• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-36
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• 2007

To improve insecticidal activity of B. thuringiensis 2385-1 (Bt 2385-1), a recombinant plasmid, pHT1K-1Ac, was introduced into lepidopteran toxic Bt 2385-1 by electroporation. The presence of the recombinant plasmid in Bt 2385-1 after electroporation was confirmed by PCR. Bt 2385-1 transformant was named as Bt pHT1K-1Ac/2385-1 (1K-1Ac/2385-1). The 1K-1Ac/2385-1 transformant produced bipyramidal-shaped parasporal inclusion as like the wild-type strain, Bt 2385-1, and showed an 130 kDa band of Cry1Ac protein. The insecticidal activity of 1K-lAc/2385-1 against S. exigua was similar to that of Bt 2385-1 but the $LC_{50}$ value of transformant against P. xylostella was 1.8 times lower. Through these bioassay results, it was confirmed that toxicity of Bt 2385-1 transformant showed synergistic effect by introducing Cry1Ac. These results suggested that the multiple expressions of Cry proteins in a promising Bt strain may interact synergistically in insect midgut, resulting in increase of toxicity and expansion of host spectrum.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.1107-1115
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• 2013

The Cyt1Aa protein of Bacillus thuringiensis susbp. israelensis elaborates demonstrable toxicity to mosquito larvae, but more importantly, it enhances the larvicidal activity of this species Cry proteins (Cry11Aa, Cry4Aa, and Cry4Ba) and delays the phenotypic expression of resistance to these that has evolved in Culex quinquefasciatus. It is also known that Cyt1Aa, which is highly lipophilic, synergizes Cry11Aa by functioning as a surrogate membrane-bound receptor for the latter protein. Little is known, however, about whether Cyt1Aa can interact similarly with other Cry proteins not primarily mosquitocidal; for example, Cry2Aa, which is active against lepidopteran larvae, but essentially inactive or has very low toxicity to mosquito larvae. Here we demonstrate by ligand binding and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays that Cyt1Aa and Cry2Aa form intermolecular complexes in vitro, and in addition show that Cyt1Aa facilitates binding of Cry2Aa throughout the midgut of C. quinquefasciatus larvae. As Cry2Aa and Cry11Aa share structural similarity in domain II, the interaction between Cyt1Aa and Cry2Aa could be a result of a similar mechanism previously proposed for Cry11Aa and Cyt1Aa. Finally, despite the observed interaction between Cry2Aa and Cyt1Aa, only a 2-fold enhancement in toxicity resulted against C. quinquefasciatus. Regardless, our results suggest that Cry2Aa could be a useful component of mosquitocidal endotoxin complements being developed for recombinant strains of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis and B. sphaericus aimed at improving the efficacy of commercial products and avoiding resistance.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 1986

Electrophoretic, immunological, and column chromatography methods were used to determine the appearance and distribution of storage proteins in various organs during the metamorphosis of Bombyx mori L. Two storage proteins start to appear in haemolymph in early 5th instar stage and show the identical mobility with fat body proteins. These proteins show the high concentration in haemolymph in last instar stage but accumulate in fat body after pupation. Storage protein-2 shows the distinct pattern for general storage proteins in both male and females. This protein is involved with the formation of cuticle protein in late last instar stage and appears to be temperally deposited in midgut during the pupal stage. Also SP-2 shows the identity with vitellogenin electrophoretically and immunologically and especially the positive reaction with antibody against yolk protein during the pupal stage, demonstrating that the storage protein is closely related to the formation of yolk protein.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2003

Alcohol dehydrogenases (AHDs) are enzymes responsible for the catalysis of the reversible conversion of various alcohols to their corresponding aldehydes and ketonesis. Until now cDNA sequences of ADH gene is informed exclusively from several diptean species. We describe here the cDNA sequence and mRNA expression of a putative ADH gene from the mole cricket, Gryllotalpa orientalis, and phylogenetic relationships among known insect ADHs. The G. orientalis ADH cDNA sequences comprised of 798 bp encoding 266 amino acid residues. The multiple sequence alignment of G. orientalis ADH gene and known dipteran ADHs shared 100％ identity in the nine amino acid residues that are important for the enzymatic activity in Drosophila melanogaster. Percent sequence identity ranged from 25％ to 32％ among all insect ADHs including both types of ADHs. G. orientalis ADH gene showed no clear resemblance to any dipteran species and type. Phylogenetic analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences of G. orientalis ADH gene with available dipteran ADH genes including both types of ADHs further confirmed that the G. orientalis ADH gene is not clearly assigned to either type of ADHs. Northern blot analysis revealed a stronger signal in the fat body than midgut and epidermis, indicating that the fat body possibly is a main site for the synthesis of the G. orientalis ADH protein.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2013

Paralytic peptide binding proteins (PP-BP) are 30KP proteins that show similarity to ENF binding proteins. The ENF-BP act as active regulators of ENF peptides. ENF peptides are multifunctional insect cytokines. The comparison of gene expression in diapause induced and non-diapause eggs at different time intervals after oviposition showed an upregulation of PP at 18h as well as PP-BP at 12 and 18h after oviposition along with few other genes. The current study has been taken up to investigate the role of PP as well as PP-BP in diapause induction in polyvoltine silkworms and to study the multigene organization of PP-BP in the Bombyx mori genome. The tissue specific expression analysis revealed that, PP-BP is highly expressed in fat body followed by egg and brain while no expression was observed in midgut. The expression levels of PP and PP-BP in diapause and non-diapause eggs from 0h to 48h after oviposition, validated through realtime PCR revealed that PP is highly expressed at 18 and 24h while PP-BP expression is higher at 12 and 18h time intervals suggesting their possible role in diapause induction. The whole genome survey of the PP-BP paralogous sequences revealed a total of 46 B. mori PP-BP homologs that are classified into 3 categories viz., ENF-BP, Typical 30KPs and serine/threonine rich 30KPs. These paralogous sequences are distributed on chromosomes 7, 20, 22 and 24, all 30KP and S/T rich 30KP proteins are present in the same locus of chromosome 20.

• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 1997

Seventy neonates with congenital intestinal atresia and stenosis who were treated at pediatric surgical service. Hanyang University Hospital from September 1979 to December 1996 were analyzed retrospectively. The lesion occurred in 27 cases at the duodenum, in 26 cases at the jeiunum, in 13 cases at the ileum and in 2 cases at the pylorus and colon each. There were 10 multiple atresias and 7 apple-peel anomaly cases. The atresia predominated over the stenosis by the ratio of 4 : 1. Male to female ratio was 1.3 : 1. The average gestational age was 38 weeks, and the average birth weight was 2,754 grams. Though 22.9 % were borne prematurely and 34.3 % had low birth weight, 92.3 % of them had a weight appropriate for gestational age. Polyhydramnios(40 %) was more frequently observed in duodenal and jeiunal atresia while microcolon in ileal atresia(58.3 %). Weight loss and electrolyte imbalance occurred more frequently in the duodenal stenosis cases because of delayed diagnosis. Twenty(55.6 %) of 37 jeiunoileal atresia cases had evidence of intrauterine vascular accident : 4 intrauterine intussusception, 3 intrauterine volvulus and 3 strangulated intestine in gastroschisis, and 10 cases of intrauterine peritonitis. There were one or more associated anomalies in 45 patients (64.3 %). Preoperatively proximal loop volvulus developed in 3 cases and proximal loop perforation in 5 cases and one case each of distal loop perforation, duodenal perforation and midgut volvulus occurred in the jeiunoileal atresia. Overall mortality rate was 20 %.

• BMB Reports
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.402-407
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• 2001

Based on the currently proposed toxicity model for the different Bacillus thuringiensis Cry $\delta$-endotoxins, their pore-forming activity involves the insertion of the ${\alpha}4-{\alpha}5$ helical hairpin into the membrane of the target midgut epithelial cell. In this study, a number of polar or charged residues in helix 4 within domain I of the 65-kDa dipteranactive Cry11A toxin, Lys-123, Tyr-125, Asn-128, Ser-130, Gln-135, Arg-136, Gln-139 and Glu-141, were initially substituted with alanine by using PCR-based directed mutagenesis. All mutant toxins were expressed as cytoplasmic inclusions in Escherichia coli upon induction with IPTG. Similar to the wild-type protoxin inclusion, the solubility of each mutant inclusion in the carbonate buffer, pH 9.0, was relatively low When E. coli cells, expressing each of the mutant proteins, were tested for toxicity against Aedes aegypti mosquito-larvae, toxicity was completely abolished for the alanine substitution of arginine at position 136. However, mutations at the other positions still retained a high level of larvicidal activity Interestingly, further analysis of this critical arginine residue by specific mutagenesis showed that conversions of arginine-136 to aspartate, glutamine, or even to the most conserved residue lysine, also abolished the wild-type activity The results of this study revealed an important determinant in toxin function for the positively charged side chain of arginine-136 in helix 4 of the Cry11A toxin.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.165-173
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• 2012

A 26 day experiment was conducted to determine the effects of feeding and starvation on the survival, morphology, and histology in chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) fry. We included three experimental groups: starved, fed, and initial. The survival and growth rates were lower in the starved group than in the fed group (P < 0.05). In the starved group, survival began to decline after 16 days, and all fish had died after 26 days. We determined the effects of starvation on the morphometric parameters using the truss and classical dimensions. The dimensions in the head region were larger in the starved group than in the initial and fed groups. In contrast, the truss dimensions of the fed group were larger than those of the initial and starved groups. Starvation reduced the heights of the hepatocyte nuclei and of the intestinal epithelium (P < 0.05). The starved group also showed atrophy of the digestive structures and shrinkage of the foregut and midgut. Starvation led to the degeneration and atrophy of the exocrine pancreas, in which the lumen was markedly diminished and the folds of mucosa were less apparent. The hepatocyte morphology in the starved group was abnormal compared with that of the initial and fed groups, with highly compact, irregularly shrunken nuclei. Melanomacrophages were randomly distributed in the kidneys of the starved group, and their abundance increased rapidly during the experiment. In contrast, neither the initial nor fed group had any melanomacrophages. These results suggest that the nutritional parameters used in this study are useful indices of nutritional status in chum salmon.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.181-190
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• 2014

An entomopathogenic bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), can sporulate along with production of insecticidal Cry toxins. Bt Cry toxins exhibit relatively narrow spectrum to target insects due to their specific interactions with midgut receptors. This study designed several strategies to enhance Bt efficacy in target insect spectrum and insecticidal activity. Four Cry toxins were purified from four different Bt strains and showed relatively narrow target insect spectrum. However, the Cry mixtures significantly expanded their target insect spectra. The additional effect of baculovirus to Cry toxin was tested with recombinant baculoviruses expressing Cry1Ac or Cry1Ca. However, the baculovirus was little effective to expand target insect spectrum. Bacterial culture broth of Xenorhabdus nematophila (Xn) significantly suppressed insect cellular immune response and increased Cry toxicity. The addition of Xn culture broth to Cry mixture significantly enhanced Bt efficacy in target insect spectrum and insecticidal activity.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.145-149
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• 2003

ApolipophorinIII (apoLp-III) is a protypical exchangeable apolipoprotein that is abundant in hemolymph of many insect species. Its function lies in the stabilization of low-density lipophorin particles (LDLp) crossing the hemocoel in phases of high energy consumption to deliver lipids from the fat body to the flight muscle cells. But, recent studies with naive Galleria mellonella-apoLp-III gave first indication of an unexpected role of that protein in insect immune activation. In this research, we cloned a cDNA encoding putative apoLp-III from the silkworm, Bombyx mori injected with E. coli and characterized its role. We constructed a cDNA library using whole bodies of B. mori larvae injected with E. coli, carried out the differential screening, and selected the up-regulated clones. Among these clones, we focused on a cDNA showing a high sequence similarity to the apolipophorinIII from other insects and analyzed the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences. The pupative B. mori Jam123 apoLp-III cDNA contained 1,131 bp encoding 186 amino acid residues. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the B. mori apoLp-III cDNA formed a highly inclusive subgroup with Bombycidae. But, it was interesting that B. mori Jam123 is closer to B. mandarina than B. mori P50 and B. mori N4. Northern blot analysis showed a signal in the fat body, posterior silkgland and midgut.