• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.307-310
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• 2008

AAD16034 is an alginate lyase from Pseudoalteromonas sp. IAM14594. A very close homologue with known 3D structure exists (marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. strain no. 272). A three-dimensional structure of AAD16034 was generated based on this template (PDB code: 1J1T) by comparative modeling. The modeled enzyme exhibited a jelly-roll like structure very similar to its template structure. Both enzymes possess the characteristic alginate sequence YFKhG+Y-Q. Since AAD16034 displays enzymatic activity for poly-M alginate, docking of a tri-mannuronate into the modeled structure was performed. Two separate and adjacent binding sites were found. The ligand was accommodated inside each binding site. By considering both binding sites, a plausible binding pose for the poly-M alginate polymer could be deduced. From the modeled docking pose (i.e., the most important factor that attracts alginate polymer into this lyase) the most likely interaction was electrostatic. In accordance with a previous report, the hydroxyl group of Y345 was positioned close to the ${\alpha}$-hydrogen of ${\beta}$-mannuronate, which was suitable to initiate a ${\beta}$-elimination reaction. K347 was also very near to the carboxylatemoiety of the ligand, which might stabilize the dianion intermediate during the ${\beta}$-elimination reaction. This implies that the characteristic alginate sequence is absolutely crucial for the catalysis. These results may be exploited in the design of novel enzymes with desired properties.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.110-114
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• 2009

Sawdust bag cultivation of Shiitake mushroom (Lentinula edodes) is getting increase. The mycelia browning on the substrate surface is important for the stable production. The development of methods for the rapid mycelia browning is quite required. In this study changes in intracellular enzyme during the mycelial browning were investigated to find the rapid mycelia browning. Mycelia of L. edodes was changed into brown color while it grew in agar and liquid media like sawdust substrates. Mycelia of L. edodes was started to change color at 25 days after inoculation and browning was occurred in whole mycelia colony at 30 days and browning was completed at 40 days. The activities of enzymes was evaluated in these periodically color changing mycelia. Laccase activity was highest at 15 days after inoculation on PDB, but it gradually decreased from 15 days. Tyrosinase activity drastically increased in period between 30 days and 40 days while mycelia browning was progressed. The kinds of phosphotase identified by electrophoresis were esterase, acid phosphotase, and alkaline phosphotase. Activities of phosphotase were increased before the initiation of mycelial browning but they were decreased after browning.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.8.1-8.5
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• 2010

Introduction: Recently identified human homologues of ALKB protein have shown the activity of DNA damaging drugs, used for cancer therapy. Bioinformatics study of hABH2 and hABH3 had led to the discovery of a novel DNA repair mechanism. Very little is known about structure and function of hABH4, one of the members of this superfamily. Therefore, in present study we are intended to predict its structure and function through various bioinformatics tools. Materials and Methods: Modeling was done with modeler 9v7 to predict the 3D structure of the hABH4 protein. This model was validated with the program Procheck using Ramachandran plot statistics and was submitted to PMDB with ID PM0076284. The 3d2GO server was used to predict the functions. Residues at protein ligand and protein RNA binding sites were predicted with 3dLigandSite and KYG programs respectively. Results and Discussion: 3-D model of hABH4, ALKBH4.B99990003.pdb was predicted and evaluated. Validation result showed that 96.4 % residues lies in favored and additional allowed region of Ramachandran plot. Ligand binding residues prediction showed four Ligand clusters, having 24 ligands in cluster 1. Importantly, conserved pattern of Glu196-X-Pro198- Xn-His254 in the functional domain was detected. DNA and RNA binding sites were also predicted in the model. Conclusion and Prospects: The predicted and validated model of human homologue hABH4 resulted from this study may unveil the mechanism of DNA damage repair in human and accelerate the research on designing of appropriate inhibitors aiding in chemotherapy and cancer related diseases.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.60-68
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• 2004

Potato dextrose broth was the best inoculation medium to produce in vitro synnemata of Paecilomyces tenuipes. The optimum temperature for synnemata formation of P. tenuipes was $20^{\circ}C$ under 500 lx of light intensity. Highest synnemata production was observed at 18 hr of light period per day. The medium containing 50 g of each silkworm pupae and brown rice produced highest number of synnemata. The optimum ratio of brown rice to distilled water was found as 1:1. Mycelial growth and synnemata production of P. tenuipes was faster and higher in medium containing grinded pupae as compared to whole pupae. The optimum inoculum amount per bottle of medium was 15ml. The highest synnemata production of P. tenuipes was obtained by incubating rice pupae medium at $24^{\circ}C$ until mycelium grows sufficiently after inoculation and then transferring it to $20^{\circ}C$ chamber till harvest.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.309-316
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• 2008

Mycelium of Ophiostoma quercus albino strain cultured in liquid culture media was harvested, lyophilized, and stored for examining biocontrol efficacy against wood discoloration by staining fungi in the laboratory and field conditions. Dry weight of mycelium grown in brown sugar yeast extract broth(BYB) showed 3.8 times higher than that grown in potato dextrose broth(PDB). The optimum culture period in BYB was 4 weeks. In vitality test of the albino strain, the lyophilized mycelium stored in liquid nitrogen($-196^{\circ}C$) or in a refrigerator($4^{\circ}C$) kept the vitality until 13 months after storage; however, the mycelium stored at room temperature lost the vitality completely after 13 months. The mycelium stored in liquid nitrogen or in a refrigerator protected wood chips from the discoloration by pretreating mycelial suspension on pine wood chips. The mycelium stored at room temperature for 7 months also showed complete protection. These results suggest that the lyophilized mycelium have a biocontrol efficacy only if it keeps the least vitality. In the field conditions, both albino strain and $Woodguard^{(R)}$(commercial chemical protectant) showed significant differences(p=0.05) in discoloration rate as compared to the non-treated control when these were treated on the wood logs of Pinus rigida. The albino strain showed better protection than $Woodguard^{(R)}$. Isolation frequency of blue stain fungi from the chips of wood logs treated with the albino strain was 0% at three months after treatment, while that treated with $Woodguard^{(R)}$ was 76.7%. In another experiment, pre-treatment of mycelial suspension on the cut surface of wood logs also showed significant protection from wood discoloration. Spraying of both albino strain on the cut surface and insecticides on the bark also showed relatively good control effects as compared to insecticide alone on the bark or nontreated control.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.142-146
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• 2008

In order to understand the protein functions that are related to disease, it is important to detect the correlation between amino acid mutations and disease. Many mutation studies about disease-related proteins have been carried out through molecular biology techniques, such as vector design, protein engineering, and protein crystallization. However, experimental protein mutation studies are time-consuming, be it in vivo or in vitro. We therefore performed a bioinformatic analysis of known disease-related mutations and their protein structure changes in order to analyze the correlation between mutation and disease. For this study, we selected 111 diseases that were related to 175 proteins from the PDB database and 710 mutations that were found in the protein structures. The mutations were acquired from the Human Gene Mutation Database (HGMD). We selected point mutations, excluding only insertions or deletions, for detecting structural changes. To detect a structural change by mutation, we analyzed not only the structural properties (distance of pocket and mutation, pocket size, surface size, and stability), but also the physico-chemical properties (weight, instability, isoelectric point (IEP), and GRAVY score) for the 710 mutations. We detected that the distance between the pocket and disease-related mutation lay within $20\;{\AA}$ (98.5%, 700 proteins). We found that there was no significant correlation between structural stability and disease-causing mutations or between hydrophobicity changes and critical mutations. For large-scale mutational analysis of disease-causing mutations, our bioinformatics approach, using 710 structural mutations, called "Structural Mutatomics," can help researchers to detect disease-specific mutations and to understand the biological functions of disease-related proteins.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.771-780
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• 2018

Angiogenesis must be precisely controlled because uncontrolled angiogenesis is involved in aggravation of disease symptoms. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)/VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) signaling is a key pathway leading to angiogenic responses in vascular endothelial cells (ECs). Therefore, targeting VEGF/VEGFR-2 signaling may be effective at modulating angiogenesis to alleviate various disease symptoms. Oleanolic acid was verified as a VEGFR-2 binding chemical from anticancer herbs with similar binding affinity as a reference drug in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) entry 3CJG of model A coordination. Oleanolic acid effectively inhibited VEGF-induced VEGFR-2 activation and angiogenesis in HUVECs without cytotoxicity. We also verified that oleanolic acid inhibits in vivo angiogenesis during the development and the course of the retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) model in the mouse retina. Taken together, our results suggest a potential therapeutic benefit of oleanolic acid for inhibiting angiogenesis in proangiogenic diseases, including retinopathy.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2007

In this study, we investigated the properties of incubation and growing of Pleurotus eryngii in addition to the mycological properties to use them as basic data for breeding. The speed of mycelial growth on the MCM was faster than on the PDA. The biomass in the PDB broth culture was higher than in the MCM and YMG broth culture. KNR2515 and KNR2516 required 19 days for growth of mycelia on commercial sawdust media. KNR2503 required 6.5 days and 15.3 days for pin-heading and harvesting, respectively. In morphological properties by the mushroom, the heights of KNR2312 and KNR2322 were 122.7 and 121.0 mm, respectively. The thickness of KNR2322 and KNR2513 were 39.8 mm and 31.3 mm, respectively. The weight of KNR2524's fruiting body was 36.3 g, which is good as wild strain. The quality of fruiting body of KNR2503 was 4.0 in comparison to the score 7 of commercially cultivated strains. KNR2512 had the darkest color of pileus with L value 43.6. The slow growing strains, KNR2511, KNR2513, and KNR2512 had the bright pileus with L value 80. In morphological characteristics, KNR2511, KNR2513, and KNR2515 had white lamellar and plane pileus. The three strains are supposed to be the same group and KNR2516 and KNR2518 appeared to be related to the group. The commercially cultivated strains had convex pileus, KNR2502, KNR2503, KNR2504, KNR2521, and KNR2525 had infundibuliform, and the other strains had plane pileus. Several strains were valuable for breeding, JNR2503 for growth rate, KNR2512 for pileus color, and KNR2312, KNR2322, KNR2503, and KNR2513 for the quality.

• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.261-271
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• 2010

Carbon isotopic compositions of the YC-2 stalagmite in Yongcheon Cave were analyzed to delineate paleoclimatic variations near Korean peninsula for the past historical period. The YC-2 stalagmite is about 68 mm long and annual growth laminae are distinctively identified. Because the number of growth laminae is at least 242, the stalagmite can be estimated to be at least 241 years old. At about 15 mm from the bottom, one thick brown growth lamina is observed, and this lamina was likely to have been formed when the stalagmite ceased to grow, making the hiatus. High resolution, carbon isotope data indicate past fluctuations of East Asia monsoonal intensity (intimately related to the amount of precipitation). Based on the carbon isotope trend, the stalagmite can be divided into three stages (Stages I, II and III). The highest carbon isotopic compositions of Stage I (${\delta}^{13}C$=-3.3~0.4‰, PDB) indicate that the stalagmite grew during the Little Ice Age when cold and dry climate prevailed with less vegetation. Stage II is characterized by a transitional period from cold and dry to warm and wet climate with a increasing trend of carbon isotopic compositions (${\delta}^{13}C$=-9.6~-0.6‰) and this period indicates the weakening of the Little Ice Age climate. This decreasing trend also suggests that Little Ice Age was terminated near middle 1870's around Korean peninsula. Relatively low carbon isotopic compositions during Stage III (${\delta}^{13}C$=-11.0~-8.0‰) indicates that the climate was changed to warm and wet conditions which are similar to the present.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.93-97
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• 2007

The microorganisms with the antifungal activity against Phytophthora capsici and Colletotrichum acutatum and the plant growth promotion activity were screened from forest soils of Moon-gyeong (Juheul Mountain), Gyeongsangbuk-do. One of the isolates, strain MG 121 showed antifungal activity against P. capsici and C. acutatum and possessed phosphate solubilization activity was selected to development biocontrol agent. The strain MG 121 was identified as Streptomyces sp. by analysis of 16S rDNA. On the test with pepper fruits, the strain inhibited disease incidences of late blight and anthracnose over 80%. In greenhouse test, plant height, the number of leaf, fresh weight and roots length of pepper plants upon treatment of culture suspension of Streptomyces sp. MG 121 were significantly higher than those without the bacterial cells. In addition, strain MG 121 was capable to solublize rock-phosphate after incubation for 144 hours in potato dextrose broth. The concentration of soluble phosphate in PDB amended with 0.5% rock-phosphate was increased up to $765{\mu}g/ml$.