• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.88-104
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• 2010

Human melanocortin-4 receptor (hMC4R) has a critical role in part of energy homeostasis, and their heterozygous mutations related in genetic cause of severe human obesity. In order to study the structure and function of these membrane proteins, it is important to prepare the samples. However, the preparation of transmembrane peptide is seriously difficult and time-consuming. Overexpression and purification of membrane proteins was reported to be difficult due to their innate insoluble and toxic properties. Among the many difficulties, the most important is the difficulty in obtaining sufficient quantities of purified protein. Recently, we succeed to produce large amounts of the second transmembrane domain from the wild-type hMC4R (wt-TM2) and D90N mutant hMC4R (m-TM2) and proposed the structural difference of them in membrane-like environments. In this paper, we demonstrate the optimization procedures to express and purify wt-TM2 or m-TM2 peptides, and solution NMR studies in different detergents to get high-resolution spectra were also described.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.745-758
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• 2005

This paper presents a statistical analysis on the position-specific distributions of amino acid residues in transmembrane proteins. A hidden Markov model segments membrane proteins to produce segmented regions of homogeneous statistical property from variable-length amino acids sequences. These segmented residues are analyzed by using chi-square statistic and relative-entropy in order to find position-specific amino acids. This analysis showed that isoleucine and valine concentrated on the center of membrane-spanning regions, tryptophan, tyrosine and positive residues were found frequently near both ends of membrane.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.3577-3585
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• 2013

Syndecan-4 (heparan sulfate proteoglycan), biologically important in cell-to-cell interactions and tumor suppression, was studied through mutation of the GXXXG motif of its transmembrane domain (Syd4-TM), a motif which governs dimerization. The expression and purification of the mutant (mSyd4-TM) were optimized here to assess the function of the GXXXG motif in the dimerization of Syd4-TM. mSyd4-TM was obtained in M9 minimal media and its oligomerization was identified by SDS PAGE, Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. The mutant, unlike Syd4-TM, did not form dimers and was observed as monomers. The GXXXG motif of Syd-4TM was shown to be an important structural determinant of its dimerization.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2003

Human CD99 is a ubiquitous 32-kDa transmembrane protein encoded by mic2 gene. Recently it has been reported that expression of a splice variant of CD99 transmembrane protein (Type I and Type II) increases invasive ability of human breast cancer cells. To understand structural basis for cellular functions of CD99 Type II, we have initiated studies on hCD99$\^$TMcytoI/ using circular dichroism (CD) and multi-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. CD spectrum of hCD99$\^$TMytoI/ in the presence of 200mM DPC and CHAPS displayed an existence ${\alpha}$-helical conformation, showing that it could form an ${\alpha}$-helix under membrane environments. In addition, we have found that the cytoplasmic domain of CD99 would form symmetric dimmer in the presence of transmembrane domain. Although it has been rarely figured out the correlation between structure and functional mechanism of hCD99$\^$TMcytoI/, the dimerization or oligomerization would play an important role in its biological function.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.97-102
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• 1996

To investigate whether human $\beta$$_2$-adrenergic receptor devoid of the C-terminal two transmembrane helices retain its ligand binding activity and specificity, 5'780-bp DNA fragment of the receptor gene which encodes amino acid 1-260 of human $\beta$$_2$-adrenergic receptor was subcloned into the bacterial fusion protein expression vector and expressed as a form of glutathione-S-transferase (GST) fusion protein in E. coli DH5$\alpha$. The receptor fusion protein was expressed as a membrane bound form which was verified by SDS-PAGE and Western blot. The fusion protein expressed in this study specifically bound $\beta$-adrenergic receptor ligand [$^3$H] Dihydroalprenolol. In saturation ligand binding assay, the $K_{d}$ value was 7.6 nM which was similar to that of intact $\beta$$_2$-adrenergic receptor in normal animal tissue ( $K_{d}$=1~2 nM) and the $B_{max}$ value was 266 fmol/mg membrane protein. In competition binding assay, the order of binding affinity of various adrenergic receptor agonists to the fusion protein was isoproterenol》epinephrine norepinephrine, which was similar to that of intact receptor in normal animal tissue. These results suggest that N-terminal five transmembrane helices of the $\beta$$_2$-adrenergic receptor be sufficient to determine the ligand binding activity and specificity, irrespective of the presence or absence of the C-terminal two transmembrane helices.s.s.s.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.101-108
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• 2018

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest superfamily of transmembrane receptors and have vital signaling functions in various organs. Because of their critical roles in physiology and pathology, GPCRs are the most commonly used therapeutic target. It has been suggested that GPCRs undergo massive genetic variations such as genetic polymorphisms and DNA insertions or deletions. Among these genetic variations, non-synonymous natural variations change the amino acid sequence and could thus alter GPCR functions such as expression, localization, signaling, and ligand binding, which may be involved in disease development and altered responses to GPCR-targeting drugs. Despite the clinical importance of GPCRs, studies on the genotype-phenotype relationship of GPCR natural variants have been limited to a few GPCRs such as b-adrenergic receptors and opioid receptors. Comprehensive understanding of non-synonymous natural variations within GPCRs would help to predict the unknown genotype-phenotype relationship and yet-to-be-discovered natural variants. Here, we analyzed the non-synonymous natural variants of all non-olfactory GPCRs available from a public database, UniProt. The results suggest that non-synonymous natural variations occur extensively within the GPCR superfamily especially in the N-terminus and transmembrane domains. Within the transmembrane domains, natural variations observed more frequently in the conserved residues, which leads to disruption of the receptor function. Our analysis also suggests that only few non-synonymous natural variations have been studied in efforts to link the variations with functional consequences.

• BMB Reports
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2001

Tissue transglutaminase (TGII, $G{\alpha}h$) belongs to a family of enzymes which catalyze post-translational modification of proteins by forming isopeptides via $Ca^{2+}$-dependent reaction. Although TGII-mediated formation of isopeptides has been implicated to play a role in a variety of cellular processes, the physiological function of TGII remains unclear. In addition to this Tease activity, TGII is a guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) which binds and hydrolyzes GTP It is now well recognized that the GTPase action of TGII regulates a receptor-mediated transmembrane signaling, functioning as a signal transducer of the receptor. This TGII function signifies that TGII is a new class of GTP-binding regulatory protein (G-protein) that differs from "Classical" heterotrimeric G-proteins. Regulation of enzyme is an important biological process for maintaining cell integrity. This review summarizes the recent development in regulation of TGII that may help for the better understanding of this unique enzyme. Since activation and inactivation of GTPase of TGII are similar to the heterotrimeric G-proteins, the regulation of heterotrimeric G-protein in the transmembrane signaling is also discussed.

• BMB Reports
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• v.47 no.9
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• pp.483-487
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• 2014

Transmembrane 4 L six family member 5 (TM4SF5), as a membrane glycoprotein with 4 transmembrane domains, is similar to the tetraspanins in terms of membrane topology and plays important roles in tumorigenesis and tumor metastasis. Especially, TM4SF5 appears to form a massive protein-protein complex consisting of diverse membrane proteins and/or receptors in addition to cytosolic signaling molecules to regulate their signaling activities during the pathological processes. TM4SF5 is shown to interact with integrins ${\alpha}2$, ${\alpha}5$, and ${\beta}1$, EGFR, IL6R, CD151, focal adhesion kinase (FAK), and c-Src. This review focuses on the significance of the interactions with regards to TM4SF5-positive tumorigenesis and metastasis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.412-417
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• 2006

We examined the intracellular localization of NS5 protein of Dendrolimus punctatus cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus (DpCPV) by expressing NS5-GFP fusion protein and proteins from deletion mutants of NS5 in baculovirus recombinant infected insect Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf-9) cells. It was found that the NS5 protein was present at the plasma membrane of the cells, and that the N-terminal portion of the protein played a key role in the localization. A transmembrane region was identified to be present in the N-terminal portion of the protein, and the detailed transmembrane domain (SQIHMVWVKSGLVFF, 57-71aa) of N-terminal portion of NS5 was further determined, which was accorded with the predicted results, these findings suggested that NS5 might have an important function in viral life cycle.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3713-3716
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• 2012

Objective: Transmembrane protein 166 (TMEM166) expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and remote normal esophageal tissues was examined to assess any role in tumour biology. Methods: TMEM166 mRNA expression in 36 cases with ESCC (36 tumour samples, 36 remote normal esophageal tissue samples) was detected by RT-PCR. TMEM166 protein expression was analysed in paraffin-embedded tissue samples from the same cases by immunohistochemistry. Results: Semi-quantitative analysis showed TMEM166 mRNA expression in ESCCs to be significantly lower than in remote normal esophageal tissues ($0.759{\pm}0.713$ vs. $2.622{\pm}1.690$, P=0.014). TMEM166 protein expression was also significantly reduced (69.4% vs. 94.4%, P<0.01). Conclusion: TMEM166 mRNA and protein expression demonstrated significant reduction in ESCCs compared with remote esophageal tissues, albeit with no correlation with tumour size, differentiation, stage, and lymph node metastasis, suggesting a role in regulating autophagic and apoptotic processes in the ESCC.