• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.246-246
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• 2017

Salinity inhibits plant growth and restricts the efficiency of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The selective uptake of nutrients from the soil and their effective transport to host roots make it essential for plant growth and development under salt stress. AMF spore associated bacteria shown to improve mycorrhizal efficiency under stress. Thus, this study aimed to understand the co-inoculation efficiency of AMF and SAB on maize growth and ion homeostasis under salt stress. Two AMF strains and one SAB were inoculated with maize either alone or in combination with one another. The results of our study showed that AMF and SAB co-inoculation significantly improved dry weight and nutrient uptake of maize under salt stress. Co-inoculation significantly reduced proline accumulation in shoots and Na+ accumulation in roots. Co-inoculation treatment also exhibited the high K+/Na+ ratios in roots at 25 mM NaCl. Mycorrhizal colonization showed positive influence for regulation of ZmAKT2, ZmSOS1 and ZmSKOR gene expressions, contributing to K+ and Na+ ion homeostasis. CLSM view showed that SAB were able move and localize into inter and intra cellular spaces of maize roots. In addition, CLSM view of AMF spores showed that gfp-tagged SAB also associated on the spore outer hyaline layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.90-90
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• 2017

Regulation of seed dormancy is important in many grains to prevent pre-harvest sprouting. To identify and understand the gene related to seed dormancy regulation, we have screened for viviparous phenotypes of rice mutant lines generated by insertion of Ds transposon in a Korean Japonica cultivar (Dongjin) background. One of the mutants, which represented viviparous phenotype, was selected for further seed dormancy regulation studies and designated dor1. The dor1 mutant has single Ds insertion in the second exon of OsDor1 gene encoding glycine-rich protein. The seeds of dor1 mutant showed a higher germination potential and reduced abscisic acid (ABA) sensitivity compared to wild type Dongjin. Over-expression of Dor1 complements the viviparous phenotype of dor1 mutant, indicating that Dor1 function in seed dormancy regulation. Subcellular localization assay of Dor1-GFP fusion protein revealed that the OsDor1 protein mainly localized to membrane and the localization of OsDOR1 was influenced by presence of a giberelin (GA) receptor OsGID1. Further bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) analysis indicated that OsDOR1 interact with OsGID1. The combined results suggested that OsDOR1 regulates seed dormancy by interacting with OsGID1 in GA response. Additionally, expression of OsDOR1 partially complemented the cold sensitivity of Escherichia coli BX04 mutant lacking four cold shock proteins, indicating that OsDOR1 possessed RNA chaperone activity.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.243-249
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• 2012

Hexokinase is the first enzyme in the hexose assimilation pathway; it acts as a sensor for plant sugar responses, and it is also important in determining the fruit sugar levels. The full-length cDNA of a hexokinase gene was isolated from loquat through reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and rapid amplification of cDNA ends, which was designated as EjHXK1. EjHXK1 is 1,839 bp long and contains an entire open reading frame encoding 497 amino acids. The predicted protein of EjHXK1 shares 72%-81% similarity with other plant hexokinases. Phylogeny analysis indicated that EjHXK1 is closely related to maize and rice hexokinases. Transient expression of the 35S: EjHXK1-GFP fusion protein was observed on the cell membrane and cytoplasm. Real-time RT-PCR indicated that EjHXK1 is expressed in loquat leaves, stems, flowers, and fruits. EjHXK1 transcripts were higher during early fruit development, but decreases before maturation, which is consistent with hexokinase enzyme activity during fruit development and conducive for hexose accumulation in mature fruits. These results imply that EjHXK1 may play important roles in the regulation of sugar flux during fruit ripening.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.179-185
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• 2016

Ginger (Zingiber officnale Roscoe, Zingiberaceae), which is a well-known food seasoning, has been used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorder, vomiting and cough in Korea, China and Japan. Ethanol extract from the dried ginger (DG) was successively partitioned as methylene chloride, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and $H_2O$ soluble fractions. Among those fractions the ethyl acetate soluble fraction (EDG) showed the most potent DPPH radical scavenging and superoxide quenching activities. To know the effect of antioxidant activities of EDG, we tested the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase together with oxidative stress tolerance and intracellular ROS level in Caenorhabditis elegans. To investigate whether EDG-mediated increased stress tolerance was due to regulation of stress-response gene, we quantified SOD-3 expression using transgenic strain including CF1553. Consequently, EDG elevated SOD and catalase activities of C. elegans, reduced intracellular ROS accumulation in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, EDG-treated CF1553 worms exhibited significantly higher SOD-3::GFP intensity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.272-278
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• 2010

In this study, we cloned, sequenced and characterized porcine y+L Amino Acid Transporter-1 (y+LAT1). By screening a translated EST database with the protein sequence of the human $y^{+}$LAT1 and by using rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE), the full-length cDNA encoding porcine $y^{+}$LAT1 was isolated from porcine intestine RNA. It was 2,111 bp long, encoding a 511 amino acid trans-membrane glycoprotein composed of 12 transmembrane domains. The predicted amino acid sequence was found to be 91%, 90%, 87% and 87% identical to those of cattle, human, mouse and rat $y^{+}$LAT1 respectively. Real-time RT-PCR results indicated that the small intestine had the highest $y^{+}$LAT1 mRNA abundance and the lung had the lowest $y^{+}$LAT1 mRNA abundance. Baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells transfected with green fluorescent protein (GFP) tagged porcine $y^{+}$LAT1 cDNA indicated that the cellular localization of the gene product in BHK was on the plasma membrane.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2015

Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is a major pathogen in laboratory mice that usually leads to fatal diseases, such as hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, encephalitis, and respiratory disease. MHV has a high infection rate, and it needs to be detected as soon as possible to prevent its spread to other facilities. However, MHV detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) often gives false positives; thus, it is very important that the results are confirmed as true positives in the early infection stage or distinguished as false positives with more accurate, reliable methods. Under microbiological screening, MHV ELISA-positive mice were found in four GFP-tagging transgenic mice. To verify the detection of the MHV antigen directly, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed, and the mice were determined to be MHV negative. Additional serum antibody-based screening was conducted with three different ELISA kits, and multiplexed fluorometric immunoassay (MFIA) was performed to confirm their accuracy/sensitivity. In brief, the ELISA kit for A59 nucleocapsid protein (MHV-A59N) revealed MHV ELISA positivity, while other ELISA kits (MHV-S lysate and MHV-JHM lysate) demonstrated MHV negativity. In MFIA, only the test for the recombinant A59 nucleocapsid antigen was MHV positive, which was consistent with the ELISA results. These results suggest that the ELISA kit with the recombinant A59 nucleocapsid antigen might induce non-specific MHV ELISA positivity and that confirmation is therefore essential.

• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.352-357
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• 2011

The effect of human MutY homolog (hMYH) on the activation of checkpoint proteins in response to hydroxyurea (HU) and ultraviolet (UV) treatment was investigated in hMYH-disrupted HEK293 cells. hMYH-disrupted cells decreased the phosphorylation of Chk1 upon HU or UV treatment and increased the phosphorylation of Cdk2 and the amount of Cdc25A, but not Cdc25C. In siMYH-transfected cells, the increased rate of phosphorylated Chk1 upon HU or UV treatment was lower than that in siGFP-transfected cells, meaning that hMYH was involved in the activation mechanism of Chk1 upon DNA damage. The phosphorylation of ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR) upon HU or UV treatment was decreased in hMYH-disrupted HEK293 and HaCaT cells. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments showed that hMYH was immunoprecipitated by anti-ATR. These results suggest that hMYH may interact with ATR and function as a mediator of Chk1 phosphorylation in response to DNA damage.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1343-1348
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• 2015

Human UHRF1 (ubiquitin-like PHD and RING finger domain-containing 1) has been reported to be over-expressed in many cancers, but its role in ovarian cancer remains elusive. Here, we determined whether knockdown of UHRF1 by lentivirus-mediated shRNA could inhibit ovarian cancer cell growth. Lentivirus-mediated short hairpin RNAs (lv-shRNAs-UHRF1) were designed to trigger the gene silencing RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. The efficiency of lentivirus-mediated shRNA infection into HO-8910 and HO-8910 PM cells was determined using fluorescence microscopy to observe lentivirus-mediated GFP expression and was confirmed to be over 80 percent. UHRF1 expression in infected HO-8910 and HO-8910 PM was evaluated by real-time PCR and Western blot analysis. The Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay was used to measure cell viability; flow cytometry and Hoechst 33342 assay was applied to measure cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Cell invasion was assessed using transwell chambers. Our results demonstrated that the loss of UHRF1 promoted HO-8910 and HO-8910 PM cell apoptosis, while inhibiting cell proliferation. In addition, UHRF1 knockdown significantly inhibited the invasion of human ovarian cancer cells. In the present study, we also showed that depleting HO-8910 cells of UHRF1 caused activation of the DNA damage response pathway, with the cell cycle arrested in G2/M-phase. The DNA damage response in cells depleted of UHRF1 was illustrated by phosphorylation of CHK (checkpoint kinase) 2 on Thr68, phosphorylation of CDC25 (cell division control 25) on Ser 216 and phosphorylation of CDK1 (cyclin-dependent kinase 1) on Tyr 15.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2005

A Jopock (Jpk), a trans-acting factor associating with the position-specific regulatory element of murine Hoxa-7, has shown to have a toxicity to both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells when overexpressed. Since Jpk protein harbors a transmembrane domain and a putative endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-retention signal at the N-terminus, a subcellular localization of the protein was analyzed after fusing it into the green fluorescent protein (GFP): Both N-term (Jpk-EGFP) and C-term tagged-Jpk (EGFP-Jpk) showed to be localized in the ER when analyzed under the fluorescence microscopy after staining the cells with ER- and MitoTracker. Since ER stress triggers the ER-stress mediated apoptosis to eliminate the damaged cells, we analyzed the expression pattern of Jpk under ER-stress condition. When MCF7 cells were treated with the ER-stress inducer such as DTT and EGTA, the expression of Jpk was upregulated at the transcriptional level like that of Grp78, a molecular chaperone well known to be overexpressed under ER-stress condition. In the presence of high concentration of ER-sterss inducer (10 mM), about 70 (DTT) to $95\%$ (EGTA) of cells died stronly expressing ($10\~12$ fold) Jpk. Whereas at the low concentration ($0.001\~1.0\;mM$) of the inducer, the expression of Jpk was increased about 2.5 (EGTA) to 5 fold (DTT), which is rather similar to those of ER chaperone protein Grp78. These results altogether indicate that the ER-stress upregulated the expression of Jpk and the excess stress induces the ER-stress induced apoptosis and the concomitant expression of Jpk.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.377-380
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• 2014

RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated transcriptional knock-down of Crassostrea gigas big defensin 1 and 2 genes (Cg-BigDef1 and Cg-BigDef2) was investigated. The cDNA sequences of Cg-BigDef1 and Cg-BigDef2 were identical, excluding an additional fragment of 20 nucleotides in Cg-BigDef1; thus, a long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) targeting the mRNA of Cg-BigDef2 effectively downregulated both Cg-BigDef2 and Cg-BigDef1. In addition, long dsRNA targeting green fluorescent protein (GFP) did not affect transcription of the two big defensin genes. These results suggest that the transcriptional downregulation of Cg-BigDef1 and Cg-BigDef2 was mediated by sequence-specific RNA interference (RNAi). Despite injection of long dsRNA targeting Cg-BigDef2 into only the adductor muscle, knock-down of Cg-BigDef1 and Cg-BigDef2 was observed in the adductor muscle, hemocytes, mantle, and gills, suggestive of systemic spread of RNAi in C. gigas. Furthermore, the inhibitory effect of dsRNA persisted until 72 h post-injection, indicative of a long-lasting RNAi-mediated knock-down of target genes.