• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.323-327
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• 2004

Leuconostoc citreum CBUE isolated from kimchi proved to harbor a small cryptic plasmid, pNS75. The complete nucleotide sequence of pNS75 was 1,821 bp and had a low G+C content of 39.2%. Computer analysis using DNASIS revealed one open reading frame (ORF), having ATG as putatitive start condon and potentially encoding proteins with molecular mass of 38 kDa. The chimeric plasmid pLeuCM was first constructed wih pNS75, pUC19 and chroamphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) from Staphylococcus sp.. pLeuCM replicated and expressed chroamphenicol acetyltransferase in Leuconostoc citerum CBNF after transformation. To test the availability of shuttle vector as cloning vehicle of foreign gene, $\alpha$-amylase gene of Streptococcus bovis was cloned and all transformants secreated the $\alpha$-amylase successfully. The result indicates that pLeuCM is a potential shuttle vector for Leuconostoc spp. and lactic acid bacteria.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.544-549
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• 1995

The alkaline elastase is an extracellular serine protease of the alkalophilic Bacillus strain Ya-B. To increase the gene copy number and the production level of the alkaline elastase Ya-B, we designed, on the B. subtilis chromosome, a gene amplification of the 10.6 kb repeating unit containing amyE, aleE (alkaline elastase Ya-B gene) and tmrB. The aleE was inserted between amyE and tmrB, and B. subtilis APT119 strain was transformed with this amyE-aleE-tmrB-junction region fragment. As a result, we succeeded in obtaining tunicamycin-resistant (Tm$^{r}$) transformants (Tf-1, Tf-2) in which the designed gene amplification of 10.6 kb occurred in chromosome. The transformants showed high productivity of $\alpha $-amylase and alkaline elastase Ya-B. The copy number of the repeating unit (amyE-aleE-tmrB) was estimated to be 25, but plasmid vector (pUC19) was not integrated. The amplified aleE of chromosome was more stable than that of plasmid in absence of antibiotics.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.80-85
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• 2010

Two different ${\alpha}$-amylase isozymes (AMY1 and AMY2) found in barley malt share up to 80% of amino acid sequence identity with each other, but their enzymatic properties differ remarkably. AMY1 shows the highest activity at low concentration of calcium ion, while AMY2 is highly active at high calcium concentration. Meanwhile, BASI (Barley ${\alpha}$-Amylase/Subtilisin Inhibitor) protein specifically inhibits only AMY2. In the present study, three separate regions in AMY genes (I, II, and III) were assigned on the basis of restriction enzyme sites and four kinds of chimeric amylases have been obtained by swapping a part of regions with each other. Each chimera gene was successfully over-expressed in Pichia pastoris. From the results of enzymatic characterization, both AMY211 and AMY122 showed the mixed or intermediate type of calcium-dependent activity between AMY1 and 2. Meanwhile, only AMY221 chimera could be significantly inhibited by BASI protein. As a result, it can be proposed that some amino acid residues in the region I and II, except region III, of barley ${\alpha}$-amylases play very important roles in calcium-dependency and interaction with BASI.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.220-225
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• 2016

To improve antioxidant glutathione (GSH) content and saccharification ability in sake yeasts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the ${\gamma}$-glutamylcysteine synthetase gene (GSH1) from S. cerevisiae, glucoamylase gene (GAM1) and ${\alpha}$-amylase gene (AMY) from Debaryomyces occidentalis were co-expressed in sake yeasts for manufacturing a refreshing alcoholic beverage abundant in GSH from rice starch. The extracellular GSH content of the recombinant sake yeasts increased 1.5-fold relative to the parental wide-type strain. The saccharification ability by glucoamylase of the new yeast strain expressing both GAM1 and AMY genes was 2-fold higher than that of the yeast strain expressing only GAM1 gene when grown in the culture medium containing 2% (w/v) rice starch. It generated 11% (v/v) ethanol from 20% (w/v) rice starch and consumed up to 90% of the starch content after 7 days of fermentation.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.369-374
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• 2011

A putative maltogenic amylase gene (DGMA) was cloned from the Deinococcus geothermalis DSM 11300 genome using the polymerase chain reaction. The gene encoded 608 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 68,704 Da. The recombinant DGMA was constitutively expressed using the pHCXHD plasmid. As expected, the recombinant DGMA hydrolyzed cyclodextrins and starch to maltose and pullulan to panose by cleaving the ${\alpha}$-(1,4)-glycosidic linkages, as observed for typical maltogenic amylases. Characterization of the recombinant DGMA revealed that the highest maltogenic amylase activity occurred at $40^{\circ}C$ and pH 6.0. The half-life of catalytic activity at $65^{\circ}C$ and $55^{\circ}C$ were 8.2 min and 187.4 min, respectively. DGMA mainly hydrolyzed ${\beta}$-cyclodextrin, soluble starch, and pullulan and its efficient ratio of those substrates was 9:4.5:1.

• Mycobiology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.155-161
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• 2016

The most economically important species used in a wide range of fermentation industries throughout Asia belong to Aspergillus section Flavi, which are morphologically and phylogenetically indistinguishable, with a few being toxigenic and therefore a major concern. They are frequently isolated from Korean fermentation starters, such as nuruk and meju. The growing popularity of traditional Korean alcoholic beverages has led to a demand for their quality enhancement, therefore requiring selection of efficient non-toxigenic strains to assist effective fermentation. This study was performed to classify the most efficient strains of Aspergillus section Flavi isolated from various types of traditional wheat nuruk, based on a polyphasic approach involving molecular and biochemical evaluation. A total of 69 strains were isolated based on colony morphology and identified as Aspergillus oryzae/flavus based on internal transcribed spacer and calmodulin gene sequencing. Interestingly, none were toxigenic based on PCR amplification of intergenic regions of the aflatoxin cluster genes norB-cypA and the absence of aflatoxin in the culture supernatants by thin-layer chromatography analysis. Saccharification capability of the isolates, assessed through ${\alpha}-amylase$ and glucoamylase activities, revealed that two isolates, TNA24 and TNA15, showed the highest levels of activity. Although the degrees of variation in ${\alpha}-amylase$ and glucoamylase activities among the isolates were higher, there were only slight differences in acid protease activity among the isolates with two, TNA28 and TNA36, showing the highest activities. Furthermore, statistical analyses showed that ${\alpha}-amylase$ activity was positively correlated with glucoamylase activity (p < 0.001), and therefore screening for either was sufficient to predict the saccharifying capacity of the Aspergillus strain.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.230-233
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• 1999

A plasmid vector was constructed for the expression and secretion of Bacillus macerans cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) in Bacillus subtilis. The vector, pUBACGT, was composed of the ribosome-binding sequence, signal sequence, and cgt gene from B. macerans under the control of amyR2, the promoter of amyE gene coding for $\alpha$-amylase from B. subtilis var. natto. Bacillus subtilis LKS88, a mutant strain lacking genes for an amylase and two proteases, was used as a host for the transformation of the plasmid vector. The transformants were selected on kanamycin-containing Luria-Bertani plates. The starch hydrolyzing activity was observed on the starch-containing plates by the iodine method and cyclodextrin-forming activity was detected in the culture medium. A SDS-PAGE analysis showed that most of the expressed CGTase in the recombinant B. subtilis was secreted into the medium at a high expression level.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2018.04a
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• pp.5-5
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• 2018

Ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer), one of the most widely used medicinal plants in traditional oriental medicine, is used for the treatment of various diseases. It has been classified according to its cultivation environment, such as field cultivated ginseng (FCG) and mountain cultivated ginseng (MCG). However, little is known about differences in gene expression in ginseng roots between field cultivated and mountain cultivated ginseng. In order to investigate the whole transcriptome landscape of ginseng, we employed High-Throughput sequencing technologies using the Illumina HiSeqTM2500 system, and generated a large amount of sequenced transcriptome from ginseng roots. Approximately 77 million and 87 million high-quality reads were produced in the FCG and MCG roots transcriptome analyses, respectively, and we obtained 256,032 assembled unigenes with an average length of 1,171 bp by de novo assembly methods. Functional annotations of the unigenes were performed using sequence similarity comparisons against the following databases: the non-redundant nucleotide database, the InterPro domains database, the Gene Ontology Consortium database, and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway database. A total of 4,207 unigenes were assigned to specific metabolic pathways, and all of the known enzymes involved in starch and sucrose metabolism pathways were also identified in the KEGG library. This study indicated that alpha-glucan phosphorylase 1, putative pectinesterase/pectinesterase inhibitor 17, beta-amylase, and alpha-glucan phosphorylase isozyme H might be important factors involved in starch and sucrose metabolism between FCG and MCG in different environments.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.1253-1257
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• 2012

A gene (acas) designated as ${\alpha}$-amylase was cloned from Arthrobacter chlorophenolicus A6. The multiple amino acid sequence analysis and functional expression of acas revealed that this gene really encoded an amylosucrase (ASase) instead of ${\alpha}$-amylase. In fact, the recombinant enzyme exhibited typical ASase activity by showing both sucrose hydrolysis and glucosyltransferase activities. The purified enzyme has a molecular mass of 72 kDa and exhibits optimal hydrolysis activity at $45^{\circ}C$ and a pH of 8.0. The analysis of the oligomeric state of ACAS with gel permeation chromatography revealed that the ACAS existed as a monomer.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.315-324
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• 2007

The novel $\alpha$-amylase purified from locally isolated strain, Bacillus sp. KR-8104, (KRA) (Enzyme Microb Technol; 2005; 36: 666-671) is active in a wide range of pH. The enzyme maximum activity is at pH 4.0 and it retains 90% of activity at pH 3.5. The irreversible thermoinactivation patterns of KRA and the enzyme activity are not changed in the presence and absence of $Ca^{2+}$ and EDTA. Therefore, KRA acts as a $Ca^{2+}$-independent enzyme. Based on circular dichroism (CD) data from thermal unfolding of the enzyme recorded at 222 nm, addition of $Ca^{2+}$ and EDTA similar to its irreversible thermoinactivation, does not influence the thermal denaturation of the enzyme and its Tm. The amino acid sequence of KRA was obtained from the nucleotide sequencing of PCR products of encoding gene. The deduced amino acid sequence of the enzyme revealed a very high sequence homology to Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (BAA) (85% identity, 90% similarity) and Bacillus licheniformis $\alpha$-amylases (BLA) (81% identity, 88% similarity). To elucidate and understand these characteristics of the $\alpha$-amylase, a model of 3D structure of KRA was constructed using the crystal structure of the mutant of BLA as the platform and refined with a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation program. Interestingly enough, there is only one amino acid substitution for KRA in comparison with BLA and BAA in the region involved in the calcium-binding sites. On the other hand, there are many amino acid differences between BLA and KRA at the interface of A and B domains and around the metal triad and active site area. These alterations could have a role in stabilizing the native structure of the loop in the active site cleft and maintenance and stabilization of the putative metal triad-binding site. The amino acid differences at the active site cleft and around the catalytic residues might affect their pKa values and consequently shift its pH profile. In addition, the intrinsic fluorescence intensity of the enzyme at 350 nm does not show considerable change at pH 3.5-7.0.