• KSBB Journal
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• 제30권1호
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• pp.11-20
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• 2015

Radiation causes various pathophysiological alterations in living animals, and it causes death at high doses by multiple mechanisms, including direct DNA damage and indirect oxidative stress. The search for useful radioprotectors has been an important issue in the field of radiation biology. Ideal radioprotectors should have low toxicity and an extended window of protection. As many synthetic compounds have toxic side effects, the natural products have attracted scientific attention as radioprotectors. Natural products that have been recently shown to be effective with various biological activities were found to have radioprotective effect. The aim of this review is to summary the recent research of the radioprotective effects of natural foods, especially focused on the glycobiological properties of mushrooms.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.325-335
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• 2008

The protective effects of the Naringin, on carbon tetrachloride ($CCl_4$)-induced hepatotoxicity and the possible mechanisms involved in this protection were investigated in mice. Pretreatment with Naringin prior to the administration of $CCl_4$ significantly prevented an increase in serum alanine, aspartate aminotransferase activity and hepatic lipid peroxidation in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, pretreatment with Naringin also significantly prevented the depletion of glutathione (GSH) content in the livers of $CCl_4$-induced mice. However, reduced hepatic glutathione levels was unaffected by treatment with Naringin alone. In addition, Naringin prevented $CCl_4$-induced apoptosis and necrosis, as indicated by a liver DNA laddering. To determine whether caspase-8,-3 pathway involved in $CCl_4$-induced acute liver injury, caspase-8, -3 activities were tested by ELISA. Naringin attenuated $CCl_4$induced caspase-8, -3 activities in mouse livers. $CCl_4$-induced hepatotoxicity was also prevented, as indicated by a liver histopathologic study. The effects of Naringin on the cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2E1, the major isozyme involved in $CCl_4$ were also investigated. Treatment of mice with Naringin resulted in a significant decrease of the CYP2E1-dependent hydroxyl at ion and aniline in a dose-dependent manner. These findings suggest that protective effects of Naringin against the $CCl_4$-induced hepatotoxicity may be due to its ability to block CYP2E1-mediated $CCl_4$ bioactivation and that is also protects against caspase-8, -3 pathway mediated apoptosis.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.25-30
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• 2018

The larvae of Hermetia. illucens have a high probability of coming into contact with microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. Therefore, the survival of H. illucens is primarily the protection of their own against microbial infection. This effect depends on the development of the innate immune system. Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) exhibit antimicrobial activity against other bacterial strains and can provide important data to understand the basis of the innate immunity of H. illucens. In this study, we injected larvae with Enterococcus. faecalis (gram-positive bacteria) and Serratia. marcescens as (gram-negative bacteria) to test the hypothesis that H. illucens is protected from infection by its immune-related gene expression repertoire. To identify the inducible immune-related genes, we performed and cataloged the transcriptomes by RNA-Seq analysis. We compared the transcriptomes of whole larvae and obtained a DNA fragment of 465 bp including the poly (A) tail by RACE as a novel H. illucens immune-related gene against bacteria. A novel target mRNA expression was higher in immunized larvae with E. faecalis and S. marcescens groups than non-immunized group. We expect our study to provide evidence that the global RNA-Seq approach allowed for the identification of a gene of interest which was further analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR, together with genes chosen from the available literature.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.75-85
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• 2008

Prune dwarf virus (PDV) is an Ilarvirus systemically infecting almond trees and other Prunus species and spreading through pollen, among other means. We have studied strategies based on coat protein (cp) gene to block PDV replication in host plant cells. A Portuguese isolate of PDV was obtained from infected almond leaves and used to produce the cDNA of the cp gene. Various constructs were prepared based on this sequence, aiming for the transgenic expression of the original or modified PDV coat protein (cpPDVSense and cpPDVMutated) or for the expression of cpPDV RNA (cpPDVAntisense and cpPDVwithout start codon). All constructs were tested in a PDV host model, Nicotiana benthamiana, and extensive molecular characterization and controlled infections were performed on transformants and their progenies. Transgenic plants expressing the coat protein RNA were able to block the proliferation of a PDV isolate sharing only 91% homology with the isolate used for cpPDV cloning, as evaluated by DAS-ELISA on newly developed leaves. With cp expression, the blockage of PDV proliferation in newly developed leaves was only achieved with the construct cpPDV Mutated, where the coat protein has a substitution in the 14th aa residue, with arginine replaced by alanine. This result points to a possible role of the mutated amino acid in the virus ability to replicate and proliferate. This work reveals the possibility of achieving protection against PDV through either coat protein RNA or mutated cp sequence.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제27권6호
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• pp.530-539
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• 2019

Brain aging is an inevitable process characterized by structural and functional changes and is a major risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases. Most brain aging studies are focused on neurons and less on astrocytes which are the most abundant cells in the brain known to be in charge of various functions including the maintenance of brain physical formation, ion homeostasis, and secretion of various extracellular matrix proteins. Altered mitochondrial dynamics, defective mitophagy or mitochondrial damages are causative factors of mitochondrial dysfunction, which is linked to age-related disorders. Etoposide is an anti-cancer reagent which can induce DNA stress and cellular senescence of cancer cell lines. In this study, we investigated whether etoposide induces senescence and functional alterations in cultured rat astrocytes. Senescence-associated ${\beta}$-galactosidase (SA-${\beta}$-gal) activity was used as a cellular senescence marker. The results indicated that etoposide-treated astrocytes showed cellular senescence phenotypes including increased SA-${\beta}$-gal-positive cells number, increased nuclear size and increased senescence-associated secretory phenotypes (SASP) such as IL-6. We also observed a decreased expression of cell cycle markers, including PhosphoHistone H3/Histone H3 and CDK2, and dysregulation of cellular functions based on wound-healing, neuronal protection, and phagocytosis assays. Finally, mitochondrial dysfunction was noted through the determination of mitochondrial membrane potential using tetramethylrhodamine methyl ester (TMRM) and the measurement of mitochondrial oxygen consumption rate (OCR). These data suggest that etoposide can induce cellular senescence and mitochondrial dysfunction in astrocytes which may have implications in brain aging and neurodegenerative conditions.

• BMB Reports
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• 제54권9호
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• pp.458-463
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• 2021

Cytokines activate inflammatory signals and are major mediators in progressive β-cell damage, which leads to type 1 diabetes mellitus. We recently showed that the cell-permeable Tat-CIAPIN1 fusion protein inhibits neuronal cell death induced by oxidative stress. However, how the Tat-CIAPIN1 protein affects cytokine-induced β-cell damage has not been investigated yet. Thus, we assessed whether the Tat-CIAPIN1 protein can protect RINm5F β-cells against cytokine-induced cytotoxicity. In cytokine-exposed RINm5F β-cells, the transduced Tat-CIAPIN1 protein elevated cell survivals and reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and DNA fragmentation levels. The Tat-CIAPIN1 protein reduced mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and NF-κB activation levels and elevated Bcl-2 protein, whereas Bax and cleaved Caspase-3 proteins were decreased by this fusion protein. Thus, the protection of RINm5F β-cells by the Tat-CIAPIN1 protein against cytokine-induced cytotoxicity can suggest that the Tat-CIAPIN1 protein might be used as a therapeutic inhibitor against RINm5F β-cell damage.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제35권3호
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• pp.257-273
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• 2019

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most widely grown and economically important vegetable crops in the world. Tomato chlorosis virus (ToCV) is one of the recently emerged viruses of tomato distributed worldwide. ToCV-tomato interaction was investigated at the molecular level for determining changes in the expression of tomato genes in response to ToCV infection in this study. A cDNA library enriched with genes induced in response to ToCV infection were constructed and 240 cDNAs were sequenced from this library. The macroarray analysis of 108 cDNAs revealed that the expression of 92 non-redundant tomato genes was induced by 1.5-fold or greater in response to ToCV infection. The majority of ToCV-induced genes identified in this study were associated with a variety of cellular functions including transcription, defense and defense signaling, metabolism, energy, transport facilitation, protein synthesis and fate and cellular biogenesis. Twenty ToCV-induced genes from different functional groups were selected and induction of 19 of these genes in response to ToCV infection was validated by RT-qPCR assay. Finally, the expression of 6 selected genes was analyzed in different stages of ToCV infection from 0 to 45 dpi. While the expression of three of these genes was only induced by ToCV infection, others were induced both by ToCV infection and wounding. The result showed that ToCV induced the basic defense response and activated the defense signaling in tomato plants at different stages of the infection. Functions of these defense related genes and their potential roles in disease development and resistance to ToCV are also discussed.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제35권2호
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• pp.172-177
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• 2019

A duplex PCR method was developed for simultaneous detection and identification of tobacco root rot pathogens Phytophthora nicotianae and Thielaviopsis basicola. The specific primers for P. nicotianae were developed based on its internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of ribosomal gene, ras gene and hgd gene, while the specific primers for T. basicola were designed based on its ITS regions and ${\beta}$-tubulin gene. The specificity of the primers was determined using isolates of P. nicotianae, T. basicola and control samples. The results showed that the target pathogens could be detected from diseased tobacco plants by a combination of the specific primers. The sensitivity limitation was $100fg/{\mu}l$ of pure genomic DNA of the pathogens. This new assay can be applied to screen out target pathogens rapidly and reliably in one PCR and will be an important tool for the identification and precise early prediction of these two destructive diseases of tobacco.

• Mycobiology
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• 제48권6호
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• pp.450-463
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• 2020

The strains 17E-042, 17E-039, and NC13-171 belong to Ascomycota and were isolated from soil collected from Sancheong-gun and Yeongam-gun, Korea. The strain 17E-042 produced white mycelial colonies that developed a sienna color with a round margin on potato dextrose agar (PDA), and the reverse side developed a light sienna color. Morphologically, this strain was similar to the strains of Arthrinium phragmites and A. hydei, but the shorter conidial size of the newly identified strain (17E-042) was distinct. The strain 17E-039 produced macroconidia that were pale yellow to orange-brown, elongated-ellipsoid to oblong, round at both ends, primarily straight but sometimes slightly curved, 0-septate, thin-walled, and filled with numerous droplets, having diameters of 20.4-34.3 × 8.0-12.0 ㎛. And the strain NC13-171 formed hyaline to light brown chlamydospores, solitary or in a chain. Multigene phylogenetic analyses were conducted using sequence data obtained from internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions, 28S rDNA large subunit (LSU), β-tubulin (TUB2), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF1-α), and RNA polymerase II large subunit (RPB2) genes. The results of molecular phylogeny, the detailed descriptions and illustrations of each species strongly support our proposal that these strains from soil in Korea be designated as Arthrinium minutisporum sp. nov. and two new records of Pezicula neosporulosa and Acrocalymma pterocarpi.

• 한국양봉학회지
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.89-97
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• 2017

한국형 낭충봉아부패병 바이러스는 2009년 국내에 발생하여, 현재 국내 토봉의 99% 이상을 소멸시킨 주요 원인으로 추정되고 있다. 본 연구는 보고된 낭충봉아부패병 바이러스(SBV) 32종의 전체 염기서열을 비교 분석하여, 2,100 염기 부근에 특징적인 결실들(deletions)을 발견하였으며, 이에 기반으로 SBV의 유전자형을 제안하게 되었다. 제안된 유전자형에 의한 분류에서, 각 SBV의 지역성 및 범지역성, 감염특성 등에 유관함을 볼 수 있었다. 아울러, 제안된 이 유전자형은, 검역과 이후의 침임에 대한 방호를 위하여, kSBV의 기원도 바로 암시하고 있음을 우리는 잘 인식하고 있다.