• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.194-201
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• 2017

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is an oil crop classified as Brassicaceae, and it is widely grown worldwide. To develop a drought-resistant rapeseed, the ${\beta}$-glucosidase 1 (AtBG1) gene was introduced into rapeseed because drought- and salt-resistance phenotypes were observed when the AtBG1 gene was overexpressed in arabidopsis. Newly developed genetically modified crop must be proved to be safe. Safety assessments are based on the historical usage and scientific reports of a crop. In this study, we examined the potential acute oral toxicity of AtBG1 protein expressed in genetically modified (GM) rapeseed and calculated the minimum lethal dose at 6 weeks in both male and female ICR mice. AtBG1 protein was fed at a dose of 2,000 mg/kg body weight in five male and five female mice according to the marginal capacity concentration of OECD, 2,000 mg/15 ml/kg. Mortalities, clinical findings, and body weight changes were monitored for 14 days after dosing, and postmortem necropsy was performed on day 14. This study showed that no deaths occurred in the test group, and AtBG1 protein did not result in variations in common symptoms, body weight, and postmortem findings between the two groups. This showed that the minimum lethal dose of AtBG1 protein expressed in transgenic rapeseed exceed 2,000 mg/kg body weight in both sexes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.99-109
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• 2022

This study is the first report on production and characterization of the enzyme from an Ornithinibacillus species. A 4.2-fold increase in the extracellular protease (called L9^T) production from Ornithinibacillus caprae L9^T was achieved through the one-factor-at-a-time approach and response surface methodological optimization. L9^T protease exhibited a unique protein band with a mass of 25.9 kDa upon sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This novel protease was active over a range of pH (4-13), temperatures (30-80℃) and salt concentrations (0-220 g/l), with the maximal activity observed at pH 7, 70℃ and 20 g/l NaCl. Proteolytic activity was upgraded in the presence of Ag⁺, Ca²⁺ and Sr²⁺, but was totally suppressed by 5 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, which suggests that this enzyme belongs to the serine protease family. L9^T protease was resistant to certain common organic solvents and surfactants; particularly, 5 mM Tween 20 and Tween 80 improved the activity by 63 and 15%, respectively. More importantly, L9^T protease was found to be effective in dehairing of goatskins, cowhides and rabbit-skins without damaging the collagen fibers. These properties confirm the feasibility of L9^T protease in industrial applications, especially in leather processing.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.87-94
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• 2008

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is an infectious and highly contagious virus of swine. In order to develop the transgenic tobacco culture cells producing PEDV antigen protein, four vectors expressing PEDV spike protein (SP) gene under the control of a CaMV 35S promoter were constructed. Four fragments of the SP region of PEDV, SP1 (444 bp, 1487-1930 bp), SP2 (1.7 kb, 2300-3987 bp), SP3 (1.4 kb, 1559-2950 bp), and SP4 (2.6 kb, 9-2643 bp) were amplified by PCR and then C-MYC tag was fused to the end of each SP gene, respectively. These cassettes are inserted into the pCAMBIA2300 (named as 35S::SP1-M, 35S::SP2-M 35S::SP3-M, and 35S::SP4-M, respectively). Tobacco (cv. BY-2) cultured cells were transformed by co-cultivation with Agrobacterium tumefaciens harboring expression vector. We selected kanamycin-resistant calli and checked for the presence of the introduced SP gene using PCR, resulting 70% of them showed the foreign gene. We selected the lines with high-level expression of PEDV antigen protein based on dot blot analysis. Southern blot analysis confirmed that the PEDV SP gene was integrated into the genome of the tobacco cultured cells. Northern blot analysis showed that the introduced gene was highly expressed in transgenic cultured cells. Transgenic tobacco cultured cells-derived antigen induced immunogenicity in mice as determined by a plaque reduction neutralization assay. These results suggest that the vectors expressing PEDV spike protein gene in this study will be useful for the development of transgenic plants and cultured cells producing PEDV antigene protein.