• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.33 no.1 s.60
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• pp.17-22
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• 2007

In this study, we investigated the effects of Sedum sarmentosum extract on the expression of hyaluronan synthase (HAS) genes and hyaluronan (HA) production in HaCaT keratinocytes. We also assessed water content (electrical capacitance) and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) in human skin after topical treatment with Sedum sarmentosum extract. Sedum sarmentosum extract increased expression of HAS-2 and HAS-3 genes in HaCaT cells, when assayed by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR). Sedum sarmentosum extract induced HA production in HaCaT cells, when determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Finally, treatment of Sedum sarmentosum extract on human skin increased the skin hydration and decreased TEWL when measured using Corneometer and Tewameter. Our study suggests that Sedum sarmentosum extract should be a very useful cosmetic ingredient, as a skin moisturizer.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.238-249
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• 2009

The genus Listeria consists of six closely related species and forms three phylogenetic groups: L. monocytogenes-L. innocua, L. ivanovii-L. seeligeri-L. welshimeri, and L. grayi. In this report, we attempted to examine the evolutionary relationship in the L. monocytogenes-L. innocua group by probing the nucleotide sequences of 23S rRNA and 16S rRNA, and the gene clusters lmo0029-lmo0042, ascB-dapE, rplS-infC, and prs-ldh in L. monocytogenes serovars 1/2a, 4a, and 4b, and L. innocua. Additionally, we assessed the status of L. monocytogenes-specific inlA and inlB genes and 10 L. innocua-specific genes in these species/serovars, together with phenotypic characterization by using in vivo and in vitro procedures. The results indicate that L. monocytogenes serovar 4a strains are genetically similar to L. innocua in the lmo0035-lmo0042, ascB-dapE, and rplS-infC regions and also possess L. innocua-specific genes lin0372 and lin1073. Furthermore, both L. monocytogenes serovar 4a and L. innocua exhibit impaired intercellular spread ability and negligible pathogenicity in mouse model. On the other hand, despite resembling L. monocytogenes serovars 1/2a and 4b in having a nearly identical virulence gene cluster, and inlA and inlB genes, these serovar 4a strains differ from serovars 1/2a and 4b by harboring notably altered actA and plcB genes, displaying strong phospholipase activity and subdued in vivo and in vitro virulence. Thus, by possessing many genes common to L. monocytogenes serovars 1/2a and 4b, and sharing many similar gene deletions with L. innocua, L. monocytogenes serovar 4a represents a possible evolutionary intermediate between L. monocytogenes serovars 1/2a and 4b and L. innocua.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.515-519
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• 2018

Triatoma rubrofasciata is a wide-spread vector of Chagas disease in Americas. In this study, we completed the mitochondrial genome sequencing of T. rubrofasciata. The total length of T. rubrofasciata mitochondrial genome was 17,150 bp with the base composition of 40.4% A, 11.6% G, 29.4% T and 18.6% C. It included 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes and one control region. We constructed a phylogenetic tree on the 13 protein-coding genes of T. rubrofasciata and other 13 closely related species to show their phylogenic relationship. The determination of T. rubrofasciata mitogenome would play an important role in understanding the genetic diversity and evolution of triatomine bugs.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.417-421
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• 2016

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Panax ginseng breeding line 'G07006', showing higher salt tolerance, was confirmed by de novo assembly using whole genome next-generation sequences. The complete chloroplast (CP) genome size is 156,356 bp, including two inverted repeats (IRs) of 52,060 bp, separated by the large single-copy (LSC 86,174 bp) and the small single-copy (SSC 18,122 bp) regions. One hundred fourteen genes were annotated, including 80 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. Among them, 18 sites were duplicated in the inverted repeat regions. By comparative analyses of the previously identified CP genome sequences of nine cultivars of P. ginseng and that of G07006, five useful SNPs were defined in this study. Since three of the five SNPs were cultivar-specific to Chunpoong and Sunhyang, they could be easily used for distinguishing from other ginseng accessions. However, on arranging SNPs according to their gene location, the G07006 genotype was 'GTGGA', which was distinct from other accessions. This complete chloroplast DNA sequence could be conducive to discrimination of the line G07006 (salt-tolerant) and further enhancement of the genetic improvement program for this important medicinal plant.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.803-807
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• 2016

Toxascaris leonina is a common parasitic nematode of wild mammals and has significant impacts on the protection of rare wild animals. To analyze population genetic characteristics of T. leonina from South China tiger, its mitochondrial (mt) genome was sequenced. Its complete circular mt genome was 14,277 bp in length, including 12 proteincoding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and 2 non-coding regions. The nucleotide composition was biased toward A and T. The most common start codon and stop codon were TTG and TAG, and 4 genes ended with an incomplete stop codon. There were 13 intergenic regions ranging 1 to 10 bp in size. Phylogenetically, T. leonina from a South China tiger was close to canine T. leonina. This study reports for the first time a complete mt genome sequence of T. leonina from the South China tiger, and provides a scientific basis for studying the genetic diversity of nematodes between different hosts.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1983-1993
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• 2017

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium, one of the most common foodborne pathogens, is transmitted mainly through contaminated food derived from infected animals. In this study, S. Typhimurium ST1120, an isolate from pig feces in Korea, was subjected to whole-genome analysis to understand its genomic features associated with virulence. The genome of ST1120 was found to have a circular chromosome of 4,855,001 bp (GC content 52.2%) and a plasmid of 6,863 bp (GC content 46.0%). This chromosome was predicted to have 4,558 open reading frames (ORFs), 17 pseudogenes, 22 rRNA genes, and 86 tRNA genes. Its plasmid was predicted to have three ORFs. Comparative genome analysis revealed that ST1120 was phylogenetically close to S. Typhimurium U288, a critical isolate in piggery farms and food chains in Europe. In silico functional analysis predicted that the ST1120 genome harbored multiple genes associated with virulence and stress resistance, including Salmonella pathogenicity islands (SPIs containing SPI-1 to SPI-5, SPI-13, and SPI-14), C63PI locus, ST104 prophage locus, and various antibiotic resistance genes. In accordance with these analysis results, ST1120 showed competence in invasion and survival abilities when it was added to host cells. It also exhibited robust resistance against antibiotics in comparison with other S. Typhimurium strains. This is the first report of the complete genome sequence of S. Typhimurium isolated from swine in Korea. Comparative genome analysis between ST1120 and other Salmonella strains would provide fruitful information toward understanding Salmonella host specificity and developing control measures against S. Typhimurium infection.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.04a
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• pp.71-71
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• 2019

The genus Cenchrus (Poaceae), containing ca. 23 species, is distributed throughout Australia, Africa, Indian sub-continent, and America. In Korea, Cenchrus longispinus (Hack.) Fernald, especially introduced to Daecheong Island in 1999, is one of the most hazardous invasive plant which causes serious environmental threats, biodiversity damages and physically negative impact on humans and animals. Based on the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, we characterized the chloroplast (cp) genome sequences of C. longispinus which contains a large single copy (LSC; 80,223 bp), a small single copy (SSC; 12,449 bp), separated by a pair of inverted repeats (IRs; 22,236 bp). Additionally, we analyzed the cp genome sequences of Cenchrus echinatus L. which contains a large single copy (LSC; 80,220 bp), a small single copy (SSC; 12,439 bp), separated by a pair of inverted repeats (IRs; 22,236 bp). These cp genomes consist of 75 unique genes, 4 rRNA coding genes, 33 tRNA coding genes and 21 duplicated in the IR regions, of which the gene content and organization are similar to the other Poaceae cp genomes. We selected 40 potential regions in cp genomes of two Cenchrus species and one Korean Pennisetum species to develop new single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for identifying C. longispinus based on amplification-refractory mutation system (ARMS) technique. The markers, inferred from SNP in matK and ndhF genes, show effectiveness to recognize C. longispinus from C. echinatus and Korean native species Pennisetum alopecuroides (L.) Spreng.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.60 no.7
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• pp.18.1-18.12
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• 2018

Background: Xanthosine treatment has been previously reported to increase mammary stem cell population and milk production in cattle and goats. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms associated with the increase in stem cell population and milk production remain unclear. Methods: Primiparous Beetal goats were assigned to the study. Five days post-partum, one mammary gland of each goat was infused with xanthosine (TRT) twice daily ($2{\times}$) for 3 days consecutively, and the other gland served as a control (CON). Milk samples from the TRT and CON glands were collected on the 10th day after the last xanthosine infusion and the total RNA was isolated from milk fat globules (MEGs). Total RNA in MFGs was mainly derived from the milk epithelial cells (MECs) as evidenced by expression of milk synthesis genes. Significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) terms using PANTHER and gene networks were generated using STRING db. Results: Preliminary analysis indicated that each individual goat responded to xanthosine treatment differently, with this trend being correlated with specific DEGs within the same animal's mammary gland. Several pathways are impacted by these DEGs, including cell communication, cell proliferation and anti-microbials. Conclusions: This study provides valuable insights into transcriptomic changes in milk producing epithelial cells in response to xanthosine treatment. Further characterization of DEGs identified in this study is likely to delineate the molecular mechanisms of increased milk production and stem or progenitor cell population by the xanthosine treatment.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.47-53
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• 2017

In past few years, high-throughput sequencing, big-data generation, cloud computing, and computational biology are revolutionary. RNA sequencing is emerging as an attractive alternative to DNA microarrays. And the methods for constructing Gene Regulatory Network (GRN) from RNA-Seq are extremely lacking and urgently required. Because GRN has obtained substantial observation from genomics and bioinformatics, an elementary requirement of the GRN has been to maximize distinguishable genes. Despite of RNA sequencing techniques to generate a big amount of data, there are few computational methods to exploit the huge amount of the big data. Therefore, we have suggested a novel gene selection algorithm combining Support Vector Machines and Intensity-dependent normalization, which uses log differential expression ratio in RNAseq. It is an extended variation of support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) algorithm. This algorithm accomplishes minimum relevancy with subsets of Big-Data, such as NCBI-GEO. The proposed algorithm was compared to the existing one which uses gene expression profiling DNA microarrays. It finds that the proposed algorithm have provided as convenient and quick method than previous because it uses all functions in R package and have more improvement with regard to the classification accuracy based on gene ontology and time consuming in terms of Big-Data. The comparison was performed based on the number of genes selected in RNAseq Big-Data.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.444-454
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• 2016

Sixteen lactic acid bacterial strains were isolated from silage and cow dung samples, and characterized to identify their potential as silage additives. They were identified as the members of the genera Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Weissella, and clustered into nine groups based on the sequences of the genes for 16S rRNA, RNA polymerase alpha subunit, 60-kDa heat shock protein, and phenylalanyl-tRNA synthase alpha subunit. Among them, the three strains which were genetically similar to L. plantarum showed the fastest growth and pH decrease in MRS and rye extract media, the highest numbers of available carbohydrates, and the widest ranges of pH, temperature, and salinity for growth. In addition, they showed no amplified DNA products in the PCR examination targeting the genes for the production of biogenic amines, and the MRS media where they had been cultured showed relatively high inhibition effect against the growth of silage-spoiling microorganisms, including fungi, yeast, and clostridia. The results suggest that these strains are good candidates for silage additives. However, the rye extract media where the lactic acid bacteria had been cultured had no effect on or stimulated the growth of the silage-spoiling microorganisms, and the causes must be established for the practical use of the lactic acid bacteria as silage additives.