• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.61-64
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• 2000

A series of 5-oxaproline peptide derivatives was synthesized and evaluated for its ability to inhibit the prolyl 4-hydroxylase in vitro. Structure-activity studies show that the 5-oxaproline sequences, prepared by the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of the C-methoxycarbonyl-N-mannosyl nitrone in the presence of the ethylene, are more active than the corresponding proline derivatives. Prolyl 4-hydroxylase belongs to a family of $Fe^{2+}-dependent$ dioxygenase, which catalyzes the formation of 4-hydroxyproline in collagens by the hydroxylation of proline residues in -Gly-Xaa-Pro-Gly- of procollagen chains. In this paper we discover the more selective N-Cbz-Gly-Phe-Pro-Gly-OEt $(K_m\;=\;520\;{\mu}M)$ sequences which are showed stronger binding than others in vitro. Therefore, we set out to investigate constrained tetrapeptide that was designed to mimic the proline structure of pep tides for the development of prolyl 4-hydroxylase inhibitor. From this result, we found that the most potent inhibitor is N-Dansyl-Gly-Phe-5-oxaPro-Gly-OEt $(K_i\;=\;1.6\;{\mu}M)$. This has prompted attempts to develop drugs which inhibit collagen synthesis. Prolyl 4-hydroxylase would seem a particularly suitable target for antifibrotic therapy.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.240-255
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• 2012

The objectives of this study were to investigate the levels of phytotoxicity of rice varieties to HPPD (4-hydroxy phenylpyruvate dioxygenase)-inhibiting herbicides known for their efficiency to control the sulfonylureas-resistant weed species：mestrione, benzobicyclone, and tefuryltrione. The twenty-six rice varieties (8-Japonica ${\times}$ Indica-type varieties and 18-Japonica-type varieties) were grown for 25 days on seedling trays and then transplanted to paddy rice fields followed by herbicide treatment i.e. standard and double doses of there respective herbicides at 5, 10, and 15 days after transplanting. Although mestrione, benzobicyclone and tefuryltrione are all HPPD-inhibiting herbicides, the phytotoxicity symptoms of the different rice varieties based on the timing of application and doses of the herbicides were significantly different. The Japonica ${\times}$ Indica-type varieties showed much more phytotoxicity symptoms than Japonica-type varieties in all applied herbicides. Increasing herbicidal doses of mesotrione, and an earlier application of and increasing herbicidal doses of benzobicyclon caused severe phytotoxicity symptoms. On the other hand, phytotoxicity due to tefuryltrione did not exhibit significant differences between rice varieties in either the timing of application or dose of the herbicide. Regardless of timing of application and dose of the herbicides, Hangangchalbyeo-1, Hyangmibyeo-1 and high-yield rice varieties such as Namcheonbyeo, Dasanbyeo, Areumbyeo, and Hanareumbyeo, which belong to the Japonica ${\times}$ Indica-type varieties, showed 5 to 8 levels of phytotoxicity symptoms including albinism, browning, detached leaf, and necrosis to mesotrione and benzobicyclon whereas only 1 to 3 levels of phytotoxicity symptoms (chlorosis, albinism, and browning) were seen with to tefuryltrione application. The Japonica-type varieties exhibited only slight phytotoxicity symptoms (1~2 levels) in conformity with the timing of application and doses of the herbicides. However, there were significant differences among the Japonica-type rice varieties, depending on the type of herbicide. Thirteen-Japonica type rice varieties were sensitive to benzobicyclone while 4-Japonica-type and 7-Japonica-type varieties showed phytotoxicity symptoms such as chlorosis and albinism with mestrione and tefuryltrione application, respectively. Therefore, we suggest that the combined-type herbicides including mestrione, benzobicyclone and tefuryltrione should be rejected in paddy fields where rice is grown for either human consumption (functional or processed rice) or livestock feed because of severe phytotoxicity symptoms on the various rice varieties seen regardless of the timing of application and doses of the herbicides.

• BMB Reports
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.353-357
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• 2000

A new assay method of ${\alpha}-Oxidase$ (fatty acid : oxygen dioxygenase, 1-decarboxylating) was developed using a bioluminescence reaction system of marine luminous bacterium, Photobacterium phosphoreum. ${\alpha}$-Oxidase was isolated from a cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Pentadecanoic acid was used as a substrate, and the product, tetradecanal, was analyzed with a bacterial luciferase-coupled reaction. Initial light intensity was directly related to the concentration of tetradecanal in the range of 1 nM to 10 ${\mu}M$. Optimal pH and temperature were 7.5 and $25^{\circ}C$, respectively. Optimal pentadecanoic acid concentration in a standard assay of ${\alpha}$-oxidase was 0.1 mM. The Km value of pentedecanoic acid was $85{\mu}M$. This method is straightforward, rapid, convenient, and easy. Its needs no treatment or extraction of reaction mixture.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.245-245
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• 2002

Catabolic pathways for the degradation of various aromatics by Sphingomonas yanoikuyae Bl are intertwined, joining at the level of substituted benzoates, which are further degraded vita ring cleavage reactions. The mutant strain EK497, which was constructed by deleting a large DNA region containing most of the genes for biphenyl, naphthalene, m-xylene, and m-toluate degradation, was unable to grow on all of the aromatics tested except for benzoate as the sole source of carbon and energy.S. yanoikuyae EK497 was found to possess only catechol ortho-ring cleavage activity due to deletion of the genes for the meta-cleavage pathway. Wild-type S. yanoikuyae Bl grown on benzoate has both catechol orthoand meta-cleavage activity. However, m-xylene and m-toluate, which are metabolized through methylbenzoate, and biphenyl, which is metabolized through benzoate, induce only the meta-cleavage pathway, suggesting the presence of a substrate-dependent induction mechanism.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.56-60
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• 2001

The pcbC gene encoding (4-chloro-)2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl dioxygenase was cloned from the genomic DNA of Pseudomonas sp. P20 using pKT230 to construct pKK1. A recombinant strain, E. coli KK1, was selected by transforming the pKK1 into E. coli XL1-Blue. Another recombinant strain, Pseudomonas sp. DJP-120, was obtained by transferring the pKK1 of E. coli KK1 into Pseudomonas sp. DJ-12 by conjugation. Both recombinant strains showed a 23.7 to 26.5 fold increase in the degradation activity to 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl compared with that of the natural isolate, Pseudomonas sp. DJ-12. The DJP-120 strain showed 24.5, 3.5, and 4.8 fold higher degradation activities to 4-chlorobiphenyl, catechol, and 3-methylcatechol than DJ-12 strain, respectively. The pKK1 plasmid of both strains and their ability to degrade 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl were stable even after about 1,200 generations.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.74-77
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• 2009

Food deprivation decreases hepatic glutathione (GSH) levels, which is ascribed to alterations in availability of hepatic cysteine, a rate limiting factor for the GSH synthesis. The present study examines the effects of food deprivation on hepatic metabolism of sulfur amino acid in male rats. In rats fasted for 24 or 48 hours, hepatic GSH levels were decreased from $6.70{\pm}0.16{\mu}mol/g$ liver to $4.02{\pm}0.20$ or $4.06{\pm}0.07{\mu}mol/g$ liver, respectively. Hepatic S-adenosylmethionine levels were also decreased in fasted rats, but S-adenosylhomocysteine levels were increased. Hepatic methionine levels were not changed by food deprivation for 48 hours. On the other hand, hepatic cysteine or taurine levels were increased from $106.2{\pm}4.1$ to $130.0{\pm}2.7$ nmol/g liver or from $2.45{\pm}0.43$ to $5.07{\pm}0.78{\mu}mol/g$ liver, respectively, in 48-hour fasted rats. Activity of cystathionine beta-synthase catalyzed homocysteine to cystathionine, was markedly decreased, but activity of betaine homocysteine methyltransferase was increased in fasted rats, indicating that methylation of homocysteine to methionine is activated. Also activity of cysteine dioxygenase, involved in taurine synthesis, was increased. These results suggested that hepatic methionine levels were maintained in rats fasted for 48 hours through increase in homocysteine methylation, and hepatic GSH may serve as a cysteine supplier reservoir in fasting state.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.923-928
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• 2000

[FeIII(BBA)DBC]ClO4 as a new functional model for catechol dioxygenases has been synthesized, where BBA is a bis(benzimidazolyl-2-methyl)amine and DBC is a 3,5-di-tert-butylcatecholate dianion.The BBA complex has a structuralfeature that iron cent er has a five-coordinate geometry similar to that of catechol dioxygenase-substrate complex.The BBA complex exhibits strong absorptionbands at 560 and 820 nm in CH3CN which are assigned to catecholate to Fe(III) charge transfer transitions. It also exhibits EPR signals at g = 9.3 and 4.3 which are typical values for the high-spin FeIII (S = 5/2) complex with rhombicsymmetry. Interestingly, the BBA complex reacts with O2 within an hour to afford intradiol cleavage (35%) and extradiol cleavage (60%) products. Surprisingly, a green color intermediate is observed during the oxygenation process of the BBA com-plex in CH3CN. This green intermediate shows a broad isotropic EPR signal at g = 2.0. Based on the variable temperature EPR study, this isotropic signalmight be originated from the [Fe(III)-peroxo-catecholate] species havinglow-spin FeIII center, not from the simple organic radical. Consequently,it allows O2 to bind to iron cen-ter forming the Fe(III)-superoxide species that converts to the Fe(III)-peroxide intermediate. These present data can lead us tosuggest that the oxygen activation mechanism take place for the oxidative cleavingcatechols of the five-coordinate model systems for catechol dioxygenases.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.302-311
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• 2004

Comamonas testosteroni (formerly Pseudomonas sp.) NCIMB 10643 can grow on biphenyl and alkylbenzenes $(C_2-C_7)$ via 3-substituted catechols. Thus, to identify the genes encoding the degradation, transposon-mutagenesis was carried out using pAG408, a promoter-probe mini-transposon with a green fluorescent protein (GFP), as a reporter. A mutant, NT-1, which was unable to grow on alkylbenzenes and biphenyl, accumulated catechols and exhibited an enhanced expression of GFP upon exposure to these substrates, indicating that the gfp had been inserted in a gene encoding a broad substrate range catechol 2,3-dioxygenase. The genes (2,826 bp) flanking the gfp cloned from an SphI-digested fragment contained three complete open reading frames that were designated bphCDorfl. The deduced amino acid sequences of bphCDorfl were identical to 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase (BphC), 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-6-phenylhexa-2,4-dienoate hydrolase (BphD), and OrfI, respectively, that are all involved in the degradation of biphenyl/4-chlorobiphenyl (bph) by Ralstonia oxalatica A5. The deduced amino acid sequence of the orfl revealed a similarity to those of outer membrane proteins belonging to the OmpW family. The introduction of the bphCDorfl genes enabled the NT-l mutant to grow on aromatic hydrocarbons. In addition, PCR analysis indicated that the DNA sequence and gene organization of the bph operon were closely related to those in the bph operon from Tn4371 identified in strain A5. Furthermore, strain A5 was also able to grow on a similar set of alkylbenzenes as strain NCIMB 10643, demonstrating that, among the identified aromatic hydrocarbon degradation pathways, the bph degradation pathway related to Tn4371 was the most versatile in catabolizing a variety of aromatic hydrocarbons of mono- and bicyclic benzenes.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.340-343
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• 2002

A PCB degrader, Ralstonia eutropha H850 was shown to induce bphC gene encoding 2,3-dihydroxy-biphenyl-1,2-dioxygenase in a carvone-amended pure culture in our previous study (Park et al.,1999). The present study was carried out to examine how plant terpenes, as natural substrates, would cause an expression of a PCB degradative gene in soil that was amended with terpenes. The population of Ralstonia eutropha H850 was maintained at least around 10$\^$8/ (CFU/g fresh soil) in the soil amended with carvone or limonene in the presence of succinate as a growth substrate at 50 th day. The gene expression was monitored by RT-PCR using total RNA directly extracted from each soil and bphC gene primers. The bphC gene expression of the seeded strain H850 was observed in the soil amended with biphenyl (4 days) but not with succinate, carvone and limonene. These results indicate that terpenes widely distributed in nature could be a potential inducing substrate for effective PCB biodegration in the soil but their bioavailability and specific induction behavior should be taken into account before PCB bioremediation implementation.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.183-186
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• 2000

Several types of bioluminescent reporter strains have been developed for the detection and monitoring of pollutant aromatics contaminating the environment. In this study, a bioluminescent reporter strain, E. coli SHP3, was constructed by fusing the luc gene of firefly luciferase with the promoter of pcbC responsible for the meta-cleavage of aromatic hydrocarbons. the bioluminescence expressed by the luc gene in the reporter was well triggered by the promoter when it was exposed to 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyI (2,3-DHBP) at 0.5 to 1 mM concentrations. The bioluminescent response was more extensive when the reporter strain was exposed to 5 mM catechol and 2 mM 4-chlorocatechol. These different types of bioluminescent responses by E. coli SHP3 appeared to be characterized by the nature of the aromatics to stress. Since E. coli SHP3 responded to 2,3-DHBP quite sensitively, this reporter strain could be applied for detecting some catecholic pollutants.