• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2005

Telomeres consisting of (TTAGGG)n tandem repeat DNA sequences and associated proteins are essential for chromosome stability and related with cell senescence, apoptosis and cancer. The telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein which act as a template for the synthesis of telomeric DNA. This study was carried out to identify the distribution of telomeres on mouse chromosomes and also to analyze the amount of telomeres and telomerase activity of mouse embryos at early embryonic stages. Germ cells and early embryos from 1 cell to blastocyst stage were analyzed. The amount of telomeres was analyzed by quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization technique(Q-FISH) using a human telomeric DNA probe, and telomerase activity was measured by telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay(TRAP). In results, the telomeres on mouse chromosomes were distributed at the ends of all autosomes and sex chromosomes. Although the quantity of telomeres varied among chromosomes, most of chromosomes had higher amount in q-arm telomeres than in p-arm telomeres. The results of Q-FISH indicated that the relative amount of telomeres of mouse embryos in each embryonic stage was approximately the same except the higher amount in blastocysts. Using TRAP assay on mouse embryos, telomerase activity was detected in all preimplantation stages from mature oocytes to blastocysts. Especially the telomerase activity was significantly increased at the morula and blastocyst stage. In conclusion, there may be a close association between the amount of telomeres and telomerase activity in early embryonic stages, and analysis of telomere quantity and telomerase activity on early development will be helpful for the investigation of embryogenesis and embryonic cell differentiation in mice.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.26-45
• /
• 1980

Silk protein is synthesized in the silkgland of silkworm, Bombyx mori L. It is evident that silk productivity is one of the high heritable characters from the genetical aspects. It is also changed with the environmental circumstances. With this regard, this paper dealt with the varietal patterns of silkgland development and the factors concerning to the silk productivity of silkgland of silkworm by the synthesis of nucleic acids, profiles of amino acids and histological basis, using the eight parent silkworm varieties and their F$_1$ hybrids. 1. The weight of silkgland per larva increased proportionally in the F$_1$ hybrids which were crossed between longer silk yielding varieties. The silk content to the weight of the silkgland was higher in the longer silk yielding varieties than that in the shorter silk yielding varieties. 2. It was observed that the morphological changes of nuclei took place in the posterior silkgland cells with the larval development of the 5th instar. In varietal aspect, Jam 107 and Jam 108, longer silk yielding varieties, showed more branches in nuclei than the $N_2$ and $C_{60}$ which were shorter yielding ones. 3. It was observed that there was a high correlation between RNA content per unit weight of silkgland on the 6th day stage of 5th instar and silk productivity both in the parents and their F$_1$ hybrids. 4. RNA and DNA synthesis brought about thirty percent increase in the posterior silkgland of the longer silk yielding varieties during the 2nd day to the 4th day stages of the 5th instar, when compared with those in the posterior silkgland of the shorter silk yielding varieties. 5. RNA/DNA ratio in the posterior silkgland on the 2nd day and 4th day stages of the 5th instar was more increased in the longer silk yielding varieties than the shorter silk yielding varieties. 6. It was shown that DNA content for the longer silk yielding varieties came to be 374$\mu\textrm{g}$ per larva in the posterior division of silkgland on the 4th day stage of 5th instar, whereas it was 199$\mu\textrm{g}$ per larva for the shorter silk yielding varieties. 7 There was 34.8％ Alanine, 22.8％ Glycine, 9.1％ Serine and 7.3％ Tyrosine in the posterior division of silkgland as major amino acids. It is noticed that there was a little differences between the amino acids composition of posterior silkgland and silk fibroin. 8. There was some differences in the amino acids composition of posterior silkgland between pure lines and their hybrids. Glycine, Serine and acidic amino acids, essential to silk formation, seemed to be increased in the F$_1$ hybrids, whereas other amino acids such as Valine, Iso-leucine, Leucine, Lysine. Phenylalanine, Histidine and Arginine were reduced. 9. The content of Glycine, Alanine and Serine in the posterior division of silkgland was elevated in the longer silk yielding varieties than the others. Consequently. these three amino acids in the posterior silkgland seemed to be related to the silk yielding ability in the longer silk yielding varieties.s.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2013

Potato is the 4th important crop along with rice, wheat and maize. It contains high quality of starch with relatively high content of vitamin C and protein. However, there is a nutritionally limiting factor due to a low level of sulphur-containing essential amino acid including methionine and cysteine. Recently, recombinant DNA technology and metabolic engineering with genes involved in the bio-synthetic pathway have been applied to enhance the level of these essential amino acids. In this report, it has been discussed about the current status and bottleneck on the development of transgenic potato containing high level of sulphur-containing essential amino acids.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.167-172
• /
• 2000

Twenty-five halotolerant gram-positlve bacteria were isolated from the coastal seawater 01 Cheju Island and Incheon J&yakdo Chemosystematic and phenotypic characteristics were used to iuvestigate the taxonomic position of these bacteria. According to their chemosystematic characteristics, the twenty-tive isolates were divided into 4 groups. Group 1 bacteria possesed 40.1 to 49.9 inol% m DNA G+C content, menaquinone-7 as a major quinone, and meso-Alpm as a diamino acid of peptidoglycan. Group 1 tam were identified as Bacilluspumilis, Bacillus lichenifbrrizis, Bacillus megaterium, Bncill~rsubtilis. Group 2 bacteria possessed 63.9 to 66.4 mol% and MK-8. They were all in the genus Arth~obaclm-. Group 3 bacteria possessed 31.0 to 37.6 mol% and MK-7. They were identified as Staphylococcus haeniol.viicvs, Siaph~~lococc~is sapropl~j~ticns, and Siaphylococcus intermediru.. Group 4 bacterium possessed 72.0mol% and MK-8 and was identified as ~Lficrococcus ltdtezm. Bacillus species accounted for 68% of h e total isolates.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.37 no.10
• /
• pp.1244-1250
• /
• 2008

This study was carried out investigate the effects of chungkukjang added with onion (OC) and chungkukjang (C) on the lipid and antioxidant metabolisms of hypercholesterolemic rats. Thirty-two male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups after 1-week adaptation period and were fed a normal diet, high fat-cholesterol diet (HC), HC-OC or HC-C for 8 weeks, respectively. The supplementation of HC-OC and HC-C groups significantly reduced hepatic total cholesterol and AST activity. HC-C group increased high density lipoprotein, while decreasing low density lipoprotein and AI compared with HC-OC group. Conjugated dienes of HC-C group was significantly lower than those of HC-OC group. $H_2O_2$ induced DNA damage reduced significantly in HC-OC and HC-C groups compared with high fat-cholesterol diet group. $H_2O_2$ induced DNA damage exhibited significant positive correlations with hepatic total cholesterol, AST and CD. These results suggested that supplementation of chungkukjang or chungkukjang added with onion might be helpful in preventing lipid oxidation and leukocytic DNA damage. However, the health beneficial effect has not improved by the addtion of onion in chungkukjang.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.547-554
• /
• 2004

Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures at the ends of chromosomes consisting of tandem repeat sequences of . (TTAGGG)n. Telomeres serve as guardians of the genome, protect individual chromosomes within the nucleus, and help in meiotic pairing of homologous chromosomes. To investigate the telomere distributions of cattle and pig chromosomes, fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH) was carried out on metaphase spreads of in vitro fibroblast cultures from Holstein and Landrace using a human telomeric DNA repeat probe. Results indicate that the distinct double spots on both ends of chromosomes of cattle and pigs were observed. In cattle, there was a random variation in the intensity of telomere signals among chromosomes. In pigs, an interstitial telomeric signal was observed on the chromosome 6q1 of all the cells examined. According to quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization(Q-FISH) analysis, some chromosomes had consistently much more telorneres at one end of chromosomes. In general, both species had consistently much more telomeres at q-end than p-end on most of chromosomes. The relative amount of telomeres on bovine chromosomes was higher than that on pig chromosomes. In additions, Y chromosome had the highest relative amount of telorneres in cattle and pigs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.269-275
• /
• 2008

The avocado is a widely grown and consumed fruit that is high in nutrients and low in calories, sodium, and fats. In this study, antioxidant activities and induction of apoptosis by methanol extracts from sarcocarp, seed and peel of avocado were investigated in vitro. Contents of total polyphenols in methanol extracts from sarcocarp, seed and peel were 13.89, 137.12 and $223.45{\mu}g/mg$ respectively. Radical-scavenging activities of the methanol extracts were examined by using ${\alpha},{\alpha}$-diphenyl-${\beta}$-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assay. The methanol extracts from the peel of avocado showed higher scavenging activities against DPPH, ABTS than those from sarcocarp and seed. Apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 cells mediated by the methanol extracts of avocado was associated with the increase of activation of caspase-3 and caspase-3 target protein, PARP. Therefore, with more researches on identification and action mechanism of active compounds, the methanol extracts from peel and seed of avocado is expected to be a natural source for the developments of functional food and medical agents to prevent human breast cancer.

• Journal of Aquaculture
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.55-62
• /
• 1993

A tetraploid cyprinid loach, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus was induced by applying heat shock. The efficiency of inductions changed with the time of initiation of treatment and the duration of treatment. The highest incidence of tetraploid was obtained at the treatment of $41^{\circ}C$ for 3 min, 28 min after fertilization. Ploidy level was estimated by kariological examination and flow cytometric analysis. The tetraploid cyprinid loach had 4n = 100 chromosomes, while the diploid had 2n = 50. The erythrocytic volume of the tetraploid was 1.65 times larger than that of the diploid. The DNA content of the tetraploid and diploid showed 6.547 pg/cell and 3.067 pg/cell, respectively.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.560-565
• /
• 1990

When protoplasts from auxotrophie mutant of Trkhoderma koningii CUT121(Lys-, Met-) were mixed with isolated nuclei of wild type T. koningii ATCC 261 13 and treated with PEG solution, protrophic colonies were produced with frequency of more than 30 percent. One of segregants from prototrophic colonies showed increased xylanase activity and other polysaccharide-hydrolyzing activities comparable to those of wild type strain. Through measurement of DNA contents, induced segregation, and analysis of isozyme patterns, it was revealed that the prototrophic colonies were transformants resulted from exchange of genetic materials between the two kinds of nuclei used. These results suggest that nuclei transfer technique is more efficient than conventional protoplast fusion technique for strain improvement of Trichoderma species.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.182-186
• /
• 1988

The possibility of strain improvement of cellulolytic fungus, Penicillium verruculosum via protoplast fusion was investigated. The cellulolytic activities of the six fusants, finally selected for their hyper-cellulolytics were 2 times of those of wild type and 1.2 to 4.4 times of those parental auxotrophs. It was confirmed that the nuclear fusion occurred in fusants by their DNA contents and nuclear staining with Giemsa. It was also found that the fusants were aneuploids, and their genetic stability was demonstrated from the subculture for four months.