• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.103-108
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• 2002

We describe here the cDNA sequence and mRNA expression of a novel serine pretense from the firefly, Pyrocoelia rufa. The 771 bp cDNA encodes for 257 amino acid residues. The deduced protein of P. rufa serine pretense gene contains the catalytic triad and six-conserved cysteine residues. Alignment of the deduced protein of P. rufa serine pretense gene showed 47.4% protein sequence identity to known coleopteran insect Rhyzopertha dominica midgut trpsin-like enzyme. Northern blot analysis revealed that the P. rufa serine pretense is specifically expressed in the midgut of P. rufa larvae.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.58-62
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• 2003

An extracellular pretense of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens S94 was purified to apparent homogeneity. The enzyme activity was strongly inhibited by general inhibitor for serine protease, PMSF, suggesting that the enzyme is a serine pretense. The purified enzyme activity was inhibited by leucine peptidase inhibitor, bestatin, suggesting that the enzyme is a leucine endopeptidase. The maximum proteolytic activity against different protein substrates occurred at pH 10, 45$^{\circ}C$ (protein substrate) and pH 8, 45$^{\circ}C$ (synthetic substrate). The purified enzyme was specific in that it readily hydrolyBed substrates with Leu or Lys residues at P$_1$ site. The pretense had characteristics of a cold-adapted protein, which was more active for the hydrolysis of synthetic substrate in the range of 15$^{\circ}C$ to 45$^{\circ}C$, specially at low temperature.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2002

From the culture supernatant of the psychrotrophic strain of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens an extracellular serine protease was purified to apparent homogeneity by successive purification steps using QAE-Sephadex, SP-Sephadex and Sephacryl S-100 column chromatography. The pretense is monomeric, with a relative molecular mass of 23,000. It is inhibited by the serine protease inhibitor phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, but not by EDTA. The enzyme is most active at pH 9-10 and at $45^{\circ}C$, although it is unstable at $60^{\circ}C$.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.196-201
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• 1997

Assuming that Asp225 is the substrate specificity determinant of Achromobacter pretense I (APl) which is lysine-specific serine protease, the 225th residue was substituted for other amino acids with a hope that the substrate specificity of a mutant API is altered. Furthermore, to maturate preform of mutant API autocatalytically, Lys(-1) was also replaced by Met, Asp, or Glu. However, all the mutants were not expressed, or accumulated as inactive precursor proteins. This result implicats that Asp225 plays a critical rol in restricted substrate specificity as a lysylendopeptidase but the substrate specificity of API is not determined only by the nature of residue 225.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.1 s.96
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• pp.20-27
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• 2006

The fibrinolytic activities of soluble proteins extracted from seeds of Coix lacryma-jobi L., Carthamus tinctorius L. and Malva venicillata L. were studied. Fibrinolytic activity of extract from C. lacryma-jobi L. showed 1.3 times higher than plasmin used as positive control. The fibrinolytic enzyme was confirmed and extracted directly from seed of C. lacryma-jobi L. by a fibrin zymography. The protein was composed of a single polypeptide and its apparent molecular weight was found to be 7.8 kDa, as judged by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The effect of temperature for the proteolytic enzyme activity were stabilized above $50^{\circ}C$ and then dramatically decreased. Also, the enzyme activity was clearly inhibited by APMSF, PMSF and TPCK, suggesting that it is a member of the chymotrypsin-like serine pretense. In addition, effects of gamma-irradiated on seed of each plants were revealed that 8 Gy and 64 Gy were higher than others. This result shown that gamma-irradiation of seeds were capable to increase the fibrinolytic activity. All these results suggest the pretense is a fibrinolytic enzyme belong to a family of chymotrypsin-like serine pretense.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.14-18
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• 2002

Subpopulations of nucleotides that bind specifically to a variety of proteins have been isolated from a population of random sequence RNA/DNA molecules. Roughly one in $10^{13}$ random sequence RNA/DNA molecules folds in such a way as to create a specific binding site for small ligands. Since the development of in vitro selection procedure, more than 50 nucleic acid ligands (aptamers) have been isolated. These molecules are very useful for the study of molecular recognition between nucleic acid and protein/organic compound. In addition to these basic studies this method gives us a dream to produce new drugs against several diseases. We focused on several aptamers which specifically binds to trypsin-like serine proteases (thrombin, human neutrophil elastase, activated protein C and NS3 protease of human hepatitis C virus) and want to introduce their structural characteristics and some functions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.915-921
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• 1996

An alkaline pretense Producing microorganism was isolated from Korean traditional soy sauce and identified as Bacillus subtilis CCKS-111. The optimum culture condition of Bacillus subtilis CCKS-111 for the production of alkaline pretense was as follow: 2% soluble starch, 0.2% peptone, 0.1% (NB$_4$)$_2$S$_2$O$_{8}$ , 0.2% MgSO$_4$, pH 7.0, 35$^{\circ}C$ and 24hrs. The optimum pH and temperature for the enzyme activity of alkaline pretense producing Bacillus subtilis CCKS-111 were pH 9.0 and 5$0^{\circ}C$, respectively. The enzyme was relatively stable at pH 6.0~11.0 and at temperature below 4$0^{\circ}C$. The activity of the enzyme was inhibited by $K^{+}$ and Hg$^{2+}$, whereas Cu$^{2+}$ exhibited rather activating effects on the enzyme activity. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride inhibited the enzyme activity. This indicates that this is serine pretense which requires metal ion group for the enzyme activity. Km value was 2.313$\times$10$^{-4}$ M/L, V$_{max}$ value was 39.216$\mu\textrm{g}$/min. This enzyme hydrolyzed casein more rapidly than the hemoglobin.lobin.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.165-170
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• 1995

The biochemical properties of the fibrinolytic protease of 50,800 Da isolated from the venom of Kgdistrodon blomhoffi brevicaudus were characterized. The enzyme hydrolyzed the carboxyl side of arginine in the synthetic chromogenic peptides, N-Benzoyl-Phe-Val-Arg-pNA and N-p-Tosyl-Gly-Pro-Arg-pNA, and the enzyme activity was inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride indicating that the enzyme belongs to the serine protease family. The pretense showed maximum activity at pH 7.5 and inhibited by ZnCl$_2$, CuSO$_4$, but not by soybean trypsin inhibitor, pepstatin A, 2-mercaptoethanol and EDTA. The fm value determined with N-p-Tosyl-Gly-Pro-Arg-pNA was 0.2 mM. The thrombolytic activity of the purified enzyme was evaluated by platelet aggregation test in rabbits. While the platelet count ratio in blood of the rabbits injected with thrombin alone declined from 1.0 to 0.6 within 7 min and maintained around 0.6 for 24 hours thereafter, the ratio rapidly recovered from around 0.6 to 0.8 in 1 hr, to 1.0 in 24 hrs when the rabbits were sequentially treated with thrombin and the purified enzyme. The result showed that the serine protease from A. blomhoffi brevicoudus of 50,800 Da had a thrombolytic activity in vivo and the enzyme might be developed as a therapuetic agent for the treatment of thrombic disease.

• Proceedings of the Korea Crystallographic Association Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.24-24
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• 2002

HtrA (high temperature requirement A), a periplasmic heat shock protein, is known to have molecular chaperone function at low temperatures and proteolytic activity at elevated temperatures. To investigate the mechanism of functional switch to pretense, we have determined the crystal structure of the N-terminal protease domain (PD) of HtrA from Thermotoga maritima. HtrA PD shares the same fold with chymotrypsin-like serine professes. However, crystal structure suggests that HtrA PD is not an active pretense at current state since its active site is not formed properly and blocked by an additional helical lid. On the surface of the lid, HtrA PD has hydrophobic patches that could be potential substrate binding sites for molecular chaperone activity. Present structure suggests that the activation of the proteolytic function of HtrA PD at elevated temperatures might occur by the conformational change.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.44 no.4 s.140
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• pp.321-330
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• 2006

The pathogenic mechanism of granulomatous amebic encephalitis (GAE) and amebic keratitis (AK) by Acanthamoeba has yet to be clarified. Pretense has been recognized to play an important role in the pathogenesis of GAE and AK. In the present study, we have compared specific activity and cytopathic effects (CPE) of purified 33 kDa serine proteinases from Acanthamoeba strains with different degree of virulence (A. healyi OC-3A, A. lugdunensis KA/E2, and A. castelianii Neff). Trophozoites of the 3 strains revealed different degrees of CPE on human corneal epithelial (HCE) cells. The effect was remarkably reduced by adding phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride (PMSF), a serine proteinase inhibitor. This result indicated that PMSF-susceptible proteinase is the main component causing cytopathy to HCE cells by Acanthamoeba. The purified 33 kDa serine proteinase showed strong activity toward HCE cells and extracellular matrix proteins. The purified proteinase from OC-3A, the most virulent strain, demonstrated the highest enzyme activity compared to KA/E2, an ocular isolate, and Neff, a soil isolate. Polyclonal antibodies against the purified 33 kDa serine proteinase inhibit almost completely the proteolytic activity of culture supernatant of Acanthamoeba. In line with these results, the 33 kDa serine proteinase is suggested to play an important role in pathogenesis and to be the main component of virulence factor of Acanthamoeba.