• Animal cells and systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2011

Insect lysozymes are basic, cationic proteins synthesized in fat body and hemocytes in response to bacterial infections and depolymerize the bacterial cell wall. The c-type lysozyme of the insect Spodoptera litura (SLLyz) is a single polypeptide chain of 121 residues with four disulfide bridges and 17 rare codons and is approximately 15 kDa. The full-length SLLyz cDNA is 1039 bp long with a poly(A) tail, and contains an open reading frame of 426 bp long (including the termination codon), flanked by a 54 bp long 5' UTR and a 559 bp long 3' UTR. As a host for the production of high-level recombinant proteins, E. coli is used most commonly because of its low cost and short generation time. However, the soluble expression of heterologous proteins in E. coli is not trivial, especially for disulfide-bonded proteins. In order to prevent inclusion body formation, GST was selected as a fusion partner to enhance the solubility of recombinant protein, and fused to the amplified products encoding mature SLLyz. The expression vector pGEX-4T-1/rSLLyz was then transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS for soluble expression of rSLLyz, and the soluble fusion protein was purified successfully. Inhibition zone assay demonstrated that rSLLyz showed antibacterial activity against B. megaterium. These results demonstrate that the GST fusion expression system in E. coli described in this study is efficient and inexpensive in producing a disulfide-bonded rSLLyz in soluble, active form, and suggest that the insect lysozyme is an interesting system for future structural and functional studies.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.791-793
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• 2009

Escherichia coli RNase P is composed of a large RNA subunit (M1 RNA) and a small protein subunit (C5 protein). Since both subunits are assembled in a 1:1 ratio, expression of M1 RNA and C5 protein should be coordinately regulated for RNase P to be efficiently synthesized in the cell. However, it is not known yet how the coordination occurs. In this study, we investigated how overexpression of C5 protein affects expression of the rnpB gene encoding M1 RNA, using a lysogenic strain, which carries an rnpB-lacZ transcription fusion. Primer extension analysis of rnpB-lacZ fusion transcripts showed that the overexpression of C5 protein increased the amount of the fusion transcripts, suggesting that rnpB expression increases with the increase of intracellular level of C5 protein.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.478-482
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• 2018

Human rotavirus is a causative agent of acute diarrhea among children. The artificial gene encoding the truncated $VP8^*$ protein of human rotavirus A (serotype 1 strain WA) was synthesized according to the Escherichia coli codon preference. The synthetic $VP8^*$ gene also possessed the NdeI and HindIII restriction sites for the convenient in-frame cloning for translation and a 6-histidine tag at C-terminus for Ni+ affinity purification. Molecular weight of the truncated $VP8^*$ protein deduced from the nucleotide sequences of the artificial gene was a 19.7-kDa. This synthetic $VP8^*$ DNA fragment was inserted into the pT7-7 expression vector and transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). Transformants harboring the synthetic gene encoding the $VP8^*$ protein was induced by supplement of a final concentration of 0.05 mM ITPG at $20^{\circ}C$. Protein crude extract from the E. coli transformants was subjected to Western blotting with the mouse anti-rotavirus capsid antibody, showing ~20-kDa $VP8^*$ protein band. The truncated $VP8^*$ protein band was also observed by Western blotting using the rabbit polyclonal antibody serum made against the truncated $VP8^*$ protein. This study suggested that the synthetic gene could be used as an easy way to produce the antigenic vaccine candidate for control of virus-associated diseases or to develop antibodies for diagnostic purpose.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.446-451
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• 2015

The market for green vegetable juice (GVJ) is growing owing to the increasing demand for healthy food; however data on the safety and quality of GVJ are poorly reported. The objective of this study was to investigate the change in microbial community in GVJ during storage and its contamination by E. coli O157:H7. The microbial community was analyzed via culturable and non-culturable methods at 5, 10, and $25^{\circ}C$ for different storage times. In the non-culturable method, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) was used. The initial bacterial concentration was $2.92{\times}10^5CFU/mL$, which exceeded the limit prescribed by the Korean Food Hygiene law. The results of the DGGE analysis indicated that the microbial community during storage was diverse and the spoilage lactic acid bacteria were prevalent at a later stage. Other bacteria such as Rahnella, Citrobacter, Pseudomonas, and Cyanobacteria were identified. Thus, the results strongly emphasize the need to pay attention to GVJ production safety, especially with respect to temperature control, in order to prevent the growth of foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7 and other spoilage bacteria.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.114-119
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• 2011

In this study, two duplex real-time PCR approach with melting curve analysis is presented for the detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp. and Staphylococcus aureus, which are important food-borne bacterial pathogens usually present in fresh and/or minimally processed vegetables. Reaction conditions were adjusted for the simultaneous amplification and detection of specific fragments in the ${\beta}$-glucuronidase (uidA, E. coli), thermonuclease (nuc, S. aureus), hemolycin (hly, L. monocytogenes) and tetrathionate reductase (ttr, Salmonella spp.) genes. Melting curve analysis using a SYBR Green I real-time PCR approach showed characteristic $T_m$ values demonstrating the specific and efficient amplification of the four pathogens; $80.6{\pm}0.9^{\circ}C$, $86.9{\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$, $80.4{\pm}0.6^{\circ}C$ and $88.1{\pm}0.11^{\circ}C$ for S. aureus, E. coli O157:H7, L. monocytogenes and Salmonella spp., respectively. For all the pathogens, the two duplex, real-time PCR was equally sensitive to uniplex real-time PCR, using same amounts of purified DNA, and allowed detection of 10 genome equivalents. When our established duplex real-time PCR assay was applied to artificially inoculated fresh lettuce, the detection limit was $10^3$ CFU/g for each of these pathogens without enrichment. The results from this study showed that the developed duplex real-time PCR with melting curve analysis is promising as a rapid and cost-effective test method for improving food safety.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.482-486
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• 2013

Recently, biohydrocarbons are gathering an interest as a new bioenergy due to the versatile applicability. In the present work, a process is proposed for the recovery of lipids from Recombinant E. coli MG1655 which provides longer chain fatty acids. After the growth of the recombinant E. coli, the cells were disrupted by high pressure homogenizer for obtaining intracellular lipids and the resulting solutions were centrifuged and extracted. For the efficient cell disruption with high pressure homogenizer, the pressure higher than 5,000 psi was required. In addition, under the conditions of applied pressure 5,000 to 20,000 psi, 1~3 pass homogenizing was enough for the more than 90% cell disruption. As organic solvents for extraction of lipid, hexane/isopropyl alcohol and ethyl acetate/ethanol systems showed excellent extracting power. With these solvent systems, the 60% lipid could be recovered. Moreover it was found that the extracted lipids contained long-chain fatty acids such as $C_{12}$, $C_{14}$, $C_{16}$ and $C_{18}$.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.954-958
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• 2009

Effects of controlled- and uncontrolled-pH operations on phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) production by a recombinant Escherichia coli strain were investigated at uncontrolled-pH ($pH_{UC}$) and controlled-pH ($pH_C$) of 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0, and 8.5 in bioreactor systems. The results showed that the recombinant PAL activity was improved significantly by controlled pH strategy. Among the $pH_C$ operations, the highest PAL activities were obtained under $pH_C$ 7.5 strategy where cell mass ($OD_{600\;nm}$) and PAL activity was 1.3 and 1.8 fold higher than those of $pH_{UC}$, respectively. The maximum PAL activity reached 123 U/g. The $pH_C$ 7.5 strategy made recombinant plasmid more stable and therefore allowed easier expression of PAL recombinant plasmid, which increased PAL production. It was indicated that the new approach (controlled-pH strategy) obtained in this work possessed a high potential for the industrial production of PAL, especially in the biosynthesis of L-phenylalanine.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.505-510
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• 1992

An endo-$\beta$-1,4-glucanase gene of Clostridium thermocellum was cloned in Escherichia coli and was considered as a novel gene by comparison with the restriction patterns of the C. thermocellum cellulase genes so far reported. The endoglucanase from recombinant E. coli was purified by column chromatography after heat treatment. The purified enzyme was a monomer having molecular weight of 40,000. The enzyme hydrolyzed CMC to glucose and cello-oligosaccharides at :naximum activities at pH 5.0 and $65^{\circ}C$. One of the endproducts, glucose, showed no inhibitory effect on the enzyme activity, while the other endproduct, cellobiose, inhibited slightly. The values of $K_{m}$ and $V_{max}$ of the enzyme for CMC were 0.39% (w/v) and 268 Ulmg protein, respectively.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.614-620
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• 1994

The effects of growth temperature and nutritional components on the synthesis of poly-3-hydroxybutyric acid, PHB, by filamentation-suppressed recombinant Escherichia coli XL1-Blue (pSYL107) were studied. After culturing XL1-Blue(pSYL107) for 48 hours in complex medium at 30$\circ$C, 7Al g/l of PHB could be obtained with the PHB content and PHB yield of 82% and 0.371 g PHB/g glucose, respectively. Lower concentration of PHB(3.2 g/l) was obtained when cultu- red at 37$\circ$C, which seemed to be due to the instability of this strain having amplified FtsZ activity. The PHB concentration of 3.75 g/l was obtained after culturing 60 hours in R medium supplemen- ted with 20 g/l glucose at 30$\circ$C, which was more than twice higher than that obtained with XL1-Blue(pSYL105). This suggested that the enhancement of PHB synthesis by suppressing filamenta- tion was more significant in a defined medium than complex medium. PHB synthesis could be further enhanced by supplementing a small amount of various complex nitrogen sources. When 5 g/l of beef extract was added to a defined medium, PHB concentration, PHB content, and PHB yield obtained after 60 hours of cultivation at 30$\circ$C were 7.46 g/l, 86%, and 0.375 g PHB/g glucose,respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.166-173
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• 1992

The expression of Bacillus subtilis $\alpha$-amylase from the phoA-amyE fusion gene in recombinant E. coli was investigated under various environmental conditions. The overexpression of cloned $\alpha$-amylase caused retardations in cell growth and synthesis of alkaline phosphatase (AP) from the chromosomal phoA gene. The change of culture temperature from $37^\circ{C}$ to $30^\circ{C}$ increased the specific activities of both $\alpha$-amylase and $\beta$-lactamase by six and two times, respectively, whereas the AP activity remained unchanged. The experiments with chlorampenicol (a translation inhibitor) suggested the enhancement of $\alpha$-amylase activity at $30^\circ{C}$, and this was partly due to the stability of $\alpha$-amylase itself. The further decrease of the temperature to $25^\circ{C}$ slowed down both the cell growth and cloned-gene expression rate. The $\alpha$-amylase activity showed a maximum at pH of 7.4 while alkaline phosphatase was most effectively produced at pH of 8.3.