• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.28 no.10
• /
• pp.1233-1243
• /
• 2018

Sterol regulatory-element binding proteins (SREBPs) are a family of transcription factors that regulate lipid homeostasis and metabolism by controlling the expression of enzymes required for endogenous cholesterol, fatty acid (FA), triacylglycerol, and phospholipid synthesis. The three SREBPs are encoded by two different genes. The SREBP1 gene gives rise to SREBP-1a and SREBP-1c, which are derived from utilization of alternate promoters that yield transcripts in which distinct first exons are spliced to a common second exon. SREBP-2 is derived from a separate gene. Additionally, SREBPs are implicated in numerous pathogenic processes, such as endoplasmic reticulum stress, inflammation, autophagy, and apoptosis. They also contribute to obesity, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases. Genome-wide analyses have revealed that these versatile transcription factors act as important nodes of biological signaling networks. Changes in cell metabolism and growth are reciprocally linked through SREBPs. Anabolic and growth signaling pathways branch off and connect to multiple steps of SREBP activation and form complex regulatory networks. SREBPs are activated through the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway in these processes, but the molecular mechanism remains to be understood. This review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of SREBPs in physiology and pathophysiology at the cell, organ, and organism levels.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.38 no.11
• /
• pp.950-958
• /
• 2015

BCS1L gene encodes mitochondrial protein and is a member of conserved AAA protein family. This gene is involved in the incorporation of Rieske FeS and Qcr10p into complex III of respiratory chain. In our previous study, AluYRa2-derived alternative transcript in rhesus monkey genome was identified. However, this transcript has not been reported in human genome. In present study, we conducted evolutionary analysis of AluYRa2-exonized transcript with various primate genomic DNAs and cDNAs from humans, rhesus monkeys, and crabeating monkeys. Remarkably, our results show that AluYRa2 element has only been integrated into genomes of Macaca species. This Macaca lineage-specific integration of AluYRa2 element led to exonization event in the first intron region of BCS1L gene by producing a conserved 3' splice site. Intriguingly, in rhesus and crabeating monkeys, more diverse transcript variants by alternative splicing (AS) events, including exon skipping and different 5' splice sites from humans, were identified. Alignment of amino acid sequences revealed that AluYRa2-exonized transcript has short N-terminal peptides. Therefore, AS events play a major role in the generation of various transcripts and proteins during primate evolution. In particular, lineage-specific integration of Alu elements and species-specific Alu-derived exonization events could be important sources of gene diversification in primates.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.390-399
• /
• 2012

Endoglucanase gene egIV was cloned from Trichoderma viride AS 3.3711, an important cellulose-producing fungus, by using an RT-PCR protocol. The egIV cDNA is 1,297 bp in length and contains a 1,035 bp open reading frame encoding a 344 amino acid protein with an estimated molecular mass of 35.5 kDa and isoelectronic point (pI) of 5.29. The expression of gene egIV in T. viride AS 3.3711 could be induced by sucrose, corn straw, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), or microcrystalline cellulose, but especially by CMC. The transcripts of egIV were regulated under these substrates, but the expression level of the egIV gene could be inhibited by glucose and fructose. Three recombinant vectors, pYES2-xegIV, $pYES2M{\alpha}$-egIV, and $pYES2M{\alpha}$-xegIV, were constructed to express the egIV gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae H158. The CMCase activity of yeast transformants $IpYES2M{\alpha}$-xegIV was higher than that of transformant IpYES2-xegIV or $IpYES2M{\alpha}$-egIV, with the highest activity of 0.13 U/ml at induction for 48 h, illustrating that the modified egIV gene could enhance CMCase activity and that $MF{\alpha}$ signal peptide from S. cerevisiae could regulate exogenous gene expression more effectively in S. cerevisiae. The recombinant EGIV enzyme was stable at pH 3.5 to 7.5 and temperature of $35^{\circ}C$ to $65^{\circ}C$. The optimal reaction condition for EGIV enzyme activity was at the temperature of $55^{\circ}C$, pH of 5.0, 0.75 mM $Ba^{2+}$, and using CMC as substrate. Under these conditions, the highest activity of EGIV enzyme in transformant $IpYES2M{\alpha}$-xegIV was 0.18 U/ml. These properties would provide technical parameters for utilizing cellulose in industrial bioethanol production.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.284-309
• /
• 2013

This study aims to explore how to characterize high school science inquiry. For this research, data were collected from fifteen science classes (18 hours), through observation and videotaping, interviews with a few students and their teacher, and documents such as lesson plan or activity sheet in 13 Science Core High Schools. All the data were transcribed and analyzed. Analyses of these transcripts were proceeded in three steps: first, classroom cases showing active interactions between teacher-students and among students were selected; second, according to cognitive process of inquiry (Chinn & Malhotra, 2002), each segment was analyzed and interpreted; lastly, distinctive cases were determined to show essential features of school science inquiry. Based on the analyses, we characterize high school science inquiry in terms of features of variables controlling-device improvement, design studies, evidence-explanation transformation, and reasoning to formulate explanations from evidence. Teachers' role and educational support were discussed as well as the practical characters or features of school science inquiry.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.373-389
• /
• 2013

This study investigated secondary beginning science-gifted education teachers' reflection on their science teaching through coteaching with the case study. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in secondary science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planned, performed, and reflected together their science teaching for science-gifted students during nine class hours over three times. We observed their science classes through coteaching, and analyzed the transcripts for reflective discussions between them and their reflective journals in terms of 'productive reflection,' a concept suggested by Davis (2006). The results revealed that the aspects of 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' and 'science-gifted students' were most frequently included in their reflection processes on science teaching, regardless of the type of data and the class time. 'Curriculum for science-gifted education' were also frequently included although fewer than two previous aspects. However, 'subject matter knowledge' and 'assessment' was hardly included. Two to four aspects among five aspects of the science teaching for science-gifted students were variously integrated in their reflection processes. Especially, the integrations between 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' or 'sciencegifted students' and the other aspects were most frequent, and this tendency was stronger in more experienced teacher in science-gifted education. The integrations between 'subject matter knowledge' and the other aspects were often included in the more experienced teacher's reflection processes.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.55 no.4
• /
• pp.402-407
• /
• 2003

Mesoblastic nephroma is a neoplasm of the kidney which is characterized by interlacing bundles of spindle mesenchymal cells. It is usually diagnosed during the first six months of life and is mostly benign. Incidence in adults is exceedingly rare. In most cases, only total excision is required without postoperative adjuvant therapy, and the rare cases of local recurrence have usually been related to incomplete removal. However, mesoblastic nephroma may behave aggressively, in contrast to a congenital mesoblastic nephroma. Several cases of metastatic mesoblastic nephroma have been previously described. We report herein a case of a 42-year-old woman with mesoblastic nephroma which recurred as a large metastatic lung mass seven years after the nephrectomy. The patient presented with chest wall discomfort for four days. Seven years previously, total nephrectomy had been performed because of a right renal tumor which had been diagnosed as a mesoblastic nephroma. There had been no evidence of recurrence for five years, after which she discontinued follow-up. On readmission two years later, chest X-ray and CT scan revealed a large lung mass in the left upper lobe. It was completely excised and the pathologic examination was identical with that of the original renal tumor. Synovial sarcoma was excluded because the fusion transcripts of the SYT-SSX fusion gene associated with the t(X;18) translocation were negative. The final diagnosis was a lung metastasis of mesoblastic nephroma and the patient remained free of disease for 7 months postoperatively.

• Korean Journal of Child Education & Care
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.75-98
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine practice of strategies childcare teachers use in order to promote peer interaction among young children and difficulties in implementing strategies by using mixed methodology. The participants of current study were 155 inservice childcare teachers and they completed SIPPY questionnaire. To investigate strategy practice with difficulties, 44 teachers participated in theme writing and 3 teachers were interviewed. SIPPY data were analyzed by SPSS 20.0 and theme writing and interview transcripts were coded by qualitative analysis procedure. Results are as follows; First, teachers in this study use more environmental and naturalistic activity strategies than intensive strategies. Depending on educational experience and education level, there was a statistically significant difference. Second, participants reported various natural activity strategies that they use in the classroom such as compliments, modeling, suggestion, cooperative activity plan. Based on the analysis of qualitative data, four categories of difficulties were presented such as environmental component, disconnection with families, child individual characteristics, and teacher component. Implications were discussed in terms of teacher education and teacher driven professional development program.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.32 no.7
• /
• pp.1187-1203
• /
• 2012

This study investigated the changes in teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers through mentoring in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planed, performed and reflected on science instructions for secondary science-gifted students through mentoring during nine class hours over three times respectively. We observed their instructions and analyzed the taped videos, the materials, the transcripts for in-depth interviews with mentees, and discussions between mentor and mentee, researcher's field notes by using the constant comparative method. This study revealed that the mentoring, although there were many limitations, positively changed the mentees' practical knowledge about the curriculum for science-gifted education, the instructional strategies for science-gifted education, the assessment in science-gifted education, the science-gifted students, and the science content. These results suggest that the mentoring will be useful in improving the teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers and provide meaningful implications in finding the ways to use it effectively in science-gifted education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.553-564
• /
• 2017

This study investigated the change of pre-service elementary teachers' professional visions through video-based reflection on science teaching with focus on their attention and pedagogical reasoning about student learning. Specifically, we compared two reflection cycles before and after pre-service elementary teachers went through the collaborative video-based reflection process in a professional learning community. The primary data were collected from eight pre-service elementary teachers and included their science lesson plans, videotaped lessons, video-reflection papers, and transcripts from the interviews. Pre-service elementary teachers' attention was categorized in five aspects: classroom management & control, teacher's instruction, students' thinking & learning, subject knowledge, and assessment. The level of their pedagogical reasoning about student thinking and learning was determined with six levels based on the number of evidence, evidence area, and evidence type. The findings revealed that 1) individual reflection is not enough - collaborative reflection is essential to change their attention toward students learning and thinking 2) pedagogical reasoning levels increase gradually throughout the individual and collaborative video-based reflection processes. The participants not only attributed student learning solely to the characteristics of students but also connected it with their own instruction or science content knowledge and used different types of evidences as they went through two reflection cycles. Implications for using video in the teacher education program were discussed.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.21 no.9
• /
• pp.1259-1265
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a single bout of aerobic exercise affects the expression level of toll-like receptor4 (TLR4), IL-6, TNF-${\alpha}$, and suppressor of cytokine signaling-3 (SOCS-3) expression in rat hindlimb muscles depending on fiber types. To accomplish this, thirteen 7-wk Balb/c male mice were randomly assigned to an experimental group or a control group. The exercise protocol consisted of a single bout of treadmill exercise (inclination $10^{\circ}$, speed 17 cm/sec 10 min, 33 cm/sec 10 min, 50 cm/sec) and the animals were killed 24 hr after the exhaustion protocol. The level of TLR4, IL-6, TNF-${\alpha}$, and SOCS-3 mRNA expression was measured by quantitative real-time PCR in soleus and plantaris muscles. A single bout of aerobic treadmill exercise increased TLR4 mRNA expression in the soleus muscle (p<0.05), whereas plantaris TLR4 mRNA expression did not change. Additionally, acute exercise led to a significant increase in IL-6, TNF-${\alpha}$, and SOCS-33 mRNA in the soleus muscle, while transcripts of these genes were not affected by exercise in the plantaris muscle. In conclusion, expression level of several immune-related genes such as TLR4, cytokines, and SOCS-3 is regulated by acute exercise in a fiber type specific manner.