• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Life Science Conference
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• 2001.09a
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• pp.110-110
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• 2001

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Life Science Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.73-73
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• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Life Science Conference
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• 2001.02a
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• pp.80-80
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• 2001

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.428-434
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• 2001

A viscous substance producer strain BS62, which was isolated from conventional Chungkookjang, was examined for its productivity of levansucrase and levan during soybean fermentation at $37{\circ}C$. After one day of cultivation, the enzyme activity reached the highest level, 8 units $ml^{-1}$. Extracts of fermented soybeans were precipitated by ethanol and hydrolyzed by either 0.1 N HCl or invertase, and the hydrolyzates were analyzed using thin layer and ion chromatographies. Fructose was the only sugar detected. This suggest that fructose was derived from the levan produced by the strain BS62 during soybean fermentation. The aerobic, endospore-forming bacterium BS62 was identified as a Bacillus subtilis sp., based on the composition of its cellular fatty acids and phylogeny, which was determined by its 16S rDNA sequence.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.290-298
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• 2013

The genus Mycobacterium includes crucial animal and human pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium leprae, and Mycobacterium bovis. Although it is important to understand the genetic basis for their virulence and persistence in host, genetic analysis in mycobacteria was hampered by a lack of sufficient genetic tools. Therefore, many functional vectors as molecular genetic tools have been designed for understanding mycobacterial biology, and the application of these tools to mycobacteria has accelerated the study of mechanisms involved in virulence and gene expression. To overcome the pre-existing problems in genetic manipulation of mycobacteria, this paper reports new vector systems as effective genetic tools in Mycobacterium smegmatis. Three vectors were developed; pKOTs is a suicide vector for mutagenesis containing a temperature-sensitive replication origin (TSRO) and the sacB gene encoding levansucrase as a counterselectable marker. pMV306lacZ is an integrative lacZ transcriptional fusion vector that can be inserted into chromosomal DNA by site-specific recombination. pTnMod-OKmTs is a minitransposon vector harboring the TSRO that can be used in random mutagenesis. It was demonstrated in this study that these vectors effectively worked in M. smegmatis. The vector systems reported here are expected to successfully applicable to future research of mycobacterial molecular genetics.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.788-795
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• 2002

This study described the effect of levan (9-2,6-linked fructose polymer) feeding on serum lipids, adiposity and uncoupling protein (UCP) expression in growing rats. Levan was synthesized from sucrose using bacterial levansucrase. UCP is a mitochondrial protein that uncouples the respiratory chain from oxidative Phosphorylation and generates heat instead of ATP, thereby increase energy expenditure. We observed that 3% or 5% levan containing diet reduced serum triglyceride levels, visceral and peritoneal fat mass and induced the UCP expression in rats fed high fat diet in previous study. To determine whether the intake of low level of levan may have the hypolipidemic and anti-obesity effect, 4 wk old Sprague Dawley male rats were fed AIN-76A diet for 6 wk, and sub-sequently fed 1% or 2% levan solution for further 5 wk. Intake of 1% levan in liquid form reduced serum triglyceride and serum total cholesterol levels to 50% and 66% of control group, respectively. Although epididymal and peritoneal fat masses were not affected by levan feeding, visceral fat mass was lower in 1% levan group compared to control group. The expression of UCP2 mRNA in brown adipose tissue, skeletal muscle and hypothalamus and UCP3 mRNA in skeletal muscle were not changed by levan feeding, while the UCP2 mRNA in white adipose tissue was up-regulated by levan feeding. In conclusions, intake of low level of levan solution reduced serum triglyceride and total cholesterol, restrained the visceral fat accumulation and increased UCP expression in white adipose tissue in rats. This study suggests that hypolipidemic and anti-obesity effect of levan attributed to anti-lipogenesis and inefficeint energy utilization by up-regulation of UCPs.