• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.505-514
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• 2022

Background: The roots of Panax ginseng contain two types of tetracyclic triterpenoid saponins, namely, protopanaxadiol (PPD)-type saponins and protopanaxatiol (PPT)-type saponins. In P. ginseng, the protopanaxadiol 6-hydroxylase (PPT synthase) enzyme catalyses protopanaxatriol (PPT) production from protopanaxadiol (PPD). In this study, we constructed homozygous mutant lines of ginseng by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis of the PPT synthase gene and obtained the mutant ginseng root lines having complete depletion of the PPT-type ginsenosides. Methods: Two sgRNAs (single guide RNAs) were designed for target mutations in the exon sequences of the two PPT synthase genes (both PPTa and PPTg sequences) with the CRISPR/Cas9 system. Transgenic ginseng roots were generated through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The mutant lines were screened by ginsenoside analysis and DNA sequencing. Result: Ginsenoside analysis revealed the complete depletion of PPT-type ginsenosides in three putative mutant lines (Cr4, Cr7, and Cr14). The reduction of PPT-type ginsenosides in mutant lines led to increased accumulation of PPD-type ginsenosides. The gene editing in the selected mutant lines was confirmed by targeted deep sequencing. Conclusion: We have established the genome editing protocol by CRISPR/Cas9 system in P. ginseng and demonstrated the mutated roots producing only PPD-type ginsenosides by depleting PPT-type ginsenosides. Because the pharmacological activity of PPD-group ginsenosides is significantly different from that of PPT-group ginsenosides, the new type of ginseng mutant producing only PPD-group ginsenosides may have new pharmacological characteristics compared to wild-type ginseng. This is the first report to generate target-induced mutations for the modification of saponin biosynthesis in Panax species using CRISPR-Cas9 system.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.479-486
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• 2013

The DNA-binding protein from starved cells (DPS), originally identified as a DNA binding protein in Escherichia coli, is known to play an important role in DNA protection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the functional roles of DPS in E. coli against various kinds of external stresses by comparing the properties of wild-type E. coli cells and dps knockout mutant E. coli (${\Delta}dps$) cells. Under various stress conditions, we measured the cell growth of the wild-type E. coli and the dps knockout mutant E. coli (${\Delta}dps$) cells using a UV spectrophotometer. The growth rate of the cells was compared to investigate the functional roles of the DPS protein in E. coli. In comparison to the properties of the wild-type E. coli cells, the dps knockout mutant E. coli (${\Delta}dps$) cells showed highly sensitive phenotypes under various stress conditions, such as heat shock, acidic pH, nutrient deficiency, and different concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS), suggesting that DPS plays key roles in E. coli in combating diverse external stresses. The DPS DNA-binding protein in E. coli plays crucial roles in bacterial cell growth and in the protection of the cells from environmental stresses by tightly binding and preserving their DNA molecules.

• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.36-42
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• 2002

Diesel exhaust (DE) has been recognized as a noxious mutagen and/or carcinogen, because its components can form DNA adducts. Mechanisms governing the susceptibility to DE and the efficiency of such DNA adduct formation require clarification. The transcription factor Nrf2 is essential for inducible and/or constitutive expression of a group of detoxification and antioxidant enzymes, and we hypothesized that the nrf2 gene knockout mouse might serve as an excellent model system for analyzing DE toxicity. To address this hypothesis, lungs from nrf2(-/-) and nrf2(+/-) mice were examined for the production of xenobiotic-DNA adducts after exposure to DE (3 $mg/m^{3}$ suspended particulate matter) for 4 weeks. Whereas the relative adduct levels (RAL) were significantly increased in the lungs of both nrf2(+/-) and nrf2(-/-) mice upon exposure to DE, the increase of RAL in the lungs from nrf2(-/-) mice exposed to DE were approximately 2.3-fold higher than that of nrf2(+/-) mite exposed to DE. In contrail, cytochrome P4501Al mRNA levels in the nrf2(-/-)mouse lungs were similar to those in the nrf2(+/-) mouse lungs even after exposure to DE, suggesting that suppressed activity of phase II drug-metabolizing enzymes is important in giving ise to the increased level of DNA adducts in the Nrf2-null mutant mouse subjected to DE. Importantly, severe hyperplasia and accumulation of the oxidative DNA adduct 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine were observed in the bronchial epidermis of nrf(-/-) mite following DE exposure. These results demonstrate the increased susceptibility of the nrf2 germ line mutant mouse to DE exposure and indicate the nrf2 gene knockout mouse nay represent a valuable model for the assessment of respiratory DE toxicity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.1029-1036
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• 2017

Objective: In the livestock industry, the regulatory mechanisms of muscle proliferation and differentiation can be applied to improve traits such as growth and meat production. We investigated the regulatory pathway of MyoD and its role in muscle differentiation in quail myoblast cells. Methods: The MyoD gene was mutated by the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas9 technology and single cell-derived MyoD mutant sublines were identified to investigate the global regulatory mechanism responsible for muscle differentiation. Results: The mutation efficiency was 73.3% in the mixed population, and from this population we were able to establish two QM7 MyoD knockout subline (MyoD KO QM7#4) through single cell pick-up and expansion. In the undifferentiated condition, paired box 7 expression in MyoD KO QM7#4 cells was not significantly different from regular QM7 (rQM7) cells. During differentiation, however, myotube formation was dramatically repressed in MyoD KO QM7#4 cells. Moreover, myogenic differentiation-specific transcripts and proteins were not expressed in MyoD KO QM7#4 cells even after an extended differentiation period. These results indicate that MyoD is critical for muscle differentiation. Furthermore, we analyzed the global regulatory interactions by RNA sequencing during muscle differentiation. Conclusion: With CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genomic editing, single cell-derived sublines with a specific knockout gene can be adapted to various aspects of basic research as well as in functional genomics studies.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.281-291
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• 2010

The rice CHLH gene encodes the $Mg^{2+}$-chelatase H subunit, which is involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis. Growth of the chlorophyll-deficient oschlh mutant is supported by mitochondrial activity. In this study, we investigated the activity of mitochondrial respiration in the illuminated leaves during oschlh seedling development. Growth of mutant plants was enhanced in the presence of 3% sucrose, which may be used by mitochondria to meet cellular energy requirements. ATP content in these mutants was, however, significantly lowered in light conditions. Low cytosolic levels of NADH in illuminated oschlh mutant leaves further indicated the inhibition of mitochondrial metabolism. This down-regulation was particularly evident for oxidative stressresponsive genes in the mutant under light conditions. Hydrogen peroxide levels were higher in oschlh mutant leaves than in wild-type leaves; this increase was largely caused by the impairment of the expression of the antioxidant genes, such as OsAPXl, OsRACl, and OsAOXc in knockout plants. Moreover, treatment of mesophyll protoplasts with ascorbic acid or catalase recovered ATP content in the mutants. Taken together, these results suggest that the light-mediated inhibition of mitochondrial activity leads to stunted growth of CHLH rice seedlings.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.266-272
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• 2016

A bacterial tyrosine sulfotransferase, RaxST, is required for activation of rice XA21-mediated immunity, and it catalyzes sulfation of tyrosine residues of Omp1X and RaxX in Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, a causal agent of bacterial blight in rice. Although RaxST is biochemically well-characterized, biological functions of tyrosine sulfation have not been fully elucidated. We compared protein expression patterns between the wildtype and a raxST knockout mutant using shotgun proteomic analysis. Forty nine proteins displayed a more than 1.5-fold difference in their expression between the wildtype and the mutant strains. Clusters of orthologous groups analysis revealed that proteins involved in cell motility were most abundant, and phenotypic observation also showed that the twitching motility of the mutant was dramatically changed. These results indicate that tyrosine sulfation by RaxST is essential for Xoo movement, and they provide new insights into the biological roles of RaxST in cellular processes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1464-1472
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• 2016

The BLi03719 protein of Bacillus licheniformis DSM13 belongs to the most abundant extracellular proteins under phosphate starvation conditions. In this study, the function of this phosphate starvation inducible protein was determined. An amino-acid sequence analysis of the BLi03719-encoding gene showed a high similarity with genes encoding the barnase of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42 and binase-like RNase of Bacillus pumilus SARF-032. The comparison of the control strain and a BLi03719-deficient strain revealed a strongly reduced extracellular ribonuclease activity of the mutant. Furthermore, this knockout mutant exhibited delayed growth with yeast RNA as an alternative phosphate and carbon source. These results suggest that BLi03719 is an extracellular ribonuclease expressed in B. licheniformis under phosphate starvation conditions. Finally, a BLi03719 mutant showed an advantageous effect on the overexpression of the heterologous amyE gene under phosphate-limited growth conditions.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.409-416
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• 2009

ADAP is an AP2-domain protein that interacts with ARIA, which, in turn, interacts with ABF2, a bZIP class transcription factor. ABF2 regulates various aspects of the abscisic acid (ABA) response by controlling the expression of a subset of ABA-responsive genes. Our expression analyses indicate that ADAP is expressed in roots, emerging young leaves, and flowers. We found that adap knockout mutant lines germinate more efficiently than wild-type plants and that the mutant seedlings grow faster. This suggests that ADAP is involved in the regulation of germination and seedling growth. Both germination and post-germination growth of the knockout mutants were partially insensitive to ABA, which indicates that ADAP is required for a full ABA response. The survival rates for mutants from which water was withheld were low compared with those for wild-type plants. The result shows that ADAP is necessary for the response to stress induced by water deprivation. Together, our data indicate that ADAP is a positive regulator of the ABA response and is also involved in regulating seedling growth. The role of ADAP is similar to that of ARIA, which is also a positive regulator of the ABA response. It appears that ADAP acts through the same ABA response pathway as ARIA.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.42-49
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• 2023

The plant-specific NAC transcription factors control various biological processes, including plant development and stress responses. We have isolated an ANAC032 gene, one of the NAC transcription factor family, which was highly activated by multi-abiotic stresses, including high salt and drought in Arabidopsis. Here, we generated transgenic plants constitutively expressing ANAC032 and its knockout to identify the functional roles of ANAC032 in Arabidopsis under abiotic stress responses. The ANAC032-overexpressing plants showed enhanced tolerance to salinity and drought stresses. The anac032 knockout mutants were observed no significant changes under the high salt and drought conditions. We also monitored the expression of high salt and drought stress-responsive genes in the ANAC032 transgenic plants and anac032 mutant. The ANAC032 overexpression upregulated the expression of stress-responsive genes, RD29A and ERD10, under the stresses. Thus, our data identify that transcription factor ANAC032 plays as an enhancer for salinity and drought tolerance through the upregulation of stress-responsive genes and provides useful genetic traits for generating multi-abiotic stress-tolerant forage crops.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.215-223
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• 2010

The construction of transgenic mouse using embryonic stem (ES) cells has been crucial in the functional studies of gene on mouse genome. Gene knockout mice have been powerful for elucidating the function of genes as well as a research model for human diseases. Gene targeting and gene trapping mathods have been the representative technologies for making the knockout mice by using ES cells. Since the gene targeting and the gene trapping methods were independently developed about 20 years ago, it's efficiency and productivity has been improved with a advance of molecular biology. Conventional gene targeting method has been changes to high throughput conditional gene targeting. The combination of the advantage of gene targeting and gene tapping elements allows to extend a spectrum of gene trapping and to improve the efficiency of gene targeting. These advance should be able to produce the mutant with various phenotype to target a certain gene, and in postgenome era they have served as crucial research tools in understanding the functional study of whole genome in mouse.