• BMB Reports
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.223-228
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• 2015

The Drosophila lymph gland is the hematopoietic organ in which stem-like progenitors proliferate and give rise to myeloid-type blood cells. Mechanisms involved in Drosophila hematopoiesis are well established and known to be conserved in the vertebrate system. Recent studies in Drosophila lymph gland have provided novel insights into how external and internal stresses integrate into blood progenitor maintenance mechanisms and the control of blood cell fate decision. In this review, I will introduce a developmental overview of the Drosophila hematopoietic system, and recent understandings of how the system uses developmental signals not only for hematopoiesis but also as sensors for stress and environmental changes to elicit necessary blood responses. [BMB Reports 2015; 48(4): 223-228]

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.10
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• pp.623-630
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• 2009

Hsp90, an evolutionarily conserved molecular chaperone, is involved in the folding, stabilization, activation, and assembly of a wide range of 'client' proteins, thus playing a central role in many biological processes. Especially, several oncoproteins act as Hsp90 client proteins and tumor cells require higher Hsp90 activity than normal cells to maintain their malignancy. For this reason, Hsp90 has emerged as a promising target for anti-cancer drug development. It is still largely unknown how Hsp90 can recognize structurally unrelated client proteins. However, recent progress in structural studies on Hsp90 and its interaction with various co-chaperones has broadened our knowledge of how the Hsp90 ATPase activity, which is essential for its chaperone function, is regulated and coupled with the conformational changes of Hsp90 dimer. This review focuses on the roles of various Hsp90 co-chaperones in the regulation of the Hsp90 ATPase cycle, as well as in the selection of client proteins. In addition, the current development of Hsp90 inhibitors based on the structural information will be discussed.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.294-299
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• 2005

A cDNA encoding farnesyl diphosphate synthase (FPS; EC2.5.1.1/EC2.5.1.10) was isolated from Centella asiacita (L.) Urban, using degenerate primers based on two highly conserved domains. A full-length cDNA clone was subsequently isolated by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) PCR. The sequence of the CaFPS (C. asiatica farnesyl diphosphate synthase) cDNA contains an open reading frame of 1029 nucleotides encoding 343 amino acids with a molecular mass of 39.6 kDa. The deduced CaFPS amino acid sequence exhibits 84, 79, and 72%, identity to the FPSs of Artemisia annua, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Oryza sativa, respectively. Southern blot analysis suggested that the C. asiatica genome contains only one FPS gene. An artificially expressed soluble form of the CaFPS was identified by SDS-PAGE. It had high specific activity and produced farnesyl diphosphate as the major isoprenoid.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.167-179
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• 2005

The cells of metazoans respond to DNA damage by either arresting their cell cycle in order to repair the DNA, or by undergoing apoptosis. This response is highly conserved across species, and many of the genes involved in this DNA damage response have been shown to be inactivated in human cancers. This suggests the importance of DNA damage response with regard to the prevention of cancer. The DNA damage checkpoint responses vary greatly depending on the developmental context, cell type, gene expression profile, and the degree and nature of the DNA lesions. More valuable information can be obtained from studies utilizing whole organisms in which the molecular basis of development has been well established, such as Drosophila. Since the discovery of the Drosophila p53 orthologue, various aspects of DNA damage responses have been studied in Drosophila. In this review, I will summarize the current knowledge on the DNA damage checkpoint response in Drosophila. With the ease of genetic, cellular, and cytological approaches, Drosophila will become an increasingly valuable model organism for the study of mechanisms inherent to cancer formation associated with defects in the DNA damage pathway.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.299-306
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• 2007

Cysteine-cysteine chemokine receptor 9 (CCR9) homologue cDNA was isolated from olive flounder leukocyte cDNA library. Olive flounder CCR9 homologue consisted of 1709 bp encoding 367amino acid residues. When compared with other known CCR peptide sequences, the most conserved region of the olive flounder CCR9 peptide is the seven transmembranes. A phylogenetic analysis based on the deduced amino acid sequence showed the homologous relationship between the olive flounder CCR9 sequence and that of Mouse CCR9. The olive flounder CCR9 gene was predominantly expressed in the Peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs), kidney, spleen, and gills.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.99-105
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• 2002

About 70% of energy input to internal combustion engine is rejected to atmosphere by heat. By utilizing this waste heat, a plenty of energy can be conserved in nationwide. One of possible ways is the thermoelectric generation to utilize engine's waste heat to provide auxiliary electric power. Under th is concept, we have been developing the thermoelectric generation system to replace the alternator by converting the waste heat in the engine's exhaust directly to electricity This system may reduce the shaft horse power of the engine, then improves the vehicle fuel economy and the exhaust emissions. In the present study, the characteristics of the electric energy and exhaust heal energy in city and highway mode driving conditions are analysed by using a gasoline passenger car. These results would be used to determine the optimum design parameters of the thermoelectric generation system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.118-123
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• 2005

With the increasing availability of mammalian genome sequences it became possible to use large scale phylogenetic analysis in order to locate potentially functional regions. In this paper we describe a new probabilistic method for the characterization of phylogenetic conservation in mammalian DNA sequences. We have used this method for the analysis of Hox gene clusters, based on the alignment of 6 species, and we constructed a map of for indicating short and long conserved fragments and their positions with respect to the known locations of Hox genes and other elements, sometimes showing surprising layouts.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.153-155
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• 2007

Ferritin heavy chain 1 (FTH1) is an ubiquitous and highly conserved protein which plays a major role in iron homeostasis. The expression of FTH1 was specifically enhanced under various condition of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stresses drugs such as Brefeldin A (BFA), DTT (Dithiothreitol), calcium ionophore A23187 and tunicamycin. We firstly report here that ER-stress induces up-regulated expression of FTH1 in FRTL-5 culture thyrocytes.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.113-117
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• 2005

A chymotrpsin gene homologue was cloned from the mulberry longicorn beetle, Apriona germari. The A. germari chymotrypsin cDNA contains an ORF of 950 nucleotides capable of encoding a 283 amino acid polypeptide with a predicted molecular mass of 29151 Da and pI of 9.38. The A. germari chymotrypsin has conserved six cysteine residues and active triad formed by His, Asp and Ser. The deduced amino acid sequence of the A. germari chymotrypsin cDNA was closest in structure to the Anthonomus grandis chymotrypsin. Northern blot analysis revealed that A. germari chymotrypsin showed the midgut-specific expression.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.50-53
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• 2006

Cys-29 and Cys-251 of Streptomyces albus valine dehydrogenase(ValDH) were highly conserved in the corresponding region of $NAD(P)^+$-dependent amino acid dehydroganase sequences. To ascertain the functional role of these cysteine residues in S. albus ValDH, site-directed mutagenesis was performed to change each of the two residues to serine. Kinetic analyses of the enzymes mutated at Cys-29 and Cys-251 revealed that these residues are involved in catalysis. We also constructed mutant ValDH by substituting valine for leucine at 305 by site-directed mutagenesis. This residue was chosen, because it has been proposed to be important for substrate discrimination by phenylalanine dehydrogenase (PheDH) and leucine dehydrogenase (LeuDH). Kinetic analysis of the V305L mutant enzyme revealed that it is involved in the substrate binding site. However it displayed less activity than the wild type enzyme toward all aliphatic and aromatic amino acids tested.