• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.176-182
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• 2016

CCR3 is a chemokine receptor that mediates the accumulation of allergic inflammatory cells, including eosinophils and Th2 cells, at inflamed sites. The regulatory sequence of the CCR3 gene, contains two Runt-related transcription factor (RUNX) 1 sites and two PU.1 sites, in addition to a functional GATA site for transactivation of the CCR3 gene. In the present study, we examined the effects of the cis-acting elements of RUNX1 and PU.1 on transcription of the gene in EoL-1 eosinophilic cells and Jurkat T cells, both of which expressed functional surface CCR3 and these two transcription factors. Introduction of RUNX1 siRNA or PU.1 siRNA resulted in a modest decrease in CCR3 reporter activity in both cell types, compared with transfection of GATA-1 siRNA. Cotransfection of the two siRNAs led to inhibition in an additive manner. EMSA analysis showed that RUNX1, in particular, bound to its binding motifs. Mutagenesis analysis revealed that all point mutants lacking RUNX1- and PU.1-binding sites exhibited reduced reporter activities. These results suggest that RUNX1 and PU.1 participate in transcriptional regulation of the CCR3 gene.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.237-241
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• 2012

Embryonic genome activation (EGA) is the first major transition that occurs after fertilization, and entails a dramatic reprogramming of gene expression that is essential for continued development. Although it has been suggested that EGA in porcine embryos starts at the four-cell stage, recent evidence indicates that EGA may commence even earlier; however, the molecular details of EGA remain incompletely understood. The RNA polymerase II of eukaryotes transcribes mRNAs and most small nuclear RNAs. The largest subunit of RNA polymerase II can become phosphorylated in the C-terminal domain. The unphosphorylated form of the RNA polymerase II largest subunit C-terminal domain (IIa) plays a role in initiation of transcription, and the phosphorylated form (IIo) is required for transcriptional elongation and mRNA splicing. In the present study, we explored the nuclear translocation, nuclear localization, and phosphorylation dynamics of the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain in immature pig oocytes, mature oocytes, two-, four-, and eight-cell embryos, and the morula and blastocyst. To this end, we used antibodies specific for the IIa and IIo forms of RNA polymerase II to stain the proteins. Unphosphorylated RNA polymerase II stained strongly in the nuclei of germinal vesicle oocytes, whereas the phosphorylated form of the enzyme was confined to the chromatin of prophase I oocytes. After fertilization, both unphosphorylated and phosphorylated RNA polymerase II began to accumulate in the nuclei of early stage one-cell embryos, and this pattern was maintained through to the blastocyst stage. The results suggest that both porcine oocytes and early embryos are transcriptionally competent, and that transcription of embryonic genes during the first three cell cycles parallels expression of phosphorylated RNA polymerase II.

• BMB Reports
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.607-610
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• 1998

Transcription of mitochondrial DNA in the yeast S. cerevisiae depends on recognition of a consensus nonanucleotide promoter sequence by mitochondrial RNA polymerase specificity factor, which is a 43 kDa polypeptide encoded by the nuclear MTF1 gene. Mtf1p has only limited amino acid sequence homology to bacterial sigma factors, but functions in many ways like sigma in that it is required for promoter recognition and initiation of transcription. To analyze the corebinding region of Mtf1p, monoclonal antibodies to this protein were prepared. Recombinant Mtf1p overproduced in E. coli was purified to near homogeneity and used to raise monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). From fused cells screened for Mtf1p mAbs by immunodot blot analysis, 19 positive clones were initially isolated. Further analysis of positive clones by Western blotting resulted in 4 mAbs of Mtf1p.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.228-233
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• 1997

The MTF1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a 43 kDa MITOCHONDRIAL RNA polymerase specificity factor which recognizes mitochondrial promoters to initiate correct transcription. To better understand structure-function of the MTF1 gene as well as the transcription mechanism of mitochondrial RNA polymerase, two cold-sensitive alleles of the MTF1 mutation were isolated by plasmid shuffling method after PCR-based random mutagenesis of the MTF1 gene. The mutation sites were analyzed by nucleotide sequencing. These cs phenotype mtf1 mutants were respiration competent on the nonfermentible glycerol medium at the permissive temperature, but incompetent at 13.deg.C. The cs phenotype allele of the MTF1, yJH147, encoded an L146P replacement. The other cs allele, yJH148, contained K179E and K214M double replacements. Mutations in both alleles were in a region of Mtflp which is located between domains with amino acid sequence similarities to conserved regions 2 and 3 of bacterial s factors.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.355-359
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• 2006

The functional stability of mRNA is one of the crucial factors affecting the efficiency of in vitro translation. As the rapid degradation of mRNA in the cell extract (S30 extract) causes early termination of the translational reactions, extending the mRNA half-life will improve the productivity of the in vitro protein synthesis. Thus, a simple PCR-based method is introduced to increase the stability of mRNA in an S30 extract. The target genes are PCR-amplified with primers designed to make the ends of the transcribed mRNA molecule anneal to each other. When compared with normal mRNA, the mRNA with the annealing sequences resulted in an approximately 2-fold increase of protein synthesis in an in vitro translation reaction. In addition, sequential transcription and translation reactions in a single tube enabled direct protein expression from the PCR-amplified genes without any separate purification of the mRNA.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.379-385
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• 2000

tRNA and 7SL RNA based antisense vehicles were prepared by inserting conserved anti-viral and anti-viroid domains. Anti-PVS coat protein leader sequence (ACPL) and antistructural antihairpin domain of PSTVd (AHII) were inserted in tRNA cassette; anti- zing finger domain of PVS, AHII and anti hop latent viroid ribozyme were inserted in 7SL RNA gene isolated from A. thaliana. These constructs were shown to be transcribed both, in in vitro and in in vivo conditions. However, it followed from our work that closely linked position of PoIII reference genes and PoIIII antisense genes within T-DNA lead to the impairment of RNA expression in transgenic plants. To assay in vivo transcription of antisense genes, hairy root potato cultures were established using h. tumefaciens A4-24 bearing both, Ri plasmid and PoIII-promoterless plant expression vectors with antisense RNA genes. Expression of antisense RNA in transgenic potato tissues was proven by specific RT-PCR reactions.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.229-235
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• 2008

Silencing of Dicer1 by siRNA did not inhibit development up to the blastocyst stage, but decreased expression of selected transcription factors, including Oct-4, Sox2 and Nanog, suggesting that Dicer1 gene expression is associated with differentiation processes at the blastocyst stage (Cui et al., 2007). In order to get insights into genes which may be linked with microRNA system, we compared gene expression profiles in Gapdh and Dicer1 siRNA-microinjected blastocysts using the Applied Biosystem microarray technology. Our data showed that 397 and 737 out of 16354 genes were up- and down-regulated, respectively, following siRNA microinjection (p<0.05), including 24 up- and 28 down-regulated transcription factors. Identification of genes that are preferentially expressed at particular Dicer1 knock down embryos provides insights into the complex gene regulatory networks that drive differentiation processes in embryos at blastocyst stage.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.26.1-26.6
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• 2020

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has been widely applied to provide insights into the cell-by-cell expression difference in a given bulk sample. Accordingly, numerous analysis methods have been developed. As it involves simultaneous analyses of many cell and genes, efficiency of the methods is crucial. The conventional cell type annotation method is laborious and subjective. Here we propose a semi-automatic method that calculates a normalized score for each cell type based on user-supplied cell type-specific marker gene list. The method was applied to a publicly available scRNA-seq data of mouse cardiac non-myocyte cell pool. Annotating the 35 t-stochastic neighbor embedding clusters into 12 cell types was straightforward, and its accuracy was evaluated by constructing co-expression network for each cell type. Gene Ontology analysis was congruent with the annotated cell type and the corollary regulatory network analysis showed upstream transcription factors that have well supported literature evidences. The source code is available as an R script upon request.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.172-184
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• 2021

Objective: Vanin1 (VNN1) is a pantetheinase that can catalyze the hydrolysis of pantetheine to produce pantothenic acid and cysteamine. Our previous studies showed that VNN1 is specifically expressed in chicken liver. In this study, we aimed to investigate the roles of peroxisome proliferators activated receptor α (PPARα) and miRNA-181a-5p in regulating VNN1 gene expression in chicken liver. Methods: 5'-RACE was performed to identify the transcription start site of chicken VNN1. JASPAR and TFSEARCH were used to analyze the potential transcription factor binding sites in the promoter region of chicken VNN1 and miRanda was used to search miRNA binding sites in 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of chicken VNN1. We used a knock-down strategy to manipulate PPARα (or miRNA-181a-5p) expression levels in vitro to further investigate its effect on VNN1 gene transcription. Luciferase reporter assays were used to explore the specific regions of VNN1 targeted by PPARα and miRNA-181a-5p. Results: Sequence analysis of the VNN1 promoter region revealed several transcription factor-binding sites, including hepatocyte nuclear factor 1α (HNF1α), PPARα, and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α. GW7647 (a specific agonist of PPARα) increased the expression level of VNN1 mRNA in chicken primary hepatocytes, whereas knockdown of PPARα with siRNA increased VNN1 mRNA expression. Moreover, the predicted PPARα-binding site was confirmed to be necessary for PPARα regulation of VNN1 gene expression. In addition, the VNN1 3'UTR contains a sequence that is completely complementary to nucleotides 1 to 7 of miRNA-181a-5p. Overexpression of miR-181a-5p significantly decreased the expression level of VNN1 mRNA. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that PPARα is an important transcriptional activator of VNN1 gene expression and that miRNA-181a-5p acts as a negative regulator of VNN1 expression in chicken hepatocytes.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.224-230
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• 2006

Escherichia coli transcription termination factor Rho catalyzes the unwinding of RNA/DNA duplex in reactions that are coupled to ATP binding and hydrolysis. We report here the kinetic mechanism of presteady state ATP binding and hydrolysis by the Rho-RNA complex. Presteady state chemical quenched-flow technique under multiple turnover condition was used to probe the kinetics of ATP binding and hydrolysis by the Rho-RNA complex. The quenched-flow presteady state kinetics of ATP hydrolysis studies show that three ATPs are bound to the Rho-RNA complex with a rate of $4.4\;{\times}\;10^5M^{-1}s^{-1}$, which are subsequently hydrolyzed at a rate of $88s^{-1}$ and released during the initiation process. Global fit of the presteady state ATP hydrolysis kinetic data suggests that a rapid-equilibrium binding of ATP to Rho-RNA complex occurs prior to the first turnover and the chemistry step is not reversible. The initial burst of three ATPs hydrolysis was proposed to be involved in the initialization step that accompanies proper complex formation of Rho-RNA. Based on these results a kinetic model for initiation process for Rho-RNA complex was proposed relating the mechanism of ATP binding and hydrolysis by Rho to the structural transitions of Rho-RNA complex to reach the steady state phase, which is implicated during translocation along the RNA.