• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.182-182
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• 2003

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.181-181
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• 2003

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.571-577
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• 2003

The intracellular metabolic fluxes can be calculated by metabolic flux analysis, which uses a stoichiometric model for the intracellulal reactions along with mass balances around the intracellular metabolites. In this study, metabolic flux analyses were carried out to estimate flux distributions for the maximum in silico yields of various metabolites in Escherichia coli. The maximum in silico yields of acetic acid and lactic acid were identical to their theoretical yields. On the other hand, the in silico yields of succinic acid and ethanol were only 83% and 6.5% of their theoretical yields, respectively. The lower in silico yield of succinic acid was found to be due to the insufficient reducing power. but this lower yield could be increased to its theoretical yield by supplying more reducing power. The maximum theoretical yield of ethanol could be achieved, when a reaction catalyzed by pyruvate decarboxylase was added in the metabolic network. Futhermore, optimal metabolic pathways for the production of various metabolites could be proposed, based on the results of metabolic flux analyses. In the case of succinic acid production, it was found that the pyruvate carboxylation pathway should be used for its optimal production in E. coli rather than the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylation pathway.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.430-430
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• 2005

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.584-584
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• 2005

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.585-585
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• 2005

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.81-95
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• 2003

Carotenoids are synthesized from the plastidic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GAP)/pyruvate pathway in isoprenoids biosynthetic system of plants. They play a crucial role in light harvesting, work as photoprotective agents in photosynthesis of nature, and are also responsible for the red, orange and yellow colors of fruits and flowers in plants. In addition to biological actions of carotenoids as antioxidants and natural pigments, they are essential components of human diet as a source of vitamin A. It has been also suggested that some kinds of carotenoids might provide protection against cancer and heart disease as human medicines. In this article, we review the commercial applications on the basis of biological functions of carotenoids, summarize the studies of genes involved in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, and introduce recent results achieved in metabolic engineering of carotenoids. This effort for understanding the carotenoids metabolism will make us to increase the total carotenoid contents of crop plants, direct the carotenoid biosynthetic machinery towards other useful carotenoids, and produce a new array of carotenoids by further metabolizing the new precursors that are created when one or two key enzymes in carotenoid biosynthetic pathway are exchanged through gene manipulation in the near future.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.634-634
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• 2005

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.206-215
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• 2005

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are homo or hetero polyesters of (R)-hydroxyalkanoates accumulated in various microorganisms under growth-limiting condition in the presence of excess carbon source. They have been suggested as biodegradable substitutes for chemically synthesized polymers. Recombinant Escherichia coli is one of the promising host strains for the economical production of PHAs, and has been extensively investigated for the process development. The heterologous PHA biosynthetic pathways have been established through the metabolic engineering and inherent metabolic pathways of E. coli have been redirected to supply PHA precursors. Fermentation strategies for cultivating these recombinant E. coli strains have also been developed for the efficient production of PHAs. Nowadays, short-chain-length (SCL) PHAs are being re-invited due to its improved mechanical properties and possible applications in the biomedical area. In this article, recent advances in the development of metabolically engineered E. coli strains for the enhanced production of SCL-PHAs are reviewed. Also, medical applications of SCL-PHAs are discussed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.161-174
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• 2005

Abstract Glycolysis has a main function to provide ATP and precursor metabolites for biomass production. Although glycolysis is one of the most important pathways in cellular metabolism, the details of its regulation mechanism and regulating chemicals are not well known yet. The regulation of the glycolytic pathway is very robust to allow for large fluxes at almost constant metabolite levels in spite of changing environmental conditions and many reaction effectors like inhibitors, activating compounds, cofactors, and related metal ions. These changing environmental conditions and metabolic reaction effectors were focused on to understand their roles in the metabolic networks. In this study, we have investigated for construction of the regulatory map of the glycolytic metabolic network and tried to collect all the effectors as much as possible which might affect the glycolysis metabolic pathway. Using the results of this study, it is expected that a complex metabolic situation can be more precisely analyzed and simulated by using available programs and appropriate kinetic data.