• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.151-159
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• 2000

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the important human pathogen that can cause acute and chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Recently, the third generation radiation immuno assay (RIA) method has been developed as a very sensitive test to detect anti-HCV antibody. However, false positive is the problem with RIA test. To solve this the RIA results were compared to those of 5-antigen recombinant immunoblot assay (5-RIBA) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Among 12,767 serum samples tested from clinic visitors, total 275 (2.2%) samples were antibody positive by RIA. RIBA was performed with 148 RIA positives cases but among them was shown eighty five was antibody positive and sixty three (42.6%) was negative result. However, nested RT-PCR test was shown also carried out with 43 positive, 6 intermediates and 25 negatives of RIBA. As a result of the nested RT-PCR results, HCV antigen were detected in RIBA positive, 33.3% (2/6) RIBA intermediate and 12% (3/25). Clinical syndrome of all 148 patients as a with chronic active hepatitis (46.0%), cirrhosis (18.9%), hepatocellular carcinoma (8.1%) and others (27.0%) and they were positive in reaction by RIA test. But RIBA positive patients with 34.9% of chronic active hepatitis, 18.6% of cirrhosis, 4.6% of hepatocellular carcinoma and 41.9% of others were detected to be positive case by nested RT-PCR.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1953-1957
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• 2008

Recombinant Lactobacillus strains have been constructed using gene splicing by overlap extension (SOE). Primers were designed of which one end of an amplified product contained complementary sequences for an end of other amplified fragment. For efficient matching, we used an asymmetric PCR step that was effective at generating an excess of strands that would anneal in the final PCR. CP12, a recombinant fragment consisting of the integrase gene and attachment site of the bacteriophage A2, was constructed and inserted into the genome of Lactobacillus casei ATCC 393, yielding Lb. casei ATCC 393::XCP12. Another recombinant Lb. casei strain was constructed, where the egfp gene was a part of the construction. The EGFP produced from Lb. casei ATCC 393::XCEGFP14 was detected by Western blot hybridization. This simple and widely applicable approach has significant advantages over standard recombinant DNA techniques for Lactobacillus species.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.563-569
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• 2004

The DNA sequence of the chitosanase gene (choK) from $\beta$-Proteobacterium KNU3 showed an 1,158-bp open reading frame that encodes a protein of 386 amino acids with a novel 74 signal peptide. The degenerated primers based on the partial deduced amino acid sequences from MALDI- TOF MS analyses yielded the 820 bp of the PCR product. Based on this information, double inverse PCR cloning experiments, which use the two specific sets of PCR primers rather than single set primers, identified the unknown 1.2 kb of the choK gene. Subsequently, a 1.8 kb of full choK gene was cloned from another PCR cloning experiment and it was then subcloned into pGEM T-easy and pUC18 vectors. The recombinant E. coli clone harboring recombinant pUC18 vector produced a clear halo around the colony in the glycol chitosan plates. The recombinant ChoK protein was secreted into medium in a mature form while the intracellular ChoK was produced without signal peptide cleavage. The activity staining of PAGE showed that the recombinant ChoK protein was identical to the chitosanase of wild-type. The comparison of deduced amino acid sequences of choK revealed that there is 92% identity with that of Sphingobacterium multivorum chitosanase. Judging from the conserved module in other bacterial chitosanases, chitosanase of KNU3 strain (ChoK) belongs to the family 80 of glycoside hydrolases.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2007

Helicases are ubiquitous enzymes, which utilize the energy liberated during nucleotide triphosphate hydrolysis to separate double-stranded nucleic acids into single strands. These enzymes are very attractive targets for the development of new antibacterial compounds. The PcrA DNA helicase from Staphylococcus aureus is a good candidate for drug discovery. This enzyme is unique in the genome of S. aureus and essential for this bacterium. Furthermore, it has recently been published that it is possible to identify inhibitors of DNA helicases such as PcrA. In this report, we study the properties of recombinant PcrA from S. aureus purified from Escherichia coli to develop ATPase and helicase assays to screen for inhibitors.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.107-113
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• 2002

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) strains of serotype O157:H7 have been shown to colonize the intestinal epithelial cell by the attaching and effacing (AE) mechanism. The AE lesion is mediated by an intimin, of which production and expression are controlled by a 3-Kb eaeA gene located EHEC chromosomal DNA. If the eaeA gene is mutated, EHEC O157:H7 strains lose capacity of adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells. In this study, a 891 bp of the 3'-end region of a gamma intimin was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR product was inserted into pSTBlue-1 cloning vector and transformed into DE3 (BL21) competent cell. After plasmid mini-preparation and restriction enzyme digestion of eaeA/891-pSTBlue-1 vector, target eaeA gene was re-inserted into pET-28a expression vector and was transformed. Then the expression of recombinant eaeA/891 (891 bp) gene was induced by isopropyl-$\beta$-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). The expression of the 40-KDa recombinant protein was identified in SDS-PAGE and confirmed by immunoblotting using the His.Tag$^{\circledR}$ and T$_{7}$.Tag$^{\circledR}$ monoclonal antibody. This recombinant protein expressed by eaeA gene could be applied in further studies on the mechanisms of E. coli O157:H7 infection and the development of recombinant vaccine.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2010

Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) causes the most widespread and devastating disease in papaya. Isolates of PRSV originating from different geographical regions in south India were collected and maintained on natural host papaya. The entire coat protein (CP) gene of Papaya ringspot virus-P biotype (PRSV-P) was amplified by RTPCR. The amplicon was inserted into pGEM-T vector, sequenced and sub cloned into a bacterial expression vector pRSET-A using a directional cloning strategy. The PRSV coat protein was over-expressed as a fusion protein in Escherichia coli. SDS-PAGE gel revealed that CP expressed as a ~40 kDa protein. The recombinant coat protein (rCP) fused with 6x His-tag was purified from E.coli using Ni-NTA resin. The antigenicity of the fusion protein was determined by western blot analysis using antibodies raised against purified PRSV. The purified rCP was used as an antigen to produce high titer PRSV specific polyclonal antiserum. The resulting antiserum was used to develop an immunocapture reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (IC-RT-PCR) assay and compared its sensitivity levels with ELISA based assays for detection of PRSV isolates. IC-RT-PCR was shown to be the most sensitive test followed by dot-blot immunobinding assay (DBIA) and plate trapped ELISA.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.392-397
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• 2023

In this study, recombinant Fc-fused Prostate acid phosphatase (PAP) proteins were produced in transgenic plants. PAP was fused to immunoglobulin (Ig) A and M Fc domain (PAP-IgA Fc and PAP-IgM Fc), which were tagged to the ER retention sequence KDEL to generate PAP-IgA FcK and PAP-IgM FcK. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation was performed to produce transgenic tobacco plants expressing four recombinant proteins. Genomic PCR and RT-PCR analyses confirmed the transgene insertion and mRNA transcription of PAP-IgA Fc, PAP-IgM Fc, PAP-IgA FcK, and PAP-IgM FcK in tobacco plant leaves. Western blot confirmed the expression of PAP-IgA Fc, PAP-IgM Fc, PAP-IgA FcK, and PAP-IgM FcK proteins. SEC-HPLC and Bio-TEM analyses were performed to confirm the size and shape of the plant-derived recombinant PAP-Fc fusion proteins. In mice experiments, the plant-derived IgA and IgM Fc fused proteins induced production of total IgGs including IgG1 against PAP. This result suggests that IgA and IgM Fc fusion can be applied to produce recombinant PAP proteins as a prostate cancer vaccine in plant expression system.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.1185-1191
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• 2006

The expression of a pullulanase gene in Pichia pastoris was investigated. The gene encoding pullulanase was cloned by PCR using the chromosomal DNA of Bacillus naganoensis as the template. The expression vector pPIC9K-Pu was constructed by inserting the pullulanase gene into plasmid pPIC9K and then transformed into Pichia pastoris SMD 1168 by electroporation. Activity determination, SDS-PAGE, and PCR amplification indicated that the gene of the pullulanase from B. naganoensis had successfully been expressed in SMD 1168 and the molecular size of the expressed recombinant product was about 119.9 kDa. This is the first report on the successful expression of the pullulanase from B. naganoensis in P. pastoris. The transformant secreted recombinant pullulanase with the activity of 350.8 IU/ml in shake-flask culture. The properties of the recombinant pullulanase were characterized.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.417-421
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• 1997

Synaptobrevin is a kind of vesicle associated membrane proteins (VAMPs) which plays a secretary role in the neuronal synapse and was recently known as the biochemical target of botulinum neurotoxin type B. The structural gene of the synaptobrevin was cloned from mouse brain using RT-PCR technique and was seqrtenced. The deduced amino acid sequence showed that the synaptobrevin protein from mouse brain is exactly the same with that of the rat brain in the amino acid level. The synaptobrevin gene was subcloned into pET3a vector and expressed in E. coli. The molecular weight of the recombinant protein was 19 kDa as expected. Moreover, when the recombinant synaptobrevin protein was incubated with the native neurotoxin of Clostridium botulinum type B, it was cleaved by the toxin in a time dependent manner. This implies that the recombinant synaptobrevin protein and the native toxin are reacted in the same way as the native synaptobrevin did in the neuronal cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.182-190
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• 2003

A new phaC gene cluster encoding polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase I PHA depolymerase, and PHA synthase II was cloned using the touchdown PCR method, from medium-chain length (mcl-) PHA-producing strain Pseudomonas putida KT2440. The molecular structure of the cloned phaCl gene was analyzed, and the phylogenic relationship was compared with other phaCl genes cloned from Pseudomonas species. The cloned phaCl gene was expressed in a recombinant E. coli to the similar level of PHA synthase in the parent strain P. putida KT2440, but no significant amount of mcl-PHA was accumulated. The isolated phaCl gene was re-introduced into the parent strain P. putida KT2440 to amplify the PHA synthase I activity, and the recombinant P. purida accumulated mcl-PHA more effectively, increasing from 26.6 to $43.5\%$. The monomer compositions of 3-hydroxylalkanoates in mcl-PHA were also modified significantly in the recombinant P. putida enforcing the cloned phaCl gene.