• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.807-822
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• 2016

Starting as a glutamate producer, Corynebacterium glutamicum has played a variety of roles in the industrial production of amino acids, one of the most important areas of white biotechnology. From shortly after its genome information became available, C. glutamicum has been applied in various production processes for value-added chemicals, fuels, and polymers, as a key organism in industrial biotechnology alongside the surprising progress in systems biology and metabolic engineering. In addition, recent studies have suggested another potential for C. glutamicum as a synthetic biology platform chassis that could move the new era of industrial microbial biotechnology beyond the classical field. Here, we review the recent progress and perspectives in relation to C. glutamicum, which demonstrate it as one of the most promising and valuable workhorses in the field of industrial biotechnology.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1212-1220
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• 2013

Because the cholesterol oxidase from Brevibacterium sp. M201008 was not as stable as the free enzyme form, it had been covalently immobilized onto chemically modified Sepharose particles via N-ethyl-N'-3-dimethylaminopropyl carbodiimide. The optimum immobilization conditions were determined, and the immobilized enzyme activity obtained was 12.01 U/g Sepharose-ethylenediamine. The immobilization of the enzyme was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The immobilized enzyme exhibited the maximal activity at $35^{\circ}C$ and pH 7.5, which was unchanged compared with the free form. After being repeatedly used 20 times, the immobilized enzyme retained more than 40.43% of its original activity. The immobilized enzyme showed better operational stability, including wider thermal and pH ranges, and retained 62.87% activity after 20 days of storage at $4^{\circ}C$, which was longer than the free enzyme.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1701-1707
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• 2016

Lipoxygenase (LOX) is an industrial enzyme with wide applications in food and pharmaceutical industries. The available structure information indicates that eukaryotic LOXs consist of N terminus β-barrel and C terminus catalytic domains. However, the latest crystal structure of Pseudomonas aeruginosa LOX shows it is significantly different from those of eukaryotic LOXs, including the N-terminal helix domain. In this paper, the functions of this N-terminal helix domain in the soluble expression and catalysis of P. aeruginosa LOX were analyzed. Genetic truncation of this helix domain resulted in an insoluble P. aeruginosa LOX mutant. The active C-terminal domain was obtained by dispase digestion of the P. aeruginosa LOX derivative containing the genetically introduced dispase recognition sites. This functional C-terminal domain showed raised substrate affinity but reduced catalytic activity and thermostability. Crystal structure analyses demonstrate that the broken polar contacts connecting the two domains and the exposed hydrophobic substrate binding pocket may contribute to the insoluble expression of the C terminus domain and the changes in the enzyme properties. Our data suggest that the N terminus domain of P. aeruginosa LOX is required for its soluble expression in E. coli, which is different from that of the eukaryotic LOXs. Besides this, this N-terminal domain is not necessary for catalysis but shows positive effects on the enzyme properties. The results presented here provide new and valuable information on the functions of the N terminus helix domain of P. aeruginosa LOX and further improvement of its enzyme properties by molecular modification.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.46-47
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• 2009

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1465-1480
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• 2021

Violacein, a purple pigment first isolated from a gram-negative coccobacillus Chromobacterium violaceum, has gained extensive research interest in recent years due to its huge potential in the pharmaceutic area and industry. In this review, we summarize the latest research advances concerning this pigment, which include (1) fundamental studies of its biosynthetic pathway, (2) production of violacein by native producers, apart from C. violaceum, (3) metabolic engineering for improved production in heterologous hosts such as Escherichia coli, Citrobacter freundii, Corynebacterium glutamicum, and Yarrowia lipolytica, (4) biological/pharmaceutical and industrial properties, (5) and applications in synthetic biology. Due to the intrinsic properties of violacein and the intermediates during its biosynthesis, the prospective research has huge potential to move this pigment into real clinical and industrial applications.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.185-195
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• 2015

Glucoamylase is an important industrial enzyme. Glucoamylase production by industrial Aspergillus niger strain featured with two major problems: (i) empirical substrate feeding methods deteriorating the fermentation performance; and (ii) the high raw materials cost limiting the economics of the glucoamylase product with delegated specification. In this study, we first proposed a novel three-stage varied-rate substrate feeding strategy for efficient glucoamylase production in a 5 L bioreactor using the standard feeding medium, by comparing the changing patterns of the important physiological parameters such as DO, OUR, RQ, etc., when using different substrate feeding strategies. With this strategy, the glucoamylase activity and productivity reached higher levels of 11,000 U/ml and 84.6 U/ml/h, respectively. The performance enhancement in this case was beneficial from the following results: DO and OUR could be controlled at the higher levels (30%, 43.83 mmol/l/h), while RQ was maintained at a stable/lower level of 0.60 simultaneously throughout the fed-batch phase. Based on this three-stage varied-rate substrate feeding strategy, we further evaluated the economics of using alternative carbon sources, attempting to reduce the raw materials cost. The results revealed that cornstarch hydrolysate could be considered as the best carbon source to replace the standard and expensive feeding medium. In this case, the production cost of the glucoamylase with delegated specification (5,000 U/ml) could be saved by more than 61% while the product quality be ensured simultaneously. The proposed strategy showed application potential in improving the economics of industrial glucoamylase production.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.918-921
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• 2009

In the present study, we examined the inhibitory effects of protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) inhibitors, including sodium orthovanadate (SOV), ammonium molybdate (AM), and iodoacetamide (IA), on cell growth, accumulation of astaxanthin, and PTPase activity in the photosynthetic algae Haematococcus lacustris. PTPase activity was assayed spectrophotometrically and was found to be inhibited 60% to 90% after treatment with the inhibitors. SOY markedly abolished PTPase activity, significantly activating the accumulation of astaxanthin. These data suggest that the accumulation of astaxanthin in H. lacustris results from the concerted actions of several PTPases.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1722-1731
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• 2021

The genus Streptomyces is intensively studied due to its excellent ability to produce secondary metabolites with diverse bioactivities. In particular, adequate precursors of secondary metabolites as well as sophisticated post modification systems make some high-yield industrial strains of Streptomyces the promising chassis for the heterologous production of natural products. However, lack of efficient genetic tools for the manipulation of industrial strains, especially the episomal vector independent tools suitable for large DNA fragment deletion, makes it difficult to remold the metabolic pathways and streamline the genomes in these strains. In this respect, we developed an efficient deletion system independent of the episomal vector for large DNA fragment deletion. Based on this system, four large segments of DNA, ranging in length from 10 kb to 200 kb, were knocked out successfully from three industrial Streptomyces strains without any marker left. Notably, compared to the classical deletion system used in Streptomyces, this deletion system takes about 25% less time in our cases. This work provides a very effective tool for further genetic engineering of the industrial Streptomyces.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.232-232
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• 2005

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.220-225
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• 2012

In batch culture for Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-degrading enzyme (PVAase) production by a mixed culture, higher pH (pH 7.5) was favorable for PVAase production at the prophase of cultivation, but lower pH (pH 7.0) was favorable at the anaphase. This situation was caused by the fact that the optimum pH for different key enzymes [PVA dehydrogenase (PVADH) and oxidized PVA hydrolase (OPH)] production is various. The activity and average specific production rate of PVADH reached the highest values at constant pH 7.5, whereas those of OPH appeared at pH 7.0. A two-stage pH control strategy was therefore developed and compared for its potential in improving PVAase production. By using this strategy, the maximal PVAase activity reached 2.05 U/ml, which increased by 15.2% and 24.2% over the fermentation at constant pH 7.5 and 7.0.