• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.60-63
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• 2013

Rhodopsins belong to a family of membrane-embedded photoactive retinylidene proteins. One opsin gene was isolated from ${\beta}$-proteobacterium (IMCC9480) which had been collected at the North Pole. It is very similar to Xanthorhodopin (XR) of HTCC2181. In this study, we carried out basic characterization of the rhodopsin. It has ${\lambda}max$ of 536, 554, and 546 nm at pH 4.0, 7.0, and 10.0, respectively. Since the pKa of its proton acceptor is around 6.27, we measured its proton pumping activity and photocycling rate at pH 8.0. It has a typical proton acceptor (D99) and donor (E110) which mediate proton translocation from intracellular to extracellular region when deduced from the sequence alignments. On the basis of in vitro proton pumping activity, it was proposed to have fast photocycling rate with M and O intermediates, indicating that it is a typical ion-pumping rhodopsin. Since the XR has not yet been expressed in any other heterologous expression system, we tried to get much more information about the XR through the XR-homologue rhodopsin.

• Animal cells and systems
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• 제1권4호
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• pp.647-651
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• 1997

We have used a transient expression assay employing Drosophila S2 cells to study the transcriptional repression activity of a 27 amino acid residue-long repression domain FS1 which was generated by a frame-shift in a pair-rule gene, even-skipped of Drosophila melanogaster. In an attempt to define a minimal requirement for the repression activity, we constructed a series of truncation mutant forms of the FS1, fused to a heterologous GAL4 DNA-binding domain, and measured their activities. All of the mutant forms, including the GAL4-FS1 (5-23) which retains the smallest number (19) of amino acid residues of FS1, were found to repress an initiator, a minimal TATA-lacking promoter, in a GAL4-binding-site-dependent manner. These findings suggest that a 19 amino acid residue-long region, rich in proline and leucine residues, is a transcriptional repression domain and may interact with the general transcription machinery.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.199-202
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• 2014

The bioconversion of cellulosic biomass hydrolyzates consisting mainly of glucose and xylose requires the use of engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing a heterologous xylose pathway. However, there is concern that a fungal xylose pathway consisting of NADPH-specific xylose reductase (XR) and $NAD^+$-specific xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH) may result in a cellular redox imbalance. However, the glycerol biosynthesis and glycerol degradation pathways of S. cerevisiae, termed here as the glycerol cycle, has the potential to balance the cofactor requirements for xylose metabolism, as it produces NADPH by consuming NADH at the expense of one mole of ATP. Therefore, this study tested if the glycerol cycle could improve the xylose metabolism of engineered S. cerevisiae by cofactor balancing, as predicted by an in-silico analysis using elementary flux mode (EFM). When the GPD1 gene, the first step of the glycerol cycle, was overexpressed in the XR/XDH-expressing S. cerevisiae, the glycerol production significantly increased, while the xylitol and ethanol yields became negligible. The reduced xylitol yield suggests that enough $NAD^+$ was supplied for XDH by the glycerol cycle. However, the GPD1 overexpression completely shifted the carbon flux from ethanol to glycerol. Thus, moderate expression of GPD1 may be necessary to achieve improved ethanol production through the cofactor balancing.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.149-152
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• 2006

Leuconostoc mesenteroides SY1, a strain isolated from cabbage Kimchi, was transformed with pCW4, a shuttle vector based on a cryptic plasmid from Lactobacillus paraplantarum C7. $\alpha-Amylase$ gene, amyL, from Bacillus licheniformis was cloned into pCW4, resulting in $pCW4T{\alpha},\;and\;pCW4T{\alpha}$ was introduced into SY1 by electroporation. Transformation efficiency was $10^2cells/{\mu}g$ plasmid DNA. L. mesenteroides cells harboring $pCW4T{\alpha}$ did not show amylase activity, although amyL transcript was synthesized as determined by slot blot experiment. $pCW4T{\alpha}$ was stably maintained in SY1 in the presence of erythromycin (Em, $5\;{\mu}g/ml$) but rapidly lost when Em was omitted. Less than $1\%$ of the cells maintained $pCW4T{\alpha}$ after 5 days at $30^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제17권11호
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• pp.1751-1757
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• 2007

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) undergo a reversible inverse phase transition upon a change in temperature. This thermally triggered phase transition allows for a simple and rapid means of purifying a fusion protein. Recovery of ELPs-tagged fusion protein was easily achieved by aggregation, triggered either by raising temperature or by adding salt. In this study, levansucrase has been used as a model enzyme in the development of a simple one-step purification method using ELPs. The levansucrase gene cloned from Pseudomonas aurantiaca S-4380 was tagged with various sizes of ELPs to functionally express and optimize the purification of levansucrase. One of two ELPs, ELP[V-20] or ELP[V-40], was fused at the C-terminus of the levansucrase gene. A levansucrase-ELP fusion protein was expressed in Escherichia coli $DH5{\alpha}$ at $37^{\circ}C$ for 18 h. The molecular masses of levansucrase-ELP[V-20] and levansucrase-ELP[V-40] were determined as 56 kDa and 65 kDa, respectively. The phase transition of levansucrase-ELP[V-20] occurred at $20^{\circ}C$ in 50 mM Tris-Cl (pH 8) buffer with 3 M NaCl added, whereas the phase transition temperature ($T_t$) of levansucrase-ELP[V-40] was $17^{\circ}C$ with 2 M NaCl. Levansucrase was successfully purified using the phase transition characteristics of ELPs, with a recovery yield of higher than 80%, as verified by SDS-PAGE. The specific activity was measured spectrophotometrically to be 173 U/mg and 171 U/mg for levansucrase-ELP[V-20] and levansucrase-ELP[V-40], respectively, implying that the ELP-tagging system provides an efficient one-step separation method for protein purification.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.318-328
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• 2017

Chitinase-producing Paenibacillus elgii strain HOA73 has been used to control plant diseases. However, the antimicrobial activity of its extracellular chitinase has not been fully elucidated. The major extracellular chitinase gene (PeChi68) from strain HOA73 was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli in this study. This gene had an open reading frame of 2,028 bp, encoding a protein of 675 amino acid residues containing a secretion signal peptide, a chitin-binding domain, two fibronectin type III domains, and a catalytic hydrolase domain. The chitinase (PeChi68) purified from recombinant E. coli exhibited a molecular mass of approximately 68 kDa on SDS-PAGE. Biochemical analysis indicated that optimum temperature for the actitvity of purified chitinase was $50^{\circ}C$. However, it was inactivated with time when it was incubated at $40^{\circ}C$ and $50^{\circ}C$. Its optimum activity was found at pH 7, although its activity was stable when incubated between pH 3 and pH 11. Heavy metals inhibited this chitinase. This purified chitinase completely inhibited spore germination of two Cladosporium isolates and partially inhibited germination of Botrytis cinerea spores. However, it had no effect on the spores of a Colletotricum isolate. These results indicate that the extracellular chitinase produced by P. elgii HOA73 might have function in limiting spore germination of certain fungal pathogens.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.464-472
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• 2022

An endo-polygalacturonase (endo-PGase) exhibiting excellent performance during acidic fruit juice production would be highly attractive to the fruit juice industry. However, candidate endo-PGases for this purpose have rarely been reported. In this study, we expressed a gene from Penicillium oxalicum in Pichia pastoris. The recombinant enzyme PoxaEnPG28C had an optimal enzyme activity at pH 4.5 and 45℃ and was stable at pH 3.0-6.5 and < 45℃. The enzyme had a specific activity of 4,377.65 ± 55.37 U/mg towards polygalacturonic acid, and the K_m and V_max values of PoxaEnPG28C were calculated as 1.64 g/l and 6127.45 U/mg, respectively. PoxaEnPG28C increased the light transmittance of orange, lemon, strawberry and hawthorn juice by 13.9 ± 0.3%, 29.4 ± 3.8%, 95.7 ± 10.2% and 79.8 ± 1.7%, respectively; it reduced the viscosity of the same juices by 25.7 ± 1.6%, 52.0 ± 4.5%, 48.2 ± 0.7% and 80.5 ± 2.3%, respectively, and it increased the yield of the juices by 24.5 ± 0.7%, 12.7 ± 2.2%, 48.5 ± 4.2% and 104.5 ± 6.4%, respectively. Thus, PoxaEnPG28C could be considered an excellent candidate enzyme for acidic fruit juice production. Remarkably, fruit juice production using hawthorn as an material was reported for the first time.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.196-200
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• 1999

A recombinant human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein was expressed as a secretory product in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Three different leader sequences derived from the mating factor $\alpha$l (MF$\alpha$l), inulinase, and human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein were used to direct the secretion of human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein into the extracellular medium. Among the three leader sequences tested, the native leader sequence of human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein was found to be the most efficient in the secretory expression of human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein, which implies that the native leader sequence of human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein might be used very efficiently for the secretory production of other heterologous proteins in yeast. The recombinant human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein was proteolytically cleaved as the culture proceeded. Therefore, an attempt was made to produce human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein using a S. cerevisiae mutant in which the YAP3 gene encoding yeast aspartic protease 3 (YAP3) was disrupted. After 72 h of culture, most of the human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein secreted by the wild type was cleaved, whereas more than 70% of the human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein secreted by yap3-disruptant remained intact. The results suggest that YAP3 might be involved in the internal cleavage of human $\alpha_{s1}$-casein expressed in yeast

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제23권10호
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• pp.1365-1371
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• 2013

The Streptomyces coelicolor wblA gene is known to play a negative role in both antibiotic biosynthesis and the expression of genes responding to oxidative stress. Recently, WhcA, a WblA ortholog protein, was confirmed to interact with dioxygenase-encoding SpiA ($\underline{s}$tress $\underline{p}$rotein $\underline{i}$nteracting with Whc$\underline{A}$) in Corynebacterium glutamicum. We describe here the identification of a SpiA ortholog SCO2553 protein ($SpiA_{sc}$) that interacts with WblA in S. coelicolor. Using heterologous expression in E. coli and in vitro pull-down assays, we show that WblA specifically binds $SpiA_{sc}$, and is influenced by oxidants such as diamide. These data indicate that the interaction between WblA and $SpiA_{sc}$ is not only specific but also modulated by the redox status of the cell. Moreover, a $spiA_{sc}$-disruption mutant exhibited a less sensitive response to the oxidative stress induced by diamide present in solid plate culture. Real-time RT-PCR analysis also showed that transcription levels of oxidative stress response genes (sodF, sodF2, and trxB) were higher in the $spiA_{sc}$-deletion mutant than in wild-type S. coelicolor. These results show that $SpiA_{sc}$ negatively regulates WblA during oxidative stress responses in S. coelicolor.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.88-94
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• 2008

Two sugar biosynthetic cassette plasm ids were used to direct the biosynthesis of a deoxyaminosugar. The pOTBP1 plasmid containing TDP-glucose synthase (desIII), TDP-glucose-4,6-dehydratase (desIV), and glycosyltransferase (desVII/desVIII) was constructed and transformed into S. venezuelae YJ003, a strain in which the entire gene cluster of desosamine biosynthesis is deleted. The expression plasmid pOTBP3 containing 4-aminotransferase (gerB) and 3,5-epimerase (orf9) was transformed again into S. venezuelae YJ003-OTBP1 to obtain S. venezuelae YJ003-OTBP3 for the production of 4-amino-4,6-dideoxy-L-glucose derivatives. The crude extracts obtained from S. venezuelae ATCC 15439, S. venezuelae YJ003, and S. venezuelae YJ003-OTBP3 were further analyzed by TLC, bioassay, HPLC, ESI/MS, LC/MS, and MS/MS. The results of our study clearly shows that S. venezuelae YJ003-OTBP3 constructs other new hybrid macrolide derivatives including 4-amino-4,6-dideoxy-L-glycosylated YC-17 (3, [M+ $Na^+$] m/z=464.5), methymycin (4, m/z=480.5), novamethymycin (6, m/z=496.5), and pikromycin (5, m/z=536.5) from a 12-membered ring aglycon (10-deoxymethynolide, 1) and a 14-membered ring aglycon (narbonolide, 2). These results suggest a successful engineering of a deoxysugar pathway to generate novel hybrid macrolide derivatives, including deoxyaminosugar.