• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.15.1-15.5
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• 2010

RIKEN BioResource Center (BRC) has collected, preserved, conducted quality control of, and distributed mouse resources since 2002 as the core facility of the National BioResource Project by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. Our mouse resources include over 5,000 strains such as humanized disease models, fluorescent reporters, and knockout mice. We have developed novel mouse strains such as tissue-specific Cre-drivers and optogenetic strains that are in high demand by the research community. We have removed all our specified pathogens from the deposited mice and used our quality control tests to examine their genetic modifications and backgrounds. RIKEN BRC is a founding member of the Federation of International Mouse Resources and the Asian Mouse Mutagenesis and Resource Association, and provides mouse resources to the one-stop International Mouse Strain Resource database. RIKEN BRC also participates in the International Gene Trap Consortium, having registered 713 gene-trap clones and their sequences in a public library, and is an advisory member of the CREATE (Coordination of resources for conditional expression of mutated mouse alleles) consortium which represents major European and international mouse database holders for the integration and dissemination of Cre-driver strains. RIKEN BRC provides training courses in the use of advanced technologies for the quality control and cryopreservation of mouse strains to promote the effective use of mouse resources worldwide.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.61-65
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• 1997

A novel strategy was developed for isolating suppressors from sporulation-deficient mutants. The mutation in the BCY1 gene, which codes for the regulatory subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, when homozygous, results in diploids being meiosis and sporulation deficient. Two plasmids, YCp-MAT.alpha. and YEp-SPOT7-lacZ, were introduced into MAT.alpha. BCY1$\^$+/ or MAT.alpha. bcy1 haploid cells. The transformant of the BCY1$\^$+/ haploid cell produced .betha.-galactosidase under nutrient starvation, but the bcy1 transformant did not. Using this system, the mutagenesis experiment performed on the bcy1 transformant strain resulted in a number of sporulation mutants that produced .betha.-galactosidase under nutrient starvation. One complementation group, sob1, was identified from the isoalted suppressor mutants and characterized as a single recessive mutation by tetrad analysis. Genetic analysis revealed that the sob1 mutation suppressed the sporulation deficiency, the failure to arrest at the G1 phase of the cell cecle, and the sensitivity to heat or nitrogen starvation caused by the bcy1 mutation. However, the sob1 mutation did not suppress the sporulation deficiency of ime1 and of ime2 diploids. These results suggest that the sob1 mutation affects a gene which functions as a downstream regulator in both meiosis and cell cycle regulation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.118-123
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• 2001

The alginate lyase A1-III gene of Sphingomonas species A1 is composed of 1,077 nucleotides, encoding a protein (359 amino acids) with a molecular mass of 40,322 Da. Recombinant A1-III expressed in Escherichia coli exhibited the same full enzymatic activity as native A1-III. In order to identify the critical residue for activity, a site-directed mutation was introduced into the A1-III gene (H192A, His192->Ala). Recombinant A1-III (H192A) exhibited a significant decrease in enzyme activity (one-thirty thousandth of that of A1-III), without any conformational change, as detected by the CD spectra in the far UV region. Also, the chemical modification of wild-type A1-III with methyl 4-nitro benzene sulfonate resulted in a 40% decrease from the initial activity, whereas the same modification of A1-III (H192A) produced no change in the activity. The role of His192 on the catalytic process was also explored based on a model of A1-III docked with mannuronic acid into the active site.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제16권9호
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• pp.1477-1480
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• 2006

The 63-amino-acid-encoding afsR2 is a global antibiotics-stimulating regulatory gene identified from the chromosome of Streptomyces lividans. To dissect a putative functional domain in afsR2, several afsR2-derivative deletion constructs were generated and screened for the loss of actinorhodin-stimulating capability. The afsR2-derivative construct missing a 50-bp C-terminal region significantly lost its actinorhodin-stimulating capability in S. lividans. In addition, site-directed mutagenesis on amino acid positions of #57-#61 in a 50-bp C-terminal region, some of which are conserved among known Sigma 70 family proteins, significantly changed the AfsR2's activity. These results imply that the C-terminal region of AfsR2 is functionally important for antibiotics-stimulating capability and the regulatory mechanism might be somehow related to the sigma-like domain present in the C-terminal of AfsR2.

• 한국미생물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국미생물학회 2000년도 추계학술발표대회
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• pp.24-31
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• 2000

In order to find out SoxR-reducing system in E. coli, we generated Tn10-insertion mutants and screened for constitutive expression of SoxS in a soxS-lacZ fusion strain. One mutation was mapped in rseB, a gene in rseABC (Regulation of SigmaE) operon. The constitutive soxS-expressing phenotype was due to the polar effect on the downstream gene, rseC. RseC is likely to function as a component of SoxR reduction system because SoxR was kept in oxidized form to activate soxS expression in rseC mutant. RseC is an integral membrane protein with an N-terminal cysteine-rich domain in the cytoplasm. The functionally critical cysteines were determined by substitution mutagenesis. The truncated N-terminal domain of RseC reduced the soxS transcription by $50\%$ as judged by in vitro transcription assay. Currently RseC is believed to be a reducing factor for SoxR. However, the mechanism for the reduction needs further investigation.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.113-118
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• 2009

In this study, we have shown the transcriptional regulation of the human GD3 synthase (hST8Sia I) induced by valproic acid (VPA) in human neuroblastoma SK-N-BE(2)-C cells. To elucidate the mechanism underlying the regulation of hST8Sia I gene expression in VPA-stimulated SK-N-BE(2)-C cells, we characterized the promoter region of the hST8Sia I gene. Functional analysis of the 5'-flanking region of the hST8Sia I gene by the transient expression method showed that the -1146 to -646 region, which contains putative binding sites for transcription factors c-Ets-1, CREB, AP-1 and NF-${\kappa}B$, functions as the VPA-inducible promoter of hST8Sia I in SK-N-BE(2)-C cells. Site-directed mutagenesis and electrophoretic mobility shift assay indicated that the NF-${\kappa}B$ binding site at -731 to -722 was crucial for the VPA-induced expression of hST8Sia I in SK-N-BE(2)-C cells. In addition, the transcriptional activity of hST8Sia I induced by VPA in SK-N-BE(2)-C cells was strongly inhibited by SP600125, which is a c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor, and $G{\ddot{O}}6976$, which is a protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor, as determined by RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) and luciferase assays. These results suggest that VPA markedly modulated transcriptional regulation of hST8Sia I gene expression through PKC/JNK signal pathways in SK-N-BE(2)-C cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제18권9호
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• pp.1500-1509
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• 2008

The hybridization patterns with the avrBs3 gene that is known to determine the recognition of host specificity were used to study the diversity of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines causing bacterial leaf pustule in soybean. A total of 155 strains were isolated from diverse tissues of soybean cultivars collected in Korea and were classified into six different type strains of OcsF, SL1017, SL1018, SL1045, SL1157, and SL2098 according to the patterns of avrBs3-homologous bands. When these type strains were inoculated on various cultivars, most of the Korean strains mildly induced disease symptoms on the resistant CNS1 cultivars. Unlike other type strains, strain SL2098, which appeared not to contain any avrBs3 homolog, induced only a few pustules on even highly susceptible cultivars. When a plasmid carrying the 3.7-kb avrBs3-homologous gene from strain SL1045 was introduced into SL2098, the transformant could not recover the pathogenicity in susceptible host plants. However, when avrBs3-homologous genes of strain SL1018 were mutated by transposon mutagenesis, one of the mutants in which a 5.2-kb chromosomal band homologous to avrBs3 was disrupted could not induce the hypersensitive response on resistant cultivars such as William82 or CNS2. Our results suggest that the avrBs3 homologs may play important roles in the pathogenicity of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines and the recognition of soybean cultivars.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.276-287
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• 2017

RcsA is a positive activator of extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) synthesis in the Enterobacteriaceae. The rcsA gene of the soft rot pathogen Pantoea sp. strain PPE7 in Pleurotus eryngii was cloned by PCR amplification, and its role in EPS synthesis and virulence was investigated. The RcsA protein contains 3 highly conserved domains, and the C-terminal end of the open reading frame shared significant amino acid homology to the helix-turn-helix DNA binding motif of bacterial activator proteins. The inactivation of rcsA by insertional mutagenesis created mutants that had decreased production of EPS compared to the wild-type strain and abolished the virulence of Pantoea sp. strain PPE7 in P. eryngii. The Pantoea sp. strain PPE7 rcsA gene was shown to strongly affect the formation of the disease symptoms of a mushroom pathogen and to act as the virulence factor to cause soft rot disease in P. eryngii.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제13권5호
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• pp.2121-2127
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• 2012

Objective: Deoxyribonucleoside kinase of Drosophila melanogaster (Dm-dNK) mutants have been reported to exert suicide gene effects in combined gene/chemotherapy of cancer. Here, we aimed to further evaluate the capacity of the mutanted enzyme and its potential for inhibiting cancer cell growth. Methods: We altered the sequence of the last 10 amino acids of Dm-dNK to perform site-directed mutagenesis and constructed active site mutanted Dm-dNK (Dm-dNKmut), RT-PCR and western bloting studies were used to reveal the expression of lentivirus mediated Dm-dNKmut in a breast cancer cell line (Bcap37), a gastric cancer cell line (SGC7901) and a colorectal cancer cell line (CCL187). [3H]-labeled substrates were used for enzyme activity assays, cell cytotoxicity was assessed by MTT assays, cell proliferation using a hemocytometer and apoptosis induction by thenannexin-V-FITC labeled FACS method. In vivo, an animal study was set out in which BALB/C nude mice bearing tumors were treated with lentivirus mediated expression of Dm-dNKmut with the pyrimidine nucleoside analog brivudine (BVDU, (E)-5-(2-bromovinyl)-(2-deoxyuridine). Results: The Dm-dNKmut could be stably expressed in the cancer cell lines and retained its enzymatic activity. Moreover, the cells expressing Dm-dNKmut exhibited increased sensitivity in combination with BVDU, with induction of apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion: These findings underlined the importance of BVDU phosphorylated by Dm-dNKmut in transduced cancer cells and the potential role of Dm-dNKmut as a suicide gene, thus providing the basis for future intensive research for cancer therapy.

• Mycobiology
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.491-497
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• 2021

An endolichenic fungus Xylaria grammica EL000614 produces grammicin, a potent nematicidal pyrone derivative that can serve as a new control option for root-knot nematodes. We optimized an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) protocol for X. grammica to support genetic studies. Transformants were successfully generated after co-cultivation of homogenized young mycelia of X. grammica with A. tumefaciens strain AGL-1 carrying a binary vector that contains the bacterial hygromycin B phosphotransferase (hph) gene and the eGFP gene in T-DNA. The resulting transformants were mitotically stable, and PCR analysis showed the integratin of both genes in the genome of transformants. Expression of eGFP was confirmed via fluorescence microscopy. Southern analysis showed that 131 (78.9%) out of 166 transformants contained a single T-DNA insertion. Crucial factors for producing predominantly single T-DNA transformants include 48 h of co-cultivation, pretreatment of A. tumefaciens cells with acetosyringone before co-cultivation, and using freshly prepared mycelia. The established ATMT protocol offers an efficient tool for random insertional mutagenesis and gene transfer in studying the biology and ecology of X. grammica.