• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2023.04a
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• pp.63-63
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• 2023

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) is one of the most important sugar crops and provides up to 30% of the world's sugar production. In this study, we mainly performed RNA-sequencing to obtain identify putative genes involved in biosynthesis pathway of sucrose in sugar beet and comparative transcriptomic analyses in the four developmental stages (50, 90, 160 and 330 days after seedling). As a result of the sugar content analysis, it was increased significantly from 50 to 160 days after seedling (DAS), and then decreased at 330 DAS. On the other hand, the taproot weight, length, and width were increased during all the growth periods. Out of 21,451 genes with expressed value, 21,402 (99.77%) genes had functional descriptions. Among the three comparisons, S1 (50 DAS) vs. S2 (90 DAS), S1 vs. S3 (160 DAS), and S1 vs. S4 (330 DAS), expression profiling of the transcripts was identified 4,991 with differentially expressed genes (DEGs). By comparing the top 20 enriched gene ontology (GO) terms as three comparisons, the top GO terms were commonly confirmed with external encapsulating structure, cell wall, and extracellular regions. In addition, the 38 enriched candidate genes related to sucrose biosynthetic pathway were screened from the entire DEG pool, and the candidate genes might be providing a basic data for further sugar metabolism studies in development of sugar beet taproot.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.186-195
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• 2015

Anthranilate synthase (AS) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of tryptophan (Trp), which is the precursor of bioactive metabolites like indole-3-acetic acid and other indole alkaloids. Alpha anthranilate synthase 2 (OsASA2) plays a critical role in the feedback inhibition of tryptophan biosynthesis. In this study, two vectors with single (F124V) and double (S126F/L530D) point mutations of the OsASA2 gene for feedback-insensitive ${\alpha}$ subunit of rice anthranilate synthase were constructed and transformed into wildtype Dongjinbyeo by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Transgenic single and double mutant lines were selected as a single copy using TaqMan PCR utilized nos gene probe. To select intergenic lines, the flanking sequence of RB or LB was digested with a BfaI enzyme. Four intergenic lines were selected using a flanking sequence tagged (FST) analysis. Expression in rice (Oryza sativa L.) of the transgenes resulted in the accumulation of tryptophan (Trp), indole-3-acetonitrile (IAN), and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in leaves and tryptophan content as a free amino acid in seeds also increased up to 30 times relative to the wildtype. Two homozygous event lines, S-TG1 and D-TG1, were selected for characterization of agronomic traits and metabolite profiling of seeds. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs), related to ion transfer and nutrient supply, were upregulated and DEGs related to co-enzymes that work as functional genes were down regulated. These results suggest that two homozygous event lines may prove effective for the breeding of crops with an increased level of free tryptophan content.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.625-629
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• 2020

The Ocean is a rich source of diverse living organisms include viruses. In this study, we examined the microbial communities in the sea adjacent to Jeju Island in two seasons by metatranscriptomics. We collected and extracted total RNA, and, using the next-generation sequencing HiSeq 2000 and de novo transcriptome assembly, we identified 652,984 and 163,759 transcripts from the March and December samples, respectively. The most abundant organisms in March were bacteria, while eukaryotes were dominant in the December sample. The bacterial communities differed between the two samples, suggesting seasonal change. To identify the viruses, we searched the transcripts against a viral reference database using MegaBLAST with the most identified being bacteriophages infecting the marine bacteria. However, we also revealed an abundance of transcripts associated with diverse herpesviruses in the two transcriptomes, indicating the presence or possible threat of infection of fish in the sea around Jeju Island. This data is valuable for the study of marine microbial communities and for identifying possible viral pathogens.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2006.02a
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• pp.83-89
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• 2006

Cellular functions are carried out by a concerted action of biochemical pathways whose components have genetic interactions. Abnormalities in the activity of the genes that constitute or modulate these pathways frequently have oncogenic implications. Therefore, identifying the upstream regulatory genes for major biochemical pathways and defining their roles in carcinogenesis can have important consequences in establishing an effective target-oriented antitumor strategy We have analyzed the gene expression profiles of human liver cancer samples using cDNA microarray chips enriched in liver and/or stomach-expressed cDNA elements, and identified groups of genes that can tell tumors from non-tumors or normal liver, or classify tumors according to clinical parameters such as tumor grade, age, and inflammation grade. We also set up a high-throughput cell-based assay system (cell chip) that can monitor the activity of major biochemical pathways through a reporter assay. Then, we applied the cell chip platform for the analysis of the HCC-associated genes discovered from transcriptome profiling, and found a number of cancer marker genes having a potential of modulating the activity of cancer-related biochemical pathways such as E2F, TCF, p53, Stat, Smad, AP-1, c-Myc, HIF and NF-kB. Some of these marker genes were previously blown to modulate these pathways, while most of the others not. Upon a fast-track phenotype analysis, a subset of the genes showed increased colony forming abilities in soft agar and altered cell morphology or adherence characteristics in the presence of purified matrix proteins. We are currently analyzing these selected marker genes in more detail for their effects on various biological Processes and for Possible clinical roles in liver cancer development.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.60-68
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• 2017

Background: Various Panax ginseng cultivars exhibit a range of diversity for morphological and physiological traits. However, there are few studies on diversity of metabolic profiles and genetic background to understand the complex metabolic pathway in ginseng. Methods: To understand the complex metabolic pathway and related genes in ginseng, we tried to conduct integrated analysis of primary metabolite profiles and related gene expression using five ginseng cultivars showing different morphology. We investigated primary metabolite profiles via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and analyzed transcriptomes by Illumina sequencing using adventitious roots grown under the same conditions to elucidate the differences in metabolism underlying such genetic diversity. Results: GC-MS analysis revealed that primary metabolite profiling allowed us to classify the five cultivars into three independent groups and the grouping was also explained by eight major primary metabolites as biomarkers. We selected three cultivars (Chunpoong, Cheongsun, and Sunhyang) to represent each group and analyzed their transcriptomes. We inspected 100 unigenes involved in seven primary metabolite biosynthesis pathways and found that 21 unigenes encoding 15 enzymes were differentially expressed among the three cultivars. Integrated analysis of transcriptomes and metabolomes revealed that the ginseng cultivars differ in primary metabolites as well as in the putative genes involved in the complex process of primary metabolic pathways. Conclusion: Our data derived from this integrated analysis provide insights into the underlying complexity of genes and metabolites that co-regulate flux through these pathways in ginseng.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.235-243
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• 2023

As next-generation sequencing has been developed and used widely, RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) has rapidly emerged as the first choice of tools to validate global transcriptome profiling. With the significant advances in RNA-seq, various types of RNA-seq have evolved in conjunction with the progress in bioinformatic tools. On the other hand, it is difficult to interpret the complex data underlying the biological meaning without a general understanding of the types of RNA-seq and bioinformatic approaches. In this regard, this paper discusses the two main sections of RNA-seq. First, two major variants of RNA-seq are described and compared with the standard RNA-seq. This provides insights into which RNA-seq method is most appropriate for their research. Second, the most widely used RNA-seq data analyses are discussed: (1) exploratory data analysis and (2) pathway enrichment analysis. This paper introduces the most widely used exploratory data analysis for RNA-seq, such as principal component analysis, heatmap, and volcano plot, which can provide the overall trends in the dataset. The pathway enrichment analysis section introduces three generations of pathway enrichment analysis and how they generate enriched pathways with the RNA-seq dataset.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.7.1-7.19
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• 2024

Viral load and the duration of viral shedding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are important determinants of the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019. In this study, we examined the effects of viral doses on the lung and spleen of K18-hACE2 transgenic mice by temporal histological and transcriptional analyses. Approximately, 1×10⁵ plaque-forming units (PFU) of SARS-CoV-2 induced strong host responses in the lungs from 2 days post inoculation (dpi) which did not recover until the mice died, whereas responses to the virus were obvious at 5 days, recovering to the basal state by 14 dpi at 1×10² PFU. Further, flow cytometry showed that number of CD8+ T cells continuously increased in 1×10² PFU-virus-infected lungs from 2 dpi, but not in 1×10⁵ PFU-virus-infected lungs. In spleens, responses to the virus were prominent from 2 dpi, and number of B cells was significantly decreased at 1×10⁵ PFU; however, 1×1² PFU of virus induced very weak responses from 2 dpi which recovered by 10 dpi. Although the defense responses returned to normal and the mice survived, lung histology showed evidence of fibrosis, suggesting sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our findings indicate that specific effectors of the immune response in the lung and spleen were either increased or depleted in response to doses of SARS-CoV-2. This study demonstrated that the response of local and systemic immune effectors to a viral infection varies with viral dose, which either exacerbates the severity of the infection or accelerates its elimination.