• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.868-873
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• 2004

The efficient fermentative production of L-threonine fermentation was achieved by using Escherichia coli MT201, transformed a plasmid carrying pyruvate carboxylase gene. It is an attempt to supply oxaloacetate to the L-threonine biosynthetic pathway. In order to improve the L-threonine productivity of E. coli MT201, a plasmid pPYC which is an expression vector of the pyruvate carboxylase gene of Coryne-bacterium glutamicum, was introduced. When E. coli MT/pPYC was incubated with medium containing only glucose as a carbon source, both the cell growth and L-threonine production were reduced, compared to the results from fermentation of E. coli MT201. In order to circumvent this effect, we attempted the addition of a mixed carbon source, composed of glucose and sodium citrate at a ratio of 1.5:3.5. It was shown that L-threonine production and cell growth (OD660) with E. coli MT/pPYC reached up to 75.7 g/l and 48, respectively, at incubation for 75 hr under fed-batch fermentation conditions. It is assumed that overproduction of L-threonine by anaplerotic pathway leads unbalance of TCA cycle and sodium citrate might playa role to recover normal TCA cycle.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.352-352
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• 2017

Recently, the South Korean government encourages the cultivation of upland crops in the paddy field to maintain an adequate level of rice production and then to balance the demand and supply of rice. This is mainly because the rice consumption per capita per year has continued to decline from 135 kg in 1979 to 61.9 kg in 2016, although the rice production was relatively stable. As a result, the rice overproduction became a big social problem. As a part of that, various upland crops such as soybean, maize, minor cereals and forage crops are planted in the paddy field 10 years ago. The cultivation of these crops may settle the problem of short supply and mass import of the crops to some extent. However, a systematic remote observation of upland crops in the paddy field is very scarce. This study investigated the cultivation status of upland crops and any changes of crop harvesting in the paddy field by using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Also, we analyzed the kind of upland crops and cultivation area in the paddy field by utilizing time series observation images. A fixed wing UAV is used for the investigation. This is because it is easy to use the flight operation and to control flight management software, and it can automatically cope with various emergency states such as a strong wind and battery discharge. The material of UAV is expanded polypropylene, which has an advantage of less equipment damage and risk during takeoff and landing. We acquired observed images in Buljeong-myeon, Goesan-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea by using fixed wing UAV in 2015 and 2016. The total investigated area reaches 6,045 ha, and among them the agricultural area was 1,377 ha. For the next step, we created an orthoimage from all images taken using Pix 4D mapper program. According to the results of image analyses in 2015, the paddy field covered total 577 ha (75.9%) with crop plant. The cultivation area of beans, ginseng, maize, tobacco and peach was 256 ha (36.6%), 63 ha (9.2%), 37 ha (5.4%), 31 ha (4.5%) and 27 ha (3.8), respectively. And in 2016, the total covered area was 586 ha (77.1%), and it was comprised of 253 ha (35.5%), 88 ha (12.3%), 29 ha (4.1%), 22 ha (3.1%) and 32 ha (4.5%) in the same order. In this study, we focused on identifying the paddy field which was converted to the cultivation of upland crops by using UAV. And, it has been indicated that the cultivation area of rice decreased from 141 ha in 2015 to 127 ha in 2016, although that of ginseng increased by 25 ha. As a result, it is expected that a lot of paddy field could be replaced by high-income crops such as ginseng and fruit tree (peach) instead of relative low-income rice. More specific and widespread research on the remote sensing in the paddy field needs to be done.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.297-313
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• 2019

China's 'One Belt and One Load' is a national development strategy that aims to develop China and Eurasian Economic Area into a single economic Area by overland and sea routes. Thus, China's 'One Belt and One Load' construction will be a new engine for China and global economic development. At the same time, expected to have a significant impact on the international economic order and the enhancement the status of the Chinese economy. First of all, 'One Belt and One Load' will contribute to China's social stability by reducing the development gap between the East and West regions to some extent, as well as solving the problems of overcapacity and overproduction in China. Moreover, with a stable supply of energy resources, it will also contribute to the stable development of the Chinese economy. China's 'One Belt and One Load' will also enhance China's status by enhancing the level of Chinese influence and RMB in the international economy, in addition to the economic development of China and 'One Belt and One Load' consecutive countries. In particular, it will weaken the influence of the US, which has dominated the hegemony in the international community. Therefore, Korea, which maintains close economic relations with China, needs to prepare for countermeasures by closely monitoring the change in China's status as a result of China's 'One Belt and One Load' construction.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.113-120
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• 1999

Nitric oxide (NO) is a free radical synthesized from L-arginine by nitric oxide synthase (NOS). It is believed that NO is an important mediator in numerous physiological and inflammatory responses. Particularly, a large amount of NO released from the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is mostly associated with inflammatory processes. Overproduction of NO in these processes including sepsis and autoimmune diseases can have deleterious consequences and pathophysiologic relevance. Therefore, for the discovery of new inhibitory agents against iNOS activity, we have evaluated about 100 kinds of natural products after partition into three layers (n-hexane, ethyl acetate and aqueous) from 100% methanol extracts to study inhibitory effects on iNOS activity induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in RAW264.7 cells culture system. As a positive control, curcumin, which is known as an anti-tumor promoter, anti-inflammatory agent as an iNOS inhibitor, was used and showed the dose-dependent inhibitory effect $(IC_{50},\;2.5\;{\mu}g/ml)$. Among tested fractions, the n-hexane fraction of Cimicifuga heracleifolia $(IC_{50}:\;9.65\;{\mu}g/ml)$, Forsythiae fructus $(IC_{50}:\;6.36\;{\mu}g/ml)$, Saposhnikovia divaricata $(IC_{50}:\;5.92\;{\mu}g/ml)$, and the ethyl acetate fraction of Chrysanthemum sibiricum $(IC_{50}:\;2.56\;{\mu}g/ml)$, Gastrodia elata $(IC_{50}:\;3.46\;{\mu}g/ml)$, and the aqueous fraction of Dianthus chinensis $(IC_{50}:\;6.73\;{\mu}g/ml)$, Euonymus alatus $(IC_{50}:\;6.78\;{\mu}g/ml)$, Mechania urticifoloria $(IC_{50}:\;8.01\;{\mu}g/ml)$ showed strong inhibitory activity against LPS-stimulated iNOS. Especially, the ethyl acetate fraction of Chrysanthemum sibiricum $(IC_{50}:\;2.56\;{\mu}g/ml)$, which exhibited the strongest inhibition against iNOS, was fractionated with silica-gel column chromatography. These subfractions exhibited dose-dependent inhibition against iNOS activity in the range of $2.59-5.6\;{\mu}g/ml$ except for fraction No. 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 16. Our study shows that Chrysanthemum sibiricum has the strongest inhibitory effect against iNOS activity and has similar effect to curcumin. Therefore, further studies for the identification of active principles from Chrysanthemum sibiricum and investigation for the mechanism of the inhibition of iNOS by active principles will be performed.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.162-167
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• 1991

In an attempt to explore the mechanistic aspects of chilling injury in plants and their defensive measures against the low temperature stress, the time sequential measurements of pyruvate, superoxide radicals$(O_{\overline{2}})$ and antioxygenic enzymes during whole period of injury-inducing treatment were performed using mostly rice seedlings. Pyruvate was substantialy accumulated in leaf tissues during the exposure period to $5^{\circ}C$ of the seedlings ; the relative extent of the accumulation was increased with increasing time of the cold treatment. When the cold-treated plants were translocated to ambient temperature$({\sim}25^{\circ}C)$, the accumulation started to dissipate, concomitantly accompaning a remarkable increase in the $O_{\overline{2}}$ level of tissues. Superoxide dismutase(SOD) and catalase were also activated during post-chilling period, although they showed a considerable lag time for activation. In contrast, glutathione peroxidase, another antioxygenic enzyme in cells, was not activated at all by preceding cold treatment of plants. The uptake of exogenous $O_{\overline{2}}$ by the roots of rice seedlings resulted in increase in the activities of SOD and catalase in root tissues. The supply of $H_2O_2$ to plan st brought about the activation of catalase in situ, while failing to exert any effect on the activation state of glutathione peroxidase. The results obtained in this work suggest that pyruvate accumulation in cells is the direct cause of the overproduction of $O_{\overline{2}}$ and thereby other toxic activated oxygen species, and that SOD and catalase may play a crucial role in the protection of plant cells against active oxygen-mediated chilling injury.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 1989

Biochemical consequence of the accumulation in cells of superoxide $(O^{-}_{2})$ which was proposed to be probably a common chemical factor in the secondary process of the mechanism of chilling injury as well as in the visible light photodamage in cells of higher plants, has been investigated in the present work. Especially focused was the destructive effect of $O^{-}_{2}$ on the biochemical activity of mitochondria, as informations which support the suggestion that mitochondrial inner membrane is the major site of $O^{-}_{2}$ production have been collected. Mitochondria and submitochondrial particles (SMP) were prepared from soybean hypocotyls for this case study. When SMP were treated with the electrolytically produced $O^{-}_{2}$ they suffered not only inhibition of the membrane-bound enzymes as demonstrated by cytochrome c oxidase, but also lipid peroxidation of membrane as proved by malondialdehyde production. Malate dehydrogenase present in the protein extract from mitochondrial matrix was also inhibited by the $O^{-}_{2}$ treatment. These results exhibited the chaotic effect of the overproduction and accumulation of $O^{-}_{2}$ in cells under a certain abnormal circumstance such as environmental stress on the physiological function of mitochondrial; disruption of the cellular metabolic pathways and the structural integrity of membrane.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.121-129
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• 2018

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)-induced macrophage foam cell formation and apoptosis play critical roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Thioredoxin-1 (Trx) is an antioxidant that potently protects various cells from oxidative stress-induced cell death. However, the protective effect of Trx on ox-LDL-induced macrophage foam cell formation and apoptosis has not been studied. This study aims to investigate the effect of recombinant human Trx (rhTrx) on ox-LDL-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages and elucidate the possible mechanisms. RhTrx significantly inhibited ox-LDL-induced cholesterol accumulation and apoptosis in RAW264.7 macrophages. RhTrx also suppressed the ox-LDL-induced overproduction of lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor (LOX-1), Bax and activated caspase-3, but it increased the expression of Bcl-2. In addition, rhTrx markedly inhibited the ox-LDL-induced production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK). Furthermore, anisomycin (a p38 MAPK activator) abolished the protective effect of rhTrx on ox-LDL-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, and SB203580 (a p38 MAPK inhibitor) exerted a similar effect as rhTrx. Collectively, these findings indicate that rhTrx suppresses ox-LDL-stimulated foam cell formation and macrophage apoptosis by inhibiting ROS generation, p38 MAPK activation and LOX-1 expression. Therefore, we propose that rhTrx has therapeutic potential in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.220-227
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• 2005

Doxorubicin is an anthracycline-family polyketide compound with a very potent anti-cancer activity, typically produced by Streptomyces peucetius. To understand the potential target biosynthetic genes critical for the doxorubicin everproduction, a doxorubicin-specific DNA microarray chip was fabricated and applied to reveal the growth-phase-dependent expression profiles of biosynthetic genes from two doxorubicin-overproducing strains along with the wild-type strain. Two doxorubicin-overproducing 5. peucetius strains were generated via over-expression of a dnrl (a doxorubicin-specific positive regulatory gene) and a doxA (a gene involved in the conversion from daunorubicin to doxorubicin) using a streptomycetes high expression vector containing a strong ermE promoter. Each doxorubicin-overproducing strain was quantitatively compared with the wild-type doxorubicin producer based on the growth-phase-dependent doxorubicin productivity as well as doxorubicin biosynthetic gene expression profiles. The doxorubicin-specific DNA microarray chip data revealed the early-and-steady expressions of the doxorubicin-specific regulatory gene (dnrl), the doxorubicin resistance genes (drrA, drrB, drrC), and the doxorubicin deoxysugar biosynthetic gene (dnmL) are critical for the doxorubicin overproduction in S. peucetius. These results provide that the relationship between the growth-phase-dependent doxorubicin productivity and the doxorubicin biosynthetic gene expression profiles should lead us a rational design of molecular genetic strain improvement strategy.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.223-227
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• 2010

RNase E plays a major role in the degradation and processing of a large number of RNA transcripts in Escherichia coli and forms the core component of the degradosome, a large protein complex involved in RNA metabolism. RraA and RraB are recently discovered protein inhibitors of RNase E and are evolutionarily conserved. In this study, we observed that, unlike RraA, overexpression of RraB did not rescue growth arrest of E. coli cells overexpressing RNase E. To examine whether this phenomenon stems from differential inhibitory effects of RraA and RraB on RNase E substrates, we analyzed three in vivo RNase E substrates. The results showed that RraA inhibited RNase E activity more efficiently than RraB on the degradation of RNA I, which controls the copy number of ColE1-type plasmid, and rpsO mRNA encoding ribosomal protein S15, while RraB was unable to inhibit the processing of pM1 RNA, a precursor of the RNA component of RNase P, by RNase E. Our results imply that RraB inhibits RNase E activity in a more substrate-dependent manner than RraA and this property of RraB may explain why overexpression of RraB could not rescue cells overexpressing RNase E from growth arrest.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.411-416
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• 1994

The research is concerned with optimization of growth medium composition in an attempt to improve the product yield of Bacillus licheniformis amylase (BLMA) in recombinant E. coli containing the BLMA gene. BLMA has the catalytic activity of producing branched oligosaccharides from starch. The medium optimization was performed in flask cultures based on the Box and Wilson method. The optimized medium is composed of tryptone 18.0 g/l, yeast extract 22.4 g/l, NaCl 5.3 g/l and glucose 2.1 g/l. In a jar fermenter culture with the conventional LB medium, the recombinant E. coli yielded 1.39 g/l of final dry cell mass and 5.11 U/ml of enzyme activity. In the optimized medium, however, the final cell mass was increased to 6.01 g/l and the enzyme activity to 23.2 U/ml. Medium optimization improved cell mass by 4.3 times and enzyme activity by 4.5 times. Such an increase in enzyme activity is mainly due to an enhancement of cell mass.