• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.111-122
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• 2021

Recently, interleukin 34 (IL-34) was identified as the second functional ligand for macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor (M-CSFR). IL-34 functions similarly to M-CSF through its binding to the M-CSFR. There is still insufficient information on IL-34 in chickens, which has until now been reported only through predicted sequences and not through experimental research. Thus, to confirm its expression and to determine its potent biological activity, several chicken lines and cell lines were used. Cloning of recombinant chicken IL-34 and M-CSF genes was performed to investigate their modulatory effects on proinflammatory cytokine expression in vitro. The expression levels of IL-34, M-CSF, and M-CSFR genes were upregulated in broiler chickens with leg dysfunction (cause unknown). However, IL-34 was downregulated in most pathogen-stimulated tissues. M-CSFR expression was enhanced by recombinant IL-34 and M-CSF proteins in vitro. IFN-γ expression was enhanced by recombinant IL-34, but not by M-CSF. However, IL-12 expression was not regulated in any of the treated cells, and IL-1β was decreased in all tissues. These results indicate that IL-34 and M-CSF have roles in both the classical and alternative macrophage activation pathways. Collectively, our findings demonstrate the expression of IL-34 in chickens for pathogenic trials, both in vitro and in vivo. Our results suggest that the IL-34 protein plays a role in both pro- and anti-inflammatory functions in macrophages. Therefore, further research is needed to determine the cytokines or chemokines that can be induced by IL-34 and to further elucidate the functions of IL-34 in the inflammatory pathway.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.111-120
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• 2011

A bacterial artificial chromosome library of Pectobacterium carotovorum 35 was constructed to characterize the genome and to sequence its hrp region. The hrp cluster of P. carotovorum 35 consisted of 26 open reading frames in five operons. A promoter-based green fluorescent protein technology was used to identify the genes regulated by the alternative sigma factor, HrpL, in P. carotovorum 35. The majority of the selected clones contained the hrpJ operon promoter sequence, which harbors a hrp box, but no putative hrp boxes were detected within the promoter sequences of two other hrpL-regulated genes encoding for pectate lyase and large repetitive protein. Although the promoters of five other hrp operons also contained hrp boxes, their expression was not HrpL-dependent in the promoter-based selection in E. coli. However, transcriptional analysis showed that expression from all operons harboring hrp boxes, except for the hrpN operon, was reduced significantly in the hrpL mutant. The severity of soft-rot symptoms when the hrpL mutant was applied to the surface of tobacco leaves, mimicking natural infection, was greatly attenuated. These results indicate that the hrpL gene of P. carotovorum 35 may be involved in the development of soft-rot symptoms.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.213-218
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• 1986

Hybrid plasmid pEA24, shuttle vector YRp7 carrying amylase gene of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, was transformed to yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the expression of B. amyloliquefaciens amylase gene in yeast was investigated. The frequency of transformation to S. cerevisiae DBY747 with YRp7 was increased by treatment of 40% polyethylene glycol (MW 4, 000), PH 7.0, at 3$0^{\circ}C$, and by regeneration used 2% top agar. The amount of cellular amylase activity produced by S. cerevisiae containing pEA24 was 2% of that secreted from B. amyloliquefaciens, but in case of S. cerevisiae transformant, the amylase secreted was not detected. A comparison of genetic stability of pEA24 and YRp7 plasmids in yeast was carried out by cultivation of transformants in tryptophan-supplement-medium. The pEA24 plasmid was more unstable than YRp7 in S. cerevisiae. The size of pEA24 extracted from S. cerevisiae transformants was found to be identical with that from E. coli transformants by agarose gel electrophoresis.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.289-297
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• 2021

Bacillus velezensis CJ1, showing significant fibrinolytic activity, was isolated from Myeolchi Jeotgal, a popular Korean fermented seafood. When B. velezensis CJ1 was grown on four different culture media, the culture on the Luria-Bertani (LB) broth showed the highest fibrinolytic activity (102.94 mU/μl) at 48 h. LB was also the best medium for growth. SDS-PAGE of culture supernatant showed four major bands, 38, 35, 27, and 22 kDa in size. Fibrin zymography showed four active bands, 50, 47, 40, and 30 kDa in size. A gene homologous to aprE of the Bacillus species was cloned by PCR. DNA sequencing showed that aprECJ1 can encode a protease consisting of 382 amino acids. The translated amino acid sequence of AprECJ1 showed high identity values with those of B. velezensis strains and other Bacillus species. The aprECJ1 gene was introduced into B. subtilis WB600 using an E. coli-Bacillus shuttle vector, pHY300PLK, and overexpressed. A 27 kDa band corresponding to the mature form of AprECJ1 was produced and confirmed by SDS-PAGE and fibrin zymography. B. subtilis WB600 [pHYaprECJ1] showed 1.8-fold higher fibrinolytic activity than B. velezensis CJ1 at 48 h.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.292-301
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• 2010

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is a pituitary glycoprotein hormone that is encoded by separate alpha- and betasubunit genes. It plays a key role in stimulating and regulating ovarian follicular development and egg production in chicken. FSH signal transduction is mediated by the FSH receptor (FSHR) that exclusively interacts with the beta-subunit of FSH, but characterization of prokaryotic expression of the FSHb gene and its effect on the expression of the FSHR gene in local chickens have received very little attention. In the current study, the cDNA fragment of the FSHb gene from Dagu chicken was amplified using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and inserted into the pET-28a (+) vector to construct the pET-28a-FSHb plasmid. After expression of the plasmid in E. coli BL21 (DE3) under inducing conditions, the recombination protein, $FSH{\beta}$ subunit, was purified and injected into the experimental hens and the effect on the mRNA expression levels of the FSHR gene was investigated. Sequence comparison showed that the coding region of the FSHb gene in the local chicken shared 99%-100% homology to published nucleotides in chickens; only one synonymous nucleotide substitution was detected in the region. The encoded amino acids were completely identical with the reported sequence, which confirmed that the sequences of the chicken FSHb gene and the peptides of the $FSH{\beta}$ subunit are highly conserved. This may be due to the critical role of the normal function of the FSHb gene in hormonal specificity and regulation of reproduction. The results of gene expression revealed that a recombinant protein with a molecular weight of about 19 kDa was efficiently expressed and it was identified by Western blotting analysis. After administration of the purified $FSH{\beta}$ protein, significantly higher expression levels were demonstrated in uterus, ovary and oviduct samples (p<0.05). These observations suggested that the expressed $FSH{\beta}$ protein possesses biological activity, and has a potential role in regulation of reproductive physiology in chickens.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.247-253
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• 2003

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae causes a highly contagious pleuropneumoniae in swine. The bacterium produces several virulence factors such as exotoxin, LPS, capsular polysaccharide, etc. Among them, the exotoxin, called Apx, has been focused as the major virulence factor, and the toxin consists of 4 gene cluster. apx CABD. apxA is the structural gene of toxin and has four different types, I, II, III, and IV. As the first step of development of a new subunit vaccine, the three different types of apxA gene were amplified from A. pleuropneumoniae isolated from Korea by PCR with primer designed based on the N- and C-terminal of the toxin. The sizes of apxIA, IIA and IIIA were 3,073, 2,971 and 3,159bps, respectively. The comparison of whole DNA sequences of apxIA, IIA and IIIA genes with those of the reference strain demonstrated 98%, 99% and 98% homology, respectively. In addition, the phylogenetic analysis was performed based on the amino acid sequences compared with 12 different RTX toxin family using the neighbor-joining method. ApxA proteins of Korean isolates were identical with reference strains in this study. All ApxA proteins were expressed in E. coli with pQE expression vector and identified using Western blot with polyclonal antibodies against culture supernatants of A. pleuropneumoniae serotype 2 or 5. The sizes of each expressed ApxA protein were about 120, 110, 125 kDa (M.W.), respectively. The results obtained in this study could be used for the future study to develop a new vaccine to porcine pleuropneumoniae.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2003

Lactadherin (formerly known as BA46), a major glycoprotein of the human milk fat globule membrane, is abundant in human breast milk and breast carcinomas and may prevent symptomatic rotavirus infections. In this study, under the control of tissue specific and hormonal inducible mouse whey acidic protein (WAP) promote., the expression pattern of lactadherin (Ltd) in lactogenic hormone-dependent mouse mammary epithelial cell line HC11 were tested. pLNWLtd construct containing 2.4 kilobases of the WAP promoter and 1.5 kilobases of human lactadherin gene was stably transfered into HC11 cells using retroviral vector system. Integration and expression level of the transgene was estimated using PCR and RT-PCR, respectively. Prominent induction of Ltd gene under the WAP promoter was accomplished in the presence of insulin, hydrocortisone and prolactin. Compared to the control (cells cultured with insulin alone), however we observed that the WAP promoter was leaky. These data indicate that luther studies are needed in finding an appropriate promoter other than WAP promoter because of its leakiness.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 1993

Alterations of the p53 gene arc among the most frequent genetic changes in human cancer and often result in increased levels of p53 protein within the malignant cells. Detection of accumulated p53 protein can be a useful prognostic tool in human cancer. In order to make polyclonal antibodies for immunohistochemical screening. human p53 gene was expressed in E. coli in the form of GST (glutathione S-transfi.:rase) fusion proteins. Two p53 gene fragments. which were N('()I small fragment encoding amino acid residues of 1-151-: and Ncol large fragment of 159-393. were subeloned into the unique BamHI site present within the pGEX-2T vector using BamHI linker and recombinant plasmids pGTNS and pGTNL were constructed. respectively. The p53 cDNA fragment (from pC53-$SN_3$,) encoding amino acid 38-145 (proline at residue 72) was amplified by polymerase chain reaction(PCR). The amplified DNA was digested with BamHI and Prull and inserted into the BamHI-Smal sites of pG EX-2T and recombinant plasmid pGTBP was constructed. After IPTG induction of these plasmids for 4 hours. fusion proteins were purified from E. coli extracts with glutathione Sepharose beads. The bound proteins were resolved by 10% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and the molecular weights were 54 kDa. 53 kDa and 40 kDa. respectively. Approximately one milligram of fusion proteins were purified from 1 -liter cultures.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.260-267
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• 2008

The choice of expression vector is very important for industrial production of proteins. Therefore, the systematic mining of promoters over a wider range of genetic resource and/or host is required. We previously reported a novel bidirectional reporting system (pBGR) for the isolation of promoters from metagenome and screened useful promoters that functioned constitutively in E. coli under general culture conditions. Among them, three promoter sequences including each upstream region were amplified by PCR and used to construct new expression vectors. To facilitate subcloning, a multi-cloning site was incorporated into the downstream region of the revere primer sequence. At these sites, GFP, esterase and $\beta$-glucosidase were subcloned and analyzed the constitutive expression ability of new promoter in terms of protein solubility and expression level. As a result, these vectors expressed the proteins constitutively to a level of $2{\sim}3%$ of the total cell protein in soluble fraction (>80 %). This study suggested that excavation of metagenomic promoters for construction of expression vector in a certain strain could provide a way for the development of the expression systems.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 1998

In Korea, all domestic made test systems for detecting antibodies in HIV-1 contain the antigens from human immunodeficiency type 1 (HIV-1) subtype B. However, because HIV-1 subtype O is significantly different in amino acid sequences from all other subtypes of HIV-1, there has been a need for developing a test for detecting antibodies in subtype O. For this purpose, the entire nucleotide sequence corresponding to the extracellular domain of the transmembrane glycoprotein of HIV-1 subtype O was synthesized with consideration of Escherichia coli condon usage. Various regions of the extracellular domain were cloned into E. coli expression vectors and tested for levels of protein production. The nucleotide sequence, named ECTM, that can encode a 129 amino acid-long peptide, was found to be expressed at a high level in E. coli. The protein of approximately 17 kDa specifically reacted with sera from individuals infected with HIV-1 subtype O. The ECTM protein was purified to near homogeneity by the CM-T gel chromatography, using concentrated, denatured inclusion bodies. In Western blot analysis, the purified viral antigen reacted with sera from individuals infected with subtype O more efficiently than subtype B. The enzyme linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) system was developed using the subtype O viral protein and compared with the commercially available kit lacking the antigens from subtype O. The ELISA kit containing the subtype O antigen ECTM alone efficiently reacted with sera from individuals infected with subtype O. The subtype O antigen-containing kit produced a positive absorbence even when sera were diluted 512-fold, suggesting a high sensitivity. The commercially available kit also reacted with subtype O sera, but produced a negative result at a dilution of 8-fold. Our results suggest that the currently available kit may not be able to efficiently detect subtype O sera and that the viral protein developed in this study may be added to the current system to maximize the detection of sera from individuals infected with subtype O.