• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.570-575
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• 2004

2-Hydroxymuconic semialdehyde (2-HMS) dehydrogenase catalyzes the conversion of 2-HMS to 4-oxalocrotonate, which is a step in the meta cleavage pathway of aromatic hydrocarbons in bacteria. A tomC gene that encodes 2-HMS dehydrogenase of Burkholderia cepacia G4, a soil bacterium that can grow on toluene, cresol, phenol, or benzene, was overexpressed into E. coli HB 101, and its gene product was characterized in this study. 2-HMS dehydrogenase from B. cepacia G4 has a high catalytic efficiency in terms of V$_{max}$K$_{max}$ towards 2-hydroxy-5-methyl-muconic semialdehyde followed by 2-HMS but has a very low efficiency for 5-chloro-2-hydroxymuconic semialdehyde. However, the enzyme did not utilize 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-hepta 2,4-dienoic acid and 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-6-phenylhexa-2,4-dienoic acid as substrates. The molecular weight of 2-HMS dehydrogenase from B. cepacia G4 was predicted to be 52 kDa containing 485 amino acid residues from the nucleotide sequence of the tomC gene, and it exhibited the highest identity of 78% with the amino acid sequence of 2-HMS dehydrogenase that is encoded in the aphC gene of Comamonas testosteroni TA441. 2-HMS dehydrogenase from B. cepacia G4 showed a significant phylogenetic relationship not only with other 2-HMS dehydrogenases, but also with different dehydrogenases from evolutionarily distant organisms.sms.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2001

Protein carboxyl Ο-methylation is a kind of enzymatic reaction producing carboxyl methylester catalyzed by protein carboxyl Ο-methyltransferases at the carboxyl group of amino acid residues in polypeptide. Since the finding of carboxyl methylesterl many studies have been focused on the under-standing of biological functions in eukaryotes but still not clear except for roles in Ras attachment to membrane and protein repair. In this study, we investigated the protein carboxyl methylation in porcine liver and testis in respect of identification and characterization of carboxyl methylesters and natural proteinous substrates using pH stability of the esters and electrophoresis under acidic and basic conditions. We detected several kinds of methyl esters, 3 kinds each in cytosolic fractions from liver and testis. Under the treatment of strong acid and base, the ratio between base-stable substrates and unstable ones in liver (4 : 6) was different from the ratio obtained in testis (6 : 4). The methyl accepting capacities were affected by enzymatic proteolysis between the range of 55 to 65% in liver and of 35 to 45% in testis. Separation of the methylated proteins by acidic electrophoresis in the presence of urea and SDS revealed distinctively natural substrates of 26, 33 and 80 kD in the cytosol from liver and of 14, 25, 32 and 86 kD from testis. Most of the labelling, however were lost following electrophoresis under moderate alkaline condition, except for molecules of newly detected 7 and 17 kD in livers and 15, 29, 40 and 80 kD in testis. From these results, it was proposed that protein carboxyl Ο-methylation in each organs may be catalyzed by different classes of protein carboxyl Ο-methyltransferases. In addition, it is suggested that the protein carboxyl methylation in liver and testis may have different patterns in respect of natural substrates.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.475-486
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• 2005

Fungal secondary metabolites constitute a wide variety of compounds which either playa vital role in agricultural, pharmaceutical and industrial contexts, or have devastating effects on agriculture, animal and human affairs by virtue of their toxigenicity. Owing to their beneficial and deleterious characteristics, these complex compounds and the genes responsible for their synthesis have been the subjects of extensive investigation by microbiologists and pharmacologists. A majority of the fungal secondary metabolic genes are classified as type I polyketide synthases (PKS) which are often clustered with other secondary metabolism related genes. In this review we discuss on the significance of our recent discovery of chalcone synthase (CHS) genes belonging to the type III PKS superfamily in an industrially important fungus, Aspergillus oryzae. CHS genes are known to playa vital role in the biosynthesis of flavonoids in plants. A comparative genome analyses revealed the unique character of A. oryzae with four CHS-like genes (csyA, csyB, csyC and csyD) amongst other Aspergilli (Aspergillus nidulans and Aspergillus fumigatus) which contained none of the CHS-like genes. Some other fungi such as Neurospora crassa, Fusarium graminearum, Magnaporthe grisea, Podospora anserina and Phanerochaete chrysosporium also contained putative type III PKSs, with a phylogenic distinction from bacteria and plants. The enzymatically active nature of these newly discovered homologues is expected owing to the conservation in the catalytic residues across the different species of plants and fungi, and also by the fact that a majority of these genes (csyA, csyB and csyD) were expressed in A. oryzae. While this finding brings filamentous fungi closer to plants and bacteria which until recently were the only ones considered to possess the type III PKSs, the presence of putative genes encoding other principal enzymes involved in the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis (viz., phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, cinnamic acid hydroxylase and p-coumarate CoA ligase) in the A. oryzae genome undoubtedly prove the extent of its metabolic diversity. Since many of these genes have not been identified earlier, knowledge on their corresponding products or activities remain undeciphered. In future, it is anticipated that these enzymes may be reasonable targets for metabolic engineering in fungi to produce agriculturally and nutritionally important metabolites.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1845-1854
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• 2016

The transglycosylation activity of amylosucrase (ASase) has received significant attention owing to its use of an inexpensive donor, sucrose, and broad acceptor specificity, including glycone and aglycone compounds. The transglycosylation reaction of recombinant ASase from Deinococcus radiopugnans (DRpAS) was investigated using various phenolic compounds, and quercetin-3-O-rutinoside (rutin) was found to be the most suitable acceptor molecule used by DRpAS. Two amino acid residues in DRpAS variants (DRpAS Q299K and DRpAS Q299R), assumed to be involved in acceptor binding, were constructed by site-directed mutagenesis. Intriguingly, DRpAS Q299K and DRpAS Q299R produced 10-fold and 4-fold higher levels of rutin transglycosylation product than did the wild-type (WT) DRpAS, respectively. According to in silico molecular docking analysis, the lysine residue at position 299 in the mutants enables rutin to more easily position inside the active pocket of the mutant enzyme than in that of the WT, due to conformational changes in loop 4.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.194-202
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• 2014

Background: Ginsenosides, the major ingredients of Panax ginseng, have been studied for many decades in Asian countries as a result of their wide range of pharmacological properties. The less polar ginsenosides, with one or two sugar residues, are not present in nature and are produced during manufacturing processes by methods such as heating, steaming, acid hydrolysis, and enzyme reactions. $^1H$-NMR and $^{13}C$-NMR spectroscopic data for the identification of the less polar ginsenosides are often unavailable or incomplete. Methods: We isolated 21 compounds, including 10 pairs of 20(S) and 20(R) less polar ginsenosides (1-20), and an oleanane-type triterpene (21) from a processed ginseng preparation and obtained complete $^1H$-NMR and $^{13}C$-NMR spectroscopic data for the following compounds, referred to as compounds 1-21 for rapid identification: 20(S)-ginsenosides Rh2 (1), 20(R)-Rh2 (2), 20(S)-Rg3 (3), 20(R)-Rg3 (4), 6'-O-acetyl-20(S)-Rh2 [20(S)-AcetylRh2] (5), 20(R)-AcetylRh2 (6), 25-hydroxy-20(S)-Rh2 (7), 25-hydroxy-20(S)-Rh2 (8), 20(S)-Rh1 (9), 20(R)-Rh1 (10), 20(S)-Rg2 (11), 20(R)-Rg2 (12), 25-hydroxy-20(S)-Rh1 (13), 25-hydroxy-20(R)-Rh1 (14), 20(S)-AcetylRg2 (15), 20(R)-AcetylRg2 (16), Rh4 (17), Rg5 (18), Rk1 (19), 25-hydroxy-Rh4 (20), and oleanolic acid 28-O-b-D-glucopyranoside (21).

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.418-424
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• 2012

This study focused on the enzymatic biotransformation of the major ginsenoside Rb1 into Rd for the mass production of minor ginsenosides using a novel recombinant ${\beta}$-glucosidase from Flavobacterium johnsoniae. The gene (bglF3) consisting of 2,235 bp (744 amino acid residues) was cloned and the recombinant enzyme overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) was characterized. This enzyme could transform ginsenoside Rb1 and gypenoside XVII to the ginsenosides Rd and F2, respectively. The glutathione S-transferase (GST) fused BglF3 was purified with GST-bind agarose resin and characterized. The kinetic parameters for ${\beta}$-glucosidase had apparent $K_m$ values of $0.91{\pm}0.02$ and $2.84{\pm}0.05$ mM and $V_{max}$ values of $5.75{\pm}0.12$ and $0.71{\pm}0.01{\mu}mol{\cdot}min^{-1}{\cdot}mg$ of $protein^{-1}$ against p-nitrophenyl-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranoside and Rb1, respectively. At optimal conditions of pH 6.0 and $37^{\circ}C$, BglF3 could only hydrolyze the outer glucose moiety of ginsenoside Rb1 and gypenoside XVII at the C-20 position of aglycon into ginsenosides Rd and F2, respectively. These results indicate that the recombinant BglF3 could be useful for the mass production of ginsenosides Rd and F2 in the pharmaceutical or cosmetic industry.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.378-384
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• 1998

The processing pathway of G-proteins and Ras family proteins includes the isoprenylation of the cysteine residue, followed by proteolysis of three terminal residues and .alpha.-carboxyl methyl esterification of the cysteine residue. Farnesylcysteine methyltransferase (FCMT) activity is responsible for the methylation reaction which play a role in the membrane attachment of a variety of cellular proteins. Four kinds of Ras protein (c-Ha-ras, c-N-Ras, c-Ki-Ras, pan-Ras) expression were detected in adenocarcinoma of human tissue by immunohistochemical method, and hematoxylin and eosin staining. The level of Ras protein in human stomach tumor tissues was much higher than in normal and peritumoral regions of the same biopsy samples. The FCMT activities of each cellular fractions were high in mitochondrial fraction followed by microsomal fraction, whole homogenate and cytosolic fraction. The inhibitory effect on FCMT activity on stomach tumor tissue was determined after treatment with 0.25 $\mu\textrm{M}$ of S-adenosyl-$_L$-homocysteine. S-adenosyl-$_L$-homocysteine inhibited FCMT activity from 11.2% to 30.5%. These results suggested that FCMT might be involved in Ras proteins activity.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.310-317
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• 2006

We investigated the effects of trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS), an amino-group reagent, on the human ether-a-go-go-related gene (HERG) $K^+$ channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes. TNBS neutralizes the positively charged amino-groups of peptide N-terminal and lysine residues. External application of TNBS at 10 mM for 5 min irreversibly shifted the curves for currents at the end of the pulse and tail currents of HERG to a more negative potential and decreased the maximal amplitude of the $I_{tail}$ curve $(I_{tail,max})$. TNBS had little effect on either the activated current-voltage relationship or the reversal potential of HERG current, indicating that TNBS did not change ion selectivity properties. TNBS shifted the time constant curves of both activation and deactivation of the HERG current to a more hyperpolarized potential; TNBS's effect was greater on channel opening than channel closing. External $H^+$ is known to inhibit HERG current by shifting $V_{1/2}$ to the right and decreasing $I_{tail,max}$. TNBS enhanced the blockade of external $H^+$ by exaggerating the effect of $H^+$ on $I_{tail,max}$, not on $V_{1/2}$. Our data provide evidence for the presence of essential amino-groups that are associated with the normal functioning of the HERG channel and evidence that these groups modify the blocking effect of external $H^+$ on the current.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.949-954
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• 2023

Type III polyketide synthase (PKS) found in bacteria is known as 1,3,6,8-tetrahydroxynaphthalene synthase (THNS). Microbial type III PKSs synthesize various compounds that possess crucial biological functions and significant pharmaceutical activities. Based on our sequence analysis, we have identified a putative type III polyketide synthase from Nocardia sp. CS682 was named as ThnA. The role of ThnA, in Nocardia sp. CS682 during the biosynthesis of 1,3,6,8 tetrahydroxynaphthalene(THN), which is the key intermediate of 1-(α-L-(2-O-methyl)-6-deoxymannopyranosyloxy)-3,6,8-trimethoxynaphthalene (IBR-3) was characterized. ThnA utilized five molecules of malonyl-CoA as a starter substrate to generate the polyketide 1,3,6,8-tetrahydroxynaphthalene, which could spontaneously be oxidized to the red flaviolin compound 2,5,7-trihydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone. The amino acid sequence alignment of ThnA revealed similarities with a previously identified type III PKS and identified Cys¹³⁸, Phe¹⁸⁸, His²⁷⁰, and Asn³⁰³ as four highly conserved active site amino acid residues, as found in other known polyketide synthases. In this study, we report the heterologous expression of the type III polyketide synthase thnA in S. lividans TK24 and the identification of THN production in a mutant strain. We also compared the transcription level of thnA in S. lividans TK24 and S. lividans pIBR25-thnA and found that thnA was only transcribed in the mutant.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.27.1-27.13
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• 2024

Objectives: This study aimed to develop whitening mouth rinses formulated with industrial mushrooms and compare them with over-the-counter whitening mouth rinses. Materials and Methods: Formulations with black shimeji mushrooms, mushroom substrates, and mushroom stalks were developed. Bovine enamel/dentin samples were divided into 7 groups (n = 10): Colgate Luminous White, Listerine Whitening Extreme (LWE), Listerine Cool Mint (LC), mushroom extract rinse (MEC), mushroom substrate rinse (MSB), mushroom stalk rinse (MTC), and artificial saliva. Samples were stained with black tea for 6 days, and then were immersed in 100 mL of each mouth rinse twice daily for 14 days. Color parameters (CIELAB [ΔE^*], CIEDE2000 [ΔE₀₀], whiteness index for dentistry [ΔWI_D]) and microhardness (Knoop hardness number [KHN]) were analyzed at T₁ (initial), T₂ (24 hours), and T₃ (7 days). Mouth rinse pH was measured, and enamel was examined using a scanning electron microscope. Data were analyzed using generalized linear models, and KHN with the generalized linear mixed model for repeated measures (p ≤ 0.05). Results: ΔE^* was higher in LW and MSB groups. No significant differences were found for ΔE₀₀ (p = 0.0982) and ΔWI_D (p = 0.2536). Experimental mouth rinses did not promote enamel whitening based on ΔE₀₀ and ΔWI_D. LWE and LC reduced KHN and had a more acidic pH, while MEC had higher KHN at T2. MEC, MSB, and MTC had alkaline pH, not altering the tooth surface. Conclusions: Black shimeji mushrooms are promising for mouth rinse development due to their alkaline pH and non-altering effect on surface microhardness.