• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.401-404
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• 2010

Tho1 is a RNA-binding protein that assembles co-transcriptionally onto the nascent mRNA and is thought to be involved in mRNP biogenesis and mature mRNA export to cytoplasm in budding yeast. In fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a homologue of THO1 (spTho1) was identified based on sequence alignment. A deletion mutant in a diploid strain was constructed by replacing one of spTho1-coding region with an ura4+ gene using one-step gene disruption method. Tetrad analysis showed that the spTho1 was not essential for growth. The spTho1 mutant did not show any defects of bulk mRNA export. However, over-expression of spTho1 from strong nmt1 promoter caused the growth defects and accumulation of poly(A)$^+$ RNA in the nucleus. These results suggest that spTho1 is involved in mRNA export from the nucleus to cytoplasm though it is not essential.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.123-135
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• 2016

U.S. cotton production is suffering from the yield loss caused by the reniform nematode (RN), Rotylenchulus reniformis. Management of this devastating pest is of utmost importance because, no upland cotton cultivar exhibits adequate resistance to RN. Nine populations of RN from distinct regions in Alabama and one population from Mississippi were studied and thirteen morphometric features were measured on 20 male and 20 female nematodes from each population. Highly correlated variables (positive) in female and male RN morphometric parameters were observed for body length (L) and distance of vulva from the lip region (V) (r = 0.7) and tail length (TL) and c' (r = 0.8), respectively. The first and second principal components for the female and male populations showed distinct clustering into three groups. These results show pattern of sub-groups within the RN populations in Alabama. A one-way ANOVA on female and male RN populations showed significant differences ($p{\leq}0.05$) among the variables. Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) of 18S rRNA sequences (421) showed lengths of 653 bp. Sites within the aligned sequences were conserved (53%), parsimony-informative (17%), singletons (28%), and indels (2%), respectively. Neighbor-Joining analysis showed intra and inter-nematodal variations within the populations as clone sequences from different nematodes irrespective of the sex of nematode isolate clustered together. Morphologically, the three groups (I, II and III) could not be distinctly associated with the molecular data from the 18S rRNA sequences. The three groups may be identified as being non-geographically contiguous.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2001

Bacillus anthracis is a gram-positive spore-forming bacterium that causes the disease anthrax. The anthrax toxin contains three components, including the protective antigen (PA), which binds to eucaryotic cell surface receptors and mediates the transport of toxins into the cell. In this study, the entire 2,294-nucleotide protective antigen gene (pag) was sequenced from 4 of B. anthracis strains to identify potential variation in the toxin and to further our understanding of B. anthracis evolution in Korea. Sequence alignment of the entire PA gene from 30 strains representative of the four B. anthracis diversity groups revealed mutations. The mutation of B. anthracis BAK are located adjacent to a highly antigenic region crossing the junction between PA domains 3 and 4 shown to be critical to LF binding. The different mutational combinations observed in this study give rise to 11 PA genotypes and 4PA phenotypes. Three-dimensional analysis of all the amino acid changes (Ala to Val) observed in BAK indicated that these changes are not only close sequentially but also very close in three-dimensional space to the antigenic region importan tfor LF binding. Phylogenetic (cladistic) analysis of the pag corresponded with previous strain grouping based on chromosomal variation, suggesting that plasmid evolution in B. anthracis has occurred with little or no horizontal transfer between the different strains.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.458-468
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• 2007

To tolerate environmentally adverse conditions such as cold, drought, and salinity, plants often synthesize and accumulate proline in cells as compatible osmolytes. ${\Delta}^1$-Pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase(P5CS) catalyzes the rate-limiting step of proline biosynthesis from glutamate. Two complete genes, MtP5CS1 and MtP5CS2, were isolated from the model legume Medicago truncatula by cDNA cloning and bacterial artificial chromosome library screening. Nucleotide sequence analysis showed that both genes consisted of 20 exons and 19 introns. Alignment of the predicted amino acid sequences revealed high similarities with P5CS proteins from other plant species. The two MtP5CS genes were expressed in response to high salt and low temperature treatments. Semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction showed that MtP5CS1 was expressed earlier than MtP5CS2, indicating differential regulation of the two genes. To evaluate the reverse genetic effects of nucleotide changes on MtP5CS function, a Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes approach was taken. Three mutants each were isolated for MtP5CS1 and MtP5CS2, of which a P5CS2 nonsense mutant carrying a codon change from arginine to stop was expected to bring translation to premature termination. These provide a valuable genetic resource with which to determine the function of the P5CS genes in environmental stress responses of legume crops.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.104-113
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• 2005

Large inversions are well characterized in the chloroplast genomes of land plants. In contrast, reports of small inversions are rare and involve limited plant groups. In this study, we report the widespread occurrence of small inversions ranging from 5 to 50 bp in fully and partially sequenced chloroplast genomes of both monocots and dicots. We found that small inversions were much more common than large inversions. The small inversions were scattered over the chloroplast genome including the IR, SSC, and LSC regions. Several small inversions were uncovered in chloroplast genomes even though they shared the same overall gene order. The majority of these small inversions were located within 100 bp downstream of the 3' ends of genes. All had inverted repeat sequences, ranging from 11 to 24 bp, at their ends. Such small inversions form stem-loop hairpin structures that usually have the function of stabilizing the corresponding mRNA molecules. Intra-molecular recombination between the inverted sequences in the stem-forming regions are responsible for generating flip-flop orientations of the loops. The presence of two different orientations of the stem-loop in the trnL-F noncoding region of a single species of Jasminum elegans suggests that a short inversion can be generated within a short period of time. Small inversions of non-coding sequences may influence sequence alignment and character interpretation in phylogeny reconstructions, as shown in nine species of Jasminum. Many small inversions may have been generated by parallel or back mutation events during chloroplast genome evolution. Our data indicate that caution is needed when using chloroplast non-coding sequences for phylogenetic analysis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1908-1917
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• 2016

Wild strain L-6 was subjected to combined mutagenesis, including UV irradiation, atmospheric and room temperature plasma, and ion beam implantation, to increase the yield of 1,3-dihydroxyacetone (DHA). With application of a high-throughput screening method, mutant Gluconobacter oxydans I-2-239 with a DHA productivity of 103.5 g/l in flask-shake fermentation was finally obtained with the starting glycerol concentration of 120 g/l, which was 115.7% higher than the wild strain. The cultivation time also decreased from 54 h to 36 h. Compared with the wild strain, a dramatic increase in enzyme activity was observed for the mutant strain, although the increase in biomass was limited. DNA and amino acid sequence alignment revealed 11 nucleotide substitutions and 10 amino acid substitutions between the sldAB of strains L-6 and I-2-239. Simulation of the 3-D structure and prediction of active site residues and PQQ binding site residues suggested that these mutations were mainly related to PQQ binding, which was speculated to be favorable for the catalyzing capacity of glycerol dehydrogenase. RT-qPCR assay indicated that the transcription levels of sldA and sldB in the mutant strain were respectively 4.8-fold and 5.4-fold higher than that in the wild strain, suggesting another possible reason for the increased DHA productivity of the mutant strain.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.1360-1364
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• 2009

The bacterium Sphingomonas chungbukensis DJ77 produces the extracellular polysaccharide gellan in high yield. Gellan produced by this bacterium is widely used as a gelling agent, and the enzyme UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (UGP) is thought to play a key role in the gellan biosynthetic pathway. The UGP gene has been successfully cloned and over-expressed in E. coli. The expressed enzyme was purified with a molecular weight of approximately 32 kDa, as determined by a SDS-polyacrylamide gel, but the enzyme appears as ca. 63 kDa on a native gel, suggesting that the enzyme is present in a homodimer. Kinetic analysis of UDP-glucose for UGP indicates $K_m$ = 1.14 mM and $V_{max}$ = 10.09 mM/min/mg at pH 8.0, which was determined to be the optimal pH for UGP catalytic activity. Amino acid sequence alignment against other bacteria suggests that the UGP contains two conserved domains: An activator binding site and a glucose-1-phosphate binding site. Site-directed mutagenesis of Lys194, located within the glucose-1-phosphate binding site, indicates that substitution of the charge-reversible residue Asp for Lys194 dramatically impairs the UGP activity, supporting the hypothesis that Lys194 plays a critical role in the catalysis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.320-327
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• 2005

Five ripening-related ACC synthase cDNA isoforms were cloned from 80% ripe papaya cv. 'Sinta' by reverse transcription-PCR using gene-specific primers. Clone 2 had the longest transcript and contained all common exons and three alternative exons. Clones 3 and 4 contained common exons and one alternative exon each, while clone 1, the most common transcript, contained only the common exons. Clone 5 could be due to cloning artifacts and might not be a unique cDNA fragment. Thus, there are only four isoforms of ACC synthase mRNA. Southern blot analysis indicates that all five clones came from only one gene existing as a single copy in the 'Sinta' papaya genome. Multiple sequence alignment indicates that the four isoforms arise from a single gene, possibly through alternative splicing mechanisms. All the putative alternative exons were present at the 5'-end of the gene comprising the N-terminal region of the protein. 'Sinta' ACC synthase cDNAs were of the capacs 1 type and are most closely related to a 1.4 kb capacs 1-type DNA(AJ277160) from Eksotika papaya. No capacs 2-type cDNAs were cloned from 'Sinta' by RT-PCR. This is the first report of possible alternative splicing mechanism in ripening-related ACC synthase genes in hybrid papaya, possibly to modulate or fine-tune gene expression relevant to fruit ripening.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.103-111
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• 2011

In this paper, we propose a Geometrical Centroid Contour Distance(GCCD) which is described by shape signature based on contour sequence. The proposed method uses geomertrical relation features instead of the absolute angle based features after it was normalized and aligned with dominant feature of the shape. Experimental result with MPEG-7 CE-Shape-1 Data Set reveals that our method has low time/spatial complexity and scale/rotation robustness than the other methods, showing that the precision of our method is more accurate than the conventional desctiptors. However, performance of the GCCD is limited with concave and complex shaped objects.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.384-393
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• 2006

Protein carboxylmethylation methylates the free carboxyl groups in various substrate proteins by protein carboxyl O-methyltransferase (PCMT) and is one of the post-translational modifications. There have been many studies on protein carboxylmethylation. However, the precise functional role in mammalian systems is unclear. In this study, immunoglobulin, a specific form of $\gamma-globulin$, which is a well-known substrate for PCMT, was chosen to investigate the regulatory roles of protein carboxylmethylation in the immune system. It was found that the anti-BSA antibody could be carboxylmethylated via spleen PCMT to a level similar to $\gamma-globulin$. This carboxylmethylation increased the hydrophobicity of the anti-BSA antibody up to 11.4%, and enhanced the antigen-binding activity of this antibody up to 24.6%. In particular, the Fc region showed a higher methyl accepting capacity with 80% of the whole structure level. According to the amino acid sequence alignment, indeed, 7 aspartic acids and 5 glutamic acids, as potential carboxylmethylation sites, were found to be conserved in the Fc portion in the human, mouse and rabbit. The carboxylmethylation of the anti-BSA antibody was reversibly demethylated under a higher pH and long incubation time. Therefore, these results suggest that protein carboxylmethylation may reversibly regulate the antibody-mediated immunological events via the Fc region.