• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.225-228
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• 2020

Apx toxins are a virulent factor of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App). At least four genes, apxC, apxA, apxB, and apxD, are involved in the release of Apx toxins from App. apxA encodes Apx toxins, whereas apxB and apxD encode exporters. Some serotypes of App such as serotype 2 retain apxIBD, apxIICA, and apxIIICABD. Although the specificity of the ApxIB/ApxID exporter to ApxII has been established in those serotypes, that to ApxIII is under-studied. We constructed an apxIB- and apxID-lacking mutant strain of the App serotype 2 to study whether the ApxIB/ApxID exporter is capable of secreting both ApxII and ApxIII toxins.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.185-189
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• 2005

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the causative agent of a porcine contagious pleuropneumonia. Among several virulence factors including exotoxin (Apx toxins), LPS, transferrin-binding proteins, OMPs, and some proteases, Apx toxins have been major targets for the protection study. In this study, cloning and expression of A. pleuropneumoniae Apx I and Apx II toxin, which are produced by all highly virulent strains, were performed by Escherichia coli expression system. Genes coding Apx I and II toxin were amplified from the A. pleuropneumoniae serotype 5 genomic DNA using polymerase chain reaction and cloned to a prokaryotic expression vector, pRSET. Expression of the Apx I and Apx II coding sequences in E. coli resulted in the formation of insoluble inclusion bodies purified according to a denaturing purification protocol, which employs the use of guanidium. Recombinant proteins were purified using $Ni^{2+}$-charged resin affinity purification. This expression and purification system made it possible to produce Apx I and Apx II in large amounts for further immunologic studies.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.362-366
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• 2005

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is an important pig pathogen, which is responsible for swine pleuropneumonia, a highly contagious respiratory infection. To develop subunit vaccines for A. pleuropneumoniae infection, the Apx toxin genes, apxI and apxII, which are thought to be important for protective immunity, were expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the induction of immune responses in mice was examined. The apxI and apxII genes were placed under the control of a yeast hybrid ADH2-GPD promoter (AG), consisting of alcohol dehydrogenase II (ADH2) and the GPD promoter. Western blot analysis confirmed that both toxins were successfully expressed in the yeast. The ApxIA and ApxIIA-specific IgG antibody response assays showed dose dependent increases in the antigen-specific IgG antibody titers. The challenge test revealed that ninety percent of the mice immunized with ApxIIA or a mixture of ApxIA and ApxIIA, and sixty percent of mice immunized with ApxIA survived, while none of those in the control groups survived longer than 36 h. These results suggest that vaccination of the yeast ex­pressing the ApxI and ApxII antigens is effective for the induction of protective immune responses against A. pleuropneumoniae infections in mice.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1173-1180
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• 2010

We investigated changes in photosynthesis and activity of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) that scavenges ROS as responses to oxidative stress induced by salinity in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Photosynthetic efficiency of rice leaves, monitored in terms of Fv/Fm, declined with the increase of salt concentration (100-300 mM NaCl). Salinity caused an increase of $H_2O_2$ in leaves of rice, with an increase of APX activity. Among total APX isoforms, an isoform of stromal-APX 1 in leaves of rice was completely inactivated by 300 mM NaCl, but was not affected by chilling or drought. The results suggest that salt stress acts in quite a different mechanism in relation to the activity of stromal-APX from that of other stresses such chilling and drought. We carried out RT-PCR for analysis of genes expression of APX isoforms as affected by salt stress. The expression of cytosolic APX/thylakoid-bound APX genes in leaves of rice exposed to salt stress was increased, while stromal APX gene expression rapidly declined.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.286-290
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• 2005

Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) plays a crucial role in the detoxification of hydrogen peroxide. APX activity is maintained significantly higher in the paraquat­treated leaves of the paraquat-tolerant Rehmannia glutinos. This study was conducted to understand structural and regulatory characteristics of APX gene in R. glutinosa. A putative APX cDNA clone (RgAPX1) was isolated from a leaf cDNA library using a partially sequenced expressed sequence tag clone. RgAPX1 is consisted of 1148 bp nucleotides and contains an open reading frame encoding a 250 amino acid-long polypeptide. Deduced RgAPX1 amino acid sequence shares higher sequence similarity to cytosolic APXs. RgAPX1. expression was higher in the leaf than in the flower and root. Southern blot result indicates the presence of one or two RgAPX1-related genes in R. glutinosa genome. RgAPX1 transcription was affected differentially by various stresses and phytohormone. The results indicate that RgAPXl is constitutively expressed in most tissues and its expression is modulated for the immediate and efficient detoxification of $H_2O_2$ under normal and stress conditions.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.247-253
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• 2003

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae causes a highly contagious pleuropneumoniae in swine. The bacterium produces several virulence factors such as exotoxin, LPS, capsular polysaccharide, etc. Among them, the exotoxin, called Apx, has been focused as the major virulence factor, and the toxin consists of 4 gene cluster. apx CABD. apxA is the structural gene of toxin and has four different types, I, II, III, and IV. As the first step of development of a new subunit vaccine, the three different types of apxA gene were amplified from A. pleuropneumoniae isolated from Korea by PCR with primer designed based on the N- and C-terminal of the toxin. The sizes of apxIA, IIA and IIIA were 3,073, 2,971 and 3,159bps, respectively. The comparison of whole DNA sequences of apxIA, IIA and IIIA genes with those of the reference strain demonstrated 98%, 99% and 98% homology, respectively. In addition, the phylogenetic analysis was performed based on the amino acid sequences compared with 12 different RTX toxin family using the neighbor-joining method. ApxA proteins of Korean isolates were identical with reference strains in this study. All ApxA proteins were expressed in E. coli with pQE expression vector and identified using Western blot with polyclonal antibodies against culture supernatants of A. pleuropneumoniae serotype 2 or 5. The sizes of each expressed ApxA protein were about 120, 110, 125 kDa (M.W.), respectively. The results obtained in this study could be used for the future study to develop a new vaccine to porcine pleuropneumoniae.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.20.1-20.13
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• 2020

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP) causes a form of porcine pleuropneumonia that leads to significant economic losses in the swine industry worldwide. The apxIBD gene is responsible for the secretion of the ApxI and ApxII toxins and the pnp gene is responsible for the adaptation of bacteria to cold temperature and a virulence factor. The apxIBD and pnp genes were deleted successfully from APP serotype 1 and 5 by transconjugation and sucrose counter-selection. The APP1ΔapxIBDΔpnp and APP5ΔapxIBDΔpnp mutants lost hemolytic activity and could not secrete ApxI and ApxII toxins outside the bacteria because both mutants lost the ApxI- and ApxII-secreting proteins by deletion of the apxIBD gene. Besides, the growth of these mutants was defective at low temperatures resulting from the deletion of pnp. The APP1ΔapxIBDΔpnp and APP5ΔapxIBDΔpnp mutants were significantly attenuated compared with wild-type ones. However, mice vaccinated intraperitoneally with APP5ΔapxIBDΔpnp did not provide any protection when challenged with a 10-times 50% lethal dose of virulent homologous (APP5) and heterologous (APP1) bacterial strains, while mice vaccinated with APP1ΔapxIBDΔpnp offered 75% protection against a homologous challenge. The ΔapxIBDΔpnp mutants were significantly attenuated and gave different protection rate against homologous virulent wild-type APP challenging.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.101-106
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• 2002

This study was conducted to obtain the transformed tobacco (Nicotiana tubacum) plants with cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase gene(ApxSC7) using Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404. A cDNA encoding the cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase of strawberry, ApxSC7, was introduced into tobacco plants via Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer system. The expression vector, pIG-AP8, harboring ApxSC7 gene was used for production of transgenic tobacco plants. A large number of transgenic plants were regenerated on a medium containing hygromycin. Integration of ApxSC7 gene was confirmed by PCR and Southern blot analyses with genomic DNA. Northern blot analyses revealed that the pIGap8 gene was constitutively expressed.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1091-1097
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• 2015

We have isolated and characterized an ascorbate peroxidase (APx) gene, OsAPx1 from rice. Northern and Western blot analyses indicated that at young seedling stage, OsAPx1 mRNA was expressed highly in root, shoot apical meristem (SAM) and leaf sheath than leaf. In mature plant, OsAPx1 gene expressed highly in root, stem and flower but weakly in leaf. OsAPx1 gene and protein expression level was induced in leaves inoculated with Magnaporthe oryzae (M. oryzae) and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). Phytohormones treatment showed that OsAPx1 was up-regulated by jasmonic acid (JA), but was down regulated by ABA and SA co-treatments with JA, resulting that they have antagonistic effect on pathogen responsive OsAPx1 expression. Phylogenetic analysis illustrated that Arabidopsis AtAPx1 has a close relationship with OsAPx1. In AtAPx1 knock out lines, the accumulation of O₂^- and H₂O₂ are all highly detected than wild type, revealing that the high concentration of exogenous H₂O₂ cause the intercellular superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide accumulation in AtAPx1 knockout plant. These results suggested that OsAPx1 gene may be associated with the pathogen defense cascades as the mediator for balancing redox state by acting ROS scavenger and is associated with response to the pathogen defense via Jasmonic acid signaling pathway.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.1037-1043
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• 2020

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP) is a causative agent of porcine pleuropneumonia. Therefore, the development of an effective vaccine for APP is necessary. Here, we optimized the culture medium and conditions to enhance the production yields of Apx toxins in APP serotype 1, 2, and 5 cultures. The use of Mycoplasma Broth Base (PPLO) medium improved both the quantity and quality of the harvested Apx toxins compared with Columbia Broth medium. Calcium chloride (CaCl₂) was first demonstrated as a stimulation factor for the production of Apx toxins in APP serotype 2 cultures. Cultivation of APP serotype 2 in PPLO medium supplemented with 10 ㎍/ml of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and 20 mM CaCl₂ yielded the highest levels of Apx toxins. These findings suggest that the optimization of the culture medium and conditions increases the concentration of Apx toxins in the supernatants of APP serotype 1, 2, and 5 cultures and may be applied for the development of vaccines against APP infection.