• 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.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.453-458
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• 2007

Bacterial luciferase is a heterodimeric enzyme, which catalyzes the light emission reaction, utilizing reduced FMN (FMNH2), a long chain aliphatic aldehyde and $O_2$, to produce green-blue light. This enzyme can be readily classed as slow or fast decay based on their rate of luminescence decay in a single turnover. Mutation of Glu175 in $\alpha$ subunit to Gly converted slow decay Xenorhabdus Luminescence luciferase to fast decay one. The following studies revealed that changing the luciferase flexibility and lake of Glu-flavin interactions are responsible for the unusual kinetic properties of mutant enzyme. Optical and thermodynamics studies have caused a decrease in free energy and anisotropy of mutant enzyme. Moreover, the role of Glu175 in transition state of folding pathway by use of stopped-flow fluorescence technique has been studied which suggesting that Glu175 is not involved in transition state of folding and appears as surface residue of the nucleus or as a member of one of a few alternative folding nuclei. These results suggest that mutation of Glu175 to Gly extended the structure of Xenorhabdus Luminescence luciferase, locally.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.498-502
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• 1998

The present study was designed, fIrst to develop the new methodology to measure the bioluminescence activity easily in live developing bovine embryos by photoncounting, and secondly to compare the expression efficiency of four luciferase reporter genes in bovine embryos at four- to 16-cell stages. In experiment 1, equimolar pSVlacZ and pSVEluc were microinjected into the pronucleus of fertilized bovine oocytes. At 2 days after micro injection, bioluminescence activity of these embryos was measured by photoncounting with a luminometer for 1 min, and lacZ gene expression in the same embryos was assayed by X-gal staining. All the luciferase-positive oocytes showed some bacterial ${\beta}$-galactosidase activity irrespective of the intensity. In experiment 2, four firefly luciferase genes (pTKEluc, pTK6WEluc, pSVEluc and pMiwluc) were introduced by micro injection, and the injected embryos were cultured for the following 2 days. Detection of the luciferase gene expression was done by photoncounting at 5 to 55 min. Over the measurement period, the luciferase activity was almost constant irrespective of the transgenes microinjected. The luciferase activity and expression efficiency at 2 days after microinjection were not significantly affected by the difference in the microinjected transgenes. The present results demonstrated that the bioluminescence activity in live developing bovine embryos could be measured quickly by photoncounting.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.100-100
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• 2002

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.74-79
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• 2000

For the demonstration of a novel riboflavin kinase assay method based on the bacterial bioluminescence, partially purified riboflavin kinase was prepared from bovine liver through ammonium sulfate precipitation and DEAE-cellulose ion exchange chromatography. Using bacterial luciferase from Photobacterium phosphoreum and the dithionite reduction method, and easy, safe, and fast assay method was established. The optimal temperature, pH, Km values form riboflavin and ATP of boving liver riboflavin kinase determined with this luminescence method were 35$^{\circ}C$, pH 7, 15.3${\mu}$M and 8.3.${\mu}$M, respectively. The detection limit of FMN produced by riboflavin kinase was in the range of 200 pM to 4${\mu}$M which is comparable to the HPLC-fluorescence detection method, while the detection time for each assay was less than 15 sec compared to the HPLC method which requeires at least 10 min for completion.

• Proceedings of the Zoological Society Korea Conference
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• 1998.10b
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• pp.304.1-304
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• 1998

No Abstract, See Full Text

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.88-92
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• 1986

Determination of bacterial adenosine triphosphate (ATP) based on luciferin-luciferase bioluminescene reaction was applied to the measurement of bacteria on the surface of chicken as an alternative rapid method. The light yield was proportional to the concentration of ATP giving a straight line within a range of $10^{-10}\;to\;10^{-6}M$. The bacteria isolated from the surface of chicken were identified as Escherichia coli, Hafnia alvei, Pseudomonas putida and Aeromonas hydrophila. When the ATP contents of each bacteria were determined by bioluminescence reaction and compared, there was no significant difference (r = 0.95). The Patterns of growth curves for E. coli look very similar, when the bacterial growth was monitored by ATP content and viable cell count. When bacterial ATP of each samples collected every 2 days during storage for 14 days at $4^{\circ}C$was determined and compared with viable cell count, it gave a good correlation (r = 0.95, n = 32).

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.195-201
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• 2003

Aromatic hydrocarbons are of major concern among genotoxic chemicals due to their toxicity and persistence. Some microorganisms can utilize aromatic hydrocarbons as carbon and energy sources by inducing expression of catabolic operon(s). The XylR regulatory protein activates transcription of the catabolic enzymes to degrade BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) from its cognate promoters, Pu and Ps upon exposure of the cells to the aromatic hydrocarbons. The activity of XylR on the promoters was previously monitored using luciferase luc reporter system. The xylR, its promoter Pr and the promoter Po for the phenolic compound catabolic operon were introduced upstream of firefly luciferase luc in the pGL3b vector to generate about 7.1 kb of pXRBTEX. Here E. coli harboring the plasmid was freeze-dried under various conditions to fin,d optimal conditions for storage and transport. The cell viability and luciferase activity were maintained better, when the cells were freeze-dried at -7$0^{\circ}C$ in the addition of the 10% skim milk or 12% sucrose. However, coaddition of protectants such as 10% skim milk plus 10% glucose or 12% sucrose plus 10% glucose, resulted in much better viability and bioluminescence activity compared with the effect of single addition of each protectant. In addition, it was shown that the freeze-dried cells maintained almost intact bioluminescent activities and cell viability for at least 1 week after freeze-drying. This work demonstrated that the properly freeze-dried recombinant bacterial cells could be utilized as a whole-cell biosensor for simple and rapid monitoring of BTEX in the environment.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.131-135
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• 2014

Objective : With the growing interests of bacteria as a targeting vector for cancer treatment, diverse genetically engineered Salmonella has been reported to be capable of targeting primary or metastatic tumor regions after intravenous injection into mouse tumor models. The purpose of this study was to investigate the capability of the genetically engineered Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) to access the glioma xenograft, which was monitored in mouse brain tumor models using optical bioluminescence imaging technique. Methods : U87 malignant glioma cells (U87-MG) stably transfected with firefly luciferase (Fluc) were implanted into BALB/cAnN nude mice by stereotactic injection into the striatum. After tumor formation, attenuated S. typhimurium expressing bacterial luciferase (Lux) was injected into the tail vein. Bioluminescence signals from transfected cells or bacteria were monitored using a cooled charge-coupled device camera to identify the tumor location or to trace the bacterial migration. Immunofluorescence staining was also performed in frozen sections of mouse glioma xenograft. Results : The injected S. typhimurium exclusively localized in the glioma xenograft region of U87-MG-bearing mouse. Immunofluorescence staining also demonstrated the accumulation of S. typhimurium in the brain tumors. Conclusion : The present study demonstrated that S. typhimurium can target glioma xenograft, and may provide a potentially therapeutic probe for glioma.

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.788-793
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• 2006

Bacterial DNA containing immunostimulatory CpG motifs can stimulate antigen-presenting cells to express co-stimulatory molecules and to produce various cytokines in vivo and in vitro. In this study, we fragmented macromolecular E.coli genomic DNA with DNase I, and analyzed the ability of the resulting DNA fragments to induce the NF-${\kappa}B$ activation and humoral immune response. Furthermore, using computational analysis and luciferase assay for synthetic ODNs based on the sequence of the immunostimulatory DNA fragments (DF-ODNs), an active component of DF-ODNs sequences was investigated. Experimental results demonstrated that DF-ODN is optimal for the NF-${\kappa}B$-responsive promoter activation in the mouse macrophage cell line and the humoral immune response in vivo. In agreement with the activity of the DF-ODNs processed by DNase I, a synthetic ODN based on the DF-ODN sequences is potent at inducing IL-12 mRNA expression in primary dendritic cells. These results suggest that the discovery and characterization of a highly active natural CpG-ODN may be achieved by the analyses of bacterial DNA fragments generated by a nuclease activity.