• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.590-596
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• 2006

Clavulanic acid (CA) produced by Streptomyces clavuligerus is degraded during the bacterial cultivation. The degradation was examined in three different aspects, including physical, chemical, and enzymatic effects, in order to understand the degradation during the cultivation. The result showed that CA was unstable in the production medium containing ammonium salts and amino acids, owing to ammonium ions and amine groups. In addition, the degradation was not only due to instability of CA by metabolites and proteins, but also enzymes from S. clavuligerus such as $\beta-lactamase$ and penicillin-binding proteins. However, the degradation caused by these enzymes was not highly significant compared with the degradation during the cultivation, owing to irreversible reactions between CA and enzymes.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 1997

To improve the detection of methicillin resistant staphylococci, lowered incubation temperature (30.deg.) and inclusion of sodium chloride in media have been empirically recommended. However, in this study, we found that sodium chloride in Peptone-Yeast Extract-K$\_$2/HPO$\_$4/ (PYK) medium decreased methicillin minimum inhibitory concentrations. Divalent cations were shown to restore the expression of staphylococcal methicillin resistance. However, when it was determined by efficiency of plating, sodium chloride increased methicillin resistance expression on agar medium in which higher divalent cations were contained in the agar medium. The decrease of minimum inhibitory concentrations at 30.deg.C by sodium chloride occurred in Brain Heart Infusion but did not occur in other media investigated. Interestingly, both PYK and Brain Heart Infusion media had peptone, which contain cholic acids having detergent activities. Inclusion of sodium chloride in PYK caused a higher rate of autolysis. Penicillin binding protein 2a that has a low affinity to beta-lactam antibiotics, was highly inducible in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis strains. In this study, we found that autolysins that are activated by the sodium chloride decreased the minimum inhibitory concentration at 30.deg.C, and peptidoglycan is weakened due to the presence of methicillin. Peptone in the media may aggravate the fragile cells. However, stabilization due to the presence of divalent cations and production of penicilin binding protein 2a increase the survival of staphylococci.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.102-111
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• 1996

LB10522 is a new parenteral broad spectrum cephalosporin with a catechol moiety at C-7 position of beta-lactam ring. This compound can utilize tonB-dependent iron transp ort system in addition to porin proteins to enter bacterial periplasmic space and access to penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) which are the lethal targets of ${\beta}$-lactam antibiotics. The chelating activity of LB10522 to metal iron was measured by spectrophotometrically scanning the absorbance from 200 to 900nm. When $FeCl_3$ was added, optical density was increased between 450 and 800nm. LB10522 was more active against gram-negative strains in iron-depleted media than in iron-replete media. This is due to the increased expression of iron transport channels in iron-depleted condition. LB10522 showed a similar activity against E. coli DC2 (permeability mutant) and E. coli DCO (wild type strain) in both iron-depleted and iron-replete media, indicating a minimal permeaility barrier for LB10522 uptake. LB10522 had high affinities to PBP 3 and PBP 1A, 1B of E. coli. By blocking these proteins, LB10522 caused inhibition of cell division and the eventual death of cells. This result was correlated well with the morphological changes in E. coli exposed to LB10522. Although the in vitro MIC of LB10522 against P. aeruginosa 1912E mutant (tonB) was 8-times higher than that of the P. aeruginosa 1912E parent strain, LB10522 showed a similar in vivo protection efficacy against both strains in the mouse systemic infection model. This result suggested that tonB mutant, which requires a high level of iron for normal growth, might have a difficulty in surviving in their host with an iron-limited environment.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.631-635
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• 1993

The polarizability and the transition state energy of a cephalosporin are assumed to be theoretical indices of the permeability through the outer membrane and of reactivity of ${\beta}$ -lactam ring with penicillin binding proteins, respectively, in Gram-negative bacteria. They are computed by AM1 method and used as variables of quantitative structure-activity relationship study. The results justify quadratic dependence of the activity on the variables. The intersection of difference volumes between $\beta-lactamase$ stable cephalosporins and unstable ones manifests that the steric hindrance of 7-side chain is responsible for the ${\beta}$ -lactamase stability.

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2006

Helicobacter pylori is the definitive carcinogen for stomach cancer and is known to induce proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-$\alpha$ (TNF-$\alpha$) and interleukin-1(IL-1) in the stomach. Based on our findings that TNF-$\alpha$ is an endogenous tumor promoter, we identified the TNF-$\alpha$ inducing protein (Tip$\alpha$) gene family, and confirmed Tip$\alpha$ and HP-MP1 as new carcinogenic proteins of H. pylori. Tip$\alpha$ protein is unique to H. pylori, and this paper shows the strong tumor promoting activity of Tip$\alpha$ gene family, in cooperation with Ras protein and its mechanisms of action in relation to NF-${\kappa}B$ activation, and discusses the carcinogenic role of Tip$\alpha$ in stomach cancer. Our recent finding showing that penicillin-binding proteins of other bacteria are weak homologues of Tip$\alpha$ is also discussed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.243-251
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• 2011

The gene bolA was discovered in the 80's, but unraveling its function in the cell has proven to be a complex task. The BolA protein has pleiotropic effects over cell physiology, altering growth and morphology, inducing biofilm formation, and regulating the balance of several membrane proteins. Recently, BolA was shown to be a transcription factor by repressing the expression of the mreB gene. The present report shows that BolA is a transcriptional regulator of the dacA and dacC genes, thus regulating both DD-carboxypeptidases PBP5 and PBP6 and thereby demonstrating the versatility of BolA as a cellular regulator. In this work, we also demonstrate that reduction of cell growth and survival can be connected to the overexpression of the bolA gene in different E. coli backgrounds, particularly in the exponential growth phase. The most interesting finding is that overproduction of BolA affects bacterial growth differently depending on whether the cells were inoculated directly from a plate culture or from an overnight batch culture. This strengthens the idea that BolA can be engaged in the coordination of genes that adapt the cell physiology in order to enhance cell adaptation and survival under stress conditions.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.227-232
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• 2015

A microarray study has been employed to understand changes of gene expression in E. coli KD43162 resistant to ampicillin, ampicillin-sulbactam, piperacillin, piperacillin-tazobactam, cefazolin, cefepime, aztreonam, imipenem, meropenem, gentamicin, tobramycin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, fosfomycin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole except for amikacin using disk diffusion assay. Using Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF MS analyses, 36 kDa of outer membrane proteins (OMPs) was found to be deleted in the multidrug resistant E. coli KD 43162. Microarray analysis was used to determine up- and down-regulated genes in relation to multidrug resistant E. coli KD43162. Among the up-regulated genes, these genes were corresponded to express the proteins as penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs), tartronate semialdehyde reductase, ethanolamine utilization protein, shikimate kinase I, allantoinase, predicted SAM-dependent methyltransferase, L-glutamine: D-fructose-6-phosphate aminotransferase (GFAT), phospho-glucosamine mutase, predicted N-acetylmannosamine kinase, and predicted N-acetylmannosamine-6-P epimerase. Up-regulation of PBPs, one of primary target sites of antibiotics, might be responsible for the multidrug resistance in E. coli with increasing amount of target sites. Up-regulation of GFAT enzyme may be related to the up-regulation of PBPs because GFAT produces N-acetylglucosamine, a precursor of peptidoglycans. One of GFAT inhibitors, azaserine, showed a potent inhibition on the growth of E. coli KD43162. In conclusion, up-regulation of PBPs and GFATs with the loss of 36 kDa OMP refers the multidrug resistance in E. coli KD 43162.