• Animal cells and systems
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 1999

A blue biliprotein, insecticyanin (INS), has been purified from the last instar larval hemolymph of Agrius convolvuli by ultracentrifugation, Sephadex G-100 gel permeation chromatography, and preparative electrophoresis. The molecular mass of INS was estimated to be 26 kDa and the N-terminal sequence of INS revealed high similarity to that of Manduca sexta. Results of Western blotting and autoradiography indicated that INS is synthesized by the epidermis and released into the hemolymph. In contrast to the INS reported in other insects, Agrius convolvuli INS contained a small amount of lipid, predominately consisting of triacylglycerol. Subcellular localization of INS was determined using protein-A gold particles linked to secondary antibodies (anti-rabbit Ig). INS was heavily accumulated in the cytoplasmic inclusion body (CIB). CIBs showed a variety of shapes from rod to globule and generally surrounded the nucleus. They were mostly located near the basement membrane and especially abundant in the intersegmental membrane.

• BMB Reports
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 2012

Our previous study demonstrated that CopA3, a disulfide dimer of the coprisin peptide analogue (LLCIALRKK), has antibacterial activity. In this study, we assessed whether CopA3 caused cellular toxicity in various mammalian cell lines. CopA3 selectively caused a marked decrease in cell viability in Jurkat T, U937, and AML-2 cells (human leukemia cells), but was not cytotoxic to Caki or Hela cells. Fragmentation of DNA, a marker of apoptosis, was also confirmed in the leukemia cell lines, but not in the other cells. CopA3-induced apoptosis in leukemia cells was mediated by apoptosis inducing factor (AIF), indicating induction of a caspase-independent signaling pathway.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.515-519
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• 1993

Young goats were fed low quality roughage ad libitum and supplements of insect-damaged Lablab purpureus (var. Highworth) seed fed at approximately 3, 6 or 12 g/kg liveweight (LW), or sweet lupin seed (Lupinus angustifolius var. Uniharvest) fed at 12 g/kg LW. Roughage intake was not changed by 3 or 6 g/kg LW levels of Lablab or by 12 g/kg LW lupin supplement, but was reduced (p<0.05) by 35% by 12 g/kg LW Lablab supplement. Organic matter (OM) digestibility was increased by all supplements, and digestible OM intake was increased by the 6 g/kg LW Lablab and 12 g/kg LW lupin supplements. LW gain and feed conversion ratio were not changed by 3 or 6 g/kg LW Lablab or the 12 g/kg LW lupin, but were reduced (p<0.05) by 12 g/kg LW Lablab supplement. It was concluded that young goats could efficiently utilize supplements of Lablab purpureus seed fed at levels of up to 6 g/kg LW. However, when 12 g/kg of the Lablab seed was fed, poor performance suggested that the goats were adversely affected by anti-nutritional factors which were not neutralized by rumen fermentation.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.530-538
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• 2020

The Gustatory system enables animals to detect toxic bitter chemicals, which is critical for insects to survive food induced toxicity. Cucurbitacin is widely present in plants such as cucumber and gourds that acts as an anti-herbivore chemical and an insecticide. Cucurbitacin has a harmful effect on insect larvae as well. Although various beneficial effects of cucurbitacin such as alleviating hyperglycemia have also been documented, it is not clear what kinds of molecular sensors are required to detect cucurbitacin in nature. Cucurbitacin B, a major bitter component of bitter melon, was applied to induce action potentials from sensilla of a mouth part of the fly, labellum. Here we identify that only Gr33a is required for activating bitter-sensing gustatory receptor neurons by cucurbitacin B among available 26 Grs, 23 Irs, 11 Trp mutants, and 26 Gr-RNAi lines. We further investigated the difference between control and Gr33a mutant by analyzing binary food choice assay. We also measured toxic effect of Cucurbitacin B over 0.01 mM range. Our findings uncover the molecular sensor of cucurbitacin B in Drosophila melanogaster. We propose that the discarded shell of Cucurbitaceae can be developed to make a new insecticide.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.455-461
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• 2012

Amongst the various antimicrobial peptides, lysozyme plays a central role in initiating and maintaining the antibacterial defense response of insect. Here we propose the biosynthesis and refolding of recombinant lysozyme in Escherichia coli expressed in inclusion body form. The Agrius lysozyme gene was amplified using gene specific primers and then ligated into the pGEX-4T-1 vector, which contained the glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene as a fusion partner. A recombinant lysozyme was expressed in E. coli Rosetta cells using a pGEX-4T-1 expression vector, and the fusion protein was induced by ioporpyl-${\beta}$-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). The recombinant protein produced as an inclusion body was resolubilized in solubilization buffer, and the resultant solution was dialyzed in refolding buffer. After thrombin cleavage, the recombinant lysozyme was purified by ion exchange chromatography and reverse phase chromatography. The recombinant lysozyme was subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis and immunoreactivity against the anti-Agrius lysozyme was observed by western blot analysis of this protein. The recombinant lysozyme displayed antibacterial activity against Bacillus megaterium and Micrococcus luteus, which was confirmed by the inhibition zone assay.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.293-302
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• 2014

This study was carried out to develop rain shelter which can make an appropriate size and environment for Chinese cabbage rainproof cultivation. Fifty three farms with chinese cabbage rainproof cultivation system have been investigated to set up width and height of rain shelter. Mostly the width of 6m was desired for rain shelter and the height of 1.6m for their eaves, so these values were chosen as the dimensions for rain shelter. After an analysis of their structural safety and installation costs by the specifications of the rafter pipe, Ø$25.4{\times}1.5t$ and 90cm have been set as the size of rafter that such size costs the least. This size is stable with $27m{\cdot}s^{-1}$ of wind velocity and 17cm of snow depth. Therefore it is difficult to apply this dimension to area with higher climate load. In order to sort out such problem, the rain shelter has been designed to avoid damage on frame by opening plastic film to the ridge. Once greenhouse band is loosen by turning the manual switch at the both sides of rain shelter and open button of controller is pushed then switch motor rises up along the guide pipe and plastic film is opened to the ridge. Chinese cabbage can be damaged by insects if rain shelter is opened completely as revealed a field. To prevent this, farmers can install an insect-proof net. Further, the greenhouse can be damaged by typhoon while growing Chinese cabbage therefore the effect of an insect-proof net on structural safety has been analyzed. And then structural safety has been analyzed through using flow-structure interaction method at the wind condition of $40m{\cdot}s^{-1}$. And it assumed that wind applied perpendicular to side of the rain shelter which was covered by insect-proof net. The results indicated that plastic film was directly affected by wind therefore high pressure occurred on the surface. But wind load on insect-proof net was smaller than on plastic film and pressure distribution was also uniform. The results of structural analysis by applying pressure data extracted from flow analysis indicated that the maximum stress occurred at the end of pipe which is the ground part and the value has been 54.6MPa. The allowable stress of pipe in the standard of structural safety must be 215 MPa or more therefore structural safety of this rain shelter is satisfied.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.437-446
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• 2018

To investigate the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in pork on the market in Korea, an in-house enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for tissue fluid (CAU-tf-ELISA) was developed using a soluble extract of T. gondii RH strain tachyzoites. As the standard positive controls, the piglets were experimentally infected with T. gondii: Group A (1,000 cysts-containing bradyzoites), Group B (500 cysts-containing bradyzoites) and Group C ($1.0{\times}10^3$ or $1.0{\times}10^4$ tachyzoites). The CAU-tf-ELISA demonstrated infection intensity-dependent positivity toward tissue fluids with average cut-off value 0.15: 100% for Group A, 93.8% for Group B and 40.6% for Group C. When tissue-specific cut-off values 0.066-0.199 were applied, CAU-tf-ELISA showed 96.7% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 100% positive and 90.0% negative predictive values. When compared with the same tissue fluids, performance of CAU-tf-ELISA was better than that of a commercial ELISA kit. Of the 583 Korea domestic pork samples tested, anti-T. gondii antibodies were detected from 9.1% of whole samples and 37.9% from skirt meat highest among pork parts. In the 386 imported frozen pork samples, 1.8% (skirt meat and shoulder blade) were positive for anti-T. gondii antibodies. In Korea, prevalence of anti-T. gondii antibodies in the pork on retail markets appeared high, suggesting that regulations on pig farming and facilities are necessary to supply safe pork on the tables.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.607-614
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• 2015

Cancers are the largest cause of mortality and morbidity all over the world. Cordycepin, an adenosine analog, is a major functional component of the Cordyceps species, which has been widely used in traditional Oriental medicine. Over the last decade, this compound has been reported to possess many pharmacological properties, such as an ability to enhance immune function, as well as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-cancer effects. Recently, numerous studies have reported interesting properties of cordycepin as a chemopreventive agent as well. There is an accumulating body of experimental evidences suggesting that cordycepin impedes cancer progression by promoting apoptosis, inducing cell cycle arrest, modulating intracellular signaling pathways, and inhibiting invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. In many cancer cell lines, cordycepin inhibits growth and cell cycle progression by inducing arrest of the G2/M phase, resulting from the inhibition of retinoblastoma protein phosphorylation and induction of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. To induce apoptosis, cordycepin activates the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways, which promotes reactive oxygen species generation and the downstream activation of kinase cascades. Cordycepin also can activate alternative pathways to cell death such autophagy. In addition, cordycepin can inhibit the pro-metastatic processes of cancer cell detachment, migration, and invasion through a variety of mechanisms, including the nuclear factor-kappa B and activated protein-1 signaling pathways. In this review, we summarized the variety of action mechanisms by which cordycepin may mediate chemopreventive effects on cancer and discussed the potential of this natural product as a promising therapeutic inhibitor of cancer development.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.537-542
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• 2019

Proteins were isolated from four species of edible insects, Bombyx mori, B; Tenebrio molitor, T; Protaetia brevitarsis, P; and Gryllus bimaculatus, G, and their properties were analyzed and compared with those of whey proteins. The yield of the protein isolated from raw materials was 65.0-75.0%. Among three branched chain amino acids (BCAA), the amounts of valine in all the insects were similar to that of the whey protein. The BCAA content was 16.8 and 16.4% in G and T, respectively. The total polyphenolic content and the antioxidant activity of the insect proteins were significantly higher than those of the whey proteins. Based on the sensory test of the protein powder, the whey protein could be replaced by 25% of the isolated protein from the insects, but the taste and flavor needs to be improved. Although the BCAA content of insect proteins was lower than that of the whey protein (by 73-76%), their application could be useful because of high polyphenolic content and the anti-oxidative activity.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.783-790
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• 2007

Receptor binding plays an important role in determining host specificity of the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry $\delta$-endotoxins. Mutations in domains II and III have suggested the participation of certain residues in receptor recognition and insect specificity. In the present study, we expressed the cloned domain II-III fragment of Cry4Ba and examined its binding characteristics to mosquito-larval midgut proteins. The 43-kDa Cry4Ba-domain II-III protein over-expressed in Escherichia coli as inclusion bodies was only soluble when carbonate buffer, pH 10.0 was supplemented with 4M urea. After renaturation via stepwise dialysis and subsequent purification, the refolded domain II-III protein, which specifically reacts with anti Cry4Ba-domain III monoclonal antibody, predominantly exists as a $\beta$-sheet structure determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy. In vitro binding analysis to both histological midgut tissue sections and brush border membrane proteins prepared from susceptible Aedes aegypti mosquito-larvae revealed that the isolated Cry4Ba-domain II-III protein showed binding functionality comparable to the 65-kDa full-length active toxin. Altogether, the data present the 43-kDa Cry4Ba fragment comprising domains II and III that was produced in isolation was able to retain its receptor-binding characteristics to the target larval midgut proteins.