• Journal of Life Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.958-969
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• 2003

The human Y chromosome is strictly paternally inherited and does not X-Y crossing over during male meiosis in most of its length. Although this region came to be known as the non-recombining region Y (NRY), it was renamed as male-specific region Y (MSY) due to abundant recombination. The MSY is a mosaic of heterochromatic sequences and three classes of euchromatic sequences: X-transposed, X-degenerated and ampliconic. The X-transposed sequences exhibit 99% identity to the X chromosomal sequences. The X-degenerate sequences are remnants of ancient autosomes from which the modem X and Y chromosomes evolved. Eight palindromes of the ampliconic comprise one-quarter of the euchromatic DNA of the male-specific region of the human Y chromosome. They contain many testis-specific genes and typically exhibit 99.97% intra-palindromic (arm-to-arm) sequence identity. The arms of these palindromes must have subsequently engaged in gene conversion, driving the pair arms to evolve it concert. Averages of approximately 600 nucleotides per newborn male have undergone Y-Y gene conversion, which has had an important role in the evolution of multi-copy testis gene families in the MSY.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.355-361
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• 2020

This study was designed to assess the toxicity of capsaicin-containing (CP) pharmacopunture using an in vitro chromosomal aberrations in Chinese hamster lung (CHL/IU) cells. In order to determine the high dose level in the main study of this study, a dose range finding study was conducted first. The high dose was selected at 10.0% of CP pharmacopuncture extract, and then diluted sequentially to produce lower dose levels of 5.00, 2.50, 1.25, 0.625 and 0.313% by applying a geometric ratio of 2. As a result, the cytotoxicity and precipitation of the CP pharmacopuncture as a test substance were not evident at any dose level during short-time treatment with and without metabolic activation and continuous treatment without metabolic activation. Therefore, the dose levels for this study were chosen as 10.0, 5.0, and 2.5%., and the treatment volume was 1.3 mL. In addition, negative and positive controls were set. In main study, the frequency of cells with chromosome aberrations in CP treated groups was less than 5% in short-time treatment with and without metabolic activation and continuous treatment without metabolic activation. In addition, there was no statistically significant difference when compared to the negative control group. The frequency of cells with structural chromosomal aberrations in the positive control group was more than 10% compared to the negative control group, and it increased statistically significantly. In conclusion, under the conditions of this study, CP pharmacopuncture did not show the possibility of causing chromosome aberrations.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.391-397
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• 1998

The toxicity evaluation of oriental herbal drugs is of great concern at present. Bojungchisup-tang (BCST, in Korean), a decocted medicine of oriental herbal mixture, is now well used in clinic at oriental hospitals for the treatment of edema of several diseases in practice. However, the toxicity of the oriental herbal decocted medicines such as genetic toxicity is not well defined until now. In this respect, to clarify the genetic toxicity of BCST, in vitro chromosome aberration assay with Chinese hamster lung (CHL) fibroblasts and in vivo supravital micronucleus assay with mouse peripheral reticulocytes were performed in this study. In the chromosome aberration assay, we used 5,000 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml BCST as maximum concentration because no remarkable cytotoxicity in CHL cells was observed both in the presence and absence of S-9 metabolic activation system. No statistical significant differences of chromosome aberrations were observed in CHL cells treated with 5,000, 2,500 and 1,250 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml BCST for 6 hour both in the presence and absence of S-9 metabolic activation. However, very weak positive result (6.5-8.0% aberration) of BCST was obtained in the absence of S-9 metabolic activation system at 5,000 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml BCST when treated for 24 hour, i.e. 1.5 normal cell cycle time. And also, in vivo clastogenicity of BCST was studied by acridine orange-supravital staining micronucleus assay using mouse peripheral reticulocytes. We used 2,000 mg/kg as the highest oral dose in this micronucleus assay because no acute oral toxicity of BCST was observed in mice. The optimum induction time of micronucleated reticulocytes (MNRETS) was determined as 36 hours after oral administration of 2,000 mg/kg BCST. No significant differences of MNRETs between control and BCST treatment groups were observed in vivo micronucieus assay. From these results, BCST revealed very weak positive result in chromosome aberration assay in vitro with CHL cells and no clastogenicity in micronucieus assay in vivo.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.646-650
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• 2016

The influence of chromosome number on cell growth and cell aging was investigated in various yeast strains that have many artificial chromosomes constructed using a chromosome manipulation technique. Host strain FY833 and the YKY18, YKY18R, YKY24, and YKY30 strains harboring 16 natural chromosomes, 18 chromosomes, 18 chromosomes containing rDNA chromosome, 24 chromosomes, and 30 chromosomes, respectively, were used, and the specific growth rate of each strain was compared. The specific growth rates in the YKY18 and YKY24 strains were indistinguishable from that in the host strain, while those of the YKY18R and YKY30 strains were reduced to approximately 25% and 40% of the host strain level, respectively. Subsequently, the replicative life span was examined to investigate the relationship between the number of chromosomes and cell aging, and the life span was decreased to approximately 14% and 45% of the host strain level in the YKY24 and YKY30 strains, respectively. Moreover, telomere length, well known as a senescence factor, was shorter and more diversified in the strain, showing decreased life span. Therefore, these results suggest the possibility that an increase in the number of chromosomes containing artificial chromosomes caused cell aging, and we expected these observations would be applied to improve industrial strain harboring of versatile and special artificial chromosomes.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.446-450
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• 2007

Tiarella polyphylla D. Don(Saxifragaceae) is a perennial herb and distributed in China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Especially, it only grows in Ulleung island of Korea. It has been using for asthma, bruise and audition troubles with main components of some Triterpenoids and seven oleanolic Saponins. There is only known its chromosomal number rarely and cytogenetic study was not done. From this study, karyotype analysis and chromosomal localization of 5S and 45S rDNAs using bicolor-FISH(fluorescence in situ hybridization) were carried out. The somatic metaphase chromosome number was 2n=2x=14 and the size of chromosomes ranged $1.66{\sim}3.50{\mu}m$. The chromosome complement consisted of four pairs of submetacentrics(chromosomes 1, 2, 3 and 6), two pairs of subtelocentrics(chromosomes 5 and 7) and one pair of telocentrics(chromosome 4). We also observed NOR(nucleolus organizer region) on the chromosome 4. In bicolor-FISH, one pair of 55 and 45S rDNA sites was detected on the centromeric region of chromosome 3 and short arm of chromosome 4, respectively. Bicolor FISH was very useful tool for the localization and identification of rDNAs on the chromosomes in Tiarella polyphylla.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.225-229
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• 1988

A ginseng protein fraction which has been reported to have radiation protective effect was purified from Korean ginseng and its effects on relative survival and chromosome aberration were studied in UV irradiated CHO-K1 cells. When the protein fraction $(100\;{\mu}g/ml)$ was added to the cells before UV irradiation at 4\;J/$m^2$,, the survival rates were increased to 53.8% from 40.6% in control. Addition of the protein $(100\;{\mu}g/ml)$ after UV irradiation at 4 and $8\;J/m^2$ raised the rates to 85.4 and 24.0% from 79.2 and 11.5% in control, respectively. When the ginseng protein $(800\;{\mu}g/ml)$ was added to the cells exposed to UV light at 10, 20, $30\;J/m^2$, the frequencies of chromosome aberration (CA) were reduced significantly to almost same level regardless of the UV dose increment and there was no significant difference between pre- and post-treatment. When the concentration of ginseng protein was increased from 200 to $800\;{\mu}g/ml$, at UV dose of 10, 20, $30\;J/m^2$ each, the CA frequencies were decreased consistently as the dose of ginseng protein increased, at all UV doses tested. Similar effects were observed in both cases of pre- and post-treatment. The data suggest that the protein may reduce cell damage caused by UV light, especially damage to DNA molecule, or play a role in repair processes of damaged DNA, to increase cell survival and reduce chromosome aberrations.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.401-405
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• 2004

Karyotypes were established in the eight Korean native species of the genus Iris. Chromosome numbers were 2n=50 in I. koreana and 2n=42 in I. uniflora var. carinata and their karyotype formulas were K = 2n = 50 = 14m + 28sm + 8st and K = 2n = 42 = 16m + 26sm, respectively. I. dichotoma and I. pseudoacorus were diploids of 2n=34. However, they showed different karyotype formulas: K = 2n = 34 = 26m + 6sm + 2st in I. dichotoma and K = 2n = 34 = 8m + 24sm + 2st in I. pseudoacorus. I. setosa, and I. pallasii var. chinensis carried the same chromosome numbers of 2n=40, but they showed different patterns of karyotype formula: K = 2n = 40 = 22m + 14sm + 4st in I. setosa and K = 2n = 40 = 26m + 12sm + 2st in I. pallasii var. chinensis. I. sanguinea was a diploid of 2n=28 and the karyotype formula was K = 2n = 28 = 14m + 14sm. I. ensata var. spontanea was a diploid of 2n=24 and the karyotype formula was K = 2n = 24 = 10m + 14sm. Each species showed characteristic chromosome composition with a pair of satellite chromosome except I. koreana with three pairs of satellite chromosomes. The chromosomes of I. dichotoma and I. uniflora were comparatively short, while the chromosomes of I. ensata were remarkably bigger than those of other species. These cytological data will give a useful information for the identification and breeding program of the Iris plants.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.522-526
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• 2004

Prader-Willi (PWS) and Angelman (AS) are syndromes of developmental impairment that result from the loss of expression of imprinted genes in the paternal (PWS) or maternal (AS) 15q11-q13 chromosome. Diagnosis on a clinical basis is difficult in newborns and young infants; thus, a suitable molecular test capable of revealing chromosomal abnormalities is required. We used a variety of cytogenetic and molecular approaches, such as, chromosome G banding, fluorescent in situ hybridization, a DNA methylation test, and a set of chromosome 15 DNA polymorphisms to characterize a cohort of 27 PWS patients and 24 suspected AS patients. Molecular analysis enabled the reliable diagnosis of 14 PWS and 7 AS patients, and their classification into four groups: (A) 6 of these 14 PWS subjects (44%) had deletions of paternal 15q11-q13; (B) 4 of the 7 AS patients had deletions of maternal 15q11-q13; (C) one PWS patient (8%) had a maternal uniparental disomy (UPD) of chromosome 15; (D) the remaining reliably diagnoses of 7 PWS and 3 AS cases showed abnormal methylation patterns of 15q11-q13 chromosome, but none of the alterations shown by the above groups, although they may have harbored deletions undetected by the markers used. This study highlights the importance of using a combination of cytogenetic and molecular tests for a reliable diagnosis of PWS or AS, and for the identification of genetic alterations.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.154-158
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• 2005

Germ-line mutations of the BRCA1 gene confer an increased risk for breast and ovarian cancers. BRCA1 in female cells is directly related with the maintenance of the inactive X chromosome (Xi). The effect by the loss of the BRCA1 function on the X chromosome gene expression remains unclear in cancer cells. We attempted to investigate the expression pattern of the X-linked genes by performing BRCA1 knockdown via RNA interference in the MCF7 breast cancer cell line. The transcriptional and translational levels of BRCA1 were decreased over 95% in the MCF7 cells after BRCA1 knockdown. The expression patterns of one hundred ninety X-linked genes were profiled by the X chromosome-specific cDNA arrays. A total of seven percent of the X-linked genes (14/190) were aberrantly expressed by over 2-fold in the MCF7-BRCA1 knockdown cells, which contained two up-regulated genes (2/190, 1 %) and 12 down-regulated genes (12/190, 6.3%). It is interesting that 72% of the aberrantly expressed X-linked genes were located on the Xq (10/14,) region. Our data suggests that BRCA1 may not be important to maintain X chromosome inactivation in cancer because the BRCA1 knockdown did increase the expression of the only one percent of X-linked genes in the human breast cancer cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.184-189
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• 2012

We sought to breed an industrially useful yeast strain, specifically an ethanol-tolerant yeast strain that would be optimal for ethanol production, using a novel breeding method, called genome reconstruction, based on chromosome splitting technology. To induce genome reconstruction, Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain SH6310, which contains 31 chromosomes including 12 artificial mini-chromosomes, was continuously cultivated in YPD medium containing 6% to 10% ethanol for 33 days. The 12 mini-chromosomes can be randomly or specifically lost because they do not contain any genes that are essential under high-level ethanol conditions. The strains selected by inducing genome reconstruction grew about ten times more than SH6310 in 8% ethanol. To determine the effect of mini-chromosome loss on the ethanol tolerance phenotype, PCR and Southern hybridization were performed to detect the remaining mini-chromosomes. These analyses revealed the loss of mini-chromosomes no. 11 and no. 12. Mini-chromosome no. 11 contains ten genes (YKL225W, PAU16, YKL223W, YKL222C, MCH2, FRE2, COS9, SRY1, JEN1, URA1) and no. 12 contains fifteen genes (YHL050C, YKL050W-A, YHL049C, YHL048C-A, COS8, YHLComega1, ARN2, YHL046W-A, PAU13, YHL045W, YHL044W, ECM34, YHL042W, YHL041W, ARN1). We assumed that the loss of these genes resulted in the ethanol-tolerant phenotype and expect that this genome reconstruction method will be a feasible new alternative for strain improvement.