• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.95-99
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• 2017

A previous study demonstrated that four kinds of natural compounds, Corydaline, (${\pm}$)-Car-3-ene-2,5-dione, cinobufagin, and corilagin, enhanced the gene expression of ERAP1 and FOXO1 (DFA16) more than two-fold in a cell culture system. In this study, the experimental food was made finally 30 ml in which included 1% agar, 5% sucrose, and each natural compound $20{\mu}l$. A fruit fly of Drosophila melanogaster fed a natural product for 4 hr after 4 hr starvation. Both natural compounds of Cinobufagin and Corilagin induced 6-8 days more survival comparing than it controls group. The resulting fruit flies were estimated the gene expression of ERAP1 and FOXO1 by RT-PCR that also demonstrated meaningful results with the same lifespan results. Cinobufagin from BufonisVenennumis has $C_{26}H_{34}O_6$ molecular formula and 442 kDa molecular weight. Corilagin from Euphorbiapekinensisis has $C_{27}H_{22}O_{18}$ molecular formula and 634 kDa molecular weight. The two types of natural products screened in this study will be used in the early diagnosis and treatment of insect industry in the near future. In addition, the natural products will be used in longevity experiments in a mouse model. The results may give one of the clues for studying new drug development candidates of the longevity.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1558-1570
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• 2012

In radiation biology, analysis of various mechanisms in response to radiation has been accomplished with the use of model organisms. These model organisms are powerful tools for providing a biologically intact in vivo environment to assess physiological and pathophysiological processes affected by radiation. Accumulated data using these models have been applied to human clinical studies (including the evaluation of radiotherapeutic efficacy) and discovery of radiotherapy reagents. However, there are few studies to provide overall integrated information about these useful model organisms. Thus, this review summarizes the results of radiation biology studies using four well-known model organisms: yeast, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and mice.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.121-126
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• 2001

A cDNA encoding a cathepsin D homologue was cloned from a cDNA library of the mulberry longicorn beetle, Apriona germari. Sequence analysis of the cDNA encoding the cathepsin D homologue of A. germari revealed that the 1,158 bp cDNA has an open reading frame of 386 amino acid residues. The deduced protein sequence of the A. germari cathepsin D homologue shows high homology with cathepsin D in insects, Aedes aegypti (68.2% amino acid similarity) and Drosophila melanogaster (67.2% amino acid similarity). Two aspartic residues and six cystein residues in the A. germari cathepsin D homologue are present at identical locations in all of the other catepsins D. Unlike cathepsins D in two insect species, A. gemari cathepsin D homologue appears to have two putative glycosylation sites, rather than one. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the A. germari cathepsin D homologue is more closely related to insect cathepsins D than to the other animal cathepsins D. Northern blot analysis suggests that A. germari cathepsin D homologue gene is expressed in most if not all, body tissues.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.127-130
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• 2004

We describe here the cloning and characterization of a cDNA encoding a putative myosin light chain-2 (MLC-2) from the mole cricket, Gryllotalpa orientalis. The G. orientalis MLC-2 cDNA sequences comprised of 615 bp with 205 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular weight of approximately 23 kDa. The deduced protein sequence of G. orientalis MLC-2 cDNA showed 64% and 54% identity to Drosophila melanogaster MLC-2 and D. yakuba MLC-2, respectively. Northern blot analysis confirmed the muscle-specific expression of G. orientalis MLC-2.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.6.1-6.7
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• 2013

Many insects such as mosquitoes cause life-threatening diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and West Nile virus. Malaria alone infects 500 million people annually and causes 1-3 million death per year. Volatile insect repellents, which are detected through the sense of smell, have long been used to protect humans against insect pests. Antifeed-ants are non-volatile aversive compounds that are detected through the sense of taste and prevent insects from feeding on plants. The molecular targets and signaling path-ways required for sensing insect repellents and antifeedants are poorly understood. Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) Ca2+-permeable cation channels exist in organisms ranging from C. elegans to D. melanogaster and Homo sapiens. Drosophila has 13 family members, which mainly function in sensory physiology such as vision, thermotaxis and chemotaxis. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) initiate olfactory signaling cascades in mammals and in nematodes C.elegans. However, the mechanisms of G protein signaling cascades in insect chemosensation are controversial. In this review, I will discuss the putative roles of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels as targets for insect repellents.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.123-130
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• 1991

Several parameters of u -glycerol-3-pholphate dehydrogenase (GPDH) such as activity, content and translatable mRNA levels were measured to elucidate mechanism underlving developmental and tissue specific regulation of 6PDH activity in Drosophila melonogastrr. In adult segments, most of total GPDH activity (62%1 Iwas detected in thorax where GPDH-1 resided, while 32% of total GPDH aUiviD was only detected in abdomen where GPDH-3 resided. The relative synthesis of GPDH was, however, similar in both tissues, although 58% of total GPDH was synthesized in abdomen. These results strongly suggest that the turnover rate of the abdominal enzyme (GPDH-3) was much more rapid than that of thoracic enzymes (GPDH-1). In nitro translation and immunoblotting experiments also indicate that GPDH-3 was arised by posttranslational modification from a single polypeptide (GPDH-1).

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 1964

D.auraria is a species belonging to the D.melanogaster group, and this species was divided into 3 races(A, B and C race ) by morphoogical difference of the genitals . Korean populations of D.auraria A race are polymorphic with respect to the pigmentation of the abdominal tergites. The female shows two forms of color pattern, dark and light, on the sixth to the ninth tergites, and the male has no distinction shown by the female. Crossing experiments in the laboratory have shown that the difference between these color forms is due to a single pair of allelic genes located on an autosome. In natural populations, the light forms of females are always commoner than the dark one. The number of the light form increases relatively in southern localities and decreases relatively in northern localities. Furthermore, the number of the light form increases relatively in summer and decreases relatively in fall and spring. By genetic analyses of these wild flies, the relation, d/d>d/D>D/D has been disclosed as regards the relative frequencies of the genotypes in natural populations. Three experimental populations have been set up in the laboratory. Homozygous dark forms and homozygous light forms were mixed together and cultured in population cage at the temperature of 25 $^{\circ}C$. Approximately one year later, the frequencies of the light and the dark forms reached an equilibrium , the light one being usually more frequent than the dark one. This indicates that the heterozygous dark form possesses the highest adaptive value, the homozygous light being intermediate and the homozygous dark lowest. In number of adults hached, the homozygous light form was superior to the heterozygous dark form and the homozygous dark form, but the differences are scarcely significant.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.576-582
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• 2008

Nervous system development takes place after positional information has been established along the dorsal-ventral (D/V) axis. The initial subdivision provided by a gradient of nuclear dorsal protein is maintained by the zygotic genes expressed along the D/V axis. In this study, an investigation was conducted to determine the range of Dpp function in repressing the expression of eagle (eg) that is present in intermediate neuroblasts defective (ind) and muscle specific homeobox (msh) gene domain. eg is expressed in neuroblast (NB) 2-4, 3-3 and 6-4 of the msh domain, and NB7-3 of the ind domain at the embryonic stage 11. In decapentaplegic (dpp) loss-of-function mutant embryos, eg was ectopically expressed in the dorsal region, while in dpp gain-of-function mutants produced by sog or sca-GAL4/UAS-dpp, eg was repressed by Dpp. It is worthy of note that Dpp produced from sim;;dpp embryos showed that Dpp could function at long range. However, Dpp produced from en-GAL4/UAS-dpp or wg-GAL4/UAS-dpp primarily acted at short-range. This result demonstrated that this discrepancy seems to be due to the repression of Dpp to EGFR signaling in sim;;dpp embryos. Taken together, these results suggest that Dpp signaling works at short-range, but can function indirectly at long-range by way of repression of EGFR signaling during embryonic neurogenesis.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2001

This paper reports a few characteristics of seven insect mitochondrial genomes sequenced completely (Bombyx mori, Drosophila melanogaster, D. yakuba, Apis mellifera, Anopheles gambiae, A. quadrimaculatus, and Locusta migratoria). Comparative analysis of complete mt genome sequences from several species revealed a number of interesting features (base composition, gene content, A+T-rich region, and gene arrangement, etc) of insect mitochondrial genome. The properties revealed by our work shed new light on the organization and evolution of the insect mitochondrial genome and more importantly open up the way to clearly aimed experimental studies for understanding critical roles of the regulatory mechanisms (transcription and translation) in mitochondrial gene expression.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.323-326
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• 2009

SR proteins are essential splicing regulators and also modulate alternative splicing events, which function both as redundant and substrate-specific manner. The Drosophila B52/SRp55, a member of the SR protein family, is essential for the fly development in vivo, as deletion of B52 gene results in lethality of animals at the second instar larval stage. Identification of the splicing target genes of B52 thus should be crucial for the understanding of the specific developmental role of B52 in vivo. In this study, we performed whole-genome DNA microarray experiments with a B52- knock-out animal. Analysis of the microarray data not only provided the B52-dependent gene expression signature, but also revealed a larval-stage specific, alternative splicing target gene of B52. Our result thus provides a starting point to understand the essential function of B52 at the organismal level.