• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.281-291
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• 2003

In this review, we described the catalogues of the rice proteome which were constructed in our program, and functional characterization of some of these proteins was discussed. Mass-spectrometry is the most prevalent technique to rapidly identify a large number of proteome analysis. However, the conventional Western blotting/sequencing technique has been used in many laboratories. As a first step to efficiently construct protein cata-file in proteome analysis of major cereals, we have analyzed the N-terminal sequences of 100 rice embryo proteins and 70 wheat spike proteins separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Edman degradation revealed the N-terminal peptide sequences of only 31 rice proteins and 47 wheat proteins, suggesting that the rest of separated protein sports are N-terminally blocked. To efficiently determine the internal sequence of blocked proteins, we have developed a modified Cleveland peptide mapping method. Using this above method, the internal sequences of all blocked rice proteins(i, e., 69 proteins) were determined. Among these 100 rice proteins, thirty were proteins for which homologous sequence in the rice genome database could be identified. However, the rest of the proteins lacked homologous proteins. This appears to be consistent with the fact that about 45% of total rice cDNA have been deposited in the EMBL database. Also, the major proteins involved in the growth and development of rice can be identified using the proteome approach. Some of these proteins, including a calcium-binding protein that tuned out to be calreticulin, gibberellin-binding protein, which is ribulose-1.5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygense active in rice, and leginsulin-binding protein in soybean have functions in the signal transduction pathway. Proteomics is well suited not only to determine interaction between pairs of proteins, but also to identify multisubunit complexes. Currently, a protein-protein interaction database for plant proteins(http://genome.c.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/Y2H)could be a very useful tool for the plant research community. Also, the information thus obtained from the plant proteome would be helpful in predicting the function of the unknown proteins and would be useful be in the plant molecular breeding.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.344-350
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• 2006

Thermoplasma acidophilum is a thermoacidophilic archaeon that grows optimally at $59^{\circ}C$ and pH 2. Along with another thermoacidophilic archaeon, Sulfolobus solfataricus, it is known to metabolize glucose by the non-phosphorylated Entner-Doudoroff (nED) pathway. In the course of these studies, the specific activities of glyceraldehyde dehydrogenase and glycerate kinase, two enzymes that are involved in the downstream part of the nED pathway, were found to be much higher in T. acidophilum than in S. solfataricus. To characterize glycerate kinase, the enzyme was purified to homogeneity from T. acidophilum cell extracts. The N-terminal sequence of the purified enzyme was in exact agreement with that of Ta0453m in the genome database, with the removal of the initiator methionine. Furthermore, the enzyme was a monomer with a molecular weight of 49kDa and followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics with $K_m$ values of 0.56 and 0.32mM for DL-glycerate and ATP, respectively. The enzyme also exhibited excellent thermal stability at $70^{\circ}C$. Of the seven sugars and four phosphate donors tested, only DL-glycerate and ATP were utilized by glycerate kinase as substrates. In addition, a coupled enzyme assay indicated that 2-phosphoglycerate was produced as a product. When divalent metal ions, such as $Mn^{2+},\;CO^{2+},\;Ni^{2+},\;Zn^{2+},\;Ca^{2+},\;and\;Sr^{2+}$, were substituted for $Mg^{2+}$ the enzyme activities were less than 10% of that obtained in the presence of $Mg^{2+}$. The amino acid sequence of T. acidophilum glycerate kinase showed no similarity with E. coli glycerate kinases, which belong to the first glycerate kinase family. This is the first report on the biochemical characterization of an enzyme which belongs to a member of the second glycerate kinase family.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.692-702
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• 2015

Lactobacillus mucosae is a natural resident of the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals and a potential probiotic bacterium. To understand the global protein expression profile and metabolic features of L. mucosae LM1 in the early stationary phase, the QExactive^TM Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer was used. Characterization of the intracellular proteome identified 842 proteins, accounting for approximately 35% of the 2,404 protein-coding sequences in the complete genome of L. mucosae LM1. Proteome quantification using QExactive^TM Orbitrap MS detected 19 highly abundant proteins (> 1.0% of the intracellular proteome), including CysK (cysteine synthase, 5.41%) and EF-Tu (elongation factor Tu, 4.91%), which are involved in cell survival against environmental stresses. Metabolic pathway annotation of LM1 proteome using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database showed that half of the proteins expressed are important for basic metabolic and biosynthetic processes, and the other half might be structurally important or involved in basic cellular processes. In addition, glycogen biosynthesis was activated in the early stationary phase, which is important for energy storage and maintenance. The proteogenomic data presented in this study provide a suitable reference to understand the protein expression pattern of lactobacilli in standard conditions

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.20.1-20.10
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• 2023

Aromatase inhibitors (AI) are drugs that are widely used in treating estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer patients. Drug resistance is a major obstacle to aromatase inhibition therapy. There are diverse reasons behind acquired AI resistance. This study aims at identifying the plausible cause of acquired AI resistance in patients administered with non-steroidal AIs (anastrozole and letrozole). We used genomic, transcriptomic, epigenetic, and mutation data of breast invasive carcinoma from The Cancer Genomic Atlas database. The data was then separated into sensitive and resistant sets based on patients' responsiveness to the non-steroidal AIs. A sensitive set of 150 patients and a resistant set of 172 patients were included for the study. These data were collectively analyzed to probe into the factors that might be responsible for AI resistance. We identified 17 differentially regulated genes (DEGs) among the two groups. Then, methylation, mutation, miRNA, copy number variation, and pathway analyses were performed for these DEGs. The top mutated genes (FGFR3, CDKN2A, RNF208, MAPK4, MAPK15, HSD3B1, CRYBB2, CDC20B, TP53TG5, and MAPK8IP3) were predicted. We also identified a key miRNA - hsa-mir-1264 regulating the expression of CDC20B. Pathway analysis revealed HSD3B1 to be involved in estrogen biosynthesis. This study reveals the involvement of key genes that might be associated with the development of AI resistance in ER-positive breast cancers and hence may act as a potential prognostic and diagnostic biomarker for these patients.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.315-325
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• 2023

Background and Objectives: Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive primary brain tumor characterized by its heterogeneity and high recurrence and lethality rates. Glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) play a crucial role in therapy resistance and tumor recurrence. Therefore, targeting GSCs is a key objective in developing effective treatments for GBM. The role of Parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP) in GBM and its impact on GSCs remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effect of PTHrP on GSCs and its potential as a therapeutic target for GBM. Methods and Results: Using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, we found higher expression of PTHrP in GBM, which correlated inversely with survival. GSCs were established from three human GBM samples obtained after surgical resection. Exposure to recombinant human PTHrP protein (rPTHrP) at different concentrations significantly enhanced GSCs viability. Knockdown of PTHrP using target-specific siRNA (siPTHrP) inhibited tumorsphere formation and reduced the number of BrdU-positive cells. In an orthotopic xenograft mouse model, suppression of PTHrP expression led to significant inhibition of tumor growth. The addition of rPTHrP in the growth medium counteracted the antiproliferative effect of siPTHrP. Further investigation revealed that PTHrP increased cAMP concentration and activated the PKA signaling pathway. Treatment with forskolin, an adenylyl cyclase activator, nullified the antiproliferative effect of siPTHrP. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that PTHrP promotes the proliferation of patient-derived GSCs by activating the cAMP/PKA signaling pathway. These results uncover a novel role for PTHrP and suggest its potential as a therapeutic target for GBM treatment.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.249-255
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• 2022

Metabolism is essential for survival and reproduction, and there is a metabolic pathways entry in the clusters of orthologous groups of proteins (COGs) database, updated in 2020. In this study, the metabolic pathways of 1309 prokaryotes were analyzed using COGs. There were 822 COGs associated with 63 metabolic pathways, and the mean for each taxon was between 200.50 (mollicutes) and 527.07 (cyanobacteria) COGs. The metabolic pathway composition ratio (MPCR) was defined as the number of COGs present in one genome in relation to the total number of COGs constituting each metabolic pathway, and the number of pathways with 100% MPCR ranged from 0 to 26 in each prokaryote. Among 1309 species, the 100% MPCR pathways included murein biosynthesis associated with cell wall synthesis (922 species); glycine cleavage (918); and ribosomal 30S subunit synthesis (903). The metabolic pathways with 0% MPCR were those involving photosystem I (1263 species); archaea/vacuolar-type ATP synthase (1028); and Na⁺-translocation NADH dehydrogenase (976). Depending on the prokaryote, three to 49 metabolic pathways could not be performed at all. The sequence of most highly conserved metabolic pathways was ribosome 30S subunit synthesis (96.1% of 1309 species); murein biosynthesis (86.8%); arginine biosynthesis (80.4%); serine biosynthesis (80.3%); and aminoacyl-tRNA synthesis (82.2%). Protein and cell wall synthesis have been shown to be important metabolic pathways in prokaryotes, and the results of this study of COGs related to such pathways can be utilized in, for example, the development of antibiotics and artificial cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.12-27
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• 2004

Thanks to spectacular advances in the techniques for identifying proteins separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis and in methods for large-scale analysis of proteome variations, proteomics is becoming an essential methodology in various fields of plant sciences. Plant proteomics would be most useful when combined with other functional genomics tools and approaches. A combination of microarray and proteomics analysis will indicate whether gene regulation is controlled at the level of transcription or translation and protein accumulation. In this review, we described the catalogues of the rice proteome which were constructed in our program, and functional characterization of some of these proteins was discussed. Mass-spectrometry is a most prevalent technique to identify rapidly a large of proteins in proteome analysis. However, the conventional Western blotting/sequencing technique us still used in many laboratories. As a first step to efficiently construct protein data-file in proteome analysis of major cereals, we have analyzed the N-terminal sequences of 100 rice embryo proteins and 70 wheat spike proteins separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Edman degradation revealed the N-terminal peptide sequences of only 31 rice proteins and 47 wheat proteins, suggesting that the rest of separated protein spots are N-terminally blocked. To efficiently determine the internal sequence of blocked proteins, we have developed a modified Cleveland peptide mapping method. Using this above method, the internal sequences of all blocked rice proteins (i. e., 69 proteins) were determined. Among these 100 rice proteins, thirty were proteins for which homologous sequence in the rice genome database could be identified. However, the rest of the proteins lacked homologous proteins. This appears to be consistent with the fact that about 30% of total rice cDNA have been deposited in the database. Also, the major proteins involved in the growth and development of rice can be identified using the proteome approach. Some of these proteins, including a calcium-binding protein that fumed out to be calreticulin, gibberellin-binding protein, which is ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activate in rice, and leginsulin-binding protein in soybean have functions in the signal transduction pathway. Proteomics is well suited not only to determine interaction between pairs of proteins, but also to identify multisubunit complexes. Currently, a protein-protein interaction database for plant proteins (http://genome .c .kanazawa-u.ac.jp/Y2H)could be a very useful tool for the plant research community. Recently, we are separated proteins from grain filling and seed maturation in rice to perform ESI-Q-TOF/MS and MALDI-TOF/MS. This experiment shows a possibility to easily and rapidly identify a number of 2-DE separated proteins of rice by ESI-Q-TOF/MS and MALDI-TOF/MS. Therefore, the Information thus obtained from the plant proteome would be helpful in predicting the function of the unknown proteins and would be useful in the plant molecular breeding. Also, information from our study could provide a venue to plant breeder and molecular biologist to design their research strategies precisely.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.267-275
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• 2021

Objectives : Previously, we reported that compound K isolated from fermented ginseng by Aspillus oryzae has a wide biochemical and pharmacological effect, including anti-cancer activity in prostate cancer PC-3 cells. Despite these findings, its signaling pathway and gene expression pattern are not clearly understood. Methods : To confirm the gene expression study of treated with compound K in PC-3 cells, a cDNA microarray chip composed of 44K human cDNA probes was used. MTT assay, western blot analysis, propidium iodide staining, and annexin V/propidium iodide staining were analyzed. Results : We confirmed the differences of gene expression profiles. Then, we analyzed with the cell cycle arrest, cell death and cell proliferation related genes using DAVID database. Conclusions : Our finding should be useful for understanding genome-wide expression patterns of compound K-mediated cell cycle arrest toward induction of cell death and be helpful for finding future cancer therapeutic targets for prostate cancer cells.

• International journal of thyroidology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.152-159
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• 2018

Background and Objectives: Sodium-iodine symporter (NIS) is a marker for the degree of differentiation in thyroid cancer. The genetic factors or microenvironment surrounding tumors can affect transcription of NIS. In this study, we investigated the NIS mRNA expression according to mutational status and coexistent lymphocytic thyroiditis in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Materials and Methods: The RNA expression levels of NIS in the samples from database of The Caner Genome Atlas (TCGA; n=494) and our institute (n=125) were analyzed. Results: The PTCs with the $BRAF^{V600E}$ mutation and the coexistence of $BRAF^{V600E}$ and TERT promoter mutations showed significantly lower expression of NIS (p<0.001, respectively), and those with BRAF-like molecular subtype also had reduced expression of NIS (p<0.001). NIS expression showed a positive correlation with thyroid differentiation score (r=0.593, p<0.001) and negative correlations with expressions of genes involved in ERK signaling (r=-0.164, p<0.001) and GLUT-1 gene (r=-0.204, p<0.001). The PTCs with lymphocytic thyroiditis showed significantly higher NIS expression (p=0.013), regardless of mutational status. Conclusion: The NIS expression was reduced by the $BRAF^{V600E}$ mutation and MAPK/ERK pathway activation, but restored by the presence of lymphocytic thyroiditis.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.46.1-46.10
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• 2023

Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is the predominant type of colorectal cancer. Early diagnosis and treatment can significantly improve the prognosis of COAD patients. Anoctamin 7 (ANO7), an anion channel protein, has been implicated in prostate cancer and other types of cancer. In this study, we analyzed the expression of ANO7 and its correlation with clinicopathological characteristics among COAD patients using the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis 2 (GEPIA2) and the University of Alabama at Birmingham CANcer (UALCAN) databases. The GEPIA2, Kaplan-Meier plotter, and the Survival Genie platform were employed for survival analysis. The co-expression network and potential function of ANO7 in COAD were analyzed using GeneFriends, the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID), GeneMANIA, and Pathway Studio. Our data analysis revealed a significant reduction in ANO7 expression levels within COAD tissues compared to normal tissues. Additionally, ANO7 expression was found to be associated with race and histological subtype. The COAD patients exhibiting low ANO7 expression had lower survival rates compared to those with high ANO7 expression. The genes correlated with ANO7 were significantly enriched in proteolysis and mucin type O-glycan biosynthesis pathway. Furthermore, ANO7 demonstrated a direct interaction and a positive co-expression correlation with mucin 2 (MUC2). In conclusion, our findings suggest that ANO7 might serve as a potential prognostic biomarker and potentially plays a role in proteolysis and mucin biosynthesis in the context of COAD.