• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.264-270
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• 2017

Brassinosteroid (BR), a plant steroid hormone, plays a critical role in the growth and developmental processes through its canonical signaling and crosstalk with various internal and external signaling pathways. Recent studies have revealed the essential interplay mechanisms between BR and ABA during seed germination and early seedling establishment. However, molecular mechanisms for this important signaling crosstalk are largely unknown. To understand the crosstalk between BR-mediated signaling pathways and ABA functions during early seedling development, we carried out a comparative genome-wide transcriptome analysis with an Agilent Arabidopsis $4{\times}44K$ oligo chip. We selected and compared the expression patterns of ABA response genes in ABA-insensitive bes1-D mutant with wild type seedlings on which ABA was exogenously applied. As a result, we identified 2,353 significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in ABA-treated bes1-D and wild type seedlings. GO enrichment analysis revealed that ABA signaling, response, and metabolism were critically down-regulated by BR-activated signaling pathways. In addition, the genome-wide transcriptome analysis data revealed that BR-regulated signaling pathways were tightly connected to diverse signal cues including abiotic/biotic stress, auxin, ROS etc. In this study, we newly identified the molecular mechanisms of BR-mediated repression of ABA signaling outputs. Also, our data suggest that interplay among diverse signaling pathways is critical for the adaptive response of the plant to various environmental factors.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.296-302
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• 2017

Rice (Oryza sativa) cultivars show an impairment of growth and development in response to abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, heat and cold at the early seedling stage. The tolerance to heat stress in plants has been genetically modulated by the overexpression of heat shock transcription factor genes or proteins. In addition to a high temperature-tolerance that has also been altered by elevating levels of osmolytes, increasing levels of cell detoxification enzymes and through altering membrane fluidity. To examine the heat tolerance in transgenic rice plants, three OsOPT10 overexpressing lines were characterized through a physiological analysis, which examined factors such as the electrolyte leakage (EL), soluble sugar and proline contents. We further functionally characterized the OsOPT10 gene and found that heat induced the expression of OsOPT10 and P5CS gene related proline biosynthesis. It has been suggested that the expression of OsOPT10 led to elevated heat tolerance in transgenic lines.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.323-328
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• 2003

Soil salinity is one of the most serious abiotic stresses limiting the productivity of agricultural crops. To cope with salt stress, plants respond with physiological, developmental and biochemical changes, including the synthesis of a number of proteins and the induction of gene expression. Salicornia herbacea is a halophytic plant that grows in salt marshes and on muddy seashores. In order to understand the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of salt tolerance in S. herbacea, we isolated several genes that involved in the salt tolerance by mRNA differential display. Here we report the cloning of a cDNA encoding fructose-1, 6-bisphosphate aldolase, named ShADL, which is 1293 bp long and contains an open reading frame consisted of 359 amino acids with calculated molecular mass of 39 kDa. ShADL protein showed 86％ identity with Arabidopsis and 78％ with aldolase of common ice plant. Northern blot analysis revealed that the transcript of ShADL gene was increased dramatically depending on the NaCl concentrations.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.320-331
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• 1996

Electrophoretic comparisons of 482 individuals of Todarodes pacificus from 9 fishing areas were made to estimate genetic variability and differentiation using 17 enzymes. Strong activities were shown by 9 enzymes with 11 gene loci. The 9 sample lots could be divided into 3 genetic groups, based on dendrogram analysis using the Nei's genetic distance. The Summer, Autumn and Winter cohorts were identified as three seperated ecological populations which maintain genetic exchange. It is postulated that either the Summer cohort or the Autumn cohort has indepenently developed a local population that was isolated by hydrographic factors.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.123-128
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• 2006

Behcet's disease (BD) is a systemic vasculitis characterized by recurrent oral and genital ulcers, and ocular inflammation, and which may involve the joints, skin, central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract. Although the exact pathogenesis for BD is not completely understood, it has been suggested that the disease is triggered in genetically susceptible individuals by environmental factors, such as microbial agents. It is noted that multiple genes, including MHC (major histocompatibility complex) and non-MHC genes, are implicated in the pathogenesis of BD. This study tries to determine whether IL-6 gene polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to Behcet's disease in Koreans. Gene polymorphisms were typed by VNTR (variable number of tandem repeat), RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism), DHPLC (denaturing high performance liquid chromatography).There were no evidences for genetic association conferred by the IL-6prom polymorphism. However, significant differences in the IL-6vntr genotype and allele frequencies were found between patients with BD and controls. The IL-6vntr*C allele appeared to be an additional susceptibility gene to Korean BD. Further studies in other populations and gene are required to confirm these results.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.157-165
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• 2016

Under flooded rice fields, methanogens produce methane which comes out through rice stalks, thus rice fields are known as one of the anthropogenic sources of atmospheric methane. Studies have shown that use of manure increases amount of methane emission from rice. To investigate mechanisms by which manure boosts methane emission, comparative soil metagenomics between inorganically (NPK) and pig manure fertilized paddy soils (PIG) were conducted. Results from taxonomy analysis showed that more abundant methanogens, methanotrophs, methylotrophs, and acetogens were found in PIG than in NPK. In addition, BLAST results indicated more abundant carbohydrate mabolisetm functional genes in PIG. Among the methane metabolism related genes, PIG sample showed higher abundance of methyl-coenzyme M reductase (mcrB/mcrD/mcrG) and trimethylamine-corrinoid protein Co-methyltransferase (mttB) genes. In contrast, genes that down regulate methane emission, such as trimethylamine monooxygenase (tmm) and phosphoserine/homoserine phosphotransferase (thrH), were observed more in NPK sample. In addition, more methanotrophic genes (pmoB/amoB/mxaJ), were found more abundant in PIG sample. Identifying key genes related to methane emission and methane oxidation may provide fundamental information regarding to mechanisms by which use of manure boosts methane emission from rice. The study presented here characterized molecular variation in rice paddy, introduced by the use of pig manure.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2019

Hypertension is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. In advanced countries, more than 30% of adults have hypertension. Among the genetic factors affecting hypertension, there are reports from European cohort studies that variants of the MACROD2 gene are correlated with blood pressure and the hypertension status. In this study, genetic polymorphisms of the MACROD2 gene region were selected and extracted based on Korean Genome and Epidemiology data, and logistic regression analysis was then performed for the hypertensive state. Linear regression analysis was also performed for the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. As a result, 16 SNPs showed a statistically significant association with a hypertensive state, and 2 SNPs (rs16996211, rs6034240) showed statistical significance, even in blood pressure. The most significant rs16996211 had a relative risk of hypertension of 0.85 (CI: 0.76~0.95, $P=3.1{\times}10^{-3}$), as well as an association with the systolic blood pressure (beta=-0.75, P=0.024) and diastolic blood pressure (beta=-0.59, P=0.01). These results suggest that polymorphisms of the MACROD2 gene are associated with hypertension in both Caucasians and Koreans, and highlight the potential genetic correlations with the pathogenesis of hypertension.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.463-467
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• 2022

As a result of applying the COG (Cluster of Orthologous Groups of Protein) algorithm to 1,309 species to confirm the conserved genes of prokaryotes, ribosomal protein S11 (COG0100) was identified. The numbers of conservative genes were 2, 5, 5, and 6 in 1,308, 1,307, 1,306, and 1,305 species, respectively. Twenty-nine genes were conserved in over 1,302 species, and they encoded 23 ribosomal proteins, 3 tRNA synthetases, 2 translation factors, and 1 RNA polymerase subunit. Most of them were related to protein production, suggesting the importance of protein expression in prokaryotes. The highest conservative COG was COG0048 (ribosomal protein S12) among the 29 COGs. The 29 conserved genes usually have one protein for each prokaryote. COG0090 (ribosomal protein L2) had not only the lowest conservation value but also the largest standard deviation of phylogenetic distance value. As COG0090 is not only a member of the ribosome, but also a regulator of replication and transcription, it could be inferred that prokaryotes have large variations in COG0090 to survive in various environments. This study could provide data necessary for basic science, tumor control, and development of antibacterial agents.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 2014

Salt cress (Thellungiella halophila or Thellungiella parvula), species closely related to Arabidopsis thaliana, represents an extremophile adapted to harsh saline environments. To isolate salt-tolerance genes from this species, we constructed a cDNA library from roots and leaves of salt cress plants treated with 200 mM NaCl. This cDNA library was subsequently shuttled into the destination binary vector [driven by the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter] designed for plant transformation and expression via recombination- assisted cloning. In total, 305,400 pools of transgenic BASTA-resistant lines were generated in Arabidopsis using either T. halophila or T. parvula cDNA libraries. These were used for functional screening of genes involved in salt tolerance. Among these pools, 168,500 pools were used for primary screening to date from which 7,157 lines showed apparent salt tolerant-phenotypes in the initial screen. A secondary screen has now identified 165 salt tolerant transgenic lines using 1,551 (10.6%) lines that emerged in the first screen. The prevalent phenotype in these lines includes accelerated seed germination often accompanied by faster root growth compared to WT Arabidopsis under salt stress condition. In addition, other lines showed non-typical development of stems and flowers compared to WT Arabidopsis. Based on the close relationship of the tolerant species to the target species we suggest this approach as an appropriate method for the large-scale identification of salt tolerance genes from salt cress.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.248-252
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• 1999

The PI-oduction of virulence factors such as cholera toxin, heinolysin and hemagglutinin in V cliolerae non-01 and non-0139 were examined. Among 65 strains isolated from environmental and clinical blood sources, 29 (14.6%) strains produced hemolysin only, 35(53.9%) sh.ains produced both hemolysin and hemagglutinin. From one 037 slrain isolated from environmenl, cholera toxin, ctx gene, hemolysin, and hemagglutinin were detected. All of the strains isolated from clinical and environmental sources showed hemolytic activity against human 0 group e~ythrocytes. In inhibition patterns of heinagglotination, 5 of 18 clinical strains (27.8%) were inhibited by less than 1% mannose and galactose, while, among the 47 environmental isolates. hose paltems by less than 1% mannose and galactose 55.4% wel-e inhibited. Thel-ehre, exohamagglutinin positive rate was high in clinical blood isolates but in environnlental sources, the rate was almost similar lo ihe rate or endohemagglutinin positive. These results indicaled that V cholerae non-01 and non-0139 produced various virnlence factors such as cholera toxin, hemolysin, and hemagglutinin but not a single factor. Further studies are need for epidemiological or bacteriological shtdies of V cholerae 037 isolated from environment.