• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.6
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• pp.107-117
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• 1965

(1) In order to study the specificity of Aspergillus soya protease to soybean protein, as well as the types of peptides formed during soybean-koji prerapation the amino acid sequence for the di & tripeptide and N-terminal amino acid residue and C-terminal amino acid residue were identified. As the results of the study, the following were obtained. Gly, Glu. Ala. Ser. Glu. Ser. Ala. Val (Cys, Glu, Ser, Ala, Arg, Try, Leu or Ileu) Asp. Phe (His, Arg, Cys, Asp, Ser, Ala, Leu or Ileu) Glu. Ala (Cys, Gly, Met) Glu. Ala (Asp, Glu,) Gly. Met (Asp, Glu, Ala, Tyr, Leu or Ileu, Lys,) Gly. Leu or Ileu (His, Asp, Glu, Gly, Ser, Lys, Thr, Phe,) Cys. Gly (Asp, Tyr,) Glu. Pro (Asp, Glu, Ser, Gly, Thr, Ala, Val, Leu or Ileu) Try. Ser (Gly, Glu, Arg, Ala, Met, Leu or Ileu,) Asp. Met (Asp, Glu, Ala, Try, Pro, Leu or Ileu,) His Thr (Ser, Gly, Tyr, Pro, Leu or Ileu,) Glu. Gly (Asp, Ala, Ser, Glu,) Leu or Ileu (2) It has revealed that Aspergillus soya protease has considerably wider range of specificity than that of chymotrypsin, pepsin and trypsin but not mold protease and Aspergillus saitoi protease. It can be said that Asp. soya protease split the bond adjacent to glutamic acid, aspartic acid, glycine, serine, alanine, cystine, tryptophan, histidine preferably acidic amino acid as C-terminal amino acid residue.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 1994

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease is essential for the replication of the virus and it is therefore an attractive target for antiviral drugs of HIV-1. Several dipeptide isosteres containing 2-isoxazoline or $\alpha$-hydroxy ketomethylene have been synthesized and their inhibitory effects on the HIV-1 protease examined. The enzymatically active HIV-1 protease was purified to homogeniety from E. coli transformed with a recombinant plasmid (pMAL-pro) containing the entire gene encoding the protease. The purified protease had the substrate specificity with Km value of 9.8$\mu$M when an undecapeptide His-Lys-Ala-Arg-Val-Leu-(p-nitro)Phe-Glu-Ala-Nle-Ser-amide was used as a substrate, and the products from the substrate after specific cleavage by HIV-1 protease were analyzed by HPLC. The synthetic compounds containing dipeptide isosteres showed specific inhibitory effects while a dipeptide isostere containing an isoxazoline ring inhibited the HIV-1 protease competitively with Ki value of 500 $\mu$M. Even if the inhibition effects of HIV-1 protease were not very high, these novel dipeptide isosteres can be used as key structural moieties for developing specific inhibitors of HIV-1 protease.

• BMB Reports
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.531-536
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• 2000

Tropomyosin (TM) is an important actin binding protein involved in regulation of muscle contraction. Unacetylated striated tropomyosin failed to bind to actin whereas unacetylated smooth tropomyosin bound well to actin. It has been demonstrated that high actin affinity of unacetylated ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$ was ascribed to the carboxyl terminal amino acid residues. In order to define the role of the carboxyl terminal residues of tropomyosin molecule on actin binding, two mutant tropomyosins were constructed. TM11 is identical to the striated tropomyosin except that the carboxyl terminal last three amino acids was replaced with $^{282}NNM^{284}$ whereas in TM14 $^{276}HA^{277}$ was substituted with smooth specific $^{276}QT^{277}$. TM11 and TM14 were overproduced in Escherichia coli and analyzed for actin affinity. The apparent binding constants (Kapp) of unacetylated tropomyosins were $2.2{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for sm9, $1.03{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for TM14, $0.19{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for TM11, $>0.1{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for striated, respectively. This result indicated that higher actin affinity of the unacetylated smooth tropomyosin was primarily attributed to the presence of QT residues in the smooth sequence. In case of the Ala-Ser (AS) dipeptide extension of the amino terminus of tropomyosin, Kapp were $21.1{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for AS-sm9, $8.0{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for AS-11, $4.7{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for AS-14, $3.8{\times}10^6M^{-1}$ for AS-striated. AS-TM11 showed considerably higher actin affinity than AS-TM14, implying that interaction of Ala-Ser of the amino terminus with the carboxyl terminal residues. Since Kapp of AS-TM11 was significantly lower than that of AS-sm9, the presence of QT might be required for restoration of high actin affinity of the smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$. These results suggested that the carboxyl terminal amino acid residues Glutamine275-Threonine276 are important for actin affinity of the recombinant smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$, particularly of unacetylated smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
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• 1996.07a
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• pp.15-15
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• 1996

In order to investigate the conformational preferences to elicit the tastes, conformational free energy calculations using the empirical potential ECEPP/3 and the hydration shell model were carried out on the L-aspartyl dipeptide methyl esters, L-$\^$+/HAsp$\^$-/-D-Xaa-OMe, in the unhydrated state, where Xaa includes sweet (Ala, Abu, Ser, Thr, Val, and lle), bitter (Phe, Trp, and Leu), and tasteless (Tyr and Met) residues. (omitted)

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.770-777
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• 2004

It has been previously reported that unacetylated a-tropomyosin(TM) produced in E. coli failed to bind to actin while acetylated muscle TM and Ala-Ser dipeptide fusion TM (AS-TM) bound well to actin. In order to determine the structural requirement of the amino terminus for high actin affinity, a recombinant tropomyosin (Ala-TM) that a single Ala residue was added to the amino terminus of Ala-TM was constructed, overexpressed, and purified from E. coli. Actin affinity of Ala-TM was 2.3$\times$$10^{6}$$M^{-1}$, whereas that of unacetylated TM was considerably lower than 0.1$\times$$10^{-6}$$M^{-1}$ indicating that addition of a single Ala residue to the amino terminus drastically increased, at least twenty times, actin affinity of TM. Ala-TM, however, bound to actin about three times weaker than acetylated TM and AS- TM, implying that the addition of an Ala residue was insufficient for complete restoration of high actin affinity. While Ala-TM, AS-TM, and muscle TM showed inhibition and activation of actomyosin Sl ATPase activity depending on myosin Sl concentration, the degree of inhibition and activation was different from each other. AS-TM exhibited the greatest inhibition of the ATPase at low Sl concentration, whereas the greatest activation of the ATPase was observed with muscle TM. These results, together with previous findings, strongly suggested that local structure of the amino terminus is the crucial functional determinant of TM.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.2 s.82
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• pp.204-210
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• 2007

Previous reports indicated that the carboxyl terminal residues, glutamine276-threonine277 in particular, were important for actin affinity of the unacetylated smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$. To determine the role of the glutamine and threonine residues in C-terminal region in actin binding, we constructed mutant striated muscle ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$ (TMs), in which these two residues were individually substituted. These mutant tropomyosins, designated TM18 (HT) and TM19 (QA), were overexpressed in E. coli as an either unacetylated form or Ala-Ser. (AS) dipeptide fusion form, and were analyzed F-actin affinity by cosedimentation. Unacetylated TM19 (QA) bound to actin approximately three times stronger than TM18 (HT) and much stronger than ST (HA). AS/TM19 (QA) showed four times stronger, in actin affinity than AS/ST (HA) while AS/TM14 (QT) bound to actin stronger to some extent than AS/TM18 (HT). These results suggested that the presence of Gln residue at 276 be primarily attributed to higher actin affinity of smooth ${\alpha}-tropomyosin$.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.573-580
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• 2009

It has been previously reported that the carboxyl terminal residues 276 and 277 of ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin are important for actin affinity. In order to investigate actin affinities of these two residues of skeletal (HA) and smooth (QT) muscle ${\alpha}$-tropomyosins, a series of mutant tropomyosins were constructed in which residues at either 276 or 277 were individually replaced with a cysteine residue for chemical modification. These mutants were overexpressed in E. coli as unacetylated and Ala-Ser (AS) dipeptide fusion forms. While actin affinities of unacetylated tropomyosins were considerably low, those of AS/TMs were remarkably higher than those of corresponding unacetylated tropomyosins. However, actin affinities of AS/TM24 (QC) and AS/TM29 (HC) were dramatically lower than those of other AS/TMs and were close to those of unacetylated tropomyosins. In addition, actin affinities of unacetylated TM24 (QC) and TM29 (HC) failed to be restored in the presence of troponin, unlike unacetylated TM10 (HA) and TM23 (CA). These results indicated that the presence of a cysteine residue at 277 caused a drastic decrease in actin affinity, and also that the residue 277 is important for actin affinity of ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin. Since TM23 (CA) showed high actin affinity, it may serve as a valuable tool for chemical modification studies for investigating the interaction of the carboxyl terminal residues of ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin with actin and/or troponin.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1324-1330
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• 2017

Salt, or sodium chloride (NaCl), is a critical ingredient in many foods. It has roles in the flavor profiles of food products, textures of foods and preservation of foods against microbes. However, it increases risks of hypertension and is closely related to the development of cardiovascular disease. In recent years, health concerns related to sodium intake caused an increased demand for salt-reduced products in worldwide; it became necessary to develop natural salt-alternative products that are globally competitive. In a recent study, researchers succeeded in obtaining a natural salt enhancer through the hydrolysis of vegetable- and animal-matter mixtures. This study used various methods to identify and quantify peptide-containing arginine as a salt-alternative peptide (SAP) in an optimum combination. Arginine, or dipeptide-containing arginine, was analyzed as a standard substance using an NMR spectroscopy. The NMR carbon signal of the guanidine group of the standard substance was verified in a similar location (the L-arginine (Arg) was 156.8 ppm, the Arg-Alanine was 156.4 ppm and the Arg-Serine was 156.4 ppm). The results suggested that it is possible to analyze peptide-containing arginine quantitatively through the hydrolysis of vegetable- and animal-matter mixtures.