• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2015

Citrullinemia type1 is an autosomal recessive disorder of the urea cycle characterized by neonatal or late onset of hyperammonemia caused by a deficiency of the enzyme argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS). An ASS1 deficiency demonstrates fatal clinical manifestations that are characterized by the neonatal metabolic coma and early death when untreated. It causes a broad spectrum of effects, ranging from a mild disorder to a severe mental retardation, epilepsy, neurologic deficits. An acute neonatal form is the most common. Infants are normal at birth followed by an acute illness characterized by vomiting, lethargy, seizures and coma. These medical problems are life-threatening in many cases. A later onset form is less frequent and may be milder than the neonatal form. This later-onset form is associated with severe headaches, visual dysfunction, motor dysfunction, and lack of energy. Citrullinemia type1 is caused by mutations in the ASS1 gene located on chromosome 9q34.1 that encodes argininosuccinate synthetase, the third enzyme of the urea cycle catalyzing the formation of argininosuccinic acid from citrulline and aspartic acid. The enzyme is distributed in tissues including liver and fibroblasts. This mutation leads to hyperammonemia, arginine deficiency and elevated citrulline level. In the urea cycle, argininosuccinate synthetase catalyses the conversion of citrulline and aspartate to argininosuccinate.. Here, we describe a female newborn patient with lethargy, rigidity and hyperammonemia who was diagnosed as citrullinemia type1 with a c.[421-2A>G], c.[1128-6_1188dup] mutation.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2023

Leigh syndrome is a rare progressive neurodegenerative mitochondrial disorder with clinical and genetic heterogeneity. Recently, balletic IARS2 variants have been identified in a number of patients presenting broad clinical phenotypes from Leigh and West syndrome to a rare syndrome CAGSSS characterized by cataracts, growth hormone deficiency, sensory neuropathy, sensorineural hearing loss, and skeletal dysplasia syndrome (OMIM#616007). We describe a child with Korean Leigh syndrome with urologic manifestations resulting from a compound heterozygote mutation in IARS2. A 5-year-old girl visited the emergency room with a complaint of abdominal pain accompanied by abdominal distension. Abdominal-pelvic CT showed a markedly distended urinary bladder without definite obstructive lesions. She was diagnosed with neurogenic bladder dysfunction based on a urodynamic study. She had global delayed development due to neurologic regression after 6 months of age and a history of bilateral cataract surgery at the age of 2 years. Her brain magnetic resonance imaging showed symmetrically increased signal intensities in the bilateral putamen and caudate nuclei with diffuse cerebral atrophy. No gene variants were identified through whole-mitochondrial genome analysis. Whole exome sequencing was performed for diagnosis, and compound heterozygous pathogenic variants were identified in IARS2: c.2446C>T (p. Arg816Ter) and c.2450G>A (p. Arg817His). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of bladder dysfunction manifestation in a patient with IARS2-related Leigh syndrome. Thus, it broadens the clinical and genetic spectrum of IARS2-associated diseases.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.189-194
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• 2015

P450 1A2 is responsible for the metabolism of clinically important drugs and the metabolic activation of environmental chemicals. Genetic variations of P450 1A2 can influence its ability to perform these functions, and thus, this study aimed to characterize the functional significance of three P450 1A2 allelic variants containing nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (P450 $1A2^*8$, R456H; $^*15$, P42R; $^*16$, R377Q). Variants containing these SNPs were constructed and the recombinant enzymes were expressed and purified in Escherichia coli. Only the P42R variant displayed the typical CO-binding spectrum indicating a P450 holoenzyme with an expression level of ~ 170 nmol per liter culture, but no P450 spectra were observed for the two other variants. Western blot analysis revealed that the level of expression for the P42R variant was lower than that of the wild type, however the expression of variants R456H and R377Q was not detected. Enzyme kinetic analyses indicated that the P42R mutation in P450 1A2 resulted in significant changes in catalytic activities. The P42R variant displayed an increased catalytic turnover numbers ($k_{cat}$) in both of methoxyresorufin O-demethylation and phenacetin O-deethylation. In the case of phenacetin O-deethylation analysis, the overall catalytic efficiency ($k_{cat}/K_m$) increased up to 2.5 fold with a slight increase of its $K_m$ value. This study indicated that the substitution P42R in the N-terminal proline-rich region of P450 contributed to the improvement of catalytic activity albeit the reduction of P450 structural stability or the decrease of substrate affinity. Characterization of these polymorphisms should be carefully examined in terms of the metabolism of many clinical drugs and environmental chemicals.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.301-310
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• 2010

Bacillus subtilis strains produce a broad spectrum of bioactive peptides. The lipopeptide surfactin belongs to one well-known class, which includes amphiphilic membrane-active biosurfactants and peptide antibiotics. Both the srfA promoter and the ComP-ComA signal transduction system are an important part of the factor that results in the production of surfactin. Bs-M49, obtained by means of low-energy ion implantation in wild-type Bs-916, produced significantly lower levels of surfactin, and had no obvious effects against R. solani. Occasionally, we found strain Bs-M49 decreased spore formation and the development of competence. Blast comparison of the sequences from Bs-916 and M49 indicate that there is no difference in the srfA operon promoter PsrfA, but there are differences in the coding sequence of the comA gene. These differences result in three missense mutations within the M49 ComA protein. RT-PCR analyses results showed that the expression levels of selected genes involved in competence and sporulation in both the wild-type Bs-916 and mutant M49 strains were significantly different. When we integrated the comA ORF into the chromosome of M49 at the amyE locus, M49 restored hemolytic activity and antifungal activity. Then, HPLC analyses results also showed the comA-complemented strain had a similar ability to produce surf actin with wild-type strain Bs-916. These data suggested that the mutation of three key amino acids in ComA greatly affected the biological activity of Bacillus subtilis. ComA protein 3D structure prediction and motif search prediction indicated that ComA has two obvious motifs common to response regulator proteins, which are the N-terminal response regulator receiver motif and the C-terminal helix-turn-helix motif. The three residues in the ComA N-terminal portion may be involved in phosphorylation activation mechanism. These structural prediction results implicate that three mutated residues in the ComA protein may play an important role in the formation of a salt-bridge to the phosphoryl group keeping active conformation to subsequent regulation of the expression of downstream genes.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2013

Gaucher disease is a lysosomal storage disease caused by deficiency of glucocerebrosidase (GBA). This condition is characterized by accumulation of glucocerebrosidase in liver, spleen, lung, skeletal system, and central nervous system. Gaucher disease is the prototype of disease in which efficacy of enzyme replacement therapy has been established. However, because recombinant enzyme is not able to enter the central nervous system, its efficacy is limited to the non-neurological manifestations of Gaucher disease. Importantly, approximately a half of Korean patients with Gaucher disease suffer from neurological manifestations. In addition, Korean Gaucher disease patients exhibit distinct mutation spectrum from those in other populations. Common mutations in Korean patients with Gaucher disease are also associated with neurological phenotype. Therefore, therapeutic strategies tailored to Korean patients were necessary. Interestingly, a chemical chaperone, ambroxol, has been known to increase residual enzymatic activities of the select mutant GBAs encoded by mutations prevalent in Korean patients. One promising aspect of this drug is that it can cross blood-brain barrier, and enhance the enzyme activity in the brain. In vitro study suggested this chemical chaperone as one of new therapeutic agents in Gaucher disease, and a well-designed human trial is required to confirm its efficacy.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.48-54
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• 2017

Purpose: Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy (FCMD) is a rare, autosomal-recessive disorder characterized by early-onset hypotonia associated with brain malformations in dystroglycanopathy. Although the wide spectrum of congenital muscular dystrophies causes difficulty in diagnosis, correlating the genotype with the clinical phenotype can help diagnose FCMD. Here, we evaluated the correlation of targeted molecular genetic analysis of FKTN gene mutation with the FCMD phenotype. Methods: This study was conducted retrospectively with 9 subjects. Inclusion criteria included clinical symptoms characterized by early-onset hypotonia with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) featuring brain malformations. FKTN gene-alteration analysis was performed using various FKTN gene-analysis methods, including sequencing. Results: Among the 9 subjects studied, 4 (44.4%) were male and 5 (55.6%) were female. The median age of onset of the first symptom was 3.1 months. The first symptom was a delayed milestone in 6 cases (66.7%). All 9 subjects (100%) presented with early-onset hypotonia and global delayed development. All subjects presented with cortical malformation in their brain MRIs. Of the 9 subjects, 6 subjects had previously undergone muscle biopsy and 4 cases (4/6; 66.7%) showed dystrophic or myopathic features. Pathogenic mutations causing FCMD were identified in 3 cases. Conclusions: In this study, all 3 subjects with FKTN mutations showed important MRI findings (pachygyria and cerebellar dysplasia). These data suggest that patients with characteristic phenotypes who show pachygyria and cerebellar abnormalities in brain MRIs may have a high probability of being diagnosed with FCMD.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.51 no.spc1
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• pp.283-291
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• 2006

To investigate seed non destructive and fast determination technique utilizing near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRs) for screening ultra high oleic (C18:1) and linoleic (C18:2) fatty acid content sesame varieties among genetic resources and lines of pedigree generations of cross and mutation breeding were carried out in National Institute of Crop Science (NICS). 150 among 378 landraces and introduced cultivars were released to analyse fatty acids by NIRs and gas chromatography (GC). Average content of each fatty acid was 9.64% in palmitic acid (C16:0), 4.73% in stearic acid (C18:0), 42.26% in oleic acid and 43.38% in linoleic acid by GC. The content range of each fatty acid was from 7.29 to 12.27% in palmitic, 6.49% from 2.39 to 8.88% in stearic, 12.59% of wider range compared to that of stearic and palmitic from 37.36 to 49.95% in oleic and of the widest from 30.60 to 47.40% in linoleic acid. Spectrums analyzed by NIRs were distributed from 400 to 2,500 nm wavelengths and varietal distribution of fatty acids were appeared as regular distribution. Varietal differences of oleic acid content good for food processing and human health by NIRs was 14.08% of which 1.49% wider range than that of GC from 38.31 to 52.39%. Varietal differences of linoleic acid content by NIRs was 16.41% of which 0.39% narrower range than that of GC from 30.60 to 47.01%. Varietal differences of oleic and linoleic acid content in NIRs analysis were appeared relatively similar inclination compared with those of GC. Partial least square regression (PLSR) among multiple variant regression (MVR) in NIRs calibration statistics was carried out in spectrum characteristics on the wavelength from 700 to 2,500 nm with oleic and linoleic acids. Correlation coefficient of root square (RSQ) in oleic acid content was 0.724 of which 72.4 percent of sample varieties among all distributed in the range of 0.570 percent of standard error when calibrated (SEC) which were considerably acceptable in statistic confidence significantly for analysis between NIRs and GC. Standard error of cross validation (SECV) of oleic acid was 0.725 of which distributed in the range of 0.725 percent standard error among the samples of mother population between analyzed value by NIRs analysis and analyzed value by GC. RSQ of linoleic acid content was 0.735 of which 73.5 percent of sample varieties among all distributed in the range of 0.643 percent of SEC. SECV of linoleic acid was 0.711 of which distributed in the range of 0.711 percent standard error among the samples of mother population between NIRs analysis and GC analysis. Consequently, adoption NIR analysis for fatty acids of oleic and linoleic instead that of GC was recognized statistically significant between NIRs and GC analysis through not only majority of samples distributed in the range of negligible SEC but also SECV. For enlarging and increasing statistic significance of NIRs analysis, wider range of fatty acids contented sesame germplasm should be kept on releasing additionally for increasing correlation coefficient of RSQ and reducing SEC and SECV in the future.