• Journal of Life Science
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• v.16 no.3 s.76
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• pp.472-476
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• 2006

We have built a database server called HorseDB which contains the genome annotation information and biological information for horse from public database entries. The aims of HorseDB are the integration of biological information and horse genome data on genome scale using bioinformatic methods. To facilitate the extraction of useful information among collected horse genome and biological data, we developed a user-friendly interface system, HorseDB; an Integrated Horse Resource and web Service. The database is categorized by the general horse information data, a sequence annotation data, and a world-wide web analysis program interface. The database also provides an easy access for user to find out the useful information within horse genomes and support analyzed information, such as sequence alignment and gene annotation results. HorseDB can be accessed at http://www.primate.or.kr./horse.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.803-811
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• 2014

Concerns over drug-resistant bacteria have stimulated interest in developing alternative methods to control bacterial infections. Endolysin, a phage-encoded enzyme that breaks down bacterial peptidoglycan at the terminal stage of the phage reproduction cycle, is reported to be effective for the control of bacterial pathogenic bacteria. Bioinformatic analysis of the SPN9CC bacteriophage genome revealed a gene that encodes an endolysin with a domain structure similar to those of the endolysins produced by the P1 and P22 coliphages. The SPN9CC endolysin was purified with a C-terminal oligo-histidine tag. The endolysin was relatively stable and active over a broad temperature range (from $24^{\circ}C$ to $65^{\circ}C$). It showed maximal activity at $50^{\circ}C$, and its optimum pH range was from pH 7.5 to 8.5. The SPN9CC endolysin showed antimicrobial activity against only gram-negative bacteria and functioned by cutting the glycosidic bond of peptidoglycan. Interestingly, the SPN9CC endolysin could lyse intact gram-negative bacteria in the absence of EDTA as an outer membrane permeabilizer. The exogenous lytic activity of the SPN9CC endolysin makes it a potential therapeutic agent against gram-negative bacteria.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.129-135
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• 2006

A gene encoding for a putative microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH) of a zebrafish, Danio rerio, was cloned and characterized. The putative mEH protein of D. rerio exhibited sequence similarity with mammalian mEH and some other bacterial EHs. A structural model for the putative mEH was constructed using homology modeling based on the crystallographic templates, 1 qo7 and 1 ehy. The catalytic triad consisting of $Asp^{233}$, $Glu^{413}$, and $His^{440}$ was identified, and the characteristic features such as two tyrosine residues and oxyanion hole were found to be highly conserved. Based on bioinformatic analysis together with EH activity assay, the putative protein was annotated as mEH of D. rerio. Enantiopure styrene oxide with enantiopurity of 99%ee and yield of 33.5% was obtained from racemic styrene oxide by the enantioselective hydrolysis activity of recombinant mEH of D. rerio for 45 min.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.142-148
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• 2013

SINE-VNTR-Alu (SVA) elements are present in hominoid primates and are divided into 6 subfamilies (SVA-A to SVA-F) and active in the human population. Using a bioinformatic tool, 22 SVA element-associated genes are identified in the human genome. In an analysis of genomic structure, SVA elements are detected in the 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of HGSNAT (SVA-B), MRGPRX3 (SVA-D), HYAL1 (SVA-F), TCHH (SVA-F), and ATXN2L (SVA-F) genes, while some elements are observed in the 3′UTR of SPICE1 (SVA-B), TDRKH (SVA-C), GOSR1 (SVA-D), BBS5 (SVA-D), NEK5 (SVA-D), ABHD2 (SVA-F), C1QTNF7 (SVA-F), ORC6L (SVA-F), TMEM69 (SVA-F), and CCDC137 (SVA-F) genes. They could contribute to exon extension or supplying poly A signals. LEPR (SVA-C), ALOX5 (SVA-D), PDS5B (SVA-D), and ABCA10 (SVA-F) genes also showed alternative transcripts by SVA exonization events. Dominant expression of HYAL1_SVA appeared in lung tissues, while HYAL1_noSVA showed ubiquitous expression in various human tissues. Expression of both transcripts (TDRKH_SVA and TDRKH_noSVA) of the TDRKH gene appeared to be ubiquitous. Taken together, these data suggest that SVA elements cause transcript isoforms that contribute to modulation of gene regulation in various human tissues.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.98-107
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• 2017

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) act as regulators of gene expression by binding to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of target genes. They perform important biological functions in the various species. Among many miRNAs, miR-21-3p is known to serve vital functions in development and apoptosis in olive flounder. Using genomic and bioinformatic tools, evolutionary conservation of miR-21-3p was examined in various species, and expression pattern was analyzed in olive flounder. Conserved sequences (5'-CAGUCG-3') in numerous species were detected through the stem-loop structure of miR-21-3p. Thus, we analyzed target genes of miR-21-3p. Among them, 3' UTR region of PPIL2 gene indicated the highest binding affinity with miR-21-3p based on the minimum free energy value. The PPIL2 gene showed high expression levels in testis tissue of the olive flounder, whereas miR-21-3p showed rather ubiquitous expression patterns except in testis tissue, indicating that miR-21-3p seems to control the PPIL2 gene expression in a complementary repression manner in various tissues of olive flounder. Taken together, this current study contributes to infer the target gene candidates for the miR-21-3p using bioinformatics tools. Furthermore, our data offers important information on the relationship between miR-21-3p and target gene for further functional study.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.201-208
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• 2015

The role of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) to regulate expression of genes seems to be very important. RBPs play important roles in RNA related bioprocess such as transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, polyadenylation, transport, localization, translation, turn over and maintenance of structure. Despite of many researches on RNA binding proteins, detailed mechanisms of these proteins have not been fully understood. It seems that many parts of RBPs remains unknown and should be characterized for the better understanding of gene expression. Recently, genetic, biochemical, and bioinformatic analysis of genomes revealed a vast array of RBPs and many parts are interesting to understand bioprocessing including gene expression.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.153-156
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• 2008

Complex diseases such as stroke and cancer have two or more genetic loci and are affected by environmental factors that contribute to the diseases. Due to the complex characteristics of these diseases, identifying candidate genes requires a system-level analysis of the following: gene ontology, pathway, and interactions. A database and user interface, termed StrokeBase, was developed; StrokeBase provides queries that search for pathways, candidate genes, candidate SNPs, and gene networks. The database was developed by using in silico data mining of HGNC, ENSEMBL, STRING, RefSeq, UCSC, GO, HPRD, KEGG, GAD, and OMIM. Forty candidate genes that are associated with cerebrovascular disease were selected by human experts and public databases. The networked cerebrovascular disease gene maps also were developed; these maps describe genegene interactions and biological pathways. We identified 1127 genes, related indirectly to cerebrovascular disease but directly to the etiology of cerebrovascular disease. We found that a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network that was associated with cerebrovascular disease follows the power-law degree distribution that is evident in other biological networks. Not only was in silico data mining utilized, but also 250K Affymetrix SNP chips were utilized in the 320 control/disease association study to generate associated markers that were pertinent to the cerebrovascular disease as a genome-wide search. The associated genes and the genes that were retrieved from the in silico data mining system were compared and analyzed. We developed a well-curated cerebrovascular disease-associated gene network and provided bioinformatic resources to cerebrovascular disease researchers. This cerebrovascular disease network can be used as a frame of systematic genomic research, applicable to other complex diseases. Therefore, the ongoing database efficiently supports medical and genetic research in order to overcome cerebrovascular disease.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.63-70
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• 2017

Selecting an appropriate antigen with optimal immunogenicity and physicochemical properties is a pivotal factor to develop a protein based subunit vaccine. Despite rapid progress in modern molecular cloning and recombinant protein technology, there remains a huge challenge for purifying and using protein antigens rich in hydrophobic domains, such as membrane associated proteins. To overcome current limitations using hydrophobic proteins as vaccine antigens, we adopted in silico analyses which included bioinformatic prediction and sequence-based protein 3D structure modeling, to develop a novel periodontitis subunit vaccine against the outer membrane protein FomA of Fusobacterium nucleatum. To generate an optimal antigen candidate, we predicted hydrophilicity and B cell epitope parameter by querying to web-based databases, and designed a truncated FomA (tFomA) candidate with better solubility and preserved B cell epitopes. The truncated recombinant protein was engineered to expose epitopes on the surface through simulating amino acid sequence-based 3D folding in aqueous environment. The recombinant tFomA was further expressed and purified, and its immunological properties were evaluated. In the mice intranasal vaccination study, tFomA significantly induced antigen-specific IgG and sIgA responses in both systemic and oral-mucosal compartments, respectively. Our results testify that intelligent in silico designing of antigens provide amenable vaccine epitopes from hard-to-manufacture hydrophobic domain rich microbial antigens.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.917-923
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• 2009

The maize lipoxgyenase-1 is a non-traditional dual positional specific enzyme and the reaction proceeds via enzyme-initiated catalysis. Bioinformatic analysis indicated that the maize lipoxygenase-1 is structurally more similar to soybean LOX1 than pea LOXN2 in that it has an additional external loop (residues 318-351) in the carboxy-terminal catalytic domain. We analyzed the dependence of product distribution on concentration of linoleic acid and monitored the formation of hydroperoxyoctadecadienoic acid as a function of enzyme concentration. Product distribution was strongly influenced by substrate concentration, such that kinetically-controlled regioisomers were enriched and thermodynamically-controlled regioisomers were depleted at high substrate concentration. Kinetic studies indicated that the formation of hydroperoxyoctadecadienoic acid saturated rapidly in an enzyme concentration-dependent manner, which implied that reactivation by reoxidation of inactive Fe(II) failed to occur. Our results support the previously proposed enzyme-initiated catalytic mechanism of the maize lipoxgyenase-1 and reveals that a substrate molecule serves as a hydrogen atom donor in its enzyme-initiated catalysis.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2010

SLC6A19 which reported as a neurotransmitter was composed of seven minisatellites. In previous our study, the minisatellites variants of SLC6A19-MS7 showed the susceptibility for hypertension. When this minisatellte sequences were analyzed using the bioinformatic tool, USF1 (upstream transcription factor 1) was found in this region as a putative transcription factor binding site. USF1 is binding with E-boxes which has a consensus sequence of CACGTG. USF1 is a ubiquitously expressed transcription factor and involved in the transcriptional control of many genes including the molecular pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Thus, we investigated that the putative functional relationship between the minisatellites variants and susceptibility for myocardial infarction. A case-control study was performed that compared genomic DNA from 400 controls and 225 cases with myocardial infarction. There were no significant differences observed in the overall allelic distribution of minisatellites between controls and cases, which indicates that this polymorphism is not responsible for myocardial infarction susceptibility. Hence, we analyzed the five different minisatellites alleles from this study and characterized 14 different repeats units (Unit1~Unit14). Then, we evaluated the DNA composition, phylogenic tree, and pairwise distances of its repeats. The variability of each repeats differed from 2.33% to 16%. The phylogenic trees for the four SLC6A19-MS7 minisatellites exhibited very different shapes in their braches and distances, and present most common 8 repeats allele was the longest 14 repeats allele. Therefore, this result may help to understand for the evolutional level of the length of minisatellites.