• Journal of Plant Biology
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.9-13
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• 1996

A clone, LCM1, which encodes calmodulin (CaM) was isolated and characterized from monocot lily (Lilium longiflorum Thunb.) plants. The clone is 681 bps and contains the 447 bp coding region, 8 bp leader sequence, 210 bp 3'-untraslated region, and a poly(A) tail. The coding region of 149 amino acids encodes a protein of predicted Mr 17 kD. Comparison of the LCM1 amino acid sequence with other CaMs revealed that the protein is highly conserved among various living organisms. The expression level of calmodulin gene in lily was studied by RNA blot analysis. The LCM1 mRNA was present in all tissues tested. However, a higher level of calmodulin was observed in anther and floral bud. The level of calmodulin mRNA in anther was about 10 times higher than that in anther was about 10 times higher than that in vegetative tissues. The anther preferential expression of CaM in lily is currently investigated in dicot plants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제24권9호
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• pp.1232-1237
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• 2014

Lycopene, which is a well-known red carotenoid pigment, has been drawing scientific interest because of its potential biological functions. The current study reports that lycopene acts as a bactericidal agent by inducing reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated DNA damage in Escherichia coli. Lycopene treatment elevated the level of ROS-in particular, hydroxyl radicals ($^*OH$)-which can damage DNA in E. coli. Lycopene-induced DNA damage in bacteria was confirmed and we also observed cell filamentation caused by cell division arrest, an indirect marker of the DNA damage repair system, in lycopene-treated E. coli. Increased RecA expression was observed, indicating activation of the DNA repair system (SOS response). To summarize, lycopene exerts its antibacterial effects by inducing $^*OH$-mediated DNA damage that cannot be ameliorated by the SOS response. Lycopene may be a clinically useful adjuvant for current antimicrobial therapies.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국생물공학회 2003년도 생물공학의 동향(XII)
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• pp.582-586
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• 2003

There has been interest in developing gene therapy based on naked plasmid DNA for treating serum protein deficiencies and human erythropoietin (hEPO) is one of the candidate for gene therapy being Investigated most enthusiastically. We constructed novel plasmid DNA vectors pVAC-hEPOI/II/III which contain one, two, three hEPO gene(s) respectively for producing high level expression and secretion of hEPO in vitro and in vivo. NIH3T3 and COS7 cells were transfected transiently with these vectors and increase in hEPO expression in medium reached 2-5 fold in comparison with pSecTagB-hEPO. Intra muscular administrations of pVAC-hEPOI/II/III vectors into mice resulted in high level secretion of hEPO in the serum and corresponding increases in hematocrit level. In conclusion the transduction efficiency of naked plasmid vectors is one of the critical factors of a gene delivery system and these novel plasmid vectors will contribute to various gene therapy based on naked plasmid DNA.

• BMB Reports
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• 제40권6호
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• pp.895-898
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• 2007

The oxygen dependent regulation of DNA replication is an essential property of proliferating mammalian cells. In human T24 bladder cancer cells, several hours of hypoxia leads to reversible DNA replication arrest and re-entry of oxygen induces a burst of replication initiation. This short communication provides strong evidence that PD184352 initiates DNA replication in living hypoxic cells without elevating the oxygen level. PD184352 releases the regular hypoxic replicon arrest, however, at a low intensity compared to the effect of reoxygenation. Moreover, PD184352 shows no effect on normoxically incubated as well as reoxygenated T24 cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제8권6호
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• pp.669-675
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• 1998

Taq DNA polymerase exhibits a sizable drawback compared to the other thermophilic DNA polymerases in that it demonstrates lower proof-reading activity due to the deficiency of 3'-5'exonuclease activity. A study was undertaken to improve the 3'-5' exonuclease activity in the PCR of Taq DNA polymerase. The three-dimensional structural alignment of the polymerase and 3'-5' exonuclease domains from the pol I family DNA polymerases explains why Taq DNA polymerase has just a background level of 3'-5'exonuclease activity. A comparison indicated that the two polymerase domains are very similar in primary and tertiary conformations, even though Taq DNA polymerase carries a much shorter 3'-5'exonuclease domain than that of E. coli DNA polymerase I. Those two polymerase domains were interchanged between Taq DNA polymerase and E. coli DNA polymerase I. The 3'-5' exonuclease domain from E. coli DNA polymerase I was separated and pasted into the polymerase domain of Taq DNA polymerase I, which resulted in a functional fusion-Stoffel fragment. The 3'-5'exonuclease activity of the fusion-Stoffel fragment increased up to 48% of the value of the Klenow fragment, while that of Taq DNA polymerase remained at 6.0% of the Klenow fragment.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.289-295
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• 1998

Used gasoline engine oils(UGEO) are carcinogenic in long term studies and capable of increasing the number of carcinogen-DNA adducts in short term studies when dermally applied to mice. The carcinogenic risk of UGEO has been attributed to the concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAH) which accumulate in the lubricating system during the combustion of gasoline. When dermally exposed to UGEO, the use of hand cleanser was commonly recommended for removing it. But generally workers who dermally exposed oils, use kerosene as cleaner which make skin trouble. During this study, female mice aged 4-6 weeks were utilized to evaluate the efficiency of kerosene, as solvent-based cleanser, following dermal exposure to UGEO. DNA adduct were detected at skin and lung tissues by using the $^{32}P$-postlabeling method. Washing with cleansers were done at two different interval times following dermal application of UGEO. The total DNA adducts in skin and lung tissues were statistically significantly increased in positive control groups, and of which the total adduct level in skin tissues was statistically significant higher than those in lung tissues(p=0.005). When washing kerosene, the DNA adduct level in skin tissues was statistically significantly decreased(p=0.0001). But DNA adducts in lung tissue was statistically increased(p=0.0039), and that washed at 8hr post exposure was more severly increase(p<0.05). The slope of regression between DNA adducts of lung between skin tissues was 1.0802. In conclusion, skin cleaning with kerosene facilitates passage of carcinogens to the lungs of animals dermally treated with used gasoline engine oils(UGEO).

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• 제1권2호
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• pp.111-115
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• 2005

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation to mammalian skin is known to alter cellular function via generation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), DNA damage and DNA lesions, such as pyrimidine dimmers and photoproducts, which could lead to DNA mutation if they are not repaired. In this study, we have investigated the reduction of DNA damage and of apoptosis with a particular attention to genetic effect of paeoniflorin in Normal Human Epidermal Keratinocytes (NHEK). After UVB irradiation from $10\;to\;500mJ/cm^{2}$ to NHEK, Mean Tail Moments (MTM) were increased with UVB dose increase. The greatest amount of strand breaks was induced at $500mJ/cm^{2}$ of UVB. Even at the lowest dose of UVB ($10mJ/cm^{2}$), change in MTM was detected (P<0.0001). Pretreated cell with 0.1% paeoniflorin maximally reduced the level of DNA damage to about 21.3%, compared to untreated cell. In the lower concentrations less than 0.01% of paeoniflorin, MTM had a small increase but paeoniflorin still had reductive effects of DNA damage. We measured the apoptosis suppression of paeoniflorin with annexin V flous staining kit. As we observed under the fluorescence microscopy to detect apoptosis in the irradiated cell, the fluorescence intensity was clearly increased in the untreated cell, but decreased in treated cells with paeoniflorin. These results suggest that paeoniflorin reduces the alteration of cell membranes and prevents DNA damage. Therefore, the use of paeoniflorin as a free radical scavenger to reduce the harmful effects of UV lights such as chronic skin damage, wrinkling and skin cancer can be useful to prevent the formation of photooxidants that result in radical damage.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.71-77
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• 1994

In the animal model of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) induced by N-nitroso-N-methylurethane (NNNMU) the secretory activity of alveolar type H cells during acute alveolar injury was investigated by determining phospholipid and pulmonary surfactant associated proteins in crude surfactant. The mechanism of the secretory change was studied by determination of DNA and RNA levels in the lung tissue. After induction of acute alveolar injury with NNNMU, pulmonary hemorrhage, atelectasis and gross hypertrophy were observed. Seven days after NNNMU treatment the level of total DNA in lung homogenate was increased markedly indicating that a hypertrophy was induced by cellular proliferation. Although the total DNA level increased, the RNA/DNA ratio was gradually decreased after NNNMU treatment. Seven days after NNNMU treatment the RNA/DNA ratio returned to the normal control level. During the acute alveolar injury, phospholipid and surfactant associated proteins were reduced significantly as compared with the control, implying that the secretory activity of alveolar type II cells was altered during acute alveolar injury induced by NNNMU. The protein content in crude surfactant during peak injury(7 days after NNNMU) was decreased significantly but phospholipid/protein ratios were identical in both control and NNNMU treatment groups. SDS-PAGE of proteins in crude pulmonary surfactant showed a decrease in major surfactant associated protein(M.W. 38,000) during acute alveolar injury. The present study may suggest that while alveolar type H cells proliferate markedly, transcription of alveolar type ll cell gene was inhibited by an unknown mechanism such as DNA methylation induced by NNNMU. Such an inhibition of transcriptional activity is thought to be associated with the decreased secretory activity of alveolar type ll cells, which may lead to pulmonary atelectasis and edema during the acute alveolar injury.

• Journal of Korean Medical Science
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• 제33권52호
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• pp.337.1-337.14
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• 2018

Background: Mitochondrial heteroplasmy, the co-existence of different mitochondrial polymorphisms within an individual, has various forensic and clinical implications. But there is still no guideline on the application of massively parallel sequencing (MPS) in heteroplasmy detection. We present here some critical issues that should be considered in heteroplasmy studies using MPS. Methods: Among five samples with known innate heteroplasmies, two pairs of mixture were generated for artificial heteroplasmies with target minor allele frequencies (MAFs) ranging from 50% to 1%. Each sample was amplified by two-amplicon method and sequenced by Ion Torrent system. The outcomes of two different analysis tools, Torrent Suite Variant Caller (TVC) and mtDNA-Server (mDS), were compared. Results: All the innate heteroplasmies were detected correctly by both analysis tools. Average MAFs of artificial heteroplasmies correlated well to the target values. The detection rates were almost 90% for high-level heteroplasmies, but decreased for low-level heteroplasmies. TVC generally showed lower detection rates than mDS, which seems to be due to their own computation algorithms which drop out some reference-dominant heteroplasmies. Meanwhile, mDS reported several unintended low-level heteroplasmies which were suggested as nuclear mitochondrial DNA sequences. The average coverage depth of each sample placed on the same chip showed considerable variation. The increase of coverage depth had no effect on the detection rates. Conclusion: In addition to the general accuracy of the MPS application on detecting heteroplasmy, our study indicates that the understanding of the nature of mitochondrial DNA and analysis algorithm would be crucial for appropriate interpretation of MPS results.

• 대한수의학회지
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• 제43권2호
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• pp.211-218
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• 2003

Human ovarian cancerous cells survive in a way that they trigger the nucleotide excision repair (NER) or double-strand DNA repair (dsDNA) repair mechanism to show resistance to anticancer drugs and activate many kinds of repair protein, thus removing damaged DNAs. Two experiments on the PA-1 human ovarian teratocareinoma cell line that hardly has any expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) were conducted in the study; first, EGF-R was transfected and its receptor was obtained. The receptor was investigated in terms of its mutual relations with many kinds of protein concerning NER or dsDNA repair. Second, it was examined what kind impact cisplatin and adriamycin had on the effects of EGF-R over the PA-1 cell line lacking EGF-R. When being administered with cisplatin and adriamycin, Hey and Hey C2 cell lines showed a high level of resistance while PA-1 cell line a high level of sensitivity. Hey and Hey C2 cell lines that are resistant against anticancer drugs exhibited a high level of EGF-R expression while PA-1 cell line that is sensitive to them did a much lower level of the expression. When PA-1 cell line was transfected for the expression of DNA adduct and EGF-R, it showed a higher level of resistance compared to the control group. There was no difference in the expression of DNA repair proteins (DNA- dependent protein kinase, Ku70, and Ku80) between Hey and the PA-1 cell lines. The results indicate that the Hey cell line that is resistant against cisplatin and adriamycin works along the signaling system responding to the changes of EGF-R while the PA-1 cell line that is sensitive to both of them does to the lack of EGF-R.