• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.29-34
• /
• 2001

The mutant enzymes of N-carbamyl-D-amino aicd amidohydrolase (N-carbamylase) from Agrobacterium radiobacter NRRL B11291, showing a negligible activity, were selected from the library generated by random mutagenesis. From the sequence analysis, these mutants were found to contain the amino acids substitutions at Cys172, Glu47, and Glu146. Previously, Cys172 was reported to be necessary for the enzyme catalysis. The chemical modification of the N-carbamylase by carboxyl group specific chemical reagent, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide(EDC), resulted in a loss of activity. The replacement of glutamic acids with glutamines by site-directed mutagenesis led to aggregation of the enzymes. Mutant enzymes fused with maltose binding protein (MBP) were expressed in soluble form, but were inactive. These results indicate that two glutamic acid residues play an important role in structure and function of the N-carbamylase. Multiple sequence alignment of the related enzymes revealed that Glu47 and Glu146 are rigidly conserved, which suggests that tese residues are crucial for the structure and function of the functionally related C-N hydrolases.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.87-89
• /
• 2001

The nucleotide sequence of the domestic silkworm (Bombyx mori) mitochondrial (mt) control region and its flanking genes was determined from PCR clones. The control region of the silkworm mt genome was located between the small ribosomal RNA gene and transfer RN $A^{Met}$. This 499 bp control region hale 95.4% A+T content. Extensive comparative analysis studies performed with similar control region of other insect genomes could not reveal a highly conserved region containing conserved motifs of animal mito-chondrial genome. The remarkable feature that found in this control region was the presence of tandem motifs containing nine repetitive sequences. The potential usefulness of this motif sequences for Bombyx species or their taxonomically related species is enhanced by its unique localization in the maternally inheritance mitochondrial molecule.e.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.547-553
• /
• 1999

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are essential enzymes catalyzing the attachment of specific amino acids to cognate tRNAs. In the present work, the substrate analogue L-methionine hydroxamate was used to identify functional residues located in the active site of the E. coli methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MetRS). This compound inhibited bacteria, yeast, and human MetRS activities to a similar degree, suggesting a conserved active site structure and mechanism between MetRSs of different phylogenetic domains. Mutants of the E. coli MetRS resistant to methionine hydroxamate were also isolated. These mutants contained a substitution either at T10, Y15, or Y94. These residues are highly conserved among the different MetRSs and the mutants showed decreased aminoacylation activity, suggesting their functional and structural significances. The putative roles of these residues are discussed on a structural basis.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.599-604
• /
• 1999

A highly conserved amino acid, glutamic acid (Glu), present at position 152 in the catalytic domain of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase (IN) protein has been known to be critical for enzymatic function since substitution of Glu 152 with other residues results in a complete loss of enzymatic activities. In order to better understand the role of Glu 152 as a conserved residue in enzymatic action, intragenic second site mutations have been introduced around residue 152 of a mutant IN (E152A), and their biochemical properties were analyzed in terms of enzymatic activities. Disintegration activities were found to be significantly restored in several second site mutant INs, while integration activities were only recovered weakly. However, endonucleolytic activities were not discovered in all the mutant INs. These findings indicate that the second site mutations can partially restore that catalytic structure of the active site disturbed by the E152A mutation and lead to the regaining of integration and disintegration activities. In addition, it is also suggested that endonucleolytic activity requires a more accurate structure of the catalytic site than that for the integration and disintegration activities.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.61-66
• /
• 2015

The plant hormone auxin is involved in all stages of plant development. Aux/IAAs are the transcriptional repressors that bind to the Auxin Response Factors (ARFs) to regulate the gene expression upon auxin release. Aux/IAA have highly conserved C-terminal domains (domains III-IV) that mediate both homotypic and heterotypic interactions between Aux/IAA and ARF family proteins. Recent studies revealed that the conserved domains III-IV share a common ${\beta}$-grasp fold that oligomerizes in a front-to-back manner. In particular, Aux/IAA contains a mobile insert helix in the domain III-IV, whereas ARFs do not. Here, we investigated the dynamics of the insert helix using paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy. The insert helix exhibited fast motions in the ps-ns time scale from $^{15}N$ relaxation data, but the amplitude of the motion is likely limited to the local neighborhood. Our result suggests that the motion of the helix may have functional implications in protein-protein interactions for transcriptional regulations.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.65-70
• /
• 2005

Choristoneura fumiferana granulovirus (ChfuGV) infection results two types of enveloped virions: Occlusion-derived virus (ODV) and budded virus (BV). Structural proteins ODVP-6E/ODV-E56 and p74 are two major conserved ODV-associated proteins that may be involved in the initiation of viral infection cycle in susceptible host insect larvae. This study presents the characterization of ChfuGV odvp-6e/odv-e56 and p74 transcription and translation as well as immunolocalization of these proteins in the occluded ChfuGV virion. Our results revealed that the transcription of odvp-6e/odv-e56 and p74 genes, both, start at 24 hours post infection (h p.i.). Using monospecific polyclonal antibodies made against ODVP-6E/ODV-E56 and p74 we demonstrated that these proteins are both expressed late in infection (24 h p.i.). Immunogold labeling using antisera against ODVP-6E/ODV-E56 and p74 proteins demonstrated that ODVP-6E/ODV-E56 and p74 proteins are both associated with the ODV envelop of ChfuGV.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.153-157
• /
• 2006

A soil metagenomic library was constructed using an E. coli-fosmid cloning system with environmental DNAs extracted from Kwangreung forest topsoil. We targeted the genes involved in the biosynthesis of bacterial polyketides. Initially, a total of 36 clone pools (10,800 clones) were explored by the PCR-based method using the metagenomic DNAs from each pool and a degenerate primer set, which has been designed based on the highly conserved regions among ketoacyl synthase (KS) domains in actinomycete type I polyketide synthases (PKS Is). Six clone pools were tentatively selected as positive and further examined through a hybridization-based method for selecting a fosmid clone containing PKS I genes. Colony hybridization was performed against fosmid clones from the 6 positive pools, and finally 4 clones were picked out and confirmed to contain the conserved DNA fragment of KS domains. In this study, we present a simple and feasible sorting method for a desired clone from metagenomic libraries.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.949-954
• /
• 2003

The argG gene of Corynebacterium glutamicum encoding argininosuccinate synthetase (EC6345) was cloned and sequenced. The gene was cloned by heterologous complementation of an Escherichia coli arginine auxotrophic mutant (argG/sup -/). The cloned DNA fragment also complements E. coli argD, argF, and argH mutants, suggesting a clustered organization of the genes in the chromosome. The coding region of the argG gene is 1,206 nucleotides long with a deduced molecular weight of about 44 kDa, comparable with the predicted size of the expressed protein on the SDS-PAGE. Computer analysis revealed that the amino acid sequence of the argG gene product had a high similarity to that of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Streptomyces clavuligerus. Two conserved sequence motifs within the ArgG appear to be ATP-binding sites which correspond to 2 of the 3 conserved regions found in sequences of all known argininosuccinate synthetases.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.481-489
• /
• 2007

[ $\alpha$ ]-L-Arabinofuranosidases (AFases; EC 3.2.1.55) are exo-type enzymes, which hydrolyze terminal nonreducing arabinose residues from various polysaccharides such as arabinan and arabinoxylan. Genome-wide BLAST search showed that various bacterial strains possess the putative AFase genes with well-conserved motif sequences at the nucleotide and amino acid sequence levels. In this study, two sets of degenerate PCR primers were designed and tested to detect putative AFase genes, based on their three highly conserved amino acid blocks (PGGNFV, GNEMDG; and DEWNVW). Among 20 Bacillus-associated species, 13 species were revealed to have putative AFase genes in their genome and they share over 67% of amino acid identities with each other. Based on the partial sequence obtained from an isolate, an AFase from Geobacillus sp. was cloned and expressed in E. coli. Enzymatic characterization has verified that the resulting enzyme corresponds to a typical AFase. Accordingly, degenerate PCR primers developed in this work can be used for fast, easy, and specific detection and isolation of putative AFase genes from bacterial cells.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.90-97
• /
• 2009

The cytoskeletal $\beta$-actin gene and its 5'-upstream region were isolated and characterized in the rockbream (Oplegnathus fasciatus). Complementary DNA of the rockbream $\beta$-actin represented a 1,125 bp of an open reading frame encoding 375 amino acids, and the rockbream $\beta$-actin cDNA and deduced amino acid sequences were highly homologous to those of other vertebrate orthologs. At the genomic level, the $\beta$-actin gene also exhibited an organization typical of vertebrate cytoskeletal actin genes (2,159 bp composed of five translated exons interrupted by four introns) with a conserved GT/AG exon-intron splicing rule. The putative non-translated exon predicted in the rockbream $\beta$-actin gene was much more homologous with those of teleostean $\beta$-actin genes than those of mammals. The 5'-upstream regulatory region isolated by genome walking displayed conserved and essential elements such as TATA, CArG and CAAT boxes in its proximal part, while several other immune- or stress-related motifs such as those for NF-kappa B, USF, HNF, AP-1 and C/EBP were in the distal part. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR assay results demonstrated that the rockbream $\beta$-actin transcripts were ubiquitously but different-tially expressed across the tissues of juveniles.