• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.845-852
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• 2007

The highly evolved flowers of orchids have colorful sepals and fused columns that offer an opportunity to discover new genes involved in floral development in monocotyledon species. In this investigation, we cloned and characterized the homologous PISTALLATA-like (PI-like) gene PhPI15 ($\underline{Ph}alaenopsis$ $\underline{PI}$ STILLATA # $\underline{15}$), from the Phalaenopsis hybrid cultivar. The protein sequence encoded by PhPI15 contains a typical PI-motif. Its sequence also formed a subclade with other monocot PI-type genes in phylogenetic analysis. Southern analysis showed that PhPI15 was present in the Phalaenopsis orchid genome as a single copy. Furthermore, it was expressed in all the whorls of the Phalaenopsis flower, while no expression was detected in vegetative organs. The flowers of transgenic tobacco plants ectopically expressing PhPI15 showed male-sterile phenotypes. Thus, as a Class-B MADS-box gene, PhPI15 specifies floral organ identity in orchids.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.637-645
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• 2019

Effector-triggered immunity (ETI) is an effective layer of plant defense initiated upon recognition of avirulence (Avr) effectors from pathogens by cognate plant disease resistance (R) proteins. In rice, a large number of R genes have been characterized from various cultivars and have greatly contributed to breeding programs to improve resistance against the rice blast pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. The extreme diversity of R gene repertoires is thought to be a result of co-evolutionary history between rice and its pathogens including M. oryzae. Here we show that Pii is an allele of Pi5 by DNA sequence characterization and complementation analysis. Pii-1 and Pii-2 cDNAs were cloned by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction from the Pii-carrying cultivar Fujisaka5. The complementation test in susceptible rice cultivar Dongjin demonstrated that the rice blast resistance mediated by Pii, similar to Pi5, requires the presence of two nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat genes, Pii-1 and Pii-2. Consistent with our hypothesis that Pi5 and Pii are functionally indistinguishable, the replacement of Pii-1 by Pi5-1 and Pii-2 by Pi5-2, respectively, does not change the level of disease resistance to M. oryzae carrying AVR-Pii. Surprisingly, Exo70F3, required for Pii-mediated resistance, is dispensable for Pi5-mediated resistance. Based on our results, despite similarities observed between Pi5 and Pii, we hypothesize that Pi5 and Pii pairs require partially distinct mechanisms to function.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.105-109
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• 2000

The Pi-b is the rice gene conferring race specific resistance to the blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea race having a corresponding avirulence gene, AVR-Pi-b. All resistant cultivars have two copies of the Pi-b gene, but susceptible cultivars have a single copy of the gene. About 1 Kbp insertion sequence was detected in the open reading frame of the Pi-b gene from the susceptible cv. Nipponbare. The nature of insertion sequence was identified as a solo long terminal repeat (LTR) of new rice Tyl-copia-like retrotransposon. LTR was widely distributed in the rice genome. Various types of different patterns of restriction fragment length polymorphism of LTR were detected in indica cultivars, whereas a single type was detected from japonica cultivars. The insertion of LTR sequence in the Pi-b gene in the susceptible cultivar suggested that retrotransposon-mediated insertional mutation might played an important role in the resistance breakdown as well as evolution of resistance genes in rice.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.145-157
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• 2020

Purpose: This study was to determine the possible effects of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) through cell survival genes of the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway when applying an hydrophobically modified glycol chitosan (HGC)-based nanocontrolled release system to human gingival fibroblasts in oral soft tissue regeneration. Materials and Methods: An HGC-based nano-controlled release system was produced, followed by the loading of TCA and EGF. The group was divided into control (CON), TCA-loaded nano-controlled release system (EXP1), and the TCA- and EGF- individually loaded nano-controlled release system (EXP2). A total for 29 genes related to the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway were analyzed after 48h of culture in human gingival fibroblasts. Real-time PCR, 1- way ANOVA and multiple regression analysis were performed. Results: Cell survival genes were significantly upregulated in EXP1 and EXP2. From multiple regression analysis, ITGB1 was determined to be the most influential factor for AKT1 expression. Conclusion: The application of TCA and EGF through the HGC-based nano-controlled release system can up-regulate the cell survival pathway.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.757-764
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• 2007

Marbling of cattle meat is dependent on the coordinated expression of multiple genes. Cattle dramatically increase their intramuscular fat content in the longissimus dorsi muscle between 12 and 27 months of age. We used the annealing control primer (ACP)-differential display RT-PCR method to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that may participate in the development of intramuscular fat between early (12 months old) and late fattening stages (27 months old). Using 20 arbitrary ACP primers, we identified and sequenced 14 DEGs. BLAST searches revealed that expression of the MDH, PI4-K, ferritin, ICER, NID-2, WDNMI, telethonin, filamin, and desmin (DES) genes increased while that of GAPD, COP VII, ACTA1, CamK II, and nebulin decreased during the late fattening stage. The results of functional categorization using the Gene Ontology database for 14 known genes indicated that MDH, GAPD, and COP VII are involved in metabolic pathways such as glycolysis and the TCA cycle, whereas telethonin, filamin, nebulin, desmin, and ACTA1 contribute to the muscle contractile apparatus, and PI4-K, CamK II, and ICER have roles in signal transduction pathways regulated by growth factor or hormones. The final three genes, NID-2, WDNMI, and ferritin, are involved in iron transport and extracellular protein inhibition. The expression patterns were confirmed for seven genes (MDH, PI4-K, ferritin, ICER, nebulin, WDNMI, and telethonin) using real-time PCR. We found that the novel transcription repressor ICER gene was highly expressed in the late fattening stage and during bovine preadipocyte differentiation. This information may be helpful in selecting candidate genes that participate in intramuscular fat development in cattle.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.64.2-64
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• 2003

Twenty-seven monogenic rice lines harboring major resistant gene for blast were screened to analyze their resistance spectrum to Korean blast fungus population using 190 isolates collected from 1985 to 2002. Especially, the monogenic line containing Pi-9 gene was screened using 320 isolates. Based on the monogenic lines-blast isolate interactions, the 27 rice lines were classified into 9 groups. The chinese rice cultivar LTH showed susceptible to all the tested isolates. Those lines IRBLz-Fu, ERBL5-M and IRBL9-W harboring Pi-z, Pi-5, and Pi-9, respectively showed broader spectrum of resistance than those rice lines having Pi-19, Pi-7 etc. Interestingly, the Pi-9 gene(IRBL9-W) showed resistance to most isolates collected before 2000, but it showed susceptible reactions to 5％ and 20％ of blast fungus population in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Population of virulent isolates to Pi-ta, Pi-b, and Pi-7 also were increased in 2002 compared to those before 2000.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.135-145
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• 2018

Due to the critical location and physiological activities of the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell, it is constantly subjected to contact with various infectious agents and inflammatory mediators. However, little is known about the signaling events in RPE involved in Toxoplasma gondii infection and development. The aim of the study is to screen the host mRNA transcriptional change of 3 inflammation-related gene categories, PI3K/Akt pathway regulatory components, blood vessel development factors and ROS regulators, to prove that PI3K/Akt or mTOR signaling pathway play an essential role in regulating the selected inflammation-related genes. The selected genes include PH domain and leucine- rich-repeat protein phosphatases (PHLPP), casein kinase2 (CK2), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCL), glutathione S-transferase (GST), and NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1). Using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), we found that T. gondii up-regulates PHLPP2, $CK2{\beta}$, VEGF, GCL, GST and NQO1 gene expression levels, but down-regulates PHLPP1 and PEDF mRNA transcription levels. PI3K inhibition and mTOR inhibition by specific inhibitors showed that most of these host gene expression patterns were due to activation of PI3K/Akt or mTOR pathways with some exceptional cases. Taken together, our results reveal a new molecular mechanism of these gene expression change dependent on PI3K/Akt or mTOR pathways and highlight more systematical insight of how an intracellular T. gondii can manipulate host genes to avoid host defense.

• Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.205-214
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• 2008

Blast disease caused by the fungal pathogen, Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most damaging diseases in rice. The use of resistant varieties is an effective measure to control the disease, however, many resistant varieties were broken down to their resistance effects by the differentiating of new virulent isolates. This study was done to analyze the haplotypes of 31 microsatellite markers linked to five major R genes and two QTLs and to identify the alleles for the putatively novel genes related to durable resistance to blast in 56 Korean japonica and four indica varieties. The 31 microsatellite markers produced 2 to 13 alleles(mean = 5.4) and had PICi values ranging from 0.065 to 0.860(mean=0.563) among the 60 rice accessions. Cluster analysis based on allele diversities of 31 microsatellite markers grouped into 60 haplotypes and ten major clusters in 0.810 genetic similarity. A subcluster IV-1 grouped of early flowering varieties harboring Piz and/or Pi9(t) on chromosome 6 and Pita/Pita-2 gene on chromosome 12. The other subcluster V-1 consisted of four stable resistance varieties Donghae, Seomjin, Palgong and Milyang20. The analysis of putative QTLs associated with seven blast resistance genes using ANOVA and linear regression showed high significance to blast resistance across regions and isolates in the markers of two genes Piz and/or Pi9(t) and Pita/Pita-2. These results illustrate the utility of microsatellite markers to identify rice varieties is likely carrying the same R genes and QTLs and rice lines with potentially novel resistant gene.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.305-313
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• 2020

Root hair development has the potential to increase crop yields and at the same time to decrease fertilizer use, which will be required in the next 30 years to meet the demand for crop-derived commodities in a world with decreasing available natural resources. Root hair defective six (RHD6) encoding a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, is associated with root hair differentiation, and its roles are root hair initiation and elongation. Grass plants, rice and Brachypodium have been used as model plants to study the gene function of the root hair defective six like (RSL) subfamily which is orthologous to AtRHD6. The RSL subfamily has an identical gene function with AtRHD6 which is involved with root hair differentiation as well. Plants with longer root hairs within a species should have an improved Pi uptake efficiency; therefore, we would expect that a plant with a high Pi uptake could contribute to increasing the plant yield. We achieved increased root hair length by manipulating the RSL subfamily genes. It is expected that in these transgenic plants, the long root hairs would be sufficient to improve the Pi uptake and hence improve biomass and yield component (tiller, spikelet number, and spikelet weight) of the plant. Here, we demonstrate that Brachypodium transgenic plants overexpressing the BdRSL subfamily genes have an improved biomass and grain yield. The result of this study could be applied to important crop plants like rice.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.2157-2162
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• 2012

Objective: The PI3K/PTEN/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway has been implicated in resistance to cisplatin. In the current study, we determined whether common genetic variations in this pathway are associated with platinum-based chemotherapy response and clinical outcome in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Methods: Seven common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in core genes of this pathway were genotyped in 199 patients and analyzed for associations with chemotherapy response, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: Logistic regression analysis revealed an association between AKT1 rs2494752 and response to treatment. Patients carrying heterozygous AG had an increased risk of disease progression after two cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy compared to those with AA genotype (Adjusted odds ratio (OR)=2.18, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.00-4.77, which remained significant in the stratified analyses). However, log-rank test and cox regression detected no association between these polymorphisms in the PI3K pathway genes and survival in advanced NSCLC patients. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that genetic variants in the PI3K/PTEN/AKT/mTOR pathway may predict platinum-based chemotherapy response in advanced NSCLC patients in a Chinese population.