• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.552-560
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• 2009

Cyclooxygenases (COX-1 and COX-2) are ER-resident proteins that catalyze the committed step in prostanoid synthesis. COX-1 is constitutively expressed in many mammalian cells, whereas COX-2 is usually expressed inducibly and transiently. Abnormal expression of COX-2 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammation and various cancers; therefore, it is subject to tight and complex regulation. Differences in regulation of the COX enzymes at the posttranscriptional and posttranslational levels also contribute significantly to their distinct patterns of expression. Rapid degradation of COX-2 mRNA has been attributed to AU-rich elements (AREs) at its 3’UTR. Recently, microRNAs that can selectively repress COX-2 protein synthesis have been identified. The mature forms of these COX proteins are very similar in structure except that COX-2 has a unique 19-amino acid (19-aa) segment located near the C-terminus. This C-terminal 19-aa cassette plays an important role in mediation of the entry of COX-2 into the ER-associated degradation (ERAD) system, which transports ER proteins to the cytoplasm for degradation by the 26S proteasome. A second pathway for COX-2 protein degradation is initiated after the enzyme undergoes suicide inactivation following cyclooxygenase catalysis. Here, we discuss these molecular determinants of COX-2 expression in detail.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.616-622
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• 2011

This study evaluated the fermentation characteristics and protein degradation dynamics of wet green tea grounds (WGTG) silage. The WGTG was ensiled with distilled water (control), or lactic acid bacteria (LAB), enzyme (E), formic acid (FA) and formaldehyde (FD) prior to ensiling. Three bag silos for each treatment were randomly opened at 0, 3, 7, 14, 28 and 60 days after anaerobic storage. For all the treatments, except for FA, there was a rapid decline in pH during the first 7 days of ensiling. LAB treatment had higher lactic acid content, lower ammonia-N ($NH_3$-N) and free-amino nitrogen (FAA-N) contents than other treatments (p<0.05). E treatment had higher lactic acid, water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and non-protein nitrogen (NPN) content than the control (p<0.05). FA treatment had higher $NH_3$-N and FAA-N content than the control (p<0.05). FD treatment had lower NPN and FAA-N content than the control, but it did not significantly inhibit the protein degradation when compared to LAB treatment (p>0.05). Results indicate that LAB treatment had the best effect on the fermentation characteristics and protein degradation of WGTG silage.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.425-431
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• 1996

The enzymatic characteristics of Alcaligenes latus were investigated by measuring the variations of various enzyme activities related to biosynthesis and degradation of poly-${\beta}$-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) during cultivation. All PHB biosynthetic enzymes, ${\beta}$-ketothiolase, acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, and PHB synthase, were activated gradually at the PHB accumulation stage, and the PHB synthase showed the highest value among three enzymes. This indicates that the rate of PHB biosynthesis is mainly controlled by either ${\beta}$-ketothiolase or acetoacetyl-CoA reductase rather than PHB synthase. The enzymatic activities related to the degradation of PHB were also measured, and the degradation of PHB was controlled by the activity of PHB depolymerase. The effect of supplements of metabolic regulators, citrate and tyrosine, was also investigated, and the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase was increased by metabolic regulators, especially by tyrosine. The activities of ${\beta}$-ketothiolase and acetoacetyl-CoA reductase were also activated by citrate and tyrosine, while the activity of PHB depolymerase was depressed. The increased rate and yield of PHB biosynthesis by metabolic regulators may be due to the increment of acetyl-CoA concentration either by the repression of the TCA cycle by citrate through product inhibition or by the activation of sucrose metabolism by the supplemented tyrosine.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.34-38
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• 1997

Recombinant human epidermal growth factor (rhEGF), a polypeptide of 53 amino acid residues, is subject to degradation by numerous enzymes, especially proteases, when it is applied on the skin for the treatment of open wound. Amastatin, aprotinin, bestatin, EDTA, EGTA, gabexate, gentamicin, leupeptin, and TPCK were investigated for the possible protease inhibitors, which may use to protect rhEGF from degradation by the enzymes in the skin. Skin homogenates containing protease inhibitors and rhEGF were incubated at $37^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes. After the reaction was stopped with trifluoroacetic acid, the amount of rhEGF remaining in the sample was determined with an HPLC method. The percentages of rhEGF degraded, at the skin/PBS ratio of 0.25, in the mouse, rat, and human skin homogenate were 85%, 70%, and 46%, respectively. The degree of degradation of rhEGF in the cytosolic fraction was higher than that in the membrane fraction and these enzyme reactions were completed in 30 minutes. Bestatin, EGTA, and TPCK showed significant inhibitory effects on the degradation of rhEGF in the two fractions (p<0.05), while the other protease inhibitors had no significant inhibitory effects or, even resulted in deleterious effects. Therefore, the formulation containing one or several inhibitors among these effective inhibitors would be a promising topical preparation of rhEGF for the treatment of open wound.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.255-262
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• 1995

Intact cells of Acinetobacter sp. T5-7 completely degraded trichloroethylene (TCE) following growth with phenol. This strain could grow on at least eleven aromatic compounds, e.g., benzaldehyde, benzene, benzoate, benzylalochol, catechol, caffeic acid, 2.4-D, p-hydroxybenzoate, phenol, protocatechuate and salicylate, and did grow on alkane, such as octane. But except phenol, other aromatic compounds did not induced TCE degradation. Phenol biotransformation products, catechol was identified in the culture media. However, catechol-induced cells did not degrade TCE. So we assumed that phenol hydroxylase was responsible for the degradation of TCE. The isolate T5-7 showed growth in MM2 medium containing sodium lactate and catechol rather than phenol, but did not display phenol hydroxyalse activity, suggesting induction of enzyme synthesis by phenol. Phenol hydroxylase activity was independent of added NADH and flavin adenine dinucleotide but was dependent on NADPH addition. Degradation of phenol produced catechols which are then cleaved by meta-fission. We identified catechol-2.3-dioxygenase by active staining of polyacrylamide gel.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.5-14
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• 2005

Recently, data from several groups have raised the concept of 'checkpoint' in transcription. As capping of nascent RNA transcript is tightly coupled to RNA polymerase II transcription, we seek to obtain direct evidence that transcripiton checkpoint via capping enzyme functions in this early regulatory step. One of temperature sensitive (ts) alleles of ceg1, a guanylyltransferase subunit of the Saccharomyces cerevisiaecapping enzyme, showed 6-azauracil (6AU) sensitivity at the permissive growth temperature, which is a phenotype that is correlated with a transcription elongational defect. This ts allele, ceg1-63 also has an impaired ability to induce PUR5 in response to a 6AU treatment. However, this cellular and molecular defect is not due to the preferential degradation of the transcript attributed from a lack of guanylyltransferase activity. On the contrary, the data suggests that the guanylyltransferase subunit of the capping enzyme plays a role in transcription elongation. First, in addition to the 6AU sensitivity, ceg1-63is synthetically lethal with elongation defective mutations of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II. Secondly, it exhibited a lower GAL1 mRNA turn-over after glucoseshut off. Third, it decreased the transcription read through a tandem array of promoter proximal pause sites in an orientation dependent manner. Interestingly, this mutant also showed lower pass through a pause site located further downstream of the promoter. Taken together, these results suggest that the capping enzyme plays the role of an early transcription checkpoint possibly in the step of the reversion of repression by stimulating polymerase to escape from the promoter proximal arrest once RNA becomes appropriately capped.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.236-244
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• 2014

The gene encoding ${\alpha}-\small{L}$-arabinofuranosidase (AFase) from Paenibacillus sp. DG-22 was cloned, sequenced, and expressed in Escherichia coli. The AFase gene (abfA) comprises a 1,509 bp open reading frame encoding 502 amino acids with a molecular mass of 56,520 daltons. The deduced amino acid sequence of the gene shows that AbfA is an enzyme consisting of only a catalytic domain, and that the enzyme has significant similarity to AFases classified into the family 51 of the glycosyl hydrolases. abfA was subcloned into the pQE60 expression vector to fuse it with a six-histidine tag and the recombinant AFase (rAbfA) was purified to homogeneity. The specific activity of the recombinant enzyme was 96.7 U/mg protein. Determination of the apparent molecular mass by gel-filtration chromatography indicated that AbfA has a tetrameric structure. The optimal pH and temperature of the enzyme were 6.0 and $60^{\circ}C$, respectively. The enzyme activity was completely inhibited by 1 mM $HgCl_2$. rAbfA was active only towards p-nitrophephenyl ${\alpha}-\small{L}$-arabinofuranoside and exhibited $K_m$ and $V_{max}$ values of 3.5 mM and 306.1 U/mg, respectively. rAbfA showed a synergistic effect in combination with endoxylanase on the degradation of oat spelt xylan and wheat arabinoxylan.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.363-372
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• 2019

Animal glue has been used as a binder in Dancheong since the Joseon dynasty. Binders play an important role in determining the physical characteristics of a painting layer. The analysis of binders can be used to identify the materials and techniques used in traditional Dancheong. Binders can be investigated using physicochemical component analyses methods such as gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, but the detection characteristics vary depending on the degradation properties of the pigment and binder. Therefore, cross-validation using a combination of physicochemical analysis and enzyme immunoassay is used to increase the reliability of the results. In this study, we present an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as an example of an enzyme immunoassay as a method for analyzing animal glue, a traditional binder used in Korea. The applicability of ELISA was tested using commercial animal glue, in addition to animal glue produced using a variety of extraction conditions. The animal glue was analyzed in a Noerok-additionally coated-replica sample to evaluate the possibility of analyzing the animal glue in a paint layer mixed with pigment. Based on the results, we performed an assay on the use of animal glue in the Dancheong sample of the temples of the Joseon dynasty, that are estimated to have been built in the 17^th century.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1157-1162
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• 2017

The goal of this study was to identify and characterize selected Trichoderma isolates by metabolic profiling and enzyme assay for evaluation of their potential as biocontrol agents against plant pathogens. Trichoderma isolates were obtained from the Rural Development Administration Genebank Information Center (Wanju, Republic of Korea). Eleven Trichoderma isolates were re-identified using ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. ITS sequence results showed new identification of Trichoderma isolates. In addition, metabolic profiling of the ethyl acetate extracts of the liquid cultures of five Trichoderma isolates that showed the best anti-Phytophthora activities was conducted using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Metabolic profiling revealed that Trichoderma isolates shared common metabolites with well-known antifungal activities. Enzyme assays indicated strong cell wall-degrading enzyme activities of Trichoderma isolates. Overall, our results indicated that the selected Trichoderma isolates have great potential for use as biocontrol agents against plant pathogens.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.360-367
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• 1990

The several glycoside hydrolysing enzymes related to rutin degradation are found to be rhamnosidase, glucosidase and rutinosidase. Rutinosidase was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity from cell extracts of rutin-degrading strain, MT-57, which was identified as a Arthrobacter sp. Its molecular weight was estimated to be 42, 000 by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and 40, 000 by gel filtration. The optimum pH for enzyme was found to be 7.5, and relatively stable in alkaline solution. The optimum temperature for enzyme was $45^{\circ}C$, being stable up to $50^{\circ}C$ for 20 min. The Bm value of enzyme for rutin was 0.5 $\mu \textrm m$. The enzyme activity was increased by the chelating agent such as EDTA, $NaN_3$, and 8-hydroxyquinoline, was strongly inhibited by $CO_{2+}, Ni^{2+}$, and $Cu^{2+}$. The enzyme had high substrate specificity in the rutinoside.