• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.115-125
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• 1993

In Euglena gracilis arginine deiminase was located in the mitochondrial matrix. The highly purified enzyme required $Co^{2+}$ for the enzyme reaction with the $K_m$ value of 0.23 nM, and its optimum pH was 9.7 to 10.3. The molecular weight of the native enzyme protein was 87,000 by gel filtration, and SDS-acrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that the enzyme consisted of two identical subunits with a molecular weight of 48,000. Euglena arginine deiminase was inhibited by sulfhydryl inhibitors, indicating that a sulfhydryl group is involved in the active center of the enzyme. It exhibited negative cooperativity in binding with arginine. $L-{\alpha}-amino-{\beta}-guanidino-propionate$, D-arginine, and L-homoarginine strongly inhibited the enzyme while ${\beta}-guanidinopro-pionate$, ${\gamma}-guanidinobutyrate$, and guanidinosuccinate did not. Considerable inhibition was also observed with citrulline and ornithine. We discuss the effects of the unique properties of the Euglena arginine deiminase on the regulation of arginine metabolism in this protozoon.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 2007

To identify regulatory molecules which play key roles in the development of obesity, we investigated the transcriptional profiles in 3T3-L1 cells at early stage of differentiation and analyzed the promoter sequences of differentially regulated genes. One hundred and sixty-one (161) genes were found to have significant changes in expression at the 2nd day following treatment with differentiation cocktail. Among them, 86 transcripts were up-regulated and 75 transcripts were down-regulated. The 161 transcripts were classified into 10 categories according to their functional roles; cytoskeleton, cell adhesion, immune, defense response, metabolism, protein modification, protein metabolism, regulation of transcription, signal transduction and transporter. To identify transcription factors likely involved in regulating these differentially expressed genes, we analyzed the promoter sequences of up- or - down regulated genes for the presence of transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs). Based on coincidence of regulatory sites, we have identified candidate transcription factors (TFs), which include those previously known to be involved in adipogenesis (CREB, OCT-1 and c-Myc). Among them, c-Myc was also identified by our microarray data. Our approach to take advantage of the resource of the human genome sequences and the results from our microarray experiments should be validated by further studies of promoter occupancy and TF perturbation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.627-636
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• 2016

The causative agent of pandemic cholera, Vibrio cholerae, infects the anaerobic environment of the human intestine. Production of cholera toxin (CT), a major virulence factor of V. cholerae, is highly induced during anaerobic respiration with trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) as an alternative electron acceptor. However, the molecular mechanism of TMAO-stimulated CT production is not fully understood. Herein, we reveal that CT production during anaerobic TMAO respiration is affected by glucose fermentation. When the seventh pandemic V. cholerae O1 strain N16961 was grown with TMAO and additional glucose, CT production was markedly reduced. Furthermore, an N16961 Δcrp mutant, devoid of cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP), was defective in CT production during growth by anaerobic TMAO respiration, further suggesting a role of glucose metabolism in regulating TMAO-mediated CT production. TMAO reductase activity was noticeably decreased when grown together with glucose or by mutation of the crp gene. A CRP binding region was identified in the promoter region of the torD gene, which encodes a structural subunit of the TMAO reductase. Gel shift assays further confirmed the binding of purified CRP to the torD promoter sequence. Together, our results suggest that the bacterial ability to respire using TMAO is controlled by CRP, whose activity is dependent on glucose availability. Our results reveal a novel mechanism for the regulation of major virulence factor production by V. cholerae under anaerobic growth conditions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.270-282
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• 2008

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has defense mechanisms identical to higher eukaryotes. It offers the potential for genome-wide experimental approaches owing to its smaller genome size and the availability of the complete sequence. It therefore represents an ideal eukaryotic model for studying cellular redox control and oxidative stress responses. S. cerevisiae Yap1 is a well-known transcription factor that is required for $H_2O_2$-dependent stress responses. Yap1 is involved in various signaling pathways in an oxidative stress response. The Gpx3 (Orp1/PHGpx3) protein is one of the factors related to these signaling pathways. It plays the role of a transducer that transfers the hydroperoxide signal to Yap1. In this study, using extensive proteomic and bioinformatics analyses, the function of the Gpx3 protein in an adaptive response against oxidative stress was investigated in wild-type, gpx3-deletion mutant, and gpx3-deletion mutant overexpressing Gpx3 protein strains. We identified 30 proteins that are related to the Gpx3-dependent oxidative stress responses and 17 proteins that are changed in a Gpx3-dependent manner regardless of oxidative stress. As expected, $H_2O_2$-responsive Gpx3-dependent proteins include a number of antioxidants related with cell rescue and defense. In addition, they contain a variety of proteins related to energy and carbohydrate metabolism, transcription, and protein fate. Based upon the experimental results, it is suggested that Gpx3-dependent stress adaptive response includes the regulation of genes related to the capacity to detoxify oxidants and repair oxidative stress-induced damages affected by Yap1 as well as metabolism and protein fate independent from Yap1.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.57-65
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• 2012

Phosphorous is an essential element for the synthesis of various biomolecules including phospholipids, carbohydrates and nucleic acids. Bacterial cells can uptake it as forms of phosphate and phosphate-containing nutrients from extracellular environments, and reserve extra phosphate to polyphosphate inside the cell. Among five phosphate transport systems, Pst plays central roles in phosphate transport, and its expression is coordinated by the regulation of PhoB-PhoR two component signal transduction system in response to extracellular levels of phosphate. Genomic studies on the response regulator PhoB reveal many genes independent of phosphate metabolism. Based on recent findings on phenotypes of bacteria lacking proper function of each phosphate transport system, this review discusses roles of phosphate transporters in maintaining optimum intracellular phosphate levels, and presents diverse phenotypes of phosphate transporters related with other environmental signals as well as phosphate, then finally points out functional redundancy among phosphate transport systems or their regulators, which emphasize importance of phosphate homeostasis in governing metabolism, adaptation, and virulence of bacteria.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.24 no.4 s.47
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• pp.933-943
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• 1994

The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of tensile force on DNA and protein biosynthesis in bone cells, and to identify the cell type(s) which primarily respond to external physical force among the heterogenous bone cell populations. As a prerequisite for this study, two bone cell populations which retain fibroblastic and osteoblastic feature were isolated from fetal rat calvaria with sequential enzyme digestion scheme. Tensile force was delivered to each bone cell population by two acrylic resin plates connected with a orthodontic expansion screw during culture period. Rate of DNA and protein synthesis in each bone cell population were assessed by the incorporated radioactivity of $[^3H]-thymidine$ into DNA and $[^3H]-proline$ into fraction of collagenase-digestible protein and noncollagenous protein, respectively. DNA synthesis of osteoblast-like calvarial cell populations was increased significantly by the application of tensile force for 24 hours. In contrast, no alteration in DNA synthesis of fibroblast-like populations could be observed in response to applied force. Tensile force induced the change in protein synthesis of bone cell populations with the same pattern. Total protein and collagen synthesis were increased whithin 24 hours in osteoblast-like populations, but not in fibroblast-like populations by tensile force application. These findings indicate that physical force can affect cellullar activity of the particular cell population, not all cell Populations residing in bone and osteoblasts respond more sensitively than fibroblasts. So osteoblasts can modulate the behavior of other bone cells including osteoclasts by producing several local regulating factors of bone metabolism. In this context, preferential responsiveness of osteoblasts to applied tensile force observed in this study suggests that osteoblasts may play an important role in regulation of physical force-induced remodelling process.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.531-536
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• 2002

We investigated the exercise-induced changes in the serum concentration of several minerals in horses. Four welltrained Thoroughbred horses performed exercise for 5 d. The blood hemoglobin (Hb) concentration increased during exercise, recovered to the pre-exercise level immediately after cooling down and did not change again up till the end of experiment. The changes in serum zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) concentrations were similar to those of blood Hb during the experiment. The serum magnesium (Mg), inorganic phosphorus (Pi) and iron (Fe) concentrations also increased during exercise. Though the serum Pi concentration recovered to the pre-exercise level immediately after the cooling down, it decreased further before the end of the experiment. The serum Mg concentration was lower immediately after cooling down than its pre-exercise level but gradually recovered from the temporal reduction. The recovery of the serum Fe concentration was delayed compared to that of other minerals and recovered 2 h after cooling down. The serum calcium (Ca) concentration did not change during exercise but rapidly decreased after cooling down. As a result, it was lower immediately after cooling down than its pre-exercise level. It recovered, however, to the pre-exercise level 2 h after cooling down. The temporal increase in the serum concentrations of all minerals except Ca is considered to result from hemoconcentration induced by exercise and the stable concentration of the serum Ca during exercise is possibly due to its strict regulation of homeostasis. These results indicate that the serum concentration of each mineral responds differently to exercise in horses, which may be due to the difference in metabolism among these minerals.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1823-1829
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• 2014

Aims: Much evidence suggests that increased glucose metabolism in tumor cells might contribute to the development of acquired chemoresistance. However, the molecular mechanisms are not fully clear. Therefore, we investigated a possible correlation of mRNA expression of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and GLUT1 with chemoresistance in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Methods: Bone marrow samples were obtained from newly diagnosed and relapsed AML (M3 exclusion) cases. RNA interference with short hairpin RNA (shRNA) was used to stably silence GLUT1 or HIF-$1{\alpha}$ gene expression in an AML cell line and HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and GLUT1 mRNA expression was measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay (qPCR). Results: High levels of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and GLUT1 were associated with poor responsiveness to chemotherapy in AML. Down-regulation of the expression of GLUT1 by RNA interference obviously sensitized drug-resistant HL-60/ADR cells to adriamycin (ADR) in vitro, comparable with RNA interference for the HIF-$1{\alpha}$ gene. Conclusions: Our data revealed that over-expression of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and GLUT1 might play a role in the chemoresistance of AML. GLUT1 might be a potential target to reverse such drug resistance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.65-73
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• 2007

The objective of this study is to understand how regulatory mechanisms respond to sugar status for more efficient carbon utilization and source-sink regulation in plants. So, we need to identify and characterize many components of sugar-response pathways for a better understanding of sugar responses. For this end, genes responding change of sugar status were screened using Arabidpsis cDNA arrays, and confirmed thirty-six genes to be regulated by sucrose supply in detached leaves by RNA blot analysis. Eleven of them encoding proteins for amino acid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism were repressed by sugars. The remaining genes induced by sugar supply were for protein synthesis including ribosomal proteins and elongation factors. Among them, I focused on three hydrolase genes encoding putative $\beta$-galactosidase, $\beta$-xylosidase, and $\beta$-glucosidase that were transcriptionally induced in sugar starvation. Homology search indicated that these enzymes were involved in hydrolysis of cell wall polysaccharides. In addition to my results, recent transcriptome analysis suggested multiple genes for cell wall degradation were induced by sugar starvation. Thus, I hypothesized that enzyme for cell wall degradation were synthesized and secreted to hydrolyze cell wall polysaccharides producing carbon source under sugar-starved conditions. In fact, the enzymatic activities of these three enzymes increased in culture medium of Arabidopsis suspension cells under sugar starvation. The $\beta$-galactosidase encoded by At5g56870 was identified as a secretory protein in culture medium of suspension cells by mass spectrometry analysis. This protein was specifically detected under sugar-starved condition with a specific antibody. Induction of these genes was repressed in suspension cells grown with galactose, xylose and glucose as well as with sucrose. In planta, expression of the genes and protein accumulation were detected when photosynthesis was inhibited. Glycosyl hydrolase activity against galactan also increased during sugar starvation. Further, contents of cell wall polysaccharides especially pectin and hemicellulose were markedly decreased associating with sugar starvation in detached leaves. The amount of monosaccharide in pectin and hemicellulose in detached leaves decreased in response to sugar starvation. These results supported my idea that cell wall has one of function to supply carbon source in addition to determination of cell shape and physical support of plant bodies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5875-5881
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• 2015

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a rare but highly fatal cancer for which the molecular mechanisms and diagnostic markers are obscure. We therefore investigated the kinetic expression of isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1), isocitrate dehydrogenase-2 (IDH2) and homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase (HGD) during the tumorigenesis of O. viverrini infection-associated CCA in an animal model, and confirmed down-regulation of expression in human cases of opisthorchiasis-associated CCA through real time PCR. Kinetic expression of HGD, IDH1 and IDH2 in the animal model of O. viverrini infection-induced CCA was correlated with human CCA cases. In the animal model, expression of HGD was decreased at all time points (p<0.01) and expression of both IDH1 and IDH2 was decreased in the CCA group. In human cases, expression of HGD, IDH1 and IDH2 was decreased more than 2 fold in 55 cases (70.5%), 25 cases (32.1%) and 24 cases (30.8%) respectively. The present study suggests that reduction of HGD, IDH1 and IDH2 may be involve in cholangiocarcinoma genesis and may be useful for molecular diagnosis.