• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.1311-1314
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• 2008

Bacillus halodurans O-methyltransferase (BhOMT) is an S-adenosylmethionine dependent methyltransferase. In our previous study, three dimensional structure of the BhOMT has been determined by comparative homology modeling and automated docking study showed that two hydroxyl groups at 3'- and 4'-position in Bring and structural rigidity of C-ring resulting from the double bond characters between C2 and C3 of flavonoid, were key factors for interaction with BhOMT. In the present study, BhOMT was cloned and expressed. Binding assay was performed on purified BhOMT using fluorescence experiments and binding affinity of luteolin, quercetin, fisetin, and myricetin were measured in the range of $10^7$. Fluorescence quenching experiments indicated that divalent cation plays a critical role on the metal-mediated electrostatic interactions between flavonoid and substrate binding site of BhOMT. Fluorescence study confirmed successfully the data obtained from the docking study and these results imply that hydroxyl group at 7-position of luteolin, quercetin, fisetin, and myricetin forms a stable hydrogen bonding with K211 and carboxyl oxygen of C-ring forms a stable hydrogen bonding with R170. Hydroxyl group at 3'-and 4'-position in the B-ring also has strong $Ca^{2+}$ mediated electrostatic interactions with BhOMT.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 2016

Encystation is an essential process for Acanthamoeba survival under nutrient-limiting conditions and exposure to drugs. The expression of several genes has been observed to increase or decrease during encystation. Epigenetic processes involved in regulation of gene expression have been shown to play a role in several pathogenic parasites. In the present study, we identified the protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5), a known epigenetic regulator, in Acanthamoeba castellanii. PRMT5 of A. castellanii (AcPRMT5) contained domains found in S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferases and in PRMT5 arginine-N-methyltransferase. Expression levels of AcPRMT5 were increased during encystation of A. castellanii. The EGFP-PRMT5 fusion protein was mainly localized in the nucleus of trophozoites. A. castellanii transfected with siRNA designed against AcPRMT5 failed to form mature cysts. The findings of this study lead to a better understanding of epigenetic mechanisms behind the regulation of encystation in cyst-forming pathogenic protozoa.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.554-561
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• 2007

Shen and colleagues (Lin et al., 2004) have recently shown that overexpression of the Drosophila DNA methyltransferase 2 isoform C, dDnmt2c, extended life span of fruit flies, probably due to increased expression of small heat shock proteins such as Hsp22 or Hsp26. Here, I demonstrate with immunoprecipitations that overexpressed dDnmt2c interacts with endogenous Hsp70 protein in vivo in S2 cells. However, its C-terminal half, dDnmt2c(178-345) forms approximately 10-fold more Hsp70-containing protein complexe than wild-type dDnmt2c. Overexpressed dDnmt2c(178-345) but not the full length dDnmt2c is able to increase endogenous mRNA levels of the small heat shock proteins, Hsp26 and Hsp22. I provide evidence that dDnmt2c(178-345) increases Hsp26 promoter activity via two heat shock elements, HSE6 and HSE7. Simultaneously overexpressed Hsp40 or a dominant negative form of heat shock factor abrogates the dDnmt2c(178-345)-dependent increase in Hsp26 transcription. The data support a model in which the activation of heat shock factor normally found as an inactive monomer bound to chaperones is linked to the overexpressed C-terminus of dDnmt2c. Despite the differences observed in flies and S2 cells, these findings provide a possible explanation for the extended lifespan in dDnmt2c-overexpressing flies with increased levels of small heat shock proteins.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.135-140
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• 2007

The possible mechanism of decreased catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) activity in cholestatic rat liver was studied. Hepatic and serum COMT activities were determined from the experimental rats with choledocho-caval shunt (CCS). The Michaelis-Menten constants in this hepatic enzyme was also measured. The activities of cytosolic, mitochondrial and mircosomal COMT as well as their $V_{max}$ values were found to be decreased significantly in CCS plus taurocholic acid (TCA) injected group than in the control group, such as CCS alone groups. However, their $K_m$ values in the experimental groups did not vary. Seru4m COMT activity increased slightly in the CCS plus TCA injerted group than in the control group. The above results suggest that TCA represses biosynthesis of the COMT in the liver, The elevated activity of the serum COMT is believed to be caused by the increment of membrane permeability of hepatocytes upon TCA mediated liver cell necrosis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.1090-1096
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• 2006

O-Methylation is a common modification reaction found in nature, and is mediated by an O-methyltransferase (OMT). OMTs have been mainly studied in plants, whereas only a few OMTs have been studied in microbes. When searching the Bacillus cereus genome, four putative small molecular OMTs were identified, among which BcOMT-1 was cloned and expressed in E. coli as a his-tag fusion protein. The whole cell expressing BcOMT-1 was used to methylate several flavonoids. Eriodictyol, luteolin, quercetin, and taxifolin, all of which contain 3' and 4' hydroxyl groups, served as methyl group acceptors for BcOMT-1, whereas naringenin, apigenin, 3,3'-dihydroxyflavone, and 3,4'-dihydroxyflavone did not function as substrates. Analysis of the reaction products using HPLC showed two different peaks, and NMR revealed that the methylation position was at the hydroxyl group of either carbon 3' or 4'. Therefore, this showed that BcOMT-1 used flavonoids containing ortho hydroxyl groups and transferred a methyl group to either of two hydroxyl groups.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2248-2252
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• 2007

SOMT-9 is an O-methyltransferase that utilizes quercetin to produce 3'-methoxy quercetin. In order to determine which amino acids of SOMT-9 are important for this reaction and its regioselectivity, molecular docking experiments followed by site directed mutagenesis were performed. Molecular modeling and molecular docking experiments identified several amino acid residues involved in metal binding, AdoMet binding, and substrate binding. Site-directed mutagenesis showed that Asp188 is critical for metal binding and that Lys165 assists other metal binding residues in maintaining quercetin in the proper position during the reaction. In addition, Tyr207 was shown to play an important role in the determination of the regioselectivity and Met60 was shown to be involved in formation of the hydrophobic pocket necessary for substrate binding. The molecular modeling and docking experiments discussed in this study could be applicable to future research including prediction of substrate binding and regioselectivity of an enzyme.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.388-393
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• 2016

Although brown adipose tissue is important with regard to energy balance, the molecular mechanism of brown adipocyte differentiation has not been extensively studied. Specifically, regulation factors at the level of protein modification are largely unknown. In this study, we examine the changes in the expression level of enzymes which are involved in protein lysine methylation during brown adipocyte differentiation. Several enzymes, in this case SUV420H2, PRDM9, MLL3 and JHDM1D, were found to be up-regulated. On the other hand, Set7/9 was significantly down-regulated. In the case of SUV420H2, the expression level increased sharply during brown adipocyte differentiation, whereas the expression of SUV420H2 was marginally enhanced during the white adipocyte differentiation. The knock-down of SUV420H2 caused the suppression of brown adipocyte differentiation, as compared to a scrambled control. These results suggest that SUV420H2, a methyltransferase, is involved in brown adipocyte differentiation, and that the methylation of protein lysine is important in brown adipocyte differentiation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.402-405
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• 2006

This experiment was conducted to determine the effect of dietary betaine (0, 0.125%) on performance, carcass composition, pork quality and hepatic betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase (BHMT) activity of crossbred finishing barrows. Three replicates of ten pigs were used for each treatment. The results showed that average daily gain, feed intake and feed conversion were not affected by betaine. Compared with the control group, pigs treated with betaine had a 8.17% (p<0.05) decrease in carcass fat percentage, and a 8.84% (p<0.05) reduction in 10th-rib backfat thickness, but dressing percentage, percentage lean, longissimus muscle area, and average backfat thickness were not affected. There were also no significant differences in muscle color score, marbling score, pork pH value and water loss rate between the control and betaine-treated groups. Hepatic betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase (BHMT) activity was significantly increased by 13.97% (p<0.05) when pigs were offered 0.125% betaine.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.283-288
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• 2010

During normal early embryonic development in mammals, the global pattern of genomic DNA methylation undergoes marked. changes. The level of methylation is high in male and female gametes. Thus, we cloned the cDNA of the porcine DNA methyltransferase 1 (Dnmt1) gene to promote the efficiency of the generation of porcine clones. In this study, porcine Dnmt1 cDNA was sequenced, and Dnmt1 mRNA expression was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) in porcine tissues during embryonic development. The porcine Dnmt1 cDNA sequence showed more homology with that of bovine than human, mouse, and rat. The complete sequence of porcine Dnmt1 cDNA was 4,774-bp long and consisted of an open reading frame encoding a protein of 1611 amino acids. The amino acid sequence of porcine DNMT1 showed significant homology with those of bovine (91%), human (88%), rat (76%), and mouse (75%) Dnmt1. The expression of porcine Dnmt1 mRNA was detected during porcine embryogenesis. The mRNA was detected at stages of porcine preimplantation development (1-cell, 2-cell, 4-cell, 8-cell, morula, and blastocyst stages). It was also abundantly expressed in tissues (lung, ovary, kidney and somatic cells). Further investigations are necessary to understand the complex links between methyltransferase 1 and the transcriptional activity in cloned porcine tissues.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.62-68
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• 2014

Coptis chinensis 3'-hydroxy-N-methylcoclaurine 4'-O-methyltransferase (HOMT), an essential enzyme in the berberine biosynthetic pathway, catalyzes the methylation of 3'-hydroxy-N-methylcoclaurine (HMC) producing reticuline. A 3D model of HOMT was constructed by homology modeling and further subjected to docking with its ligands and molecular dynamics simulations. The 3D structure of HOMT revealed unique structural features which permitted the methylation of HMC. The methylation of HMC was proposed to proceed by deprotonation of the 4'-hydroxyl group via His257 and Asp258 of HOMT, followed by a nucleophilic attack on the SAM-methyl group resulting in reticuline. HOMT showed high substrate specificity for methylation of HMC. The study evidenced that Gly117, Thr312 and Asp258 in HOMT might be the key residues for orienting substrate for specific catalysis.