• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2010

Camelina sativa L., known as popular names "gold-of-pleasure" or "false flax" is an alternative oilseed crop that can be grown under different climatic and soil conditions. Up to date, however, the genomic information of Camelina has not been studied in detail. Therefore, a cDNA library was constructed and characterized from young leaves. The constructed cDNA library incorporated of 1334 cDNA clones and the size of the insertion fragments average was 736 base pair. We generated a total of 1269 high-quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs) sequences. The result of cluster analysis of EST sequences showed that the number of unigene was 851. According to subsequent analysis, the 476 (55.9%) unigenes were highly homologous to known function genes and the other 375 (44.1%) unigenes were unknown. Remaining 63 (7.4%) unigenes had no homology with any other peptide in NCBI database, indicating that these seemed to be novel genes expressed in leaves of Camelina. The database-matched ESTs were further classified into 17 categories according to their functional annotation. The most abundant of categories were "protein with binding function or cofactor requirement (27%)", "metabolism (11%)", "subcellular localization (11%)", "cellular transport, transport facilities and transport routes (7%)", "energy (6%)", "regulation of metabolism and protein function (6%)". Our result in this study provides an overview of mRNA expression profile and a basal genetic information of Camelina as an oilseed crop.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.428-436
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• 2012

Protein phosphorylation is a universal mechanism that regulates cellular activities. The brassinosteroid (BR) signal transduction pathway is a relay of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation cascades. It starts with the BR-induced activation of the membrane receptor kinase brassinosteroid insensitive 1 (BRI1), resulting in the dephosphorylation of transcription factors such as BZR1/BES2 and BZR2/BES1 followed by BR-induced gene expression. Brassinosteroid signal transduction research has progressed rapidly by identifying the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation site(s) of the BR-regulated kinase and phosphatase substrates with a simultaneous pursuit of mutant phenotypes. Autophosphorylation, transphosphorylation, and serine/threonine and tyrosine phosphorylation of the receptor protein kinases BRI1 and BRI1-associated kinase (BAK1) have increased the understanding of the regulatory role of those kinases during physiological and developmental processes in plants. The phosphorylation event initiated by BR is also found in the regulation of receptor-mediated endocytosis and the subsequent degradation of the receptor. However, the basic molecular links of the BR signal transduction pathway are not well understood regarding this phosphorylation/dephosphorylation event. This review summarizes the current state of BR signal transduction research to uncover the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation networks and suggests directions for future research on steroid signal transduction to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the process.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1120-1127
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• 2021

Depression has a negative impact on social functioning due to its high prevalence and increased suicide rate, and is a disease with a high economic burden. Depression is related to diverse brain-related phenomena, such as neuroinflammation, synaptic dysfunction, and cognitive deficit. As antidepressant drugs used in clinical trials have shown poor therapeutic effects, antidepressant drugs that show rapid efficacy urgently need to be developed. Although studies on various genes, proteins, and signaling pathways related to depression have been conducted, the pathogenesis of depression has not been clearly elucidated. Sirtuin 1 is a nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide- (NAD+-) dependent histone deacetylase and is involved in cell differentiation, apoptosis, autophagy, and cancer metabolism. Recent genetic studies found that sirtuin 1 is a potential target gene for depression. In addition, preclinical studies reported that sirtuin 1 signaling affects depression-like behavior. In this review, we attempt to present up-to-date knowledge of depression and sirtuin 1. We describe the various roles of sirtuin 1 in the regulation of glial activation, circadian rhythm, neurogenesis, and cognitive function and the effects of its expression on depression. Further, we discuss the effect of sirtuin 1 on the impairment of neural plasticity, one of the key mechanisms of depression, and the associated mechanisms of sirtuin 1.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1047-1054
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• 2019

Transposable elements (TEs) occupy approximately 45% of the human genome and can enter functional genes randomly. During evolutionary radiation, multiple copies of TEs are produced by duplication events. Those elements contribute to biodiversity and phylogenomics. Most of them are controlled by epigenetic regulation, such as methylation or acetylation. Every species contains their own specific mobile elements, and they are divided into DNA transposons and retrotransposons. Retrotransposons can be divided by the presence of a long terminal repeat (LTR). They show various biological functions, such as promoter, enhancer, exonization, rearrangement, and alternative splicing. Also, they are strongly implicated to genomic instability, causing various diseases. Therefore, they could be used as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of diseases such as cancers. Recently, it was found that TEs could produce miRNAs, which play roles in gene inhibition through mRNA cleavage or translational repression, binding seed regions of target genes. Studies of TE-derived miRNAs offer a potential for the expression of functional genes. Comparative analyses of different types of miRNAs in various species and tissues could be of interest in the fields of evolution and phylogeny. Those events allow us to understand the importance of TEs in relation to biological roles and various diseases.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.72-77
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• 2004

Previously, we synthesized a novel Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, MCS-5A. Also, we investigated the involvement of cell cycle regulatory events during MCS-5A-mediated apoptosis in HL-60(+p16/-p53) cells with up-regulation of p16 protein expression. In contrast, apoptosis was not observed in A549(-p16/+p53) cells. Therefore we propose that $p16^{INK4A}$ is a key enzyme for inducing apoptosis. In the present studies, we have explored the mechanism of $p16^{INK4A}$ -mediated cytotoxicity and the role of p16.sup INK4A/ overexpression in the induction of apoptosis in human tumor cells. The tumor suppressor gene $p16^{INK4A}$ is known as a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CKI) and cell cycle regulator. We expressed wild type $p16^{INK4A}$ in pcDNA3.1 vector and then transfected into non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell expressing different statue of p16$^{INK4A}$, p53 gene〔A549(-p16/+p53), H1299(-p16/-p53) and HeLa(+pl6/+p53) cell line〕. TUNEL assay (including propidium iodide staining following transfection of these cell line with pcDNA3.1-pl6) indicate that p16$^{INK4A}$-mediated cytotoxicity was associated with apoptosis. This is supported by studies demonstrating an induction of caspase 3 cleavage due to the transfection of A549, H1299 and HeLa cells with pcDNA3.1-pl6. These results suggest that p16$^{INK4A}$ has a new function of inducing apoptosis which is not related with the function of tumor suppressor gene p53.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.83-89
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• 2010

Apoptosis is a crucial mechanism for the proper regulation of homeostasis. BCL-2 family proteins are key molecules which control cellular survival and apoptosis. MCL-1 (myeloid cell leukemia-1) is a pro-survival member of BCL-2 family that promotes the survival of cells, and is highly expressed in diverse cancers including ovarian cancer, leukemia, and cervical cancer. Previously we identified IEX-1 (immediate early response gene X-1) as a binding partner of MCL-1. In the present study, we demonstrated that overexpression of IEX-1 induced apoptosis of ovarian cancer cells. Moreover, IEX-1 significantly attenuated the pro-survival function of MCL-1 in these cells. Also, IEX-1-induced cell death activity was able to be modulated by changes in the expression level of MCL-1. Thus, these results suggest that both IEX-1 and MCL-1 modulate each other's function controlling cellular survival and death and the inhibitory activity of IEX-1 toward MCL-1 may be applied for the development of chemotherapeutics.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1360-1367
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• 2009

Liver fibrosis is a process of healing and scarring in response to chronic liver injury. Following injury, an acute inflammation response takes place resulting in moderate cell necrosis and extracellular matrix damage. To develop a novel therapeutic approach in hepatic fibrogenesis, we examined the simultaneous suppression of the transcription factors NF-$\kappa$B and Sp1, which regulate acute inflammation and continuous deposition of extracellular matrix in liver fibrosis. We employed chimeric decoy oligodeoxynucleotide containing the consensus sequences of both NF-$\kappa$B and Sp1 binding sites, to suppress these transcription factors simultaneously. Treatment of chimeric decoy oligodeoxynucleotide reduced the activity of hepatic stellate cells in vitro, and decreased the expression of fibrotic and proinflammatory gene responses in a mouse model of liver fibrosis. These results suggest that chimeric decoy oligodeoxynucleotide strategy can be a potential therapeutic application to prevent liver fibrosis.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2006

Background: Chronic inflammation in the brain has known to be associated with the development of a various neurological diseases including dementia. In general, the characteristic of neuro-inflammation is the activated microglia over the brain where the pathogenesis occurs. Pro-inflammatory repertoires, interleukin-1${\beta}$ (IL-1${\beta}$) and nitric oxide (NO), are the main causes of neuro-degenerative disease, particularly in Alzheimer's disease (AD) which is caused by neuronal destruction. Those pro-inflammatory repertoires may lead the brain to chronic inflammatory status, and thus we hypothesized that chronic inflammation would be inhibited when pro-inflammatory repertoires are to be well controlled by inactivating the signal transduction associated with inflammation. Methods: In the present study, we examined whether biphenyl dimethyl dicarboxylate (DDB), an active compound from Schizandra chinensis Baillon, inhibits the NO production by a direct method using Griess reagent and by RT-PCR in the gene expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and IL-1${\beta}$. Western blots were also used for the analysis of NF-${\kappa}B$ and I${\kappa}B$. Results: In the study, we found that DDB effectively inhibited IL-1${\beta}$ as well as NO production in BV-2 microglial cell, and the translocation of NF-${\kappa}B$ was comparably inhibited in the presence of DDB comparing those to the positive control, lipopolysaccharide. Conclusion: The data suggested that the DDB from Schizandra chinensis Baillon may play an effective role in inhibiting the pro-inflammatory repertoires which may cause neurodegeneration and the results imply that the compound suppresses a cue signal of the microglial activation which can induce the brain pathogenesis such as Alzheimer's disease.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 1997

Adult male rats were exposed to a whole body with a single dose of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0 Gy. The animals were sacrificed 48, 72, 96 and 216 hours following exposure. A competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) with antigen immobilized on the solid phase has been developed to measure ceruloplasmin in rat serum and complete dose response curves. Ceruloplasmin was purified from the plasma of turpentine treated male rats. Coating of ceruloplasmin had more effectiveness in 10 mM Tris-HCI, 150 mM sodium chloride, pH 7.4 than in 50 mM carbonate/bicarbonate buffer, pH 9.6. The coating range for ceruloplasmin was $70{\sim}140ng$/well. Levels of ceruloplasmin increased to maximum on the $72{\sim}96$ hours after irradiation. Slope of between response and dose was greatest value 96 hours following irradiation. Normal ceruloplasmin levels were not recorded 216 hours following exposure. In 0.1 Gy irradiated group, levels of ceruloplasmin also increased to maximum on the $72{\sim}96$ hours following irradiation. The concentration of this protein remained significantly different from control value, 196 hours after exposure. Ceruloplasmin was identified as one of the major acute phase protein following irradiation and further studies about gene expression and regulation would be necessary for radiation protection.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.633-642
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• 2003

A pain is the symptom which defends against noxious stimulus about a human body, it is known that if the periphery of perceptive nerve were stimulated by a physical or chemical factors, the stimulation is induced by transmission to pain center in the cerebral cortex according to pain conduction tract. The treatment of pain is to decrease a stimulus that causes a pain or block off a nerve transmitting a stimulus or puts on a way to calm down pain center, but It is for adjustment of a pain to be the most representative in acupuncture among various ways to cure a pain in Oriental medicine. However, the analgesic effect of an individual response to acupuncture stimulation shows marked individual variations, so these days genetic a few approach is attempted. On this the author determined that the responding group was appointed those whose tail flick latency (TFL) responding time delayed the minimum of 30 % comparing with basal reaction time. For those whose TFL time had shorter than 30 % was grouped as a non-responding group. And then the hypothalamus of each group was dissected and RNA was further purified. After synthesizing cDNA using oligo dT primer, products were finally applied to the PCR. The results were as follows; The ratio of responding group to non-responding group was 6:4. Ach T (acetylcholinesterase T subunit), BF-I (Brain factor-I), DBH (Dopamine β-hydroxylase) and PNM (Phosphotidylethanolamine N-Methyltransferase) were revealed significantly in the responding group. Cathepsin B and Tau were revealed significantly in the non-responding group. The PCR results show that Ach T, BF-I, DBH and PNM are expressed abundantly in the responding group, where as cathepsin B and tau are abundant in the non-responding group. These results suggest that the analgesic effect on acupuncture stimulation is related to regulation of neurotransmitter as well as neurodegeration of cerebrum.