• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.465-475
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• 2024

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum K9 is a probiotic strain that can be utilized from various bioactive substances isolated from Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis larvae. In this study, a genetic analysis of L. plantarum K9 revealed the existence of a bacterial chromosome and three plasmids. The glycolysis pathway and pentose phosphate pathway were examined for their normal functioning via an analysis of the core metabolic pathways of L. plantarum K9. Since the key enzymes, fluctose-1,6-bisphospatase (EC: 3.1.3.11) and 6-phosphogluconate dehydratase (EC: 4.2.1.12)/2-keto-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate (KDPG) aldolase (EC: 4.2.1.55), of gluconeogenesis and the ED pathway were not identified from the L. plantarum K9 genome, we suggest that gluconeogenesis and the ED pathway are not performed in L. plantarum K9. Additionally, while some enzymes, related to fumarate and malate biosyntheses, involved in the TCA cycle were identified from L. plantarum K9, the enzymes associated with the remaining TCA cycle were absent, indicating that the TCA cycle cannot proceed. Meanwhile, based on our findings, we propose that the oxidative electron transport system performs class IIB-type (bd-type) electron transfer. In summary, we assert that L. plantarum K9 performs homolactic fermentation, executes gluconeogenesis and the pentose phosphate pathway, and carries out energy metabolism through the class IIB-type oxidative electron transport system. Therefore, we suggest that L. plantarum K9 has relatively high lactic acid production, and that it has excellent antibacterial activity, as a result, compared to other lactic acid bacterial strains. Moreover, we speculate that L. plantarum K9 has an oxidative electron transport capability, indicating that it is highly resistant to oxygen and suggesting that it has fine cultivation characteristics, which collectively make it highly suitable for use as a probiotic.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.237-246
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• 2013

Purpose: A few Korean studies have reported that low urine acidity and hyperuricemia are related to metabolic syndrome. Therefore, we evaluated the relationships between urine pH, serum Uric Acid (UA), and metabolic risk factors in university students. Methods: Data were obtained from student health examinations in one university. Participants were 3,412 male and 4,214 female students. Descriptive statistics, t-test, logistic regressions and multiple logistic regression using SPSS version 18.0 were performed. Results: No significant relationship was found between metabolic risk factors and urine pH. From the univariate analysis, serum UA was significantly higher in obese ($BMI{\geq}25$), elevated blood pressure ($SBP{\geq}130$ and $DBP{\geq}85$), and higher triglyceride (${\geq}150$) groups for males and in obese, higher triglyceride and fasting blood sugar (${\geq}100$), and lower HDL-cholesterol (<50) groups for females. From the results of multivariate analysis, age, BMI, and triglyceride were significantly related to serum UA in males, BMI and HDL-cholesterol were significantly related to serum UA in females. Conclusion: Although there was no significant relationship between urinary pH and metabolic risk factors, significant associations between some of the metabolic risk factors and serum UA were found in the young adult population. Further studies are required to know the exact pathway between serum UA and metabolic syndrome.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.233-238
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• 1997

Salicylic acid (SA) is involved in the establishment of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in many plant including tobacco. Considering the important role of SA in disease resistance, biosynthetic and metabolic pathways of SA in tobacco have been studied extensively: The initial step for biosynthetic pathway of SA is conversion of phenylalanine to trans-cinnamic acid, followed by decarboxylation of trans-cinnamic acid to benzoic acid and ie subsequent ring hydroxylation at the C-2 position to form SA. In TMV inoculated tobacco, most of the newly synthesized SA is glucosylated or methylated. Methyl salicylate has been identified as a biologically active, volatile signal. In contrast, the two glucosylated forms accumulate in the vicinity of lesions and consist of SA glucoside, a major metabolite, and SA glucose ester, a relatively minor from. Two enzymes involved in SA biosynthesis and metabolism have been purified and characterized : benzoic acid 2-hydroxylase which catalyzes conversion of benzoic acid to SA; UDP-Glucose: SA 1-O-D glucosyltransferase which converts SA to SA glucose ester. Further studies of the biosynthetic and metabolic pathways of SA will help to elucidate the SAR signal transduction pathway and provide potential tools for the manipulation of disease resistance.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 1990

Investigations on the liability of nitrogen usuage by Nostoc muscorum that has nitrogen fixing ability, and cultured tobacco cells as they were associately cultured on nitrogen-free media and effects of polyamine on the associated culture condition were carried out. In addition, measurement on the activity of nitrate reductase, glutamine synthetase, glutamate dehydrogenase and glutamate synthase that take part in the metabolic pathway of nitrogen fixation product were performed. Among enzymes participating in the metabolic pathway of nitrogen fixation products, the activity of nitrogen reductase stimulated five times in associated culture, and that of glutamine synthetase of N. muscorum increased two times after heterocyst differentiated. Activity of glutamate dehydrogenase increased markedly when cultured tobacco cells were solely incubated on nitrogen-free media, but inhibited when cultured associately. And, glutamate synthase was showed the highest activity in 0.1 mM of spermine treated group.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.758-764
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• 2019

${\beta}$-Glucan is a chief structural polymer in the cell wall of yeast. ${\beta}$-Glucan has attracted intensive attention because of its wide applications in health protection and cosmetic areas. In the present study, the ${\beta}$-glucan biosynthesis pathway in S. Cerevisiae was engineered to enhance ${\beta}$-glucan accumulation. A newly identified bacterial ${\beta}-1$, 6-glucan synthase GsmA from Mycoplasma agalactiae was expressed, and increased ${\beta}$-glucan content by 43%. In addition, other pathway enzymes were investigated to direct more metabolic flux towards the building of ${\beta}$-glucan chains. We found that overexpression of Pgm2 (phosphoglucomutase) and Rho1 (a GTPase for activating glucan synthesis) significantly increased ${\beta}$-glucan accumulation. After further optimization of culture conditions, the ${\beta}$-glucan content was increased by 53.1%. This study provides a new approach to enhance ${\beta}$-glucan biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1681-1691
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• 2017

This study investigated the effect of proline addition on the salt tolerance of Tetragenococcus halophilus. Salt stress led to the accumulation of intracellular proline in T. halophilus. When 0.5 g/l proline was added to hyperhaline medium, the biomass increased 34.6% (12% NaCl) and 27.7% (18% NaCl) compared with the control (without proline addition), respectively. A metabolomic approach was employed to reveal the cellular metabolic responses and protective mechanisms of proline upon salt stress. The results showed that both the cellular membrane fatty acid composition and metabolite profiling responded by increasing unsaturated and cyclopropane fatty acid proportions, as well as accumulating some specific intracellular metabolites (environmental stress protector). Higher contents of intermediates involved in glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and the pentose phosphate pathway were observed in the cells supplemented with proline. In addition, addition of proline resulted in increased concentrations of many organic osmolytes, including glutamate, alanine, citrulline, N-acetyl-tryptophan, and mannitol, which may be beneficial for osmotic homeostasis. Taken together, results in this study suggested that proline plays a protective role in improving the salt tolerance of T. halophilus by regulating the related metabolic pathways.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.199-207
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• 2002

The tropane alkaloids hyoscyamine (its racemic form being atropine) and scopolamine are used medicinally as anticholinergic agents that act on the parasympathetic nerve system. Because they differ in their actions on the central nervous system, currently there is a 10-fold higher commercial demand for scopolamine, in the N-butylbromide form, than there is for hyoscyamine and atropine combined. Several solanaceous species have been used as the commercial sources of these alkaloids, but the scopolamine contents in these plants often are much lower than those of hyoscyamine. For this reason there has been long-standing interest in increasing the scopolamine contents of cultivated medicinal plants. Naturally occurring and artificial interspecific hybrids of Duboisia have high scopolamine contents and are cultivated as a commercial source of scopolamine in Australia and other countries. Anther culture combined with conventional interspecific hybridization also has been used to breed high scopolamine-containing plants in the genera Datura and Hyoscyamus, but without much success. The use of recombinant DNA technology for the manipulation of metabolic processes in cells promises to provide important contributions to basic science, agriculture, and medicine. In this review, I introduce on the enzymes and genes involved in tropane alkaloid biosynthesis and current progress in metabolic engineering approaches for tropane alkaloid, especially scopolamine, production.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1937-1943
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• 2020

Although classical metabolic engineering strategies have succeeded in developing microbial strains capable of producing desired bioproducts, metabolic imbalance resulting from extensive genetic manipulation often leads to decreased productivity. Thus, abiotic strategies for improving microbial production performance can be an alternative to overcome drawbacks arising from intensive metabolic engineering. Herein, we report a promising abiotic method for enhancing lycopene production by UV-C irradiation using a radiation-resistant ΔcrtLm/crtB+dxs+ Deinococcus radiodurans R1 strain. First, the onset of UV irradiation was determined through analysis of the expression of 11 genes mainly involved in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway in the ΔcrtLm/crtB+dxs+ D. radiodurans R1 strain. Second, the effects of different UV wavelengths (UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C) on lycopene production were investigated. UV-C irradiation induced the highest production, resulting in a 69.9% increase in lycopene content [64.2 ± 3.2 mg/g dry cell weight (DCW)]. Extended UV-C irradiation further enhanced lycopene content up to 73.9 ± 2.3 mg/g DCW, a 95.5% increase compared to production without UV-C irradiation (37.8 ± 0.7 mg/g DCW).

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.103-111
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• 2024

Background: Ginseng (Panax ginseng Mayer) is an important natural medicine. However, a long culture period and challenging quality control requirements limit its further use. Although artificial cultivation can yield a sustainable medicinal supply, research on the association between the transplantation and chaining of metabolic networks, especially the regulation of ginsenoside biosynthetic pathways, is limited. Methods: Herein, we performed Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry based metabolomic measurements to evaluate ginsenoside accumulation and categorise differentially abundant metabolites (DAMs). Transcriptome measurements using an Illumina Platform were then conducted to probe the landscape of genetic alterations in ginseng at various ages in transplantation mode. Using pathway data and crosstalk DAMs obtained by MapMan, we constructed a metabolic profile of transplantation Ginseng. Results: Accumulation of active ingredients was not obvious during the first 4 years (in the field), but following transplantation, the ginsenoside content increased significantly from 6-8 years (in the wild). Glycerolipid metabolism and Glycerophospholipid metabolism were the most significant metabolic pathways, as Lipids and lipid-like molecule affected the yield of ginsenosides. Starch and sucrose were the most active metabolic pathways during transplantation Ginseng growth. Conclusion: This study expands our understanding of metabolic network features and the accumulation of specific compounds during different growth stages of this perennial herbaceous plant when growing in transplantation mode. The findings provide a basis for selecting the optimal transplanting time.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4241-4244
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• 2012

The lung adenocarcinoma is considered more aggressive than other types of non-small cell lung cancer. As metabolites of tryptophan degradation along the kynurenine pathway, including kynurenic acid, have been shown to induce immunosuppression and facilitate escape of tumor cells from immune surveillance, a hypothesis was set up that differences in biological behavior between types of lung cancer may be associated with altered activity of the kynurenine metabolic pathway. The aim of the study was to determine kynurenic acid levels in the serum of patients with bronchial adenocarcinoma for comparison with other types of non-small cell lung cancer. A total of 227 patients with non-small cell lung cancer were enrolled in the study, including 71 with adenocarcinoma and 96 with squamous cell carcinoma. Serum kynurenic acid concentration was determined with use of high performance liquid chromatography and fluorometry. The level of kynurenic acid in the serum of patients with adenocarcinoma was significantly higher than in those with squamous cell lung cancer ($107.1{\pm}62.8$ pmol/ml; 95%CI: 92.4 to 132.3 pmol/ml versus $82.1{\pm}47.6$ pmol/ml; 95%CI: 78.5 to 91.2 pmol/ml, respectively; p = 0.027). Differences between other histological types of lung cancer were insignificant. We conclude that increased activity of kynurenine metabolic pathway manifested by elevated serum kynurenic acid level may be one of the factors associated with clinically distinct biological behavior of adenocarcinoma, in particular high invasiveness and rapid progression.