• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.622-629
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• 2010

Biosynthetic studies on brasiliamides, potently convulsive and bacteriostatic compounds from an endophytic Penicillium brasilianum isolated from Melia azedarach (Meliaceae), confirms their phenylpropanoid origin, which is very uncommon in fungi. Feeding experiments with [$2-^{13}C$]-phenylalanine indicated the incorporation of two units of this amino acid on brasiliamide structures. The first step in the phenylpropanoid pathway to those compounds was evaluated through enzymatic bioassays and confirmed the phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) participation. The metabolism of phenylalanine in this fungus is discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.85-88
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• 2002

Methylmalonic acidemia is an inborn error of branched chain amino acid metabolism, clinically characterized by lethargy, vomiting, and hypertonia with abnormal movements, and biochemically characterized by ketoacidosis, hyperammonemia, and sometimes hyperglycinemia. Conventional treatment of methylmalonic acidemia incluides dietary protein restriction, bicarbonate, carnitine, and metronidazole. However, most patient have recurrent episodes of acidosis, and a significant number have neurologic deficits and renal impairment. We report the successful treatment of a patient with methylmalonic acidemia by liver transplantation.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.406-410
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• 2013

Tetrahyropapaveroline (THP) is compound derived from dopamine metabolism and is capable of causing dopaminergic neurodegenerative disorder, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of THP to cause oxidative damage on the structure of cytochrome c (cyt c). Our data showed that THP led to protein aggregation and the formation of carbonyl compound in protein aggregates. THP also induced the release of iron from cyt c. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers and iron specific chelator inhibited the THP-mediated cyt c modification and carbonyl compound formation. The results of this study show that ROS may play a critical role in THP-induced cyt c modification and iron releasing of cyt c. When cyt c that has been exposed to THP was subsequently analyzed by amino acid analysis, lysine, histidine and methionine residues were particularly sensitive. It is suggested that oxidative damage of cyt c by THP might induce the increase of iron content in cells and subsequently led to the deleterious condition. This mechanism is associated with the deterioration of organs under neurodegenerative disorder such as PD.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.1770-1778
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• 2020

Objective: This study was conducted to reveal potential metabolic differences of dairy cows fed corn stover (CS) and rice straw (RS) instead of alfalfa hay (AH) as main forage source. Methods: Thirty multiparous mid-late lactation Holstein dairy cows were selected and randomly assigned to three diets, AH, CS, or RS (n = 10). After 13 weeks of the feeding trial, coccygeal arterial and superficial epigastric venous plasma samples were collected before morning feeding for gas chromatography time-of-flight/mass spectrometry analyses. Results: In the artery, 8 and 13 metabolites were detected as differential metabolites between AH and CS, and between AH and RS, respectively. The relative abundance of phenylpropanoate (log₂fold change [FC]) = 1.30, 1.09), panthenol (log₂FC = 2.36, 2.20), threitol (log₂FC = 1.00, 1.07), and 3,7,12-trihydroxycoprostane (log₂FC = 0.79, 0.78) were greater in both CS and RS than in AH, and tyrosine (log₂FC = -0.32), phenylalanine (log₂FC = -0.30), and pyruvic acid (log₂FC = -0.30) were lower in RS than in AH. In the vein, 1 and 7 metabolites were detected as differential metabolites between AH and CS, and between AH and RS, respectively. By comparing AH and RS, we found that metabolic pathways of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan biosynthesis and phenylalanine metabolism were enriched by integrative artery and vein analysis. Furthermore, AH and RS, arterial phenylpropanoate and 4-hydroxyproline were positively, and phenylalanine was negatively correlated with milk urea nitrogen. Finally, in AH and CS, arterial panthenol was negatively correlated with feed efficiency. Conclusion: Arterial metabolic profiles changed more than those in the veins from animals on three forage diets, differing in amino acids. We found that phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan biosynthesis and phenylalanine metabolism were restricted when cows were fed low-quality cereal straw diets.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.363-375
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• 2019

Fungal sectorization is a complex trait that is still not fully understood. The unique phenotypic changes in sporadic sectorization in mutants of CpBck1, a mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAPKKK) gene, and CpSlt2, a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) gene, in the cell wall integrity pathway of the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica have been previously studied. Although several environmental and physiological factors cause this sectoring phenotype, genetic variants can also impact this complex morphogenesis. Therefore, RNA sequencing analysis was employed to identify candidate genes associated with sectorization traits and understand the genetic mechanism of this phenotype. Transcriptomic analysis of CpBck1 and CpSlt2 mutants and their sectored progeny strains revealed a number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to various cellular processes. Approximately 70% of DEGs were common between the wild-type and each of CpBck1 and CpSlt2 mutants, indicating that CpBck1 and CpSlt2 are components of the same MAPK pathway, but each component governs specific sets of genes. Functional description of the DEGs between the parental mutants and their sectored progenies revealed several key pathways, including the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, translation, amino acid metabolism, and carbohydrate metabolism; among these, pathways for secondary metabolism and translation appeared to be the most common pathway. The results of this comparative study provide a better understanding of the genetic regulation of sector formation and suggest that complex several regulatory pathways result in interplays between secondary metabolites and morphogenesis.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.308-314
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• 2004

A degenerate set of PCR primers based on two conserved regions (heme binding region and oxygen ligand pocket) were designed and successfully applied to amplify DNA fragments of cytochrome P450 hydroxylase (CYP) genes from a rare actinomycetes, S. benihana. The PCR amplified products were employed as a DNA probe to clone the entire CYP genes from S. benihana genomic library. Five different CYP-positive cosmids were isolated by colony hybridization as well as PCR confirmation. The complete nucleotide sequencing of five different CYP genes revealed that each unique CYP showed a significant amino acid homology to previously-known CYP genes involved in streptomycetes secondary metabolism. In addition, four CYP genes (CYP502, CYP503, CYP504, CYP506) were found to be linked to ferredoxin genes in the chromosome, and the CYP503 gene showed the high degree of amino acid similarity to the previously well-characterized CYP105 family in streptomycetes.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.209-213
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• 1974

The isozymes of glutamic oxalacetic transaminase from young rice root were isolated by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography, and investigated some of their enzymic properties. Obtained results were summarized as follows: 1. 93 percent of GOT activity in rice root existed in supernatant fraction, and their specific activity exibited the same pattern. 2. The rice root contained two types of GOT isozyme; cationic and anionic GOT. It seemed that both of them were distributed in supernatant fraction. 3. GOT isozymes of rice root on the pH dependance showed their maximum activity at 7.4. 4. On the stability of GOT isozymes for temperature, anionic GOT was more unstable than cationic GOT. 5. Apparent Michaelis constant for L-aspartate of GOT isozymes from rice root showed 12-14mM in the cationic GOT and 16mM in the anionic GOT, respectively.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.850-855
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• 2007

Leptin is the adipocyte-specific product of the obese gene and plays a major role in food intake and energy metabolism. Leptin research was mainly focused on mammalian species, but understanding of leptin and its function in poultry is very poor. In this study, the duck leptin gene was amplified using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from duck liver RNA. The cDNA fragment was inserted into the pET-28a expression vector, and the resulting plasmid was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). Experimental mice were given an intraperitoneal injection of 10 mg/kg leptin dissolved in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), while the control mice were injected with PBS. The effect of leptin on food intake, body weight and fatty deposition in mice was detected. Sequence analysis revealed that duck leptin had a length of 438 nucleotides which encoded a peptide with 146 amino acid residues. The sequence shares highly homology to other animals. The coding sequence of duck leptin was 84 and 86% identical to human and pig leptin nucleotides sequence. Highest identity was with the rat coding sequence (95%). The identity of the amino acid sequence was 84, 82 and 96% respectively compared to that of the human, pig and rat. Results of SDS-PAGE analysis indicated that a fusion protein was specifically expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3). The purified product was found to be biologically active during tests. Continuous administration of recombinant duck leptin inhibited food intake. Despite the decrease of food intake, leptin significantly induced body weight and fatty deposition. These changes were accompanied by a significant down-secretion of plasma glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride and insulin levels in mice. The observations provide evidence for an inhibitory effect of leptin in the regulation of food intake and for a potential role of duck leptin in the regulation of lipogenesis.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.2 s.91
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• pp.88-92
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• 2005

Phosphorylation of amino acid residues in proteins, plays a major role in biological mechanism. Phosphorylation acts as a process regulating the protein activity in variable pathways such as metabolism, signal transduction and cell division. Therefore the development of ligands for phosphoamino acids are an important work for protein analysis and proteomics studies. In this study, RNA aptamers for o-phosphoserine, o-phosphotyrosine and o-phosphotyrosine which appears frequently in nature were developed by in vitro evolution method. We could obtain similar sequences from random RNAs of 40 mer by SELEX method through 10 cycles. As result, the aptamers for o-phosphoserine and o-phosphothreonine among phosphoamino acids aptamers showed high affinity of Kd=2.60 nM and 2.65 nM for their target molecules, respectively. In addition, these aptamers could be confirmed the high selectivity for their target.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.225-241
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• 2009

We investigated the transcriptional profiles of Japanese indigenous grape cultivar 'Koshu' (Vitis vinifera) leaf and berry skin during ripening. In leaf, 64 genes were abundantly transcribed at the end of $v{\acute{e}}raison$ (14 weeks post-flowering), whereas the expression of 61 genes was upregulated at the end of ripening (20 weeks post-flowering). In berry skin, 67 genes were abundantly transcribed at the end of $v{\acute{e}}raison$, whereas the expression of 86 genes was upregulated at the end of ripening. Gene expression associated with biological processes was activated in both tissues at the end of ripening. The expression of genes associated with photosynthesis, sugar synthesis, anthocyanin synthesis, cinnamic acid synthesis, and amino acid metabolism was observed in leaf and berry skin during ripening, together with the accumulation of sugars, anthocyanins, cinnamic acids, and amino acids. Transcripts of AUX/IAA family proteins that repress the activities of auxin-induced proteins were expressed in berry skin at the end of $v{\acute{e}}raison$. Transcripts of genes related to the ubiquitin-proteasome system that degrades AUX/IAA family proteins were abundantly expressed in berry skin at the end of ripening, suggesting that the expansion of skin cells at $v{\acute{e}}raison$ is suppressed by AUX/IAA family proteins, and that the ubiquitin-proteasome system induces the expansion of skin cells during ripening by degrading AUX/IAA family proteins. These transcriptional profiles, which provide new information on the characteristics of 'Koshu' grapevine during ripening, may explain the unique characteristics of 'Koshu' grape in comparison with those of European grapes used for winemaking, and may contribute to the improvement of 'Koshu' grape quality.