• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.49 no.1
• /
• pp.15-29
• /
• 2022

Cyclophilins (CYPs) are highly conserved ubiquitous proteins belong to the peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerase (PPIase) superfamily. These proteins are present in a wide range of organisms; they contain a highly conserved peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase domain. A comprehensive database survey identified a total of 35 genes localized in all cellular compartments of Solanum lycopersicum L., but largely in the cytosol. Sequence alignment and conserved motif analyses of the SlCYP proteins revealed a highly conserved CLD motif. Evolutionary analysis predicted the clustering of a large number of gene pairs with high sequence similarity. Expression analysis using the RNA-Seq data showed that the majority of the SlCYP genes were highly expressed in mature leaves and blooming flowers, compared with their expression in other organs. This study provides a basis for the functional characterization of individual CYP genes in the future to elucidate their role(s) in protein refolding and long-distance signaling in tomatoes and in plant biology, in general.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.163-171
• /
• 2007

Functional elements of the conserved helix 7 in the poreforming domain of the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry $\delta$- endotoxins have not yet been clearly identified. Here, we initially performed alanine substitutions of four highly conserved aromatic residues, $Trp^{243}$, $Phe^{246}$, $Tyr^{249}$ and $Phe^{264}$, in helix 7 of the Cry4Ba mosquito-larvicidal protein. All mutant toxins were overexpressed in Escherichia coli as 130-kDa protoxins at levels comparable to the wild-type. Bioassays against Stegomyia aegypti mosquito larvae revealed that only W243A, Y249A or F264A mutant toxins displayed a dramatic decrease in toxicity. Further mutagenic analysis showed that replacements with an aromatic residue particularly at $Tyr^{249}$ and $Phe^{264}$ still retained the high-level toxin activity. In addition, a nearly complete loss in larvicidal activity was found for Y249L/F264L or F264A/ Y249A double mutants, confirming the involvement in toxicity of both aromatic residues which face towards the same direction. Furthermore, the Y249L/F264L mutant was found to be structurally stable upon toxin solubilisation and trypsin digestion, albeit a small change in the circular dichroism spectrum. Altogether, the present study provides for the first time an insight into the highly conserved aromaticity of $Tyr^{249}$ and $Phe^{264}$ within helix 7 playing an important role in larvicidal activity of the Cry4Ba toxin.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.375-379
• /
• 2009

Protein domain is the conserved unit of compact tree-dimensional structure and evolution, which carries specific function. Domains may appear in patterns in proteins, since they have been conserved through the evolution for functional formation of proteins. In this paper, we propose a formulated method for conservation analysis of domain combination based on association rule. Proposed method measures mutual dependency of domains in a combination, as well as co-occurrence frequency of them, which is conventionally used. Based on the method, we extracted conserve domain combinations in S.cerevisiae proteins and analyzed their functions based on Gene Ontology. From the results, we drew conclusions that domains in S.cerevisiae proteins form patterns whose members are highly affiliated to one another, and that extracted patterns tend to be associated with molecular function. Moreover, the results testified to proposed method superior to conventional ones for identifying domain combinations conserved for functional cooperation.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.243-250
• /
• 2015

Patterning of the polar axis during the early leaf developmental stage is established by cell-to-cell communication between the shoot apical meristem (SAM) and the leaf primordia. In a previous study, we showed that the DRL1 gene, which encodes a homolog of the Elongator-associated protein KTI12 of yeast, acts as a positive regulator of adaxial leaf patterning and shoot meristem activity. To determine the evolutionally conserved functions of DRL1, we performed a comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence of DRL1 and its yeast homolog, KTI12, and found that while overall homology was low, well-conserved domains were presented. DRL1 contained two conserved plant-specific domains. Expression of the DRL1 gene in a yeast KTI12-deficient yeast mutant suppressed the growth retardation phenotype, but did not rescue the caffeine sensitivity, indicating that the role of Arabidopsis Elongator-associated protein is partially conserved with yeast KTI12, but may have changed between yeast and plants in response to caffeine during the course of evolution. In addition, elevated expression of DRL1 gene triggered zymocin sensitivity, while overexpression of KTI12 maintained zymocin resistance, indicating that the function of Arabidopsis DRL1 may not overlap with yeast KTI12 with regards to toxin sensitivity. In this study, expression analysis showed that class-I KNOX genes were downregulated in the shoot apex, and that YAB and KAN were upregulated in leaves of the Arabidopsis drl1- 101 mutant. Our results provide insight into the communication network between the SAM and leaf primordia required for the establishment of leaf polarity by mediating histone acetylation or through other mechanisms.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.24 no.7
• /
• pp.791-797
• /
• 2014

Sixty-two conserved orthologous groups (OGs) of proteins, in 63 prokaryotes and seven eukaryotes were analyzed to identify essential proteins in the mitochondria of eukaryotes, and their counterparts in prokaryotes. Twenty OGs were common in eukaryotic mitochondria, and all were translation related. Encephalitozoon cuniculi, an obligate parasitic eukaryote, shares no common mitochondrial OGs with the other 69 organisms. Seventeen conserved OGs were mitochondria related in the 69 organisms. Mitochondria related- and nonrelated-OGs were divided into prokaryotic genomes (p<0.001, paired t-test) unlike eukaryotic genomes in the distance value analysis. The most commonly conserved mitochondria-related OG was COG0048-KOG1750 (ribosomal small subunit S12), whereas it was COG0100-KOG0407 (ribosomal small subunit S11) in nonrelated OGs. These results could be applied in scientific research to determine phylogenetic relationships and in areas such as drug development.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.70-79
• /
• 2014

In an attempt to develop a variety of expression vector systems for Corynebacterium glutamicum, six types of promoters, including $P_{tac}$, $P_{sod}$, $P_{sod}$ with a conserved Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequence from C. glutamicum, $P_{ilvC}$, $P_{ilvC}$ with a conserved SD-1 ($P_{ilvC-M1}$), and $P_{ilvC}$ with a conserved SD-2 ($P_{ilvC-M2}$), were cloned into a modified shuttle vector, pCXM48. According to analysis of promoter strength by quantitative reverse transcription PCR, $P_{sod}$ and $P_{sod-M}$ were superior to tac and ilvC promoters in terms of transcription activity in C. glutamicum. All of the promoters have promoter activities in Escherichia coli, and $P_{sod-M}$ displayed the highest level of transcriptional activity. The protein expression in constructed vectors was evaluated by measuring the fluorescence of green fluorescent protein (GFP) and SDS-PAGE. C. glutamicum harboring plasmids showed GFP fluorescence with an order of activity of $P_{ilvC}$ > $P_{ilvC-M1}$ > $P_{sod}$ > $P_{ilvC-M2}$ > $P_{sod-M}$, whereas all plasmids except pCSP30 with $P_{sod}$ displayed fluorescence activities in E. coli. Of them, the strongest level of GFP was observed in E. coli with $P_{sod-M}$, and this seems to be due to the introduction of the conserved SD sequence in the translational initiation region. These results demonstrate that the expression vectors work well in both C. glutamicum and E. coli for the expression of target proteins. In addition, the vector systems harboring various promoters with different strengths, conserved SD sequences, and multiple cloning sites will provide a comfortable method for cloning and gene expression, and consequently contribute to the metabolic engineering of C. glutamicum.

• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.178-180
• /
• 2009

A few bioinformatics tools have been used to find out conserved regions as probes. We have developed a system based on a heuristic method with web interfaces to find out conserved regions against microbial genomes. The system runs in real time by using relative entropy in limited narrow regions and detecting similar regions between pair regions with local alignment. The system could be useful to find out conserved regions as genome-wide scale.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.399-405
• /
• 1998

From the sequence alignment of various non-ribosomal peptide synthetases, several motifs of highly conserved sequences have been identified within each domain of peptide synthetases. We designed PCR primers based on the highly conserved nucleotide sequences to amplify and isolate a ∼7.2-kb DNA fragment of the Bacillus subtilis 713 which was isolated and reported to produce an antifungal peptide compound. Nucleotide sequence analysis of 4.8 kb of the predicted amino acids revealed significant homology to various peptide synthetases over the whole sequence and also revealed two amino acid-activating domains with highly conserved Core 1 to Core 6 and spacer motif. This suggests that the isolated DNA fragment is part of a peptide synthetase gene for antifungal peptide.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
• /
• v.24 no.B
• /
• pp.139-142
• /
• 2004

To identify conserved structural or functional subunit(s) in the CP1 (editing) domains of class Ia tRNA synthetases, five available structures were compared and analyzed. Through sequence alignments of the CP1 domains, three conserved regions were found near the amino acid binding site in the editing domain. Structural overlapping of the three subunits clearly showed that there exist three common structural subunits in all of the five editing RS structures. The new alignment suggests a translocation movement of the CP1 domain caused by the binding with tRNA. Based on the experimental and modeling results, it is proposed that subunits 1 and 3 accommodate the incoming amino acid binding, while subunit 2 contributes to the interactions with the adenosine ring of the A76 to stabilize the overall tRNA binding.. Since these subunits are critical for the editing reaction, we expect that these key structures should be conserved through all class Ia editing RSs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
• /
• 1993.04a
• /
• pp.92-92
• /
• 1993

Point mutations in a highly conserved central region of the HIV-1 integrase protein were analyzed for their effects on viral replication and virion morphogenesis. Conservative amino acid replacements of two amino acid residues invariant un retroviral integrases, D116 and E152 of HIV-1, as well as the highly conserved amino acid S147, completely blocked viral replication in two CD4$\^$＋/ human T cell lines. Mutation of four other highly conserved amino acids in the region had no detectable effect on viral replication, while Mutations at two positions, N117 and Y143, resulted in viruses with a delayed replication phenotype. Characteristic and reproducible defects id virion core structure were observed by electron microscopic analysis of sore of the replication defective integrase point mutants, indicating that mutant integrase proteins can interfere with the process of virion core maturation.