• BMB Reports
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.311-316
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• 1999

Studies in adipocytes indicate that secretion of active lipoprotein lipase (LPL) was strictly regulated by a quality control system in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). However, there has been no report about the ER chaperones participating in the folding and assembly of LPL. Many chaperones are known to bind unfolded proteins and dissociate from them through the ATP-hydrolyzing reaction. In this study, putative ER chaperones for LPL were determined by affinity chromatography using denatured LPL as an affinity ligand and elution with ATP. BiP, grp94, calreticulin, and another 50 kDa K-D-E-L protein in the ER of rat adipose tissue were bound to denatured LPL and eluted by ATP. Calnexin was bound to denatured LPL; however, it was not eluted by ATP but by acetic acid. These results indicate that, at least, BiP, grp94, calreticulin, calnexin, and the unidentified 50 kDa protein might act as putative chaperones for the proper folding and assembly of LPL in ER.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.250-261
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• 2004

A novel method for ab initio prediction of protein tertiary structures, PROFESY (PROFile Enumerating SYstem), is introduced. This method utilizes secondary structure prediction information and fragment assembly. The secondary structure prediction of proteins is performed with the PREDICT method which uses PSI-BLAST to generate profiles and a distance measure in the pattern space. In order to predict the tertiary structure of a protein sequence, we assemble fragments in the fragment library constructed as a byproduct of PREDICT. The tertiary structure is obtained by minimizing the potential energy using the conformational space annealing method which enables one to sample diverse low lying minima of the energy function. We apply PROFESY for prediction of some proteins with known structures, which shows good performances. We also participated in CASP5 and applied PROFESY to new fold targets for blind predictions. The results were quite promising, despite the fact that PROFESY was in its early stage of development. In particular, the PROFESY result is the best for the hardest target T0161.

• BMB Reports
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.496-501
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• 2001

Lincomycin, an inhibitor of plastid protein synthesis, was found to block the synthesis of apoprotein P700 with a molecular mass of 72 kDa and the assembly of the Chl a-protein of PS I. Synthesis of the polypeptides of 48, 43.5, and 32 kDa of the PS II complex is also suppressed. This process is accompanied by the disappearance of the PS Two reaction center Chl a at 683 nm, and of the PS One reaction center Chl a at 690, 696, and 705 nm on the fourth derivative of the absorption spectra at 77K. Lincomycin does not affect the synthesis of LHC subunits. It increases the content of the two main Chl forms of LHC at 648 nm (Chl b) and 676 nm (Chl a). The low-temperature fluorescence ratio F736/F685 is also increased. However, the effect of cycloheximide (an inhibitor of cytoplasmic protein synthesis) leads to the reduction of polypeptides of the light-harvesting Chl a/b-protein complex in the range of 29.5-22 kDa. Under these conditions, the relative amount of Chl b and the F736/ F685 fluorescence ratio decrease significantly. This is obviously the result of blocking the LHC I and LHC II synthesis. At the same time rifampicin and actinomycin D (inhibitors which block transcription in chloroplast and nuclear genome, respectively) inessentially affect the characteristics of these complexes.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.167-176
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• 1995

Glucose-regulated proteins (grp's), srp94 3nd grp78/BiP, are a group of stress proteins which are highly synthesized in cells exposed to a variety of stressful agents including tunicamycin 3nd Ca2+ ionophore. Grp78/BiP is hon to function as a molecular chaperone which regulates the folding and assembly of secretory or membrane proteins, but the biological function of grp941 remains to be elucidated. In this study, we have examined the intracellular distribution of grV's and the function of srp94. Grp's are resident in the endoplasmic reticulum (ERI 3nd a specific sequence (Lys-Asp-Glu-Leu) at their C-terminus is known to be responsible for their retention within the ER. However, it has been unclear whether upon disturbance of cellular Caa+ homeostasis by the Ca2+ ionophore, grp94 is retained within the ER or secreted into the medium. In this study, we showed that in the presence of C3a+ ionophore, grp94 and gif78/BiP are present in the cells, mainly within the ER. We have also investigated whether grp94 might function as a molecular chaperone. Here we showed that in the immunoglobulin (Ig)-secreting hvbridom3 cells, grp94 transientlY interacts with fully glycosylated Is heavy chain, suggesting that grpg94 may be involved in facilitating the folding and assembly of Ig heavy chains.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.80-87
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• 2015

Carbon-fluorine (C-F) bonds have been found ubiquitously in pharmaceuticals, radiopharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and material science due to their unique properties such as thermal and oxidative stability and lipophilicity to improve bioavailability. For the past five years, there have been significant advances in F-18 fluorination of aromatic complex molecules combined with the development of late-stage fluorination reactions. More recently, direct incorporation of F-18 to fluorinated aromatic molecules via borylation of C-F bonds has been developed by Niwa and Hosoya. In this minireview, we will discuss the progress of C-F bondborylation of fluorinated arenes utilizing transition metal catalysts and the impact on the development of F-18 radiotracers for positron emission tomography (PET).

• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.12
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• pp.868-874
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• 2008

Neurofilaments (NFs) are neuronal intermediate filaments composed of light (NF-L), middle (NF-M), and heavy (NF-H) subunits. NF-L self-assembles into a "core" filament with which NF-M or NF-H co-assembles to form the neuronal intermediate filament. Recent reports show that point mutations of the NF-L gene result in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). However, the most recently described rod domain mutant of human NF-L (A148V) has not been characterized in cellular level. We cloned human NF-L and used it to engineer the A148V. In phenotypic analysis using SW13 cells, A148V mutation completely abolished filament formation despite of presence of NF-M. Moreover, A148V mutation reduced the levels of in vitro self-assembly using GST-NF-L (H/R) fusion protein whereas control (A296T) mutant did not affect the filament formation. These results suggest that alanine at position 148 is essentially required for NF-L self-assembly leading to subsequent filament formation in neuronal cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.502-510
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• 2009

Although the Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit (LTB) has already been expressed in several different systems, including prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, studies regarding the synthesis of LTB into oligomeric structures of pentameric size in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been limited. Therefore, this study used a functional signal peptide of the amylase 1A protein from rice to direct the yeast-expressed LTB towards the endoplasmci reticulum to oligomerize with the expected pentameric size. The expression and assembly of the recombinant LTB were confirmed in both the cell-free extract and culture media of the recombinant strain using a Western blot analysis. The binding of the LTB pentamers to intestinal epithelial cell membrane glycolipid receptors was further verified using a GM1-ganglioside enzyme-linked inmmunosorbent assay (GM1-ELISA). On the basis of the GM1-ELISA results, pentameric LTB proteins comprised approximately 0.5-2.0% of the total soluble proteins, and the maximum quantity of secreted LTB was estimated to be 3 mg/l after a 3-day cultivation period. Consequently, the synthesis of LTB monomers and their assembly into biologically active aligomers in a recombinant S. cerevisiae strain demonstrated the feasibility of using a GRAS microorganism-based adjuvant, as well as the development of carriers against mucosal disease.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.1208-1213
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• 2012

Microcystis aeruginosa is a cyanobacterium that can form harmful algal blooms (HABs) producing toxic secondary metabolites. We provide here draft genome information of four strains of this freshwater cyanobacterium that was obtained by the Next Generation Sequencing approach to provide a better understanding of molecular mechanisms at the physiological and ecological levels. After gene assembly, genes of each strain were identified and annotated, and a genome database and G-browser of M. aeruginosa were subsequently constructed. Such genome information resources will enable us to obtain useful information for molecular ecological studies with a better understanding of modulating mechanisms of environmental factors associated with blooming.

• BMB Reports
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.413-418
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• 2021

ErbB3-binding protein 1 (EBP1) is a multifunctional protein associated with neural development. Loss of Ebp1 leads to upregulation of the gene silencing unit suppressor of variegation 3-9 homolog 1 (Suv39H1)/DNA (cytosine 5)-methyltransferase (DNMT1). EBP1 directly binds to the promoter region of DNMT1, repressing DNA methylation, and hence, promoting neural development. In the current study, we showed that EBP1 suppresses histone methyltransferase activity of Suv39H1 by promoting ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS)-dependent degradation of Suv39H1. In addition, we showed that EBP1 directly interacts with Suv39H1, and this interaction is required for recruiting the E3 ligase MDM2 for Suv39H1 degradation. Thus, our findings suggest that EBP1 regulates UPS-dependent degradation of Suv39H1 to govern proper heterochromatin assembly during neural development.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.353-359
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• 2017

The sonophoresis, a representative low-intensity ultrasonic therapy, is a technique for delivering the drugs into the epidermis, dermis and skin appendages by using physical vibration and heat effects of the ultrasonic waves. Sonophoresis could increases the delivering and absorption efficiency of the drugs usually consisting of hydrophilic molecules and macromolecules. In addition, it has the advantage of being effective in delivering drugs with relatively large molecular sizes such as insulin or lipid. In this study, we proposed a multi-structure ultrasonic transducer assembly with a large-size single piezoelectric element and a drug delivery function at the treatment site for efficient sonophoresis treatment. Futhermore, a transducer assembly structure capable of raising and maintaining the temperature of the treatment site was proposed and evaluated for effectiveness. The transducer assembly proposed in this study is expected to improve the efficiency of sonophoresis by providing a constant amount of drug, and assisting drug delivery through heating the treatment site.