• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.199-205
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• 2012

Toxoplasmic encephalitis is caused by reactivation of bradyzoites to rapidly dividing tachyzoites of the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii in immunocompromised hosts. Diagnosis of this life-threatening disease is problematic, because it is difficult to discriminate between these 2 stages. Toxoplasma PCR assays using gDNA as a template have been unable to discriminate between an increase or decrease in SAG1 and BAG1 expression between the active tachyzoite stage and the latent bradyzoite stage. In the present study, real-time RT-PCR assay was used to detect the expression of bradyzoite (BAG1)- and tachyzoite-specific genes (SAG1) during bradyzoite/tachyzoite stage conversion in mice infected with T. gondii Tehran strain after dexamethasone sodium phosphate (DXM) administration. The conversion reaction was observed in the lungs and brain tissues of experimental mice, indicated by SAG1 expression at day 6 after DXM administration, and continued until day 14. Bradyzoites were also detected in both organs throughout the study; however, it decreased at day 14 significantly. It is suggested that during the reactivation period, bradyzoites not only escape from the cysts and reinvade neighboring cells as tachyzoites, but also converted to new bradyzoites. In summary, the real-time RT-PCR assay provided a reliable, fast, and quantitative way of detecting T. gondii reactivation in an animal model. Thus, this method may be useful for diagnosing stage conversion in clinical specimens of immunocompromised patients (HIV or transplant patients) for early identification of tachyzoite-bradyzoite stage conversion.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.98-102
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• 1996

A thermostable tyrosine phenol-lyase gene of a thermophilic Symbiobacterium species was cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli in order to produce the biocatalyst for the synthesis of 3, 4-dihy-droxyphenyl-L-alanine (L-DOPA). The substrates used for the synthetic reaction were pyrocatechol, so-dium pyruvate, and ammonium chloride. The enzyme was stable up to $60^{\circ}C$, and the optimal temperature for the synthesis of L-DOPA was $37^{\circ}C$ . The optimal pH of the reaction was about 8.3. Enzyme activity was highly dependent on the amount of ammonium chloride and the optimal concentration was estimated to be 0.6 M. In the case of pyrocatechol, an inactivation of enzyme activity was observed at con-centrations higher than 0.1 M. Enzyme activity was increased by the presence of ethanol. Under op-timized conditions, L-DOPA production was carried out adding pyrocatechol and sodium pyruvate to the reaction solution intermittently to avoid substrate depletion during the reaction. The concentration of L-DOPA reached 29.8 g/l after 6 h, but the concentration didn t increase further because of the formation of byproducts by a non-enzymatic reaction between L-DOPA and pyruvate.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제25권6호
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• pp.880-886
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• 2015

Bacterial heme was produced from a genetic-engineered Escherichia coli via the porphyrin pathway and it was useful as an iron resource for animal feed. The amount of the E. coli-synthesized heme, however, was only few milligrams in a culture broth and it was not enough for industrial applications. To analyze heme biosynthetic pathways, an engineered E. coli artificially overexpressing ALA synthase (hemA from Rhodobacter sphaeroides) and pantothenate kinase (coaA gene from self geneome) was constructed as a bacterial heme-producing strain, and both the transcription levels of pathway genes and the intermediates concentrations were determined from batch and continuous cultures. Transcription levels of the pathway genes were not significantly changed among the tested conditions. Intracellular intermediate concentrations indicated that aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and coenzyme A (CoA) were enhanced by the hemA-coaA co-expression. Intracellular coproporphyrinogen I and protoporphyrin IX accumulation suggested that the bottleneck steps in the heme biosynthetic pathway could be the spontaneous conversion of HMB to coproporphyrinogen I and the limited conversion of protoporphyrin IX to heme, respectively. A strategy to increase the conversion of ALA to heme is discussed based on the results.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.7-12
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• 1994

A yeast strain secreting glucoamylase was transformed with an expression vector (pMS12) containing the promoter of yeast alcohol dehydrogenase I gene ADC1, mouse salivary $\alpha$-amylase cDNA, and a segment of yeast $21\mu m$ plasmid. The transformed strain could produce ethanol from starch (4%, w/v) through a direct one-step process with the conversion efficiency of 93.2%, during 5 days of fermentation, while the original, untransformed strain exhibited a conversion efficiency of 38.1% under the same condition. When the regulatory site of the ADC1 promoter region was removed, the production of ethanol increased to 29~37% in the presence of exogenous 3%(v/v) ethanol in the fermentation medium.

• 한국식품위생안전성학회지
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.225-230
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• 1993

This study was conducted to examine the stages showing the antimutagenic effects on the microbial mutation by addition of the juice extracted from small water dropwort. It was not able to find out the signal showing the genic derepression or change of gene repair system by addition of the juice. And it was hardly possible to expect the conversion of 2-AF to inactive form by the juice. however the longer 2-AF and S-9 mix were contacted before addition of the juice, the stronger the microbial mutagenisity of 2-AF was, and after addition of the juice, the mutagenicity was decreased rapidly. It seems that some components in the juice act as inhibitor of a enzyme in S-9 mix, and block the conversion of 2-AF to the ultimate mutagen.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• 제43권5호
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• pp.456-462
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• 2005

More than seventy strains of aerobic bacteria showing ${\beta}$-glucosidase activity were isolated from a ginseng field, using a newly designed Esculin-R2A agar, and identified by their 16S rRNA gene sequences. Of these microorganisms, twelve strains could convert the major ginsenoside, $Rb_1$, to the pharmaceutically active minor ginsenoside Rd. Three strains, Burkholderia pyrrocinia GP16, Bacillus megaterium GP27 and Sphingomonas echinoides GP50, were phylogenetically studied, and observed to be most potent at converting ginsenoside $Rb_1$ almost completely within 48 h, as shown by TLC and HPLC analyses.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.37-44
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• 2003

Alcohol dehydrogenases (AHDs) are enzymes responsible for the catalysis of the reversible conversion of various alcohols to their corresponding aldehydes and ketonesis. Until now cDNA sequences of ADH gene is informed exclusively from several diptean species. We describe here the cDNA sequence and mRNA expression of a putative ADH gene from the mole cricket, Gryllotalpa orientalis, and phylogenetic relationships among known insect ADHs. The G. orientalis ADH cDNA sequences comprised of 798 bp encoding 266 amino acid residues. The multiple sequence alignment of G. orientalis ADH gene and known dipteran ADHs shared 100％ identity in the nine amino acid residues that are important for the enzymatic activity in Drosophila melanogaster. Percent sequence identity ranged from 25％ to 32％ among all insect ADHs including both types of ADHs. G. orientalis ADH gene showed no clear resemblance to any dipteran species and type. Phylogenetic analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences of G. orientalis ADH gene with available dipteran ADH genes including both types of ADHs further confirmed that the G. orientalis ADH gene is not clearly assigned to either type of ADHs. Northern blot analysis revealed a stronger signal in the fat body than midgut and epidermis, indicating that the fat body possibly is a main site for the synthesis of the G. orientalis ADH protein.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• 제5권3호
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• pp.149-155
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• 2003

Metabolic engineering for production of isoflavones in nonlegume plants could distribute the health benefits of these phytoestrogens in more widely-consumed grains. Series of investigation to check the ability of the heterologous isoflavone synthase enzyme to interact with the endogenous phenylpropanoid pathway have been conducted. Overall, results provide possibility of production of isoflavonoids in several plant tissue systems including soybean and nonlegumes. In tissue that undergoes naturally enhanced synthesis of anthocyanins, genistein production was enhanced. In a monocot cell system, introduced expression of a transcription factor regulating genes of the anthocyanin pathway was effective in conferring the ability to produce genistein in the presence of the isoflavone synthase gene. However, in this case the intermediate accumulated to high levels indicating an inefficiency in its conversion. Introduction of a third gene, chalcone reductase, provided the ability to synthesize an additional substrate of isoflavone synthase resulting in production of the isoflavone daidzein. These research efforts provide insight into requirements for metabolic engineering for isoflavone production in nonlegume dicot and monocot tissues.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국생물공학회 2005년도 생물공학의 동향(XVI)
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• pp.82-85
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• 2005

Doxorubicin is a highly-valuable anthracycline-family polyketide drug with a very potent anticancer activity, typically produced by a Gram-positive soil bacterium called Streptomyces peucetius. Thanks to the recent development of Streptomyces genomics-based technologies, the random mutagenesis approach for Streptomyces strain improvement has been switched toward the genomics-based technologies including the application of DNA microarray systems. In order to identify and characterize the genomics-driven potential target genes critical for doxorubincin overproduction, three different types of doxorubicin overproducing strains, a dnrI(doxorubicin-specific positive regulatory gene)-overexpressor, a doxA (gene involved in the conversion from daunorubicin to doxorubicin)-overexpressor, and a recursively-mutated industrial strain, were generated and examined their genomic transcription profiles using Streptomyces DNA microarray systems. The DNA microarray results revealed several potential target genes in S. peucetius genome, whose expressions were significantly either up- or down-regulated comparing with the wild-type strain. A systematic understanding of doxorubicin overproduction at the genomic level presented in this research should lead us a rational design of molecular genetic strain improvement strategy.

• 한국식물생명공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국식물생명공학회 2003년도 식물바이오벤처 페스티발
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• pp.77-84
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• 2003

Metabolic engineering for production of isoflavones in non-legume plants could distribute the health benefits of these phytoe-strogens in more widely-consumed grains. We investigate the ability of the heterologous isoflavone synthase enzyme to interact with the endogenous phenylpropanoid pathway. Overall, results provide possibility of production of isoflavonoids in several plant tissue systems including soybean and non-legumes. In tissue that undergoes naturally enhanced synthesis of anthocyanins, genistein production was enhanced. In a monocot cell system, introduced expression of a transcription factor regulating genes of the antho-cyanin pathway was effective in conferring the ability produce genistein in the presence of the isoflavone synthase gene. However, in this case the intermediate accumulated to high levels indicating an inefficiency in its conversion. Introduction of a third gene, chalcone reductase, provided the ability to synthesize an additional substrate of isoflavone synthase resulting in production of the isoflavone daidzein. These research efforts provide insight into requirements for metabolic engineering for isoflavone production in non-legume dicot and monocot tissues.