• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제16권9호
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• pp.1468-1471
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• 2006

The last step in L-carnitine biosynthesis in eukaryotic organisms is mediated by ${\gamma}$-butyrobetaine hydroxylase (EC1.14.11.1), a dioxygenase that converts ${\gamma}$-butyrobetaine to L-carnitine. This enzyme was previously identified from rat liver and humans, and the peptide sequence of human ${\gamma}$-butyrobetaine hydroxylase was used to search the Neurospora crassa genome database, which led to an identification of an open reading frame (ORF) consisting of 1,407 bp encoding a polypeptide of 468 amino acids. When this protein was expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the crude cell-free extract exhibited ${\gamma}$-butyrobetaine hydroxylase activity.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.27.1-27.6
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• 2018

The non-coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes encodes a language that programs chromatin accessibility, transcription factor binding, and various other activities. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of the primary DNA sequence on the epigenomic landscape across a 200-base pair of genomic units by integrating 127 publicly available ChromHMM BED files from the Roadmap Genomics project. Nucleotide frequency profiles of 127 chromatin annotations stratified by chromatin variability were analyzed and integrative hidden Markov models were built to detect Markov properties of chromatin regions. Our aim was to identify the relationship between DNA sequence units and their chromatin variability based on integrated ChromHMM datasets of different cell and tissue types.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• 제3권4호
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• pp.14.1-14.9
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• 2011

Protein homology detection is an important issue in comparative genomics. Because of the exponential growth of sequence databases, fast and efficient homology detection tools are urgently needed. Currently, for homology detection, sequence comparison methods using local alignment such as BLAST are generally used as they give a reasonable measure for sequence similarity. However, these methods have drawbacks in offering overall sequence similarity, especially in dealing with eukaryotic genomes that often contain many insertions and duplications on sequences. Also these methods do not provide the explicit models for speciation, thus it is difficult to interpret their similarity measure into homology detection. Here, we present a novel method based on Word Conservation Score (WCS) to address the current limitations of homology detection. Instead of counting each amino acid, we adopted the concept of 'Word' to compare sequences. WCS measures overall sequence similarity by comparing word contents, which is much faster than BLAST comparisons. Furthermore, evolutionary distance between homologous sequences could be measured by WCS. Therefore, we expect that sequence comparison with WCS is useful for the multiple-species-comparisons of large genomes. In the performance comparisons on protein structural classifications, our method showed a considerable improvement over BLAST. Our method found bigger micro-syntenic blocks which consist of orthologs with conserved gene order. By testing on various datasets, we showed that WCS gives faster and better overall similarity measure compared to BLAST.

• BMB Reports
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• 제48권12호
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• pp.685-690
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• 2015

The eukaryotic genome is packed into chromatin, which is important for the genomic integrity and gene regulation. Chromatin structures are maintained through assembly and disassembly of nucleosomes catalyzed by histone chaperones. Asf1 (anti-silencing function 1) is a highly conserved histone chaperone that mediates histone transfer on/off DNA and promotes histone H3 lysine 56 acetylation at globular core domain of histone H3. To elucidate the role of Asf1 in the modulation of chromatin structure, we screened and identified small molecules that inhibit Asf1 and H3K56 acetylation without affecting other histone modifications. These pyrimidine-2,4,6-trione derivative molecules inhibited the nucleosome assembly mediated by Asf1 in vitro, and reduced the H3K56 acetylation in HeLa cells. Furthermore, production of HSV viral particles was reduced by these compounds. As Asf1 is implicated in genome integrity, cell proliferation, and cancer, current Asf1 inhibitor molecules may offer an opportunity for the therapeutic development for treatment of diseases.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.270-282
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• 2008

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has defense mechanisms identical to higher eukaryotes. It offers the potential for genome-wide experimental approaches owing to its smaller genome size and the availability of the complete sequence. It therefore represents an ideal eukaryotic model for studying cellular redox control and oxidative stress responses. S. cerevisiae Yap1 is a well-known transcription factor that is required for $H_2O_2$-dependent stress responses. Yap1 is involved in various signaling pathways in an oxidative stress response. The Gpx3 (Orp1/PHGpx3) protein is one of the factors related to these signaling pathways. It plays the role of a transducer that transfers the hydroperoxide signal to Yap1. In this study, using extensive proteomic and bioinformatics analyses, the function of the Gpx3 protein in an adaptive response against oxidative stress was investigated in wild-type, gpx3-deletion mutant, and gpx3-deletion mutant overexpressing Gpx3 protein strains. We identified 30 proteins that are related to the Gpx3-dependent oxidative stress responses and 17 proteins that are changed in a Gpx3-dependent manner regardless of oxidative stress. As expected, $H_2O_2$-responsive Gpx3-dependent proteins include a number of antioxidants related with cell rescue and defense. In addition, they contain a variety of proteins related to energy and carbohydrate metabolism, transcription, and protein fate. Based upon the experimental results, it is suggested that Gpx3-dependent stress adaptive response includes the regulation of genes related to the capacity to detoxify oxidants and repair oxidative stress-induced damages affected by Yap1 as well as metabolism and protein fate independent from Yap1.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.250-257
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• 2008

Microsatellites or simple sequence repeats (SSR) are widely distributed in eukaryotic genomes and are informative genetic markers. Despite many advantages of SSR markers such as a high degree of allelic polymorphisms, co-dominant inheritance, multi-allelism, and genome-wide coverage in various plant species, they also have shortcomings such as low polymorphic rates between genetically close lines, especially in Capsicum annuum. We developed an alternative technique to SSR by normalizing and alternating anchored primers in random amplified microsatellite polymorphisms (RAMP). This technique, designated reverse random amplified microsatellite polymorphism (rRAMP), allows the detection of nucleotide variation in the 3' region flanking an SSR using normalized anchored and random primer combinations. The reproducibility and frequency of polymorphic loci in rRAMP was vigorously enhanced by translocation of the 5' anchor of repeat sequences to the 3' end position and selective use of moderate arbitrary primers. In our study, the PCR banding pattern of rRAMP was highly dependent on the frequency of repeat motifs and primer combinations with random primers. Linkage analysis showed that rRAMP markers were well scattered on an intra-specific pepper map. Based on these results, we suggest that this technique is useful for studying genetic diversity, molecular fingerprinting, and rapidly constructing molecular maps for diverse plant species.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제22권11호
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• pp.1587-1594
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• 2012

3C는 진핵세포의 핵에서 크로마틴의 입체 구조/구성을 알아보는 연구 기법이다. 이 기법은 살아있는 세포를 포름알데히드로 처리하여 단백질들 사이의 결합 및 단백질과 DNA 사이의 결합을 고정시킨 후, 제한효소로 DNA를 절단하고, 그 절편들의 연결 빈도를 측정함으로써 DNA 절편 사이의 물리적 근접성을 보여준다. 이 기법을 이용하여 복합 유전자 좌위인 ${\beta}$-글로빈 좌위에서 locus control region이 전사가 활발한 유전자와 가까이 위치하고 있음이 밝혀졌으며, 이러한 결과는 크로마틴 입체 구조가 유전자 전사 조절에 관여함을 나타낸다. 또한 3C 기법은 ChIP 및 genome-wide sequencing과 결합되어 다양한 기술로 진화되었다. 본 총설은 3C의 원리 및 과정을 짚어보고, 3C 기법으로 밝혀진 ${\beta}$-글로빈 좌위의 크로마틴 입체 구조를 설명하고자 하며, 나아가 3C를 기본으로 한 다양한 응용 연구 기법도 살펴보고자 한다.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.177-184
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• 2010

The target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling pathway is a conserved pathway that regulates eukaryotic cell growth in response to environmental cues. Chemical genomic approaches that profile rapamycin sensitivity of yeast deletion strains have given insights into the function of TOR signaling pathway. In the present study, we analyzed the rapamycin sensitivity of yeast deletion library strains on synthetic medium. As a result, we identified 130 strains that are hypersensitive or resistant to rapamycin compared with wild-type cells. Among them, 36 genes are newly identified to be related to rapamycin sensitivity. Moreover, we found 16 strains that show alteration in rapamycin sensitivity between complex and synthetic media. We suggest that these genes may be involved in part of TOR signaling activities that is differentially regulated by media composition.

• BMB Reports
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• 제42권4호
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• pp.227-231
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• 2009

The eukaryotic genome forms a chromatin structure that contains repeating nucleosome structures. Nucleosome packaging is regulated by chromatin remodeling factors such as histone chaperones. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae H3/H4 histone chaperones, CAF-1 and Asf1, regulate DNA replication and chromatin assembly. CAF-1 function is largely restricted to non-transcriptional processes in heterochromatin, whereas Asf1 regulates transcription together with another H3/H4 chaperone, HIR. This study examined the role of the yeast H3/H4 histone chaperones, Asf1, HIR, and CAF-1 in chromatin dynamics during transcription. Unexpectedly, CAF-1 was recruited to the actively transcribed region in a similar way to HIR and Asf1. In addition, the three histone chaperones genetically interacted with Set2-dependent H3 K36 methylation. Similar to histone chaperones, Set2 was required for tolerance to excess histone H3 but not to excess H2A, suggesting that CAF-1, Asf1, HIR, and Set2 function in a related pathway and target chromatin during transcription.

• 한국미생물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국미생물학회 2005년도 International Meeting of the Microbiological Society of Korea
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• pp.105-109
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• 2005

Heat Shock Transcription Factor (HSF), and the promoter heat Shock Element (HSE), are among the most highly conserved transcriptional regulatory elements in nature. HSF mediates the transcriptional response of eukaryotic cells to heat, infection and inflammation, pharmacological agents, and other stresses. While HSF is essential for cell viability in yeast, oogenesis and early development in Drosophila, extended life-span in C. elegans, and extra-embryonic development and stress resistance in mammals, little is known about its full range of biological target genes. We used whole genome analyses to identify virtually all of the direct transcriptional targets of yeast HSF, representing nearly three percent of the genomic loci. The majority of the identified loci are heat-inducibly bound by yeast HSF, and the target genes encode proteins that have a broad range of biological functions including protein folding and degradation, energy generation, protein secretion, maintenance of cell integrity, small molecule transport, cell signaling, and transcription. Approximately 30% of the HSF direct target genes are also induced by the diauxic shift, in which glucose levels begin to be depleted. We demonstrate that phosphorylation of HSF by Snf1 kinase is responsible for expression of a subset of HSF targets upon glucose starvation.