• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.614-619
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• 2004

This study was undertaken to investigate the different responses of cultured plant cells to paraquat treatment and nucleus-DNA damage in relation to enzyme activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD). Furthermore, this study was also carried out to understand the antioxidative mechanism of plant cells to environmental stress. We selected two different species of plant cultured cells, Ipomoea batatas as high-SOD species and Lonicera japonica as low-SOD species. The total activity and specific activity of SOD in a chlorophyllous cell of I. batatas were 3,736 unit/gㆍfresh weight and 547 unit/mgㆍprotein, respectively, and those in L. japonica were 23 unit/gㆍfresh weight and 13 unit/mgㆍprotein, respectively SOD activity in chlorophyllous I. batatas cells reached its maximum level at 10 to 15 days after subculture, whereas that in L. japonica remained at a very low SOD level during the whole period of subculture. In comparison to L. japonica, I. batatas, a high-SOD species, showed high tolerance to paraquat 10 and 50 mg/l treatment in terms of cell viability and electrolyte leakage. Based on the result of comet assay, the nucleus-DNA damage of two species by paraquat 50 mg/l treatment was not significantly different. However, I. batatas cells repaired their damaged DNA more effectively than the cells of the low-SOD species, L. japonica.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.213-222
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• 2002

The alkaline comet assay has been used with increasing popularity to investigate the level of DNA damage in biomonitoring studies within the last decade in Western countries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the alkaline comet assay as a biomarker of oxidative DNA damage for monitoring in the Korean population, and also to evaluate the effect of nutritional status and lifestyle factors on H2O2 induced oxidative DNA damage measured by the alkaline comet assay in human lymphocytes. The study population consisted of 61 healthy Korean male volunteers, aged 20-28. Epidemiological background data including dietary habits, smoking habits and anthropometrical measurements were collected through personal interviews. After blood collection, the comet assay in peripheral lymphocytes and plasma lipids analysis was carried out and the results analyzed. Tail moment (TM) and tail length (TL) of the comet assay were use\ulcorner to measure DNA damage in the lymphocytes of the subjects. Statistically significant (p < 0.05) positive correlations were observed between DNA damage (TM or TL) and smoking habits expressed as cigarettes smoked per day and pack years (r = 0.311 and 0.382 for TM, r = 0.294 and 0.350 for TL, respectively). There were also significant positive correlations between DNA damage parameter and waist-hip ratio. Higher plasma triglyceride levels were associated with increased damage to DNA. There were no correlations between the consumption frequencies of vegetables and DNA damage to the subjects. However, consumption frequencies of fruit and fruit juice intake were inversely associated with the TM and TL. The results indicate that die comet assay is a simple, rapid and sensitive method for detecting lymphocyte DNA damage induced by cigarette smoking. Consumption of fruit or fruit juices could potentiall modify the damaged DNA in the human peripheral lymphocytes of young Korean men.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.197-204
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• 2019

This study was investigated to test whether the zygote recognized the topoisomerase II beta (TOP2B) mediated DNA fragmentation in epididymal spermatozoa or the nuclease degradation in vas deferens spermatozoa by testing for the presence of gammaH2AX (γH2AX). The γH2AX is phosphorylation of histone protein H2AX on serine 139 occurs at sites flanking DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs). The presence of γH2AX in the pronuclei of mouse zygotes which were injected with DNA broke epididymal spermatozoa was tested by immunohistochemistry at 5 and 9 h post fertilization, respectively. Paternal pronuclei that arose from epididymal spermatozoa treated with divalent cations did not stain for γH2AX at 5 h. On the other hand, in embryos injected with vas deferences spermatozoa that had been treated with divalent cations, γH2AX was only present in paternal pronuclei, and not the maternal pronuclei at 5 h. Interestingly, both pronuclei stained positively for γH2AX for all treatments and controls at 9 h after sperm injection. In conclusion, the embryos recognize DNA that is damaged by nuclease, but not by TOP2B because H2AX in phosphorylated in paternal pronuclei resulting from spermatozoa treated with fragmented DNA from vas deferens spermatozoa treated with divalent cations, but not from epididymal spermatozoa treated the same way.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.339-343
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• 2016

Background: Evaluation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-strand break is important to elucidate the biological effect of ionizing radiations. The conventional methods for DNA-strand break evaluation have been achieved by Agarose gel electrophoresis and others using an electrical property of DNAs. Such kinds of DNA-strand break evaluation systems can estimate DNA-strand break, according to a molecular weight of DNAs. However, the conventional method needs pretreatment of the sample and a relatively long period for analysis. They do not have enough sensitivity to detect the strand break products in the low-dose region. Materials and Methods: The sample is water, methanol and plasmid DNA solution. The plasmid DNA pUC118 was multiplied by using Escherichia coli JM109 competent cells. The resonance frequency and Q-value were measured by means of microwave dielectric absorption spectroscopy. When a sample is located at a center of the electric field, resonance curve of the frequency that existed as a standing wave is disturbed. As a result, the perturbation effect to perform a resonance with different frequency is adopted. Results and Discussion: The resonance frequency shifted to higher frequency with an increase in a concentration of methanol as the model of the biological material, and the Q-value decreased. The absorption peak in microwave power spectrum of the double-strand break plasmid DNA shifted from the non-damaged plasmid DNA. Moreover, the sharpness of absorption peak changed resulting in change in Q-value. We confirmed that a resonance frequency shifted to higher frequency with an increase in concentration of the plasmid DNA. Conclusion: We developed a new technique for an evaluation of DNA damage. In this paper, we report the evaluation method of DNA damage using microwave dielectric absorption spectroscopy.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.50-54
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• 2000

The RAD4 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is essential for the incision step of UV-induced excision repair. A yeast RAD4 gene has been previously isolated by functional complementation. In order to identify the RAD4 homologous gene from fungus Coprinus cinereus, we have constructed cosmid libraries from electrophoretically separated chromosomes of the C. cinereus. The 13 C. cinereus chromosomes were resolved by pulse-field gel electrophoresis, hybridized with S. cerevisiae RAD4 DNA, and then isolated homologous C. cinereus chromosome. Here, we report the cloning and characterization of fungus C. cinereus homolog of yeast RAD4 gene. Southern blot analysis confirmed that C. cinereus contains the sequence homologous DNA to RAD4 gene and this gene exists as a single copy in C. cinereus genome. When total RNA isolated from C. cinereus cells was hybridized with the 3.4 kb BglII DNA fragment of the S. cerevisiae RAD4 gene, a 2.5 kb of transcript was detected. The isolated gene encodes a protein of 810 amino acids.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.57-60
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• 2022

Leaves of Chionanthus retusus were found to be damaged by leaf spot disease associated with a fungus in Iksan, Korea. Leaf spots were angular to irregular, vein-limited, scattered, 1-8 mm diameter, brownish-gray to dark brown when dry, with heavy fructification. The pathogen causes premature defoliation of C. retusus plant and was identified as Pseudocercospora chionanthi-retusi based on morphological and molecular-phylogenetic analyses. The phylogenetic tree was constructed using multi-locus DNA sequence data of partial actin (actA), partial translation elongation factor 1-alfa (tef1), partial DNA-directed RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (rpb2) genes, and internal transcribed spacer regions. Current study provides detail morphological description of P. chionanthi-retusi on C. retusus in Korea, with supports of phylogenetic analysis and pathogenicity test.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.225-230
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• 2004

We employed single cell gel electrophoresis method (comet assay) to analyze the degree of nucleus-DNA damage in the leaves of red pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) seedlings exposed to $^{60}$ CO v-radiation stress. Nucleus-DNA damage was measured as the ratio of tail length (T) to head length (H) in individual comet image isolated from pepper leaf cell. The T/H ratio of control-cells and treated-cells at 50 or 100 Gy were 1.28 and 3.54 or 3.39, respectively, suggesting that nuclei of pepper cells were severely damaged in the integrity of DNA strand by the treatment of enhanced v-radiation. The percentage of head-DNA in control-cells was 76.8%, whereas those of 50 and 100 Gy treated-cells were 55.9% and 59.9%, respectively. Pretreatment of low dose (4 to 20 Gy) radiation to seeds decreased DNA-damage in the leaves of seedlings treated with high dose radiation at 50 or 100 Gy. In this experiment, we developed a sensitive, reliable and rapid method for evaluating genotoxic effect in the nuclei of plant cells by employing comet assay.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.181-190
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• 2001

This study was designed to investigate the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) on DNA stability in human spermatozoa. To verify human spermatozoa were incubated with xanthine-xanthine oxidase (X 100$\mu$M-XO 50 mlU ~ 400 mIU), $H_2O_2$ (125 $\mu$M ~ 1 mM), sodium nitroprusside (SNP 0.1 $\mu$M ~ 100 $\mu$M) or lymphocyte. Otherwise, spermatozoa were incubated under low $O_2$ (5%) condition. Damage of sperm DNA was analyzed by single cell electrophoresis (Comet assay) and flow cytometry after acridine orange staining. In the presence of ROS, there was increase in DNA damage. The rate of DNA single strand breakage (9.0$\pm$1.0% ~ 46.0$\pm$4.6%) and DNA fragmentation (7.51$\pm$1.0% ~ 29.5$\pm$4.6%) were similar regardless of the kinds of ROS and exposure time. DNA damage in the lower $O_2$ condition (5%) was lower than ambient $O_2$ condition (20%). Taken together, it suggested that sperm DNA might be damaged by ROS. In the presence of ROS, increase in DNA damage and chromatin instability was obvious in spite of short exposure. Although present study reconfirmed that sperm incubation in the low concentration of ROS have the benefit m the induction of capacitation and Ah, the increase in DNA damage by ROS and possible genetic problem should be considered before the human trials.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 2005

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are an important class of environmentally prevalent xenobiotics that exert complex effects on the biological system and characterized as probably carcinogenic materials. Single cell gel electrophoresis assays were performed in order to evaluate DNA damage occurring in the T-and B lymphocytes, spleens (T/B-cell), bone marrow, and livers of mouse exposed to mixture of PAHs (Benzo(a)pyrene, Benzo(e)pyrene, Fluoranthene, Pyrene) at dose of 400, 800, or 1600 mg/kg body weight for 2 days. DNA damage of the cells purified from mice was increased in dose dependent manner. In the blood cells and organs, DNA damage was also discovered to vary directly with PAHs. Especially T-cells had been damaged more than B-cell. Plasma proteomes were separated by 2-dimensional electrophoresis with pH 4-7 ranges of IPG Dry strips and many proteins showed significant up-and -down expressions with the dose dependent manner. Of these, significant 4 spots were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of fight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. Identified proteins were related to energy metabolism and signal transduction.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 1997

The RAD4 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is essential for the incision step of UV-induced excision repair. A yeast RAD4 gene has been previously isolated by functional complementation. In order to identify the RAD4 homologous gene from fungus Coprinus cinereus, we have constructed cosmid libraries from electrophoretically separated chromosomes of the C. cinereus. The 13 C. cinereus chromosomes were resolved by pulse-field gel electrophoresis, hybridized with S. cerevisiae RAD4 DNA, and then isolated homologous C. cinereus chromosome. The insert DNA of the RAD4 homolog was contained 3.2 kb. Here, we report the partial cloning and characterization of fungus C. cinereus homolog of yeast RAD4 gene. Southern blot analysis confirmed that C. cinereus contains the sequence homologous DNA to RAD4 gene and this gene exists as a single copy in C. cinereus genome. When total RNA isolated from C. cinereus cells was hybridized with the 1.2 kb PvuII DNA fragment of the S. cerevisiae RAD4 gene, a 2.5 kb of transcript was detected. The level of the transcript did not increase upon UV-irradiation, suggesting that the RAD4 homologous gene in C. cinereus is not UV-inducible.