• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.14-18
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• 1997

The objective of this research was to increase phytoprotective effects by combined treatment of uniconazole and free radical scavengers such as ascorbic acid or sodium benzoate on $SO_2$ injury in P. occidentalis. The plant injury, chlorophyll content and enzyme activity of superoxide dismutase(SOD) and peroxidase(POD) affected by combined treatment were also investigated. The phytoprotective role of uniconazole was nullified by spray of Diethyldithiocarbamate(DDTC) resulting in the decrease of SOD and POD activities. Free radical scavengers, sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid, did not affect SOD and POD activity, but significantly inhibited the development of visible injury, degradation of chlorophyll, and SOD and POD activity in leaves exposed to $SO_2$. The spray of ascorbic acid decreased plant susceptibility to $SO_2$ induced by DDTC application. These results indicate that uniconazole application increase SOD activity that play a role of antioxidant in plant body, but sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid do not affect enzyme activities of SOD or POD.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.151-157
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• 2012

Purpose: Cyclooxygenase (COX) enzyme catalyzes the production of prostaglandins, which are important mediators of tissue destruction in periodontitis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms of $COX_2$ enzyme have been associated with increasing susceptibility to inflammatory diseases. The present study evaluates the association of two single nucleotide polymorphisms in $COX_2$ gene (-1195G>A and $8_{473}$C>T) with chronic periodontitis in North Indians. Methods: Both SNPs and their haplotypes were used to explore the associations between $COX_2$ polymorphisms and chronic periodontitis in 56 patients and 60 controls. Genotyping was done by polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism. Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were performed for association analysis. Results: By the individual genotype analysis, mutant genotypes (GA and AA) of $COX_2$-1195 showed more than a two fold risk (odds ratio [OR]>2) and $COX_2$ $8_{473}$ (TC and CC) showed a reduced risk for the disease, but the findings were not statistically significant. Haplotype analysis showed that the frequency of the haplotype AT was higher in the case group and a significant association was found for haplotype AT (OR, 1.79; 95% confidence interval, 1.03 to 3.11; P=0.0370) indicating an association between the AT haplotype of $COX_2$ gene SNPs and chronic periodontitis. Conclusions: Individual genotypes of both the SNPs were not associated while haplotype AT was found to be associated with chronic periodontitis in North Indians.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.67-78
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• 2001

Two species(Quercus mongolica, populus euramericana) of hardwood chips were subjected to steam explosion 25 kg/$cm^2$, for 6 min. The exploded woods were treated by the single or multi-stage chemical process with sodium hydroxide, sodium hypochlorite and sodium chlorite. The multi-stage treatment of exploded wood can be successfully removed lignin. Enzymatic hydrolysis rate of substrate varied from 25% for exploded wood to about 80% for the multi-chemical treated exploded wood. The enzymatic susceptibility was different among wood species. The multi chemical treatment of the exploded wood resulted in the high rate of glucose in the enzymatic hydrolyzate. Cellulase adsorption increased at high lignin content of substrates, while crystallinity, pore area and specific surface area of substrates did not affected enzyme adsorption. According to the proposed pretreatment and saccharification process in this study, it can be acquired about 37~40 kg of glucose from 100 kg of hardwood.

• Mycobiology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.102-107
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• 2010

We identified a gene for $\beta$-1,3-glucan synthesis (GBG1), a nonessential gene whose disruption alters cell wall synthesis enzyme activities and cell wall composition. This gene was cloned by functional complementation of defects in $\beta$-1,3-glucan synthase activity of the the previously isolated Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant LP0353, which displays a number of cell wall defects at restrictive temperature. Disruption of the GBG1 gene did not affect cell viability or growth rate, but did cause alterations in cell wall synthesis enzyme activities: reduction of $\beta$-1,3-glucan synthase and chitin synthase III activities as well as increased chitin synthase I and II activities. GBG1 disruption also showed altered cell wall composition as well as susceptibility toward cell wall inhibitors such as Zymolyase, Calcofluor white, and Nikkomycin Z. These results indicate that GBG1 plays a role in cell wall biogenesis in S. cerevisiae.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.242-248
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• 1979

To detect proper lytic assay conditions of the crude zumolyase from Arthrobacter luteus, effets of the various factors involved in the lytic system of Sacchromyces sake cultured with shaking in the malt extracts medium were investigated. The results are summarized as follows : 1. The susceptibilities of viable cells of S. sake from logarithmic growth phase to the lytic enzmye were much greater than those of the cells in lag and stationary phases. The cells cultured for 18 hr were the most susceptible to the enzyme. 2. Lytic activity of the enzyme toward the viable cells of S. sake was very low. It was, however, enhanced 4 folds of more by the pretreatment of the cells with 0.05 M sodium sulfite. 3. Lytic activity of the enzyme toward commercial baker's yeast cells was negligible, and the effect of sodium sulfite on the lysis of the cells also was nothing but a little. 4. The lyophilized cells of the baker's yeast showed more susceptibility to the lytic enzyme than viable cells of the yeast. No definite effect of sodium sulfite on the lysis of the lyophilized cells, however, was observed either baker's yeast of S. sake. 5. It appeared that the relationship between the reaction rate and the enzyme concentration on the lysis of the yeast cell walls followed enzyme kinetic theory, but one between the reaction rate and concentration of the yeast cells as substrates showed different pattern from that in enzyme kinetic theory. 6. After the preparation of crude zymolyase was kept at $7^[\circ}C$ for 10 days in the 0.05 M phosphate buffer, pH 7.5, the remainning lytic activity was about 80 %.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.94-105
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• 2001

Background : Examining the biological susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to pyrazinamide (PZA) in vitro is very difficult as PZA is inactive under normal culture conditions. The biological susceptibility test, an enzyme assay for Pzase activity, and a genetic test for pncA gene mutations, were performed in order to predict PZA resistance. Methods : 28 cultured clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were tested. The biological susceptibility was performed by the absolute concentration method using Lowenstein-Jensen media. The PZase activity was tested by means of Wayne's method. A 710-bp region includes the entire open reading frame of pncA was amplified and sequenced. Results : All six strains with positive PZase activity exhibited no pncA mutations with one strain showing a false resistance in the biological susceptibility test. Among the 22 strains with no PZase activity, 21 exhibited showed pncA mutations. In the biological susceptibility test, 20 strains were resistant, and one was susceptible, and the other flied to test. The mutation types varied with ten missense, one silent and one nonsense mutation 1 slipped-strand mispairing, and 6 frameshift mutations. Three strains had an adenine to guanine mutation at position -11 upstream of the start codon. Conclusion : The mutation at the pncA promotor region is frequent at -11 upstream position. Automatic sequencing of pncA is a useful tool for rapid and accurate detection of PZA resistant M. tuberculosis, and for demonstrating the epidemiological relatedness of the PZA resistant M. tuberculosis strains.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.20 no.4 s.51
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• pp.303-309
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• 2005

Essential hypertension has been considered as multifactorial disease resulted from the interaction of both environmental and genetic factors. The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an important role in the regulation of blood pressure homeostasis. Recently, a homologue of angiotensin I converting enzyme, ACE2 has been focused on as a candidate gene of essential hypertension in the experiments using animal model and human being. In this study, we carried out an association study in order to clarify the relationship between the A 1075G polymorphism in the ACE2 gene and essential hypertension in Korean subjects. Because this polymorphism is located on human chromosome X, the statistical analysis for each gender was performed separately. There were no significant differences in allele distribution of the A 1075G polymorphism in the ACE2 gene between normotensives and hypertensives in the both gender groups, respectively. However, this polymorphism was significantly associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) values in only female groups (P< 0.05). Thus, these results may suggest the probable role of ACE2 gene in the inter-individual susceptibility of female group to blood pressure variability.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.485-488
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• 2015

Background: Oxidative stress caused by the generation of reactive oxygen species plays an important role in human carcinogenesis. Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) Val-9Ala in the mitochondrial target sequence is the best known polymorphism of this enzyme. The purpose of the current research was to assess the association of MnSOD Val-9Ala genotypes with the risk of gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: This case-control study covered 54 gastric cancer patients compared to 100 cancer free subjects as controls. Extraction of DNA was performed on bioptic samples and genotypes were identified with a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. Results: The frequencies of MnSOD Ala/Ala, Ala/Val and Val/Val genotypes in healthy individuals were 24.3, 66.7 and 9%, respectively. However, in gastric cancer patients, Ala/Ala, Ala/Val and Val/Val were observed in 24.0, 48.0 and 28.0% (p=0.01). In patients the frequency of MnSOD Val allele was higher (52%) compared to that in controls (42%). Conclusions: The results of this study show a positive association between MnSOD Val-9Ala gene polymorphism and risk of gastric cancer disease in Iranian population.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.425-429
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• 2003

Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogen for cattle, causing various forms of subclinical and clinical mastitis and could be a causative agent of food poisoning, it produces various superantigenic exotoxins which have a great public health significance. A total of 72 S. aureus clinical isolates from dairy farms located in Kyunggi Province Korea were examined for the species identification by biochemical method, and for the detection of $\beta$-lactamase, enterotoxin and other exotoxins genes by PCR. The results of species identification by biochemical method agreed with those of PCR done with species specific primer STA-AU. $\beta$-lactamase is an enzyme closely associated with the resistance to antibiotic penicillin, which is an important means of treatment of mastitis, all the isolates were positive for the presence of genes encoding $\beta$-lactamase, which were reproduced in penicillin susceptibility disc assay. Six types of toxin genes, Staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE)A, SEB, SEC, SEE, toxic shock syndrome toxin (TSST-1) and exfoliative toxin A (ET A) were detected in 72 isolates by PCR associated genotypic method in this study, none of the isolates carried the genes for enterotoxin D (SED) and exfoliative toxin B (ETB). The occurrence rate of exotoxin genes rated as 12.5%, and the precision of the PCR identification results has been confirmed using the reference strains.

• Mycobiology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.204-208
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• 2017

Nosema ceranae is an obligate intracellular fungal parasite that causes mortality in honey bees and enhances the susceptibility of honey bees to other pathogens. Efficient purification of Nosema spores from the midgut of infected honey bees is very important because Nosema is non-culturable and only seasonably available. To achieve a higher yield of spores from honey bees, in this study, we considered that the initial release of spores from the midgut tissues was the most critical step. The use of 2 mm beads along with enzymatic treatment with collagenase and trypsin enhanced the homogenization of tissues and the yield of released spores by approximately 2.95 times compared with the use of common 3 mm beads alone. The optimal time for the enzyme treatment was determined to be 1 hr as measured by the yield and viability of the spores. A one-step filtration using a filter paper with an $8-11{\mu}m$ pore size was sufficient for removing cell debris. This method may be useful to purify not only N. ceranae spores but also other Nosema spp. spores.