• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.153-157
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• 2004

Tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL) is a useful enzyme for the synthesis of pharmaceutical aromatic amino acids. In the current study, sequential DNA shuffling and screening were used to enhance the stability of TPL. Twenty-thousand mutants were screened, and several improved variants were isolated. One variant named A13V, in which the $13^{th}$ amino acid alanine was substituted by valine, exhibited a higher temperature and denaturant stability than the wild-type TPL. The purified mutant TPL, A13V, retained about 60% of its activity at $76^\circ{C}$, whereas the activity of the wild-type TPL decreased to less than 20% at the same temperature. Plus, A13V exhibited about 50% activity with 3 M urea, while the wild-type TPL lost almost all its catalytic activity, indicating an increased denaturant tolerance in the mutant A13V. It is speculated that the substitution of Val for the Ala in the $\beta$-strand of the N-terminal arm was responsible for the heightened stabilization, and that the current results will contribute to further research on the structural stability of TPL.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.766-770
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• 2013

Several upstream activators required for proper activation of brlA are involved in the development, vegetative growth, toxin production, and pathogenesis of Aspergillus fumigatus. In this study, we characterized the roles of two upstream developmental regulators, A. fumigatus flbB (AfuflbB) and flbE (AfuflbE), in toxin production and virulence. The deletion of AfuflbB and AfuflbE resulted in reduction of the expression of AfulaeA. Moreover, only about 8% to 10% of fumagillin was produced in the two mutants compared with that of wild type, and ${\Delta}AfuflbB$ strain produced 85% of gliotoxin compared with wild type, whereas none was produced by ${\Delta}AfuflbB$. Flow-cytometric analysis revealed decreased necrotic and apoptotic polymorphonuclear leukocytes cell death after exposure to supernatants from ${\Delta}AfuflbB$ and ${\Delta}AfuflbB$ strains compared with the wild type. These results indicate that FlbB and FlbE are necessary for the proper laeA expression, toxin production, and virulence of A. fumigatus.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.267-271
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• 2019

This study aimed to investigate the function of the constitutively activating mutation D540G on eel FSHR activity by in vitro functional studies. Site-directed mutagenesis was carried out to generate the D-to-G mutation at position 540 of the pcDNA3-eel FSHR construct. Vectors expressing either wild type or mutant receptor were transfected into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-K1) cells. The functional characteristics of both the wild type and mutant receptors were analyzed by a cAMP assay. cAMP accumulation was highly increased in cells transfected with the D540G mutant receptor in a dose-dependent manner. Of note, basal cAMP levels were remarkably increased (~13.1-fold) with expression of this mutant when compared to wild type receptor. These findings suggest that the D540G mutation in the eel FSHR may contribute to ovulation during eel sex maturation as well as play a pivotal role in inducing FSHR activity.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.513-518
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• 1998

Beet curly top virus (BCTV) mutant has been constructed in vitro that contain G-to-T transversions at nucleotide 2727 within overlapping open reading frames (ORFs) L1 and L4. The mutations introduce termination codon in ORF L4 without affecting the amino acid encoded by ORF L1. When agroinoculated into Arabidopsis thaliana the mutant caused mild stunting and stem curling, but not the callus induction and hyperlasia on infected tissues of Sei-O ecotype. However, this mutant was not infectious on Col-O. Levels of single stranded DNA forms were similar in mutant and wild type BCTV infections. The DNA quantitation data showed that the DNA of BCTV-L4 mutant virus was accumulated in shoot tips, infection origin and roots with similar levels to those of wild type virus infected. Three tissues of asymptomatic ecotype Col-O also had as much as virus DNA from wild type virus infections. In both ecotypes infected with BCTV-Logan and BCTV-L4 mutant, root tissues contained more virus DNA than any other tissues by the Southern hybridization data. The results suggest that ORF L4 encodes a functional protein that is a major determinant of pathogenesis that might affect the hyperplastic response of the host to BCTV infection.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.161-167
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• 1993

Immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) was used to separate various types of recombinant hirudins from the culture broth. The wild type hirudin exhibited a retention in Cu(II)-chelated affinity chromatgoraphy since it contained a single exposed histidine at position 51. To obtain a stronger retention on an IDA-Cu(II) column, the hirudin variants were genetically engineered to contain one or two histidine (s) more than the wild type. While the affinity of the variants for IDA-Cu(II) ligand increased in comparison to that of the wild type, the antithrombin activities reduced to a certain degree. Cu(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) ions were applied separately to the metal chelate column to investigate ligand specificity with respect to protein retention. As a result, the Cu(II) chelated chromatography gave the best resolution for all the hirudins tested and appeared to be the only IMAC that could be used generally for the purification of hirudins with a decreasing pH gradient.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.607-613
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• 2012

Improvement of endoglucanase activity was accomplished by utilizing error-prone rolling circle amplification, supplemented with 1.7 mM $MnCl_2$. This procedure generated random mutations in the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens endoglucanase gene with a frequency of 10 mutations per kilobase. Six mutated endoglucanase genes, recovered from six colonies, possessed endoglucanase activity between 2.50- and 3.12-folds higher than wild type. We sequenced these mutants, and the different mutated sites of nucleotides were identified. The mutated endoglucanase sequences had five mutated amino acids: A15T, P24A, P26Q, G27A, and E289V. Among these five substitutions, E289V was determined to be responsible for the improved enzyme activity. This observation was confirmed with site-directed mutagenesis; the introduction of only one mutation (E289V) in the wild-type endoglucanase gene resulted in a 7.93-fold (5.55 U/mg protein) increase in its enzymatic activity compared with that (0.7 U/mg protein) of wild type.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.592-599
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• 2012

Bacillus licheniformis ${\alpha}$-amylase (BLA), a thermophilic counterpart of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens ${\alpha}$-amylase (BAA), is an appropriate model for the design of stabilizing mutations in BAA. BLA has 10 more histidines than BAA. Considering this prominent difference, in the present study, three out of these positions (I34, Q67, and P407; located in the thermostability determinant 1 region and Ca-III binding site of BAA) were replaced with histidine in BAA, using the site-directed mutagenesis technique. The results showed that the thermostability of P407H and Q67H mutants had increased, but no significant changes were observed in their kinetic parameters compared to that of the wild type. I34H replacement resulted in complete loss of enzyme activity. Moreover, fluorescence and circular dichroism data indicated a more rigid structure for the P407H variant compared with that of the wild-type BAA. However, the flexibility of Q67H and I34H mutants increased in comparison with that of wild-type enzyme.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.326-332
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• 2007

In order to understand the functional role of CPRl in Saccharomyces cerevisiae KNU5377 with regard to its multi-tolerance characteristics against high temperatures, inorganic acids, and oxidative stress conditions, whole cellular proteins were analyzed via liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). This procedure was followed by two-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis. Under menadione stress conditions, the 23 upregulated proteins were clearly identified only in the wild- type strain of KNU5377. Among the proteins, Sodl1p Tsa1p, Ahp1, Cpr1p, Cpr3, Ssb2p, and Hsp12p were identified as components of antioxidant systems or protein-folding related systems. The CPR1 protein could not be completely detected in the $cpr1{\Delta}$ mutant of KNU5377 and the other upregulated proteins in the wild-type strain evidenced a clear correlation with the results of immunoblot analysis. Moreover, a reduction in growth patterns (about 50%) could be observed in the $cpr1{\Delta}$ mutant, as compared with that of the wild-type strain under mild MD stress conditions. These results indicate that the upregulation of CPR1 may contribute to tolerance against MD as an inducer of oxidative stress.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.373-377
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• 2007

No phosphatidylcholine (PC) was detected in the membrane of Rhodobacter sphaeroides pmtA mutant (PmtAl) lacking phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) N-methyltransferase, whereas PE in the mutant was increased up to the mole % comparable to the combined level of PE and PC of wild type. Neither the fatty acid composition nor the fluidity of membrane was altered by pmtA mutation. Consistently, aerobic and photoheterotrophic growth of PmtAl were not different from wild type. However, PmtAl showed an extended lag phase (15 h) after the growth transition from aerobic to photoheterotrophic conditions, indicating the PC requirement for the efficient formation of intracytoplasmic membrane (ICM). Interestingly, the B800-850 complex of PmtAl was decreased more than twofold in comparison with wild type, whereas the level of the B875 complex comprising the fixed photosynthetic unit was not changed. Since puc expression is not affected by pmtA mutation, PC appears to be required for the proper formation of the B800-850 complex in the ICM of R. sphaeroides.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.88-101
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• 2013

Eating quality of rice attracts more and more attention from rice-eating consumers in the recent years. Thus, improvement of eating quality of cooked rice has become one of the most important breeding goals in japonica rice. Here, the generation of transgenic japonica rice with improved eating quality and grain yield are reported. Overexpression of OsSbe1 gene encoding rice starch branching enzyme 1 was driven by 35S promoter. Eleven independent homozygous $T_3$ transgenic lines were characterized and had shown higher palatability (71.2 ~ 72.6) than wild type Gopum (70.4). Moreover, transgenic rice lines showed an increase in 1000-grain weight and number of spikelets per panicle compared with the wild type. The yield of milled rice was 562.8 ~ 596.7 kg/10a in eight $T_3$ lines, but 542.1 kg/10a in wild type. Gene expression analyses in mRNA transcription and enzyme activity levels suggest that improved eating quality is due to the up-regulation of OsSbe1 gene.