• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.60 no.3
• /
• pp.249-256
• /
• 2017

The Monascus azaphilone (MAz) pigment is a well-known food colorant that has yellow, orange and red components. The structures of the yellow and orange MAz differ by two hydride reductions, with yellow MAz being the reduced form. Orange MAz can be non-enzymatically converted to red MAz in the presence of amine derivatives. It was previously demonstrated that mppE and mppG are involved in the biosynthesis of yellow and orange MAz, respectively. However, ${\Delta}mppE$ and ${\Delta}mppG$ knockout mutants maintained residual production of yellow and orange MAz, respectively. In this study, we deleted the region encompassing mppD, mppE and mppG in M. purpureus and compared the phenotype of the resulting mutant (${\Delta}mppDEG$) with that of an mppD knockout mutant (${\Delta}mppD$). It was previously reported that the ${\Delta}mppD$ strain retained the ability to produce MAz but at approximately 10% of the level observed in the wildtype strain. A chemical analysis demonstrated that the ${\Delta}mppDEG$ strain was still capable of producing both yellow and orange MAz, suggesting the presence of minor MAz route(s) not involving mppE or mppG. Unexpectedly, the ${\Delta}mppDEG$ strain was observed to accumulate fast-eluting pigments in a reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. A LC-MS analysis identified these pigments as ethanolamine derivatives of red MAz, which had been previously identified in an mppE knockout mutant that produces high amounts of orange MAz. Although the underlying mechanism is largely unknown, this study has yielded an M. purpureus strain that selectively accumulates red MAz.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.25 no.10
• /
• pp.1648-1652
• /
• 2015

Azaphilone polyketides are synthesized by iterative non-reducing fungal polyketide synthases (NR-fPKSs) with a C-terminus reductive domain (-R). Several azaphilone biosynthetic gene clusters contain a putative serine hydrolase gene; the Monascus azaphilone pigment (MAzP) gene cluster harbors mppD. The MAzP productivity was significantly reduced by a knockout of mppD, and the MAzP NR-fPKS-R gene (MpPKS5) generated its product in yeast only when co-expressed with mppD. Site-directed mutations of mppD for conserved Ser/Asp/His residues abolished the product formation from the MpPKS5/mppD co-expression. MppD and its homologs are thus proposed as a new protein factor involved in the product formation of NR-fPKS-R.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.9-15
• /
• 2022

Discarded bio-wastes, such as seeds and rinds, cause environmental problems. Multiple studies have recycled bio-wastes as eco-friendly energy sources to solve these problems. This study uses bio-waste to fabricate a mandarin peel powder based triboelectric nanogenerator (MPP-TENG). The MPP-TENG is based on the contact separation mode. It generates an open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of 156V and 2µA, respectively. In addition, MPP-TENG shows stable operation over continuous 3000s without any deviation in output. Also, the device exhibits maximum power density of 5.3㎼/cm² when connected to a resistance of 100MΩ. In an energy storage capacity test for 1000s, the MPP-TENG stores an energy of 171.6µJ in a 4.7µF capacitor. The MPP-TENG can power 9 blue LEDs and 54 green lettering LEDs. These results confirm that the MPP-TENG can provide a new avenue for eco-friendly energy harvesting device fabrication.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
• /
• 2000.10a
• /
• pp.86-87
• /
• 2000

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.86-93
• /
• 1997

Even though both N-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) and 6-hydroxydopamine have been widely used to establish the experimental model for dopaminergic neuronal ce ll death. mechanisms underlying this phenomenon have not been firmly explored. To investigate how these dopaminergic neurotoxins induce neuronal cell death, murine dopaminergic neuronal cell line, MN9D cells were treated with various concentration of either 6-hydroxydopamine or active form of MPTP, N methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP$^+$). Treatment of cells with 5-100 uM 6-hydroxydopamine resulted in apoptotic cell death whereas cell death induced by 5~50 uM MPP$^+$ was not demonstrated typical apoptotic characteristics such as cell shrinkage, apoptotic body and nuclear condensation. Cell death induced by 6-hydroxydopamine was partially blocked in the presence of antioxidants including soluble form of vitamin E or desferrioxamine suggesting that generation of oxidative stress may be associated with 6-hydroxydopamine-induced cell death in MN9D cells. In contrast, MPP$^+$-induced cell death was not blocked by treatment with any of antioxidants tested. As previously demonstrated that MPP$^+$ caused metabolic alterations such as glucose metabolism, removal of glucose from the medium partially inhibited MPP$^+$-induced cell death suggesting excessive cycles of glycolysis may be associated with MPP$^+$-induced cell death. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that two types of dopaminergic neurotoxins recruit distinct neuronal cell death pathways.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.231-239
• /
• 2018

Parkinson's disease (PD), one of common neurodegenerative diseases, is caused by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. The loss of dopaminergic neurons in PD is associated with oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Hyperoside (quercetin 3-O-${\beta}$-D-galactopyranoside) was reported to have protective properties against oxidative stress by reducing intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and increasing antioxidant enzyme activity. In this study, we examined the neuroprotective effect of hyperoside against 1-methyl-4-phenyl pyridinium ($MPP^+$)-induced cell model of PD and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Hyperoside significantly decreased $MPP^+$-induced cell death, accompanied by a reduction in poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage. Furthermore, it attenuated $MPP^+$-induced intracellular ROS and disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), with the reduction of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Moreover, hyperoside significantly increased the phosphorylation of Akt, but it has no effects on $GSK3{\beta}$ and MAPKs. Pharmacological inhibitor of PI3K/Akt abolished the cytoprotective effects of hyperoside against $MPP^+$. Taken together, these results demonstrate that hyperoside significantly attenuates $MPP^+$-induced neurotoxicity through PI3K/Akt signaling pathways in SH-SY5Y cells. Our findings suggest that hyperoside might be one of the potential candidates for the treatment of PD.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.281-292
• /
• 2016

The proposed scheme is based on the modified perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm combined with the sliding mode technique. A modified P&O algorithm based sliding mode controller is developed to study the effects of partial shade, temperature, and insolation on the performance of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) used in photovoltaic (PV) systems. Under partially shaded conditions and temperature, the energy conversion efficiency of a PV array is very low, leading to significant power losses. Consequently, increasing efficiency by means of MPPT is particularly important. Conventional techniques are easy to implement but produce oscillations at MPP. The proposed method is applied to a model to simulate the performance of the PV system for solar energy usage, which is compared to the conventional methods under non-uniform insolation improving the PV system utilization efficiency and allowing optimization of the system performance. The modified perturb and observe sliding mode controller successfully overcomes the issues presented by non-uniform conditions and tracks the global MPP. Compared to MPPT techniques, the proposed technique is more efficient; it produces less oscillation at MPP in the steady state, and provides more precise tracking.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartD
• /
• v.13D no.1 s.104
• /
• pp.29-36
• /
• 2006

In this paper, we present a leaf image retrieval system that represents and retrieves leaf images based on their shape. For more effective representation of leaf images, we improved an existing MPP algorithm. Also, in order to reduce the response time, we proposed a new dynamic matching algorithm at basically revises the Nearest Neighbor search. The system provides users with an interface for uploading query images or tools to generate queries based on shape features and retrieves images based on their similarity. For convenience, users are allowed to easily query images by sketching leaf shape or leaf arrangement on the web. In the experiment, we constructed an image database of Korean native plants and measured the system performance by counting the number of similar images retrieved for queries.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2010.11a
• /
• pp.282-283
• /
• 2010

본 논문은 10kW급 태양광발전용 전력변환기 개발에 관한 것이다. 개발 중인 10kW급 태양광발전용 전력변환기는 3레벨 토폴로지를 적용하였으며 무변압기형으로 설계되었다. 2개의 MPP(Maximum Power Point) trackers를 가지고 있으며 실외형으로 설계되어 설치 장소에 제약을 받지 않는다.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.1584-1592
• /
• 2015

This paper presents a nonlinear method to control a DC-DC converter and track the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of a Photovoltaic (PV) system. A backstepping controller is proposed to regulate the voltage at the input of a buck-boost converter by means of Lyapunov functions. To make the control initially faster and avoid local maximum, a regression plane is used to estimate the reference voltages that must be obtained to achieve the MPP and guarantee the maximum power extraction, modifying the conventional Perturb and Observe (P&O) method. An experimental platform has been designed to verify the validity and performance of the proposed control method. In this platform, a buck-boost converter has been built to extract the maximum power of commercial solar modules under different environmental conditions.