• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.302-310
• /
• 2016

A study aimed at identifying putative drought responsive genes that confer tolerance to water stress deficit in tea plants was conducted in a 'rain-out shelter' using potted plants. Eighteen months old drought tolerant and susceptible tea cultivars were each separately exposed to water stress or control conditions of 18 or 34% soil moisture content, respectively, for three months. After the treatment period, leaves were harvested from each treatment for isolation of RNA and cDNA synthesis. The cDNA libraries were sequenced on Roche 454 high-throughput pyrosequencing platform to produce 232,853 reads. After quality control, the reads were assembled into 460 long transcripts (contigs). The annotated contigs showed similarity with proteins in the Arabidopsis thaliana proteome. Heat shock proteins (HSP70), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (cat), peroxidase (PoX), calmodulinelike protein (Cam7) and galactinol synthase (Gols4) droughtrelated genes were shown to be regulated differently in tea plants exposed to water stress. HSP70 and SOD were highly expressed in the drought tolerant cultivar relative to the susceptible cultivar under drought conditions. The genes and pathways identified suggest efficient regulation leading to active adaptation as a basal defense response against water stress deficit by tea. The knowledge generated can be further utilized to better understand molecular mechanisms underlying stress tolerance in tea.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.408-421
• /
• 2000

We tried to establish the culture method of the chondrocyte isolated from the epiphyseal cartilage and to investigate morphological changes of chondrocyte cultured with enzyme-digested costal cartilage, the perichondrium and experimentally damaged meniscus of rabbit. De novo chondrocyte pellets were prepared from epiphyseal plates by culturing isolated epiphyseal chondrocytes from 4 week. old rabbits. We morphologically assessed the cartilage formation of the chondrocyte culture with enzyme-digested costal carilage, the perichondrial culture, the cultured chondrocytes transplants into experimentally damaged meniscus of rabbits, the perichondrial culture, the cultured chondrocytes transplants into experimentally damaged meniscus of rabbit. In the 24 days, the epiphyseal chondrocytes maintained the typical phenotypes of the partial nodular cell formation. The 30 days cryopreserved chondrocytes showed abnormal and irregular shape. In the type II collagen added culture, the chondrocytes showed expanded rough endoplasmic reticulum and small and large round-like vesicles of processes. In the type IV collagen added culture, the chondrocytes showed large perinuclear vaculoes and abundant well-developed rough endoplasmic reticulum of processes. In the culture with enzyme- digested costal cartilage and the perichondrial culture, the chondrocytes showed a few swelling rough endoplasmic reticulum and vacuoles. The cultured epiphyseal chondrocytes maintained typical phenotype and the chondrocytes were grown faster and maintained more typical phenotype in the type II and IV collagen added culture. The transformed chondrocytes secreted abundant extracellular matrix in the type II collagen added culture, and showed processes in the type IV collagen added culture. The perichondrial chondrocytes were grown faster and their implants were able to transplant. The cultured chondrocytes transplanted into experimentally damaged meniscus were adapted between the meniscus tissues. And the immunocyto-chemical reaction of the type II collagen of the chondrocytes were found to be maintained. The chondrocytes cultured cartilage. The chondrocytes secreted abundantly. The cultured chondrocytes transplanted into experimentally damaged meniscus changed immature cells into enlarged mature cells with extracellular secretion.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.100-103
• /
• 2008

Purpose: Eccrine porocarcinoma is a very rare, potentially fatal tumor which arises from the intraepidermal portion of the eccrine sweat ductal apparatus. It does not have a characteristic clinical feature but does have a high incidence of metastasis. It may be developed de novo or in a preexisting benign eccrine poroma. It usually affects older people and is located most commonly on lower extremities. We report a rare case of eccrine porocarcinoma which developed on the back without metastasis. Methods: The patient was a 94-year-old woman who showed a painful, ulcerated, dark brown colored polypoid $3.5{\times}3.0cm$ sized mass on the back for 3 years. We totally excised the lesion including normal tissue. Results: After wide excision of the lesion, pathologist reported an eccrine porocarcinoma. Histopathologic findings reveal that the classic type of eccrine gland carcinoma, eccrine porocarcinoma. Immunocytochemical studies showed a positive reactivity to anti-EMA antibody and anti-CEA antibody. Conclusion: Authors experienced a rare case of primary eccrine porocarcinoma on the back. Because of the propensity to develop local recurrence, wide excision of the primary tumor with histologic confirmation of negative margins represents the only curative treatment regimen for eccrine porocarcinoma.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.45-49
• /
• 2002

Bradyrhizobium japonicum is a soil bacterium with a unique ability to infect the roots of leguminous plants and establish a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis, which has been used as a microbial manure. In this study, we examined the stress response after pretreatment of cells with cold temperature. When pre-treated with cold temperature ($4^{\circ}C$) for 16 hr, B. japonicum increased the viability in subsequent stress-conditions such as alcohol, $H_2O_2$, heat, and dehydration. For cold adpatation, cultured B. japonicum was exposed to $4^{\circ}C$. Upon subsequent exposure to various conditions, the number of adapted cells pretreated by cold adaptation was 10-1000 fold higher than that of non-adaptated ones. It appeared de novo protein synthesis occurred during adaptation, because a protein synthesis inhibitor, chloramphenicol abolished the increased stress tolerance. By using a degenerate PCR primer set, a csp homolog was amplified from B. japonicum genome and sequenced. The deduced partial amino acid sequence of the putative Csp (Cold shock protein) shares a significant similarity with known Csp proteins of other bacteria.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.51-59
• /
• 1998

The apoptosis-inducing activity of ursolic acid (UA) was examined in mouse F9 teratocarcinoma cells on the bases of biochemical and morphological characteeristics. UA, pentacyclic trierpene acid, exhibits antitumor activities including inhibition of skin tumorigenesis, induction of tumor cell differentiation and antitumor promotion. Treatment with UA showed that the decrease of cell viability was dose-dependent. UA also induced genomic DNA fragmetation, a hallmark of apoptosis, indicating that the mechanism of UA-induced F9 cell death was through apoptosis. When the morphology of the F9 cells was examined by electron microscopy, the cells treated with UA showed the charcteristic morphological features of apoptosis such as chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation. DNA fragmentations by UA were inhibired by cycloheximide, which suggest that de novo protein synthesis was required for DNA fragmentation by UA. Inaddition, the expression of c-jun was increased, but those of c-myc and laminin B1 were decreased during apoptosis induced by UA in F9 cells. These results suggest that UA causes an apoptosis in F9 cells. Further, the increased expression of c-jun may be involved in the UA-induced apoptosis of f9 cells.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.358-367
• /
• 2008

The embryonic germ cell (EGCs) of mice is a kind of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated from pre- and post-migratory primordial germ cells (PGCs). Most previous studies on DNA methylation of EGCs were restricted to 12.5 days post coitum (dpc). This study was designed to establish and characterize murine EGC lines from migrated PGCs as late as 13.5 dpc and to estimate the degrees of methylation of their imprinted genes as well as of the non-imprinted locus, Oct4, using an accurate and quantitative method of measurement. We established five independent EGC lines from post migratory PGCs of 11.5-13.5 dpc from C57BL/6 ${\times}$ DBA/2 F1 hybrid mouse fetuses. All the EGCs exhibited the typical features of pluripotent cells including hypomethylation of the Oct4 regulatory region. We examined the methylation status of three imprinted genes; Igf2, Igf2r and H19 in the five EGC lines using bisulfite genomic sequencing analysis. Igf2r was almost unmethylated in all the EGC lines irrespective of the their sex and stage of isolation; Igf2 and H19 were more methylated than Igf2r, especially in male EGCs. Moreover, EGCs derived at 13.5 dpc exhibited higher levels of DNA methylation than those from earlier stages. These results suggest that in vitro derived EGCs acquire different epigenotypes from their parental in vivo migratory PGCs, and that sex-specific de novo methylation occurs in the Igf2 and H19 genes of EGCs.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.44-48
• /
• 2015

Townes-Brocks syndrome (TBS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the classic triad of congenital anomalies of the anus, thumbs, and ears, with variable expressivity. Additionally, renal malformations, cardiac anomalies, and endocrine and eye abnormalities can accompany TBS, although less frequently. TBS is inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion; however, about 50% of patients have a family history of TBS and the remaining 50% have de novo mutations. SALL1, located on chromosome 16q12.1, is the only causative gene of TBS. SALL1 acts as a transcription factor and may play an important role in inducing the anomalies during embryogenesis. Clinical features of TBS overlap with those of other multiple anomaly syndromes, such as VACTERL syndrome, Baller-Gerold syndrome, Goldenhar syndrome, cat eye syndrome, and Holt-Oram syndrome. Consequently, there are some difficulties in differential diagnosis based on clinical manifestations. Herein, we report a Korean family with two generations of TBS that was diagnosed based on physical examination findings and medical history. Although the same mutation in SALL1 was identified in both the mother and the son, they displayed different clinical manifestations, suggesting a phenotypic diversity of TBS.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.63 no.3
• /
• pp.189-195
• /
• 2020

The soybean (Glycine max L.), also known as the soya bean, is an economically important legume species. Pathogens are always major threats for soybean cultivation. Several pathogens negatively affect soybean production. The soybean is also known as a susceptible host to many viruses. Recently, we carried out systematic analyses to identify viruses infecting soybeans using soybean transcriptome data. Our screening results showed that only few soybean transcriptomes contained virus-associated sequences. In this study, we further carried out bioinformatics analyses using a soybean flower bud transcriptome for virus identification, genome assembly, and single nucleotide variations (SNVs). We assembled the genome of Soybean yellow common mosaic virus (SYCMV) isolate China and revealed two SNVs. Phylogenetic analyses using three viral proteins suggested that SYCMV isolate China is closely related to SYCMV isolates from South Korea. Furthermore, we found that replication and mutation of SYCMV is relatively low, which might be associated with flower bud tissue. The most interesting finding was that SYCMV was not detected in the cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) line derived from the non-CMS line that was severely infected by SYCMV. In summary, in silico analyses identified SYCMV from the soybean flower bud transcriptome, and a nearly complete genome of SYCMV was successfully assembled. Our results suggest that the low level of virus replication and mutation for SYCMV might be associated with plant tissues. Moreover, we provide the first evidence that male sterility might be used to eliminate viruses in crop plants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.27 no.7
• /
• pp.1345-1358
• /
• 2017

The impact of overproduction of a heterologous protein on the metabolic system of host Lactococcus lactis was investigated. The protein expression profiles of L. lactis IL1403 containing two near-identical plasmids that expressed high- and low-level of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) were examined via shotgun proteomics. Analysis of the two strains via high-throughput LC-MS/MS proteomics identified the expression of 294 proteins. The relative amount of each protein in the proteome of both strains was determined by label-free quantification using the spectral counting method. Although expression level of most proteins were similar, several significant alterations in metabolic network were identified in the high GFP-producing strain. These changes include alterations in the pyruvate fermentation pathway, oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, and de novo synthesis pathway for pyrimidine RNA. Expression of enzymes for the synthesis of dTDP-rhamnose and N-acetylglucosamine from glucose was suppressed in the high GFP strain. In addition, enzymes involved in the amino acid synthesis or interconversion pathway were downregulated. The most noticeable changes in the high GFP-producing strain were a 3.4-fold increase in the expression of stress response and chaperone proteins and increase of caseinolytic peptidase family proteins. Characterization of these host expression changes witnessed during overexpression of GFP was might suggested the metabolic requirements and networks that may limit protein expression, and will aid in the future development of lactococcal hosts to produce more heterologous protein.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.669-676
• /
• 1999

The effects of wounding and jasmonic acid(JA) on polyphenol oxidase(PPO) in tomato(Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) seedlings were investigated. PPO was strongly induced by wounding or JA, and the response was also shown to be systemically induced by wounding. Mechanical wounding in cotyledon or leaf produced a signal that caused the concentration of PPO to increase in the unwounded cotyledon, in the first leaves but not in the second leaves. Severity of wounding and light intensity also affected wound induced change in PPO activity, JA showed a stimulatory effect on the loss of chlorophyll and the rapid increase in PPO activity. The PPO was clearly more active in the wounded leaves than in controls. The potency and specificity of the JA indicate a close relationship between JA and wound-induced changes in PPO in tomato species. JA and abscisic acid(ABA) acted similarly on both unwounded and wounded leaves, but the amount of PPO in the wounded leaves was always more than the respective controls. The highest increase in PPO activity occurred in woundand JA-induced leaves of seedlings kept under bright lighting. Benzyladenine(BA) completely abolished JA- and ABA-induced PPO activity. The results suggest that JA-induced PPO activity is due to de novo PPO synthesis. Histochemical tests for PPO in stems of wound- and JA -treated tomato plants indicate that PPO was localized primarily, in the. outer .cortex . and xylem parenchyma. It is concluded that exogenously applied JA acts as stress agents and PPO may be a component of the inducible anti-hervivore defense response.