• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.553-557
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• 2011

We previously reported that CDK2/Cyclin A can phosphorylate and activate the transcription factor NF-Y. In this study, we investigated a potential regulatory role for NF-Y in the transcription of Cyclin A and other cell cycle regulatory genes. Gel-shift assays demonstrate that NF-Y binds to CCAAT sequences in the Cyclin A promoter, as well as to those in the promoters of cell cycle G2 regulators such as CDC2, Cyclin B and CDC25C. Furthermore, expression of Cyclin A increases NF-Y's affinity for CCAAT sequences in the CDC2 promoter; however, Cyclin A's induction of CDC2 transcription is antagonized by p21, an inhibitor of CDK2/Cyclin A. These results suggest a model wherein NF-Y binds to and activates transcription from the Cyclin A promoter, increasing cellular levels of Cyclin A/CDK2 and potentiating NF-Y's capacity for transcriptional transactivation, and imply a positive feedback loop between NF-Y and Cyclin A/CDK2. Our findings are additionally indicative of a role for Cyclin A in activating Cyclin B/CDK1 through promoting NF-Y dependent transcription of Cyclin B and CDC2; NF-Y mediated crosstalk may therefore help to orchestrate cell-cycle progression.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.297-305
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• 2011

A trap identification system for isolating functional sequences to allow the constitutive expression of foreign protein from Edwardsiella tarda was developed. Using the green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter-based trap system, various functional sequences to drive heterologous expression of the GFP were selectable in Escherichia coli host. However from the bioinformatic sequence analysis, all the segments predicted as regulatory regions were not native promoters actually existing upstream of endogenous E. tarda genes. Instead, a number of non-authentic sequences, possibly resulted from the random shuffling and/or intermolecular ligation were also proven to be able to display a potent GFP expression in the recombinant E. coli. Further analysis with selected clones showed that both authentic and non-authentic sequences could function in as a constitutive promoter, leading quite a consistent and stable GFP expression after repetitive subcultures. Microscopic examination also confirmed the uniform pattern of GFP expression in every host bacterium. Semi-quantitative assay of GFP showed that there was no clear relationship between expression levels and organizational features of the promoters trapped. Functional promoter-like elements achieved in the present study could be a good starting material for multivalent genetic engineering of E. tarda in order to produce recombinant vaccines in a cost-effective fashion.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.77-96
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• 1992

In recent years intranasal administration of drugs has received great attention as a convenient and efficent method of drug delivery because of its potential to improve the systemic effect of substances with a poor oral bioavailability. In addition to offering advantages such as rapid absorption, fast onset of action and avoiding the first -pass effect, it provides for delivery of drugs from very lipophilic drugs such as steroids to polar and hydrophilic drugs such as peptides and proteins. However, little is still known about the nature of various barriers existing in the nasal mucosae as well as mechanism by which these molecules are absorbed. This review article therefore intends to discuss nasal physiology, experimental methods and evaluation of absorption from the nasal cavity, factors influencing nasal absorption, mechanism of nasal absorption, approaches to improve the residence time and to obtain the sustained-release effect of intranasally administered drugs, promoters and mechanism for the enhancement of nasal absorption, Several examples for intranasal delivery of various systemically effective drugs will be reviewed and illustrated. Drug metabolism in the nasal mucosae and problems associated with intranasal administration of drugs will be also discussed.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.30 no.3_4
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• pp.379-387
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• 2003

A lot of microbial genome projects have been completed to pour the enormous amount of genomic sequence data. In this context. the problem of identifying promoters in genomic DNA sequences by computational methods has attracted considerable research attention in recent years. In this paper, we propose a new model of prokaryotic core promoter region including the -10 region and transcription initiation site, that is Dependency-Reflecting Decomposition Model (DRDM), which captures the most significant biological dependencies between positions (allowing for non-adjacent as well as adjacent dependencies). DRDM showed a good result of performance test and it will be employed effectively in predicting promoters in long microbial genomic Contigs.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1717-1728
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• 2019

The gene encoding β-galactosidase was cloned from Bifidobacterium longum RD47 with combinations of several bifidobacterial promoters, and expressed in B. bifidum BGN4. Among the recombinant bifidobacteria, BGN4+G1 showed the highest β-galactosidase level, for which the hydrolytic activity was continuously 2.5 to 4.2 times higher than that of BGN4 and 4.3 to 9.6 times higher than that of RD47. The β-galactosidase activity of BGN4+G1 was exceedingly superior to that of any of the other 35 lactic acid bacteria. When commercial whole milk and BGN4+G1 were reacted, BGN4+G1 removed nearly 50% of the lactose in the milk by the 63-h time point, and a final 61% at 93 h. These figures are about twice the lactose removal rate of conventional fermented milk. As for the reaction of commercial whole milk and crude enzyme extract from BGN4+G1, the β-galactosidase of BGN4+G1 eliminated 51% of the lactose in milk in 2 h. As shown below, we also compared the strengths and characteristics of the strong bifidobacterial promoters reported by previous studies.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

Secondary walls have recently drawn research interest as a primary source of sugars for liquid biofuel production. Secondary walls are composed of a complex mixture of the structural polymers cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. A matrix of hemicellulose and lignin surrounds the cellulose component of the plant's cell wall in order to protect the cell from enzymatic attacks. Such resistance, along with the variability seen in the proportions of the major components of the mixture, presents process design and operating challenges to the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuel. Expanding bioenergy production to the commercial scale will require a significant improvement in the growth of feedstock as well as in its quality. Plant biotechnology offers an efficient means to create "targeted" changes in the chemical and physical properties of the resulting biomass through pathway-specific manipulation of metabolisms. The successful use of the genetic engineering approach largely depends on the development of two enabling tools: (1) the discovery of regulatory genes involved in key pathways that determine the quantity and quality of the biomass, and (2) utility promoters that can drive the expression of the introduced genes in a highly controlled manner spatially and/or temporally. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the transcriptional regulatory network that controls secondary wall biosynthesis and discuss experimental approaches to developing-xylem-specific utility promoters.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2013

We isolated and functionally characterized a Dendrobium Actin1 (DmACT1) promoter that drives strong gene expression in the orchid genus Dendrobium. A genomic fragment containing the region 3227 bp upstream of the coding region of DmACT1 was obtained by inverse PCR. Detailed comparison of the full-length cDNA and genomic sequences revealed that DmACT1 has a 1374 bp first intron in the 5' UTR. However, the 5' flanking sequences upstream of the coding region showed no obvious sequence similarities compared to those of known promoters, including plant actin promoters. Serial deletion constructs of the 5' flanking region from the translation initiation codon were fused to the coding sequence of a GUS/luciferase fusion reporter to identify the regulatory elements necessary for promoter activity. Transient assays in the flowers of Dendrobium revealed that the 5' UTR-intron greatly enhanced promoter activity. Moreover, the DmACT1 promoter with its 5' UTR-intron yielded approximately 10-fold higher reporter activity than the rice Act1 promoter-intron. Our data suggest that the DmACT1 promoter with its 5' UTR-intron is a useful tool for strong expression of transgenes in Dendrobium orchids.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.173-178
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• 2001

Food yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a safe organism with a long history of use for the production of biomass rich in high quality proteins and vitamins. AmA1, a seed storage albumin from Amaranthus hypochondriacus, has a well-balanced amino acid composition and high levels of essential amino acids and offers the possibility of further improving food animal feed additives. In order to find an effective means of expressing AmA1 in yeast, the gene was cloned into an episomal shuttle vector. Four different promoters were tested: the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter, galactose dehydrogenase 10 promoter, alcohol dehydrogenase II promoter, and a hybrid ADH2-GPD promoter. The recombinant AmA1 genes were then introduced into the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae 2805. Northern and Western blot analyses of the yeast under appropriate conditions revealed that AmA1 was expressed by all four promoters at varying levels. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay demonstrated that the amount of AmA1 protein in the recombinant yeast was 1.3-4.3% of the total soluble proteins. The highest expression level was obtained from the hybrid ADH2-GPD promoter.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.48-54
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• 2005

A comparison of promoter fusions with the luxCDABE genes from Vibrio fischeri and Photorhabdus luminescens was made using promoters from several genes (katG, sodA, and pqi-5) of E. coli that are responsive to oxidative damage. The respective characteristics, such as the basal and maximum bioluminescence and the relative bioluminescence, were compared. E. coli strains carrying fusions of the promoters to P. luminescens lux showed higher basal and maximally induced bioluminescent levels than strains carrying the same promoter fused to the luxCDABE genes from V. fischeri. The sensitivities between the strains were similar, regardless of the luciferase used, but lower response ratios were seen from strains harboring the P. luminescens lux fusions. Furthermore, using the two katG::lux fusion strains, the bioluminescence from the P. luminescens lux fusion strain, DK1, was stable after reaching a maximum, while that of strain DPD2511 decreased very rapidly due to substrate limitation.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2001

Staphylokinase (SAK) was produced in B. subtilis using two different promoter systems, i.e. the P43 and sacB promoters. To maximize SAK expression in B. subtilis, fermentation control strategies for each promoter were examined. SAK, under P43, a vegetative promoter transcribed mainly by $\sigma$(sup)B containing RNA polymerase, was overexpressed at low dissolved oxygen (D.O.) levels, suggesting that the sigB operon is somewhat affected by the energy charge of the cells. The expression of SAK at the 10% D.O. level was three times higher than that at the 50% D.O. level. In the case of sacB, a sucrose-inducible promoter, sucrose feeding was used to control the induction period and induction strength. Since sucrose is hydrolyzed by two sucrose hydrolyzing enzymes in the cell and culture broth, the control strategy was based on replenishing the loss of sucrose in the culture. With continuous feeding of sucrose, WB700 (pSAKBQ), which contains the SAK gene under sacB promoter, yielded ca. 35% more SAK than the batch culture. These results present efficient promoter-dependent control strategies in B. subtilis host system for foreign protein expression.