• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.69-78
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• 2010

Asymmetric cell division is a fundamental mechanism for the generation of body axes and cell diversity during early embryogenesis in many organisms. During intrinsically asymmetric divisions, an axis of polarity is established within the cell and the division plane is oriented to ensure the differential segregation of developmental determinants to the daughter cells. Studies in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have contributed greatly to our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms underlying cell polarity and asymmetric division. However, much remains to be elucidated about the molecular machinery controlling the spatiotemporal distribution of key components. In this review we discuss recent findings that reveal intricate interactions between translational control and targeted proteolysis. These two mechanisms of regulation serve to carefully modulate protein levels and reinforce asymmetries, or to eliminate proteins from certain cells.

• BMB Reports
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.335-343
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• 2021

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of cancer that can self-renew and differentiate into large tumor masses. Evidence accumulated to date shows that CSCs affect tumor proliferation, recurrence, and resistance to chemotherapy. Recent studies have shown that, like stem cells, CSCs maintain cells with self-renewal capacity by means of asymmetric division and promote cell proliferation by means of symmetric division. This cell division is regulated by fate determinants, such as the NUMB protein, which recently has also been confirmed as a tumor suppressor. Loss of NUMB expression leads to uncontrolled proliferation and amplification of the CSC pool, which promotes the Notch signaling pathway and reduces the expression of the p53 protein. NUMB genes are alternatively spliced to produce six functionally distinct isoforms. An interesting recent discovery is that the protein NUMB isoform produced by alternative splicing of NUMB plays an important role in promoting carcinogenesis. In this review, we summarize the known functions of NUMB and NUMB isoforms related to the proliferation and generation of CSCs.

• BMB Reports
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.529-534
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• 1999

Asymmetric PCR and single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) methods were combined to analyze human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB allele polymorphism. Asymmetric PCR amplification was applied to generate single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) using the nonradioactive oligonucleotide primers desinged for the polymorphic exon 2 region. The conformational differences of ssDNAs, depending on the allele type, were analyzed by nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and visualized by ethidium bromide staining. The ssDNAs were clearly separated from double-stranded DNA without interference and obviously migrated depending on their allele type. This method was applied to the genomic DNA either from homozygous or from heterozygous cell lines containing the DR4 allele as template DNA using DR4-specific primers, and satisfying results were obtained. Compared to the standard PCR-SSCP method, this asymmetric PCR-SSCP method has advantages of increased speed, reproducibility, and convenience. Along with PCR-SSP or sequence-based typing, this method will be useful in routine typing of HLA-DRB allele.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.524-529
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• 2016

Controlling the production of diverse cell/tissue types is essential for the development of multicellular organisms such as animals and plants. The Arabidopsis thaliana root, which contains distinct cells/tissues along longitudinal and radial axes, has served as an elegant model to investigate how genetic programs and environmental signals interact to produce different cell/tissue types. In the root, a series of asymmetric cell divisions (ACDs) give rise to three ground tissue layers at maturity (endodermis, middle cortex, and cortex). Because the middle cortex is formed by a periclinal (parallel to the axis) ACD of the endodermis around 7 to 14 days post-germination, middle cortex formation is used as a parameter to assess maturation of the root ground tissue. Molecular, genetic, and physiological studies have revealed that the control of the timing and extent of middle cortex formation during root maturation relies on the interaction of plant hormones and transcription factors. In particular, abscisic acid and gibberellin act synergistically to regulate the timing and extent of middle cortex formation, unlike their typical antagonism. The SHORT-ROOT, SCARECROW, SCARECROW-LIKE 3, and DELLA transcription factors, all of which belong to the plant-specific GRAS family, play key roles in the regulation of middle cortex formation. Recently, two additional transcription factors, SEUSS and GA- AND ABA-RESPONSIVE ZINC FINGER, have also been characterized during ground tissue maturation. In this review, we provide a detailed account of the regulatory networks that control the timing and extent of middle cortex formation during post-embryonic root development.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.67-74
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• 2007

• BMB Reports
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• v.51 no.11
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• pp.547-548
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• 2018

Phloem network integrates cellular energy status into post-embryonic growth, and development by tight regulation of carbon allocation. Phloem development involves complicated coordination of cell fate determination, cell division, and terminal differentiation into sieve elements (SEs), functional conduit. All of these processes must be tightly coordinated, for optimization of systemic connection between source supplies and sink demands throughout plant life cycle, that has substantial impact on crop productivity. Despite its pivotal role, surprisingly, regulatory mechanisms underlying phloem development have just begun to be explored, and we recently identified a novel translational regulatory network involving RNA G-quadruplex and a zinc-finger protein, JULGI, for phloem development. From this perspective, we further discuss the role of RNA G-quadruplex on post-transcriptional control of phloem regulators, as a potential interface integrating spatial information for asymmetric cell division, and phloem development.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1477-1486
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• 2009

Female germ cell meiotic divisions are typically asymmetric, giving rise to two daughter cells with different sizes. Spindle movements including spindle migration from the oocyte center to the cortex and spindle rotation from parallel to perpendicular (typically in the mouse) at the cortex are crucial for these asymmetric divisions and therefore are crucial for gamete production. Different regulatory mechanisms for spindle movements have been determined in different species and a wide variety of different molecular components and processes that are involved in spindle movements have also been identified in different species. Here, we review the current state of knowledge as well as our understanding of mechanisms for spindle movements in different systems with focus on three main aspects: microtubules (MT), microfilaments (MF) and molecules associated with cytoskeletal organization as well as molecules that are not directly related to the cytoskeleton. How they might interact or function independently during female meiotic divisions in different species is discussed in detail.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5947-5954
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• 2012

The cancer stem cell (CSC) model states that cancers are organized in cellular hierarchies, which explains the functional heterogeneity often seen in tumors. Like normal tissue stem cells, CSCs are capable of self-renewal, either by symmetric or asymmetric cell division, and have the exclusive ability to reproduce malignant tumors indefinitely. Current systemic cancer therapies frequently fail to eliminate advanced tumors, which may be due to their inability to effectively target CSC populations. It has been shown that embryonic pathways such as Wnt, Hedgehog, and Notch control self-renewal and cell fate decisions of stem cells and progenitor cells. These are evolutionary conserved pathways, involved in CSC maintenance. Targeting these pathways may be effective in eradicating CSCs and preventing chemotherapy or radiotherapy resistance.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.31 no.11A
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• pp.1076-1084
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• 2006

In this paper, we first review a concept of hybrid division duplexing (HDD) scheme, which has been proposed as a new type of duplexing scheme useful for a next generation mobile communication system and its implementation issues, including the unified radio resource management for HDD scheme. The HDD scheme maintains the advantages of both TDD and FDD at the same time while providing a useful structure to control the inter-cell interference, caused by an asymmetric traffic load of multimedia services over uplink and downlink in the TDD scheme. Employing two frequency bands, one for TDD scheme and the other for FDD scheme, uplink is operating under the TDD scheme only, while downlink is operating under the TDD or FDD scheme, depending on the location of mobile station. In the HDD scheme, therefore, it must determine a type of duplexing scheme to employ in the downlink and futhermore, a ratio of uplink and downlink duration to meet a given traffic load of asymmetric service, which requires some unified radio resource management for handling the subsequent inter-cell interference. In this paper, we propose a distributed adaptive control approach as a means of unified radio resource management for a HDD system that maximizes the overall system efficiency by fully utilizing the resource in TDD band, while minimizing the inter-cell interference.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.59-62
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• 2008

The peptide methionine sulfoxide reductases (Msrs) are enzymes that catalyze the reduction of methionine sulfoxide back to methionine. Because of two enantiomers of methionine sulfoxide (S and R forms), this reduction reaction is carried out by two structurally unrelated classes of enzymes, MsrA (E.C. 1.8.4.11) and MsrB (E.C. 1.8.4.12). Whereas MsrA has been well characterized structurally and functionally, little information on MsrB is available. The recombinant MsrB from Bacillus subtilis has been purified and crystallized by the hanging-drop vapor-diffusion method, and the functional and structural features of MsrB have been elucidated. The crystals belong to the trigonal space group P3, with unit-cell parameters a=b=136.096, $c=61.918{\AA}$, and diffracted to $2.5{\AA}$ resolution using a synchrotron-radiation source at Pohang Light Source. The asymmetric unit contains six subunits of MsrB with a crystal volume per protein mass $(V_M)\;of\;3.37{\AA}^3\;Da^{-1}$ and a solvent content of 63.5%.