• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.1013-1017
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• 2008

Syndecan-3 is a cell-surface heparan sulfate proteoglycan, which performs a variety of functions during cell adhension process. It is also a coreceptor for growth factor, mediating cell-cell and cell-matrix interaction. Syndecan-3 contains a cytoplasmic domain potentially associated with the cytoskeleton. Syndecan-3 is specifically expressed in neuron cell and has related to neuron cell differentiation and development of actin filament in cell migration. Syndecans each have a unique, central, and variable (V) region in their cytoplasmic domains. And that region of syndecan-3 may modulate the interactions of the conserved C1 regions of the cytoplasmic domains by tyrosine phosphorylation. Cytoplasmic domain of syndecan-3 has been synthesized for NMR structural studies. The solution structure of syndecan-3 cytoplasmic domain has been determined by two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy and simulated-annealing calculation. The cytoplasmic domain of the syndecan proteins has a tendency to form a dimmer conformation with a central cavity, however, that of syndecan-3 demonstrated a monomer conformation with a flexible region near C-terminus. The structural information might add knowledge about the structure-function relationships among syndecan proteins.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2002.07c
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• pp.1788-1791
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• 2002

In the post-genome era. it is one of important research subject to Investigate the roles of the proteins in human body based on decoded genome information during Human Genome Project. In order to clarify them. it is necessary to analyze the structure of the protein crystals and their function. ' Crystallization is the beginning stage of protein structure determination process. There are some methods for structural analysis of the proteins, and general one is X-ray structural analysis method. In order to utilize this method for analyzing the protein crystal's structure, artificial protein crystallization is required. However, since artificial crystallizing work takes much time and manpower. the performance against its cost is still low. Therefore. we started to discuss to develop a supporting system for improving efficiency of the crystallization distinction procedure. In this paper, we examine to realize such supporting system for crystallization distinction using image-processing technique and report about our experimental result with many real protein solution images.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 1995

Total saponin from Korean red ginseng changed thermodynamic parameters of membranes from dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and ghost erythrocytes of human. In liposomes from DPPC, temperature of the main transition (Lb'-La) in liquid-crystalline phase increases by 0.2$^{\circ}C$ in average, but enthalpy does not change. Total saponin at a concentration of smaller than $10^5$% "stabilizes" the timid bilayers. At larger than 0.07 of saponin/DPPC ratio, saponin leads to an exclusion of the bound lipid molecules from the main phase transition into lamella liquid crystalline La-phase. Total saponin influences specifically all erythrocyte membrane transitions in a concentration-dependent manner, i.e. on the structures of all the main membrane skeleton proteins. A high structural specificity of saponin with membrane proteins, could be a base of specificity of physiological response of not only erythrocytes, but also other cells.her cells.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.153-164
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• 1998

Cytokines regulate proliferation, differentiation and functions of haemotopoietic cells. Each cytokine possesses a variety of activities on various target cells (pleiotropy) and various cytokines have similar and overlapping activities on the same target cells (redundancy). The nature of these cytokine activities predicts unique feature of cytokine receptors, namely, cytokine has multiple receptors, different cytokines share a common receptor, and different cytokine receptors are linked to common signaling pathways. cDNA cloning of genes for cytokine receptors revealed distinct sets of receptor family with different structural features. The cytokine receptor superfamily consists of a largest family, and contains more than twenty cytokine receptor subunits. This receptor has common structural features in both extracellular and intracellular regions without tyrosine kinase domain. Another striking feature of the receptor is to share common subunit of multiple cytokines, which partly explains the redundancy of activities of some cytokines. Recent studies revealed detailed signaling events of the cytokine receptor, the primary activation of JAK and subsequent phosphorylation of tyrosine residues of receptor, and various cellular proteins. Many SH2 containing adapter proteins play an important role in cytokine signals, and this system has similarities with tyrosine kinase receptor signal transduction. STAT may mainly account for cytokine specific functions as suggested by knockout mice studies. It is of importance to note that cytokine activates multiple signaling pathways and the balance and combination of related signaling events may determine the specificity of functions of cytokines.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.242-246
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• 1997

The protein profile of Synechococcus sp. cyanophage was investigated employing SDS-PAGE. The phage appears to be composed of two major proteins of 97 and 52 kDa and at least seven minor proteins of 70, 65, 60, 40, 35, 28, and 6 kDa. It seems that each subunit is combined to form a multimer although any disulfide bond does not exist in the phage structure. Lytic activity of the phage particle against cell wall was detected around the 52 kDa on renaturing SDS-PAGE using heat-killed Micrococcus luteus cells as substrate. The activity has the optimal pH between 9 and 10, and slightly inhibited by EDTA.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.296-306
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• 2019

BACKGROUND: Temperature is known to be the main factor affecting development, growth and reproduction of organisms and also a physical factor directly related to insect survival. Insects as ectothermal species should be responsive to climate changes for their survival and develop various survival strategies under the unfavorable temperature such as low temperature. The purpose of this study is to identify genes contributing to adaptation of low temperature. METHODS AND RESULTS: To identify genes contributing to adaptation of low temperature, the transcriptomic data were obtained from fat body in Plutella xyostella larvae via next generation sequencing. We identified structural proteins, heat shock proteins, antioxidant enzymes, detoxification proteins, and cryoprotectant mobilization and biosynthesis-related proteins. Genes encoding chitinase, cuticular protein, Hsp23, chytochrome protein, Glutathione S transferase, and phospholipase 2 were up-regulated under low temperature. Proteins related to energy metabolism such as UDP-glycosy ltransferase, trehalase and trehalose transporter were down-regulated. CONCLUSION: When insect pests were exposed to low temperature, changes in gene expression of fat body could provide some hints for understanding temperature adaptation strategies.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.157-161
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• 1994

To investigate the morphology of Bacillus thuringiensis crystal proteins, two type crystal protein genes, cryIA(c) gene under the control of cryIA(b) gene promoter and cryIIA gene under the control of its own promoter, were transformed in B. thuringiensis acrystalliferous mutant strain and the transformants were characterized by SDS-PAGE and scanning electron microscopy. The expression and formation of crystal proteins in B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki Cry-B revealed that crystal proteins appear to have same molecular weight and morphology to those of wild type strain's, suggesting that the expression and formation of crystal proteins affected not by host cell or recombination of cryIA(e) gene under the control of cryIA(b) gene promoter but by only structural fragment of protoxin.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.459-468
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• 1984

The currently accepted model of membrane structure proposes a dynamic, asymmetric lipid matrix of phospholipids and cholesterol with globular proteins embedded across the membrane to various degrees. Most phospholipids are in the bilayer arrangement and also closely associated with integral membrane proteins or loosely associated with peripheral proteins. Biological functions of membrane, such as membrane-bound enzyme functions and transport systems, are influenced by the membrane physical properties, which are determined by fatty acid composition of phospholipids, polar head group composition and membrane cholesterol content. Polar and non-polar region of the phospholipid molecule can interact, with changes in the conformation of a membrane-associated protein altering either its catalytic activity or the protein's interaction with other membrane proteins. Mammalian dietary studies attempted to change the lipid composition of a few cell membranes have shown comparisons, using essential fatty acid-deficient diets. In recent years, Clandinin and a few other workers have pioneered the study proving the influence of dietary fat fed in a nutritionally complete diet on composition of phospholipid classes of cell membrane. Modulation caused by diet fat was rapid and reversible in phospholipid fatty acyl composition of membranes of cardiac mitochondria, liver cell, brain synaptosome and lymphocytes. These changes were at the same time, accompanied by variety of membrane associated functions controlled by membrane-bound enzymes, tranporter and receptor proteins. The findings suggest the basic concept of the necessity of dietary fatty acid balance if consistency of optimal membrane structural lipid composition is to be maintained, as well as the overall inadequacy of describing the nutritional-biochemical quality of a dietary fat solely by its content of linoleic acid. Furthermore, they give light on the possible application to clinical and preventive medicine.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.406-413
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• 2015

Background: Pathogenesis-related 10 (PR-10) proteins are small, cytosolic proteins with a similar three-dimensional structure. Crystal structures for several PR-10 homologs have similar overall folding patterns, with an unusually large internal cavity that is a binding site for biologically important molecules. Although structural information on PR-10 proteins is substantial, understanding of their biological function remains limited. Here, we showed that one of the PgPR-10 homologs, PgPR-10.3, shares binding properties with flavonoids, kinetin, emodin, deoxycholic acid, and ginsenoside Re (1 of the steroid glycosides). Methods: Gene expression patterns of PgPR-10.3 were analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. The three-dimensional structure of PgPR-10 proteins was visualized by homology modeling, and docking to retrieve biologically active molecules was performed using AutoDock4 program. Results: Transcript levels of PgPR-10.3 expressed in leaves, stems, and roots of 3-wk-old ginseng plantlets were on average 86-fold lower than those of PgPR-10.2. In mature 2-yr-old ginseng plants, the mRNA of PgPR-10.3 is restricted to leaves. Ginsenoside Re production is especially prominent in leaves of Panax ginseng Meyer, and the binding property of PgPR-10.3 with ginsenoside Re suggests that this protein has an important role in the control of secondary metabolism. Conclusion: Although ginseng PR-10.3 gene is expressed in all organs of 3-wk-old plantlets, its expression is restricted to leaves in mature 2-yr-old ginseng plants. The putative binding property of PgPR-10.3 with Re is intriguing. Further verification of binding affinity with other biologically important molecules in the large hydrophobic cavity of PgPR-10.3 may provide an insight into the biological features of PR-10 proteins.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2011

Insect lysozymes are basic, cationic proteins synthesized in fat body and hemocytes in response to bacterial infections and depolymerize the bacterial cell wall. The c-type lysozyme of the insect Spodoptera litura (SLLyz) is a single polypeptide chain of 121 residues with four disulfide bridges and 17 rare codons and is approximately 15 kDa. The full-length SLLyz cDNA is 1039 bp long with a poly(A) tail, and contains an open reading frame of 426 bp long (including the termination codon), flanked by a 54 bp long 5' UTR and a 559 bp long 3' UTR. As a host for the production of high-level recombinant proteins, E. coli is used most commonly because of its low cost and short generation time. However, the soluble expression of heterologous proteins in E. coli is not trivial, especially for disulfide-bonded proteins. In order to prevent inclusion body formation, GST was selected as a fusion partner to enhance the solubility of recombinant protein, and fused to the amplified products encoding mature SLLyz. The expression vector pGEX-4T-1/rSLLyz was then transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS for soluble expression of rSLLyz, and the soluble fusion protein was purified successfully. Inhibition zone assay demonstrated that rSLLyz showed antibacterial activity against B. megaterium. These results demonstrate that the GST fusion expression system in E. coli described in this study is efficient and inexpensive in producing a disulfide-bonded rSLLyz in soluble, active form, and suggest that the insect lysozyme is an interesting system for future structural and functional studies.