• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2000

Cigarette smoking deals a harmful effect directly to smokers and even to non-smokers through environmental tobacco smoke. The major damaging component in cigarette smoke is nicotine which converts to various carcinogens. Among the carcinogenic metabolites, nitrosamine-4-(methylnitrosamino)-1- (3-pyridyl)-1- butanone (NNK) is responsible for many types of lung cancers. Recent studies report that activation of NNK is markedly inhibited in the presence of cotinine, a safer metabolite from nicotine. It is well known that tea extract have potentials to prevent cancers. This study aims to correlate green tea's potential for cancer prevention with an accelerated formation of cotinine. In the presence of tea extract, a nicotine to cotinine conversion was studied in established cell lines and xenopus oocytes. Among three lines of cell used, PLC/PRF5 and 293 cells showed a fast turnover from nicotine to cotinine while HepG2 cell line showed a marginal difference between groups treated and non-treated with tea extract. A microinjection procedure using Xenopus oocyte was utilized to probe for the effect of tea extract in accelerating nicotine conversion to cotinine. According to this procedure, tea extract's unusual potential for converting nicotine to cotinine is also substantiated. Overall, this present study indicated that tea extract have an unusual effect on conversion of nicotine to cotinine in cells.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.778-785
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• 2021

The germination of cucumber seeds begins with the degradation of reserved oil to fatty acids within the lipid body, which are then further metabolized to acyl-CoA. The acyl-CoA moves from the lipid body to the glyoxysome following β-oxidation for the production of acetyl-CoA. As an initial carbon source supplier, acetyl-CoA is an essential molecule in the glyoxylate cycle within the glyoxysome, which produces the metabolic intermediates of citrate and malate, among others. The glyoxylate cycle is a necessary metabolic pathway for oil seed plant germination because it produces the metabolic intermediates for the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and for gluconeogenesis, such as the oxaloacetate, which moves to the cytosol for the initiation of gluconeogenesis by phophoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK). Following reserved oil mobilization, the production and transport of various metabolic intermediates are involved in the coordinated operation and activation of multiple metabolic pathways to supply directly usable carbohydrate in the form of glucose. Furthermore, corresponding gene expression regulation compatibly transforms the microbody to glyoxysome, which contains the organelle-specific malate synthase (MS) and isocitrate lyase (ICL) enzymes during oil seed germination. Together with glyoxylate cycle, carnitine, which mediates the supplementary route of the acetyl-CoA transport mechanism via the mitochondrial BOU (A BOUT DE SOUFFLE) system, possibly plays a secondary role in lipid metabolism for enhanced plant development.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.145-148
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• 2007

생명과학분야에서 마이크로어레이 기술은 세포에서의 RNA 발현 프로파일을 관찰할 수 있도록 함으로써 생명현상의 규명 및 약물개발 둥에서 분자수준의 생명현상에 대한 관찰과 분석이 가능 해지고 있다. 마이크로어레이 데이터분석에서는 특정한 처리나 과정에서 현저한 특성을 보이는 유전자를 식별하기 위한 분석뿐만 아니라 유전자 전체인 게놈수준에서의 분석도 이루어진다. 최근 유전자의 발현이 다양한 조절, 신호전달 및 대사경로에 의해서 영향을 받고 있다는 관점에서 게놈수준의 분석에 관심이 증가하고 있다. 약물반응 실험에서는 약물에 대한 게놈수준의 발현 프로파일을 관찰하는 것도 많은 정보를 제공할 수 있다. 약물실험에서는 대조군과 실험군들간에 관심 있는 상대적인 발현특성을 갖는 유전자군을 전체적으로 추출하는 것이 필요한 경우가 있다. 예를 들면 정상군은 두개의 실험군에 대해서 중간청도의 발현정도를 갖는 유전자군을 식별하는 분석을 하는 경우, 생물학적인 데이터의 특성상 절대값을 비교하는 방법으로는 유용한 유전자들을 효과적으로 식별해 낼 수 없다. 이 논문에서는 정상군과 실험군들의 발현정도값의 경향을 판단하기 위해서 각 유전자에 대해서 집단별 대표값을 선정하여 퍼지집합으로 집단의 값의 범위를 결정하고, 이를 이용하여 특정 패턴을 갖는 유전자들을 식별해내는 방법을 제안하고, 실제 데이터를 통해서 실험한 결과를 보인다.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.306-315
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• 2009

Due to the depleting petroleum reserve, recurring energy crisis, and global warming, it is necessary to study the development of white biotech-based aromatic chemical feedstock from renewable biomass for replacing petroleum-based one. In particular, the production of aromatic intermediates and derivatives in biosynthetic pathway of aromatic amino acids from glucose might be replaced by the production of petrochemical-based aromatic chemical feedstock including benzene-derived aromatic compounds. In this review, I briefly described the production technology for hydroquinone, catechol, adipic acid, shikimic acid, gallic acid, pyrogallol, vanillin, p-hydroxycinnamic acid, p-hydroxystyrene, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, indigo, and indole 3-acetic acid using metabolic engineering, bioconversion, and chemical process. The problems and possible solutions regarding development of production technology for competitive white biotech-based aromatic compounds were also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2012

When the microarray experiment developed, main interest was limited to detect differentially expressed genes associated with a phenotype of interest. However, as human diseases are thought to occur through the interactions of multiple genes within a same functional category, the unit of analysis of the microarray experiment expanded to the set of genes. For the phenotype of censored survival time, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis(GSEA), Global test and Wald type test are widely used. In this paper, we modified the Wald type test by adopting normal score transformation of gene expression values and developed a parametric test which requires much less computation than others. The proposed method is compared with other methods using a real data set of ovarian cancer and a simulation data set.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 1997

The role of L-glutamic acid, a precursor of $C_5$ ALA biosynthetic pathway, on the production of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) has been described in cells of Rhodospirillum rubrum N-1. To the Lascelles basal medium the addition of both 30 mM L-glutamicacid and 20 mM levulinic acid (LA) provided to increase the extracellular ALA yield up to 40 fold (76 mg/l). By the addition of both 60 mM glycine and succinic acid, precursorsof $C_4$ ALA biosynthetic pathway, at middle log phase of cell growth ALA yield was increased 27 fold (52 mg/l) although the celt growth was inhibited to a certain extent.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

The analysis of functional population and its dynamics on the environment is essential for understanding bioremediation in environment. Here, we report a method for oligonucleotide microarray for the monitoring of aliphatic and aromatic degradative genes. This microarray contained 15 unique and group-specific probes which were based on 100 known genes involved pathways in biodegradation. Hybridization specificity tests with pure cultures, strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa KCTC 1636 indicated that the designed probes on the arrays appeared to be specific to their corresponding target genes. It was found that the presence of 8 genes encoding alkane, naphthalene, biphenyl, pyrene (PAH ring-hydroxylating) degradation pathway could be detected in oil contaminated soil sample. Therefore, the findings of this study strongly suggest that oligonucleotide microarray is an effective diagnostic tool for evaluating biodegradation capability in oil contaminated subsurface environment.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.272-281
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• 1994

To investigate the effects on pigmentation and carotenoids metabolism of sea bass, Lateolablax japonicus, by supplemented carotenoids, fish were fed the diets each containing ${\beta}$-carotene, lutein ester, astaxanthin, astaxanthin monoester and astaxanthin diester for 8 weeks. Carotenoids in the integuments were analyzed. The important carotenoids in the integuments of sea bass were tunaxanthin and lutein. ${\beta}$-carotene, ${\beta}$-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin and ${\beta}$-carotene triol were minor contributors. Differences in the content of ${\beta}$-carotene, tunaxanthin fraction and lutein were observed between the natural and cultured sea bass. The wild sea bass contained higher amounts of tunaxanthin fraction and lutein, but contained lower amounts of ${\beta}$-carotene than cultured sea bass. In cultured sea bass with supplemented carotenoids, carotenoid deposition was higher in order of astaxanthin monoester group, astaxanthin group and astaxanthin diester group. Based on the contents and composition of carotenoids in each group after the feeding the experimental diet, The metabolism of carotenoid in sea bass was presumed to be the reductive metabolic pathways: astaxanthin to tunaxanthin via ${\beta}$-carotene triol, zeaxanthin and lutein.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.107-122
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• 2012

In plants, color is a powerful tool to attract insects and herbivores which act as pollinators and vehicles of seed dispersion. In particular, flower color has held key post for human with aesthetic value. Horticultural industry has developed methods to produce new and attractive color varieties in flowering plants. Carotenoids are one of the main pigments being responsible for red, orange, and yellow colors. Their biosynthetic pathway has been considered as a major target of metabolic engineering for color modification of flowers and fruits. Here, we review the diverse efforts to modify pigment phenotype by the control of carotenogenic gene expression and enzyme levels. Recent reports about regulating degradation and storage of carotenoids will be also summarized to help the creation of engineered flower with novel color phenotype which is not existed in nature.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.387-396
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• 2022

Skeletal muscle accounts for about 40-50% of body weight and is an important tissue that performs various functions, such as maintaining posture, supporting soft tissues, maintaining body temperature, and respiration. Cancer, which occurs widely around the world, causes cancer cachexia accompanied by muscular atrophy, which reduces the effectiveness of anticancer drugs and greatly reduces the quality of life and survival rate of cancer patients. Therefore, research to improve cancer cachexia is ongoing. However, there are few studies on the link between cancer and muscle atrophy. Cancer cells exhibit distinct microenvironment and metabolism from tumor cells, including tumor-associated macrophages (TAM), tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN), and insulin resistance due to the Warburg effect. Therefore, we summarize the microenvironment and metabolic characteristics of cancer cells, and the molecular mechanisms of muscle atrophy that can be affected by cytokine and insulin resistance. In addition, this suggests the possibility of improving cancer cachexia of substances affecting TAM, TAN, and Warburg effect. We also summarize the mechanisms identified so far through single agents and the signaling pathways mediated by them that may ameliorate cancer cachexia.