• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.474-480
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• 2005

Curcumin, a major active component of turmeric, has been identified as an inhibitor of the transcriptional activity of activator protein-1 (AP-1). Recently, it was also found that curcumin and synthetic curcumin derivatives can inhibit the binding of Jun-Fos, which are the members of the AP-1 family, to DNA. However, the mechanism of this inhibition by curcumin and its derivatives was not disclosed. Since the binding of Jun-Fos dimer to DNA can be modulated by redox control involving conserved cysteine residues, we studied whether curcumin and its derivatives inhibit Jun-Fos DNA binding activity via these residues. However, the inhibitory mechanism of curcumin and its derivatives, unlike that of other Jun-Fos inhibitors, was found to be independent of these conserved cysteine residues. In addition, we investigated whether curcumin derivatives can inhibit AP-1 transcriptional activity in vivo using a luciferase assay. We found that, among the curcumin derivatives examined, only inhibitors shown to inhibit the binding of Jun-Fos to DNA by Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA) inhibited AP-1 transcriptional activity in vivo. Moreover, RT-PCR revealed that curcumin derivatives, like curcumin, downregulated c-jun mRNA in JB6 cells. These results suggest that the suppression of the formation of DNA-Jun-Fos complex is the main cause of reduced AP-1 transcriptional activity by curcuminoids, and that EMSA is a suitable tool for identifying inhibitors of transcriptional activation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.5113-5117
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• 2012

Prohibitin (PHB) is a chaperone protein which is highly conserved evolutionarily. It shows significant homology with the Drosophila cc gene which is considered important for development and differentiation of Drosophila melanogaster. Investigations have revealed an involvement of PHB in cellular proliferation and development, apoptosis, signal transduction, mitochondrial function and regulation of the estrogen and androgen receptors. Therefore, we conducted the present study to analyze mutations in the highly conserved region in Indian female breast cancer patients. Conventional PCR-SSCP and Automated DNA sequencing were performed with a total of 105 breast cancer samples along with adjacent normal tissue. Of the total, 14.2% (15/105) demonstrated a mutation status of prohibitin observed in our study population. We identified a novel missense mutation (Thr>Ser), a novel deletion of T nucleotide in an intron adjacent to intron-exon boundary and a previously determined missense mutation (Val>Ala). A statistically significant correlation was obtained which suggested that prohibitin may be associated with tumor development and/or progression of at least some proportion of breast cancers.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.329-334
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• 2010

Multiple sequence alignments showed that the prolines at the 25th, 129th, 153rd, 242nd, 322nd, and 434th amino acids in 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) from Agrobacterium sp. strain CP4 are strongly conserved in various prokaryotic EPSPS proteins. Single point mutations of the conserved prolines to alanine (P25A, P153A, P242A, P322A, and P434A) were introduced in the CP4 EPSPS in order to investigate the importance of the conserved prolines for the enzyme properties. The point mutations caused decreases in substrate binding affinity and catalytic efficiency as well as the glyphosate resistance, in general. Especially, the 25th and 242nd prolines located in the polypeptide hinges connecting top and bottom domains of CP4 EPSPS as well as the 434th proline at the C-terminus of the enzyme turned out to be crucial for the enzyme activity.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.206-212
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• 2004

The genes that are located within the odvp-6e/odv-e56 region of the Choristoneura fumiferana granulovirus (ChfuGV) were identified by sequencing the 11 kb BamHI restriction fragment on the ChfuGV genome. The global GC content that was calculated from the data obtained from this genomic region was 34.96%. The open-reading frames (ORFs), located within the odvp-6e/odv-e56 region, are presented and compared to the equivalent ORFs that are located at the same region in other GVs. This region is composed of 14 ORFs, including three ORFs that are unique to ChfuGV with no obvious homologues in other baculoviruses as well as eleven ORFs with homologues to granuloviral ORFs, such as granulin, CfORF2, pk-1, ie-1, odv-e18, p49, and odvp-6e/odv-e56. In this study, the conceptual products of seven major conserved ORFs (granulin, CfORF2, IE-1, ODV-E18, p49 and ODVP-6E/ODV-E56) were used in order to construct phylogenetic trees. Our results show that granuloviruses can be grouped in 2 distinct groups as follows: Group I; Choristoneura fumiferana granulovirus (ChfuGV), Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV), Phthorimaea operculella granulovirus (PhopGV), and Adoxophyes orana granulovirus (AoGV). Group II; Xestia c-nigrum granulovirus (XcGV), Plutella xylostella granulovirus (PxGV), and Trichoplusia ni granulovirus (TnGV). The ChfuGV conserved proteins are most closely related to those of CpGV, PhopGV, and AoGV. Comparative studies, performed on gene arrangements within this region of genomes, demonstrated that three GVs from group I maintain similar gene arrangements.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.2917-2921
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• 2016

Background: To explore factors that influence quality of life (QOL) in patients receiving breast conserving therapy (BCT). Materials and Methods: In this sequential mixed methods study, 118 women from Songklanagarind Hospital were included. We used participants' characteristics, Body Image Scale (BIS), and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy with the Breast Cancer Subscale (FACT-B) for analysis. The BIS transformed into presence of body image disturbance (BID). Factors that influenced QOL were determined by stepwise multiple linear regression. Forty-one participants were selected for qualitative analysis. Our female researcher performed the semi-structured interviews with questions based on the symbolic interaction theory. Final codes were analysed using thematic analysis along with investigator triangulation methods. Results: Ninety percent had early stage breast cancer with post-completed BCT, for an average of 2.7 years. The median BIS score and FACT-B score were 2 (IQR=10) and 130 (IQR=39). In the regression analysis, an age of more than 50 years and BID were significant factors. As for the value of conserved breasts, two themes emerged: a conserved breast is an essential part of a participant's life and also the representation of her womanhood; the importance of a breast is related to age. Conclusions: Body image influenced QOL in post BCT participants. The conserved breasts also lead to positive and better impact on their body image as an essential part of their life.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.3-18
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• 2014

With natural resources-terrestrial or coastal-fastly diminishing, governments are now resorting to biodiversity conservation, fast-tracking the introduction of new legislations, as well as the amendment of existing ones, and laying out programs that interpret existing practices and research agendas. This paper examines how biodiversity conservation-in addition to eco-tourism-has become an important symbol of the modernizing state of Sabah, Malaysia. It further examines the effects of biodiversity conservation on state and community management of natural resources, with particular reference to the management of natural resources by the indigenous peoples of Sabah. Citing case studies and focusing on a forest community at Kiau Nuluh, in the district of Kota Belud, Sabah, this paper evaluates strategies used by indigenous groups to maintain access and control over the management of natural resources-and by implication to livelihoods-via ecotourism, making creative alliances with non-government organisations as well as forging cooperation with government agencies which act as custodians of these resources. For a majority of indigenous groups however, the practice of biodiversity conservation has meant reduced and controlled access to natural resources, considering the fundamental issue of the lack of security of tenure to the land claimed under customary rights. New initiatives at recognizing Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs) by international conservation groups provide a means for tenure recognition, for a price, of course. The recognition of ICCAs also faces obstacles arising from developmentalist ideology which upholds that forests are valuable only when converted to other land use, and not left to stand for their intrinsic value.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.362-365
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• 2007

Cyanobacteria have been identified as one of the most promising group producing novel biochemically active natural products. Cyanobacteria are a very old group of prokaryotic organisms that produce very diverse secondary metabolites, especially non-ribosomal peptide and polyketide structures. Large multienzyme complexes which are responsible for the non-ribosomal biosynthesis of peptides are modular for the addition of a single amino acid. An activation of amino acid substrates results in an amino adenylate occuring via an adenylation domain (A-domain). A-domains are responsible for the recognition of amino acids as substrates within NP synthesis. The A-domain contains ten conserved motifs, A1 to A10. In this study, ten conserved motifs from A1 to A10 were checked regarding their amino acid sequence of the NRPS-module of Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7806. The part of the amino acid sequence chosen was that which contained as many conserved motives as possible, and then these amino sequence were compared between other cyanobacteria to design a new degenerate primer. A new degenerate primer (A3/A7 primer) was designed to detect any putative NP synthetase region in unkwon cyanobacteria by a reverse translation of the conserved amino acid sequence and a search for cyanobacterial DNA bank.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.127-134
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• 1996

Twelve isolates of Accnthamoebc app. assigned to either A. castellanii or A. poIMphoSa, and type strains of A. culbefsoni, A. henIWi, A. pqkestinefiE, and A. astronyxi,s were examined by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of a conserved region of small subunit ribosomal RMh gene (ssu rDNA) amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR products of the isolates measured approximately 910-930 bp, except for that of A. astronyxis which was extraordinarily long, approximately 1,170 bp. Average of estimated sequence divergence of the amplified DNA among the isolates assigned to A. castellanii was 9.8% whereas that among the isolates assigned to A. polvphusn 9.6%. The maximum intraspecific sequence divergence among the isolates assigned to A. costellanii was observed between the Chang and Ma strains (17.3%) while that among the isolates assigned to A. poIWphosa was observed between KA/S3 and KA/S7 strains (16.1%). The both maximum sequence divergences were much greater than the minimum interspecific sequence divergence between A. cnstellnnii and A. polwphasa (2.6%) which appeared between the Castellani (or CCAP 1501/12 g) and KA/S3 strains. The PCR-RFLP patterns of A. culbertsoni, A. healyi, A. palestinensis, and A. ostronvxis were quite diverse from one another and from those of isolates assigned to either A. castellanii or A. polyphoga. It is suggested that taxonomic validity of the isolates assigned to either A. castellnnii or A. polyphoga should be reevaluated.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.723-731
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• 2003

For the investigation of conserved regions in lipase genes, 132 and 24 sequences were obtained from LED (Lipase Engineering Database) and COG (Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins), respectively. There was high diversity in lipase genes and peculiar amino acid sequences were conserved for each homologous family of LED. Similar conserved amino acid sequences were detected from COG0657 and Moraxella lipase 1 homologous group of LED. Although many studies have attempted to detect new lipase genes in procaryotes, they have been limited culturable bacteria. The importance of metagenome, including DNA from non-culturable bacteria, is known. Due to the high diversity, we assumed it might be possible to detect new lipase gene from metagenome. Due to the high diversity of nucleotide sequences in lipase genes, 10 primer sets were designed. Designed primer sets were inspected in BLAST of NCBI and they could amplify a part of the lipase gene from 222 to 713 bp. They can amplify 16.7%∼60.0% of each lipase homologous group which was 3.6 fold higher than each sets. They might offer a high probability of detecting new lipase genes, owing to high efficiency and the diversity of lipase genes.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2000

The genome of Hantaan virus, the prototype of the hantavirus genus, is composed of three segmented, single stranded negative sense RNA genome. The 5' and 3' termini of the Hantaan virus RNA genome contain noncoding regions (NCRs) that are highly conserved and complementary to form panhandle structures. There are some reports that these NCRs seems to control gene expression and viral replication in influenza virus and vesicular stomatitis virus. In this study, we examined whether NCRs in Hantaan virus playa role in expression of the viral nucleocapsid protein (Np) and foreign (luciferase) gene. The 5' and/or 3' NCR-deleted mutants were constructed and analysed. The Np expression of 5' NCR-deleted clone was similar to that of the clone containing full S genome. In the case of 3' NCR-deleted clone, it showed 40% reduction. To investigate the role of NCR in foreign gene expression, the clones which are replaced ORF of Hantaan viral Np gene with that of luciferase gene were constructed. The results were similar to those of the experiments using Np gene. These results suggest that 3' NCR is more important than 5' NCR in protein expression. To find out a critical region of 3' NCR in protein expression, several clones with a deleted part of 3' NCR were constructed and analyzed. The deletion of the conserved region in 3' NCR showed $20{\sim}30%$ decrease in Np expression. However there were no change in luciferase activities between clones with or without non-conserved region of 3' NCR. These results suggest that the 3' NCR of Hantaan virus S genome, especially conserved region in 3' NCR, plays an important role in the expression of Hantaan viral Np and foreign genes.