• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.126-134
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• 2022

Norovirus (NoV) is an important pathogen causing acute gastroenteritis worldwide. The purpose of the present study was the molecular characterization of NoV. A total of 408 stool specimens collected from hospitalized children associated with acute gastroenteritis in Chiang Rai, Thailand, 2015-2017 were investigated for the presence of NoVs by RT-PCR. NoV GII was detected in 32 samples (7.8%). Five distinct genotypes were identified, including GII.4 (13/32, 40.6%), GII.3 (11/32, 34.3%), GII.17 (4/32, 12.5%), GII.2 (2/32, 6.3%), and GII.14 (2/32, 6.3%). NoV infection occurred mostly in young children under 3 years of age (31/32, 96.9%) and showed the main peak in summer months from March to April (18/32, 56.3%). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all 13 GII.4 strains clustered with GII.4 Sydney 2012 variant. Representative GII.3 strains were analyzed as a recombinant GII.3P[12] strain. Several amino acid differences were found in the antigenic epitopes and antibody binding sites of the VP1 capsid of the GII.3P[12]. Homology modeling of the P domain of the GII.3P[12] strain demonstrated that 10/13 amino acid differences were predicted to be located on the surface-exposed area of the capsid structure. These amino acid changes might affect the infectivity and the antigenicity of the recombinant GII.3P[12]. The prevalence of GII.4 Sydney 2012 and recombinant GII.3P[12] strains indicates the genetic diversity of circulating NoVs in Thailand, emphazing the importance of continuous surveillance to mornitor newly emerging NoV strains in the future.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2005

Recently a cDNA clone of apoLp-III from Hyphantria cunea was isolated and subjected to computational analysis to compare with other available sequences. Multiple sequence alignments were carried out using the amino acid sequences of apoLp-III from six insects. It was found that the H. cunea apoLp-III has relatively high sequence identities to Spodoptera litura ($69.5\%$), Manduca sexta ($66.8\%$), Galleria mellonella ($65.1\%$), Bombyx mori N4 ($54.3\%$) but less identity to Locusta migratoria ($18.3\%$). The amino acid composition was compared with other insects using EXPASY tools; it shows that alanine (Ala), glutamine (Gln), leucine (Leu) and lysine (Lys) are the major amino acid components of apoLp-III in H. cunea as well as other lepidopterans. Homology modeling performed using PSI-BLAST (PDB template M. sexta) reveals that the apoLp-III molecules consist of five, long amphipathic alpha helical bundles with short loops connecting the helices and shows homology with other insects. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the orthopteran apoLp-III represented by locust was most distantly related to the lepidopteran insects.

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.172-177
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• 2009

Phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI) is involved in synthesizing extracellular polysaccharide (EPS). The gene encoding PGI in Sphingomonas chungbukensis DJ77 was cloned and expressed in E. coli, and the protein was characterized. The pgi gene from DJ77 is 1,503 nucleotides long with 62% GC content and the deduced amino acid sequence shows strong homology with PGIs from other sources. The molecular masses of PGI subunit and native form were estimated to be 50 kDa and 97 kDa, respectively. Four potentially important residues (H361, R245, E330 and K472) were identified by homology modeling. The mutations, H361A, R245A, E330A, R245K and E330D resulted in decrease in Vmax by hundreds fold, however no significant change in Km was observed. These data suggest that the three residues (H361, R245Aand E330) are likely located in the active site and the size as well as the spatial position of side chains of R245 and E330 are crucial for catalysis.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.202-209
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• 2011

Tuberculosis is a major health problem in humans because of its multidrug resistance and discovering new treatments for this disease is urgently required. The synthesis of isoprenoids in Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been reported as an interesting pathway to target. In this context, 2C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway of M. tuberculosis has drawn attention. The MEP pathway begins with the condensation of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and pyruvate forming 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate (DXP) which is catalyzed by 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase (DXS). As there is no X-ray structure was reported for this target, comparative modeling was used to generate the three dimensional structure. The structure was further validated by PROCHECK, VERIFY-3D, PROSA, ERRAT and WHATIF. Molecular docking studies was performed with the substrate (Thiamine pyrophosphate) and the reported inhibitor 2-methyl-3-(4-fluorophenyl)-5-(4-methoxy-phenyl)-4H-pyrazolol[1,5-a]pyrimidin-7-one) against the developed model to identify the crucial residues in the active site. This study may further be useful to provide structure based drug design.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.62-68
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• 2014

Coptis chinensis 3'-hydroxy-N-methylcoclaurine 4'-O-methyltransferase (HOMT), an essential enzyme in the berberine biosynthetic pathway, catalyzes the methylation of 3'-hydroxy-N-methylcoclaurine (HMC) producing reticuline. A 3D model of HOMT was constructed by homology modeling and further subjected to docking with its ligands and molecular dynamics simulations. The 3D structure of HOMT revealed unique structural features which permitted the methylation of HMC. The methylation of HMC was proposed to proceed by deprotonation of the 4'-hydroxyl group via His257 and Asp258 of HOMT, followed by a nucleophilic attack on the SAM-methyl group resulting in reticuline. HOMT showed high substrate specificity for methylation of HMC. The study evidenced that Gly117, Thr312 and Asp258 in HOMT might be the key residues for orienting substrate for specific catalysis.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2012

Chemokine receptor antagonists have potential applications in field of drug discovery. Although the chemokine receptors are G-protein-coupled receptors, their cognate ligands are small proteins (8 to 12 kDa), and so inhibiting the ligand/receptor interaction has been challenging. The application of structure-based in-silico methods to drug discovery is still considered a major challenge, especially when the x-ray structure of the target protein is unknown. Such is the case with human CCR2 and CCR5, the most important members of the chemokine receptor family and also a potential drug target. Herein, we review the success stories of combined receptor modeling/mutagenesis approach to probe the allosteric nature of chemokine receptor binding by small molecule antagonists for CCR2 and CCR5 using Rhodopsin as template. We also urged the importance of recently available ${\beta}2$-andrenergic receptor as an alternate template to guide mutagenesis. The results demonstrate the usefulness and robustness of in-silico 3D models. These models could also be useful for the design of novel and potent CCR2 and CCR5 antagonists using structure based drug design.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.271-277
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• 1995

The RNA nucleotide sequences of the 3/-noncoding regions (3'-NCRs) of two Korean strains of turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), Ca and cqs, have been determined from their cDNA clones that encompassed the 3'-terminal regions of the viral genomic RNAs. The 3'-NCRs of both strains were 209 nucleotides long, terminated with GAC residues and poly (A) tails. The potential polyadenylational signal motif, UAUGU, was located 140 nucleotides upstream from the poly (A) tail in each of the virus. A highly conserved hexanucleotide sequence [A G U G A/U G/C], which was common in the 3'-NCRs of the potyvirus RNAs, was also found at the regions of 119 bases upstream from the 3'-end. Comparison of the 3'-NCRs of the two Korean isolates with those of four strains from Canada, China and Japan showed significantly identical genotypes (94.3∼99.5%). The secondary structure of three loops with long stems was found within the 3'-NCRs by sequence analysis. The substituted bases in the region among the six TuMV strains did not alter their secondary structures. Length of the 3'-NCRs of the know 11 potyviral RNAs and TuMV RNAs was different from one another and their nucleotide sequences showed 55.7% to 24.0% of homology. The 3'-NCR, therefore, is considered to be useful for phylogenetic studies in potyviruses.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.172-180
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• 2011

The transfer of microorganisms is important process for ecosystems. Microorganisms in dryland can transport itself to wetland through atmospheric diffusion, but only few papers reported about the atmospheric bioaerosol present over dryland. We carried out the direct sampling using a tethered balloon over Dunhuang City, China's northwestern dryland. Bioaerosols were collected using a tethered balloon with a bioaerosol collector at 820 m above the ground (1,960 m above the sea level) around noon on August 17, 2007. The bioaerosols were cultured after the collection at Dunhuang Meteorological observatory. Two strains of molds were isolated using the Nutrient agar medium. About 400-bp 18S rRNA partial sequences were amplified by PCR and determined afterwards. The results of a homology search by 18S rRNA sequences of isolates in DNA databases (GenBank, DDBJ, and EMBL) and an observation of the form revealed that two bioaerosols in the convective mixed layer over Dunhuang City were Cladosporium sp. and Aspergillus sp.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.72-77
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• 2010

Alginate lyases, also known as alginases or alginate depolymerases, catalyze the degradation of alginate by a ${\beta}$-elimination mechanism that has yet to be fully elucidated. Alginate is a copolymer of ${\alpha}$-L-guluronate (G) and its C5 epimer ${\beta}$-D-mannuronate (M), arranged as homopolymeric G blocks, M blocks, alternating GM or random heteropolymeric G/M stretches. Almost all alginate lyases depolymerize alginate in an endolytical fashion via a ${\beta}$-elimination reaction. The alginate lyase Atu3025 from Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58, consisting of 776 amino-acid residues, is a novel exotype alginate lyase classified into polysaccharide lyase family 15. Till now there is no crystal structure available for this class of proteins. Since there is no template with high sequence identity, three-dimensional coordinates for exotype alginate lyase (PL 15 family) were determined using modeling methods (Comparitive modeling and Fold recognition). The structures were modeled using the X-ray coordinates from Heparinase protein family (PDB code: 3E7J). This enzyme (Atu3025) displays enzymatic activity for both poly-M and poly-G alginate. Since poly-M is widespread; docking of a tri-mannuronate against the modeled structure was performed. We identified some of those residues which are crucial for lyase activity. The results from this study should guide future mutagenesis studies and also provides a starting point for further proceedings.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.732-737
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• 2015

We present here an in silico search of fungal sterol-esterase/lipase and bacterial depolymerase sequences from environmental metagenomes. Both enzyme types contain the α/β-hydrolase protein fold. Analysis of DNA conserved motifs, protein homology search, phylogenetic analysis, and protein 3D modeling have been used, and the efficiency of these screening strategies is discussed. The presence of bacterial genes in the metagenomes was higher than those from fungi, and the sequencing depth of the metagenomes seemed to be crucial to allow finding enough diversity of enzyme sequences. As a result, a novel putative PHA-depolymerase is described.