• 지구물리와물리탐사
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.41-48
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• 2009

자연적인 자기장은 전기 전도도가 높은 물에서는 감쇠한다. 이러한 이유로, 해양 지전류 탐사법에서 장주기(1000 - 100000 초) 자료를 측정하였나. 맨들 구조가 해저 지전류측정의 주된 적용 대상이었다. 반면에 지각구조를 밝히기 위해서, 예를 들어, 메카트러스트 지진지역이나 천연자원조사와 같은 분야에서는 보다 짧은 주기의 전자기장에 대한 자료가 중요하다. 예를 들어 전자의 조사를 위해서는 1000초 보다 자은 주기를 가지는 전자기장 자료가 필요하다. 그러나, 이러한 용도를 위한 적절한 해저 전자력계 (OBEM)가 없기 때문에 높은 샘플링 속도와 조립과 회수 과정을 용이하게 하기 위한 팔-접힘 구조를 가지는 소규모 OBEM과 해저 전위계 (OBE)를 개발하였다. 자기장 측정을 위하여 플럭스게이트 센서를 이용하였다. 개발된 장비의 현장 성능을 평가하기 위한 현장측정이 이루어졌다. 모든 장비는 전자기 측정자료를 획득한 채로 회수되었다. 첫번째 실험의 결과, 개발된 시스템은 동작과 측정 모두 그 기능이 정상적으로 잘 이루어지고 있음을 확인하였다. 돗토리 근해에서의 또 다른 현장실험 결과는 새로운 OBEM과 OBE 시스템으로 획득된 전자기 자료가 탐사 목적에 충분한 양질의 자료라는 주장을 뒷받침해 주었다. 이러한 견과들은 개발된 장비들이 해저면 전자기장 측정에 대한 장비적인 장애를 모두 해결하고 있음을 확증하고 있다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.299-307
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• 2008

Soybean seed ferritin is essential for human iron supplementation and iron deficiency anemia prevention because it contains abundant bioavailable iron and is frequently consumed in the human diet. However, it is poorly understood in regards its several properties, such as iron mineralization, subunit assembly, and protein folding. To address these issues, we decided to prepare the soybean seed ferritin complex via a recombinant DNA approach. In this paper, we report a rapid and simple Escherichia coli expression system to produce the soybean seed ferritin complex. In this system, two subunits of soybean seed ferritin, H-2 and H-1, were encoded in a single plasmid, and optimal expression was achieved by additionally coexpressing a team of molecular chaperones, trigger factor and GroEL-GroES. The His-tagged ferritin complex was purified by $Ni^{2+}$ affinity chromatography, and an intact ferritin complex was obtained following His-tagged enterokinase (His-EK) digestion. The purified ferritin complex synthesized in E. coli demonstrated some reported features of its native counterpart from soybean seed, including an apparent molecular weight, multimeric assembly, and iron uptake activity. We believe that the strategy described in this paper may be of general utility in producing other recombinant plant ferritins built up from two types of subunits.

• 폴리머
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• 제30권6호
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• pp.453-463
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• 2006

분자 모델에 의한 전산 모사는 단백질 접힘, 미셀화, 블록공중합체의 규칙구조화 등 다양한 고분자 계의 자기조립 현상을 예측하거나 그 조립 메커니즘을 밝히는 데 특별히 유용한 연구방법이다. 자기조립 현상은 분자 수, 분자 크기 등, 계의 속성에 따라 나노미터 이하의 현상으로부터 마이크론이나 그 이상의 길이 스케일의 현상까지 조립 구조의 길이 스케일이 매우 광범위하기 때문에 다양한 계의 모든 조립 현상을 양자역학적 방법과 같은 궁극의 근본원칙에 의해 모사하는 것은 현실적인 시간 내에서 불가능하다. 이러한 문제들을 해결하기 위해 계를 기술하는 과정에서 필요 이상으로 세밀한 표현을 생략하여 모델을 다른 관점에서 재구성하는 방법이 있는데 재구성된 모델은 그 관점에 따라 크게 '원자 수준'의 모델과 '메조 스케일 수준'의 모델로 분류할 수 있다. 본 총론에서는 고분자 자기조립 현상과 관련하여 이 두 가지 관점에 따른 모델과 모사 방법들에 대해 살펴보고자 한다.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제43권11호
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• pp.899-908
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• 2020

Intrinsically disordered proteins or regions (IDPs or IDRs) are widespread in the eukaryotic proteome. Although lacking stable three-dimensional structures in the free forms, IDRs perform critical functions in various cellular processes. Accordingly, mutations and altered expression of IDRs are associated with many pathological conditions. Hence, it is of great importance to understand at the molecular level how IDRs interact with their binding partners. In particular, discovering the unique interaction features of IDRs originating from their dynamic nature may reveal uncharted regulatory mechanisms of specific biological processes. Here we discuss the mechanisms of the macromolecular interactions mediated by IDRs and present the relevant cellular processes including transcription, cell cycle progression, signaling, and nucleocytoplasmic transport. Of special interest is the multivalent binding nature of IDRs driving assembly of multicomponent macromolecular complexes. Integrating the previous theoretical and experimental investigations, we suggest that such IDR-driven multiprotein complexes can function as versatile allosteric switches to process diverse cellular signals. Finally, we discuss the future challenges and potential medical applications of the IDR research.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제27권6호
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• pp.657-665
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• 2009

The ovomucoid pre-mRNA has been folded into mini-hairpins adaptable for the RNA recognition motif (RRM) protein binding. The number of mini-hairpins were 372 for pre-mRNA and 83-86 for mature mRNA. The spatial arrangements are, in average, 16 nucleotides per mini-hairpin which includes 7 nt in the stem, 5.6 nt in the loop and 3.7 nt in the inter-hairpin spacer. The constitutive splicing system of ovomucoid-pre-mRNA is characterized by preferred order of intron removal of 5/6 > 7/4 > 2/1 > 3. The 5' splice sites (5'SS), branch point sequences (BPS) and 3' splice sites (3'SS) were identified and free energies involved have been estimated in 7 splice sites. Thermodynamic barriers for splice sites from the least (|lowest| -Kcal) were 5, 4, 7, 6, 2, 1, and 3; i.e., -18.7 Kcal, -20.2 Kcal, -21.0 Kcal, -24.0 Kcal, - 25.4 Kcal, -26.4 Kcal and -28.2 Kcal respectively. These are parallel to the kinetic data of splicing order reported in the literature. As a result, the preferred order of intron removals can be described by a consideration of free energy changes involved in the spliceosomal assembly pathway. This finding is consistent with the validity of hnRNP formation mechanisms in previous reports.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.149-157
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• 2008

Many proteins consist of distinctive domains that can act independently or cooperatively to achieve a unique function. As these domains evolve from a naturally existing repertoire of functional domains, this implies that domain organization is an intrinsic element involved in building the complex structure and function of proteins. Thus, identifying functional domains would appear to be critical to the elucidation of questions related to protein evolution, folding, and the engineering of hybrid proteins for tai- lored applications. However, the simple application of "Lego-like assembly" to the engineering of hybrid proteins is an oversimplification, as many hybrid constructs lack structural stability, usually due to unfavorable domain contacts. Thus, directed evolution, along with computational studies, may help to engineer hybrid proteins with improved physico-chemical properties. Accordingly, this paper introduces several approaches to functional hybrid protein engineering that potentially can be used to create modulators of gene transcription and cell signaling, and novel biosensors to analyze biological functions in vivo.

• EDISON SW 활용 경진대회 논문집
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• 제3회(2014년)
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• pp.103-113
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• 2014

Hydrophobicity is the key concept to understand the role of water in protein folding, protein self-assembly, and protein-ligand interaction. Conventionally, hydrophobicity of amino acids in a protein has been argued based on hydrophobicity scales determined for individual free amino acids, assuming that those scales are unaltered when amino acids are embedded in a protein. Here, we investigate how the hydrophobicity of constituent amino acids depends on the protein context, in particular, on the total charge and secondary structures of a protein. To this end, we compute and analyze the hydration free energy - free energy change upon hydration quantifying the hydrophobicity - of three short proteins based on the integral-equation theory of liquids. We find that the hydration free energy of charged amino acids is significantly affected by the protein total charge and exhibits contrasting behavior depending on the protein net charge being positive or negative. We also observe that amino acids in the central ${\beta}$-strand sandwiched by ${\beta}$-sheets display more enhanced hydrophobicity than free amino acids, whereas those in the ${\alpha}$-helix do not clearly show such a tendency. Our results provide novel insights into the hydrophobicity of amino acids, and will be valuable for rationalizing and predicting the strength of water-mediated interaction involved in the biological activity of proteins.

• EDISON SW 활용 경진대회 논문집
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• 제5회(2016년)
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• pp.90-95
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• 2016

Heat Shock 70kDa Protein 1-Like(HSPA1L)는 Heat-shock protein70(HSP70) family에 속하는 chaperone protein으로 polypeptide folding, assembly, protein degradation 등 다양한 biological processes에 관여하고 있다. HSPA1L은 human methyltransferase-like protein 21A(METTL21A)에 의해 lysine residue에 methylation이 일어나게 되는데, 암세포에서 일반적인 HSPA1L은 주로 세포질에서 발견되는 반면 methylated HSPA1L의 경우 주로 핵에서 발견이 됨으로써 HSPA1L methylation이 암 세포 성장에 중요할 역할을 할 것이라 추측되며 anti-cancer drug target으로 주목 받고 있다. 하지만 현재 HSPA1L의 구조가 부분적으로만 밝혀져 있어 HSPA1L와 METTL21A가 어떤 residue들이 interaction 하여 binding을 하는지에 대해서 아직 밝혀 지지 않았다. 이로 인해 anti-cancer drug target으로서의 연구에 제한이 있다. 이번 연구에서는 homology modeling(Galaxy-TBM, Galaxy-refine)을 통해 HSPA1L 전체 구조를 밝혀 낸 후, HSPA1L 와 METTL21A를 protein-protein docking을 통해 binding pose 예측을 하였다. 이러한 binding pose를 protein interaction analysis하여 HSPA1L과 METTL21A binding에 관여하는 중요 residue들을 밝혀 냈다. 이러한 structural information은 methylated HSPA1L와 암 세포 성장간의 연관성, 더 나아가 anti-cancer drug 개발로 까지도 이어 질 수 있을 것이라 생각한다.

• BMB Reports
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• 제57권8호
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• pp.369-374
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• 2024

Antigen 43 (Ag43) proteins, found on the outer membrane of Escherichia coli, are β-sheets that fold into a unique cylindrical structure known as a β-barrel. There are several known structural similarities between bacterial Ag43 autotransporters and physical components; however, the factors that stabilize the barrel and the mechanism for Ag43 passenger domain-mediated translocation across the pore of the β-barrel remain unclear. In this study, we analyzed Ag43β-enhanced green fluorescent protein chimeric variants to provide new insights into the autotransporter Ag43β-barrel assembly, focusing on the impact of the α-helical linker domain. Among the chimeric variants, Ag43β700 showed the highest surface display, which was confirmed through extracellular protease digestion, flow cytometry, and an evaluation of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). The Ag43β700 module offered reliable information on stable barrel folding and chimera expression at the exterior of the OMVs.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.223-229
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• 2011

Cyclophilins are originally identified as cytosolic binding protein of the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine A. They have an activity of peptidyl prolyl cis/trans-isomerases (PPIase), which may play important roles in protein folding, trafficking, assembly and cell signaling. In this study, we report the cloning and characterization of a Bombyx mori cyclophilin A (bCypA) cDNA. The full-length cDNA of bCypA consist of 947 nucleotides with a polyadenylation signal sequence AATAAA and contain an open reading frame of 498 nucleotides encoding a polypeptide of 166 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence of bCypA shares a central peptidyl prolyl cis/trans-isomerase and a cyclosporin-A-binding domain with other cyclophilin sequences. Relative quantification real-time (RT) PCR analysis shows that mRNA transcripts of bCypA are detected in all the investigated tissues and highest expression level in the skin of 3-day-old 5 instar larva. Also, bCypA had PPIase activity on the proline-containing peptides. Accordingly, we suggest that bCypA is a new member of the cyclophilin A (CyPA) family and will be useful for quality control of bioactivity recombinant proteins with proline-containing peptides.