• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.270-277
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• 2006

Helices 4 and 5 of the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry4Ba $\delta$-endotoxin have been shown to be important determinants for mosquito-larvicidal activity, likely being involved in membrane-pore formation. In this study, the Cry4Ba mutant protein containing an additional engineered tryptic cleavage site was used to produce the $\alpha4$-$\alpha5$ hairpin peptide by an efficient alternative strategy. Upon solubilization of toxin inclusions expressed in Escherichia coli and subsequent digestion with trypsin, the 130-kDa mutant protoxin was processed to protease-resistant fragments of ca. 47, 10 and 7 kDa. The 7-kDa fragment was identified as the $\alpha4$-loop-$\alpha5$ hairpin via N-terminal sequencing and mass spectrometry, and was successfully purified by size-exclusion FPLC and reversed-phase HPLC. Using circular dichroism spectroscopy, the 7-kDa peptide was found to exist predominantly as an $\alpha$-helical structure. Membrane perturbation studies by using fluorimetric calcein-release assays revealed that the 7-kDa helical hairpin is highly active against unilamellar liposomes compared with the 65-kDa activated full-length toxin. These results directly support the role of the $\alpha4$-loop-$\alpha5$ hairpin in membrane perturbation and pore formation of the full-length Cry4Ba toxin.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.165-173
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• 1979

Recovery component for cell division in UV-irradiated E. coli B was detected with use of the cell extract of E. coli B/r which is a resistant mutant of E. coli B against UV-irradiation. The active substance was non-dialyzable and increased the activity by adding B-NAD remarkably. One more factor for increasing or promoting the restoration recognized was magnesium. Magnesium was effective to stabilze the substance in procedure of isolation. Two active substances were obtained from sucrose gradient centrifugation. One of them was recovred from the botton area and the other from top area just below below surface. the former was not stabilized by magnesium, while the latter stabilized the activity by it remarkably. The former which did not require magnesium was insensitive to protease and the latter which required magnesium was sensitive to it. Both were insensitive to RNase and DNase. Recovery ratio was doubled by using nitrogen gas than aeration in purification process. DNA-ligase less mutant was revealed same activity on it's recovery ratio with the parent strain of E. coli K-12. The active substance stimulating the filament cell may exist as a complex which is inactivated easily in the dissociated state ana requrie B-NAD or magnesium.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.174-179
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• 1990

In order to overproduce L-phenylalanine, various kind of regulatory mutants were isolated from parental Escherichia coli K-12. MWEC 83 Producing 7.4g/l of L-phenylalanine has been derived as a tyrosine and tryptophan double auxotrophic mutant. To produce L-phenylalanine without adding L-tyrosine and L-tryptophan, revertant strain MWEC 101 was isolated from MWEC 83. Further various analogues and valine resistant mutants were isolated from MWEC 101. MWEC 101-5 was the most excellent strain that produced 17.9g/l of L-phenylalanine after having been cultivated for 54 hours in 15% glucose medium. It was disclosed that activities of rate-limiting enzymes including chorismate mutase and prephenate dehydratase in MWEC 101-5 were desensitized to 2mM L-phenylalanine in the enzyme reaction mixture and that activities level of 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonic acid-7-phosphate synthase and prephenate dehydratase were increased more than 20 times over those of the parental strain.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2005

We cloned the $\beta$-tubulin genes from the wild type strain and two benomyl-resistant mutants of Metahizium anisopliae and determined their nucleotide sequences. A $\beta$-tubulin encoding 448-residue protein from wild type M. anisopliae shows strong homology to other $\beta$-tubulins. The coding region is interrupted by four introns. Comparisons of intron position between the M. anisopliae gene and other fungal $\beta$-tubulin genes show considerable positional conservation. The mutations responsible for benomyl resistance were determined in two spontaneous mutants, 8-18 and 8­19. One mutant 8-18 substituted glutamate for aspar­agine at position 33 and lysine for glutamine at position 134. The other mutant 8-19 showed alterations at three positions of $\beta$-tubulin arginine for tryptophan at position 21, lysine for asparagine at position 33, and phenylalanine for leucine at position 240. These data suggest that regions of $\beta$-tubulin containing amino acids 21, 33,134, and 240 interact to form the binding site of benomyl.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.113-117
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• 2017

Bioremediation is a technique using microorganisms to clean up contaminated pollutants including heavy metals. It is well known that yeasts have a high capacity to remove a wide range of metals by biosorption. Therefore, this study was focused on to obtain yeast mutant that has strong tolerance to zinc (Zn), one of representative heavy metals. The Zn resistant yeast mutant (ZnR) was induced and isolated by growing yeast cells in media containing 1 mM $ZnCl_2$ and gradually increasing the concentration until 80 mM $ZnCl_2$, in which cells were adapted and survived. The induced ZnR cells showed strong tolerance to Zn stress compared with control cells. Moreover, the ZnR cells showed increased tolerance to cadmium and nickel stress but decreased tolerance to copper stress. The increased tolerance of ZnR cells to Zn stress was due to mutation of genes. This study can be useful in bioremediation of heavy metals as the metal tolerant microorganism was artificially induced in short time.

• BMB Reports
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 1999

The first step of the branch pathway in tryptophan biosynthesis is catalyzed by anthranilate synthase, which is subjected to feedback inhibition by the end product of the pathway. The $trpE^{FBR}$ gene from a mutant Escherichia coli strain coding for anthranilate synthase that was insensitive to feedback inhibition by tryptophan has been cloned. To identify the amino acid changes involved in the feedback regulation of anthranilate synthase, the nucleotide sequence of the mutant $trpE^{FBR}$ gene was determined. Sequence analysis of the $trpE^{FBR}$ gene revealed that four bases were changed in the structural gene while alteration was not found in the 5' control region. Among these base changes, only two base substitutions caused the alterations in amino acid sequences. From the results of restriction fragment exchange mapping, the 61st nucleotide, C to A substitution, that changed $Pro^{21}{\rightarrow}Ser$ was identified as the cause of the desensitization to feedback inhibition by tryptophan. Additional feedback-resistant enzymes of the E. coli anthranilate synthases were constructed by site-directed mutagenesis to examine the effect of the $Ser^{40}\;{\rightarrow}\;Arg^{40}$ change found in the $trpE^{FBR}$ gene of Brevibacterium lactofermentum. From the feedback inhibition analysis, the $Pro^{21}{\rightarrow}Ser$ and $Ser^{40}{\rightarrow}Arg$ mutants maintained about 50% and 90% of their maximal activities, respectively, even at the extreme concentration of 10 mM tryptophan. From these results, we suggest that the $Pro^{21}$ and $Ser^{40}$ residues are involved in the tryptophan binding in the E. coli enzyme.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.241-248
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• 2007

Cytokinins are essential plant hormones that play crucial roles in various aspects of plant growth and development. By using mRNA differential display, we isolated a cytokinine-inducible cDNA encoding pathogenesis-related (PR) 4 from Arabidopsis amp1 mutant. The full-length PR4 cDNA, designated AtPR4, contains an open reading frame of 212 amino acids with calculated molecular mass of 22,900 Da and isoelectric point (pI) of 7.89. Genomic DNA blotting showed that the Arabidopsis genome has one copy of AtPR4. AtPR4 mRNA was induced by cytokinin and NaCl, but decreased by SA or JA treatment. PR proteins are induced in response to pathogen attack. Thus the AtPR4 gene isolated in this study may be a useful candidate for genetic engineering of forage crops for increased tolerance against pathogen.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2009

To identify genes involved in rice Pi5-mediated disease resistance to Magnaporthe oryzae, we compared the proteomes of the RIL260 rice strain carrying the Pi5 resistance gene with its susceptible mutants M5465 and M7023. Proteins were extracted from the leaf tissues of both RIL260 and the mutant lines at 0, 24, and 48 h after M. oryzae inoculation and separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) analysis identified eight proteins that were differently expressed between the resistant and susceptible plants (three down- and five up-regulated proteins in the mutants). The down-regulated proteins included a triosephosphate isomerase (spot no. 2210), a 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate-independent phosphoglycerate mutase (no. 3611), and an unknown protein (no. 4505). In addition, the five up-regulated proteins in the mutants were predicted to be a fructokinase I (no. 313), a glutathione S-transferase (no. 2310), an atpB of chloroplast ATP synthase (no. 3616), an aminopeptidase N (no. 3724), and an unknown protein (no. 308). These results suggest that proteomic analysis of rice susceptible mutants is a useful method for identifying novel proteins involved in resistance to the M. oryzae pathogen.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.305-311
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• 1988

The spectinomycin resistant strain of slow growing R. japonicum R-168 was selected to be participated in conjugation with E. coli WA803/pGS9. Tn5 was introduced from suicide vector pGS9 into R. japonicum R-168 $spr^{r}$ chromosome at the frequency of $1.0\times 10^{-5}-5.0\times 10^{-7}$ and the transconjugante were selected on the yeast extract-mannitol plate containing kanamycin ($50{\mu}$g/ml) and spectinomycin ($100{\mu}$g/ml) after 8-9 days incubation. All transconjugants we tested were found to contain Tn 5 DNA on their genome, which was confirmed by Southern hybridization experiments. R. japonicum RNa75, which had been selected through plant test, was found to be defective in symbiotic nitrogen fixing ability and the production of leghemoglobin in soybean nodules formed by the inoculation of this mutant. In addition, this mutant strain hardly developed nitrogenase activity asymbiotically in contrast with the wild type strain, indicating that some nitrogen fixing gene might be blocked in this strain and the production of leghemoglobin could be decreased by the interference in nitrogen fixing genes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.367-372
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• 2019

Deactivation of aminoglycosides by their modifying enzymes, including a number of aminoglycoside O-phosphotransferases, is the most ubiquitous resistance mechanism in aminoglycoside-resistant pathogens. Nonetheless, in a couple of biosynthetic pathways for gentamicins, fortimicins, and istamycins, phosphorylation of aminoglycosides seems to be a unique and initial step for the creation of a natural defensive structural feature such as a 3',4'-dideoxy scaffold. Our aim was to elucidate the biochemical details on the beginning of these C3',4'-dideoxygenation biosynthetic steps for aminoglycosides. The biosynthesis of istamycins must surely involve these 3',4'-didehydroxylation steps, but much less has been reported in terms of characterization of istamycin biosynthetic genes, especially about the phosphotransferase-encoding gene. In the disruption and complementation experiments pointing to a putative gene, istP, in the genome of wild-type Streptomyces tenjimariensis, the function of the istP gene was proved here to be a phosphotransferase. Next, an in-frame deletion of a known phosphotransferase-encoding gene forP from the genome of wild-type Micromonospora olivasterospora resulted in the appearance of a hitherto unidentified fortimicin shunt product, namely 3-O-methyl-FOR-KK1, whereas complementation of forP restored the natural fortimicin metabolite profiles. The bilateral complementation of an istP gene (or forP) in the ${\Delta}forP$ mutant (or ${\Delta}istP$ mutant strain) successfully restored the biosynthesis of 3',4'-dideoxy fortimicins and istamycins, thus clearly indicating that they are interchangeable launchers of the biosynthesis of 3',4'-dideoxy types of 1,4-diaminocyclitol antibiotics.