• Animal cells and systems
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.195-198
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• 2001

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) polymerase, which possesses the activities of terminal binding, DNA polymerase, reverse transcriptase and RNaseH, has been shown to accomplish viral DNA replication through a pregenomic intermediate. Because the HBV polymerase has not been purified, the expression of HBV polymerase was examined in an E. coli expression system that is under the regulation of arabinose operon. The expressed individual domain containing terminal binding protein, polymerase, or RNaseH turned out to be insoluble. The activities of those domains were not able to be recovered by denaturation and renaturation using urea or guanidine-HCI. The expressed reverse transcriptase containing the polymerase and RNaseH domains became extensively degraded, whereas the proteolysis was reduced in a Ion- mutant. These results indicate that Lon protease proteolyzes the HBV reverse transcriptase expressed in E. coli.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.155-162
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• 2001

Advanced drinking water production systems, which not only good quality product water, but also provide easy management and mainenance of facilities, and operate on a smaller site area, have been expected to be developed for some time. We are going ahead with a program to deveop an advanced drinking water production system, using immersed membrane filtration combined with biological activated carbon, to meet the need described above. The demonstration plant tests been conducted with surface water from the Yodo-river since Dec. 1998 to measure treatment performance, reliability, and controllability of the system. The quality of product water has consistently remained at a very high level for about 2 years under controlled conditions. Results showed that the re-circulation granular biological activated carbon could suppress the increase of membrane pressure difference and promote a reduction of dissolved organic matter. (This work has been conducted along the ACT21 Programs.)

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.240-248
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• 2012

We used a non-invasive technique with microsatellite primers to investigate genetic variation among Eurasian otters Lutra lutra in eastern South Korea. We collected twenty two otter spraints in January and six in August 2008. We used spraints from five dead otters from five different river systems for the present genetic analysis. We extracted DNA from 20 spraints from the January sample. Ten microsatellite primers (Lut435, Lut453, Lut457, Lut604, Lut615, Lut701, Lut715, Lut717, Lut733, and Lut832) for Eurasian otters were tested, and four loci were successfully amplified for further analyses. The results of genotyping the otter population with microsatellite loci lead to the identification of 9 individuals from the Ungokcheon Stream. The Ungokcheon population also showed a genetic structure represented by the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.105-109
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• 2004

Aminoalcoholphosphotransferase catalyzes the synthesis of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine from diacylglycerol plus a CDP-aminoalcohol such as CDP-choline or CDP-ethanolamine. Previously we suggested the presence of possible isoforms of this enzyme from Chinese cabbage roots and now report the cDNA cloning and expression analysis of AAPT3 encoding a third isoform of aminoalcoholphosphotransferase (AAPT3). AAPT3 contains an open reading frame of 1,176 bp coding for a protein of 392 amino acids. It shares 96 and 95% identity with Chinese cabbage AAPT1 and AAPT2, respectively, at the deduced amino acid level. The results from reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis indicate that expression of AAPT3 is up-regulated by low temperature as well as AAPT1 and AAPT2.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.125-130
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• 2006

We have examined the bioaccumulation patterns and the ecophysiological responses (photosynthetic pigment and total antioxidative capacity) of Monochoria korsakowi exposed to various cadmium concentrations, one of major environmental pollutants. Cadmium ion contents in M. korsakowi increased significantly with higher cadmium concentration, and most of the accumulated cadmium was found in the root parts. Biomass of each part decreased with higher cadmium concentration. As cadmium treatment concentration was increased, chlorophyll a content was decreased, whereas chlorophyll b content was increased. However, the variations of total chlorophyll and carotenoid contents were not evident. Total antioxidative capacity in the leaves of cadmium treated M. korsakowi increased greatly with higher cadmium concentration. We considered these results as indicative of the ability of M. Korsakowi plants to take up cadmium from wetlands.

• Vacuum Magazine
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.18-22
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• 2017

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a versatile and powerful technique that enables direct visualization of biological samples of sizes ranging from whole cell to near-atomic resolution details of a protein molecule. Thanks to numerous technical breakthroughs and monumental discoveries, 3D electron microscopy (3DEM) has become an indispensable tool in the field of structural biology. In particular, development of cryo-electron microscopy(cryo-EM) and computational image processing played pivotal role for the determination of 3D structures of complex biological systems at sub-molecular resolution. Here, basis of TEM and 3DEM will be introduced, especially focusing on technical advancements and practical applications. Also, future prospective of constantly evolving 3DEM field will be discussed, with an anticipation of great biological discoveries that were once considered impossible.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2004

Gene expression profiles may offer more information than morphology and provide an alternative to morphology- based tumor classification systems. Informative gene selection is finding gene subsets that are able to discriminate between tumor types, and may have clear biological interpretation. Gene selection is a fundamental issue in gene expression based tumor classification. In this report, techniques for selecting informative genes are illustrated and supervised shaving introduced as a gene selection method in the place of a clustering algorithm. The supervised shaving method showed good performance in gene selection and classification, even though it is a clustering algorithm. Almost selected genes are related to leukemia disease. The expression profiles of 3051 genes were analyzed in 27 acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 11 myeloid leukemia samples. Through these examples, the supervised shaving method has been shown to produce biologically significant genes of more than $94\%$ accuracy of classification. In this report, SVM has also been shown to be a practicable method for gene expression-based classification.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.376-380
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• 2004

In August 2003, the water quality of offshore waters along the Incheon coast of Korea was evaluated by biological evaluation using gametes, embryos and early development systems of a starfish species (Asterina pectinifera). As the result of performing biological evaluations on seawater samples from a total thirteen sites, the formation rate of normal larva was 16-68%. At seawater sample from site 5 and 13, formation rate of normal larva averaged 16%, the most abnormal rate hindering the early embryo development of the experimental animal, while that of site 3 averaged 68%, the highest formation rate of normal larva. At seawater sample from site 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, formation rate of normal larva averaged 33-54%, those which damage the development of early embryos slightly. At seawater sample from site 1, 5, 6, 8, 13, formation rate of normal larva averaged 16-28%, those which damage the development of early embryos strongly.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.spc1
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• pp.101-109
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• 2005

To gain maximal benefit in a competitive environment, single-celled bacteria have adopted a community genetic regulatory mechanism, known as quorum sensing (QS). Many bacteria use QS signaling systems to synchronize target gene expression and coordinate biological activities among a local population. N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs) are one family of the well-characterized QS signals in Gram-negative bacteria, which regulate a range of important biological functions, including virulence and biofilm formation. Several groups of AHL-degradation enzymes have recently been identified in a range of living organisms, including bacteria and eukaryotes. Expression of these enzymes in AHL-dependent pathogens and transgenic plants efficiently quenches the microbial QS signaling and blocks pathogenic infections. Discovery of these novel quorum quenching enzymes has not only provided a promising means to control bacterial infections, but also presents new challenges to investigate their roles in host organisms and their potential impacts on ecosystems.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2012

Membrane proteins play a essential role in the biological systems and it is not easy to handle a membrane protein for its structural study. Solid-state NMR (ssNMR) can be a good tool to investigate the structures and dynamics of membrane proteins. In ssNMR, Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) and Cross Polarization (CP) can be utilized to reduce the line-broadening, leading to high resolution and sensitivity in the spectrum. ssNMR, if combined with other spectroscopic methods, can provide us a enough knowledge on structures and dynamics of membrane proteins in biological condition.