• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.116-121
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• 2012

Water extract from Pinus densiflora (WPD) was investigated for its antioxidant activity and its ability to provide protection from DNA damage. A series of antioxidant assays, including a 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical-scavenging assay, a reducing power assay, a metal-chelating assay, a superoxide radical scavenging assay, and a nitrite scavenging ability, as well as a DNA damage protection assay were performed. Total phenolic content was found to be 211.32 mg Tan/g WPD. The extract scavenged 50% DPPH free radical at a concentration of 21.35 ${\mu}g/mL$. At that same concentration, the reducing power ability of WPD was higher than that of ${\alpha}$-tocopherol. The extract chelated 68.9% ferrous ion at the concentration of 4 mg/mL. WPD showed better nitrite scavenging effect at the lower pH. Meanwhile, WPD exhibited a strong capability for DNA damage protection at 1 mg/mL concentration. Taken together, these data suggest water extract from Pinus densiflora could be used as a suitable natural antioxidant.

• Weed & Turfgrass Science
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.183-189
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• 2014

The genus Echinochloa (L.) P. Beauv. comprised of approximately 30-40 species in the tropical and warm temperate regions of the world, including numerous interspecific and intraspecific types which make the genus difficult to identify. As an attempt to identify the species within the genus easier, the taxonomy of the genus Echinochloa, Poaceae in Korea was reviewed on the basis of sequencing data derived from nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and external transcribe spacer and chloroplast DNA trnL intron, trnL-F intergenic spacer and matK regions using a total of 46 accessions representing all the species in Korea. The results of maximum parsimony found separate lineage comprised of E. colona and E. frumentaceae which are not Korean species, but no resolution within Korean Echinochloa species, supporting the suggestion of Yamaguchi group that E. crus-galli, E. oryzoides, and E. esculenta should be considered to belong to the same species. However, the relationship between these three species and the other species, i.e. E. oryzicola should be better understood with more detail studies.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.80-85
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• 2005

HExDB is a database for analyzing exon and splicing pattern information in Homo sapiens. HExDB is useful for specific purposes: 1) to design primers for exon amplification from cDNA and 2) to understand the change of ORFs by alternative splicing. HExDB was constructed by integrating data from AltExtron which is the computationally predicted exon database, Ensemble cDNA annotation, and Affymetrix genome tile published recently. Although it may contain false positive data, HExDB is good starting point due to its sensitivity. At present, there areas many as 2,046,519 exons stored in the HExDB. We found that $16.8\%$ of the exons in the database was constitutive exons and $83.1\%$ were novel gene exons.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.10-24
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• 2017

Purpose: GST (glutathione S-transferase) M1 and T1 gene polymorphisms are known to affect antioxidant levels. This study was carried out to evaluate genetic susceptibility by measuring the effect of DNA damage reduction in the Korean diet by vegetable food according to GST gene polymorphisms using the ex vivo method with human lymphocytes. Methods: Vegetable foods in the Korean diet based the results of the KNHANES V-2 (2011) were classified into 10 food groups. A total of 84 foods, which constituted more than 1% of the total intake in each food group, were finally designated as a vegetable food in the Korean diet. The Korean diet applied in this study is the standard one-week meals for Koreans (2,000 Kcal/day) suggested by the 2010 Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans. Ex vivo DNA damage in human lymphocytes was assessed using comet assay. Results: In the Korean food group, the DNA damage protective effect of GSTM1 and GSTT1 was found to be greater in mutant type and wild-type, respectively. and the DNA damage protective effect according to the combined genotype of GSTM1 and GSTT1 was different depending on the food group. On the other hand, in Korean Diet, the DNA damage protective effect appeared to be larger in GSTM1 wild-type than in mutant type and was found to not be affected by GSTT1 genotype. Conclusion: These results can be used as basic data to demonstrate the superiority of the antioxidant function of Korean dietary patterns and food groups. Furthermore, it may be a starting point to begin research on customized antioxidant nutrition according to individual genes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.1164-1170
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• 2019

The present study was carried out to evaluate extracts of Ginko biloba's outer seed coat, their antioxidative effects, and their ability to protect against DNA damage due to hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) treatments in cultured human keratinocyte (HaCaT) cells. The bioassays applied for determining the antioxidant effects of a G. biloba outer seed coat water extract (GOSWE) and a G. biloba outer seed coat methanol extract (GOSME) included the DPPH and $H_2O_2$ radical scavenging assays. Our results revealed that GOSME had higher activity than GOSWE against $H_2O_2$ radical scavenging activity in in vitro and in vivo bioassays. Treatment with GOSME significantly increased the viability of $H_2O_2-treated$ HaCaT cells. GOSME's ability to protect against DNA damage was observed via the analysis of plasmids in vitro and genomic DNA in $H_2O_2-treated$ HaCaT cells. According to our data, GOSME is able to protect HaCaT cells from $H_2O_2-induced$ DNA damage and apoptosis by blocking cellular damage related to oxidative stress. In conclusion, our study indicated GOSME might serve as a novel agent for the treatment and prevention of skin disorders caused by oxidative stress.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.273-282
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• 2007

For an efficient management and utilization of marine biodiversity information, we made an attempt to develop the Korea Marine Biodiversity Information System (KoMBIS), building a species name inventory of Korea marine organisms. The inventory includes 17 organism groups: phytoplankton, zooplankton, algae and halophyte, sponges, cnidarians, rotifers, nematodes, bryozoans, brachiopods, molluscs, echiurans, annelids, arthropods, echinoderms, urochordates and fish. The species names were collected from 37 different references and reviewed for validity by taxonomists, which resulted in 9,798 valid names in addition to 1,845 synonyms. The Korea marine species inventory is the first one of this kind, for previous Korean species name inventories were mostly composed of terrestrial and freshwater organisms. KoMBIS, the information system developed, contains not only the species name but also information on morphological and ecological characteristics such as distribution, DNA barcode, and references. This system is convenient for the inputting of new data and servicing users through the internet, so that management and utilization of the biodiversity information is more efficient. Linking the DNA barcode data with species information provides an objective measure for identification of a species, which accommodates the recommendation of Consortium for the Barcode of Life, and makes the Korea marine biodiversity information compatible with international databases. Considering the frequent exchange of marine organisms internationally via ballast water and such issues as climate change, this information system will be useful in many areas of marine biodiversity.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.263-269
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• 2002

The p53 tumor suppressor gene is among the most frequently mutated and studied genes in human cancer, but the mechanisms by which it sur presses tumor formation remain unclear. DNA damage regulates both the protein levels of p53 and its affinity for specific DNA sequences. Stabilization of p53 in response to DNA damage is caused by its dissociation from Mdm2, a downstream target gene of p53 and a protein that targets p53 for degradation in the proteosome. Recent studies have suggested that phosphorylation of human p53 at Ser20 is important for stabilizing p53 in response to DNA damage through disruption of the interaction between Mdm2 and p53. We generated mice with an allele encoding changes at Ser20, known to be essential for p53 accumulation following DNA damage, to enable analyses of p53 stabilization in vivo. Our data showed that the mutant p53 was clearly defective for full stabilization of p53 in response to DNA damage. We concluded that Ser20 phosphorylation is critical for modulating the negative regulation of p53 by Mdm2, probably through phosphorylation-dependent inhibition of p53-Mdm2 interaction in the physiological context.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1637-1643
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• 2011

Korean native chickens are a very valuable chicken population in Korea and their prices are higher than that of commercial broilers. In order to discriminate two commercial Korean native chicken populations (CCP1 and CCP2), single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from mitochondrial (mt) DNA D-loop sequences and LEI0258 marker polymorphisms in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region were investigated. A total of 718 birds from nine populations were sampled and 432 mtDNA sequences were obtained. Of these, two commercial Korean native chicken populations (363 birds) were used for investigation of their genetic relationship and breed differentiation. The sequence data classified the chickens into 20 clades, with the largest number of birds represented in clade 1. Analysis of the clade distribution indicated the genetic diversity and relation among the populations. Based on the mtDNA sequence analysis, three selected SNPs from mtDNA polymorphisms were used for the breed identification. The combination of identification probability (Pi) between CCP1 and CCP2 using SNPs from mtDNA and LEI0258 marker polymorphisms was 86.9% and 86.1%, respectively, indicating the utility of these markers for breed identification. The results will be applicable in designing breeding and conservation strategies for the Korean native chicken populations and also used for the development of breed identification markers.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.33-41
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• 1999

The influence of nutritional conditions on the histological changes of hepatocyte and intestinal epithelium as well as hepatosmatic index (HSI), protein, RNA and DNA concentrations of liver of Rhynchocypris oxycephalus was tested. Although, the starved group showed higher concentrations of protein, DNA and RNA than the fed group, food deprivation resulted in a decrease in the HSI, hepatocyte nucleus size and nuclear height of the intestinal epithelium. The RNA-DNA ratio appears to be a useful index of nutritional status in R. oxycephalus and may be useful for determining if R. oxycephalus is in a period of rapid or slow growth at the time of sampling. Additionally, the data have been interpreted in detail and some biologically important relationships discussed.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.1_2
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• pp.58-63
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• 1998

Fragment assembly problem is to reconstruct DNA sequence contigs from a collection of fragment sequences. We have developed an efficient X-window program, XFAP, for assembling DNA fragments. In the XFAP, the dimer frequency comparison method is used to quickly eliminate pairs of fragments that can not overlap. This method takes advantage of the difference of dimer frequencies within the minimum acceptable overlap length in each fragment pair. Hirschberg algorithm is applied to compute the maximal-scoring overlapping alignment in linear space. The perfomance of XFAP was tested on a set of DNA fragment sequences extracted from long DNA sequences of GenBank by a fragmentation program and showed a great improvement in execution time, especially as the number of fragments increases.