• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.663-669
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• 2000

The fur (ferric uptake regulation) expression vector pMON2064 was modified to produce a Fur-fusion expression vector. A kinker site, factor Xa cleavage site, and several restriction endonuclease sites were introduced to facilitate easy cloning and isolating of the fusion protein. The resulting fusion expression vector, pMONSTER, was then used to make fusion expression vector, pMONSTER, was then used to make fusion proteins with $\beta$-galactosidase and the protease of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1 PR). Strain SW4020 harboring the Fur $\beta$-galactosidase fusion vector produced blue colonies on a 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-$\beta$-D-galactoside plate and the resulting 133 kDa fusion protein reacted with an anti-Fur antibody. The strain harboring the Fur-HIV-1 PR fusion vector produced a 29 kDa fusion protein, which also reacted with an anti-Fur antibody. The Fur-HIV-1 PR fusion protein was purified by a single column application that was designed to isolate the Fur protein. The purified Fur-HIV-1 PR fusion protein digested with factor Xa cleaved a recombinant Gag protein to release smaller fragments, including a p24 capsid protein. The Fur-HIV-1 PR fusion protein itself did not exhibit any proteolytic activity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.457-462
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• 2003

The complete nucleotide sequence of a plasmid, pMG1, isolated from Bifidobacterium longum MG1 has been determined. This plasmid, composed of 3,862 base pairs with 65.1% of G+C content. harbors two major open reading frames (ORF) encoding putative proteins of 29 kDa (ORF I) and 71 kDa (ORF II). ORF I showed relatively high amino acid sequence homology with replication proteins of other plasmids from Gr Im-positive and -negative bacteria. Upstream of ORF I, four sets of tandem repeat sequences resembling the iteron structure of related plasmids were found. S1 endonuclease treatment and Southern blot analysis revealed that pMG1 accumulates single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) intermediate, which indicate i the rolling circle replication (RCR) mechanism of this plasmid. Homology search indicated that ORF II encodes plasmid mobilization protein, and the presence of highly conserved oriT sequence in the upstream of this gene supported this assumption. RT-PCR showed that only ORF I is expressed in vivo. Based on these results, pMG 1 was exploited to construct a shuttle vector, pBES2. It was successfully transformed into Bifidobacterium and maintained stably.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2010

The contribution of a type II restriction-modification system (R-M system) to genome integrity and cell viability was investigated. We established experimental conditions that enabled the achievement of hemimethylated and unmethylated states for the specific bases of the recognition sequences of the host's DNA. To achieve this, we constructed the MboII R-M system containing only one (i.e., M2.MboII) out of two functional MboII methyltransferases found in Moraxella bovis. Using the incomplete R-M system, we were able to perturb the balance between methylation and restriction in an inducible manner. We demonstrate that upon the SOS-induced DNA repair in mitomycin C treated cells, restriction significantly reduces cell viability. Similar results for the well-studied wild-type EcoRI R-M system, expressed constitutively in Escherichia coli, were obtained. Our data provide further insights into the benefits and disadvantages of maintaining of a type II R-M system, highlighting its impact on host cell fitness.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.586-591
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation is closely related to miconazole-induced heart dysfunction. Although rhamnetin has antioxidant effects, it remained unknown whether it can protect against miconazole-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Thus, we investigated the effects of rhamnetin on miconazole-stimulated H9c2 cell apoptosis. MATERIALS/METHODS: Cell morphology was observed by inverted microscope and cell viability was determined using a WelCount$^{TM}$ cell proliferation assay kit. Miconazole-induced ROS production was evaluated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting with 6-carboxy-2',7'-dichlorofluoroscein diacetate ($H_2DCF$-DA) stain. Immunoblot analysis was used to determine apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE/Ref-1) and cleaved cysteine-aspartic protease (caspase) 3 expression. NADPH oxidase levels were measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Miconazole (3 and $10{\mu}M$) induced abnormal morphological changes and cell death in H9c2 cells. Rhamnetin enhanced the viability of miconazole ($3{\mu}M$)-treated cells in a dose-dependent manner. Rhamnetin (1 and $3{\mu}M$) treatment downregulated cleaved caspase 3 and upregulated APE/Ref-1 expression in miconazole-stimulated cells. Additionally, rhamnetin significantly reduced ROS generation. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that rhamnetin may have cytoprotective effects in miconazole-stimulated H9c2 cardiomyocytes via ROS inhibition. This effect most likely occurs through the upregulation of APE/Ref-1 and attenuation of hydrogen peroxide levels.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.550-555
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• 1995

A strain of Pseudomonas sp. isolated from soil was shown to produce a high level of extracellular endo-inulinase. In this work, the endo-inulinase gene (inu1) of the bacterial strain was cloned into the plasmid pBR322 by using EcoRI restriction endonuclease and E. coli HB101 as a host strain. One out of 7, 000 transformants obtained from the above cloning experiment formed a clear zone around its colony on the selective medium supplemented with 2.0% inulin after a prolonged incubation at 37$\circ$C and subsequent cold shock treatment. The functional clone was found to carry a recombinant plasmid (pKMG50) with a 3.7 kb genomic insert containing the genetic information for the inulinase activity. The inulinase from E. coli HB101/pKMG50 was proved to be an endo-acting enzyme and produced constitutively in the recombinant E. coli cells. Zymogram of the enzyme from the recombinant cells with inulin substrate indicated that the molecular mass of the active protein was 190 Kd, while that of the endo-inulinase from the Pseudomonas strain was 170 Kd. This size discrepancy suggested that the inulinase from the recombinant E. coli HB101 cells might be the initial product of translation, not the mature form produced in the strain of Pseudomonas sp..

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 1994

The homology among the genes coding for degradation of bipheny(BP) and 4-chlorobiphenyl(4CB) was comparatively analyzed by Southern hybridization in several BP/4CB degrading bacterial strains. As the hybridization results of their genomic DNAs with pcbABCD as the DNA probe, the group of Pseudomonas sp. DJ-12. P08 and P27 strain was separated by the group of P20 and P1242 strains. The P. pseudoalcaligenes KF707 showed the hybidization signal which was homologous to the group of DJ-12, but they had different restriction endonuclease sites. The pcbAB genes in pCUl recombinant plasmid from Pseudomonas sp. DJ-12 appeared to be homologous to pchAB genes in pKTF20 cloned from P. pseudoalcaligenes KF707, but the C genes in both strains were not homologous. The bphABC in pKTF20 showed the signals homologous to the cbp ACB in pAW6194 cloned from P. putida OU83, but homologous signal was not found botween the pcbABCD genes in pCUl and the cbpADCB genes in pAW6194 recombbinant plasmid.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.125-137
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• 2013

Promising evidence suggests that amyloid beta peptide ($A{\beta}$), a key mediator in age-dependent neuronal and cerebrovascular degeneration, activates death signalling processes leading to neuronal as well as non-neuronal cell death in the central nervous system. A major cellular event in $A{\beta}$-induced apoptosis of non-neuronal cells, including cerebral endothelial cells, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, is mitochondrial dysfunction. The apoptosis signalling cascade upstream of mitochondria entails $A{\beta}$ activation of neutral sphingomyelinase, resulting in the release of ceramide from membrane sphingomyelin. Ceramide then activates protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), a member in the ceramide-activated protein phosphatase (CAPP) family. PP2A dephosphorylation of Akt and FKHRL1 plays a pivotal role in $A{\beta}$-induced Bad translocation to mitochondria and transactivation of Bim. Bad and Bim are pro-apoptotic proteins that cause mitochondrial dysfunction characterized by excessive ROS formation, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage, and release of mitochondrial apoptotic proteins including cytochrome c, apoptosis inducing factor (AIF), endonuclease G and Smac. The cellular events activated by $A{\beta}$ to induce death of non-neuronal cells are complex. Understanding these apoptosis signalling processes will aid in the development of more effective strategies to slow down age-dependent cerebrovascular degeneration caused by progressive cerebrovascular $A{\beta}$ deposition.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.257-264
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• 2009

Subtyping of Brucella abortus isolates is epidemiologically important for monitoring of bovine brucellosis outbreaks. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is considered as a gold standard of molecular typing methods to study the DNA polymorphisms of bacteria. In this study, we analyzed using PFGE the DNA fragment profiles of B. abortus isolated in Gyeongbuk province from 1998 to 2006. The genomic DNA was digested with the restriction endonuclease Xba I, Xho I and Smi I followed gel electrophoresis. No distinguishable patterns of the genomic DNA digested with Xba I and Xho I were observed among the field isolates of B. abortus tested in this study. But Smi I restriction enzyme resulted in two PFGE patterns consisting of 13-15 bands that ranged in size from 33 to 668bp by standard marker. The cluster analysis by DNA fingerprinting software showed 93.75% similarity between two PFGE patterns. No different PFGE patterns were recognized among the isolates originated from various years, regions and cow breeds.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.357-363
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• 1986

Synthesis of threonine and methionine in yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae shares a common pathway from aspartate via homoserine. HOM6 gene encodes homoserine dehydrogenase (HSDH) which catalyzes the inter-conversion of beta-aspartate semialdehyde and homoserine. The level of HSDH is under methionine specific control. A recombinant plasmid (pEK1: 13.3kb), containing HOM6 gene, has been isolated and cloned into E. coli by complenemtary transformation of a homoserine auxotrophic yeast strain M-20-20D (hom6, trp1, ura3) to a prototrophic M20-20D/pEK1, using a library of yeast genomic DNA fragments in a yeast centromeric plasmid, YCp50(8.0kb). Isolation of HOM6has been primarily confirmed by retransformation of the original yeast strain M20-20D, using the recombinant plasmid DNA which was extracted from M20-20D/pEK1 and subsequently amplified in E. coli. Eleven cleavage sites in the insery (5.3kb) have been localized through fragment analysis for 8 restriction endonucleases; Bgl II(2 site), Bgl II(1), Cla I(3), Eco RI(1), Hind III(2), Kpn I (1), Pvu II(1) and Xho I(1).

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.144-149
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• 1991

Biochemical characteristics of Spodoptera uigua nuclear polyhedrosis virus (SeNPV) isolated in Jinju were studied. SeNPV contained a number of nucleocapsids within a viral envelope embeded in polyhedra. The polyhedral protein of SeNPV was composed of a single polypeptide with a M. W. of 30kd. Double-immunodiffusion test showed that the polyhedral protein of SeNPV had common antigenic determinants with SINPV and BmNPV. Virion proteins of SeNPV were resolved into 49 polypeptides by silver staining after SDS-PAGE. The approximate genome size of SeNPV by restriction endonuclease analysis was 1l0kb.