• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.301-306
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• 1988

Contents and distribution of amino acids in the hydrolysates of humic acids extracted from straw of rice and barley at three different dates during decomposition were examined. The results obtained from this study may be summed up as the following: 1. There are differences between the humic acid hydrolysates from rice straw and barley straw in regards of composition of humic acids and distribution of amino acids. 2. Neutral amino acids as a group occupy the largest share, followed by acidic amino acids and basic amino acids. 3. The total amount of amino acids per gram of humic acid is greater in straw of rice than in straw of barley. 4. With the humification progressing the content of lysine increases, but the content of histidine decreases. In general glycine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, alanine and leucine constitute the 5 predominant amino acids in all hydrolysates. 5. Arginine is not detected at all in any of the hydrolysates of humic acids obtained from humified materials. 6. The presence of phenylalanine and tyrosine is an evidence for the aromatic characteristics of humic acids.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.1023-1031
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• 2017

The conformational change of cellular prion protein ($PrP^C$) to its misfolded counterpart, termed $PrP^{Sc}$, is mediated by a hypothesized cellular cofactor. This cofactor is believed to interact directly with certain amino acid residues of $PrP^C$. When these are mutated into cationic amino acid residues, $PrP^{Sc}$ formation and prion replication halt in a dominant negative (DN) manner, presumably due to strong binding of the cofactor to mutated $PrP^C$, designated as DN PrP mutants. Previous studies demonstrated that plasminogen and its kringle domains bind to PrP and accelerate $PrP^{Sc}$ generation. In this study, in vitro binding analysis of kringle domains of plasminogen to Q167R DN mutant PrP (PrPQ167R) was performed in parallel with the wild type (WT) and Q218K DN mutant PrP (PrPQ218K). The binding affinity of PrPQ167R was higher than that of WT PrP, but lower than that of PrPQ218K. Scatchard analysis further indicated that, like PrPQ218K and WT PrP, PrPQ167R interaction with plasminogen occurred at multiple sites, suggesting cooperativity in this interaction. Competitive binding analysis using $\small{L}$-lysine or $\small{L}$-arginine confirmed the increase of the specificity and binding affinity of the interaction as PrP acquired DN mutations. Circular dichroism spectroscopy demonstrated that the recombinant PrPs used in this study retained the ${\alpha}$-helix-rich structure. The ${\alpha}$-helix unfolding study revealed similar conformational stability for WT and DN-mutated PrPs. This study provides an additional piece of biochemical evidence concerning the interaction of plasminogen with DN mutant PrPs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 1973

The muscle of abalone, Notohaliotis discus (REEVE), and top-shell, Turbo cornutus Solander, were examined for protein composition. Then paramyosins which are known as one of the important structural protein of the muscle fibrils were isolated from the both muscle and their physico-chemical properties such as solubility, salting-out behaviour, intrinsic viscosity, ATPase activity, etc. involving amino acid composition and N-terminal amino acid residues were investigated to elucidate phylogenie characteristics more intensively from the viewpoint of comparative biochemistry. The analysis of protein composition resulted in the following estimations: abalone muscle; water-soluble protein of 22 %, salt-soluble protein, 34%, alkali-soluble protein, 20%, and stroma protein, 24%, and top-shell muscle; water-soluble protein of 16%, salt-soluble protein, 30%, alkali-soluble protein, 29%, and stroma protein, 25%, respectively. It is demonstrated in sedimentation analysis that paramyosin and myosin-actomyosin account for approximately 65% and 35% of the salt-soluble protein of abalone, and that the composition of both sediments in top-shell was approximately 70% and 30%, respectively. The ultracentrifugally homogenous paramyosins isolated essentially according to Bailey's ethanol-dried method from both of the muscle showed a $S^{\circ}_{20,w}$ of 3. 14s for abalone and a $S^{\circ}_{20,w}$ of 3.50s for top-shell. The both paramyosins were commonly rich in arginine, aspartic acid, and glutamic acid, while scarcely contained proline and tryptophan, in rough accord with the other paramyosins thus far reported. It is clear that these gastropod paramyosins showed of having the characteristic N-terminal amino acid residues such as N-aspartic acid, N-valine, N-serine, and N-threonine in common. The abalone paramyosin completely salted in with KCl beyond $0.35{\mu}$ and the top-shell paramyosin beyond $0.30{\mu}$. The abalone paramyosin was salted-out between 18% and 30% saturation of ammonium sulphate and the top-shell paramyosin between 22% and 29% saturation. The intrinsic viscosities at abalone and top-shell paramyosins at $25^{\circ}C$ were estimated respectively to be 3.1 dl/g and 2.6 dl/g showing somewhat higher than the values for some other paramyosins from lamellibranchs. In regard with the ATPase activity, the para myosin specimens did not exhibit any significant activity over through the pH conditions of 5 to 9.5. irrespective of the presence of $Ca^{++}$ or $Mg^{++}$. So was the case with the abalone paramyosin prepared by a slightly modified Bailey's wet-extraction method.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.655-666
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• 2017

We constructed a large $na{\ddot{i}}ve$ human Fab library ($3{\times}10^{10}$ colonies) from the lymphocytes of 809 human donors, assessed available diversities of the heavy-chain variable (VH) and ${\kappa}$ light-chain variable (VK) domain repertoires, and validated the library by selecting Fabs against 10 therapeutically relevant antigens by phage display. We obtained a database of unique 7,373 VH and 41,804 VK sequences by 454 pyrosequencing, and analyzed the repertoires. The distribution of VH and VK subfamilies and germline genes in our antibody repertoires slightly differed from those in earlier published natural antibody libraries. The frequency of somatic hypermutations (SHMs) in heavy-chain complementarity determining region (HCDR)1 and HCDR2 are higher compared with the natural IgM repertoire. Analysis of position-specific SHMs in CDRs indicates that asparagine, threonine, arginine, aspartate and phenylalanine are the most frequent non-germline residues on the antibody-antigen interface and are converted mostly from the germline residues, which are highly represented in germline SHM hotspots. The amino acid composition and length-dependent changes in amino acid frequencies of HCDR3 are similar to those in previous reports, except that frequencies of aspartate and phenylalanine are a little higher in our repertoire. Taken together, the results show that this antibody library shares common features of natural antibody repertoires and also has unique features. The antibody library will be useful in the generation of human antibodies against diverse antigens, and the information about the diversity of natural antibody repertoires will be valuable in the future design of synthetic human antibody libraries with high functional diversity.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.426-434
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• 2014

Peptidylarginine deiminase type 2 (PADI2) deiminates (or citrullinates) arginine residues in protein to citrulline residues in a $Ca^{2+}$-dependent manner, and is found in lymphocytes and macrophages. Vimentin is an intermediate filament protein and a well-known substrate of PADI2. Citrullinated vimentin is found in ionomycin-induced macrophage apoptosis. Citrullinated vimentin is the target of anti-Sa antibodies, which are specific to rheumatoid arthritis, and play a critical role in the pathogenesis of the disease. To investigate the role of PADI2 in apoptosis, we generated a Jurkat cell line that overexpressed the PADI2 transgene from a tetracycline-inducible promoter, and used a combination of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate and ionomycin to activate Jurkat cells. We found that PADI2 overexpression reduced the cell viability of activated Jurkat cells in1a dose- and time-dependent manner. The PADI2-overexpressed and -activated Jurkat cells presented typical manifestations of apoptosis, and exhibited greater levels of citrullinated proteins, including citrullinated vimentin. Vimentin overexpression rescued a portion of the cells from apoptosis. In conclusion, PADI2 overexpression induces apoptosis in activated Jurkat cells. Vimentin is involved in PADI2-induced apoptosis. Moreover, PADI2-overexpressed Jurkat cells secreted greater levels of vimentin after activation, and expressed more vimentin on their cell surfaces when undergoing apoptosis. Through artificially highlighting PADI2 and vimentin, we demonstrated that PADI2 and vimentin participate in the apoptotic mechanisms of activated T lymphocytes. The secretion and surface expression of vimentin are possible ways of autoantigen presentation to the immune system.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.328-335
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• 2004

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-I) Tat protein transduction domain (PTD), which con­tains rich arginine and lysine residues, is responsible for the highly efficient transduction of protein through the plasma membrane. In addition, it can be secreted from infected cells and has the ability to enter neighboring cells. When the PTD of Tat is fused to proteins and exogenously added to cells, the fusion protein can cross plasma membranes. Recent reports indicate that the endogenously expressed Tat fusion protein can demonstrate biodistribution of several proteins. However, intercellular transport and protein transduction have not been observed in some studies. Therefore, this study exam­ined the intercellular transport and protein transduction of the Tat protein. The results showed no evi­dence of intercellular transport (biodistribution) in a cell culture. Instead, the Tat fusion peptides were found to have a significant effect on the transduction and intercellular localization properties. This sug­gests that the HIV-1 PTD passes through the plasma membrane in one direction.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.797-804
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• 2000

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Tat is one of the viral gene products essential for HIV replication. The exogenous Tat protein is transduced through the plasma membrane and then accumulated in a cell. The basic domain of the Tat protein, which is rich in arginine and lysine residues and called the protein transduction domain (PTD), has been identified to be responsible for this transduction activity. To better understand the nature of the transduction mediated by this highly basic domain of HIV-1 Tat, the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) was expressed and purified as a fusion protein with a peptide derived from the HIV-1 Tat basic domain in Escherichia coli. The transduction of Tat-GFP into mammalian cells was then determined by a Western blot analysis and fluorescence microscopy. The cells treated with Tat-GFP exhibited dose- and time-dependent increases in their intracellular level of the protein. the effective transduction of denatured Tat-GFP into both the nucleus and the cytoplasm of mammalian cells was also demonstrated, thereby indicating that the unfolding of the transduced protein is required for efficient transduction. Accordingly, the availability of recombinant Tat-GFP can facilitate the simple and specific identification of the protein transduction mediated by the HIV-1 Tat basic domain in living cells either by fluorescence microscopy or by a fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.364-369
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• 1998

Insect plasma protein is abundant in the hemolymph of holometabolous insect larvae and is used as a source of amino acids and energy for construction of adult structures during metamorphosis. In order to understand the mechanism of decomposition of larval plasma proteins by hemocyte protease, we tried to purify a cysteine protease from the hemocyte lysate by using Carbobenzoxy-L-Phenylalanyl-L-Arginine-4-Methyl-Coumaryl-7-Amide (Z-Phe-Arg-MCA) as substrate and to identify plasma proteins that are selectively susceptible to the purified protease. Here, we describe the purification and characterization of a cysteine protease that specifically hydrolyzes the plasma protein of the coleopteran insect, Tenebrio molitor, larvae. The molecular mass of this enzyme was 25 kDa, as determined by SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions. The amino acids sequence of its $NH_{2}-terminus$ was determined to be Leu-Pro-Gly-Gln-Ile-Asp-Trp-Arg-Asp-Lys-Gly. This sequence contained Pro, Asp, and Arg residues, conserved in many papain superfamily enzymes. The specific cysteine protease inhibitors, such as E-64 and leupetin, inhibited its hydrolytic activity. One plasma protein with a molecular mass of 48 kDa was selectively hydrolyzed within 3 h when the purified enzyme and plasma proteins were incubated in vitro. However, the 48 kDa protein was not hydrolyzed by the purified 25 kDa protease in the presence of E-64. Western blotting analysis at various developmental stages showed that the purified enzyme was detected at larvae, pupae, and adult stages, but not the embryo stage.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.56-60
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• 2016

Adenylate kinase (AK) enzyme which acts as the catalyst of reversible high energy phosphorylation reaction between ATP and AMP which associate with energetic metabolism and nucleic acid synthesis and signal transmission. This enzyme has three distinct domains: Core, AMP binding domain (AMPbd) and Lid domain (LID). The primary role of AMPbd and LID is associated with conformational changes due to flexibility of two domains. Three dimensional structure of human AK1 has not been confirmed and various mutation experiments have been done to determine the active sites. In this study, AK1R138A which is changed arginine[138] of LID domain with alanine[138] was made and conducted with NMR experiments, backbone dynamics analysis and mo-lecular docking dynamic simulation to find the cause of structural change and substrate binding site. Synthetic human muscle type adenylate kinase 1 (hAK1) and its mutant (AK1R138A) were re-combinded with E. coli and expressed in M9 cell. Expressed proteins were purified and finally gained at 0.520 mM hAK1 and 0.252 mM AK1R138A. Multinuclear multidimensional NMR experiments including HNCA, HN(CO)CA, were conducted for amino acid sequence analysis and signal assignments of $^1H-^{15}N$ HSQC spectrum. Our chemical shift perturbation data is shown LID domain residues and around alanine[138] and per-turbation value(0.22ppm) of valine[179] is consid-ered as inter-communication effect with LID domain and the structural change between hAK1 and AK1R138A.

• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.277-285
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• 1996

In Pseudomonas fluorescens grown on malonate as sole carbon source, acetyl-CoA synthetase was induced, suggesting that malonate is metabolized through acetate and then acetyl-CoA. Acetyl-CoA synthetase was purified 18.6-fold in 4 steps to apparent homogeneity. The native molecular mass of the enzyme estimated by a native acrylamide gel electrophoresis was 130 kDa. The enzyme was composed of two identical subunits with a molecular mass of 67 kDa. Optimum pH was 70. The acetyl-CoA synthetase showed typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics for the substrates, acetate, ATP and CoA, whose $K_m$ values were calculated to be 33.4, 74.8, and 40.7 mM respectively. Propionate. butyrate and pentanoate were also used as substrates by the enzyme, but the rate of the formation of the CoA derivatives was decreased in the order of the increase in carbon number. The enzyme was inhibited by the group-specific reagents diethylpyro-carbonate, 2,3-butanedione, pyridoxal-5'-phosphate and N-bromosuccinimide. In the presence of substrates the inactivation rate of the enzyme, by all of the group-specific reagents mentioned above decreased, indicating the presence of catalytically essential histidine, arginine, lysine and tryptophan residues at or near the active site. Preincubation of the enzyme with ATP, $Mg^{2+}$ resulted in the increase of its susceptibility to diethylpyrocarbonate, suggesting that ATP, $Mg^{2+}$ may induce a conformational change in the active site exposing the essential histidine residue to diethylpyrocarbonate. The enzyme was acetylated in the presence of acetyl-CoA, indicating that this is one of acyl-enzyme.