• 한국생물물리학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국생물물리학회 2003년도 정기총회 및 학술발표회
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• pp.50-50
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• 2003

We have identified and analysed a putative response regulator two-component gene (CaSKN7) from Candida albicans and its encoding protein (CaSkn7). CaSKN7 has an open reading frame of 1677bp. CaSKN7 encodes a 559 amino acid protein (CaSkn7) with an estimated molecular mass of 61.1 kDa. CaSKN7 is a homologue of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae SKN7 that is the regulator involved in the oxidative stress response. To study the role of CaSKN7, we constructed a CAI4-derived mutant strain carrying a homozygous deletion of the CaSKN7 gene. In the caskn7 disruptant cells, the formation of germ tube require shorter time than that in the congenic wild-type strain but the growth of mycelium delayed in liquid media. In contrast, the caskn7 disruptant cells attenuate the differentiation in solid media and the virulence in mouse model system. Expression level of hypha-specific and virulence genes - HYR1, ECE1, HWP1, and ALS1 - in the caskn7 disruptant cells increased as compared with that in the congenic wild-type strain in 10％ serum YPD. Skn7 in 5. cerevisiae was found to bind the HSE element from the SSA promoter, Also, CaSkn7 contains heat shock factor DNA-binding domain and the promoters of these genes have HSE-like sties. Therefore these results show that CaSKN7 regulate the differentiation and virulence of C. albicans.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국생물공학회 2003년도 생물공학의 동향(XIII)
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• pp.186-189
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• 2003

Helicobacter pylori is the etiologic agent of human gastritis and peptic ulceration and produces urease as the major protein component on its surface. H. pylori urease is known to serve as a potent immunogen as well as major virulence factor. In order to express the recombinant urease in tobacco plants, a DNA fragment containing the minimal H. pylori urease gene cluster was subcloned into a plant expression vector. The recombinant vector was transformed to tobacco plants. The integration of the recombinant plasmids into tobacco chromosomal genome was verified by genomic PCR. Expression to mRNA was confirmed by Northern blot analysis, and expression to recombinant urease protein was observed by Western blot analysis. These results showed that the recombinant urease can be produced in tobacco plants and will be tested for immune response to use as an edible vaccine.

• 방사선산업학회지
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.111-119
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• 2008

Microarrays can measure the expression of thousands of genes to identify the changes in expression between different biological states. To survey the change of whole Salmonella genes after a relatively high dose of gamma radiation (1 kGy), transcriptome dynamics were examined in the cells by using DNA microarrays. At least 75 genes were induced and 89 genes were reduced two-fold or more after irradiation. Several genes located in pSLT plasmid, cyo operon, and Gifsy prophage were induced along with many genes encoding uncharacterized proteins.While, the expression of genes involved in the virulence of Salmonella as well as metabolic functions were decreased. Although the radiation response as a whole could not be illustrated by using DNA microarrays, the data suggest that the response to high dose of irradiation might be more complex than the SOS response.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• 제43권4호
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• pp.337-344
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• 2005

Although pneumococcus is one of the most frequently encountered opportunistic pathogen in the world, the mechanisms responsible for its infectiveness have not yet been fully understood. In this paper, we have attempted to characterize the effects of pneumococcal transformation on the pathogenesis of the organism. We constructed three transformation-deficient pneumococcal strains, which were designated as Nos. 1d, 2d, and 22d. The construction of these altered strains was achieved via the insertion of the inactivated gene, comE, to strains 1, 2 and 22. We then conducted a comparison between the virulence of the transformation-deficient strains and that of the wild-type strains, via an evaluation of the ability of each strain to adhere to endothelial cells, and also assessed psaA mRNA expression, and the survival of hosts after bacterial challenge. Compared to what was observed with the wild-type strains, our results indicated that the ability of all of the transformation-deficient strains to adhere to the ECV304 cells had been significantly reduced (p < 0.05), the expression of psaA mRNA was reduced significantly (p < 0.05) in strains 2d and 22d, and the median survival time of mice infected with strains Id and 2d was increased significantly after intraperitoneal bacterial challenge (p < 0.05). The results of our study also clearly indicated that transformation exerts significant effects on the virulence characteristics of S. pneumoniae, although the degree to which this effect is noted appears to depend primarily on the genetic background of the bacteria.

• 대한수의학회지
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• 제43권2호
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• pp.247-253
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• 2003

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae causes a highly contagious pleuropneumoniae in swine. The bacterium produces several virulence factors such as exotoxin, LPS, capsular polysaccharide, etc. Among them, the exotoxin, called Apx, has been focused as the major virulence factor, and the toxin consists of 4 gene cluster. apx CABD. apxA is the structural gene of toxin and has four different types, I, II, III, and IV. As the first step of development of a new subunit vaccine, the three different types of apxA gene were amplified from A. pleuropneumoniae isolated from Korea by PCR with primer designed based on the N- and C-terminal of the toxin. The sizes of apxIA, IIA and IIIA were 3,073, 2,971 and 3,159bps, respectively. The comparison of whole DNA sequences of apxIA, IIA and IIIA genes with those of the reference strain demonstrated 98%, 99% and 98% homology, respectively. In addition, the phylogenetic analysis was performed based on the amino acid sequences compared with 12 different RTX toxin family using the neighbor-joining method. ApxA proteins of Korean isolates were identical with reference strains in this study. All ApxA proteins were expressed in E. coli with pQE expression vector and identified using Western blot with polyclonal antibodies against culture supernatants of A. pleuropneumoniae serotype 2 or 5. The sizes of each expressed ApxA protein were about 120, 110, 125 kDa (M.W.), respectively. The results obtained in this study could be used for the future study to develop a new vaccine to porcine pleuropneumoniae.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.281-289
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• 2016

The transcription cofactor Swi6 plays important roles in regulating vegetative growth and meiosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Functions of Swi6 ortholog were also characterized in Fusarium graminearum which is one of the devastating plant pathogenic fungi. Here, we report possible role of FgSwi6 in the interaction between F. graminearum and Fusarium graminearum virus 1 (FgV1) strain DK21. FgV1 perturbs biological characteristics of host fungi such as vegetative growth, sporulation, pigmentation, and reduction of the virulence (hypovirulence) of its fungal host. To characterize function(s) of FgSWI6 gene during FgV1 infection, targeted deletion, over-expression, and complementation mutants were generated and further infected successfully with FgV1. Deletion of FgSwi6 led to severe reduction of vegetative growth even aerial mycelia while over-expression did not affect any remarkable alteration of phenotype in virus-free isolates. Virus-infected (VI) FgSWI6 deletion isolate exhibited completely delayed vegetative growth. However, VI FgSWI6 over-expression mutant grew faster than any other VI isolates. To verify whether these different growth patterns in VI isolates, viral RNA quantification was carried out using qRT-PCR. Surprisingly, viral RNA accumulations in VI isolates were similar regardless of introduced mutations. These results provide evidence that FgSWI6 might play important role(s) in FgV1 induced phenotype alteration such as delayed vegetative growth.

• 대한수의학회지
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• 제45권2호
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• pp.185-189
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• 2005

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the causative agent of a porcine contagious pleuropneumonia. Among several virulence factors including exotoxin (Apx toxins), LPS, transferrin-binding proteins, OMPs, and some proteases, Apx toxins have been major targets for the protection study. In this study, cloning and expression of A. pleuropneumoniae Apx I and Apx II toxin, which are produced by all highly virulent strains, were performed by Escherichia coli expression system. Genes coding Apx I and II toxin were amplified from the A. pleuropneumoniae serotype 5 genomic DNA using polymerase chain reaction and cloned to a prokaryotic expression vector, pRSET. Expression of the Apx I and Apx II coding sequences in E. coli resulted in the formation of insoluble inclusion bodies purified according to a denaturing purification protocol, which employs the use of guanidium. Recombinant proteins were purified using $Ni^{2+}$-charged resin affinity purification. This expression and purification system made it possible to produce Apx I and Apx II in large amounts for further immunologic studies.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.82-88
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• 2006

The global pattern of growth-dependent gene expression in Streptococcus pneumoniae strains was evaluated using a high-density DNA microarray. Total RNAs obtained from an avirulent S. pneumoniae strain R6 and a virulent strain AMC96-6 were used to compare the expression patterns at seven time points (2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, and 8.0 h). The expression profile of strain R6 changed between log and stationary growth (the Log-Stat switch). There were clear differences between the growth-dependent gene expression profiles of the virulent and avirulent pneumococcal strains in 367 of 1,112 genes. Transcripts of genes associated with bacterial competence and capsular polysaccharide formation, as well as clpP and cbpA, were higher in the virulent strain. Our data suggest that late log or early stationary phase may be the most virulent phase of S. pneumoniae.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
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• 제36권1호
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• pp.6-11
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• 2008

방사선 조사 후에 생존한 병원성 미생물의 안정성을 연구하기 위하여 패혈증을 일으키는 Vibrio vulnificus ATCC 29307의 병원성 인자인 metalloprotease (vvp) 유전자의 발현과 효소 활성의 변화를 감마선 조사 후에 시간대별로 확인하였다. V. vulnificus는 다른 병원성 미생물들에 비하여 비교적 높은 방사선 감수성을 보였으며 방사선 조사 직후 유도기를 거친 후에 성장이 다시 시작되었다. 감마선을 조사하였을 경우 vvp 유전자의 발현은 비조사구에 비하여 $3{\sim}6$시간 정도 빨리 유도되었으나 총 metalloprotease의 활성은 감소하였다. 또한, vvp 유전자의 발현이 최대로 증가한 시점에서 metalloprotease의 활성을 비교한 결과 감마선이 조사된 균의 경우 감마선이 조사되지 않은 균에 비하여 약 $70{\sim}80%$ 수준으로 생산량이 감소하는 것을 알 수 있었다. 결론적으로, 감마선 조사 후 생존한 Vibrio vulnificus에서 병원성 인자 (vvp)의 발현 및 활성은 증가하지 않았으며 본 연구결과는 감마선 조사 식품의 미생물학적 안정성을 보여주는 기초 자료중의 하나로 활용될 수 있을 것으로 판단된다.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제51권3호
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• pp.316-322
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• 2019

위에 군집을 형성하는 그람 음성 박테리아인 Helicobacter pylori는 위암을 일으킬 수 있는 1급 발암 인자로, H. pylori의 성장을 억제하거나 제거하는 물질을 탐색하는 연구가 꾸준히 진행되어 왔다. 오수유는 운향과에 속하는 오수유의 열매를 일컫는 생약으로 한방에서는 설사 및 복통에 사용되던 약재이다. 오수유 추출물이 H. pylori의 성장을 억제한다는 보고는 있었으나 병원성 요인에 어떤 영향을 주는지에 대한 연구는 보고된 바가 없었다. 본 연구에서는 각기 다른 메탄올 농도에서 추출한 오수유 추출물의 H. pylori 성장 억제 효과를 비교하였으며 또한 오수유 추출물이 H. pylori의 병원성 인자에 미치는 영향을 연구하였다. 95% 메탄올 오수유 추출물이 가장 낮은 최소저해농도(MIC) 값을 보였으며, 이 95% 추출물을 대상으로 하여 MIC 미만 농도에서 H. pylori의 병원성 인자의 발현 변화를 확인하였다. 95% 메탄올 오수유 추출물은 H. pylori의 주요 병원성 인자인 cagA, vacA 그리고 ureB의 mRNA 및 단백질의 발현을 억제하였으나 흥미롭게도 ureA의 발현은 증가시켰다. 하지만 H. pylori의 배양액과 세포내의 암모니아의 량이 현저히 낮아졌음을 확인하였고, 이는 오수유 추출물이 ureB의 mRNA 및 단백질의 발현을 억제하여 H. pylori의 urease 활성을 억제한다는 것을 확인하였다. 오수유 추출물의 병원성 인자 조절 기전에 대해서는 좀 더 연구가 필요할 것으로 보이나, 본 연구 결과는 오수유 추출물이 H. pylori로 인한 부정적 영향을 줄여줄 것으로 생각한다.