• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.476-485
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• 2005

In this study, abiotic transformation of TNT reduction products via oxidative-coupling reaction was investigated using Mn oxide. In batch experiments, all the reduction products tested were completely transformed by birnessite, one of natural Mn oxides present in soil. Oxidative-coupling was the major transformation pathway, as confirmed by mass spectrometric analysis. Using observed pseudo-first-order rate constants with respect to birnessite loadings, surface area-normalized specific rate constants, $k_{surf}$, were determined. As expected, $k_{surf}$ of diaminonitrotoluenes (DATs) ($1.49{\sim}1.91\;L/m^2{\cdot}day$) are greater about 2 orders than that of dinitroaminotoluenes (DNTs) ($1.15{\times}10^{-2}{\sim}2.09{\times}10^{-2}\;L/m^2{\cdot}day$) due to the increased number of amine group. In addition, by comparing the value of $k_{surf}$ between DNTs or DATs, amino group on ortho position is likely to be more preferred for the oxidation by birnessite. Although cross-coupling of TNT in the presence of various mediator compounds was found not to be feasible, transformation of TNT by reduction using $Fe^0$ followed by oxidative coupling using Mn oxide was efficient, as evaluated by UV-visible spectrometry.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.535-542
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• 2006

In this study, removals of 1-naphthol by oxidative-coupling reaction using birnessite, one of natural Mn oxides present in soil, was investigated in various experimental conditions(reaction time, Mn oxide loadings, pH, etc). Removal efficiency of 1-naphthol by birnessite was high in all the experimental conditions, and UV-vis. and mass spectrometric analyses on the supernatant after reaction confirmed that the reaction products were oligomers formed by oxidative-coupling reaction. Pseudo-first order rate constants, f, for the oxidative transformation of 1-naphthol by birnessite was derived from the kinetic experiments under various amount of birnessite loadings, and using the observed pseudo-first order rate constants with respect to birnessite loadings, surface area-normalized specific rate constant, $k_{surf}$ was also determined to be $9.31{\times}10^{-4}(L/m^2{\cdot}min)$ for 1-naphthol. In addition, the oxidative transformation of 1-naphthol was found to be dependent on solution pH, and the pseudo-first order rate constants were increased from 0.129 at pH 10 to 0.187 at pH 4.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.252-260
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• 2009

Rice is the most important cereal crop not only in supplying the basic staple food for more than half of the world's population but also as a model plant for functional genomic studies of monocotyledons. Although rice transformation method using A. tumefaciens has already been widely used to generate transgenic plants, the transformation rate is still low in most Korean elite cultivars. We made several modifications of the standard protocol especially in the co-cultivation step to improve the efficiency of the rice transformation. The co-culture medium was modified by the addition of three antioxidant compounds (10.5 mg/L L-cysteine, 1 mM sodium thiosulfate, 1 mM dithiothreitol) and of Agrobacterium growth-inhibiting agent (5 mg/L silver nitrate). Co-cultivation temperature ($23.5^{\circ}C$ for 1 day, $26.5^{\circ}C$ for 6 days) and duration (7 days) were also changed. The plasmid of pMJC-GB-GUS carrying the GUS reporter gene and the bar gene as the selectable marker was used to evaluate the efficiency of the transformation. After co-cultivation, a high level of GUS gene expression was observed in calli treated with the modified method. It is likely that those newly added compounds helped to minimize the damage due to oxidative bursts during plant cell-Agrobacterium interaction and to prevent necrosis of rice cells. And the transformation rate under the modified method was also remarkably increased approximately 8-fold in Heungnambyeo and 2-fold in Ilmibyeo as compared to the corresponding standard method. Furthermore, we could produce the transgenic plants stably from Ilpumbyeo which is a high-quality rice but its transformation rate is extremely low. Transformation and the copy number of transgenes were confirmed by PCR, bar strip and Southern blot analysis. The improved method would attribute reducing the effort and the time required to produce a large number of transgenic rice plants.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.79-84
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• 1999

Oxidative stress is one of the major environmental stresses to plants. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated during metabolic processes damage cellular functions and consequently lead to cell death. Fortunately plants have in vivo defense system by which the ROS is scavenged by enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). In attempts to understand the protection mechanism of plant against oxidative stress, we developed transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi) plansts thet expressed both SOD and APX in chloroplast using Agrobacterum-mediated transformation and evaluated their protection capabilities against methyl viologen (MV, paraquat) -mediated oxidative damage. Three double transformants (CAI, CA2, and CA3) expressed the chimeric CuZnSOD and chimeric APX in chloroplast, and one transformant (AM) expressed the chimeric APX and chimeric MnSOD in chloroplast. In addition, we obtained three lines of transformants (C/Al, C/A2, and A/C) that expressed the APX and SOD than control plants, and more resistant to oxidative stress caused by MV. TRansformants (C/A and A/C) overexpressing MnSOD, CuZnSOD and APX at the same time showed the highest resistance to MV-mediated oxidative stress among the transformants.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.109-111
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• 1998

The effect of dissolved oxygen concentration on the metabolism of glucose in Pseudomonas putida BM014 was investigated. Glucose was completely converted to 2-ketogluconate via extracellular oxidative pathway and then taken up for cell growth under the condition of sufficient dissolved oxygen concentration. On the other hand, oxygen limitation below dissolved oxygen tension (DOT) value of 20% of air saturation caused the shift of glucose metabolism from the extracellular oxidative pathway to the intracellular phosphorylative pathway. Specific activities of hexokinase and gluconate kinase in intracellular phosphorylation pathway decreased as the DOT increased, while 2-ketogluconokinase activity in extracellular oxidative pathway increased under the same condition. This result can be usefully applied to microbial transformation of glucose to 2-ketogluconate, the synthetic precursor for iso-vitamine C, with almost 100% yield via extracellular oxidation by simple DOT control.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.109-113
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• 2004

In order to develop transgenic potato plants with enhanced tolerance to multiple stress, we constructed the transformation vector expressing both superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase genes in chloroplasts under the control of a stress-inducible SWPA2 promoter. Transgenic potato plants (cv. Superior and Atlantic) were generated using an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system. Transgenic potato plants were regenerated on MS medium containing 100mg/L kanamycin. Genomic Southern blot analysis confirmed the incorporation of foreign genes into the potato genome. When potato leaf discs were subjected to methyl viologen (MV) at 10 $\mu$M, transgenic plants showed higher tolerance than non-transgenic or vector-transformed plants. To further study we selected the transgenic plant lines with enhanced tolerance against MV. These plants will be used for further analysis of stress-tolerance to multiple environmental stresses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.1912-1917
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• 2015

Pancreatic lipase is a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of diet-induced obesity in humans. As part of our continuing search for novel bioactive compounds, the convenient enzymatic transformation of caffeic acid into neolignans as well as related oxidized-products enhanced pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity. Enzymatic transformation of caffeic acid (1) using polyphenol oxidase originating from Korean pear yielded four oxidized metabolites, which were identified by different spectroscopic techniques ($^1H$,$^{13}C$ NMR, DEP/T, $^1H-^1H$ COSY, HMBC, HMQC, and NOESY). The anti-obesity efficacy of caffeic acid reactant was tested by in vitro porcine pancreatic lipase assay. All tested samples showed dose-dependent pancreatic lipase inhibitory activities. Four oxidative products including phellinsin A (2), caffeicinic acid (3), isocaffeicinic acid (4), and 7,8-erythro-caffeicin (5) were isolated and identified. The major metabolites (2~5) were evaluated for their pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity, and oxidized-products (2~3) improved potency against pancreatic lipase when compared to original caffeic acid. This result suggested that the neolignans isolated from oxidative transformation of caffeic acid might be beneficial in the treatment of obesity and relevant diseases, and the convenient enzymatic transformation by polyphenol oxidase may be a valuable method for structural modification and enhancement of activity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.278-286
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• 2009

In this study, four natural Mn oxides ($NMO_1-NMO_4$) was characterized using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and their removal efficiency for 1-naphthol (1-NP) in aqueous phase, using batch reactor, was investigated. The results were compared with one another and a synthetic manganese oxide, birnessite. The NMOs have a various Mn minerals including pyrolusite (${\beta}-MnO_2$), cryptomeltane (${\alpha}-MnO_2$) as well as birnessite (${\delta}-MnO_2$) depending on their sources, which results in different removal efficiencies (removals, kinetics) and reaction types (sorption or oxidative-transformation). The comparative study showed that $NMO_1$ (electrolytic Mn oxide) have a higher removal efficiency for 1-NP via oxidative-transformation compared to birnessite. The 1-NP removals by NMOs were followed by pseudo-first order reaction, and the surface area-normalized specific rate constants ($K_{surf},\;L/m^2$ min) determined were in order of $NMO_1(3.31{\times}10^{-3})$>${\delta}-MnO_2(1.48{\times}10^{-3}){\fallingdotseq}NMO_3(1.46{\times}10^{-3})$>$NMO_2(0.83{\times}10^{-3})$>$NMO_4(0.67{\times}10^{-3})$. From the solvent extraction experiments with the Mn oxide precipitates after reaction, it was observed that the oxidative-transformation rates of 1-NP were in order of $NMO_1{\fallingdotseq}{\delta}-MnO_2$>$NMO_3$>$NMO_4{\gg}NMO_2$ and the analysis of HPLC chromatogram and UV-Vis. absorption ratios ($A_{2/4}$, $A_{2/6}$) on the supernatant confirmed that the reaction products were oligomers formed by oxidative-coupling reaction. Results from this study proved that natural Mn oxide (except $NMO_2$) used in this experiment can be effectively applied for the removal of naphthols in aqueous phase, and the removal efficiencies are depending on the surface characters of the Mn oxides.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.547-554
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• 2010

In this study, new manganese oxide (i.e., black-birnessite) particles with nanostructures were prepared and its physico-chemical properties and oxidative-transformation efficiency on 1,4-naphthoquinine(1,4-NPQ) in the presence of reactive mediator was investigated. The results were also compared with that of the manganese oxide (i.e., brown-birnessite) particles synthesized by classical McKenzie method. Analysis of XRD and SEM data show that the particles are a single phase corresponding to a birnessite-based manganese oxide with cotton ball-like shapes containing nanofibers. In batch experiments, removals of 1,4-NPQ by the black-birnessite follows pseudo-first-order kinetics and the rate constant values obtained are greater about 2.3 times than that of the brown-birnessite in spite of its lower surface area (41.0 vs 19.80 $m^2/g$). The results can be explained by the higher crystallinity and nano structured features of the back-birnessite particles, which give higher reactivity for the removals of the quinone compound. HPLC analysis of the reaction products confirmed that the balck-birnessites removed 1,4-NPQ through cross-coupling reaction in the presence of catechol as a reactive mediator.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.989-996
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• 2007

In this study, abiotic transformation of 1-naphthol(1-NP) via oxidative-coupling reaction and its reaction products were investigated in the presence of Mn oxides. The reaction products were characterized for their relative polarity using solvent extraction experiment and reverse-phase HPLC, and for structure using CCMS and LC/MS, and for absorption characteristics using UV-Vis spectrometry. The reaction products present in aqueous phase were more polar than parent naphthol and comprised of 1,4-naphthoquinon(1,4-NPQ) and oligomers such as dimers and trimers. Hydrophilic component present in water phase after solvent$(CH_2Cl_2)$ extractions was identified as naphthol polymerized products having molecular weight(m/z) ranging from 400 to 2,000, and showed similar UV-Vis. absorption characteristics to that of foil fulvic acid. Transformation of 1,4-NPQ, which is non-reactive to Mn oxide, to the polymerized products via cross-coupling reaction in the presence of 1-NP was also verified. In this experimental conditions(20.5 mg/L, 1-NP, 2.5 g/L $MnO_2$, pH 5), the transformation of 1-NP into the oligomers and polymerized products were about 83% of initial 1-NP concentrations, and more than 30% of the reaction products was estimated to be water insoluble fractions, not extracted by $H_2O$ methanol. Results from this study suggest that Mn oxide-mediated treatment of naphthol contaminated soils can achieve risk reduction through the formation of oligomers md polymer precipitation.