• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.90-95
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• 2007

Artificially-produced juvenile black sea bream, Acanthopagrus schlegeli (total length $10.4{\pm}1.1\;cm$, body weight $18.7{\pm}3.4\;g$) were released into the Gamak Bay in Korea. And their initial feeding habits and body compositions were compared with those of cultured fish (CUL) for a period of one month after release. The released black sea bream commenced feeding on the 1st day after release, and predation rate was more than 80% during the sampling period. The stomach content of fish was composed of mainly fishing bait and krill in fish sampled on 15th days after release; however, its content changed to the natural organisms such as algae and small crustaceans when the fish was sampled on 20th days after release. Crude lipid content of carcass of fish in the sampling station A (SA) were lower than that of fish in the initial, sampling station B (SB) and CUL for the 5th and 10th days after release. Carcass n-3 HUFA composition, total amino acid and essential amino acid contents of released fish showed high trend compared to that of cultured fish in 30th days after release. The released fish have the ability to adjust their feeding habits and biochemical metabolism to the natural environment within a short period even though they showed preference to artificial feed in the early days after release.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.8-27
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• 2000

Components of extracellular matrix and the matrix-degrading enzymes are some of the key regulators of tumor metastasis and angiogenesis. Hyaluronic acid (HA), a matrix glycosaminoglycan, is known to promote tumor adhesion and migration, and its small fragments are angiogenic. Until now, we have compared levels of hyaluronidase, an enzyme that degrade HA, in normal adult prostate, benign prostate hyperplasia and prostate cancer tissues and in conditioned media from epithelial explant cultures, using a substrate (HA)-gel assay and ELISA-like assay (Kim et al., unpublished results). The present review described an overall characterization of hyaluronidases and its application to human diseases. The hyaluronidases are a family of enzymes that have, until recently, deed thorough explication. The substrate for these enzymes, hyaluronan, is becoming increasingly important, recognized now as a major participant in basic processes such as cell motility, wound healing, embryogenesis, and implicated in cancer progression. And in those lower life forms that torment human beings, hyaluronidase is associated with mechanisms of entry and spread, e.g. as a virulence factor for bacteria, for tissue dissection in gas gangrene, as a means of treponema spread in syphilis, and for penetration of skin and gut by nematode parasites. Hyaluronidase also comprises a component of the venom of a wide variety of organisms, including bees, wasps, hornets, spiders, scorpions, sh, snakes and lizards. Of particular interest is the homology between some of these venom hyaluronidases and the enzyme found in the plasma membrane of mammalian spermatozoa, attesting to the ancient nature of the conserved sequence, a 36% identity in a 300 amino acid stretch of the enzyme protein. Clearly, hyaluronidase is of biological interest, being involved in the pathophysiology of so many important' human disorders. Greater effort should be made in studying this family of enzymes that have, until recently, been overlooked. Also, oriental medical application of the hyaluronidase will be discussed with respect to inhibition and suppression of inflammation and malignacy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 1995.06b
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• pp.27-53
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• 1995

In plant pathology there is an increasing necessity for improved cytological techniques as basis for the localization of cellular substances within the dynamic fine structure of the host-(plant)-pathogen-interaction. Low temperature (LT) preparation techniques (shock freezing, freeze substitution, LT embedding) are now successfully applied in plant pathology. They are regarded as important tools to stabilize the dynamic plant-pathogen-interaction as it exists under physiological conditions. - The main advantage of LT techniques versus conventional chemical fixation is seen in the maintenance of the hydration shell of molecules and macromolecular structures. This results in an improved fine structural preservation and in a superior retention of the antigenicity of proteins. - A well defined ultrastructure of small, fungal organisms and large biological samples such as plant material and as well as the plant-pathogen (fungus) infection sites are presented. The mesophyll tissue of Arabidopsis thaliana is characterized by homogeneously structured cytoplasm closely attached to the cell wall. From analyses of the compatible interaction between Erysiphe graminis f. sp. hordei on barley (Hordeum vulgare), various steps in the infection sequence can be identified. Infection sites of powdery mildew on primary leaves of barley are analysed with regard to the fine structural preservation of the haustoria. The presentation s focussed on the ultrastructure of the extrahaustorial matrix and the extrahaustorial membrane. - The integration of improved cellular preservation with a molecular analysis of the infected host cell is achieved by the application of secondary probing techniques, i.e. immunocytochemistry. Recent data on the characterization of freeze substituted powdery mildew and urst infected plant tissue by immunogold methodology are described with special emphasis on the localization of THRGP-like (threonine-hydrxyproline-rich glycoprotein) epitopes. Infection sites of powdery mildew on barley, stem rust as well as leaf rust (Puccinia recondita) on primary leaves of wheat were probed with a polyclonal antiserum to maize THRGP. Cross-reactivity with the anti-THRGP antiserum was observed over the extrahaustorial matrix of the both compatible and incompatible plant-pathogen interactions. The highly localized accumulation of THRGP-like epitopes at the extrahaustorial host-pathogen interface suggests the involvement of structural, interfacial proteins during the infection of monocotyledonous plants by obligate, biotrophic fungi.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1685-1689
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• 2009

Phytochelatins (PCs) are small polypeptides synthesized by PC synthase (PCS). They are present in various living organisms including plants, fission yeast, and some animals. The presumed function of PCs is the sequestration of cytosolic toxic heavy metals like cadmium (Cd) into the vacuoles via vacuolar membrane localized heavy metal tolerance factor 1 (HMT-1). HMT-1 was first identified in fission yeast (SpHMT-1), and later in Caenorhabdtis (CeHMT-1). Recently, its homolog has also been found in PC-deficient Drosophila (DmHMT-1), and this homolog has been shown to be involved in Cd detoxification, as confirmed by the heterologous expression of DmHMT-1 in fission yeast. Therefore, the dependence of HMT-1 on PC in Cd detoxification should be re-evaluated. I heterologously expressed SpHMT-1 in cytosolic PC-deficient yeast, Saccharomycea cerevisiae, to understand the dependence of HMT-1 on PC. Yeast cells expressing SpHMT-1 showed increased tolerance to Cd compared with control cells. This result indicates that SpHMT-1 is not strictly correlated with PC production on its function. Moreover, yeast cells expressing SpHMT-1 showed increased tolerance to exogenously applied glutathione (GSH) compared with control cells, and the tolerance to Cd was further increased by exogenously applied GSH, while tolerance in control cells was not. These results indicate that the function of SpHMT-1 in Cd detoxification does not depend on PCs only, and suggest that SpHMT-1 may sequester cytosolic GSH-Cd complexes into the vacuole.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.166-172
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• 2007

ERM proteins transfer the methyl group to $A_{2058}$ in 23S rRNA, which reduces the affinity of MLS (macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B) antibiotics to 23S rRNA, thereby confer the antibiotic resistance on micro-organisms ranging from antibiotic producers to pathogens and are classified into monomethyltransferase and dimethyltransferase. To investigate the differences between mono- and dimethyltransferase, tirD, a representative monomethylase gene was cloned in Escherichia coli from Streptomyces fradiae which contains ermSF, dimethylase gene as well to overexpress the TlrD for the first time. T7 promoter driven expression system successfully overexpress tlrD as a insoluble aggregate at $37^{\circ}C$ accumulating to around 55% of the total cell protein but unlike ErmSF, culturing at temperature as low as $18^{\circ}C$ did not make insoluble aggregate of protein into soluble protein. Coexpression of Thioredoxin and GroESL, chaperone was not helpful in turning into soluble protein either as in case of ErmSF. These results might suggest that differences between mono- and dimethylase could be investigated on the basis of the characteristics of protein structure. However, a very small amount of soluble protein which could not be detected by SDS-PAGE conferred antibiotic resistance on E. coli as in ErmSF which was expected from the activity exerted by monmethylase in a cell.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.3-26
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• 2005

In recent years, there is growing concern about the potential use of biological agents in war or acts of terrorism accompanied an increased realization that rapid preparedness and response are needed to prevent or treat the human damage that can be caused by these agents. The threat is indeed serious, and the potential for devastating numbers of casualties is high. The use of agents as weapons, even on a small scale, has the potential for huge social and economic disruption and massive diversion of regional and national resources to combat the threat, to treat primary disease, and to clean up environmental contamination. Biological weapons are one of weapons of mass destruction (or mass casualty weapons, to be precise. since they do not damage non-living entities) that are based on bacteria, viruses, rickettsia, fungi or toxins produced by these organisms. Biological weapons are known to be easy and cheap to produce and can be used to selectively target humans, animals, or plants. Theses agents can cause large numbers of casualties with minimal logistical requirements (in wide area). The spread of disease cannot be controlled until there is awareness of the signs of infection followed by identification of agents; and if the organism is easily spread from person to person, as in the case of smallpox, the number of casualties could run into the tens of thousands. Biological weapons could be used covertly, there can be a lot of different deployment scenarios. A lot of different agents could be used in biological weapons. And, there are a lot of different techniques to manufacture biological weapons. Terrorist acts that make use of Biological Agents differ in a number of ways from those involving chemicals. The distinction between terrorist and military use of Biological Weapon is increasingly problematic. The stealthy qualities of biological weapons further complicate the distinction between terrorism and war. In reality, all biological attacks are likely to require an integrated response involving both military and civilian communities. The basic considerations when public health agencies establish national defence plan against bioterrorism must be 1) arraying various laws and regulations to meet the realistic needs, 2)education for public health personnels and support of concerned academic society, 3)information collection and cooperative project with other countries, 4)Detection and surveillance(Early detection is essential for ensuring a prompt response to biological or chemical attack, including the provision of prophylactic medicines, chemical antidotes, or vaccines) and 5) Response(A comprehensive public health response to a biological or chemical terrorist event involves epidemiologic investigation, medical treatment and prophylaxis for affacted persons, and the initiation of disease prevention or environmental decontamination measures). The purpose of this paper is providing basic material of preparedness and response for biological terrorism in modern society.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.157-164
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• 2009

In order to rehabilitate habitats for marine organisms in the slag dumping area, succession of benthic communities was monitored on artificial seaweed beds with transplantation of Ecklonia stolonifera from April 2004 to June 2005. Acinetospora critina was only primary dominated on steel frame in the first experiment (April 2004). A total of 15 species of seaweed were identified in the second experiment (June 2004). Enteromorpha intestinalis and Enteromorpha sp. were dominated, and Urospora penicilliformis, Ulothrix flacca, Cladophora sp., and Ulva pertusa were found on Ecklonia stolonifera fronds gradually with increasing time. This time was coincided with occurrence of benthic macrofaunas, molluscans and small fish species. The epiphytic benthic macrofaunas were dominated on amphipods, molluscans were Mytilus edulis, Thais clavigera, and fish species were Mugil cephalus, Pholis nebulosa. These results indicated that transplantation of Ecklonia stolonifera on artificial seaweed beds have been contributed on restoration habitats for benthic communities in the slag dumping area.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.295-302
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• 2005

The nitrogen (N) balance in Korea during 1985-1997 was calculated according to the surface balance method of the PARCOM guidelines and compared with Japanese N balance. The some differences were founded in the coefficients used on calculating N balance in two nations. Of the important parameters, which can make a big difference in balance, N input by organic fertilizers was not included in Korea different with Japanese, due to absence of reliable statistics and then made lower the input. Nitrogen destruction rate from livestock manure was adjusted differently with 15% in Korea but 28% in Japan. There was some difference in the conversion factors of livestock number into manure N quantity in two nations, but the gap was ignoble scale except beef cattle. Our manure N production rate of beef cattle might be evaluated to be so lower than Japanese. Biological N fixation by pulses was very higher in Korea than in Japan but scarcely affect the increase of total N input, due to small cultivation area. In contrast, N fixation rate by free-living organisms in Korean and Japanese wet paddies showed the big difference with 7.6 and $37.0kg\;ha^{-1}\;yr^{-1}$, respectively, and therefore $29.4kg\;ha^{-1}\;yr^{-1}$ of nitrogen was estimated to be more inputted in Japan. Although there are many points to be more specified and improved, still, Korean N balance was very high with $250-257kg\;ha^{-1}$ in the mid of 1990s, which was the second highest level in OECD countries and furthermore increased continuously during the investigation. In contrast in Japan, which has similar fanning system with Korea, N balance was lower with $130-158kg\;ha^{-1}$ and has decreased continuously since 1993. This high N balance was mainly due to a high usage of chemical fertilizers in our intensive fanning system and the fast increment of livestock feeding. Therefore, the more active action to decrease chemical fertilizer utilization and reduce livestock feeding density is required in the government and farmer sides.

• Proceedings of the Korea Crystallographic Association Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.18-18
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• 2003

Thioredoxin (Trx) is a small redox protein that is ubiquitously distributed from achaes to human. In diverse organisms, the protein is involved in various physiological roles by acting as electron donor and regulators of transcription and apoptosis as well as antioxidants. Sequences of Trx within various species are 27～69% identical to that of E. coli and all Trx proteins have the same overall fold, which consists of central five β strands surrounded by four α helices. The N-terminal cysteine in WCGPC motif of Trx is redox sensitive and the motif is highly conserved. Compared with general cysteine, the N-terminal cysteine has low pKa value. The result leads to increased reduction activity of protein. Recently, novel thio.edoxin-related protein (TRP14) was found from rat brain. TRP14 acts as disulfide reductase like Trx1, and its redox potential and pKa are similar to those of Trx1. However, TRP14 takes up electrons from cytosolic thioredoxin reductase (TrxR1), not from the mitochondrial thioredoxin reductase (TrxR2). Biological roles of TES14 were reported to be involved in regulating TNF-α induced signaling pathways in different manner with Trx1. In depletion experiments, depletion of TRP14 increased TNF-α induced phosphorylation and degradation of IκBα more than the depletion Trx1 did. It also facilitated activation of JNK and p38 MAP kinase induced by TNF-α. Unlike Trx1, TRP14 shows neither interaction nor interference with ASK1. Here, we determined three-dimensional crystal structure of TRP14 by MAD method at 1.8Å. The structure reveals that the conserved cis-Pro (Pro90) and active site-W-C-X-X-C motif, which may be involved in substrate recognition similar to Trx1 , are located at the beginning position of strand β4 and helix α2, respectively. The TRP14 structure also shows that surface of TRP14 in the vicinity of the active site, which is surrounded by an extended flexible loop and an additional short a helix, is different from that of Trx1. In addition, the structure exhibits that TRP14 interact with a distinct target proteins compared with Trx1 and the binding may depend mainly on hydrophobic and charge interactions. Consequently, the structure supports biological data that the TRP14 is involved in regulating TNF-α induced signaling pathways in different manner with Trx1.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2006

In this study, antimicrobial activity of oriental herbal medicine extract (OHME) was tested for some organisms and the preventive effects of OHME for the colonization of Campylobacter jejuni on epithelium of small intestine were examined in Korean native broiler chickens fed a forage added 1.0% OHME. The isolated Campylobacter spp were biotyped, serotyped and the susceptiblility of isolates to antimicrobial agent were examined. The growth of Staphylococcus aureus was inhibited in 0.25% OHME. C. jejuni and C. coli were inhibited in 0.1% OHME, and Salmonella spp, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Escheichia coli 0157 were inhibited in 2.0% OHME. For the application of forage added 1.0% OHME in broiler chicken farm, the frequency of Campylobacter spp from feces, liver and spleen sample of chickens were examined during 2 weeks interval. The frequence of Campylobacter spp in feces from chickens fed assorted forage (control group) was increased from 25% in first week to 75% in seventh week. But the frequence of Campylobacter spp in feces sample from chickens 134 forage added OHME was slightly reduced from 25% in first week to 15% in seventh week. The frequence of Campylobacter spp in liver, and spleen was 13.7% and 10% respectively after seventh week in control group, but the Campylobacter spp was not isolated after fifth week in live and spleen from chickens fed forage added OHME. Isolated 56 strains of thermophilic Campyiobacter from Korean native chickens was classified as C. jejuni (76.7%), C. coli (214%) and C. laridis (1.6%). The majority of 43 isolates of C. jejuni was classified on biotype I (60.4%), II (30.2%). Most of 12 isolates of C.coli were biotype I (83.3%). Isolated 31 strains C. jejuni of showed 11 different serotype, and serotype 36 (18.6%), 17 (13.9%)were most frequent. Isolated 10 strains of C. coli showed 5 different serotypes and serotype 31 (33.3%) and 21 (25%) were relatively common. Isolated Campylobacter spp were highly susceptible to nalidixic acid, amikacin, gentamicin, colistin and chloramphenucol.