• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.45-47
• /
• 2000

Nonactin, known as an ionophore antibiotic, was antagonized by the actibity of quercetin, an oxygen radical scavenger. This compound generated superoxide radicals in Bacillus subtilis lysates. A recombination-deficient mutant strain of B. subtilis was more sensitive than a wild strain, and this hypersensitivity was reduced in the presence of dithiothreitol as an antioxidant. These results suggest that superoxide radical is important in the antibacterial action of this agent.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.15-18
• /
• 1998

The entanol productivity of superoxide dismutase (SOD)-deficient mutants of Saccharo-Myces cerevisiae was examined under the oxidative stress by Paraquat. It was observed that MnSOD-deficient mutant of S. cerevisiae had higher ethanol productivity than wild type or CuZnSOD-deficient yeast both in aerobic and in anaerobic culture condition. Pyruvated dehydrogenase activity decreased by 35% and alcohol dehydrogenase activity increased by 32% were observed in MnSOD-deficient yeast grown aerobically. When generating oxygen radicals by Paraquat, the ehanol productivity was increased by 40% in CuZnSOD-deficient or wild strain, resulting from increased activity of alcohol dehydrogenase and decreased a activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase. However, the addition of ascorbic acid with Paraquat returned the enzyme activities at the level of control. These results imply that SOD-deficiency in yeast strains may cause the metabolic flux to shift into anaerobic ethanol fermentation in order to avoid their oxidative damages by Paraquat.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.295-299
• /
• 1998

HSP104 protein in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is known to provide thermotolerance when induced by various kinds of stresses, such as a mild heat shock, ethanol, and hypoxia. It helps cells survive at an otherwise lethal temperature. Mechanisms by which HSP104 protein works are yet to be elucidated. In order to understand a molecular basis of thermotolerance due to HSP104 protein induced by a mild heat shock, studies on respiratory pathways were carried out in the wild type as well as in the hsp104 deleted mutant. Especially the degree of 13C-acetate incorporation into glutamate-C4 was examined for both strains using 13C-13C homonuclear spin coupling measurements, since glutamate is in a rapid equilibrium with α-ketoglutarate in the TCA cycle. In addition, the temperature effects on the rate of 13C incorporation are compared with or without HSP104 protein expressed. Finally, the inhibitory effect of HSP104 on the respiration pathway was confirmed by the measurements of oxygen consumption rates for both strains.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.16 no.11
• /
• pp.1690-1698
• /
• 2006

In order to investigate the effect of dissolved oxygen (DO) level on AVM $B_{1a}$ production by a high yielding mutant of Streptomyces avermitilis, five sets of bioreactor cultures were performed under variously controlled DO levels. Using an online computer control system, the agitation speed and aeration rate were automatically controlled in an adaptive manner, responding timely to the oxygen requirement of the producer microorganism. In the two cultures of DO limitation, the onset of AVM $B_{1a}$ biosynthesis was observed to casually coincide with the fermentation time when oxygen-limited conditions were overcome by the producing microorganism. In contrast, this phenomenon did not occur in the parallel fermentations with DO levels controlled at around 30% and 40% throughout the entire fermentation period, showing an almost growth-associated mode of AVM $B_{1a}$ production: AVM $B_{1a}$ biosynthesis under the environments of high DO levels started much earlier than the corresponding oxygen-limited cultures, leading to a significant enhancement of AVM $B_{1a}$ production during the exponential stage. Consequently, approximately 6-fold and 9-fold increases in the final AVM $B_{1a}$ production were obtained in 30% and 40% DO-controlled fermentations, respectively, especially when compared with the culture of severe DO limitation (the culture with 0% DO level during the exponential phase). The production yield ($Y_{p/x}$), volumetric production rate (Qp), and specific production rate (${\bar{q}}_p$) of the 40% DO-controlled culture were observed to be 14%, 15%, and 15% higher, respectively, than those of the parallel cultures that were performed under an excessive agitation speed (350 rpm) and aeration rate (1 vvm) to maintain sufficiently high DO levels throughout the entire fermentation period. These results suggest that high shear damage of the high-yielding strain due to an excessive agitation speed is the primary reason for the reduction of the AVM $B_{1a}$ biosynthetic capability of the producer. As for the cell growth, exponential growth patterns during the initial 3 days were observed in the fermentations of sufficient DO levels, whereas almost linear patterns of cell growth were observed in the other two cultures of DO limitation during the identical period, resulting in apparently lower amounts of DCW. These results led us to conclude that maintenance of optimum DO levels, but not too high to cause potential shear damage on the producer, was crucial not only for the cell growth, but also for the enhanced production of AVM $B_{1a}$ by the filamentous mycelial cells of Streptomyces avermitilis.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.290-294
• /
• 2002

The present work describes the improvement of an erythritol-producing strain to lower the formation of glycerol, which is a characteristic by-product of the strain and could cause difficulties in the recovery and purification of the final product. The yeast-like fungi Moniliella suaveolens var. nigra, isolated previously in the same laboratory from beehives, was mutated by exposing it to a 4 g/L NTG solution. From a total of 2000 mutated strains, Em6j30-14 was selected as the one having the most desirable properties. Cultivating the strain for seven days in 300 mL flasks containing 30 mL of a 400 g/L glucose medium resulted in an erythritol yield of 43%. The glycerol yield was 5%, which is a value 50% lower as compared with the wild type. However, attempts to reproduce the above results in a 5L-fermenter failed, resulting in a similar erythritol concentration but a much higher formation of glycerol. Possible reasons for such a different behaviour could be oxygen limitation or the aggregation of cells, but the exact mechanism could not yet be identified. Foam formation, which is another major problem in large-scale fermentation, tended to be much lower for the mutant strain.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.1024-1032
• /
• 2008

Efficient expression of the Salmonella Typhimurium tdc ABCDEG operon involved in the degradation of L-serine and L-threonine requires TdcA, the transcriptional activator of the tdc operon. We found that the tdcA gene was transiently activated when the bacterial growth condition was changed from aerobic to anaerobic, but this was not observed if Salmonella was grown anaerobically from the beginning of the culture. Expression kinetics of six tdc genes after anaerobic shock demonstrated by a real-time PCR assay showed that the tdc CDEG genes were not induced in the tdcA mutant but tdcB maintained its inducibility by anaerobic shock even in the absence of tdcA, suggesting that an additional unknown transcriptional regulation may be working for the tdcB expression. We also investigated the effects of nucleoid-associated proteins by primer extension analysis and found that H-NS repressed tdcA under anaerobic shock conditions, and fis mutation delayed the peak expression time of the tdc operon. DNA microarray analysis of genes regulated by TdcA revealed that the genes involved in N-acetylmannosamine, maltose, and propanediol utilization were significantly induced in a tdcA mutant. These findings suggest that Tdc enzymes may playa pivotal role in energy metabolism under a sudden change of oxygen tension.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.101-111
• /
• 2017

The task of improving a fungal strain is highly time-consuming due to the requirement of a large number of flasks in order to obtain a library with enough diversity. In addition, fermentations (particularly those for fungal cells) are typically performed in high-volume (100-250 ml) shake-flasks. In this study, for large and rapid screening of itaconic acid (IA) high-yielding mutants of Aspergillus terreus, a miniaturized culture method was developed using 12-well and 24-well microtiter plates (MTPs, working volume = 1-2 ml). These miniaturized MTP fermentations were successful, only when highly filamentous forms were induced in the growth cultures. Under these conditions, loose-pelleted morphologies of optimum sizes (less than 0.5 mm in diameter) were casually induced in the MTP production cultures, which turned out to be the prerequisite for the active IA biosynthesis by the mutated strains in the miniaturized fermentations. Another crucial factor for successful MTP fermentation was to supply an optimal amount of dissolved oxygen into the fermentation broth through increasing the agitation speed (240 rpm) and reducing the working volume (1 ml) of each 24-well microtiter plate. Notably, almost identical fermentation physiologies resulted in the 250 ml shake-flasks, as well as in the 12-well and 24-well MTP cultures conducted under the respective optimum conditions, as expressed in terms of the distribution of IA productivity of each mutant. These results reveal that MTP cultures could be considered as viable alternatives for the labor-intensive shake-flask fermentations even for filamentous fungal cells, leading to the rapid development of IA high-yield mutant strains.

• Mycobiology
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.145-148
• /
• 2013

Vegetative growth signaling of the opportunistic human pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus is mediated by GpaA ($G{\alpha}$). FlbA is a regulator of G protein signaling, which attenuates GpaA-mediated growth signaling in this fungus. The flbA deletion (${\Delta}flbA$) and the constitutively active GpaA ($GpaA^{Q204L}$) mutants exhibit enhanced proliferation, precocious autolysis, and reduced asexual sporulation. In this study, we demonstrate that both mutants also show enhanced tolerance against $H_2O_2$ and their radial growth was approximately 1.6 fold higher than that of wild type (WT) in medium with 10 mM $H_2O_2$. We performed quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) for examination of mRNA levels of three catalase encoding genes (catA, cat1, and cat2) in WT and the two mutants. According to the results, while levels of spore-specific catA mRNA were comparable among the three strains, cat1 and cat2 mRNA levels were significantly higher in the two mutants than in WT. In particular, the ${\Delta}flbA$ mutant showed significantly enhanced and prolonged expression of cat1 and precocious expression of cat2. In accordance with this result, activity of the Cat1 protein in the ${\Delta}flbA$ mutant was higher than that of $gpaA^{Q204L}$ and WT strains. For activity of the Cat2 protein, both mutants began to show enhanced activity at 48 and 72 hr of growth compared to WT. These results lead to the conclusion that GpaA activates expression and activity of cat1 and cat2, whereas FlbA plays an antagonistic role in control of catalases, leading to balanced responses to neutralizing the toxicity of reactive oxygen species.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.23 no.12
• /
• pp.1773-1777
• /
• 2002

Reactive oxygen species(ROS) have been investigated to have pivotal roles on amyloidogenecity of $\beta-amyloidpeptide(A\beta)$, the major component of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease(AD) brain. Addition of radical scavengers is one of the on-going strategies for therapeutic treatment for AD patients. Hsp104 protein including two ATP binding sites from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as a molecular chaperone, was known to function as a protector of ROS generation when exposed to oxidative stress in our previous study. This observation has led us to investigate Hsp104 protein as a molecular mediator of $A{\beta}$ aggregation in this study. We have developed a new way of expression for Hsp104 protein using GST-fusion tag. As we expected, formation of $A{\beta}$ aggregate was protected by wild type Hsp104 protein, but not by the two ATP-binding site mutant, based on Thioflavin-T fluorescence. Interestingly, Hsp104 protein was observed to keep $A{\beta}$ from forming aggregates independent of ATP binding. On the other hand, disaggregation of $A{\beta}$ aggregates by wild type Hsp104 was totally dependent on the presence of ATP. On the other hand, mutant Hsp104 with two ATP binding sites altered exhibited no inhibition. Another effective antioxidant, hydrazine analogs of curcumin were also effective in $A{\beta}$ fibrilization as protectors against oxidative stress. Based on these observations we conclude that Hsp104 and curcumin derivatives, as protectors of oxidative stress, inhibit $A{\beta}$ aggregation in virto and can be candidates for therapeutic approaches in cure of some neurodegenerative disease.

• Mycobiology
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.382-387
• /
• 2018

The entomopathogenic fungus Cordyceps militaris is a valuable medicinal ascomycete, which degenerates frequently during subsequent culture. To avoid economic losses during industrialized production, scratching stimuli of mycelia was introduced to improve the fruiting body production. The present results indicated that higher yields and biological efficiency were obtained from two degenerate strains (YN1-14 and YN2-7) but not from g38 (an insertional mutant in Rhf1 gene with higher yields and shorter growth periods). Furthermore, the growth periods of the fruiting bodies were at least 5 days earlier when the mycelia were scratched before stromata differentiation. Three ROS-scavenging genes including Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (CmSod1), Glutathione peroxidase (CmGpx), and Catalase A (CmCat A) were isolated and their expression profiles against scratching were determined in degenerate strain YN1-14 and mutant strain g38. At day 5 after scratching, the expression level of CmGpx significantly decreased for strain g38, but that of CmSod1 significantly increased for YN1-14. These results indicated that scratching is an effective way to promote fruiting body production of degenerate strain, which may be related at least with Rhf1 and active oxygen scavenging genes.