• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.278-283
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• 1991

Two amino acid residues ($Ala^{494}$ and $Ser^{495}$ of E. coli .gamma.-glutamylcysteine synthetase have been investigated whether they are the site of feedback inhibition by site specific mutagenesis. Single substitution of $serine^{495}$ (S495F), and double substitutions of alanine$^{494}$ and $serine^{495}$ (A494G-S495F) resulted in the inactivation of the .gamma.-glutamylcysteine synthetase activity. Substitution of $alanine^{494}$ with $glycine^{494}$ resulted in a higher level of feedback inhibition. These results suggest that $serine^{495}$ in .gamma.-glutamylcysteine synthetase is required for its catalytic acitvity and $alanine^{494}$ is presumably related to the feeback inhibition site.

• Bulletin of Food Technology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.98-106
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• 2004

Two mutant enzymes of $\gamma$-glutamylcysteine synthetase ($\gamma$-GCS) which catalyzed the synthesis of $\gamma$-glutamylcysteine from L-glutamic acid and L-cysteine in the presence of ATP, were prepared bypoint mutation of $\gamma$-GCS gene with site-directed mutagensis in E. coli. Conformational structuresand catalytic reaction kinetics of mutant enzymes were compared with wild type $\gamma$-GCS afterpurification. The S495F mutant enzyme (serine at 495 residue was substituted with phenylalanine),which had no catalytic activity for $\gamma$-glutamylcysteine synthesis, rarely folded even in neutral pH.However, the mutant A494V (alanine of 494 residue was replaced by valnine) which showed 50 %increase of activity, had a high folding structure. The folding structure of A494V also more stable athigh temperature and extreme pH compared to wild type and S495F. Reaction kinetics of wild typeand A494V were also investigated, Km value of A494V was smaller than that of wild type, while itshowed a little difference at Vmax values. This result evolved that alanine at 494 may be involved inbinding site of substrate rather than catalytic site. In addition, change of catalytic activity by onepoint mutation was highly correlated with the folding structure of enzyme.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.487-494
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• 2013

An AlaAT knock-out mutant (alaat) of rice (Oryza sativa L.) was isolated from T-DNA tagging lines and the genotypes of its progeny were determined with AlaAT1-specific primers. The alaat phenotypes showed decreased growth and grain yield when compared with control plants. The activity of AlaAT1 in the mutant plants was practically undetectable. The responses of alaat plants to growth under salt stress were compared with those of control plants by measuring chlorophyll fluorescence and the activities and mRNA expression of antioxidant enzymes. All abiotic stresses tested (salt, drought, and chilling) caused a similar decrease in chlorophyll fluorescence in both alaat and wild type plants. The activity of peroxidase (POX), an antioxidant enzyme, decreased following salt treatment of alaat plants, while control plant showed an increased activity. The mRNA levels for cAPX (cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase), POX2, and AlaAT were determined by RT-PCR following salt stress. No AlaAT1 mRNA was detected in alaat plants. The POX2 mRNA showed a slightly increased level in the wild type but was not detected in alaat plants, in agreement with the activity assays. The levels of cAPX mRNA were greatly increased in both the wild type and alaat plants. The salt stress effects on rice plant growth are therefore proposed to reflect a loss of function of AlaAT, which alters the activity and synthesis of antioxidant enzymes (especially peroxidases), rather than a direct effect on photosynthesis.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.479-494
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• 2022

Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells that have been intensively studied as therapeutic tools for a variety of disorders. To enhance the efficacy of MSCs, therapeutic genes are introduced using retroviral and lentiviral vectors. However, serious adverse events (SAEs) such as tumorigenesis can be induced by insertional mutagenesis. We generated lentiviral vectors encoding the wild-type herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) gene and a gene containing a point mutation that results in an alanine to histidine substitution at residue 168 (TK(A168H)) and transduced expression in MSCs (MSC-TK and MSC-TK(A168H)). Transduction of lentiviral vectors encoding the TK(A168H) mutant did not alter the proliferation capacity, mesodermal differentiation potential, or surface antigenicity of MSCs. The MSC-TK(A168H) cells were genetically stable, as shown by karyotyping. MSC-TK(A168H) responded to ganciclovir (GCV) with an half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) value 10-fold less than that of MSC-TK. Because MSC-TK(A168H) cells were found to be non-tumorigenic, a U87-TK(A168H) subcutaneous tumor was used as a SAE-like condition and we evaluated the effect of valganciclovir (vGCV), an oral prodrug for GCV. U87-TK(A168H) tumors were more efficiently ablated by 200 mg/kg vGCV than U87-TK tumors. These results indicate that MSC-TK(A168H) cells appear to be pre-clinically safe for therapeutic use. We propose that genetic modification with HSV-TK(A168H) makes allogeneic MSC-based ex vivo therapy safer by eliminating transplanted cells during SAEs such as uncontrolled cell proliferation.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.487-494
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• 1995

To assay the quality of anchovy sauce, 10 kinds of commercial anchovy sauce(CAS) were purchased from markets and traditional anchovy sauce(TAS) were prepared. And their physicochemical-microbial characteristics were compared. The compositions of CAS were as followed; pH $5.5{\sim}5.7$, salinity $21.0{\sim}23.2%$, VBN $92.8{\sim}305.4\;mg/100g$, total nitrogen $928.0{\sim}1870.9\;mg%$, amino-nitrogen $338.6{\sim}680.3\;mg%$, and acidity $11.58{\sim}24.58\;ml$. The CAS was lower in pH, smaller in contents of VBN, total-N, amino-N and larger in contents of moisture, salinity than TAS. In Hunter values, CAS was generally lower in L, b values whereas higher in a and ${\Delta}E$ values than TAS. Viable cell counts on 0% NaCl-medium of CAS and TAS were $6.4{\times}10^1{\sim}3.0{\times}10^5\;and\;8.7{\times}10^4$, and those on 2.5% NaCl-medium were $0.8{\times}10^2{\sim}2.2{\times}10^5\;and\;1.6{\times}10^4{\sim}4.5{\times}10^5$, respectively. These viable cell counts in CAS and TAS were gradually decreased according to storage time. In composition of extractives, total free amino acid contents of CAS and TAS were $5498.5{\sim}12123.8\;mg%$, 12797.9 mg%, and these contents were gradually decreased during storage. The major amino acids were found glutamic acid, alanine and leucine in CAS, and alanine, glutamic acid, leucine and valine in TAS. Also contents of hypoxanthine, TMAO, TMA in CAS and TAS were shown $86.4{\sim}161.2\;mg%,\;51.6{\sim}99.2\;mg%,\;23.2{\sim}42.9\;mg%$ and 103.7 mg%, 128.8 mg%, 55.8 mg%, respectively. We may conclude from the results of present experiments that parts of tested CAS were somewhat putrefied and there was a great difference in the quality compared with TAS, whereas TAS maintained good conditions for preserving the quality until storage 2 years.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.488-494
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• 1999

Hydrolytic peptides of salted and fermented anchovy sauce, and anchovy actomyosin for the development of a rapid fermentation method with conventional tastes and flavors were studied. The optimal temperatures of crude enzymes isolated from anchor, liver and viscera of squid were 55, 40$\~$45 and $45\~60^{\circ}C$, respectively. Crude enzyme isolated from anchovy was more effective on hydrolysis of anchovy actomyosin than that from squid liver and viscera. But the crude enzyme from squid liver was less effective on NaCl than that from anchovy. Three peptides occurred in anchovy actomyosin hydrolyzed with crude enzymes from anchovy and squid liver for 30 min. Their molecular weight were determined by Superdex 200 gel chromatography as 10,800, 5,800 and 2,600 dalton. When anchovy sauce was hydrolyzed with crude enzymes of anchovy, squid liver and viscera, and Protamex during 70 days, ranges of their low molecular weight of hydrolyzed peptides were 300$\~$1,000dalton detected by Sephadex G-50 and their major amino acid compositions were glutamic acid, glycine and alanine, which was related with conventional tastes. Those amino acid compositions were similar to those of anchovy sauce hydrolyzed with squid liver, In the case of Protamex treatment, hydrolyzed peptides had high levels of isoleucine and leucine, being associated with the bitter, but a low level of glutamic acid.