dopaminergic and cholinergic neuronsand these findings suggest that AT-MSCs are alternative cell source of treatment for neurodegenerative diseases.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.282-288
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• 2015

Viriditoxin is a fungal metabolite isolated from Paecilomyces variotii, which was derived from the giant jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai. Viriditoxin was reported to inhibit polymerization of FtsZ, which is a key protein for bacterial cell division and a structural homologue of eukaryotic tubulin. Both tubulin and FtsZ contain a GTP-binding domain, have GTPase activity, assemble into protofilaments, two-dimensional sheets, and protofilament rings, and share substantial structural identities. Accordingly, we hypothesized that viriditoxin may inhibit eukaryotic cell division by inhibiting tubulin polymerization as in the case of bacterial FtsZ inhibition. Docking simulation of viriditoxin to ${\beta}-tubulin$ indicated that it binds to the paclitaxel-binding domain and makes hydrogen bonds with Thr276 and Gly370 in the same manner as paclitaxel. Viriditoxin suppressed growth of A549 human lung cancer cells, and inhibited cell division with G2/M cell cycle arrest, leading to apoptotic cell death.