• Journal of Life Science
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• v.16 no.2 s.75
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• pp.360-364
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• 2006

Fibrin clots of blood vessels are one of the serious factor caused cardiovascular disease. The development of a antithrombotic and thrombolysis solvent is necessary to prevent and treat these diseases. It has been reported that a strong fibrin-specific fibrinolytic enzyme was produced from a Korean fermented soybean paste similar to Japanese miso. We have been screened the known or novel fibrinolytic enzymes by activity-based and sequence-based screening from soil DNA metagenome library containing all kinds of environmental genomic DNA. The activity-based screening was determined the protease activity on 0.5% skim milk. For sequence-based screening, we designed a set of primer expanding gene sequence of fibrinolytic enzyme, performed PCR and selected clones showing the expected size of amplicons from metagenome library. Transformation of the gene encoding fibrinolytic enzyme was carried out with commercial vectors and their transformants were selected. Finally, we found 15 positive clones from metagenome library. Then each of sequences were analyzed and identified as similar or known the clones of nattokinase. We are going to perform full sequence of each clones, ligate with expression vector, transform into competent cells and then determine activity of expressed enzymes.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.133-137
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• 2003

Secreted proteins and membrane proteins play key roles in the formation, differentiation, and maintenance of multicellular organisms. In this study, we undertook to characterize these protein types in the central nervous system of the marine snail Aplysia kurodai using a yeast-based signal sequence trap method. One hundred and three cDNA clones were obtained by screening 300,000 clones from the signal sequence trap cDNA library. Of these, twelve were identical to previously identified Aplysia genes, 19 were related to known proteins in other organisms, and 54 clones were novel. These 54 new genes had high signal peptide scores or were found likely to contain a transmembrane domain sequence. Only 18 of the 103 clones proved to be false positive. The study demonstrates that the signal sequence trap method is an effective tool for Isolating Aplysia genes encoding secreted and membrane proteins.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.153-157
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• 2006

A soil metagenomic library was constructed using an E. coli-fosmid cloning system with environmental DNAs extracted from Kwangreung forest topsoil. We targeted the genes involved in the biosynthesis of bacterial polyketides. Initially, a total of 36 clone pools (10,800 clones) were explored by the PCR-based method using the metagenomic DNAs from each pool and a degenerate primer set, which has been designed based on the highly conserved regions among ketoacyl synthase (KS) domains in actinomycete type I polyketide synthases (PKS Is). Six clone pools were tentatively selected as positive and further examined through a hybridization-based method for selecting a fosmid clone containing PKS I genes. Colony hybridization was performed against fosmid clones from the 6 positive pools, and finally 4 clones were picked out and confirmed to contain the conserved DNA fragment of KS domains. In this study, we present a simple and feasible sorting method for a desired clone from metagenomic libraries.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.144-150
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• 2006

The exploitation of metagenome, the access to the natural extant of enormous potential resources, is the way for elucidating the functions of organism in environmental communities, for genomic analyses of uncultured microorganism, and also for the recovery of entirely novel natural products from microbial communities. The major breakthrough in metagenomics is opened by the construction of libraries with total DNAs directly isolated from environmental samples and screening of these libraries by activity and sequence-based approaches. Screening with activity-based approach is presumed as a plausible route for finding new catabolic genes under designed conditions without any prior sequence information. The main limitation of these approaches, however, is the very low positive hits in a single round of screening because transcription, translation and appropriate folding are not always possible in E. coli, a typical surrogate host. Thus, to obtain information about these obstacles, we studied the genetic organization of individual URF's(unidentified open reading frame from metagenome sequenced and deposited in GenBank), especially on the expression factors such as codon usage, promoter region and ribosome binding site(rbs), based on DNA sequence analyses using bioinformatics tools. And then we also investigated the above-mentioned properties for 4100 ORFs(Open Reading Frames) of E. coli K-12 generally used as a host cell for the screening of noble genes from metagenome. Finally, we analyzed the differences between the properties of URFs of metagenome and ORFs of E. coli. Information derived from these comparative metagenomic analyses can provide some specific features or environmental blueprint available to screen a novel biocatalyst efficiently.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.888-897
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• 2009

Lipase diversity in glacier soil was assessed by culture-independent metagenomic DNA fragment screening and confirmed by cell culture experiments. A set of degenerate PCR primers specific for lipases of the hormone-sensitive lipase family was designed based on conserved motifs and used to directly PCR amplify metagenomic DNA from glacier soil. These products were used to construct a lipase fragment clone library. Among the 300 clones sequenced for the analysis, 201 clones encoding partiallipases shared 51-82% identity to known lipases in GenBank. Based on a phylogenetic analysis, five divergent clusters were established, one of which may represent a previously unidentified lipase subfamily. In the culture study, 11 lipase-producing bacteria were selectively isolated and characterized by 16S rDNA sequences. Using the above-mentioned degenerate primers, seven lipase gene fragments were cloned, but not all of them could be accounted for by the clones in the library. Two full-length lipase genes obtained by TAIL-PCR were expressed in Pichia pastoris and characterized. Both were authentic lipases with optimum temperatures of ${\le}40^{\circ}C$. Our study indicates the abundant lipase diversity in glacier soil as well as the feasibility of sequence-based screening in discovering new lipase genes from complex environmental samples.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.247-250
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• 2011

We designed an effective screening method for double strand DNA (dsDNA) binders using DNA-modified magnetic particles. Hairpin DNA was immobilized on the surface of magnetic particle for a simple screening of dsDNA binding materials in a solution containing various compounds. Through several magnetic separation and incubation processes, four DNA-binding materials, DAPI, 9AA, AQ2A, and DNR, were successfully screened from among five candidates. Efficiency of screening was demonstrated by HPLC analysis using a C2/18 reverse-phase column. In addition, their relative binding strengths were verified by measuring the melting temperature ($T_m$). If hairpin DNA sequence is modified for other uses, this magnetic bead-based approach can be applied as a high-throughput screening method for various functional materials such as anti-cancer drugs.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.273-276
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• 2006

RNA interference (RNAi), a process of sequence-specific gene suppression, has been known as a natural gene regulatory mechanism in a wide range of lower organisms. Recently, we have reported that a transfection of human U6 promoter (hU6) driven hairpin small-interference RNA (siRNA) plasmid specifically knocks down the target gene by post-transcriptional gene silencing in mammalian cells. Here we report that transfection of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products, containing human U6 promoter with hairpin siRNA, knocks down the target gene expression in human teratocarcinoma NT-2/D1 cells. Moreover, we showed 3' end termination sequence, 5 Ts, is not critical elements for knocking down in PCR-based siRNA system. Therefore, the PCR-based siRNA system is a promising tool not only for the screening but also to temporally regulate gene expression in the human progenitor cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1670-1679
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• 2020

The substantial use of fungal enzymes to degrade lignocellulosic plant biomass has widely been attributed to the extensive requirement of powerful enzyme-producing fungal strains. In this study, a two-step screening procedure for finding cellulolytic fungi, involving a miniaturized culture method with shake-flask fermentation, was proposed and demonstrated. We isolated 297 fungal strains from several cellulose-containing samples found in two different locations in Thailand. By using this screening strategy, we then selected 9 fungal strains based on their potential for cellulase production. Through sequence-based identification of these fungal isolates, 4 species in 4 genera were identified: Aspergillus terreus (3 strains: AG466, AG438 and AG499), Penicillium oxalicum (4 strains: AG452, AG496, AG498 and AG559), Talaromyces siamensis (1 strain: AG548) and Trichoderma afroharzianum (1 strain: AG500). After examining their lignocellulose degradation capacity, our data showed that P. oxalicum AG452 exhibited the highest glucose yield after saccharification of pretreated sugarcane trash, cassava pulp and coffee silverskin. In addition, Ta. siamensis AG548 produced the highest glucose yield after hydrolysis of pretreated sugarcane bagasse. Our study demonstrated that the proposed two-step screening strategy can be further applied for discovering potential cellulolytic fungi isolated from various environmental samples. Meanwhile, the fungal strains isolated in this study will prove useful in the bioconversion of agricultural lignocellulosic residues into valuable biotechnological products.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.282-285
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• 2004

The polyene antibiotics including nystatin, pimaricin, amphotericin and candicidin are a family of most promising antifungal polyketide compounds, typically produced by rare actinomycetes species. The biosynthetic gene clusters for these polyenes have been previously investigated, revealing the presence of highly homologous biosynthetic genes among polyene-producers such as polyketide synthase (PKS) and cytochrome P450 hydroxylase (CYP) genes. Based on amino acid sequence alignment among actinomycetes CYP genes, the highly-conserved regions specific for only polyene CYP genes were identified and chosen for degenerate PCR primers, followed by the PCR-screening with various actinomycetes genomic DNAs. Among tested several polyene non-producing actinomycetes strains, Pseudonorcardia autotrophica strain was selected based on the presence of PCR product with polyene-specific CYP gene primers, and then confirmed to contain a cryptic novel polyene hydroxylase gene in the chromosome. These results suggest that the polyene-specific hydroxylase gene PCR should be an efficient way of screening and isolating potentially-valuable cryptic polyene antibiotic biosynthetic genes from various microorganisms including rare actinomycetes.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.211-214
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• 2013

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a highly hazardous component to human since it is regarded as one of endocrine disruptors. For the analysis and/or removal of BPA, the searching for the specific ligand with a selective affinity to target BPA is required. In order to find the peptide moiety that specifically binds to BPA, the ultrasound-assisted biopanning was carried out with a phage-displayed peptide library expressing constrained heptamer. After six rounds of positive screening against BPA particles followed by the negative screening against the surface of eppendorf tube, the peptide sequence (CysLysSerLeuGluAsnSerTyrCys) with affinity to BPA was screened based on the order of frequency from the screened phage clones. To further verify the specificity of screened peptide sequence, the cross-binding affinity of the phage peptide toward BPA analogues such as Bisphenol S (BPS) and Bisphenol F (BPF) was also assessed, where the selected phage peptide showed a higher affinity to BPA over BPS and BPF.