• The Journal of Natural Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2005

In Order to investigate the physiological role of thiol peroxidase in Bacillus subtilis, a thiol peroxidase (btpx) knock-out mutant was generated by homologous recombination. The growth of btpx knock-out mutant in aerobic condition showed a similar pattern with that of wild type of Bacillus subtilis 168/ But btpx knock-out mutant showed a retarded growht in response to oxidative stress such as $H_2O_2$, cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) treatments.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.745-753
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• 2008

Gene-manipulated mice were discovered for the first time about a quarter century ago. Since then, numerous sophisticated technologies have been developed and applied to answer key questions about the fundamental roles of the genes of interest. Functional genomics can be characterized into gain-of-function and loss-of-function, which are called transgenic and knock-out studies, respectively. To make transgenic mice, the most widely used technique is the microinjection of transgene-containing vectors into the embryonic pronucleus. However, there are critical drawbacks: namely position effects, integration of unknown copies of a foreign gene, and instability of the foreign DNA within the host genome. To overcome these problems, the ROSA26 locus was used for the knock-in site of a transgene. Usage of this locus is discussed for the gain of function study as well as for several brilliant approaches such as conditional/inducible transgenic system, reproducible/inducible knockdown system, specific cell ablation by Cre-mediated expression of DTA, Cre-ERTM mice as a useful tool for temporal gene regulation, MORE mice as a germ line delete and site specific recombinase system. Techniques to make null mutant mice include complicated steps: vector design and construction, colony selection of embryonic stem (ES) cells, production of chimera mice, confirmation of germ line transmission, and so forth. It is tedious and labor intensive work and difficult to approach. Thus, it is not readily accessible by most researchers. In order to overcome such limitations, technical breakthroughs such as reporter knock-in and gene knock-out system, production of homozygous mutant ES cells from a single targeting vector, and production of mutant mice from tetraploid embryos are developed. With these upcoming progresses, it is important to consider how we could develop these systems further and expand to other animal models such as pigs and monkeys that have more physiological similarities to humans.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.320-326
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• 2006

Pasteurella multocida is an important veterinary and opportunistic human pathogen. In particular, strains of P. multocida serogroup D cause progressive atrophic rhinitis, and produce a potent, intracellular, mitogenic toxin known as P. multocida toxin (PMT), which is encoded by the toxA gene. To further investigate the toxigenic and pathogenic effects of PMT, a toxA-deleted mutant was developed by homologous gene recombination. When administrated to mice, the toxigenicity of the toxA mutant P. multocida was drastically reduced, suggesting that the PMT constributes the major part of the toxigenicity of P, multocida. Similar results were obtained in a subsequent experiment, while high mortalities were observed when toxA(+) P. multocida bacterial culture or culture Iysate were administrated. Mice immunized with toxA(-) P. multocida were not protected (none survived) following challenge with toxA(+) P. multocida or bacterial culture Iysate (toxin). These results suggest that the toxigenicity of P. multocida is mainly derived from PMT.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2009-2018
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• 2018

Leuconostoc mesenteroides can be used to produce mannitol by fermentation, but the mannitol productivity is not high. Therefore, in this study we modified the chromosome of Leuconostoc mesenteroides by genetic methods to obtain high-yield strains for mannitol production. In this study, gene knock-out strains and gene knock-in strains were constructed by a two-step homologous recombination method. The mannitol productivity of the pat gene (which encodes phosphate acetyltransferase) deletion strain (${\Delta}pat::amy$), the fk gene (which encodes fructokinase) deletion strain (${\Delta}fk::amy$) and the stpk gene (which encodes serine-threonine protein kinase) deletion strain (${\Delta}stpk::amy$) were all increased compared to the wild type, and the productivity of mannitol for each strain was 84.8%, 83.5% and 84.1%, respectively. The mannitol productivity of the mdh gene (which encodes mannitol dehydrogenase) knock-in strains (${\Delta}pat::mdh$, ${\Delta}fk::mdh$ and ${\Delta}stpk::mdh$) was increased to a higher level than that of the single-gene deletion strains, and the productivity of mannitol for each was 96.5%, 88% and 93.2%, respectively. The multi-mutant strain ${\Delta}dts{\Delta}ldh{\Delta}pat::mdh{\Delta}stpk::mdh{\Delta}fk::mdh$ had mannitol productivity of 97.3%. This work shows that multi-gene knock-out and gene knock-in strains have the greatest impact on mannitol production, with mannitol productivity of 97.3% and an increase of 24.7% over wild type. This study used the methods of gene knock-out and gene knock-in to genetically modify the chromosome of Leuconostoc mesenteroides. It is of great significance that we increased the ability of Leuconostoc mesenteroides to produce mannitol and revealed its broad development prospects.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2008

Fusarium verticillioides (teleomorph Gibberella moniliformis) is associated with maize worldwide causing ear rot and stalk rot, and produces fumonisins, a group of mycotoxins detrimental to humans and animals. While research tools are available, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms associated with fungal virulence and fumonisin biosynthesis in F. verticillioides is still limited. One of the restraints that hampers F. verticillioides gene characterization is the fact that homologous recombination (HR) frequency is very low (<2%). Screening for a true gene knock-out mutant is a laborious process due to a high number of ectopic integrations. In this study, we generated a F. verticillioides mutant (SF41) deleted for FvKU70, a gene directly responsible for non-homologous end-joining mechanism, with the aim of improving HR frequency. Here, we demonstrate that FvKU70 deletion does not impact key Fverticillioides phenotypes, e.g., development, secondary metabolism, and virulence, while dramatically improving HR frequency. Significantly, we also confirmed that a high percentage (>85%) of the HR mutant strains harbor a desired mutation with no additional copy of the mutant allele inserted in the genome. We conclude that SF41 is suitable for use as a type strain when performing high-throughput gene function studies in F. verticillioides.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.363-370
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• 2012

The outer dense fiber 2 (ODF2) protein is an important component of sperm tail outer dense fiber and localizes at the centrosome. It has been reported that the RO072 ES cell derived homozygote knock out of ODF2 results in an embryonic lethal phenotype, and XL169 ES cell derived heterozygote knock out causes severe defects in sperm tail development. The ODF2s splicing variant, Cenexin1, possesses a C-terminal extension, and the phosphorylation of serine 796 residue in an extended C-terminal is responsible for Plk1 binding. Cenexin1 assembles ninein and causes ciliogenesis in early stages of the cell cycle in a Plk1-independent manner. Alternatively, in the late stages of the cell cycle, G2/M phase, Cenexin1 binds to Plk1 and results in proper mitotic progression. In this study, to identify the in vivo function of Plk1 binding to phosphorylated Cenexin1 S796 residue, and to understand the in vivo functional differences between ODF2 and Cenexin1, we generated ODF2/Cenexin1 S796A/Cenexin1 WT expressing transgenic mice in a RO072 ES cell derived $ODF2^{+/-}$ knock out background. We observed a severe defect of sperm tail development by ectopic expression of Cenexin1 S796A mutant and no phenotypic differences between the ectopic expression of ODF2/Cenexin1 WT in $ODF2^{+/-}$ background and in normal wild type mice.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.279-286
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• 2009

Streptomyces is well known for their ability to synthesize enormous varieties of antibiotics as secondary metabolites. Among them, S. avermitilis produces avermectins, a group of antiparasitic agents used in human and veterinary medicine. However, S. avermitilis also produces oligomycin, which is a potential toxic inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation in mammalian cells. Therefore, we decided to disrupt oligomycin synthetase gene to prevent co-production of oligomycin in S. avermitilis. To create plasmid for disruption, the smallest gene of oligomycin synthetase gene cluster was obtained by PCR from S. avermitilis chromosome. Then, apramycin resistance gene was inserted in oligomycin synthetase gene for selection. After transformation of this plasmid, oligomycin synthetase gene (olmA5) in the chromosome was displaced with disruption cassette on the plasmid via homologous recombination. As a result of this gene replacement, we obtained mutants (olmA5::apra) that no longer makes the toxic oligomycin. And the mutants confirmed by PCR and HPLC analysis. However, showed no increasement of avermectin production in the mutant was observed.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.463-472
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• 2009

Although the possible cellular roles of several ubiquitin-specific proteases (UBPs) were identified in Arabidopsis, almost nothing is known about UBP homologs in rice, a monocot model plant. In this report, we searched the rice genome database (http://signal.salk.edu/cgi-bin/RiceGE) and identified 21 putative UBP family members (OsUBPs) in the rice genome. These OsUBP genes each contain a ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase (UCH) domain with highly conserved Cys and His boxes and were subdivided into 9 groups based on their sequence identities and domain structures. RT-PCR analysis indicated that rice OsUBP genes are expressed at varying degrees in different rice tissues. We isolated a full-length cDNA clone for OsUBP6, which possesses not only a UCH domain, but also an N-terminal ubiquitin motif. Bacterially expressed OsUBP6 was capable of dismantling K48-linked tetra-ubiquitin chains in vitro. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR indicated that OsUBP6 is constitutively expressed in different tissues of rice plants. An in vivo targeting experiment showed that OsUBP6 is predominantly localized to the nucleus in onion epidermal cells. We also examined how knock-out of OsUBP6 affects developmental growth of rice plants. Although homozygous T3 osubp6 T-DNA insertion mutant seedlings displayed slower growth relative to wild type seedlings, mature mutant plants appeared to be normal. These results raise the possibility that loss of OsUBP6 is functionally compensated for by an as-yet unknown OsUBP homolog during later stages of development in rice plants.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.331-334
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• 2004

In vivo characterization of FadB homologous enzymes including PaaG, YdbU and YgfG for medium-chain-length (MCL) polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biosynthesis was carried out in fadB mutant Escherichia coli. Previously, it was reported that amplification of FadB homologous enzymes such as PaaG and YdbU in fadB mutant E. coli resulted in enhanced biosynthesis of MCL-PHA by greater than two fold compared with control strain. In this study, we constructed paaG fadB double mutant E. coli WB114 and ydbU fadB double mutant E. coli WB115 to investigate the roles of PaaG and YdbU in biosynthesis of MCL-PHA. Inactivation of paaG and ydbU genes in fadB mutant E. coli harboring Pseudomonas sp. 61-3 phaC2 gene reduced the MCL-PHA production to 0.16 and 0.16 PHA g/L, respectively from 2 g/L of sodium decanoate, which are much lower than 0.43 PHA g/L obtained with fadB mutant E. coli WB101 harboring the phaC2 gene. Also, we identified new FadB homologous enzyme YgfG, and examined its roles by overexpression of ygfG and construction of ygfG fadB double mutant E. coli WB113.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.1178-1187
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• 2024

Cordyceps militaris is a significant edible fungus that produces a variety of bioactive compounds. We have previously established a uridine/uracil auxotrophic mutant and a corresponding Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) system for genetic characterization in C. militaris using pyrG as a screening marker. In this study, we constructed an ATMT system based on a dual pyrG and hisB auxotrophic mutant of C. militaris. Using the uridine/uracil auxotrophic mutant as the background and pyrG as a selection marker, the hisB gene encoding imidazole glycerophosphate dehydratase, required for histidine biosynthesis, was knocked out by homologous recombination to construct a histidine auxotrophic C. militaris mutant. Then, pyrG in the histidine auxotrophic mutant was deleted to construct a ΔpyrG ΔhisB dual auxotrophic mutant. Further, we established an ATMT transformation system based on the dual auxotrophic C. militaris by using GFP and DsRed as reporter genes. Finally, to demonstrate the application of this dual transformation system for studies of gene function, knock out and complementation of the photoreceptor gene CmWC-1 in the dual auxotrophic C. militaris were performed. The newly constructed ATMT system with histidine and uridine/uracil auxotrophic markers provides a promising tool for genetic modifications in the medicinal fungus C. militaris.