• BMB Reports
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.258-263
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• 1998

Acetolactate synthase (ALS) is the common enzyme in the biosynthetic pathways leading to leucine, valine, and isoleucine. Tobacco ALS was expressed in E. coli and purified to homogeneity. The recombinant tobacco ALS was inactivated by thiol-specific reagents, N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) and 5,5'-dithio-bis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB). Inactivation of the ALS by NEM followed pseudo-first order kinetics and was first order with respect to the modifier. The substrate pyruvate protected the enzyme against the inactivation by NEM and DTNB. Extrapolation to complete inactivation of the enzyme by DTNB showed modification of approximately 2 out of 4 total cysteinyl residues (or 2 cysteinyl and 1 cysteinyl residues), with approximately 1 residue protected by pyruvate. The tobacco ALS was also inactivated by the tryptophanspecific reagent, N-bromosuccinimide (NBS), and was similarly protected by pyruvate. The kinetics of the inactivation was first-order with respect to NBS. The present data suggest that cysteinyl and tryptophanyl residues play a key role in the catalytic function of the enzyme.

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.713-718
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• 2009

Apoptotic DNA fragmentation, the hallmark of apoptosis, is mediated primarily by caspase-activated DFF40 (CAD) nuclease. DFF40 exists as a heterodimer with DFF45 (ICAD), which is a specific chaperone and inhibitor of DFF40 under normal conditions. To understand the mechanism through which the DFF40/DFF45 system is regulated, we analyzed the structural and biochemical properties of apoptotic DNA fragmentation mediated by DFF40/DFF45. Using limited proteolysis, we show that residues 1-281 of DFF45 form a rigid, crystallized domain, whereas the loop formed by residues 277-281 is accessible by trypsin. These results show that the C-terminal helix formed by residues 281-300 is dynamic and necessary for the chaperone activity of DFF45, but not for inhibition of DFF40.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.50-53
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• 2006

Cys-29 and Cys-251 of Streptomyces albus valine dehydrogenase(ValDH) were highly conserved in the corresponding region of $NAD(P)^+$-dependent amino acid dehydroganase sequences. To ascertain the functional role of these cysteine residues in S. albus ValDH, site-directed mutagenesis was performed to change each of the two residues to serine. Kinetic analyses of the enzymes mutated at Cys-29 and Cys-251 revealed that these residues are involved in catalysis. We also constructed mutant ValDH by substituting valine for leucine at 305 by site-directed mutagenesis. This residue was chosen, because it has been proposed to be important for substrate discrimination by phenylalanine dehydrogenase (PheDH) and leucine dehydrogenase (LeuDH). Kinetic analysis of the V305L mutant enzyme revealed that it is involved in the substrate binding site. However it displayed less activity than the wild type enzyme toward all aliphatic and aromatic amino acids tested.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.155-161
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• 1995

In the study, attempts were made to investigate the safety of the deep-fried instant noodles. A total of 50 deep-fried instant noodles were puchased from a local supermarket. Acid value , peroxide value, preservatives, heavy metals and pesticide residues were determined. Acid value(AV) and peroxide value(POV) of deep-fried instant noodles were lower than the Food Law in force. Any preservatives were not detected in all deep-fried instant noodles. The level of all heavy metals and pesticide residues found in deep-fried instant noodles were fairly low, and pesticide residues in deep-fried instant noodles was almost removed after cooking. It was conclued from these results that deep-fried instant noodles may be no harmful in oxidative stability(AV, POV) and sanitary safety(preservatives, heavy metals and pesticides).

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.173-177
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• 1997

Glycerol-3-phosphate cytidylyltransferase from Bacillus subtilis was modified with various chemical modifiers to determine the active sites of the enzyme. Treatment of the enzyme with group-specific reagents diethylpyrocarbonate, N-bromosuccinimide, or carbodiimide resulted in complete loss of enzyme activity, which shows histidine, tryptophan, and glutamic acid or aspartic acid residues are at or near the active site. In each case, inactivation followed pseudo first-order kinetics. Inclusion of glycerol-3-phosphate and/or CTP prevented the inactivation, indicating the presence of tryptophan and glutamic acid or aspartic acid residues at the substrate binding site. Analysis of kinetics of inactivation showed that the loss of enzyme activity was due to modification of a two histidine residues, single tryptophan residue, and two glutamic acid or aspartic acid residues.

• BMB Reports
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.498-502
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• 1998

HBV polymerase shares several regions of amino acid homology with other DNA-directed and RNA-directed polymerases. The amino acid residues $Asp^{429}$, $Gly^{518}$, $Asp^{551}$, $Lys^{585}$, and $Gly^{641}$ in the conserved motifs A, B', C, D, and E in the polymerase domain of HBV polymerase were mutated to alanine or histidine by in vitro site-directed mutagenesis. Those mutants were overexpressed, purified, and analyzed against DNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity and affinity for DNA binding. All those mutants did not show DNA-dependent DNA polymerase activities indicating that those five amino acid residues are all critical in DNA polymerase activity. South-Western analysis shows that amino acid residues $ASp^{429}$ and $ASp^{551}$ are essential to DNA binding, and $Gly^{318}$ and $Gly^{585}$ also affect DNA binding to a certain extent.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.17-22
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• 1991

Great attention form a public health aspect has centered on the safety of tissues residues of veterinary drugs and environmental contaminants, with intensification of animal husbandry, the use of veterinary drugs will become increasingly important. Heavy responsibility is placed on the veterinarian and livestock producer to observe the period for withdrawal of drug prior to slaughter to assure that illegal concentrations of drug residues in meat, milk and egg do not occur. Every nation has their own regulations in relation to the residues and the guidelines on the use of veterinary drugs to fulfil the regulations, and their own national residue programs to monitoring and eliminate illegal products. Good practice of veterinary drug by users and governmental surveillance programs are very important to ensure animal food safety.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.94-100
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• 2000

An analytical method was developed to determine abamectin and milbemectin residues in apple, pear, and citrus using HPLC with ultraviolet absorption detection. Abamectin and milbemectin were extracted with methanol from apple, pear, and citrus samples. The extract was diluted with saline water and dichloromethane partition was followed to recover the compounds from the aqueous phase. Florisil column chromatography and aminopropyl solid-phase extraction were employed as cleanup methods to remove most of co-extractives from the sample extract. Reverse-phase HPLC using an octadecylsilyl column was successfully applied to separate and quantitate abamectin and milbemectin residues in sample extracts at the wavelength of 245 nm. Recoveries of abamectin and milbemectin from fortified samples ranged 80.4~90.3% and 90.9~96.8%, respectively. Relative standard deviations of the analytical method were less than 10% for both acaricides. Detection limit of the analytical method was 0.003 mg/kg sample for all the analytes. The proposed method was reproducible and sensitive enough to evaluate terminal residues of abamectin and milbemectin in apple, pear, and citrus.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.30 no.2 s.109
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• pp.114-120
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• 2005

In this study, a biological reaction and measurement control system was developed to rapidly measure the insecticide imidacloprid residues in agricultural products. The biological reaction part of the system was designed to include micro-pumps and valves for fluid transport, and a polystyrene covet as a reaction chamber. The measurement control part of the system consisted of a photodiode with a light-emitting diode for optical density measurement, and a control microcomputer to implement assay. Signal output was read as the rate of change in optical density at 645 nm. The sensitivity of the system was 2.2 ng/mL ($IC_50$). The system could execute a measurement cycle in about 19 minutes. Research will be continued to develop an automatic sampler fur imidacloprid residues from agricultural products.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.381-385
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• 1999

Taq DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus has been shown to be very useful in a polymerase chain reaction. Taq DNA polymerase has a domain at the amino terminus (residues 1 to 290) that has 5'-3' exonuclease activity and a domain at the C-terminus that catalyzes the polymerase reaction. Taq DNA polymerase is classified into the Pol I family, which is represented by E. coli DNA polymerase I. The alignment of amino acid sequences for the 5'-3' exonuclease domains of the Pol I family DNA polymerases shows ten highly conserved carboxylic amino acids. Crystallographic studies suggested that six of the carboxylic amino acids are clustered within a 7 $\AA$ radius by chelating three metal ions in the active site. Those six carboxylic residues are mutagenized to alanines in order to better understand their function. All six carboxylic residues, Asp l8, Glu1l7, Asp1l9, Asp120, Asp142, and Aspl44, are crucial for catalysis of 5'-3' exonuclease.