• Mycobiology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.160-165
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• 2002

Aspergillus niger has been used as a host to express many heterologous proteins. It has been known that the presence of an- abundant protease is a limiting factor to express a heterologous protein. The protease deficient mutant of A. niger was obtained using UV-irradiation. A total of $1{\times}10^5$ spores were irradiated with $10{\sim}20%$ survival dose of UV, 600 $J/m^2$ at 280 nm, and the resulting spores were screened on the casein-gelatin plates. Ten putative protease deficient mutants showing the reduced halo area around colonies were further analyzed to differentiate the protease deficient mutant from other mutant types. Among ten putative mutants, seven mutants showed significant growth defect on nutrient rich medium and two mutants appeared to be the secretory mutants, which resulted in the impaired secretion of extracellular proteins including proteases. A mutant $pro^--20$ showed reduced halo zone without any notable changes in growth rate. In addition, the starchdegrading and glucose oxidase activities in the culture filtrate of $pro^--20$ mutant showed the similar range as that of the parental strain, which suggested that the $pro^--20$ mutant ought to be the protease deficient mutant rather than a secretory mutant. The reduced proteolytic activity of the $pro^--20$ was demonstrated using SDS-fibrin zymography gel. The reduced extracellular proteolysis was quantified by casein degradation assay and, comparing with the parental strain, less than 30% residual extracellular protease activity was detected in the culture filtrate of the $pro^--20$ mutant. The bio-activity of an exogenously supplemented hGM-CSF(human Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor) in the culture filtrate of $pro^--20$ mutant was detected until eight times more diluted preparations than that of the parental strain.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2012

Although schistosomicidal drugs and other control measures exist, the advent of an efficacious vaccine remains the most potentially powerful means for controlling this disease. In this study, native fatty acid binding protein (FABP) from $Fasciola$ $gigantica$ was purified from the adult worm's crude extract by saturation with ammonium sulphate followed by separation on DEAE-Sephadex A-50 anion exchange chromatography and gel filtration using Sephacryl HR-100, respectively. CD1 mice were immunized with the purified, native $F.$ $gigantica$ FABP in Freund's adjuvant and challenged subcutaneously with 120 $Schistosoma$ $mansoni$ cercariae. Immunization of CD1 mice with $F.$ $gigantica$ FABP has induced heterologous protection against $S.$ $mansoni$, evidenced by the significant reduction in mean worm burden (72.3%), liver and intestinal egg counts (81.3% and 80.8%, respectively), and hepatic granuloma counts (42%). Also, it elicited mixed $IgG_1/IgG_{2b}$ immune responses with predominant $IgG_1$ isotype, suggesting that native $F.$ $gigantica$ FABP is mediated by a mixed Th1/Th2 response. However, it failed to induce any significant differences in the oogram pattern or in the mean granuloma diameter. This indicated that native $F.$ $gigantica$ FABP could be a promising vaccine candidate against $S.$ $mansoni$ infection.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.153-156
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• 2000

Xylan, the major hemicellulose component of many plants, occurs naturally in a partially acetylated form and lignin, the most resistant component in plant cell wall degradation, is also attached to ${\beta}-1,4-linked-D-xylose$ backbone through the ester linkage. Esterases are required to release the esterified substituent and acetyl esterases are important in the complete degradation of acetylated polysaccharides, like pectins and xylans. The gene(Axe) encoding acetyl xylan estarase(AXE) was isolated from genomic ${\lambda}$ library from Aspergillus ficuum. Nucleotide sequencing of the Axe gene indicated that the gene was separated with two intervening sequences and the amino acid sequence comparison revealed that it was closely related to that from A. awamori with the 92 % indentity. Heterologous expression of AXE was conducted by using YEp352 and Saccharomyces cerevisae 2805 as a vector and host expression system, respectively. The Axe gene was placed between GAL1 promoter and GAL7 terminator and then this recombinant vector was used to transform S. cerevisiae 2805 strain. Culture filtrate of the transformed yeast was assayed for the presence of AXE activity by spectrophotometry and, comparing with the host strain, four to five times of enzyme activity was detected in culture filtrate of transformed yeast.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.43-58
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• 2006

As a bioreactor, bird has proved to be most efficient system for producing useful therapeutic proteins. More than half of the egg white protein content derives from the ovalbumin gene with four other proteins(lysozyme, ovomucoid, ovomucin and conalbumin) present at levels of 50 milligrams or greater. And the naturally sterile egg also contains egg white protein at high concentration allowing for a long shelf life of recombinant protein without loss in activity. In spite of these advantages, transgenic procedures for the bird have lagged far behind because of its complex process of fertilized egg and developmental differences. Recently, a system to transplant mouse testis cells from a fertile donor male to the seminiferous tubules of an infertile recipient male has been developed. Spermatogenesis is generated from transplanted cells, and recipients are capable of transmitting the donor haplotype to progeny. After transplantation, primitive donor spermatogonia migrate to the basement membrane of recipient seminiferous tubules and begin proliferating. Eventually, these cells establish stable colonies with a characteristic appearance, which expands and produces differentiating germ cells, including mature spermatozoa. Thus, the transplanted cells self-renew and produce progeny that differentiate into fully functional spermatozoa. In this study, to develop an alternative system of germline chimera production that operates via the testes rather than through developing embryos, the spermatogonial stem cell techniques were applied. This system consisted of isolation and in vitro-culture of chicken testicular cells, transfer of in vitro-maintained cells into heterologous testes, production of germline chimeras and confirmation of germline transmission for evaluating production of heterologous, functional spermatozoa.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17
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• pp.157-166
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• 2001

Almost all currently available retroviral vectors based on murine leukemia virus (MLV) contain one or more viral coding sequences. Because these sequences are also present in the packaging genome, it has been suggested that homologous recombination may occur between the same nucleotide sequence in the packaging genome and the vector, resulting in the production of replication competent retrovirus (RCR). Up until now, it has been difficult to completely remove viral coding sequences since some were thought to be involved in the optimum function of the retroviral vector. For example, the gag coding sequence present in almost all available retroviral vectors has been believed to be necessary for efficient viral packaging, while the pol coding sequence present in the highly efficient vector MFG has been thought to be involved in achieving the high levels of gene expression. However, we have now developed a series of retroviral vectors that are absent of any retroviral coding sequences but produce even higher levels of gene expression without compromising viral titer. In these vectors, the intron and exon sequences from heterologous cellular or viral genes are present. When compared to the well known MLV-based vectors, some of these newly developed vectors have been shown to produce significantly higher levels of gene expression for a longer period. In an experimental system that can maximize the production of RCR, our newly constructed vectors produced an absence of RCR. These vectors should prove to be safer than other currently available retroviral vectors containing one or more viral coding sequences.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.124-128
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• 2002

Hantaan (HTN) and Puumala (PUU) viruses are major etiological agents of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), an important public health problem in Korea after the Korean War. The objective of present study was to determine allergenic potency of an inactivated combination vaccine against HTN and PUU viruses inflection. As a series of allergenicity assessment, a homologous active systemic anaphylaxis (ASA) and homologous/heterologous passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) tests using the mice and guinea pigs were carried out. In the ASA test, no anaphylactic symptoms were observed in the guinea pigs sensitized with the vaccine alone as well as the vaccine emulsified with an adjuvant. By homologous PCA test, the vatscine did not induced the potential IgE antibody production in the sera obtained from the sensitized guinea pigs. In addition, IgE against the vaccine was not significantly enhanced from the mice inoculated with the vaccine, which was judged by the heterologous PCA test in rats. On the other hand, the inoculation of ovalbumin appeared to allergenic reactions both in the ASA and PCA tests. The results suggest that a combination vaccine against HW and PUU viruses have no allergenic potential in mice or guinea pigs.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2001

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widely used for various food fermentation. With the recent advances in modern biotechnology, a variety of bio-products with the high economic values have been produced using microorganisms. For molecular cloning and expression studies on the gene of interest, E. coli has been widely used mainly because vector systems are fully developed. Most plasmid vectors currently used for E, coli carry antibiotic-resistant markers. As it is generally believed that the antibiotic resistance markers are potentially transferred to other bacteria, application of the plasmid vectors carrying antibiotic resistance genes as selection markers should be avoided, especially for human consump-tion. By contrast, as LAB have some desirable traits such that the they are GRAS(generally recognized as safe), able to secrete gene products out of cell, and their low protease activities, they are regarded as an ideal organism for the genetic manipulation, including cloning and expression of homologous and heterologous genes. However, the vec-tor systems established for LAB are stil insufficient to over-produce gene products, stably, limiting the use of these organisms for industrial applications. For a past decade, the two popular plasmid vectors, pAM$\beta$1 of Streptococcus faecalis and pGK12 theB. subtilis-E. coli shuttle vector derived from pWV01 of Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris wg 2, were most widely used to construct efficient chimeric vectors to be stably maintained in many industrial strains of LAB. Currently, non-antibiotic markers such as nisin resistance($Nis^{r}$ ) are explored for selecting recombi-nant clone. In addition, a gene encoding S-layer protein, slp/A, on bacterial cell wall was successfully recombined with the proper LAB vectors LAB vectors for excretion of the heterologous gene product from LAB Many food-grade host vec-tor systems were successfully developed, which allowed stable integration of multiple plasmid copies in the vec-mosome of LAB. More recently, an integration vector system based on the site-specific integration apparatus of temperate lactococcal bacteriophage, containing the integrase gene(int) and phage attachment site(attP), was pub-lished. In conclusion, when various vector system, which are maintain stably and expressed strongly in LAB, are developed, lost of such food products as enzymes, pharmaceuticals, bioactive food ingredients for human consump-tion would be produced at a full scale in LAB.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.674-680
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• 2013

Yeast Dekkera/Brettanomyces bruxellensis is probably the most common contaminant in wineries and ethanol production processes. The considerable economic losses caused by this yeast, but also its ability to produce and tolerate high ethanol concentrations, make it an attractive subject for research with potential for industrial applications. Unfortunately, efforts to understand the biology of D. bruxellensis and facilitate its broader use in industry are hampered by the lack of adequate procedures for delivery of exogenous DNA into this organism. Here we describe the development of transformation protocols (spheroplast transformation, LiAc/PEG method, and electroporation) and report the first genetic transformation of yeast D. bruxellensis. A linear heterologous DNA fragment carrying the kanMX4 sequence was used for transformation, which allowed transformants to be selected on plates containing geneticin. We found the spheroplast transformation method using 1M sorbitol as osmotic stabilizer to be inappropriate because sorbitol strikingly decreases the plating efficiency of both D. bruxellensis spheroplast and intact cells. However, we managed to modify the LiAc/PEG transformation method and electroporation to accommodate D. bruxellensis transformation, achieving efficiencies of 0.6-16 and 10-20 transformants/${\mu}g$ DNA, respectively. The stability of the transformants ranged from 93.6% to 100%. All putative transformants were analyzed by Southern blot using the kanMX4 sequence as a hybridization probe, which confirmed that the transforming DNA fragment had integrated into the genome. The results of the molecular analysis were consistent with the expected illegitimate integration of a heterologous transforming fragment.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 1995

The purpose of this study was the development of promoter for the lacZ' gene. Two heterologous promoter I and II of lacZ' gene were isolated from chromosomal DNA Bam HI fragment of yeast. The size of the promoter I was estimated to be 2.5 kb and ${\beta}-galactosidase$ activity was 124.6 U/mg protein, and the size of the promoter II was 4.0 kb and its ${\beta}-galactosidase$ activity was 168.8 U/mg protein, respectively. The stability of the recombinant YEp plasmid in the transformant was from 52.7 to 67.4% at minimal medium. YIp plasmid was constructed from YEp plasmid, and expressed both in E. coli and yeast. The promoter I aid II iso-lated from yeast chromosomal DNA can be used for promoter of plasmid YEp and YIp.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.953-962
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• 2015

Escherichia coli is the most preferred microorganism to express heterologous proteins for therapeutic use, as around 30% of the approved therapeutic proteins are currently being produced using it as a host. Owing to its rapid growth, high yield of the product, costeffectiveness, and easy scale-up process, E. coli is an expression host of choice in the biotechnology industry for large-scale production of proteins, particularly non-glycosylated proteins, for therapeutic use. The availability of various E. coli expression vectors and strains, relatively easy protein folding mechanisms, and bioprocess technologies, makes it very attractive for industrial applications. However, the codon usage in E. coli and the absence of post-translational modifications, such as glycosylation, phosphorylation, and proteolytic processing, limit its use for the production of slightly complex recombinant biopharmaceuticals. Several new technological advancements in the E. coli expression system to meet the biotechnology industry requirements have been made, such as novel engineered strains, genetically modifying E. coli to possess capability to glycosylate heterologous proteins and express complex proteins, including full-length glycosylated antibodies. This review summarizes the recent advancements that may further expand the use of the E. coli expression system to produce more complex and also glycosylated proteins for therapeutic use in the future.