• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.127-132
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• 2010

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of Xanthium sibiricum Patr. on carcinogenesis. Method: Water extract from Xanthium sibiricum Patr. (XPW) was prepared and investigated for the potential antitumor activity and inhibition of benzo[a]pyrene-DNA adduct formation and free radical formation. Result: It was shown that the water possess considerable toxicity toward tumor cell lines. Concentration of XPW at 1.0 mg/mL and 2.5 mg/mL resulted in more than 30% inhibition of growth in HeLa cells. Toxicity of XPW to A549 revealed that 54% inhibition of growth at concentration of 2.5 mg/mL. At concentrations of 0.5 mg/mL, 1.0 mg/mL and 2.5 mg/mL of XPW, the binding of [$^3H$]B[a]P metabolites to DNA of human Chang cell was inhibited by 19%, 33%, and 41%, respectively. There 18% and 32% inhibition in the free radical formation with XPW at the concentration of 1.0 mg/mL and 2.5 mg/mL, respectively. Conclusion: Water extract from Xanthium sibiricum Patr. (XPW) has antitumor and cancer chemopreventive activities.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.112-115
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• 1996

Some antioxidant phenolic compounds exhibit prooxidant activity mainly due to their abilities to reduce $Fe^{3+}\; to\; Fe^{2+}.$ Reducing ability and prooxidant activity of maltol, an antioxidant component of Korean red ginseng, were compared with those of pyrogallol. Maltol at 2 mM did not appreciably reduce$ Fe^{3+}\; to\; Fe^{2+}$ and also failed to reduce nitroblue tetrazolium. Stimulation of hydroxyl radical mediated-deoxyribose degradation by pyrogallol was maximal at 60 .mu.M. Maltol stimulated the deoxyribose degradation to a much less extent, and a similar stimulatory effect was observed at a concentration of more than 100-fold higher than that of pyrogallol. The stimulatory effect of maltol reached a plateau over 1 mM, suggesting the removal of hydroxyl radicals by excess maltol. In bleomycin-$Fe^{3+}$-DNA assay, maltol at 2 mM produced a 2.5-fold increase of the iron-bleomycin-dependent DNA degradation over the basal value, whereas pyrogallol at 10 .mu.M accelerated DNA degradation by ca. 10-fold. Furthermore, maltol inhibited $Fe^{2+}$-stimulated DNA degradation by bleomycin. These results strongly suggested that maltol is an antioxidant with little prooxidant activity.

• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 1996

Taq DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus has been shown to be very useful in the polymerase chain reaction method, which is being used for amplifying DNA. Not only does Taq DNA polymerase have high commercial value commercial value for the polymerase chain reaction application, but it is also important in studying DNA replication, because it is apparently an homologue to E. coli DNA polymerase I, which has long been used for DNA replication study (Lawyer et ai., 1993). The crystal structure determination of Taq DNA polymerase was initiated. An X-ray diffraction pattern breaks down a crystal structure into discrete sine waves in a Fourier series. The original shape of a crystal object in terms of electron density may be represented as the sum of those sine waves with varying amplitudes and phases in three dimensions. The molecular replacement method was initially employed to provide phase information for the structure of Taq DNA polymerase. The rotation search using the program MERLOT resulted in a solution peak with 5.4 r.m.s. PC-refinement of the X-PLOR program verified the result and also optimized the orientation angles. Next, the translation search using the X-PLOR program resulted in a unique solution peak with 7.35 r.m.s. In addition, the translation search indicated $P3_121$ to be the true space group out of two possible ones. The phase information from the molecular replacement was useful in the MIR phasing experiment.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.457-461
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• 2008

DNA damage checkpoint is an important self-defense mechanism for the maintenance of genome stability. Defects in DNA damage signaling and repair lead to various disorders and increase tumor incidence in humans. In the past 10 years, we have identified many components involved in the DNA damage-signaling pathway, including the product of breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1). Mutations in BRCA1 are associated with increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers, highlighting the importance of this DNA damage-signaling pathway in tumor suppression. While it becomes clear that BRCA1 plays a crucial role in the DNA damage responsive pathway, exactly how BRCA1 receives DNA damage signals and exerts its checkpoint function has not been fully addressed. A series of recent studies reported the discovery of many novel components involved in DNA damage-signaling pathway. These newly identified checkpoint proteins, including RNF8, RAP80 and CCDC98, work in concern in recruiting BRCA1 to DNA damage sites and thus regulate BRCA1 function in G2/M checkpoint control. This review will summarize these recent findings and provide an updated view of the regulation of BRCA1 in response to DNA damage.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.129-133
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• 2002

Suppression of nitrate accumulation in spinach and lettuce through foliar application of chitosan formula containing micronutrients is related with the increase of the nitrate reductase (NR) activity. If NR in spinach were highly expressed to increase the assimilatory activity, nitrate content could be reduced. For this, NR cDNA was cloned from the isolated mRNAs of spinach using reverse transcriptase-PCR. Nucleotide sequence of cloned spinach NR cDNA showed highly deduced amino acid sequence identity ($71{\sim}82%$) with other known plant NR genes. Only two nucleotide-base differences were observed in the cloned NR cDNA compared with that of the published spinach NR cDNA.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.44-48
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• 2004

The two-component type enzyme amplified amperometric DNA assay is described to use an ambient $O_2$ of the substrate of the DNA labeling enzyme. Although the assay detects DNA only at > 0.5M concentration, a concentration $\~10^6$ fold higher than the sandwich-type enzyme amplified amperometric DNA assay, it can be run with an always available substrate. The assay utilizes screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPEs) which were pre-coated by a co-electrodeposited film of an electron conducting redox hydrogel and a 37-base long single-stranded DNA sequence. The DNA in the electron conducting film hybridizes and captures, when present, the 37-base long detection-DNA, which is labeled with bilirubin oxidase (BOD), an enzyme catalyzing the four-electron reduction of $O_2$ to water. Because the redox hydrogel electrically connects the BOD reaction centers to the electrode, completion of the sandwich converts the film from non-electrocatalytic to electrocatalytic for the reduction of $O_2$ to water when the electrode is poised at 200 mV vs. Ag/hgCl. The advantage or the assay over the earlier reported sandwich type enzyme amplified amperometric DNA assay, in which the amplifying enzyme was horseradish peroxidase, is that it utilizes ambient $O_2$ instead of the less stable and naturally unavailable $H_2O_2$.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 1989

Polysomal polyadenylated mRNAs which were purified from pea leaves were fractionated by sucrose grandient sedimentation. Fractions corresponding to the peak at 11.5S were found to contain mostly mRNA encoding the precursor polypeptide to the small subunit of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (rbcS) by in vitro translation in wheat germ extract. Double-stranded cDNA which was synthesized from the 11.5S mRNA was cloned into Hind III site of plasmid pBR 325. A cDNA clone, H24, was identified to code for rbcS. In vitro translation product of the hybridization-selected mRNA was molecular weight 20,000, presumably the precursor of rbcS. The nucleotide sequences of the H24 showed almost complete homology with the sequences encoding the transit peptide of the rbcS-3A gene which was reported by Fluhr et al.(1986).

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.203-209
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• 1995

Tobacco (Nicotiana tahacum L. cv. Wisconsin 38) leaf discs were cocultivated with Agrohacterium carrying a leghemoglobin (Lb) cDNA from Canavalia lineata. Seven plants were regenerated from the transformed leaf discs on MS media supplemented with 0.5 mg/L BAP, 0.1 mg/L ${\alpha}-NAA$, 200 mg/L kanamycin and 500 mg/L carbenicillin. Southern hybridization and PCR of genomic DNA from transgenic plants showed that the Lb cDNA was stably integrated into the genome of the tobacco. Total RNA from the transgenic tobacco showed northern hybridization signal at 1,000 nt and PCR of the first strand cDNA synthesized from the total RNA amplified 0.5 kb Lb cDNA. Furthermore, western hybridization using a polyclonal antibody against soybean Lb showed a 15.8 kD LB-like band on SDS-PAGE of proteins from the transformed tobacco. These results demonstrated that the Lb cDNA of C. lineata was not only incorporated into the genome of tobacco, but also transcribed into mRNA and translated into Lb protein in the transformed tabacco.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.510-522
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• 2008

To construct the molecular systematics of the genus Megoura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), DNA based-identification was performed using four mitochondrial and three nuclear DNA regions: partial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI), partial tRNA-leucine + cytochrome c oxidase II (tRNA/COII), cytochrome b (CytB), partial 12S rRNA + tRNA-valine + 16S rRNA (12S/16S), elongation factor-1 alpha ($EF1{\alpha}$), and the internal transcribed spacers 1 and 2 (ITS1, ITS2). Pairwise sequence divergences between taxa were compared, and phylogenetic analyses were performed based on each DNA region separately, and the combined datasets. COI, CytB, $EF1{\alpha}$, ITS1, and ITS2 were relatively effective in determining species and resolving their relationships. By contrast, the sequences of tRNA/COII and 12S/16S were not able to separate the closely related species. CytB and $EF1{\alpha}$ gave better resolution with higher average sequence divergences (4.7% for CytB, 5.2% for $EF1{\alpha}$). The sequence divergence of COI (3.0%) was moderate, and those of the two ITS regions (1.8% for ITS1, 2.0% for ITS2) were very low. Phylogenetic trees were constructed by minimum evolution, maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses. The results indicated that the phylogenetic relationships between Megoura species were associated with their host preferences. Megoura brevipilosa and M. lespedezae living on Lespedeza were closely related, and M. nigra, monophagous on Vicia venosa, was rather different from M. crassicauda, M. litoralis, and M. viciae, which are oligophagous on Lathyrus and Vicia. The three populations of M. crassicauda formed a clade separated from M. litoralis and M. viciae. Nevertheless M. litoralis and M. viciae, which are morphologically similar, were not separated due to negligible sequence divergence. We discuss the phylogenetic relationships of the Megoura, and the usefulness of the seven DNA regions for determining the species level phylogeny of aphids.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.75-79
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• 1983

To exploit a suitable vector and recipient strain for molecular cloning in Bacillus subtilis, oxytetracycline-resistant plasmic DNA has been prepared from Streptomyces rimosus by phenol-buffer extraction of lysozyme-lysed cells and introduced into B. subtilis KPM 60 [St $r^{R}$-mutant of RM 125 (leu A8, arg 15, hsm $M^{-10}$ , hsr $M^{-10}$ )] by transformation. Oxitetracycline-resistant plasmid was well transferred into B. subtilis KPM 60 with average frequency of 10$^{-4}$ per $\mu\textrm{g}$ of DNA. The highest frequency of plasmid transformation was obtained after 3 hours incubation of recipient cells in the growth medium and 30 to 60 minutes incubation in the competence medium, and then 20 minutes contact of DNA and host cells. Optimum pH for competence was 7.5, and optimum temperature for transformation was 2$0^{\circ}C$.>.