• Toxicological Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2015

Environmental toxicants such as toxic metals can alter epigenetic regulatory features such as DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNA expression. Heavy metals influence gene expression by epigenetic mechanisms and by directly binding to various metal response elements in the target gene promoters. Given the role of epigenetic alterations in regulating genes, there is potential for the integration of toxic metal-induced epigenetic alterations as informative factors in the risk assessment process. Here, we focus on recent advances in understanding epigenetic changes, gene expression, and biological effects induced by toxic metals.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.51-51
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• 2018

The application of recombinant DNA technology has been remarkable and nearly replaced commonly used traditional methods. Traditional industrial microbiology long depended on the discovery of valuable strains and mutagenesis of such strains to improve its secretion capacity of enzymes and secondary metabolites on the industrial scale. Commodities included industrial enzymes and biopharmaceuticals. The purpose of genome manipulation by the crossing of different strains or genetic recombination of naked DNA to the genome is of increased production of valuable metabolites. We optimized a transformation method to either for removal of innate genes, introduction of heterologous genes, or combination of both. We have been used selected whole or partial genes to manipulate target fungi toward the development of strains overproducing invaluable proteins. We have also used the whole genome sequence information of fungal genomes in public databases and functional genomics approach to select genes to manipulate and eventually contributing greatly to the development of overproducing industrial strains overproducing proteins or secondary metabolites. I will briefly review 1) filamentous fungi as a host for production of recombinant proteins and secondary metabolites, 2) markets of industrial metabolites, 3) a new approach to manipulate up to five genes at the same time in the system that ProxEnrem uses.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.271-274
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• 2019

Between August and September 2017, zonate leaf spots with severe defoliation were observed on Parthenocissus tricuspidata in Gimcheon, Korea. The initial symptoms included water-soaked, gray to grayish brown, circular or irregular-shaped leaf spots. As the disease progressed, the spots enlarged, coalesced, and became cream-colored with characteristic target-shaped rings, leading to leaf blight and premature defoliation. Based on cultural and morphological characteristics, the fungus associated with the symptoms was identified as Grovesinia moricola. The identity of this fungus was confirmed by analyzing sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA. The pathogenicity of the isolate was demonstrated by artificial inoculation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of G. moricola occurring on P. tricuspidata globally as well as in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.39-44
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• 2021

The CRISPR-Cas system provides adaptive immunity for bacteria and archaea against invading phages and foreign plasmids. In the Class 1 CRISPR-Cas system, multi-subunit Cas proteins assemble with crRNA to bind to DNA targets. To disarm the bacterial defense system, bacteriophages evolved anti-CRISPR (Acr) proteins that actively inhibit the host CRISPR-Cas function. Here we report the backbone resonance assignments of AcrIF7 protein that inhibits the type I-F CRISPR-Cas system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa using triple-resonance nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We employed various computational methods to predict the structure and binding interface of AcrIF7, and assessed the model with experimental data. AcrIF7 binds to Cas8f protein via flexible loop regions to inhibit target DNA binding, suggesting that conformational heterogeneity is important for the Cas-Acr interaction.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.346.3-346.3
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• 2002

The polyamine pathway represents a logical target for chemotherapeutic intervention, since depletion of polyamines results in the disruption of a variety of cellular functions, and may in specific cases result in cytotoxicity. Polyamine interaction with DNA has also long been thought to be an important function of the natural polyamines and as more is learned about the specific interactions and the resultant conformational changes which can be influenced by the polyamine binding to DNA the potential for regional and gene-specific changes are becoming more evident. We have prepraed the elaborate polyamines by the reaction of simpler polyamines with polyalkyating agents. Synthesized polyamines were separated and purified by metal complex formation and ion-exchange chromatography. They were characterized by X-ray crystal structure determinations of their metal complexes.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.179-185
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• 2021

Vancomycin response regulator (VncR) is a pneumococcal response regulator of the VncRS two-component signal transduction system (TCS) of Streptococcus pneumoniae. VncRS regulates bacterial autolysis and vancomycin resistance. VncR contains two different functional domains, the N-terminal receiver domain and C-terminal effector domain. Here, we investigated VncR C-terminal DNA binding domain (VncRc) structure using a crystallization approach. Crystallization was performed using the micro-batch method. The crystals diffracted to a 1.964 Å resolution and belonged to space group P212121. The crystal unit-cell parameters were a = 25.71 Å, b = 52.97 Å, and c = 60.61 Å. The structure of VncRc had a helix-turn-helix motif highly similar to the response regulator PhoB of Escherichia coli. In isothermal titration calorimetry and size exclusion chromatography results, VncR formed a complex with VncS, a sensor histidine kinase of pneumococcal TCS. Determination of VncR structure will provide insight into the mechanism by how VncR binds to target genes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.171-180
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• 2021

Caffeine, a methylxanthine analog of purine bases, is a compound that is largely consumed in beverages and medications for psychoactive and diuretic effects and plays many beneficial roles in neuronal stimulation and enhancement of anti-tumor immune responses by blocking adenosine receptors in higher organisms. In single-cell eukaryotes, however, caffeine somehow impairs cellular fitness by compromising cell wall integrity, inhibiting target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling and growth, and overriding cell cycle arrest caused by DNA damage. Among its multiple inhibitory targets, caffeine specifically interacts with phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-related kinases causing radiosensitization and cytotoxicity via specialized intermediate molecules. Caffeine potentiates the lethality of cells in conjunction with several other stressors such as oxidants, irradiation, and various toxic compounds through largely unknown mechanisms. In this review, recent findings on caffeine effects and cellular detoxification schemes are highlighted and discussed with an emphasis on the inhibitory interactions between caffeine and its multiple targets in eukaryotic microorganisms such as budding and fission yeasts.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.44 no.9
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• pp.627-636
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• 2021

The three-dimensional organization of chromatin and its time-dependent changes greatly affect virtually every cellular function, especially DNA replication, genome maintenance, transcription regulation, and cell differentiation. Sequencing-based techniques such as ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, and Hi-C provide abundant information on how genomic elements are coupled with regulatory proteins and functionally organized into hierarchical domains through their interactions. However, visualizing the time-dependent changes of such organization in individual cells remains challenging. Recent developments of CRISPR systems for site-specific fluorescent labeling of genomic loci have provided promising strategies for visualizing chromatin dynamics in live cells. However, there are several limiting factors, including background signals, off-target binding of CRISPR, and rapid photobleaching of the fluorophores, requiring a large number of target-bound CRISPR complexes to reliably distinguish the target-specific foci from the background. Various modifications have been engineered into the CRISPR system to enhance the signal-to-background ratio and signal longevity to detect target foci more reliably and efficiently, and to reduce the required target size. In this review, we comprehensively compare the performances of recently developed CRISPR designs for improved visualization of genomic loci in terms of the reliability of target detection, the ability to detect small repeat loci, and the allowed time of live tracking. Longer observation of genomic loci allows the detailed identification of the dynamic characteristics of chromatin. The diffusion properties of chromatin found in recent studies are reviewed, which provide suggestions for the underlying biological processes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.668-671
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• 2005

Carbon nanotubes exhibit strong fluorescence emissions in the region of near infrared regions where most biomolecules are transparent. Such signals are highly sensitive to environment variations as well as adsorption of specific biomolecules. In this research, single walled carbon nanotubes(SWNTs) are assembled with different types of DNAs and used to target specific types of DNAs. Dot blot investigations and corresponding raman spectroscopy observations demonstrated excellent selectivity of carbon nanotube-DNA bioconjugates. The results show possibility of using SWNT as generic nano-bio markers for precise detection of different kinds of genes.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 1998

Transgenic animal and cell line models which are recently developed and used in toxicology fields combined with molecular biological technique, are powerful tools to study the mechanism of mutation in vivo and in vitro, respectively. Transgenic models, which have exogenous DNA incorporated into their genome, carry recoverable shuttle vector containing reporter genes to assess endogenous effects or alteration in specific genes related to disease processes. The lac I and lac Z gnee most widely used as a mutational target in transgenic systems. The assay is performed by treatment with putative mutagenic agents, isolation of genomic DNA from cells or tissues, exposure the isolated DNA to in vitro packaging extract, plating and sequencing. The results from these processes provide not only mutant frequency as quantitative evaluation but also mutational spectrum as qualitative evaluation of various agents. Therefore we introduce and review the principle, detailed procedure and application of transgenic mutagenesis assay system in toxicology fields especially in mutagenesis and carcinogenesis.