• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.106-111
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• 2015

Changes in antimicrobial peptide-lipid mixtures were investigated using ³¹P solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. An antimicrobial peptide, protegrin-1, and phosphatidylcholine were deposited on a thin cover glass and incubated under a relative humidity of 95%. The changes in the mixtures were observed after hydration or air-drying. How repetitive hydration and drying changed the phase of the sample was also observed. The degrees of disruption of the well-aligned bilayers of phosphatidylcholine were determined quantitatively by simulating the experimental spectra. The peptide-lipid mixtures changed reversibly after hydration and drying, and the samples reached an equilibrium state after several repetitions.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.179-184
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• 2007

This study introduces the characteristics and some applications of repetitive polypeptides, especially to the biomaterial, tissue engineering scaffolds, drug delivery system, and DNA separation systems. Since some fibrous proteins, which consist of repeating peptide monomers, have been reported that their physical properties are changed dramatically by means of temperature alteration or pH shifting. For that reason, fibrous protein-mimetic polypeptides, which are produced by the recombinant technology, can be applied to the diverse biological fields. Repetitive polypeptides can also be used in the bioseparation area such as DNA sequencing, because they make DNA separation possible in free-solution electrophoresis by conjugating DNA fragments to them. Moreover, artificial synthesis of repetitive polypeptides helps to demonstrate the correlations between mechanical properties and structures of natural protein polymer, which have been proven that repetitive domains are affected by the sequence of the repeating domains and the number of repeating subunits. Repetitive polypeptides can be biologically synthesized using some special cloning methods, which are represented here. Recursive directional ligation (RDL) and controlled cloning method (CCM) have been proposed as excellent cloning methods in that we can control the number of repetition in the multimerization of polypeptides and the components of repetitive polypeptides by either method.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.952-959
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• 2007

His-His-Leu (HHL), a tripeptide derived from a Korean soybean paste, is an angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. We report here a method of producing this tripeptide efficiently by expressing tandem multimers of the codons encoding the peptide in E. coli and purifying the HHL after hydrolysis of the peptide multimers. The HHL gene, tandemly multimerized to a 40-mer, was ligated with ubiquitin as a fusion gene (UH40). UH40 was inserted into vector pET29b; the UH40 fusion protein was then produced in E. coli BL21. The recombinant UH40 protein was purified by cation-exchange chromatography with a yield of 17.3mg/l and analyzed by matrixassisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry and protein N-terminal sequencing. Leucine aminopeptidase was used to cleave a 405-Da HHL monomer from the UH40 fusion protein and the peptide was purified using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a C18 HPLC column, with a final yield of 6.2mg/l. The resulting peptide was confirmed to be HHL with the aid of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, glutamine-TOF mass spectrometry, N-terminal sequencing, and measurement of ACE inhibiting activity. These results suggest that our production method is useful for obtaining a large quantity of recombinant HHL for functional antihypertensive peptide studies.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2001

In the course of immunoscreening of Clonorchis sinensis cDNA library, a cDNA CsRP12 containing a tandem repeat was isolated. The cDNA CsRP 12 encodes two putative peptides of open reading frames (ORFs) 1 and 2 (CsRP12-1 and -2). The repetitive region is composed of 15 repeats of 10 amino acids. Of the two putative peptides, CsRP12-1 was proline-rich and found to have homologues in several organisms. Recombinant proteins of the putative peptides were bacterially produced and purified by an affinity chromatography Recombinant CsRP12-1 protein was recognized by sera of clonorchiasis patients and experimental rabbits, but recombinant CsRP 12-2 was not. One of the putative peptide, CsRP12-1, is designated CsPRA, proline-rich antigen of C. sinensis. Both the C-termini of CsRP12-1 and -2 were bacterially produced and analysed to show no antigenicity. Recombinant CsPRA protein showed high sensitivity and specificity. In experimental rabbits, IgG antibodies to CsPRA was produced between 4 and 8 weeks after the infection and decreased thereafter over one you. These results indicate that CsPRA is equivalent to a natural protein and a useful antigenic protein for serodiagnosis of human clonorchiasis.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 1996

Atrial Natriuretic Peptide(ANP) is a hormone with potent natriuretic, diuretic and relaxing properties of vascular smooth muscle. Specific chemical modulator responsible for the ANP secretion has not yet been found. Although atrial stretch of stretch-release is to be a major stimulus for the secretion of ANP, the precise mechano-molecular transduction mechanism responsible for its evoked secretion remains to be elucidated. It is interested to clarify the effect of superoxide anion in the stretch-induced ANP secretion. In order to investigate the effectg of $H_2O_2$ in the regulation of ANP secretion, a perfused model of left atrium of rats was used. The results obtained were as follows; 1. The ANP secretion and the extracellular fluid(ECF) translocation were accentuated by the effect of repetitive atrial distension-reduction volume at atrial pressure($4cmH_2O$). 2. The dilution curve showed to be in parallel between pure atriopeptin III (AP III) and perfusated buffer. 3. $H_2O_2(5{\times}10^{-4}M)$ accenturated a strectch-release induced increase of the ANP secretion. The amount of released ANP was significantly(p<0.01) increased. These results suggest that the superoxide anion may be involved in the regulatory mechanism of mechanically activated ANP release.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2002

An angiotensin I-converting enzyme (EC 3.4.15.1) (ACE), which can convert inactive angiotensin I into angiotensin II, a vasoconstrictor, is one of the key enzymes in controlling hypertension. It is suggested that the inhibition of ACE prevents hypertension, and many inhibitory peptides have already been reported. In the current study, oligonucleotides encoding ACE inhibitory peptides (IY, VKY) were chemically synthesized and designed to be multimerised due to isoschizomer sites (BamHI, BglII). The cloned gene named AP3 was multimerised up to 6 times in pBluescript and expressed in BL2l containing pGEX-KG. The fusion protein (GST-AP3) was easily purified with a high recovery by an affinity resin, yielding 38 mg of synthetic AP3 from a 1-1 culture. The digestion of AP3 by chymotrypsin exhibited an $IC_50$ value of $18.53{\mu}M$. In conclusion, the present experiment indicated that AP3 could be used as a dietary antihypertensive drug, since the potent ACE inhibitory activity of AP3 could be activated by chymotrypsin in human intestine.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.31-41
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• 2002

Proline-rich proteins (PRPs) are major components of human saliva. In order to know the biological roles of PRPs, we explored the expression pattern and functional protein structures of PRPs by the immunohistochemical and various molecular biological methods. Polyclonal antibody against human gPRP was generated from rabbit by the injection of oral exfoliated cells specially treated by urea and SDS buffer. The PRPs began to be expressed both in the acinar cells and ductal cells from the EIDS (Early Intermediate Developmental Stage) of fetal salivary glands and became intense in the salivary epithelium in the LDS (Late Developmental Stage) and adult salivary glands. The polyclonal antibody against the gPRP showed the cross-reactivity with aPRP and bPRP, these results were relevant to the high homology among subtypes of PRP. However, the simulated protein structures of PRPs showed the characteristic repetitive whorling domains except the N-terminal signal peptide. The whorling domains were also contained the multiple amino acids of glutamine and glycine, which may provide the receptor binding or cross-linking sites of PRPs.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.64-72
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• 1989

Near full length cDNA clones encoding the rice seed storage protein, prolamine, were isolated and divided into two homology classes based on cross-hybridization and DNA sequencing analysis. These cDNA clones contain a single open reading frame encoding a putative rice prolamine precursor(M.W.=17,200) possessing atypical 14 amino acid signal peptide. Clones of these two homology classes diverge mainly by insertions/deletions of short nucleotide stretches and point mutations. The deduced primary structures of both types of prolamine polypeptides are devoid of any major tandem repetitive sequences, a feature prevalent in other cereal prolamines. No significant homology teas detected between the rice prolamine and other cereal prolamines, indicating that the rice gene evolved from a different ancestor that gave rise to other cereal prolamine genes. Developing wheat and rice endosperms were examined using ultrathin sections prepared from tissues harvested at various days after flowering. By immunocytochemical localization techniques, wheat prolamines are localized within vesicles from Golgi apparatus and in homogeneous regions of protein bodies. The involvement of the goli apparatus in the packaging of wheat prolamines into protein bodies indicates a pathway which differs from the mode of other cereal prolamines and resembles the mechanism employed for the storage of rice glutelin and legume globulins.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.180-186
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• 2003

The full-length cDNA encoding the pre-protein growth hormone (sfGH) from spotted flounder (Verasper variegatus) was amplified by the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) using degenerated oligonucleotide primers derived from conserved growth hormone sequences. It consists of 901 nucleotides in length, including the coding region of 609 nucleotides, 111 nucleotides of a 5' untranslated region, and 181 nucleotides of a 3' untranslated region. The conserved polyadenylation signal (AATAAA) lies 12 bases upstream from the poly (A) tail. The deduced amino acid sequence shows an open reading frame encoding a pre-protein of 203 amino acids and a putative signal peptide of 17 amino acids, suggesting that the mature hormone consists of 186 amino acids. The analyses of sfGH reveal some unique structural features. The repetitive sequences are located in the 5' untranslated region of sfGH cDNA and consist of tandem arrays of imperfect direct repeat monomers. Moreover, sfGH contains six Cys residues, as opposed to four or five in other GHs, and it is clearly distinguishable from olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) GH, which lacks a region corresponding to residues 175-188 in alignment positions. It has important implications from an evolutionary standpoint, suggesting possible divergence among flatfishes.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.297-306
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• 2020

Repetitive changes in the intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca²⁺]i) triggers egg activation, including cortical granule exocytosis, resumption of second meiosis, block to polyspermy, and initiating embryonic development. [Ca²⁺]i oscillations that continue for several hours, are required for the early events of egg activation and possibly connected to further development to the blastocyst stage. The sources of Ca²⁺ ion elevation during [Ca²⁺]i oscillations are Ca²⁺ release from endoplasmic reticulum through inositol 1,4,5 tri-phosphate receptor and Ca²⁺ ion influx through Ca²⁺ channel on the plasma membrane. Ca²⁺ channels have been characterized into voltage-dependent Ca²⁺ channels (VDCCs), ligand-gated Ca²⁺ channel, and leak-channel. VDCCs expressed on muscle cell or neuron is specified into L, T, N, P, Q, and R type VDCs by their activation threshold or their sensitivity to peptide toxins isolated from cone snails and spiders. The present study was aimed to investigate the localization pattern of N and P/Q type voltage-dependent calcium channels in mouse eggs and the role in fertilization. [Ca²⁺]i oscillation was observed in a Ca²⁺ contained medium with sperm factor or adenophostin A injection but disappeared in Ca²⁺ free medium. Ca²⁺ influx was decreased by Lat A. N-VDCC specific inhibitor, ω-Conotoxin CVIIA induced abnormal [Ca²⁺]i oscillation profiles in SrCl₂ treatment. N or P/Q type VDC were distributed on the plasma membrane in cortical cluster form, not in the cytoplasm. Ca²⁺ influx is essential for [Ca²⁺]i oscillation during mammalian fertilization. This Ca²⁺ influx might be controlled through the N or P/Q type VDCCs. Abnormal VDCCs expression of eggs could be tested in fertilization failure or low fertilization eggs in subfertility women.