• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.466-471
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• 2008

Three isoforms of pig PDE4B were cloned and classified as two forms: PDE4B1 and PDE4B3, which contain UCR1 and UCR2; and PDE4B2, which contains only UCR2. The amino acid sequences of each isoform showed good conservation in human and rat. PDE4B2 is expressed in a wide range of tissues, but PDE4B1 and PDE4B3 are not. Using an informative SNP for the Iberian x Landrace intercross detected from intron 12, a linkage map was constructed. The location of PDE4B was estimated at 123.6 cM outside of the QTL-CI (124-128 cM) for IMF. However, the QTL-CI for IMF was reconfirmed with high significance, and its position was narrowed down to an interval of 4 cM (the region defined by markers PDE4B and SW1881). Using radiation hybrid mapping, LEPR, LEPROT, DNAJC6, AK3L1 and AK3L2 were selected as positional and/or functional candidates related to the QTL.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1833-1840
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• 2007

Viruses in garlic plants (Allium sativum L.) have accumulated and evolved over generations, resulting in serious consequences for the garlic trade around the world. These viral epidemics are also known to be caused by aphids and eriophyid mites (Aceria tulipae) carrying Potyviruses, Carlaviruses, and Allexiviruses. However, little is known about viral epidemics in garlic plants caused by eriophyid mites. Therefore, this study investigated the infection of garlic plants with Allexiviruses by eriophyid mites. When healthy garlic plants were cocultured with eriophyid mites, the leaves of the garlic plants developed yellow mosaic strips and became distorted. In extracts from the eriophyid mites, Allexiviruses were observed using immunosorbent electron microscopy (ISEM). From an immunoblot analysis, coat proteins against an Allexivirus garlic-virus antiserum were clearly identified in purified extracts from collected viral-infected garlic plants, eriophyid mites, and garlic plants infected by eriophyid mites. A new strain of GarV-B was isolated and named GarV-B Korea isolate 1 (GarV-B1). The ORF1 and ORF2 in GarV-B1 contained a typical viral helicase, RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRp), and triple gene block protein (TGBp) for viral movement between cells. The newly identified GarV-B1 was phylogenetically grouped with GarV-C and GarV-X in the Allexivirus genus. All the results in this study demonstrated that eriophyid mites are a transmitter insect species for Allexiviruses.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.753-759
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• 2002

$\beta$-Cyclodextrin glucanotransferase ($\beta$-CGTase) was overproduced extracellularly using recombinant E. coli by transforming the plasmid pECGT harboring a secretive signal peptide. The $\beta$-CGTase gene of alkalophilic Bacillus firmus var alkalophilus was inserted into the high expression vector pET20b(+) containing a secretive pelB signal peptide, and then transformed into E. coli BL2l(DE3)pLysS. The optimum culture conditions fer the overproduction of $\beta$-CGTase were determined to be TB medium containing 0.5% (w/v) soluble starch at post-induction temperature of $25^{\circ}C$. A significant amount of $\beta$-CGTase, up to 5.83 U/ml, which was nine times higher than that in the parent strain B. firmus var. alkalophilus, was overproduced in the extracellular compartment. A pH-stat fed-batch cultivation of the recombinant E. coli was also performed to achieve the secretive overproduction of $\beta$-CGTase at a high cell density, resulting in production of up to 21.6 U/ml of $\beta$-CGTase.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.330-336
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• 2005

Lactococcus lactis A164 is a nisin Z-producing strain isolated from kimchi. Its antimicrobial spectrum has been found to be active against most Gram-positive bacteria tested, yet inactive against Gram-negative bacteria [3]. Accordingly, to overcome this drawback, the current study attempted to express human $\beta$-defensin-l (hBD-l), which kills both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in L. lactis AI64. When the hBD-l cDNA was introduced using a nisin Z-controlled expression cassette, the L. lactis A164 transformants grew very poorly, due to the bactericidal effect of the expressed hBD-l against the transformants. Therefore, a gene fusion system was designed to reduce the toxicity of the expressed heterologous protein against the host cells. As such, the hBD-l gene was fused to the DsbC- Tag of pET -40b(+), then introduced to L. lactis A 164. The transformants expressed an intracellular 35.6-kDa DsbC-hBD-l fusion protein that exhibited slight activity against the host cells, yet not enough to strongly inhibit the cell growth. To obtain the recombinant hBD-l, the DsbC-hBD-l fusion protein was purified by nickel-affinity column chromatography, and the DsbC-Tag removed by cleaving with enterokinase. The cleaved mature hBD-l exhibited strong bactericidal activity against E. coli JM109, indicating that the recombinant L. lactis A 164 produced a biologically active hBD-I. In addition, the recombinant L. lactis A 164 was also found to produce the same level of nisin Z as the wild-type.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.628-635
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• 2001

Recombinant E. coli DH5$\alpha$ harboring a dextransucrase gene (dsrB742) produced an extracellular dextransucrase in a 2% sucrose medium. The enzyme was purified by DEAE-Sepharose and Phenyl-Sepharose column chromatographies upto a 142.97-fold purification with a 11.11% recovery to near homogeneity. The enzyme had a calculated molecular mass of 168.6 kDa, which was in good agreement with the activity band of 170 kDa on a nondenaturing SDS-PAGE. An expression plasmid was constructed by inserting the dsrB742 into a pRSET expression vector. The activity after expression in E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS increased about 6.7-fold compared to the extracellular dextransucrase from L. mesenteroides B-742CB. The expressed and purified enzyme from the clone showed similar biochemical properties (acceptor reaction, size of active dextransucrase, optimum pH, and temperature) to B-742CB dextransucrase, however, the ability to synthesize ${\alpha}$-(1$\rightarrow$3) branching decreased in comparison to that of L. mesenteroides B-742CB dextransucrase.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.293-300
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• 2006

The Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit (HLT-B) is one of the most powerful mucosal immunogens and known mucosal adjuvants. However, the induction of high levels of HLT-B expression in E. coli has proven a difficult proposition. Therefore, in this study, the HLT-B gene was cloned from pathogenic E. coli and expressed as a fusion protein with GST (glutathion S-transferase) in E. coli BL2l (DE3), in an attempt to harvest a large quantity of soluble HLT-B. The culture conditions, including the culture media used, temperature, pH and the presence of lactose as an inducer, were all optimized in order to obtain an increase in the expression of soluble GST-rHLT-B. The biological activity of the purified rHLT-B was assayed in a series of GMI-ELISA experiments. The findings of these trials indicated that the yield of soluble recombinant GST-rHLT-B could be increased by up to 3-fold, as compared with that seen prior to the optimization, and that lactose was a more efficient alternative inducer than IPTG. The production of rHLT-B, at 92 % purity, reached an optimal level of 96 mg/l in a 3.7 L fermentor. The specific GM1 binding ability of the purified rHLT-B was determined to be almost identical to that of standard CTB.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.13
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• pp.5515-5519
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• 2015

The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) ss469415590 in the interferon lambda-4 (IFNL4) gene has recently been reported to have an association with treatment response in chronic hepatitis C. However, any importance of the SNP in association with response to pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is unclear. We retrospectively analyzed data for Thai patients with CHB treated with PEG-IFN for 48 weeks. Virological response (VR) for HBeAg-positive CHB was defined as HBeAg seroconversion plus HBV DNA level <2,000 IU/mL at 24 weeks post-treatment. VR for HBeAg-negative CHB was defined as an HBV DNA level <2,000 IU/mL at 48 weeks. The SNP was identified by real time PCR using the TaqMan genotyping assay with MGB probes. A total 254 patients (107 HBeAg-positive and 147 HBeAg-negative) were enrolled in the study. The distribution of TT/TT, ${\Delta}G/TT$ and ${\Delta}G/{\Delta}G$ genotypes was 221 (87.0%), 32 (12.6%) and 1 (0.4%), respectively. Patients with non-TT/TT genotypes had significantly higher baseline HBV DNA levels than patients with the TT/TT genotype. In HBeAg-positive CHB, 41.2% of patients with TT/TT genotype versus 50.0% with non-TT/TT genotype achieved VR (P=0.593). In HBeAg-negative CHB, the corresponding figures were 40.3% and 43.5%, respectively (P=0.777). There was no significant correlation between the SNP genotypes and HBsAg clearance in both groups of patients. In summary, ss469415590 genotypes were not associated with response to PEG-IFN in Thai patients with HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative CHB.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.288-299
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• 2018

Food bio preservation is of major interest in the food industry. Many types of antimicrobial compounds can be produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB), including bacteriocins. Bacteriocins increase the shelf-life of food by decreasing some food-borne diseases. In this study, a multi-coding sequence of bacteriocin genes was used for primer design to produce bacteriocin genes in Enterococcus faecium AH2 strain and Pediococcus pentosaceus AH1. Multi-coding sequences were aligned to detect conserved sequences in the bacteriocin gene. Eight genes encoding proteins involved in bacteriocin production were isolated and sequenced, including six from E. faecium AH2 (entA, entI, entF, entR, orfA2, orfA3) and two from P. pentoceseus AH1 (papA, pedB), and all gene sequences were deposited in the Gen Bank database under accession numbers LC064146-LC064151, LC101300, and LC101789, respectively. P. pentosaceus AH1 and E. faecium AH2 strains displayed bacteriocin activities of $2610AU\;mL^{-1}$ and $690AU\;mL^{-1}$ and inhibition zones of 26 mm and 19 mm, respectively. Overexpression of entA in E. faecium AH2 increased the bacteriocin and antimicrobial activities.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.347-356
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• 2019

Bacillus sp. BS2 showing strong fibrinolytic activity was isolated from sea squirt (munggae) jeotgal, a traditional Korean fermented seafood. BS2 was identified as B. velezensis by molecular biological methods. B. velezensis BS2 grows well at 15% NaCl and at $10^{\circ}C$. When B. velezensis BS2 was cultivated in TSB broth for 96 h at $37^{\circ}C$, the culture showed the highest fibrinolytic activity ($131.15mU/{\mu}l$) at 96 h. Three bands of 27, 35 and 60 kDa were observed from culture supernatant by SDS-PAGE, and fibrin zymography showed that the major fibrinolytic protein was the 27 kDa band. The gene (aprEBS2) encoding the major fibrinolytic protein was cloned, and overexpressed in heterologous hosts, B. subtilis WB600 and E. coli BL21 (DE3). B. subtilis transformant showed 1.5-fold higher fibrinolytic activity than B. velezensis BS2. Overproduced AprEBS2 in E. coli was purified by affinity chromatography. The optimum pH and temperature were pH 8.0 and $37^{\circ}C$, respectively. $K_m$ and $V_{max}$ were 0.15 mM and $39.68{\mu}M/l/min$, respectively, when N-succinyl-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe-pNA was used as the substrate. AprEBS2 has strong ${\alpha}$-fibrinogenase and moderate ${\beta}$-fibrinogenase activity. Considering its high fibrinolytic activity, significant salt tolerance, and ability to grow at $10^{\circ}C$, B. velezensis BS2 can be used as a starter for jeotgal.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.451-453
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• 2002

A new concept of "photo" -antisense method has been evaluated, where the inhibition of gene expression by the conventional antisense method is enhanced by photochemical binding between antisense oligonucleotides conjugated with photo-reactive compound and target mRNA or DNA. Fluorescein labeled oligodeoxyribonucleotides (F-DNA) was delivered to cell nuclei in the encapsulated form in multilamellar lecithin liposomes with neutral charge. F-DNA was previously shown to photo-bind to the complementary stranded DNA, and the delivery system using neutral liposome to be effective in normal human keratinocytes. In the present study, we used human kidney cancer G401.2/6TG.1 cell line to be advantageous in reproducible experiments. p53 was adopted as a target gene since antisense sequence information has been accumulated. The nuclear localization ofF-DNA was identified by comparing the fluorescence ofF-DNA with that of Hoechst 33258 under fluorescence microscope. After 7hr incubation to accumulate p53 protein induced by UV -B, p53 protein was quantified by Western blot. After 2hrs from F-DNA application, about 30% of cell population incorporated F-DNA in their nuclei with some morphological change possibly due to liposomal toxicity. Irradiation of visible light longer than 400nm from solar simulator at this time enhanced the inhibitory action of antisense F-DNA. The present results suggest that photo-antisense method is promising to control gene expression in time and space dependent manner. Further improvement of F-DNA delivery to cancer cells in the stability and toxicity is in progress. progress.