• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.146-154
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• 2020

With the advantages of biocatalytic method, enzymes have been excavated for the synthesis of chiral amino acids by the reductive amination of ketones, offering a promising way of producing pharmaceutical intermediates. In this work, a robust phenylalanine dehydrogenase (PheDH) with wide substrate spectrum and high catalytic efficiency was constructed through rational design and active-site-targeted, site-specific mutagenesis by using the parent enzyme from Bacillus halodurans. Active sites with bonding substrate and amino acid residues surrounding the substrate binding pocket, 49L-50G-51G, 74M,77K, 122G-123T-124D-125M, 275N, 305L and 308V of the PheDH, were identified. Noticeably, the new mutant PheDH (E113D-N276L) showed approximately 6.06-fold increment of k_cat/Km in the oxidative deamination and more than 1.58-fold in the reductive amination compared to that of the wide type. Meanwhile, the PheDHs exhibit high capacity of accepting benzylic and aliphatic ketone substrates. The broad specificity, high catalytic efficiency and selectivity, along with excellent thermal stability, render these broad-spectrum enzymes ideal targets for further development with potential diagnostic reagent and pharmaceutical compounds applications.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.207-213
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• 1981

Conformations of thioacetamide (TAA) and its protonated form were determined using the CNDO/2 method, and the intermolecular interaction energies between the protonated TAA and water were calculated. It was found that: (1) protonation occurs preferentially on the N rather than on the S atom, (2) the stabilization energy of intermolecular perturbation between the protonated TAA and water was also large for the N-protonated TAA. This causes preferential CS bond cleavage due to large antibonding nature of the CS bond in the LUMO, and leads to an orbital controlled reaction.

• BMB Reports
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.37-40
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• 2013

CY-007 and CY-049 pteridine glycosyltransferases (PGTs) that differ in sugar donor specificity to catalyze either glucose or xylose transfer to tetrahydrobiopterin were studied here to uncover the structural determinants necessary for the specificity. The importance of the C-terminal domain and its residues 218 and 258 that are different between the two PGTs was assessed via structure-guided domain swapping or single and dual amino acid substitutions. Catalytic activity and selectivity were altered in all the mutants (2 chimeric and 6 substitution) to accept both UDP-glucose and UDP-xylose. In addition, the wild type activities were improved 1.6-4.2 fold in 4 substitution mutants and activity was observed towards another substrate UDP-N-acetylglucosamine in all the substitution mutants from CY-007 PGT. The results strongly support essential role of the C-terminal domain and the two residues for catalysis as well as sugar donor specificity, bringing insight into the structural features of the PGTs.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.2385-2390
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• 2011

Preparation of ammonium dihydrogenphosphate supported on alumina ($NH_4H_2PO_4/Al_2O_3$) and its primary application as a solid acid supported heterogeneous catalyst to the synthesis of 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted imidazoles by a one-pot, four-component condensation of benzil, aromatic aldehydes, primary amines, and ammonium acetate under thermal solvent-free conditions were described. The results showed that the novel catalyst has high activity and the desired products were obtained in high yields. Furthermore, the products could be separated simply from the catalyst, and the catalyst could be recycled and reused with only slight reduction in its catalytic activity. Characterization of the catalyst was performed by FT-IR spectroscopy, the $N_2$ adsorption/desorption analysis (BET), thermal analysis (TG/DTG), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques.

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.172-177
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• 2009

Phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI) is involved in synthesizing extracellular polysaccharide (EPS). The gene encoding PGI in Sphingomonas chungbukensis DJ77 was cloned and expressed in E. coli, and the protein was characterized. The pgi gene from DJ77 is 1,503 nucleotides long with 62% GC content and the deduced amino acid sequence shows strong homology with PGIs from other sources. The molecular masses of PGI subunit and native form were estimated to be 50 kDa and 97 kDa, respectively. Four potentially important residues (H361, R245, E330 and K472) were identified by homology modeling. The mutations, H361A, R245A, E330A, R245K and E330D resulted in decrease in Vmax by hundreds fold, however no significant change in Km was observed. These data suggest that the three residues (H361, R245Aand E330) are likely located in the active site and the size as well as the spatial position of side chains of R245 and E330 are crucial for catalysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.135-136
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• 2001

The Tk-ptp gene encoding a protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakaraensis KODI was cloned and sequenced. Sequence analysis indicated that Tk-ptp encoded a protein consisting 147 amino acid residues (16,953 Da). The wild type and the mutants were expressed in Escherichia coli cells as His-tagged fusion proteins and examined for enzyme characteristics. Tk-PTP possessed two unique features that were not found in eucaryal and bacterial counterparts. First, the recombinant Tk-PTP showed the phosphatase activity not only for the phosphotyrosine but also phosphoserine. Second, the conserved Asp (Asp-63), which was considered to be a critical residue, was not involved in catalysis. In order to know a specific substrate for Tk-PTP, C93S mutant was used to trap substrate protein. Proteins of 120, 60 and 53 kDa were isolated specifically from KODI cell lysates by affinity chromatography with Tk-PTP-C93S. It is suggested that these proteins are tyrosine-phosphorylated substrates of Tk-PTP.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.297-302
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• 2016

Ag nanoparticles are extensively studied and utilized due to their excellent catalysis, antibiosis and optical properties. They can be easily synthesized by chemical reduction methods and it is possible to prepare particles of uniform size and high purity. These methods are divided into vapor methods and liquid phase reduction methods. In the present study, Ag particles are prepared and analyzed through two chemical reduction methods using solvents containing a silver nitrate precursor. When Ag ions are reduced using a reductant in the aqueous solution, it is possible to control the Ag particle size by controlling the formic acid ratio. In addition, in the Polyol process, Ag nanoparticles prepared at various temperatures and reaction time conditions have multiple twinned and anisotropic structures, and the particle size variation can be confirmed using field emissions scanning electron microscopy and by analyzing the UV-vis spectrum.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.239-247
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• 1995

The physico-chemical stability of aucubin, a hepatoprotective iridoid glucoside, in buffered aqueous solutions was studied using a stability-indicating reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography. The degradation of aucubin followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics. In strong acidic regions, aucubin was rapidly degraded by the specific acid catalysis, forming dark brown precipitates. From the rate-pH profiles, it was found that aucubin was most stable at the pH of about 10. From the temperature dependence of degradation, activation energies for aucubin at pH 2.1 and 4.9 were calculated to be 22.0 and 24.3 kcal/mole, respectively. The shelf-life $(t_{90%})$ for aucubin at pH 9.07 and $20^{\circ}C$ was predicted to be about 603 days. A higher ionic strength accelerated the degradation of aucubin at pH 4.01. The effect of metal ions on the degradation rate of aucubin at pH 7.16 was in the rank order of $Cu^{2+}\;>\;Fe^{3+}\;>\;Co^{2+}\;>\;Fe^{2+}\;>\;Mg^{2+}$. On the other hand, $Mn^{2+}\;and\;Ba^{2+}$ slowed the degradation rate.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.159-163
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• 2001

The accelerated stability of dimethoxy biphenyl monocarboxylate.HCl (DDB-S) was investigated in 6 mg/mL water solution in the pH ranging 2-10 and the temperature of $45-85^{\circ}C$. The observed rate of degradation followed first-order kinetics. The energy of activation for DDB-S degradation was calculated to be 14.1 and 16.5 $Kcal/mole$ at pH 5 and in distilled watery respectively. The degradation rate constant ($K_{25^{\circ}C}$) obtained by trending line analysis of Arrhenius plots for DDB-S was $5.3{\times}10^{-6}h^{-1}$. The times to degrade 10% ($t_{10}$) and 50% $t_{500}$) at $K_{25^{\circ}C}$ were 829 and 5,416 days, respectively. DDB-S exhibited the fastest degradation at pH 10 and the slowest rate at pH 5. In addition, at $K_{65^{\circ}C}$, degradation rate constants of DDB-S were 0.066, 0.059, 5.460, 32.171, and $1.4{\times}10^{-6}h^{-1}$ at pH 2, 5, 8, 10 and in distilled water, respectively. These observations indicated that the rate-pH profile of DDB-S showed general acid-base catalysis reaction in the range of pH 2-10.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.881-888
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• 2010

solvent-tolerant bacterium strain, MH6, was isolated by hydrophilic organic solvent DMSO enrichment in the medium and identified as Serratia marcescens. The extracellular protease with novel organic-solvent-stable properties from strain MH6 was purified and characterized. The molecular mass of the purified protease was estimated to be 52 kDa on SDS-PAGE. The open reading frame (ORF) of the MH6 protease encoded 504 amino acids with 471 amino acid residues in the mature protease. Based on the inhibitory effects of EDTA and 1,10-phenathroline, the MH6 protease was characterized as a metalloproteinase. The enzyme activity was increased in the presence of $Ni^{2+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, and $Ca^{2+}$. The protease could also be activated by the nonionic surfactants Tween 80 (1.0%) and Triton X-100 (1.0%). The protease showed remarkable solvent stability in the presence of 50% (v/v) solutions of long-chain alkanes and long-chain alcohols. It was also fairly stable in the presence of 25% solutions of hydrophilic organic solvents. Owing to its high stability in solvents and surfactants, the MH6 protease is an ideal candidate for applications in organic catalysis and other related fields.