• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.719-723
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• 2014

Caspases are a family of cysteine proteases that play an important role in the apoptotic pathway. Caspase-6 is an apoptosis effector that cleaves a variety of cellular substrates. The active form of the enzyme is required for use in research. However, it has been difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of active caspase-6 from Escherichia coli. In the present study, we constructed a caspase-6 with a 23-amino-acid deletion in the pro-domain. This engineered enzyme was expressed as a soluble protein in E. coli and was purified using affinity resin. In vitro enzyme assay and cleavage analysis revealed that the engineered active caspase-6 protein had characteristics similar to those of wild-type caspase-6. This novel method can be a valuable tool for obtaining active caspase-6 that can be used for screening caspase-6-specific substrates, which in turn can be used to elucidate the function of caspase-6 in apoptosis.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.87-92
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• 2006

Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD) recruits and activates procaspase-8 through interactions between the death effector domains of these two proteins. Cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (c-FLIP) was identified as a molecule with sequence homology to caspase-8. It has been postulated that c-FLIP prevents formation of the competent death-inducing signaling complex in a ligand-dependent manner, through its interaction with FADD and/or caspase-8. However, the interaction of FADD and $c-FLIP_s$ (short form) in apoptosis signaling has been controversially discussed. We show the purification and the characterization of human full-length FADD and $c-FLIP_s$ expressed in Escherichia coli. The purified FADD and $c-FLIP_s$ are shown as homogeneity, respectively, in SDS-PAGE analysis and light-scattering measurements. The folding properties of the $\alpha$-helical structure of FADD and the super-secondary structure of $c-FLIP_s$ proteins were characterized by circular dichroism spectroscopy. Furthermore, we report here a series of biochemical and biophysical data for FADD-$c-FLIP_s$ binding in vitro. The binding of both FADD and $c-FLIP_s$ proteins was detected by BIAcore biosensor, fluorescence measurement, and size-exclusion column (SEC).

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.10-17
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• 2020

Kinesin-1 is microtubule-dependent plus-end direct molecular motor protein essential for intracellular transport. It is a member of the kinesin superfamily proteins (KIFs) which transport cargo, including organelles, vesicles, neurotransmitter receptors, cell-signaling molecules, and protein complexes through interaction between its light chain subunit and the cargo. Kinesin light chain 1 (KLC1) is a non-motor subunit that associates with the kinesin heavy chain (KHC). Although KLC1 interacts with many different adaptor proteins and scaffolding proteins, its binding proteins have not yet been fully identified. We used the yeast two-hybrid assay to identify proteins that interact with the tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domain of KLC1, and found an interaction between KLC1 and EH domain-binding protein 1 like 1 (EHBP1L1). EHBP1L1 bound to the region containing all six TPR repeats of KLC1 and did not interact with KIF5B (a motor protein of kinesin 1) or KIF3A (a motor protein of kinesin 2) in the yeast two-hybrid assay. The carboxyl-terminus of the coiled-coil domain of EHBP1L1 is essential for interaction with KLC1. However, another EHBP1L1 isoform, EHBP1, did not interact with KLC1 in the yeast two-hybrid assay. KLC1 interacted with GST-EHBP1L1 and its coiled-coil domain but not with GST only. When co-expressed in HEK-293T cells, EHBP1L1 co-localized with KLC1 and co-immunoprecipitated with KLC1 and KIF5B but not KIF3A. These results suggest that kinesin 1 motor protein may transport EHBP1L1-associated cargo in cells.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.282-288
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• 2016

Protein-protein interactions regulate the subcellular localization and function of receptors, enzymes, and cytoskeletal proteins. Proteins containing the postsynaptic density-95/disks large/zonula occludens-1 (PDZ) domain have potential to act as scaffolding proteins and play a pivotal role in various processes, such as synaptic plasticity, neural guidance, and development, as well as in the pathophysiology of many diseases. Multi-PDZ domain protein 1 (MUPP1), which has 13 PDZ domains, has a scaffolding function in the clustering of surface receptors, organization of signaling complexes, and coordination of cytoskeletal dynamics. However, the cellular function of MUPP1 has not been fully elucidated. In the present study, a yeast two-hybrid system was used to identify proteins that interacted with the N-terminal PDZ domain of MUPP1. The results revealed an interaction between MUPP1 and Wdpcp (formerly known as Fritz). Wdpcp was identified as a planar cell polarity (PCP) effector, which is known to have a role in collective cell migration and cilia formation. Wdpcp bound to the PDZ1 domain but not to other PDZ domains of MUPP1. The C-terminal end of Wdpcp was essential for the interaction with MUPP1 in the yeast two-hybrid assay. This interaction was further confirmed in a glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assay. When coexpressed in HEK-293T cells, Wdpcp was coimmunoprecipitated with MUPP1. In addition, MUPP1 colocalized with Wdpcp at the same subcellular region in cells. Collectively, these results suggest that the MUPP1-Wdpcp interaction could modulate actin cytoskeleton dynamics and polarized cell migration.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1992.10b
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• pp.599-606
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• 1992

A manipulator system that needs significantly large workspace volume and high payload capacity has greater link flexibility than typical industrial robots and teleoperators. If link flexibility is significant, position control of the manipulator's end-effector exhibits the nonminimum phase, noncollocated, and flexible structure system control problems. This paper addresses inverse dynamic trajectory planning issues of a flexible manipulator. The inverse dynamic equation of a flexible manipulator was solved in the time domain. By dividing the inverse system equation into the causal part and the anticausal part, the inverse dynamic method calculates the feedforward torque and the trajectories of all state variables that do not excite structural vibrations for a given end-point trajectory. Through simulation and experiment with a single-Unk flexible manipulator, the effectiveness of the inverse dynamic method has been demonstrated.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.165-170
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• 2008

Procaspase-8 is activated by forming a death-inducing signaling complex (DISC) with the Fas-associated death domain (FADD) and the Fas receptor, but the mechanism of its activation is not well understood. Procaspase-8 devoid of the death effector domain at its N-terminus (${\Delta}nprocaspase-8$) was reported to be activated by kosmotropic salts, but it has not been induced to form a DISC in vitro because it cannot interact with FADD. Here, we report the production of full-length procaspase-8 and show that it is activated by adding the Fas death domain (Fas-DD) and the FADD forming the cytoplasmic part of the DISC (cDISC). Furthermore, mutations known to affect DISC formation in vivo were shown to have the same effect on procaspase-8 activation in vitro. An antibody that induces Fas-DD association enhanced procaspase-8 activation, suggesting that the Fas ligand is not required for low-level activation of procaspase-8, but that Fas receptor clustering is needed for high-level activation of procaspase-8 leading to cell death. In vitro activation of procaspase-8 by forming a cDISC will be invaluable for investigating activation of ligand-mediated apoptosis and the numerous interactions affecting procaspase-8 activation.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.163-169
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• 2017

$SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$, a tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase, is a positive regulator of Pto-mediated effector-triggered immunity, which elicits programmed cell death (PCD) in plants. In this study, we examined whether putative phosphorylation sites in the conserved activation segment of the $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ kinase domain are critical for eliciting PCD. Three amino acids, $threonine^{353}$, $serine^{360}$ ($Ser^{360}$), or $serine^{364}$ ($Ser^{364}$), in the conserved activation segment of $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ kinase domain were substituted to alanine (T353A, S360A, or S364A), and these variants were transiently expressed in tomato and Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Two alanine substitutions, S360A and S364A, completely abolished $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ PCD-eliciting activity in both plants, while T353A substitution did not affect its PCD-eliciting activity. $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ wild type and variant proteins accumulated to similar levels in plant leaves. However, $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ protein with the largest size was missed when either S360A or S364A substitutions were expressed, whereas proteins with the smaller masses were more accumulated than those of full-length of $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ and T353A. These results suggest that phosphorylation of $SIMAPKKK{\alpha}$ at $Ser^{360}$ and $Ser^{364}$ is critical for PCD elicitation in plants.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.256-262
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• 1999

Latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an integral membrane protein with six transmembrane domains, which is essential for EBV-induced B cell transformation. LMP1 functions as a constitutively active tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) like membrane receptor, whose signaling requires recruitment of TNFR-associated factors (TRAFs) and leads to NF-${\kappa}B$ activation. NF-${\kappa}B$ activation by LMP1 is critical for B cell transformation and has been linked to many phenotypic changes associated with EBV-induced B cell transformation. Deletion analysis has identified two NF-${\kappa}B$ activation regions in the carboxy terminal cytoplasmic domains of LMP1, termed CTAR1 (residues 194-232) and CTAR2 (351-386). The membrane proximal C-terminal domain was precisely mapped to a PXQXT motif (residues 204-208) involved in TRAF binding as well as NF-${\kappa}B$ activation. In this study, we dissected the CTAR2 region, which is the major NF-${\kappa}B$ signaling effector of LMP1, to determine a minimal functional sequence. A series of LMP1 mutant constructs systematically deleted for the CTAR2 region were prepared, and NF-${\kappa}B$ activation activity of these mutants were assessed by transiently expressing them in 293 cells and Jurkat T cells. The NF-${\kappa}B$ activation domain of CTAR2 appears to reside in a stretch of 6 amino acids (residues 379-384) at the end of the carboxy terminus.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.347-354
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• 2013

Innate immunity is the ability to differentiate infectious agents from self. The innate immune system is comprised of a complicated network of recognition and effector molecules that act together to protect the host in the early stage of an infectious challenge. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL or mannose-binding protein, MBP) belongs to the family of $Ca^{2+}$-dependent lectins (C-type lectin with a collagen-like domain), which are considered an important component of innate immunity. While it is associated with increased risk and severity of infections and autoimmunity, the most frequent immuno-deficiency syndrome was reported to be low MBL level in blood. Deficiency of human MBL is caused by mutations in the coding region of the MBL gene. Rat homologue gene of human MBL gene was used to study functions of wild type and mutant MBL proteins. Although extensive studies have yielded the structural information of MBL, the functions of MBL, especially mutant MBL, still require investigation. We previously reported the cloning of rat wild-type MBL gene and the production of a truncated form of MBL protein and its antibody. Here, we present the cloning of mutant MBL cDNA in collagen-like domain (R40C, G42D, and G45E) using site-directed mutagenesis and differential behaviors of wild type and mutant MBL in cells. The major difference between wild type and mutant MBL was that while wild type MBL was secreted, mutant MBL was inhibited for secretion, retained in endoplasmic reticulum, and still functioned as a lectin.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.614-619
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• 2016

The prostate-apoptosis-response-gene-4 (Par-4) protein has been identified as an effector of cell death in response to various apoptotic stimuli in prostate cancer cells. We found that overexpression of Par-4 by stable transfection inhibits cell migration and invasion in Caki cells. The expression of various matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) has been implicated in the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. In this study, we investigated whether ectopic expression of Par-4 modulates MMP-2 expression and activity in human renal carcinoma Caki cells. We found that overexpression of Par-4 markedly inhibited MMP-2 activity, but not MMP-9 activity. However, loss of the leucine zipper domain of Par-4 (Par-4 ΔLZ#1 and #2) did not inhibit MMP-2 activity. Further, knock-down of Par-4 with the corresponding siRNA resulted in increased invasion and metastasis of renal carcinoma Caki cells. Interestingly, overexpression or knock-down of Par-4 did not affect the expression levels of MMP-2 mRNA. Taken together, our findings suggest that Par-4 may inhibit MMP-2 activity through its post-transcriptional regulation in renal carcinoma Caki cells.