• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.88-93
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• 2001

Oxidative stress is one of the major limiting factor in plant productivity. Reactive oxygens species (ROS) generated during metabolic processes damage cellular functions and consequently lead to disease, senescence and cell death. Plants have evolved an efficient defense system by which the ROS is scavenged by antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). Attempts to reduce oxidative damages under the stress conditions have included the manipulation of 갠 scavenging enzymes by gene transfer technology. Increased SOD activities of transgenic plants lead to increased resistance against oxidative stresses derived from methyl viologen (MV), and from photooxidative damage caused by high light and low temperature. Transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing APX showed reduced damage following either MV treatment of photooxidative treatment. Overexpression of glutathion reductase (GR) leads to increase in pool of ascorbate and GSH, known as small antioxidant molecules. These results indicate through overexpression of enzymes involved in ROS-scavenging could maintain or improve the plant productivities under environment stress condition. In this study, the rational approaches to develop stress-tolerant plants by gene manipulation of antioxidant enzymes will be introduced to provide solutions for the global food and environmental problems in the $21^\textrm{st}$ century.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.758-764
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• 2019

${\beta}$-Glucan is a chief structural polymer in the cell wall of yeast. ${\beta}$-Glucan has attracted intensive attention because of its wide applications in health protection and cosmetic areas. In the present study, the ${\beta}$-glucan biosynthesis pathway in S. Cerevisiae was engineered to enhance ${\beta}$-glucan accumulation. A newly identified bacterial ${\beta}-1$, 6-glucan synthase GsmA from Mycoplasma agalactiae was expressed, and increased ${\beta}$-glucan content by 43%. In addition, other pathway enzymes were investigated to direct more metabolic flux towards the building of ${\beta}$-glucan chains. We found that overexpression of Pgm2 (phosphoglucomutase) and Rho1 (a GTPase for activating glucan synthesis) significantly increased ${\beta}$-glucan accumulation. After further optimization of culture conditions, the ${\beta}$-glucan content was increased by 53.1%. This study provides a new approach to enhance ${\beta}$-glucan biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.168-168
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• 2017

Drought conditions during cultivation reduce agricultural production yield less than a theoretical maximum yield under normal condition. Plant specific NAC transcription factors in rice are known to play an essential roles in stress resistance transcriptional regulation. In this study, we report the rice (Oryza sativa L japonica) NAM, AFTF and CUC transcription factor OsNAC17, which is predominantly induced by abiotic stress in leaf, was contribute to the drought tolerance mediated reactive oxygen species (ROS) in transgenic rice plants. Constitutive (PGD1) promoter was introduced to overexpress OsNAC17 and produced the transgenic PDG1:OsNAC17. Overexpression of OsNAC17 throughout the whole plant improved drought resistance phenotype at the vegetative stage. Morphological characteristics such as grain yield, grain filling rate, and total grain weight improved by 22~64% over wild type plants under drought conditions during the reproductive stage. The improved drought tolerance in transgenic rice was involved in reducing stomatal density up to 15% than in wild type plants and in increasing reactive oxygen species-scavenging enzyme. DEG profiling experiment identified 119 up-regulated genes by more than twofold (P<0.01). These genes included UDP-glycosyltransferase family protein, similar to 2-alkenal reductase (NADPH-dependent oxireductase), similar to retinol dehydrogenase 12, Lipoxygenase, and NB-ARC domain containing protein related in cell death. Furthermore, OsNAC17 was act as a transcriptional activator, which has an activation domain in C-terminal region. These result demonstrate that the overexpression of OsNAC17 improve drought tolerance by regulating ROS scavenging enzymes and by reducing stomatal density

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5883-5890
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• 2013

Previously, we demonstrated overexpression of semaphorin4D (SEMA4D, CD100) to be closely related to tumor angiogenesis in epithelial ovarian cancers (EOCs). However, the function and expression of SEMA4D in the EOC microenvironment has yet to be clarified in detail. In this study, we confirmed that overexpression of SEMA4D in primary tumors and ascites was related to low differentiation, platinum resistance and a refractory status (P<0.05), while high M2 macrophage count and percentage were evident in EOC patients with advanced FIGO stage and platinum resistance (P<0.05), using immunohistochemistry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), respectively. The data showed correlations of SEMA4D expression and M2 macrophage counts in primary tumors and M2 macrophage percentage in ascites (r=0.281 and 0.355, each P<0.05). In the Cox proportional hazard mode, SEMA4D expression was an independent indicator of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) for EOC patients. Furthermore, higher expression of SEMA4D in ovarian cancer cell lines (SKOV3, A2780, and SW626) and their supernatants were found than that in a human primary cultured ovarian cell and its supernatant by reversed transcript PCR (RT-PCR), Western blotting and ELISA, respectively. Interestingly, peripheral blood monocytes (MOs) tended towards the M2-polarized macrophage phenotype ($CD163^{high}$) in vitro after human recombined soluble SEMA4D protein stimulation. These findings suggest that SEMA4D might possibly serve as a reliable tool for early and accurate prediction of EOC poor prognosis and could playan important role in promoting tumor dissemination and metastasis in the EOC microenvironment. Thus SEMA4D and its role in macrophage polarization in EOC warrants further study.

• BMB Reports
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.566-571
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• 2019

Lymphoma is one of the most curable types of cancer. However, drug resistance is the main challenge faced in lymphoma treatment. Peroxisomal acyl-CoA oxidase 1 (ACOX1) is the rate-limiting enzyme in fatty acid ${\beta}$-oxidation. Deregulation of ACOX1 has been linked to peroxisomal disorders and carcinogenesis in the liver. Currently, there is no information about the function of ACOX1 in lymphoma. In this study, we found that upregulation of ACOX1 promoted proliferation in lymphoma cells, while downregulation of ACOX1 inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis. Additionally, overexpression of ACOX1 increased resistance to doxorubicin, while suppression of ACOX1 expression markedly potentiated doxorubicin-induced apoptosis. Interestingly, downregulation of ACOX1 promoted mitochondrial location of Bad, reduced mitochondrial membrane potential and provoked apoptosis by activating caspase-9 and caspase-3 related apoptotic pathway. Overexpression of ACOX1 alleviated doxorubicin-induced activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3 and decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential. Importantly, downregulation of ACOX1 increased p73, but not p53, expression. p73 expression was critical for apoptosis induction induced by ACOX1 downregulation. Also, overexpression of ACOX1 significantly reduced stability of p73 protein thereby reducing p73 expression. Thus, our study indicated that suppression of ACOX1 could be a novel and effective approach for treatment of lymphoma.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2022

Objective: This study was performed to examine whether the porcine glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase 1 (GOT1) gene has important functions in regulating adipocyte differentiation. Methods: Porcine GOT1 knockout and overexpression vectors were constructed and transfected into the mouse adipogenic 3T3-L1 cells. Lipid droplets levels were measured after 8 days of differentiation. The mechanisms through which GOT1 participated in lipid deposition were examined by measuring the expression of malate dehydrogenase 1 (MDH1) and malic enzyme (ME1) and the cellular nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) content. Results: GOT1 knockout significantly decreased lipid deposition in the 3T3-L1 cells (p<0.01), whereas GOT1 overexpression significantly increased lipid accumulation (p<0.01). At the same time, GOT1 knockout significantly decreased the NADPH content and the expression of MDH1 and ME1 in the 3T3-L1 cells. Overexpression of GOT1 significantly increased the NADPH content and the expression of MDH1 and ME1, suggesting that GOT1 regulated adipocyte differentiation by altering the NADPH content. Conclusion: The results preliminarily revealed the effector mechanisms of GOT1 in regulating adipose differentiation. Thus, a theoretical basis is provided for improving the quality of pork and studies on diseases associated with lipid metabolism.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2013

FPS (farnesyl diphosphate synthase) plays an essential role in organ development in plants. However, FPS has not previously been identified as a key regulatory enzyme in triterpene biosynthesis. In order to investigate the effect of FPS on ginsenosides biosynthesis, we over-expressed FPS of Centella asiatica (CaFPS) in Panax giseng adventitious roots. PCR analysis showed the integrations of the CaFPS and hygromycin phosphotransferase genes and we ultimately selected three lines. The result of Southern blot analysis demonstrated the introduction of the CaFPS gene into genome of ginseng. In addition, the results of RT-PCR analysis revealed that CaFPS gene overexpression induced an accumulation of its transcription in the ginseng adventitious roots. To determine whether or not the overexpression of the CaFPS gene contributes to the downstream gene expression associated with triterpene biosynthesis, the level of mRNAs was analyzed by real-time PCR. The result showed that no differences were detected in any expression of all genes. To determine quantitatively the content of ginsenosides in transgenic ginseng adventitious roots, HPLC analysis was conducted. The content of total 7 ginsenosides was increased to 1.8, 1.4, and 1.7 times than that of the controls, respectively. This indicated that the overexpression of CaFPS in ginseng adventitious roots causes an increase in ginsenoside content, although down stream genes of FPS gene were suppressed by CaFPS overexpression.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.331-338
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• 2012

A novel gene coding for an endo-${\beta}$-1,4-mannanase (manA) from Bacillus subtilis strain G1 was cloned and overexpressed in P. pastoris GS115, and the enzyme was purified and characterized. The manA gene consisted of an open reading frame of 1,092 nucleotides, encoding a 364-aa protein, with a predicted molecular mass of 41 kDa. The ${\beta}$-mannanase showed an identity of 90.2-92.9% ${\leq}95%$) with the corresponding amino acid sequences from B. subtilis strains deposited in GenBank. The purified ${\beta}$-mannanase was a monomeric protein on SDS-PAGE with a specific activity of 2,718 U/mg and identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The recombinant ${\beta}$-mannanase had an optimum temperature of $45^{\circ}C$ and optimum pH of 6.5. The enzyme was stable at temperatures up to $50^{\circ}C$ (for 8 h) and in the pH range of 5-9. EDTA and most tested metal ions showed a slightly to an obviously inhibitory effect on enzyme activity, whereas metal ions ($Hg^{2+}$, $Pb^{2+}$, and $Co^{2+}$) substantially inhibited the recombinant ${\beta}$-mannanase. The chemical additives including detergents (Triton X-100, Tween 20, and SDS) and organic solvents (methanol, ethanol, n-butanol, and acetone) decreased the enzyme activity, and especially no enzyme activity was observed by addition of SDS at the concentrations of 0.25-1.0% (w/v) or n-butanol at the concentrations of 20-30% (v/v). These results suggested that the ${\beta}$-mannanase expressed in P. pastoris could potentially be used as an additive in the feed for monogastric animals.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1705-1713
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• 2012

A gene encoding ${\beta}$-glucosidase was cloned from Weissella cibaria 37, an isolate from human feces. Sequence analysis showed that the gene could encode a protein of 415 amino acids in length, and the translated amino acid sequence showed homology (34-31%) with glycosyl hydrolase family 1 ${\beta}$-glucosidases. The gene was overexpressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) using pET26b(+) and a 50 kDa protein was overproduced, which matched well with the calculated size of the enzyme, 49,950.87 Da. Recombinant ${\beta}$-glucosidase was purified by using a his-tag affinity column. The purified ${\beta}$-glucosidase had an optimum pH and a temperature of 5.5 and $45^{\circ}C$, respectively. Among the metal ions (5mM concentration), $Ca^{2+}$ slightly increased the activity (108.2%) whereas $Cu^{2+}$ (46.1%) and $Zn^{2+}$ (56.7%) reduced the activity. Among the enzyme inhibitors (1 mM concentration), SDS was the strongest inhibitor (16.9%), followed by pepstatin A (45.2%). The $K_m$ and $V_{max}$ values of purified enzyme were 4.04 mM and 0.92 ${\mu}mol/min$, respectively, when assayed using pNPG (p-nitrophenyl-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranoside) as the substrate. The enzyme liberated reducing sugars from carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1660-1669
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• 2015

The present study describes the gene cloning, overexpression and characterization of a novel nitrilase from hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima MSB8. The nitrilase gene consisted of 804 base pairs, encoding a protein of 268 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of 30.07 kDa after SDS-PAGE analysis. The optimal temperature and pH of the purified enzyme were 45℃ and 7.5, respectively. The enzyme demonstrated good temperature tolerance, with 40% residual activity after 60 min of heat treatment at 75℃. The kinetic constants V_max and K_m of this nitrilase toward 3-cyanopyridine were 3.12 μmol/min/mg and 7.63 mM, respectively. Furthermore, this novel nitrilase exhibited a broad spectrum toward the hydrolysis of the aliphatic nitriles among the tested substrates, and particularly was specific to aliphatic dinitriles like succinonitrile, which was distinguished from most nitrilases ever reported. The catalytic efficiency k_cat/K_m was 0.44 /mM/s toward succinonitrile. This distinct characteristic might enable this nitrilase to be a potential candidate for industrial applications for biosynthesis of carboxylic acid.