• BMB Reports
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• v.47 no.11
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• pp.625-630
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• 2014

Defensins, which are small cationic molecules produced by organisms as part of their innate immune response, share a common structural scaffold that is stabilized by three disulfide bridges. Coprisin is a 43-amino acid defensin-like peptide from Copris tripartitus. Here, we report the intramolecular disulfide connectivity of cysteine-rich coprisin, and show that it is the same as in other insect defensins. The disulfide bond pairings of coprisin were determined by combining the enzymatic cleavage and mass analysis. We found that the loss of any single disulfide bond in coprisin eliminated all antibacterial, but not antifungal, activity. Circular dichroism (CD) analysis showed that two disulfide bonds, Cys20-Cys39 and Cys24-Cys41, stabilize coprisin's ${\alpha}$-helical region. Moreover, a BLAST search against UniProtKB database revealed that coprisin's ${\alpha}$-helical region is highly homologous to those of other insect defensins.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.356-366
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• 2018

The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is one of the most common and economically important pests of stored cereal products worldwide. Furthermore, these beetles can act as vectors for several fungal post-harvest diseases. In this study, we collected T. castaneum from 49 rice processing complexes (RPCs) nationwide during 2016-2017 and identified contaminating fungal species on the surface of the beetles. Five beetles from each region were placed on potato dextrose agar media or Fusarium selection media after wet processing with 100% relative humidity at $27^{\circ}C$ for one week. A total of 142 fungal isolates were thus collected. By sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region, 23 fungal genera including one unidentified taxon were found to be associated with T. castaneum. The genus Aspergillus spp. (28.9%) was the most frequently present, followed by Cladosporium spp. (12.0%), Hyphopichia burtonii (9.2%), Penicillium spp. (8.5%), Mucor spp. (6.3%), Rhizopus spp. (5.6%), Cephaliophora spp. (3.5%), Alternaria alternata (2.8%) and Monascus sp. (2.8%). Less commonly identified were genera Fusarium, Nigrospora, Beauveria, Chaetomium, Coprinellus, Irpex, Lichtheimia, Trichoderma, Byssochlamys, Cochliobolus, Cunninghamella, Mortierella, Polyporales, Rhizomucor and Talaromyces. Among the isolates, two known mycotoxin-producing fungi, Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium spp. were also identified. This result is consistent with previous studies that surveyed fungal and mycotoxin contamination in rice from RPCs. Our study indicates that the storage pest, T. castaneum, would play an important role in spreading fungal contaminants and consequently increasing mycotoxin contamination in stored rice.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.156-158
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• 2012

A synthetic coprisin analog peptide, 9-mer dimer CopA3 (CopA3) was designed based on a defensin-like peptide, Coprisin, isolated from the bacteria-immunized dung beetle Copris tripartitus. Here, CopA3 was investigated for its antimicrobial activity and cancer cell growth inhibition. CopA3 showed antimicrobial activities against various pathogenic bacteria and yeast fungus with MIC values in 2~32 ${\mu}M$ ranges, and inhibited the cell viabilities of pancreatic and hepatocellular cancer cells, except MIA-Paca2, Hep3B, and HepG2 cells, in a dose-dependent manner. The average $IC_{50}$ values of CopA3 against pancreatic and hepatocellular cancer cells were 61.7 ${\mu}M$ and 67.8 ${\mu}M$, respectively. The results indicate that CopA3 has potential in the treatments of pancreatic and hepatocellular cancers as well as microorganism infection disease.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.869-876
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• 2016

Cantharidin (CTD) is an active compound isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine blister beetle and displayed anticancer properties against various types of cancer cells. However, little is known about its effect on human chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells, including imatinib-resistant CML cells. The objective of this study was to investigate whether CTD could overcome imatinib resistance in imatinib-resistant CML cells and to explore the possible underlying mechanisms associated with the effect. Our results showed that CTD strongly inhibited the growth of both imatinib-sensitive and imatinib-resistant CML cells. CTD induced cell cycle arrest at mitotic phase and triggered DNA damage in CML cells. The ATM/ATR inhibitor CGK733 abrogated CTD-induced mitotic arrest but promoted the cytotoxic effects of CTD. In addition, we demonstrated that CTD downregulated the expression of the BCR-ABL protein and suppressed its downstream signal transduction. Real-time quantitative PCR revealed that CTD inhibited BCR-ABL at transcriptional level. Knockdown of BCR-ABL increased the cell-killing effects of CTD in K562 cells. These findings indicated that CTD overcomes imatinib resistance through depletion of BCR-ABL. Taken together, CTD is an important new candidate agent for CML therapy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2000

The feeding preference of cigarette beetles, Lasioderma serricorne F., was tested using various leaf litters. The number of the trapped L. serricome was 45.25$\pm$10.44 at flue-cured leaf tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum L., 23.50$\pm$6.0 at chinese juniper, Juniperus chinensis L., 1l.75$\pm$4.99 at oak, Qqercus acutissiuma C., and 1l.50$\pm$2.52 at rice-straw, (Oryza. sativa L.). The response of oviposition was 93.20$\pm$26.22 at flue-cured leaf tobacco, 53.60$\pm$11.82 at chinese juniper, 48.20$\pm$20.90 at oriental arborvitae, Thuja orientalis L., 31.80$\pm$18.10 at cherry-tree, Prunus serrulata var. spontanea M., and 29.40$\pm$13.7 at rice-straw. However, the oviposition was respectively low at gingko, Ginkgo biloba L.,(5.40$\pm$2.97), turf grass, Zoysia japonica S., (5.20$\pm$13.7), and oak (3.00$\pm$l.41). The augmentation was maximum at chinese juniper (27.33$\pm$19.44 of emerged adults) followed by Magnolia obovata (8.50$\pm$9.33). Fifty percent of the tested species leaf litters including cherry-tree did not show any augmentation. The adult activities after hibernation were primarily found in May and June at Kwangju and Suwon, and in April at Chungju. The field activity of L. serricome at Suwon was mostly lower than that at other places, except in August at Chungju. The first appearance of L. serricome was observed earlier at Chungju and Kwangju than at Suwon, and the frequency of insect appearance was high in July, August, and September. L. serricome could hibernate by feeding on many kinds of plant leaf litters and it's population could be maintained in the open field in Korea.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2001

The antennal sensilla of the adult male and female ladybird beetle, Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Nine types of sensilla were characterized and grouped into 5 morphological classes: $B\ddot{o}hm$, basiconic, chetiform, coeloconlc, and trichoid sensilla. $B\ddot{o}hm$ sensilla were localized on the scape and pedicel, part of the ventral and dorsal proximal side. This placement suggests a role in proportion of antennal position and movement. Basiconic and chetiform sensilla were divided into 3 subtypes by morphology and length differences. Trichoid sensilla are confined to the last 2 flagellum segments on both sexes. Sexual dimorphism of antennal sensilla is limited to the three types of difference. The principal characteristics of this dimorphism are the following: a) The distribution of sensilla was differ from male and female in antennae. b) Males exhibit coeloconic sensilla not present in females; c) Females posses more trichoid sensilla than males. The possible role of specific dilference of the sensilla in intersexual communication is discussed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.258-264
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• 2005

The objectives of this study were to study 1) emergence of pine bark beetles, 2) larval density in residual timber on Idlest land by each felling season, and 3) the secondary damage rates in the tended forest. Pine forest land which had undergone tending had a higher secondary damage ratio $(59.6\%)$ by pine bark beetles than forest land that was not tended $(2.8\%)$. The number of escape holes averaged 11.3 0.31 per $250 cm^2$ on the bark of leaf trees in the tended forest. The number of escape holes was higher in the Jinju site than in the Hamyang site. The larval habitat density of pine bark beetles as compared with each felling period was higher after mid-October than in forests tended early in October. Thus, forests should be tended before early October in order to prevent secondary damage from pine bark beetles. Secondary damage in the tended forest was higher in the upper part $(75.5\%)$ of the tree crown than in the lower part $(49.2\%)$. The damage was higher in terminal shoots $(80\%)$ than in lateral shoots $(48\%)$. Therefore, secondary damage by pine bark beetles can cause deterioration of the elongation growth of the forest trees. In conclusion, if by-products of tended pine forest forests are neglected, they will be utilized as a propagation site for pine bark beetles (Blastophagus piniperda L). The propagated adults will damage the tender shoots of the leaf trees and thus seriously limittheir elongation.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2002

These studies were carried out to investigate the fumigant toxicity, the contact toxicity and the ovipositional repellency of 25 monoterpenoids against oak longicorn beetle adults, Moechotypa diphysis. Monoterpenoids with 100% of fumigant toxicity were 1, 8-cinehone, fenchone, pulegone and (equation omitted)-terpinene at 20 (equation omitted)/954 ml (air) concentration, pulegone and (equation omitted)-terpinen at 10 (equation omitted)/954 ml (air) concentration, pulegone at 5 (equation omitted)/954 ml (air) concentration. Most monoterpenoids showed low or no contact toxicity but only pulegone showed about 70% mortality. Some monoterpenoids which had repellency to female adults with Y-tube olfactometer were bornylacetate, carvacrol, 1, 8-cineole and menthol at 1 (equation omitted) dose, while citronellol showed attractant response. Carveol, geraniol and perillyl alcohol of 25 monoterpenoids showed ovipoistional repellency of 82.1%, 78.3%, 87.5%, respectively, at the concentration of 1,000 ppm in the laboratory condition. In the field, the result tested with three monoterpenoids indicated that geraniol was the most effective one at the concentration of 10,000ppm and 1,000 ppm, but residual effect wasn't found.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.350-356
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• 2017

We previously reported that the CopA3 peptide (LLCIALRKK, ${\small{D}}-form$) originally isolated from the Korean dung beetle has antimicrobial and immunosuppressive effects. However, the high cost of producing the synthetic peptide, especially the ${\small{D}}-form$, has limited the development of CopA3 for therapeutic purposes. Here, we investigated whether the CopA3 deletion derivative, CopA5, which is composed of only five amino acids (LLCIA) and has the ${\small{L}}-form$ structure, could inhibit the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced activation of macrophages. Peritoneal exudate macrophages (PEM) were isolated from mice and exposed to LPS in the presence or absence of CopA5, and biomarkers of macrophage activation were measured. Our results revealed that LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) production, tumor necrosis factor $(TNF)-{\alpha}$ secretion, and phagocytic activity of PEM were significantly inhibited by CopA5 treatment. Similar to CopA3, the structurally modified CopA5 peptide had no cell toxicity (as assessed by measurement of cell viability loss and apoptosis) in PEM. Moreover, the LPS-induced upregulation of the activating phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) was markedly inhibited by CopA5 treatment. These results suggest that, similar to CopA3, CopA5 inhibits macrophage activation by inhibiting STAT1 phosphorylation and blocking the release of NO and $TNF-{\alpha}$. CopA5 may therefore prove therapeutically useful in the realm of immune suppression.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2007

Investigation of carabid beetles as on ecological indicator species for wetland characterization and monitoring was conducted in three types of wetlands such as emergent wetland, forested wetland, and estuary, During the investigation period, twenty-eight species belonging to twenty-two genera and three families(Carabidae, Harpalidae, Brachinidae) were identified. The diversity of carabid beetles at riverine wetland such as Woopo (H'=1.18) and Hwapo-neup (H'=1.08) were higher than in the forested wetland (H'=1.03) and estuarine (H'=0.91). Species compositions in each wetland were significantly different(${\chi}^2=1716.8$, P<0.01). Riverine wetlands differed significantly from the forested wetland. Indicator species for the wetland chose with indicator species analysis were reacted sensitively on the parameter such as soil composition, moisture of soil, and environmental change. Thus, it was consequently suggested that these indicator species may be applied for wetland characterization and monitoring of the wetland ecosystem.