• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.47-61
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• 2014

Stored maternal factors in oocytes regulate oocyte differentiation into embryos during early embryonic development. Before zygotic gene activation (ZGA), these early embryos are mainly dependent on maternal factors for survival, such as macromolecules and subcellular organelles in oocytes. The genes encoding these essential maternal products are referred to as maternal effect genes (MEGs). MEGs accumulate maternal factors during oogenesis and enable ZGA, progression of early embryo development, and the initial establishment of embryonic cell lineages. Disruption of MEGs results in defective embryogenesis. Despite their important functions, only a few mammalian MEGs have been identified. In this review we summarize the roles of known MEGs in mouse fertility, with a particular emphasis on oocytes and early embryonic development. An increased knowledge of the working mechanism of MEGs could ultimately provide a means to regulate oocyte maturation and subsequent early embryonic development.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.333-338
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• 2005

Many of thyroid hormones disrupting chemicals induce effects via interaction with thyroid hormone and retinoic acid receptors and responsive elements intrinsic in target cells. We studied thyroid hormones disrupting effects of food additives and contaminants including BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, propionic acid, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, CPM, aflatoxin B1, cadmium chloride, genistein, TCDD, PCBs and TDBE in recombinant HeLa cells containing plasmid construct for thyroxin responsive elements. The limit of response of the recombinant cells to T3 and T4 was $1\times10^{-12}\;M$. BHA. genistein, cadmium and TBDE were interacted with thyroid receptors with dose-responsive pattern. In addition, BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, propionic acid, benzoic acid, sorbic acid, and TBDE showed synergism while cadmium chloride antagonism for T3-induced activity. This study elucidates that recombinant HeLa cell is sensitive and high-throughput system for the detection of chemicals that induce thyroid hormonal disruption via thyroid hormone receptors and responsive elements. Also this study raised suspect of BHA. BHT, ethoxyquin, propionic acid, benzoic acid, sorbic acid, TBDE, genisteine and cadmium chloride as thyroid hormonal system disruptors.

• Mycobiology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.236-241
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• 2018

The cation-dependent galactose-specific flocculation activity of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe null mutant of $lkh1^+$, the gene encoding LAMMER kinase homolog, has previously been reported by our group. Here, we show that disruption of $prk1^+$, another flocculation associated regulatory kinase encoding gene, also resulted in cation-dependent galactosespecific flocculation. Deletion of prk1 increased the flocculation phenotype of the $lkh1^+$ null mutant and its overexpression reversed the flocculation of cells caused by lkh1 deletion. Transcript levels of $prk1^+$ were also decreased by $lkh1^+$ deletion. Cumulatively, these results indicate that Lkh1 is one of the negative regulators acting upstream of Prk1, regulating non-sexual flocculation in fission yeast.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.85-87
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• 2011

The opportunistic human pathogen Candida albicans has the ability to convert from yeast-form to pseudohyphal or true hyphal form. The morphological transition is considered as an important virulence factor, because the decrease or lack in dimorphism causes the reduction of virulence. Our previous study revealed that the disruption of dual specificity kinase gene caused the reduction of dimorphism in C. albicans. Therefore we tested the effect of dual specificity kinase in virulence using mouse model. The mean survival time for kinase-defective strains was about 15 days in comparison with those of wild-type, 3.9 days. Moreover the fungal burden on kidneys for kinase-defective strains was decreased by ten-fold than that for wild-type. These results suggest possible involvement of dual specificity kinase in a novel signal transduction pathway for morphological transition and virulence of C. albicans.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.315-320
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• 1996

The role of glyoxylate bypass in a lysine-producing Corynebacterium lactofermentum strain was analyzed. Unlike the wild type, the strain expressed enzymes of glyoxylate bypass during growth in the fermentation broth containing glucose as the carbon source. To evaluate the importance of glyoxylate bypass in the strain, we disrupted chromosomal aceA by using a cloned fragment of the gene. Site-specific disruption of aceA which codes for the isocitrate lyase, the first enzyme of the bypass, was confirmed by Southern blot analysis. The aceA mutant strain completely lost isocitrate lyase activity and ability to grow in a minimal medium containing acetate as the sole carbon source. The mutant strain was similar to its parental strain in growth characteristics and produced comparable amounts of lysine in shake flasks containing glucose as the carbon source. The amount of oxaloacetate accumulated in the fermentation medium was similar for both strains, suggesting that expression of glyoxylate bypass does not necessarily lead to the increase in intracellular oxaloacetate. These data clearly demonstrate that glyoxylate bypass does not function as one of the routes of carbon supply for lysine production in the strain. It appears that the leakiness of the glyoxylate bypass in the strain might be the result of a secondary mutation which arose during previous strain development by random mutagenesis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.84.1-84
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• 2003

Magnaporthe grisea, the casual agent of rice blast, forms an appressorium to penetrate its host. Much has been learned about environmental cues and signal transduction pathways, especially those involving CAMP and MAP kinases, on appressorium formation during the last decade. More recently, pharmacological data suggest that calcium/calmodulin-dependent signaling system is involved in its appressorium formation. To determine the role of phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) on appressorium formation, a gene (WPLCl) encoding PI-PLC was cloned and characterized from M. grisea strain 70-15. Sequence analysis showed that MPLCl has alt five conserved domains present in other phospholipase C genes from several filamentous fungi and mammals. Null mutants (mplcl) generated by targeted gene disruption exhibited pleiotropic effects on conidial morphology, appressorium formation, fertility and pathogenicity. mplcl mutants developed nonfunctional appressoria and are also defective in infectious growth in host tissues. Defects in appressorium formation and pathogenicity in mplcl mutants were complemented by a mouse PLCdelta-1 cDNA under the control of the MPLCl promoter. These results suggest that cellular signaling mediated by MPLCl plays crucial and diverse roles in development and pathogenicity of M. grisea, and functional conservation between fungal and mammalian Pl-PLCs.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.83-88
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• 2009

Amino acid homology analysis predicted that rbmD, a putative glycosyltransferase from Streptomyces ribosidificus ATCC 21294, has the highest homology with neoD in neomycin biosynthesis. S. fradiae BS1, in which the production of neomycin was abolished, was generated by disruption of the neoD gene in the neomycin producer S. fradiae. The restoration of neomycin by self complementation suggested that there was no polar effect in the mutant. In addition, S. fradiae BS6 was created with complementation by rbmD in S. fradiae BS1, and secondary metabolite analysis by ESI/MS, LC/MS and MS/MS showed the restoration of neomycin production in S. fradiae BS6. These gene inactivation and complementation studies suggested that, like neoD, rbmD functions as a 2-N-acetlyglucosaminyltransferase and demonstrated the potential for the generation of novel aminoglycoside antibiotics using glycosyltransferases in vivo.

• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.3-4
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• 2000

The synthesis of acyl-CoA catalyzed by acyl-CoA synthetase (ACS, EC 6.2.1.3) from fatty acid, ATP, and CoA is a crucial reaction in mammalian fatty acid metabolism. In arachidonate metabolism, acyl-CoA synthetase(ACS) plays a key role in the esterification of free arachidonate into membrane phospholipids. Following its release by the action of calcium dependent phospholipase, free arachidonate is believed to be rapidly converted to arachidonoyl-CoA and reesterified into phospholipids in order to prevent excessive synthesis of eicosanoids. In previous studies, we have characterized five ACSs (designated as ACS1-5) with different tissue distribution. ACS1, ACS2, and ACS5 are similar in structure and fatty acid preference, and completely different from ACS3 and ACS4. The latter are arachidonate-preferring enzymes closely related in structure but expressed in different tissues: ACS3 mRNA is highly expressed in the brain and the mRNA for ACS4 is expressed in steroidogenic tissues including adrenal gland, ovary, and testis. To learn more about the potential function of ACS4 in arachidonate metabolism, we have produced knock-out mice for ACS4 gene. ACS4+/- females become pregnant less frequently and produce small litters with extremely low transmission of the disrupted alleles. Striking morphological changes including extremely enlarged uterine filled with numerous proliferative cysts of various size were detected in ACS4+/- females. Furthermore, marked accumulation of prostaglandins were seen in the uterus of heterozygous females. These results indicate that ACS4 is critical for the uterine arachidonate metabolism and heterozygous disruption of its gene lead to impaired pregnancy.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.678-682
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• 2010

The deletion of sti from the Streptomyces plasmid pIJ101 made its derivative pHZ1358 an efficient vector for gene disruption and replacement. Here, pHZ1358 was further optimized by the construction of a derivative plasmid pJTU1278, in which a cassette carrying multiple cloning sites and a lacZ selection marker were introduced for convenient plasmid construction in E. coli. In addition, the oriT region of pJTU1278 was also deleted, generating a vector (pJTU1289) that can be used specifically for PCR-targeting. The efficient usage of these vectors was demonstrated by the deletion of the gene involved in avermectin biosynthesis in S. avermitilis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.946-952
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• 2016

The eglS gene in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens encodes an endo-β-1,4-glucanase that belongs to glycosyl hydrolase family 5. In this study, a disruption mutant of gene eglS was constructed to examine its role in bacterial adaptation in plants. The mutant TB2_k, eglS gene inactivated bacterial strain, was remarkably impaired in extracellular cellulase activity. When inoculated on Brassica campestris, the TB2_k population was reduced by more than 60% compared with the wild-type strain in the root, stem, and leaf tissues. Overexpression of eglS in the wild-type strain increased the bacteria population in the plant tissues. Further studies revealed that the transcription level of eglS was correlated with bacterial population. These data demonstrate that endo-β-1,4-glucanase of B. amyloliquefaciens is required for its optimal endophytic colonization.