• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.595-602
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• 2005

A one-step real-time quantitative RT-PCR assay in combination with automated RNA extraction was evaluated for routine testing of HCV RNA in the laboratory. Specific primers and probes were developed to detect 302 bp on 5'-UTR of HCV RNA. The assay was able to quantitate a dynamic linear range of $10^7-10^1$ HCV RNA copies/reaction ($R^2=0.997$). The synthetic HCV RNA standard of $1.84{\pm}0.1\;(mean{\pm}SD)$ copies developed in this study corresponded to 1 international unit (IU) of WHO International Standard for HCV RNA (96/790 I). The detection limit of the assay was 3 RNA copies/reaction (81 IU/ml) in plasma samples. The assay was comparable to the Amplicor HCV Monitor (Monitor) assay with correlation coefficient r=0.985, but was more sensitive than the Monitor assay. The assay could be completed within 3 h from RNA extraction to detection and data analysis for up to 32 samples. It allowed rapid RNA extraction, detection, and quantitation of HCV RNA in plasma samples. The method provided sufficient sensitivity and reproducibility and proved to be fast and labor-saving, so that it was suitable for high throughput HCV RNA test.

• The Journal of Natural Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2004

T7 RNA polymerase is a single subunit RNA polymerase able to accomplish whole transcription process without auxiliary factors. In order to study transcription elongation mechanism of phage T7 RNA polymerse, stepwise walking of RNA polymerase was established by immobilizing biotinylated DNA template with streptavidin bead, series of active and stable elongation complexes were obtained, Transcripts were radio isotope labeled at the 16thm 17th and 18th nucleotide residues so stable elongation transcription complex of T7 RNA polymerase containing 22-40 nucleotide residues could be identified. We identified the positions of stablely formed transcription elongation complexes of termination site in intrinsic hairpin-independent PTH terminator sequence through the established stepwise walking of wild-type of mutant R173C T7 RNA polymerases. The results suggest that stable elongation transcription complexes were at the site of passing PTH terminator signal by mutant R173C RNA polymerase.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.210-218
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• 2021

Recently, pest-resistant living modified (LM) crops developed using RNA interference (RNAi) technology have been imported into South Korea. However, the potential adverse effects of unintentionally released RNAi-based LM crops on non-target species have not yet been reported. Coccinella septempunctata, which feeds on aphids, is an important natural enemy insect which can be exposed to the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) produced by RNAi-based LM plants. To assess the risk of ingestion of Snf7 dsRNA by C. septempunctata, we first identified the species through morphological analysis of collected insects. A method for species identification at the gene level was developed using a specific C. septempunctata 12S rRNA. Furthermore, an experimental model was devised to assess the risk of Snf7 dsRNA ingestion in C. septempunctata. Snf7 dsRNA was mass-purified using an effective dsRNA synthesis method and its presence in C. septempunctata was confirmed after treatment with purified Snf7 dsRNA. Finally, the survival rate, development time, and dry weight of Snf7 dsRNA-treated C. septempunctata were compared with those of GFP and vATPase A dsRNA control treatments, and no risk was found. This study illustrates an effective Snf7 dsRNA synthesis method, as well as a high-concentration domestic insect risk assessment method which uses dsRNA to assess the risk of unintentional released of LM organisms against non-target species.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.6.1-6.12
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• 2012

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complicated neurodegenerative disorder although it is oftentimes defined by clinical motor symptoms originated from age dependent and progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain. The pathogenesis of PD involves dopaminergic and nondopaminergic neurons in many brain regions and the molecular mechanisms underlying the death of different cell types still remain to be elucidated. There are indications that PD causing disease processes occur in a global scale ranging from DNA to RNA, and proteins. Several PD-associated genes have been reported to play diverse roles in controlling cellular functions in different levels, such as chromatin structure, transcription, processing of mRNA, translational modulation, and posttranslational modification of proteins. The advent of quantitative high throughput screening (HTS) tools makes it possible to monitor systemic changes in DNA, RNA and proteins in PD models. Combined with dopamine neuron isolation or derivation of dopamine neurons from PD patient specific induced pluripotent stem cells (PD iPSCs), HTS techonologies will provide opportunities to draw PD causing sequences of molecular events in pathologically relevant PD samples. Here I discuss previous studies that identified molecular functions in which PD genes are involved, especially those signaling pathways that can be efficiently studied using HTS methodologies. Brief descriptions of quantitative and systemic tools looking at DNA, RNA and proteins will be followed. Finally, I will emphasize the use and potential benefits of PD iPSCs-derived dopaminergic neurons to screen signaling pathways that are initiated by PD linked gene mutations and thus causative for dopaminergic neurodegneration in PD.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.83-89
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• 2001

Recent advances in the structural and molecular biology uncovered that a set of translation factors resembles a tRNA shape and, in one case, even mimics a tRNA function for deciphering the genetic ：ode. Nature must have evolved this 'art' of molecular mimicry between protein and ribonucleic acid using different protein architectures to fulfill the requirement of a ribosome 'machine'. Termination of protein synthesis takes place on the ribosomes as a response to a stop, rather than a sense, codon in the 'decoding' site (A site). Translation termination requires two classes of polypeptide release factors (RFs)： a class-I factor, codon-specific RFs (RFI and RF2 in prokaryotes; eRFI in eukaryotes), and a class-IT factor, non-specific RFs (RF3 in prokaryotes; eRF3 in eukaryotes) that bind guanine nucleotides and stimulate class-I RF activity. The underlying mechanism for translation termination represents a long-standing coding problem of considerable interest since it entails protein-RNA recognition instead of the well-understood codon-anticodon pairing during the mRNA-tRNA interaction. Molecular mimicry between protein and nucleic acid is a novel concept in biology, proposed in 1995 from three crystallographic discoveries, one, on protein-RNA mimicry, and the other two, on protein-DNA mimicry. Nyborg, Clark and colleagues have first described this concept when they solved the crystal structure of elongation factor EF- Tu：GTP：aminoacyl-tRNA ternary complex and found its overall structural similarity with another elongation factor EF-G including the resemblance of part of EF-G to the anticodon stem of tRNA (Nissen et al. 1995). Protein mimicry of DNA has been shown in the crystal structure of the uracil-DNA glycosylase-uracil glycosylase inhibitor protein complex (Mol et al. 1995; Savva and Pear 1995) as well as in the NMR structure of transcription factor TBP-TA $F_{II}$ 230 complex (Liu et al. 1998). Consistent with this discovery, functional mimicry of a major autoantigenic epitope of the human insulin receptor by RNA has been suggested (Doudna et al. 1995) but its nature of mimic is. still largely unknown. The milestone of functional mimicry between protein and nucleic acid has been achieved by the discovery of 'peptide anticodon' that deciphers stop codons in mRNA (Ito et al. 2000). It is surprising that it took 4 decades since the discovery of the genetic code to figure out the basic mechanisms behind the deciphering of its 64 codons.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.142-150
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• 2009

The complete genome sequences of RNA3 and RNA4 of the 13 different Rice stripe virus (RSV) isolates were determined and characterized in this study to address the possible causes of the recent re-emergence of RSV that affected many rice fields in Korea. The genome size of each RNA segment varied among isolates and significant differences were observed in the intergenic region. There was up to 4% average divergence in the RNA4 nucleotide sequence among 13 Korean isolates and only 1.4% in the RNA3. Phylogenetic relationships among different Korean isolates revealed that there were at least 2 types of RNA3 and 4 distinct types of RNA4 genomes present in Korea. However, Korean isolates with one type of RNA3 predominate over the other while the occurrences of the RSV Korean isolates with the 4 types of RNA4 genome were not correlated to specific geographical areas. Results further indicate that RNA4 had diverged more than RNA3 and these differences in accumulation of mutations in the individual RNA segments indicate that genetic reassortment were likely to contribute to the genetic divergence in the 13 Korean isolates. All of the Korean-RNA3 sequences except for one isolate grouped with Chinese isolates (JY and Z). In contrast, the RNA 4 sequences segregated together with either Chinese (JY and Z) and Japanese (M and T) isolates but genetic relationships of Korean isolates- RNAs 3 and 4 segments to Chinese-Y isolate were low. Altogether, these results suggest that the occurrence of mixtures of RNAs 3 and 4 genotypes in the natural population of RSV may have contributed to the sudden outbreak in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.309-319
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• 2018

Previously, six Schizosaccharomyce pombe mutants that induce pheromone even in the presence of nitrogen source were isolated from a bank of temperature sensitive mutants. In this report, one of these mutants, pws6 was further characterized. The pheromone induction in pws6 mutant cells was specific to nutrient: the M-factor pheromone was induced without nitrogen starvation but not without glucose starvation. This result suggests that the pws6 mutant might have a specific defect in the pathway for nitrogen starvation. The pws6 mutant induces P-factor pheromone as well as M-factor without starvation of nitrogen in temperature sensitive mode, suggesting that the pheromone induction phenotype of pws6 mutation is not cell-type specific. From cloning of the $pws6^+$ gene by complementation of the temperature sensitive growth defect, three plasmids containing 8.1 kb, 3.3 kb, and 4.8 kb yeast DNA were recovered. These plasmids complement the growth defect of the pws6 mutant by 100%, 70%, and 10~20%, respectively. The abilities of these plasmids to complement pheromone induction phenotype of pws6 mutant cells were correlated well with the efficiencies of complementation of the growth defect. With comparison of their open reading frames to the complementation efficiencies, it is concluded that the open reading frame, SPBC19C7.06 is responsible for the complementation of temperature sensitive phenotype of the pws6 mutant. This open reading frame, named prs1, contains one long exon with no intron and encodes a putative prolyl tRNA synthetase. The putative Prs1 protein exhibits significant similarities to the prolyl tRNA synthetases of other species.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.68-72
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• 2002

To obtain a yeast mutant with high RNA content and high growth rate, Saccharomyces cerevisiae MTY62 was mutated with ethylmethane sulfonate. Among the selected mutants that were sensitive to the high concentration of KCl, M40-10 strain was finally selected due to its rapid cell growth and high RNA content in the tube and baffled-flask cultures. In the batch culture of M40-10 mutant, the maximum specific growth rate ($\mu_{max}$) of $0.38 h^{-1}$ , RNA concentration of 3210 mg-RNA/1, and RNA content of 183 mg-RNA/g-DCW were obtained, which were 23%, 15%, and 12% increased levels, respectively, compared to those of MTY62 parent strain. The intermittent fed-batch culture of M40-10 strain resulted in the maximum cell concentration of 35.6 g-DCW/1, RNA concentration of 5677 mg/1, and RNA content of 160 mg-RNA/g-DCW. Through the constant fed-batch culture, the maximum cell concentration of 46.4 g-DCW/1, RNA concentration of 6270 mg-RNA/1, and RNA content of 135 mg-RNA/g-DCW were obtained. At the 20 h culture time in the fed-batch cultures of M40-10 strain, the cell and RNA concentrations were increased by 30% and 10%, respectively, over the parent strain MTY62. In addition, it was also found that the accumulated RNA within the mutant cell was not degraded until the end of fed-batch cultivation, indicating that the M40-10 cell is a mutant with weak acidic RNase activity.y.

• Proceedings of the Zoological Society Korea Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.77.2-77
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• 1999

No Abstract, See Full Text

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.951-953
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• 1996