• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.1741-1747
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• 2012

Water-dispersible ZnS:Mn nanocrystals were synthesized by capping the surface of the nanocrystals with conventional aminoacids ligands: serine and threonine. The aminoacids capped ZnS:Mn nanocrystal powders were characterized by XRD, HR-TEM, EDXS, ICP-AES and FT-IR spectroscopy. The optical properties were also measured by UV/Vis and solution photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies in aqueous solvents. The solution PL spectra showed broad emission peaks around 600 nm with PL efficiencies of 9.7% (ZnS:Mn-Ser) and 15.4% (ZnS:Mn-Thr) respectively. The measured particle sizes for the aminoacid capped ZnS:Mn nanocrystals by HR-TEM images were about 3.0-4.0 nm, which were also supported by Debye-Scherrer calculations. In addition, cytotoxic effects of four aminoacids capped ZnS:Mn nanocrsystals over the growth of wild type E. coli were investigated. Although toxicity in the form of growth inhibition was observed with all the aminoacids capped ZnS:Mn nanocrystals at higher dose (1 mg/mL), ZnS:Mn-Met and ZnS:Mn-Thr appeared non-toxic at doses less than 100 ${\mu}g$/mL. Low biological toxicities were seen at doses less than 10 ${\mu}g$/ mL for all nanocrystals.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2004

Low molecular weight silk fibroin (LMSF), which was prepared by hydrolysis of silk fibroin using high-temperature and high-pressure method, was found to inhibit the oxidation of L-3,4,-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) catalyzed by mushroom tyrosinase (EC 1.14.18.1). LMSF contained mostly free amino acids such as L-glycine, L-alanine, and L-serine and oligopeptides, mainly glycine-alanine dimer. As a result of analyzing the inhibition kinetics from Lineweaver-Burk plots, L-glycine and glycine-alanine dimer showed noncompetitive behavior while uncompetitive behavior was observed in L-alanine, and L-serine. When weight percent concentration of ${ID_50}$ was compared, L-glycine was most effective on the inhibition and LMSF was also good enough for the inhibition effect of tyrosinase activity. LMSF showed a mixed-type inhibition and the inhibitory mechanism of LMSF might be caused by free amino acids and oligopeptides. As a result of spectroscopic observation with time, initial rate of increase of DOPAchrome decreased remarkably and the time to reach maximum absorbance increased as an increase of the concentration of L-glycine, meaning that L-glycine made itself mainly responsible for the formation of chelate with ${Cu^2+}$ in tyrosinase. However, in case of L-alanine, L-serine, and especially glycine-alanine dimmer, the production of DOPAchrome after an arrival at maximum absorbance decreased, indicating the production of adducts through the reaction with DOPAquinone.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.194-199
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• 2011

An alkalophilic bacterium producing alkaline protease was isolated from waste water and solar saltern sample and identified as Bacillus pseudofirmus HS-54 based on morphological, biochemical characteristics as well as 16S-rRNA gene sequencing. The HS-54 protease was purified to homogeneity using ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE cellulose column chromatography, and sephadex G-100 gel filtration with a 4.0 purification fold. The molecular mass of the purified enzyme was estimated by SDS-PAGE to be 27 kDa. The optimal pH and temperature for the purified protease activity were 10.0 and $50^{\circ}C$, respectively. The purified enzyme was relatively stable at the pH range of 6.0-11.0 and at the temperature below $50^{\circ}C$. This enzyme was activated by $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ and inhibited by $Hg^{2+}$, $Cu^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, $Al^{3+}$, $Ag^{2+}$. And this enzyme was strongly inhibited by PMSF, suggesting that it belongs to the serine protease superfamily.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2005

Beauveria bassiana F-101, which has high toxicity toward Acantholyda parki as well as Thecodiplosis japonensis, was an isolate to develop an alternative control system against the major forest pests. Up to now, in B. bassiana, only one pr1 gene has been isolated and characterized. Therefore, we here reported the identification of a pr1-like gene, which would be a factor of toxicity from B. bassiana F-101. The oligonucleotides for the amplification of the pr1-like gene, were chosen based on the conserved regions of the subtilisin family enzymes, pr1 genes of B. bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae, and proteinase K of Tritirachium album. The cloned PCR fragment had 1111 bp including 52 bp intron. The deduced Pr1-like peptide showed a low identity with Pr1s of entomopathogenic fungi such as B. bassiana Pr1 (BbPr1) and M. anisopliae Pr1 (MaPr1) as well as the proteinase K of T. album (TaPrK). Instead, the deduced peptide had a substantially high amino acid sequence identity $(>65\%)$ with the serine proteases of Magnaporthe grisea (MgSPM1) and Podospora anserina (PaPspA). These results, therefore, appear to suggest that the putative Pr1-like peptide of B. bassiana F-101 belongs to the subtilisin-like serine protease family and may be a novel gene.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.639-644
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• 1998

Extracellular serine proteases were isolated from a soil bacterium, alkalophilic coryneform bacterium TU-19, which have been grown in a liquid medium optimized at 3$0^{\circ}C$ and pH 10.0. Three different sizes, 120 kDa (protease I), 80 kDa (protease II), and 45 kDa (protease III), of serine pro teases were purified using Sephadex G-150 and QAE-Sephadex chromatography (Kang et al. 1995. Agric. Chem Biotech. 38: 534-540). SDS-PAGE showed that the 120 kDa protease was degraded into the 80 kDa protease in 20 mM Tris-HCI (pH 8.0) buffer solution. This degradation was enhanced in the presence of 0.5 M NaCl and 5 mM EDTA, but was inhibited in the presence of 5 mM $CaCl_2$. These results indicated that the $Ca^{2＋}$ ion seems to stabilize the 120 kDa protease like other proteases derived from Bacillus species. The $NH_2$-terminal amino acid sequences of the 10 residues of both proteases were completely identical: Met-Asn-Thr-Gln-Asn-Ser-Phe-Leu-Ile-Lys. In contrast to this, the 80 kDa protease has 1.5 times higher specific activity than the 120 kDa protease does (Kang et al. 1995. Agric. Chern. Biotech. 38: 534-540). Therefore the C-terminal of the 120 kDa protease seems to be autolyzed to the 80 kDa protease but this autolysis did not decrease the protease activity. Optimum pH and temperature of both 80 kDa and 120 kDa proteases were pH 10.5 and $45^{\circ}C$, respectively, and pH and thermal stability were almost identical. Several divalent ions except the $Fe^{2＋}$ ion showed similar effects on activities of both proteases, which are similarly resistant to three different detergents.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.431-438
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• 2009

The alkaline serine protease asp, which was shown to be a virulence factor of Vibrio alginolyticus as a purified protein, was cloned from V. alginolyticus EPGS, a strain recently isolated from moribund Epinephelus coioides in an outbreak of vibriosis in a mariculture farm of Shenzhen. The asp null mutant was constructed by homologous recombination with suicide plasmid pNQ705-1. Compared with the wild-type strain, the asp null mutant exhibited a significant decrease of total extracellular protease activity, and caused a IS-fold decrease in virulence of V. alginolyticus. In our previous study, the luxO and $luxR_{val}$ genes from V. alginolyticus MVP01 were cloned and identified, and the luxO-$luxR_{val}$ regulatory couple was shown to regulate various genes expression, suggesting that it played a central role in the quorum sensing system of V. alginolyticus. In this study, the regulation of the asp gene was analyzed by using RT-PCR and quantitative real-time PCR methods; we proved that its transcription was greatly induced at the late stage of growth and was regulated by a luxO-$luxR_{val}$ regulatory system.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1125-1129
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• 2005

Cloning of a 6.6-kb BamHI digested chromosomal DNA from S. griseus IFO13350 revealed the presence of an additional gene encoding a novel trypsin-like enzyme, named SprU. The SprU protein shows a high homology ($79\%$ identity, $88\%$ similarity) with the SGT protease, which has been reported as a bacterial trypsin in the same strain. The amino acid sequence deduced from the nucleotide sequence of the sprU gene suggests that SprU is produced as a precursor consisting of an amino-terminal presequence (29 amino acid residues), prosequence (4 residues), and mature trypsin consisting of 222 amino acids with a molecular weight of 22.94 kDa and a calculated pI of 4.13. The serine, histidine, and aspartic acid residues composing the catalytic triad of typical serine proteases are also well conserved. When the trypsin activity of the SprU was spectrophotometrically measured by the enzymatic hydrolysis of the artificial chromogenic substrate, N-${alpha}$-benzoyl-DL-arginine-p-nitroanilide, the S. lividans transformant with pWHM3-U gave 3 times higher activity than that of control. When the same recombinant plasmid was introduced into S. griseus, however, the gene dosage effect was not so significant, as in the cases of other genes encoding serine proteases, such as sprA, sprB, and sprD. Although two trypsins, SprU and SGT, have a high degree of homology, the pI values, the gene dosage effect in S. griseus, and the gene arrangement adjacent to the two genes are very different, suggesting that the biochemical and biological function of the SprU might be quite different from that of the SGT.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.13-20
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• 1978

Changes of free amino acids, nucleotides and their related compounds as taste compounds during sun drying of ascidian Cynthia roretzi, were analyzed by amino acid autoanalyzer and high speed liquid chromatography. In fresh ascidian, the results showed that 5'-UMP $(12.1\;{\mu}mole/g)$ was dominant and the content of cytosine, 2', 3'-CMP, 2', 3'-GMP, hypoxanhtine, 5'-AMP,5'-IMP were 5.8, 3.4, 3.1, 2,3, 1.7 and $1.3\;{\mu}mole/g$ ondry base respectively. 5'-IMP, 2', 3'-CMP and 2', 3'-GMP tended to degrade slowly and 5'-AMP, cytosine and 5'-UMP were decreased rapidly while hypoxanthine were increased remarkably during the sun drying. In dried ascidian, the content of hypoxanthine was the highest, 7.2 mole/g on dry base, whereas that of 5'-AMP $(0.5\;{\mu}mole/g)$) and 5'-IMP $(0.9\;{\mu}mole/g)$ were lower. Glutamic acid, alanine and serine were dominant amino acid in the fresh extracts, having 22.4% (611.3mg%, on dry qase), 19.8% (540.5mg%) and 14.8% (402.8mg%) of the total amino acid content respectively. The content of tyrosine, histidine, lysine, methionine, isoleucine and valine were low, and proline, phenylalanine were detected in trace amount. The free amino acid were not changed in composition but the increase of total free amino acid was approximately 116.8mg% during sun drying. In sun dried ascidian, glutamic acid (691.0mg, on dry base), alanine (641.3mg%), serine (469.5mg%), threonine (234.8mg%) and glycine (206.3mg%) were dominant amino acid. It is believed that glutamic acid, serine, alanine, threonine, glycine and hypoxanthine play an important role as taste compounds in sun dried ascidian.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2009

This study was undertaken to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of ATP depletion-induced membrane transport dysfunction and cell death in renal proximal tubular cells. ATP depletion was induced by incubating cells with 2.5 mM potassium cyanide(KCN)/0.1 mM iodoacetic acid(IAA), and membrane transport function and cell viability were evaluated by measuring $Na^+$-dependent phosphate uptake and trypan blue exclusion, respectively. ATP depletion resulted in a decrease in $Na^+$-dependent phosphate uptake and cell viability in a time-dependent manner. ATP depletion inhibited $Na^+$-dependent phosphate uptake in cells, when treated with 2 mM ouabain, a $Na^+$ pump-specific inhibitor, suggesting that ATP depletion impairs membrane transport functional integrity. Alterations in $Na^+$-dependent phosphate uptake and cell viability induced by ATP depletion were prevented by the hydrogen peroxide scavenger such as catalase and the hydroxyl radical scavengers(dimethylthiourea and thiourea), and amino acids(glycine and alanine). ATP depletion caused arachidonic acid release and increased mRNA levels of cytosolic phospholipase $A_2(cPLA_2)$. The ATP depletion-dependent arachidonic acid release was inhibited by $cPLA_2$ specific inhibitor $AACOCF_3$. ATP depletion-induced alterations in $Na^+$-dependent phosphate uptake and cell viability were prevented by $AACOCF_3$. Inhibition of $Na^+$-dependent phosphate uptake by ATP depletion was prevented by antipain and leupetin, serine/cysteine protease inhibitors, whereas ATP depletion-induced cell death was not altered by these agents. These results indicate that ATP depletion-induced alterations in membrane transport function and cell viability are due to reactive oxygen species generation and $cPLA_2$ activation in renal proximal tubular cells. In addition, the present data suggest that serine/cysteine proteases play an important role in membrane transport dysfunction, but not cell death, induced by ATP depletion.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.193-198
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• 2005

Background: Protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) belongs to a family of G protein coupled receptors activated by proteolytic cleavage. Trypsin-like serine proteases interact with PAR2 expressed by a variety of tissues and immune cells. The aim of our study was to investigate whether PAR2 stimulation can lead to the activation of human mac rophages. Methods: PAR2-mediated proliferation of human macrophage cell line THP-1 was measured with MTT assay. We also examined the extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation and cytokine production induced by trypsin and PAR2-agonist using western blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. Results: Treatment of trypsin or PAR2-activating peptide increased cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner, and induced the activation of ERK1/2 in THP-1 cells. In addition, trypsin-induced cell proliferation was inhibited by pretreatment of an ERK inhibitor (pD98059) or trypsin inhibitor (SBTI). Moreover, PAR2 activation by trypsin increased the secretion of TNF-${\alpha}$ in THP-1 cells. Conclusion: There results suggest that P AR2 activation by trypsin-like serine proteases can induce cell proliferation through the activation of ERK in human macrophage and that PAR2 may playa crucial role in the cell proliferation and cytokine secretion induced by trypsin-like serine proteases.