• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1836-1840
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• 2009

Recently, hydroxymethylfurfrual (HMF) has been highlighted as a key intermediate for the production of liquid biofuels and other valuable compounds. We used sesame roots as a biocatalyst to synthesize HMF using flask cultures. The synthesis of HMF was identified by GC-mass analysis. The highest root growth was observed in cultures with 1.0 mg/l NAA at $30^{\circ}C$, while root growth was not found in those without NAA treatment. When silver nitrate ($AgNO_3$) was added, the root growth was greatest in those treated with 0.5 mg/l $AgNO_3$ and cultured at $30^{\circ}C$. In the case of HMF synthesis, its highest yield was obtained in those treated with 0.5 mg/l NAA at $25^{\circ}C$, but low HMF was detected in those treated without naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). The addition of $AgNO_$ to the culture medium showed a 8-10% reduction in HMF yield compared to that of the control, indicating its inhibitory effect on the synthesis of HMF. On the whole, an optimal culture temperature for HMF synthesis seemed to be between $25-30^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1381-1392
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• 2017

This review described solvent-tolerant lipases and their potential industrial, biotechnological and environmental impacts. Although organic solvent-tolerant lipase was first reported in organic solvent-tolerant bacterium, many organic solvent-tolerant lipases are in not only solvent-tolerant bacteria but also solvent-intolerant bacterial and fungal strains, such as the well-known Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Streptomyces and Aspergillus strains. As these lipases are not easily inactivated in organic solvents, there is no need to immobilize them in order to prevent an enzyme inactivation by solvents. Therefore, the solvent-tolerant lipases have the potential to be used in many biotechnological and biotransformation processes. With the solvent-tolerant lipases, a large number insoluble substrates become soluble, various chemical reactions that are initially impossible in water systems become practical, synthesis reactions (instead of hydrolysis) are possible, side reactions caused by water are suppressed, and the possibility of chemoselective, regioselective and enantioselective transformations in solvent and non-aqueous systems is increased. Furthermore, the recovery and reuse of enzymes is possible without immobilization, and the stabilities of the lipases improve in solvent and non-aqueous systems. Therefore, lipases with organic-solvent tolerances have attracted much attention in regards to applying them as biocatalysts to biotransformation processes using solvent and non-aqueous systems.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.345-348
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• 2015

An organic solvent stable lipase from solvent-tolerant Pseudomonas sp. BCNU 171 had an optimal pH of 8 and an optimal temperature of 37℃. This crude extracellular lipase from BCNU 171 exhibited increased stability in the presence of various types of solvents at high concentrations (25%, v/v). The lipase stability was found to be highest in the presence of xylene (137%), followed by toluene (131%), octane (130%), and butanol (104%). Overall, BCNU 171 lipase tended to be more stable than immobilized commercial lipase (Novozyme435) in the presence of organic solvents. Furthermore, BCNU 171 lipase maintained about 90% of its enzyme original activity in the presence of NH₄⁺, Na⁺, Ba²⁺, Hg²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Ca²⁺ion and significantly increased its enzyme activity in the presence of various emulsifying agents. Thus, the organic solvent stable lipase from Pseudomonas sp. BCNU 171 could be usable as a potential whole cell biocatalyst and for synthetic applications of enzymes for industrial chemical processes in organic solvents without using immobilization.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.258-263
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• 2017

In this study, we synthesized biocatalyst consisting of glucose oxidase (GOx), polyethyleneimine (PEI) and carbon nanotube (CNT) with addition of p-benzoquinone (BQ) that was considered anodic catalysts of enzymatic biofuel cell (EBC). For doing this, PEI/CNT supporter was bonded with BQ by physical entrapping method stemmed from electrostatic attractive force ([BQ/PEI]/CNT). In turn, GOx moiety was further immobilized on the [BQ/PEI]/CNT to form GOx/[BQ/PEI]/CNT catalyst. This catalyst has a special advantage in that the BQ that has been usually dissolved into electrolyte was immobilized on supporter. According to the electrochemical analysis, maximum current density of the GOx/[BQ/PEI]/CNT catalyst was 1.9 fold better than that of the catalyst that did not entrap BQ with the value of $34.16{\mu}A/cm^2$, verifying that catalytic activity of the catalyst was enhanced by adoption of BQ. Also, when it was used as anodic catalyst of the EBC, its maximum power density was 1.2 fold better than that of EBC using the catalyst that did not entrap BQ with the value of $0.91mW/cm^2$. Based on such results, it turned out that the GOx/[BQ/PEI]/CNT catalyst was promising and viable as anodic catalyst of EBC.

• Weed & Turfgrass Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.118-123
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• 2015

Metagenomics is a powerful tool to isolate novel biocatalyst and biomolecules directly from the environmental DNA libraries. Since the metagenomics approach bypasses cultivation of microorganisms, un-cultured microorganisms that are majority of exists can be the richest reservoir for natural products discovery. To discover novel herbicidal substances from soil metagenome, we established three easy, simple and effective high throughput screening methods such as cucumber cotyledon leaf disc assay, microalgae assay and seed germination assay. Employing the methods, we isolated two active single clones (9-G1 and 9-G12) expressing herbicidal activity which whitened leaf discs, inhibited growth of microalgae and inhibited root growth of germinated Arabidopsis seeds. Spraying butanol fraction of the isolated active clones' culture broth led to growth retardation or desiccation of Digitalia sanguinalis (L) Scop. in vivo. These results represent that the screening methods established in this study are useful to screen herbicidal substances from metagenome libraries. Further identifying molecular structure of the herbicidal active substances and analyzing gene clusters encoding synthesis systems for the active substances are in progress.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.144-150
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• 2006

The exploitation of metagenome, the access to the natural extant of enormous potential resources, is the way for elucidating the functions of organism in environmental communities, for genomic analyses of uncultured microorganism, and also for the recovery of entirely novel natural products from microbial communities. The major breakthrough in metagenomics is opened by the construction of libraries with total DNAs directly isolated from environmental samples and screening of these libraries by activity and sequence-based approaches. Screening with activity-based approach is presumed as a plausible route for finding new catabolic genes under designed conditions without any prior sequence information. The main limitation of these approaches, however, is the very low positive hits in a single round of screening because transcription, translation and appropriate folding are not always possible in E. coli, a typical surrogate host. Thus, to obtain information about these obstacles, we studied the genetic organization of individual URF's(unidentified open reading frame from metagenome sequenced and deposited in GenBank), especially on the expression factors such as codon usage, promoter region and ribosome binding site(rbs), based on DNA sequence analyses using bioinformatics tools. And then we also investigated the above-mentioned properties for 4100 ORFs(Open Reading Frames) of E. coli K-12 generally used as a host cell for the screening of noble genes from metagenome. Finally, we analyzed the differences between the properties of URFs of metagenome and ORFs of E. coli. Information derived from these comparative metagenomic analyses can provide some specific features or environmental blueprint available to screen a novel biocatalyst efficiently.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.153-170
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• 2019

With the breathtaking stride beingmade in the field of biotechnology, biocatalyst research using genetically modified microorganism (GMM) is actively being pursued in food industry. However, domestic food and food additive regulation standards and the number of examination management examples currently used in industry is lacking significantly. Up till now, there are only 6 examples of domestic GMM examination and approval cases for food production purposes and furthermore they are limited to the production of functional sweeteners. Domestically, although GMM is developed as a processing aid (contained use), if they are used in the production of food, the safety of GMM, including environmental safety, is evaluated. Also the produced food or food additives using GMM need to be separately examined and approved as a novel food. On the other hand, imported products produced using GMM need to gain approval for the final product only. Thus the expense and the time to obtain regulatory approval is advantageous for imported products versus domestically produced products. This commentary is written to create the opportunity to reform the current domestic food GMM regulation by comparing and discussing domestic and foreign case analyses of safety evaluation of GMM and related regulations.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.118-124
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• 2009

Esterase EM2L8 gene isolated from deep sea sediment was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) and the esterase activity of the cell-free extract was assayed using p-nitrophenyl butyrate-spectrophotometric method. Its optimum temperature was $40-45^{\circ}C$ and 45% activity of the maximum activity was retained at $15^{\circ}C$. The activation energy at $15-45^{\circ}C$ was calculated to be 4.9 kcal/mol showing that esterase EM2L8 was a typical cold-adapted enzyme. Enzyme activity was maintained for 6 h and 4 weeks at $30^{\circ}C$ and $4^{\circ}C$, respectively. When each ethanol, methanol, and acetone was added to the reaction mixture to 15% concentration, enzyme activity was maintained. In the case of DMSO, enzyme activity was kept up to 40% concentration. (S)-4-Chloro-3-hydroxy butyric acid is a chiral intermediate for the synthesis of Atorvastatin, a hyperlipemia drug. When esterase EM2L8 (40 U) was added to buffer solution (1.2 mL, pH 9.0) containing ethyl-(R,S)-4-chloro-3-hydroxybutyrate (38 mM), it was hydrolyzed into 4-chloro-3-hydroxy butyric acid with a rate of $6.8\;{\mu}mole/h$. The enzyme hydrolyzed (S)-substrate more rapidly than (R)-substrate. When conversion yield was 80%, e.e.s value was 40%. When DMSO was added, hydrolysis rate increased to $10.4\;{\mu}mole/h$. The plots of conversion yield vs e.e.s in the presence or absence of DMSO were almost same, implying that the reaction enantioselectivity was not changed by the addition of DMSO. Taken together, esterase EM2L8 had high activity and stability at low temperatures as well as in various organic solvents/aqueous solutions. These properties suggested that it could be used as a biocatalyst in the synthesis of useful pharmaceuticals.