• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.815-822
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• 2020

Background: Recently, beneficial roles of ginsenoside F2 (GF2), a minor constituent of Panax ginseng, have been demonstrated in diverse inflammatory diseases. However, its roles in alcoholic liver inflammation and injury have not been clearly understood. Here, we investigated the underlying mechanism by which GF2 ameliorated alcoholic liver injury. Methods: To induce alcoholic liver injury, C57BL/6J wild type (WT) or interleukin (IL)-10 knockout (KO) mice were orally administered with ethanol (3 g/kg) or ethanol-containing GF2 (50 mg/kg) for 2 wk. Liver injury and infiltration of macrophages and neutrophils were evaluated by serum biochemistry and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The changes of hepatic immune cells were assessed by flow cytometry and polymerase chain reaction analysis. In vitro differentiation of naïve T cells was performed. Results: GF2 treatment significantly attenuated alcoholic liver injury, in which infiltrations of inflammatory macrophages and neutrophils were decreased. Moreover, the frequencies of Foxp3⁺ regulatory T cells (Tregs) increased but IL-17-producing T (Th17) cells decreased in GF2-treated mice compared to controls. Furthermore, the mRNA expression of IL-10 and Foxp3 was significantly increased, whereas IL-17 mRNA expression was suppressed in GF2-treated mice. However, these beneficial roles of GF2 were not observed in GF2-treated IL-10 KO mice, suggesting a critical role of IL-10. Similarly, GF2 treatment suppressed differentiation of naïve T cells into Th17 cells by inhibiting RORgt expression and stimulating Foxp3 expression. Conclusion: The present study suggests that GF2 treatment attenuates alcoholic liver injury by increasing IL-10 expression and Tregs and decreasing IL-17 expression and Th17 cells.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1999

Purpose : Experimental studies have implicated the wild type p53 In cellular response to radiation. Whether altered p53 function can lead to changes in clinical radiocurability remains an area of ongoing study. This study was performed to investigate whether any correlation between change of p53 and outcome of curative radiation therapy in patients with head and neck cancels. Methods : Immunohistochemical analysis with a mouse monoclonal antibody (DO-7) specific for human p53 was used to detect to overexpression of protein in formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor sample from 55 head and neck cancer patients treated with curative radiation therapy (median dose of 7020 cGy) from February 1988 to March 1996 at 51. Mary's Hospital. Overexpression of p53 was correlated with locoregional control and survival using Kaplan-Meier method. A Cox regression multi-variate analysis was peformed that included all clinical variables and status of p53 expression. Results : Thirty-seven (67.2$\%$) patients showed overexpression of p53 by immunohistochemical staining in their tumor. One hundred percent of oral cavity, 70$\%$ of laryngeal, 66.7$\%$ of oropharyngeal, 66.7$\%$ of hypopharyngeal cancer showed p53 overexpression (P=0.05). The status of p53 had significant relationship with stage of disease (P=0.03) and history of smoking (P=0.001). The overexpression of p53 was not predictive of response rate to radiation therapy. The locoregional control was not significantly affected by p53 status. Overexpression of p53 didn't have any prognostic implication for disease free survival and overall survival. Primary site and stage of disease were significant prognostic factors for survival. Conclusions : The p53 overexpression as detected by immunohistochemical staining had significant correlation with stage, primary site of disease and smoking habit of patients. The p53 overexpression didn't have any predictive value for outcome of curative radiation therapy in a group of head and neck cancers.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.243-249
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• 2007

The centromere is a highly differentiated structure of the chromosome that fulfills a multitude of essential mitotic and meiotic functions. Alphoid DNA (${\alpha}$-satellite) is the most abundant family of repeated DNA found at the centromere of all human chromosomes, and chromosomes of primates in general. The most important parts in the development of Human Artificial Chromosomes (HACs), are the isolation and maintenance of stability of centromeric region. For isolation of this region, we could use the targeting hook with alphoid DNA repeat and cloned by Transformation-Associated Recombination (TAR) cloning technique in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The method includes rolling-circle amplification (RCA) of repeats in vitro to 5 kb-length and elongation of the RCA products by homologous recombination in yeast. Four types of $35\;kb{\sim}50\;kb$ of centromeric DNA repeat arrays (2, 4, 5, 6 mer) are used to examine the stability of repeats in homologous recombination mutant strains (rad51, rad52, and rad54). Following the transformation into wild type, rad51 and rad54 mutant strains, there were frequent changes in inserted size. A rad52 mutant strain showed extremely low transformation frequency, but increased stability of centromeric DNA repeat arrays at least 3 times higher than other strains. Based on these results, the incidence of large mutations could be reduced using a rad52 mutant strain in maintenance of centromeric DNA repeat arrays. This genetic method may use more general application in the maintenance of tandem repeats in construction of HAC.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.384-389
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• 2009

This study was carried out to elucidate the relation between expression levels of three melanin synthesis genes (Tyrosinase, Tyrosinase-related protein 1 and Dopachrome tautomerase) according to the Melanocortin-1 receptor genotypes with coat color patterns in Hanwoo cattle, Jeju black cattle and Holsteins. Using real-time semiquantitative reverse transcription-PCR assay (RT-PCR), the expression levels of these three genes were analyzed in skin tissues from four representative coat colored areas: yellowish-brown from MC1R e/e Hanwoo, wild type black from $E^+/E^+$ Jeju black cattle (JBC), and dominant black and white pied regions from $E^D/E^D$ Holstein. The TYR, TYRP1 and DCT genes showed higher expression levels of 4.5, 2.3 and 2.5 times higher in the black skin area of Holsteins than those of from JBC, respectively (p<0.001). In addition, the expression levels of these three genes from JBC were significantly higher than those from Hanwoo cattle (p<0.001). These results show that coat color phenotypes in Hanwoo cattle, JBC and Holsteins is directly correlated with TRY, TYRP1 and DCT transcription levels, which probably reflected involvement with MC1R genotypes; e/e in Hanwoo, $E^+/E^+$ in JBC and $E^D/E^D$ in Holsteins. Consequently, this study suggested that the status of MC1R protein may not only induce the transcription activities of a series of TYR and its related genes responsible for melanin synthesis, but also determine the levels of total melanin contents in bovine skin.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.217-222
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• 2015

This study was conducted to obtain a growth correlation of basal information from the development of disease resistant Flammulina velutipes cultivars through back-crossing between the strains of wild-type brown monokaryon 4019-20 and the derivative of commercial quality white monokaryons 3. The two strains were selected to back-cross for further enhancing their latent attributes and growth characteristics. The parents of 4019-$20{\times}M3$ back-crossed to reproduce $F_1$, M3-Sn. Using $F_1$, M3-Sn procured and isolated into 94 monokaryon strains. Further examination of growth characteristics carried out by back-crossing between M3 and $BC_1F_1$ from M3-n dikaryon. Monokaryon exhibited an irregular growth pattern and demonstrated to be sluggish development in the sawdust medium. However $BC_1F_1$(M3-n) dikaryon strains confirmed mostly regular growth pattern and demonstrated ordinary growth in the sawdust medium. The fruitbody of $BC_1F_1$ confirmed as light-brown colour to be the dominant gene. The colour distributions of fruitbody, $BC_1F_1$, resulted as follows; 7% of dark brown, 25% of brown, 27% of light brown, 16% of ivory and 25% of white. The ratio of the other color to white showed 3 to 1 which suggested two major genes were related to fruitbody color.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2011

In plants, heteroblasty reflects the morphological adaptation during leaf development according to the external environmental condition and affects the final shape and size of organ. Among parameters displaying heteroblasty, leaf index is an important and typical one to represent the shape and size of simple leaves. Leaf index factor is eventually determined by cell proliferation and cell expansion in leaf blades. Although several regulators and their mechanisms controlling the cell division and cell expansion in leaf development have been studied, it does not fully provide a blueprint of organ formation and morphogenesis during environmental changes. To investigate genes and their mechanisms controlling leaf index during leaf development, we carried out molecular-genetic and physiological experiments using an Arabidopsis mutant. In this study, we identified macrophylla (mac) which had enlarged leaves. In detail, the mac mutant showed alteration in leaf index and cell expansion in direction of width and length, resulting in not only modification of leaf shape but also disruption of heteroblasty. Molecular-genetic studies indicated that mac mutant had point mutation in ROTUDIFOLIA3 (ROT3) gene involved in brassinosteroid biosynthesis and was an allele of rot3-1 mutant. We named it mac/rot3-5 mutant. The expression of ROT3 gene was controlled by negative feedback inhibition by the treatment of brassinosteroid hormone, suggesting that ROT3 gene was involved in brassinosteroid biosynthesis. In dark condition, in addition, the expression of ROT3 gene was up-regulated and mac/rot3-5 mutant showed lower response, compare to wild type in petiole elongation. This study suggests that ROT3 gene has an important role in control of leaf index during leaf expansion process for proper environmental adaptation, such as shade avoidance syndrome, via the control of brassinosteroid biosynthesis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1592-1599
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• 2008

The $\beta$-lactamase gene was cloned into E. coli DH5$\alpha$ from Bacillus sp. J105 with strong resistance against $\beta$-lactam antibiotics. The chromosomal DNA was partially digested with Sau3AI and ligated to BamHI digested pLAFR3. $\beta$-Lactamase positive clones were obtained by using in vitro packaging kit. The pKL11-${\Delta}4.6$ with $\beta$-lactamase activity was obtained by subcloning of the recombinant plasmid ($\beta$-lac +). The 6.5 kb fragment in the subcloned plasmid was sequenced. The DNA fragment that contains the $\beta$-lactamase gene encodes 309 amino acids. The 0.17 kb upstream region was similar to those of B. thuringinesis and B. cereus with 97% identity. The deduced amino acids sequence was also similar to those of $\beta$-lactamase from B. thuringinesis and B. cereus with 97% and 94% identity, respectively. The phylogenetic tree also showed the relationships of the $\beta$-lactamase gene of Bacillus sp. J105 to genetically related that of other Bacillus strains. Analysis of expression pattern of the pKL11-${\Delta}4.6$ in E. coli, revealed that the secretion efficiency of $\beta$-lactamase was $4{\sim}5%$ and the molecular weight was as same as that of original $\beta$-lactamase (31 kDa) from Bacillus sp. J105.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.257-264
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• 2018

The recent global climate change induced the drought, flooding, and insect pest outbreaks. These caused the severe damage to crop yield in the domesticated field and occurrence change of insect pest species. The sap-sucking insect pest, aphids are common in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and cause serious yield losses. Thus, developing resistance cultivars is promising and efficient strategy to prevent the significant yield losses by aphid and screening germplasm is the essential procedure to achieve this goal. We tried to establish a resistance test indicator for foxglove aphid, Aulacorthum solani (Kaltenbach), in soybean and found that plant damage degree or infested plant damage is most suitable one. Also we screened around 1,200 of soybean germplasm including wild and cultivated species for its resistance to foxglove aphid from the various origins, and 67 soybeans, including PI 366121, showed antixenosis resistance, 31 germplasms among 67 antixenosis germplasms were showed antibiosis to foxglove aphid with non-choice test. The identified foxglove aphid resistant soybean resources showed significantly low rate in survival test. Furthermore, resistance type, (i.e., antibiosis or antixenosis) of each candidate were varied. In this research, we established the screening index for foxglove aphid resistance in soybean, and identified the resistance varieties. This result could be useful resources in breeding for new foxglove aphid resistance soybean cultivars, and provide fundamental information to investigate the resistance mechanism in soybean.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.162-170
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• 2012

The objectives of this study were to isolate and the sequence of novel $F3'H$ gene related to an anthocyanin pathway, and to confirm the expression patterns of the gene involved in the flower color variations of chrysanthemum mutants. In this study, we isolated the full-length cDNAs and the genomic DNAs of an $F3'H$ gene from a wild type (WT) chrysanthemum (cv. Argus) and its three color mutants. The sequence analysis revealed a putative open reading frame of 1,527 bp that encodes a polypeptide of 509 amino acids. Sequence homology ranged from 97% to 99% between 'Argus' and its three color mutants. The sequence analysis from the genomic DNA revealed that the chrysanthemum $DgF3'H$ gene consisted of three exons and two introns spanning a 3,830 bp length. The sizes of the gene for three mutants ranged from a shorter size of 3,828 bp to a longer size of 3,838 bp when compared to the size of WT. The total size of the two introns was 2,157 bp for WT, but those for three color mutants ranged from 2,154 bp to 2,159 bp. A result of an RT-PCR analysis indicated that the color variations of the mutants AM1 and AM2 can be partly explained by the structural modification derived from the sequencial changes in the gene caused by gamma ray. A Southern blot analysis revealed that the $DgF3'H$ gene existing as multiple copies in the chrysanthemum genome. A systemic study will be further needed to provide a genetic mechanism responsible for the color mutation and to uncover any involvement of genetic elements for the expression of the $DgF3'H$ gene for the color variation in chrysanthemum.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 1997

Purpose : To analyze the involvement of apoptosis regulatory genes p53, $p21^{wart/cip1}$ bax and bcl-2 in induction of apoptosis by radiation in murine tumors. Materials and methods : The radiation-sensitive ovarian carcinoma OCa-1, and the radiation-resistant hepatocarcinorna HCa-I were used. Tumors, 8 mm in diameter, were irradiated with 25 Gy and at various times after irradiation, ranging from 1 to 48 h, were analyzed histologically for apoptosis and by western blot for alterations in the expression of these genes. The p53 status of the tumors were determined by the polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism assay. Results : Both tumors were positive for wild-type p53. Radiation inducesd apoptosis in OCa-1 but not in HCa-1. Apoptosis developed rapidly, peaked at 2 h after irradiation and returned to almost the background level at 48 h In OCa-1 radiation upregulated the expression of p53, $p21^{wart/cip1}$. and the bcl-2/bax ratio was decreased. In HCa-1 radiation increased the expression of both p53 and $p21^{wart/cip1}$, although the increase of the latter was small The bcl-2/bax ratio was greatly increased. In general the observed changes occurred within a few hours after irradiation, and either preceded or coincided with development of apoptosis Conclusions : The development of apoptosis required upregulation of both p53 and $p21^{wart/cip1}$ as well as a decrease in bcl-2/bax ratio. In contrast, an increase in bcl-2/bax ratio Prevented apoptosis in the presence of upregulated p53 and $p21^{wart/cip1}$ . These findings indentified the involvement of multiple oncogenes in apoptosis regulation in vivo and demonstrate the complexity that may be associated with the use of a single oncogene assessment for Predicting the outcome of cancer therapy with cytotoxic agents.