• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.20 no.10
• /
• pp.1451-1457
• /
• 2010

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is an important mediator of cell-cell signaling in neuronal systems. The serotonin transporter (SERT) on the plasma membrane controls the extracellular 5-HT level by reuptake of released 5-HT from the synaptic cleft, but the underlying regulation mechanism is unclear. Here, we used the yeast two-hybrid system to identify the specific binding protein(s) that interacts with the carboxyl (C)-terminal region of SERT and found a specific interaction with protein kinase C-$\varepsilon$ (PKC-$\varepsilon$), a PKC isotype that is characterized as a calcium-independent and phorbol ester/diacylglycerol-sensitive serine/threonine kinase. PKC-$\varepsilon$ bound to the tail region of SERT but not to other members of the $Na^+/Cl^-$ dependent SLC6 gene family in the yeast two-hybrid assay. The C-terminal region of PKC-$\varepsilon$ is essential for interaction with SERT. In addition, these proteins showed specific interactions in the glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assay. PKC-$\varepsilon$ phosphorylated the peptide of the SERT amino (N)-terminus in vitro. These results suggest that the phosphorylation of SERT by PKC-$\varepsilon$ may regulate SERT activity in plasma membrane.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.597-604
• /
• 2014

$\small{D}$-Phenylglycine aminotransferase ($\small{D}$-PhgAT) from Pseudomonas stutzeri ST-201 is useful for enzymatic synthesis of enantiomerically pure $\small{D}$-phenylglycine. However, its low protein solubility prevents its application at high substrate concentration. With an aim to increase the protein solubility, the N-terminus of $\small{D}$-PhgAT was genetically fused with short peptides ($A_1$ ${\alpha}$-helix, $A_2$ ${\alpha}$-helix, and ALAL, which is a hybrid of $A_1$ and $A_2$) from a ferredoxin enzyme of a halophilic archaeon, Halobacterium salinarum. The fused enzymes $A_1$-$\small{D}$-PhgAT, $A_2$-$\small{D}$-PhgAT, and ALAL-$\small{D}$-PhgAT displayed a reduced pI and increased in solubility by 6.1-, 5.3-, and 8.1- fold in TEMP (pH 7.6) storage, respectively, and 5-, 4.5-, and 5.9-fold in CAPSO (pH 9.5) reaction buffers, respectively, compared with the wild-type enzyme (WT-$\small{D}$-PhgAT). In addition, all the fused $\small{D}$-PhgAT displayed higher enzymatic reaction rates than the WT-DPhgAT at all concentrations of L-glutamate monosodium salt used. The highest rate, $23.82{\pm}1.47$ mM/h, was that obtained from having ALAL-$\small{D}$-PhgAT reacted with 1,500 mM of the substrate. Moreover, the halophilic fusion significantly increased the tolerance of $\small{D}$-PhgAT in the presence of NaCl and KCl, being slightly in favor of KCl, where under the same condition at 3.5 M NaCl or KCl all halophilic-fused variants showed higher activity than WT-$\small{D}$-PhgAT.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.427-433
• /
• 2008

The cephabacins produced by Lysobacter lactamgenus are ${\beta}$-lactam antibiotics composed of a cephem nucleus, an acetate residue, and an oligopeptide side chain. In order to understand the precise implication of the polyketide synthase (PKS) module in the biosynthesis of cephabacin, the genes for its core domains, ${\beta}$-ketoacyl synthase (KS), acyltransferase (AT), and acyl carrier protein (ACP), were amplified and cloned into the pET-32b(+) expression vector. The sfp gene encoding a protein that can modify apo-ACP to its active holo-form was also amplified. The recombinant KS, AT, apo-ACP, and Sfp overproduced in the form of $His_6$-tagged fusion proteins in E. coli BL21(DE3) were purified by nickel-affinity chromatography. Formation of stable peptidyl-S-KS was observed by in vitro acylation of the KS domain with the substrate [L-Ala-L-Ala-L-Ala-L-$^3H$-Arg] tetrapeptide-S-N-acetylcysteamine, which is the evidence for the selective recognition of tetrapeptide produced by nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) in the NRPS/PKS hybrid. In order to confirm whether malonyl CoA is the extender unit for acetylation of the peptidyl moiety, the AT domain, ACP domain, and Sfp protein were treated with $^{14}C$-malonyl-CoA. The results clearly show that the AT domain is able to recognize the extender unit and decarboxylatively acetylated for the elongation of the tetrapeptide. However, the transfer of the activated acetyl group to the ACP domain was not observed, probably attributed to the improper capability of Sfp to activate apo-ACP to the holo-ACP form.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.19 no.10
• /
• pp.1169-1175
• /
• 2009

An antifungal chitinase, ChiCW, produced by Bacillus cereus 28-9 is effective against conidial germination of Botrytis elliptica, the causal agent of lily leaf blight. ChiCW as a modular enzyme consists of a signal peptide, a catalytic domain, a fibronectin type-III-like domain, and a chitin-binding domain. When two C-terminal domains of ChiCW were truncated, $ChiCW{\Delta}FC$ (lacking the chitin-binding domain and fibronectin type III-like domain) lost its antifungal activity. Since $ChiCW{\Delta}C$ (lacking the chitin-binding domain) could not be expressed in Escherichia coli as $ChiCW{\Delta}FC$ did, a different strategy based on protein engineering technology was designed to investigate the involvement of the chitin-binding domain of ChiCW ($ChBD_{ChiCW}$) in antifungal activity in this study. Because ChiA1 of Bacillus circulans WL-12 is a modular enzyme with a higher hydrolytic activity than ChiCW but not inhibitory to conidial germination of Bo. elliptica and the similar domain composition of ChiA1 and ChiCW, the C-terminal truncated derivatives of ChiA1 were generated and used to construct chimeric chitinases with $ChBD_{ChiCW}$. When the chitin-binding domain of ChiA1 was replaced with $ChBD_{ChiCW}$, the chimeric chitinase named ChiAAAW exhibited both high enzyme activity and antifungal activity. The results indicate that $ChBD_{ChiCW}$ may play an important role in the antifungal activity of ChiCW.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.407-409
• /
• 2000

Outer envelope membrane proteins of chloroplasts encoded by the nuclear genome are transported without the N-terminal transit peptide. Here, we investigated the targeting mechanism of AtOEP7, an Arabidopsis homolog of small outer envelope membrane proteins in vivo. AtOEP7 was expressed transiently in protoplasts or stably in transgenic plants as fusion proteins with GFP. In both cases AtOEP7:GFP was targeted to the outer envelope membrane when assayed under a fluorescent microscope or by Western blot analysis. Except the transmembrane domain, deletions of the N- or C-terminal regions of AtOEP7 did not affect targeting although a region closed to the C-terminal side of the transmembrane domain affected the targeting efficiency. Targeting experiments with various hybrid transmembrane mutants revealed that the amino acid sequence of the transmembrane domain determines the targeting specificity The targeting mechanism was further studied using a fusion protein, AtOEP7：NLS：GFP, that had a nuclear localization signal. AtOEP7：NLS：GFP was efficiently targeted to the chloroplast envelope despite the presence of the nuclear localization signal. Taken together, these results suggest that the transmembrane domain of AtOEP7 functions as the sole determinant of targeting specificity and that AtOEP7 may be associated with a cytosolic component during translocation to the chloroplast envelope membrane.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
• /
• 1995.10a
• /
• pp.107-113
• /
• 1995

Basement membrane laminin is a multidomain glycoprotein that interacts with itself, heparin and cells. The distal long arm plays major cell and heparin interactive roles. The long arm consists of three subunits (A, B1, B2) joined in a coiled-coil rod attached to a terminal A chain globule (G). The globule is in turn subdivided into five subdomains (Gl-5). In order to analyze the functions of this region, recombinant G domains (rG, rAiG, rG5, rGΔ2980-3028) were expressed in Sf9 insect cells using a baculovirus expression vector. A hybrid molecule (B-rAiG), consisting of recombinant A chain(rAiG) and the authentic B chains (E8-B)was assembled in vitro. The intercalation of rAiG into E8-B chains suppressed a heparin binding activity identified in subdomain Gl-2. By the peptide napping and ligand blotting, the relative affinity of each subeomain to heparin was assigned as Gl> G2= G4> G5> G3, such that G1 bound strongly and G3 not at all. The active heparin binding site of G domain in intact laminin appears to be located in G4 and proximal G5. Cell binding was examined using fibrosarcoma Cells. Cells adhered to E8, B-rAiG, rAiG and rG, did not bind on denatured substrates, poorly bound to the mixture of E8-B and rG. Anti-${\alpha}$6 and anti-${\beta}$1 integrin subunit separately blocked cell adhesion on E8 and B-rAiG, but not on rAiG. Heparin inhibited cell adhesion on rAiG, partially on B-rAiG, and not on E8. In conclusion, 1) There are active and cryptic cell and heparin binding activities in G domain. 2) Triple-helix assembly inactivates cell and heparin binding activities and restores u6131 dependent cell binding activities.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
• /
• 2012.11a
• /
• pp.4-4
• /
• 2012

Proteins enable biology to be viable through molecular interactions (such as in antigen-antibody, ligand-receptor, and drug-target) with

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.144-149
• /
• 2001

For the production and purification of a single chain human insulin precursor, four types of fusion peptides $\beta$-galactosidase (LacZ), maltose binding protein (MBP), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), and (His)(sub)6-tagged sequence (HTS) were investigated. Recombinant E. coli harboring hybrid genes was cultivated at 37$\^{C}$ for 1h, and gene induction occurred when 0.2mM of isopropyl-D-thiogalactoside (IPTG) was added to the culture broth, except for E. coli BL21 (DE3) pLysS harboring a pET-BA cultivation with 1.0mM IPTG, followed by a longer than 4h batch fermentation respectively. DEAE-Sphacel and Sephadex G-200 gel filtration chromatography, amylose affinity chromatography, glutathione-sepharose 4B affinity chromatography, and a nickel chelating affinity chromatography system as a kind of immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) were all employed for the purification of a single chain human insulin precursor. The recovery yields of the HTS-fused, GST-fused, MBP-fused, and LacZ-fused single chain human insulin precursors resulted in 47%, 20%, 20%, and 18% as the total protein amounts respectively. These results show that a higher recovery yield of the finally purified recombinant peptides was achieved when affinity column chromatography was employed and when the fused peptide had a smaller molecular weight. In addition the pET expression system gave the highest productivity of a fused insulin precursor due to a two-step regulation of the gene expression, and the HTS-fused system provided the highest recovery of a fused insulin precursor based on a simple and specific separation using the IMAC technique.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.346-355
• /
• 2024

Groupers are economically important species in the fishery and aquaculture industries in Asian countries. Various species of grouper, including hybrids, have been brought to market even without precise species identification. In this study, we analyzed the structure and expression profile of the gene encoding prolactin (PRL) in the red-spotted grouper Epinephelus akaara based on genomic DNA and cDNA templates. The results showed that the PRL gene consists of five exons encoding an open reading frame of 212 amino acids, including a putative signal peptide of 24 amino acids and a mature structural protein of 188 amino acids. It showed amino acid identities of 99% with Epinephelus coioides, 83% with Amphiprion melanopus, 82% with Acanthopagrus schlegelii, 75% with Oreochromis niloticus, 70% with Coregonus autumnalis, and 67% with Oncorhynchus mykiss, indicating its closer similarity to E. coioides and other groupers but marked distinction from non-teleost PRLs. PRL mRNA expression was detected mostly in the brain, including the pituitary gland, with little expression in other tissues. While the 5-exon structure of the PRL gene of red-spotted grouper and the exon sizes were conserved, the sizes of the introns, particularly the first intron, were markedly different among the grouper species. To examine whether these differences can be used to distinguish groupers of similar phenotypes, exon-primed intron-crossing analysis was carried out for various commercially important grouper species. The results showed clear differences in size of the amplified fragment encompassing the first intron of the PRL gene, indicating that this method could be used to develop species-specific markers capable of discriminating between grouper species and their hybrids at the molecular level.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2014.05a
• /
• pp.27-28
• /
• 2014

Beauveria bassiana (Cordycipitaceae, Hypocreales, Ascomycota) is an anamorphic fungus having a potential to be used as a biological control agent because it parasitizes a wide range of arthropod hosts including termites, aphids, beetles and many other insects. A number of bioactive secondary metabolites (SMs) have been isolated from B. bassiana and functionally verified. Among them, beauvericin and bassianolide are cyclic depsipeptides with antibiotic and insecticidal effects belonging to the enniatin family. Non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) play a crucial role in the synthesis of these secondary metabolites. NRPSs are modularly organized multienzyme complexes in which each module is responsible for the elongation of proteinogenic and non-protein amino acids, as well as carboxyl and hydroxyacids. A minimum of three domains are necessary for one NRPS elongation module: an adenylation (A) domain for substrate recognition and activation; a tholation (T) domain that tethers the growing peptide chain and the incoming aminoacyl unit; and a condensation (C) domain to catalyze peptide bond formation. Some of the optional domains include epimerization (E), heterocyclization (Cy) and oxidation (Ox) domains, which may modify the enzyme-bound precursors or intermediates. In the present study, we analyzed genomes of B. bassiana and its allied species in Hypocreales to verify the distribution of NRPS-encoding genes involving biosynthesis of beauvericin and bassianolide, and to unveil the evolutionary processes of the gene clusters. Initially, we retrieved completely or partially assembled genomic sequences of fungal species belonging to Hypocreales from public databases. SM biosynthesizing genes were predicted from the selected genomes using antiSMASH program. Adenylation (A) domains were extracted from the predicted NRPS, NRPS-like and NRPS-PKS hybrid genes, and used them to construct a phylogenetic tree. Based on the preliminary results of SM biosynthetic gene prediction in B. bassiana, we analyzed the conserved gene orders of beauvericin and bassianolide biosynthetic gene clusters among the hypocrealean fungi. Reciprocal best blast hit (RBH) approach was performed to identify the regions orthologous to the biosynthetic gene cluster in the selected fungal genomes. A clear recombination pattern was recognized in the inferred A-domain tree in which A-domains in the 1st and 2nd modules of beauvericin and bassianolide synthetases were grouped in CYCLO and EAS clades, respectively, suggesting that two modules of each synthetase have evolved independently. In addition, inferred topologies were congruent with the species phylogeny of Cordycipitaceae, indicating that the gene fusion event have occurred before the species divergence. Beauvericin and bassianolide synthetases turned out to possess identical domain organization as C-A-T-C-A-NM-T-T-C. We also predicted precursors of beauvericin and bassianolide synthetases based on the extracted signature residues in A-domain core motifs. The result showed that the A-domains in the 1st module of both synthetases select D-2-hydroxyisovalerate (D-Hiv), while A-domains in the 2nd modules specifically activate L-phenylalanine (Phe) in beauvericin synthetase and leucine (Leu) in bassianolide synthetase. antiSMASH ver. 2.0 predicted 15 genes in the beauvericin biosynthetic gene cluster of the B. bassiana genome dispersed across a total length of approximately 50kb. The beauvericin biosynthetic gene cluster contains beauvericin synthetase as well as kivr gene encoding NADPH-dependent ketoisovalerate reductase which is necessary to convert 2-ketoisovalarate to D-Hiv and a gene encoding a putative Gal4-like transcriptional regulator. Our syntenic comparison showed that species in Cordycipitaceae have almost conserved beauvericin biosynthetic gene cluster although the gene order and direction were sometimes variable. It is intriguing that there is no region orthologous to beauvericin synthetase gene in Cordyceps militaris genome. It is likely that beauvericin synthetase was present in common ancestor of Cordycipitaceae but selective gene loss has occurred in several species including C. militaris. Putative bassianolide biosynthetic gene cluster consisted of 16 genes including bassianolide synthetase, cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, and putative Gal4-like transcriptional regulator genes. Our synteny analysis found that only B. bassiana possessed a bassianolide synthetase gene among the studied fungi. This result is consistent with the groupings in A-domain tree in which bassianolide synthetase gene found in B. bassiana was not grouped with NRPS genes predicted in other species. We hypothesized that bassianolide biosynthesizing cluster genes in B. bassiana are possibly acquired by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from distantly related fungi. The present study showed that B. bassiana is the only species capable of producing both beauvericin and bassianolide. This property led to B. bassiana infect multiple hosts and to be a potential biological control agent against agricultural pests.