• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.107-114
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• 2013

Homeobox genes play essential roles in embryonic development and reproduction. Recently, a large cluster of homeobox genes, reproductive homeobox genes on the X chromosome (Rhox) genes, was discovered as three gene clusters, ${\alpha}$, ${\beta}$, and ${\gamma}$ in mice. It was found that Rhox genes were selectively expressed in reproduction-associated tissues, such as those of the testes, epididymis, ovaries, and placenta. Hence, it was proposed that Rhox genes are important for regulating various reproductive features, especially gametogenesis in male as well as in female mammals. It was first determined that 12 Rhox genes are clustered into ${\alpha}$ (Rhox1-4), ${\beta}$ (Rhox5-9), and ${\gamma}$ (Rhox10-12) subclusters, and recently Rhox13 has also been found. At present, 33 Rhox genes have been identified in the mouse genome, 11 in the rat, and three in the human. Rhox genes are also responsible for embryonic development, with considerable amounts of Rhox expression in trophoblasts, placenta tissue, embryonic stem cells, and primordial germ cells. In this article we summarized the current understanding of Rhox family genes involved in reproduction and embryonic development and elucidated a previously unreported cell-specific expression in ovarian cells.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.7 no.2_3
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• pp.109-113
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• 2013

In a previous study, a relatively high dose of gamma radiation (1 kGy) did not fully induce typical SOS genes such as sulA, recA, recN, and din in Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) (Lim et al. 2008, Gene expression profiles following high-dose exposure to gamma radiation in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimuium. J. Radiat. Ind. 3:111-119). In this study, we examined changes in the transcriptional repertoire of S. Typhimurium after a dose of 10 Gy using DNA microarrays. It was found that more than half (~65%) of the 26 up-regulated genes belong to the SOS regulon: ten genes are typical SOS genes, and seven genes are Salmonella prophage genes, which are known to be activated by LexA cleavage. Among 29 down-regulated genes, the function of five genes with the most decreased expression is associated with carbohydrate transport and energy production. This suggests that upon exposure to gamma radiation cells may cease growing by reducing the metabolic activity, and repair DNA damage using a DNA repair system such as the SOS response system. The difference in expression of the SOS genes between a high (1 kGy) and low (10 Gy) dose of radiation shows the possibility that cells may opt for one of multiple regulatory circuits in response to the specific gamma radiation dose.

• Mycobiology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.361-369
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• 2018

The rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, is an important pathogen of rice plants. It is well known that genes encoded in the genome have different evolutionary histories that are related to their functions. Phylostratigraphy is a method that correlates the evolutionary origin of genes with evolutionary transitions. Here we applied phylostratigraphy to partition total gene content of M. oryzae into distinct classes (phylostrata), which we designated PS1 to PS7, based on estimation of their emergence time. Genes in individual phylostrata did not show significant biases in their global distribution among seven chromosomes, but at the local level, clustering of genes belonging to the same phylostratum was observed. Our phylostrata-wide analysis of genes revealed that genes in the same phylostratum tend to be similar in many physical and functional characteristics such as gene length and structure, GC contents, codon adaptation index, and level of transcription, which correlates with biological functions in evolutionary context. We also found that a significant proportion of genes in the genome are orphans, for which no orthologs can be detected in the database. Among them, we narrowed down to seven orphan genes having transcriptional and translational evidences, and showed that one of them is implicated in asexual reproduction and virulence, suggesting ongoing evolution in this fungus through lineage-specific genes. Our results provide genomic basis for linking functions of pathogenicity factors and gene emergence time.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.373-375
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• 2002

Lhcb genes encoding light-harvesting chlorophyll-a/b binding (LHC) proteins of photosystem (PS) II were comprehensively characterized using the expressed sequence tag (EST) databases in the green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The gene family was composed of eight Lhcb genes including four new genes, which were isolated and sequenced. The effects of light intensity on the levels of mRNAs accumulation of multiple Lhcb genes were studied under various conditions. The results indicate that Lhcb genes are coordinately regulated in response to light conditions, and repressed when the input light energy exceeded the requirement for $CO_2$ assimilation. The effects of high light on the expression of the Lhcb genes observed in the presence of an electron transport inhibitor, DCMU, and in mutants deficient in photosynthetic reaction centers suggest the presence of two alternative mechanisms for regulating the genes expression under high-light conditions.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.337-343
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• 2003

Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is a signal molecule in the activation of defense responses in plants. In this study, we isolated 15 MeJA-inducible genes by subtractive hybridization. These genes encode two myrosinase-binding proteins, five lipase-like proteins, a polygalacturonase inhibitor, a putative chlorophyll-associated protein, a terpene synthase, a dehydroascorbate reductase, an ascorbate oxidase, a cysteine protease, an O-methyltransferase, and an epithiospecifier protein. Northern analysis showed that most of the Chinese cabbage genes are barely expressed in healthy leaves, but are strongly induced by MeJA treatment. We also examined whether these MeJA-inducible genes were activated by ethethon, BTH, and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst), a nonhost pathogen of Chinese cabbage. The results showed that none of the MeJA-inducible genes was strongly induced by ethephon or by BTH. The genes encoding lipase-like proteins and a myrosinase-binding protein were weakly induced by Pst. Other MeJA-inducible genes were not activated at all by the pathogen.

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.356-360
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• 2009

In the present study we have examined human-mouse homologous intronless disease and non-disease genes alongside their extent of sequence conservation, tissue expression, domain and gene ontology composition to get an idea regarding evolutionary and functional attributes. We show that selection has significantly discriminated between the two groups and the disease associated genes in particular exhibit lower $K_{a}$ and $K_{a}/K_{s}$ while $K_{s}$ although smaller is not significantly different. Our analyses suggest that majority of disease related intronless human genes have homology limited to eukaryotic genomes and their expression is localized. Also we observed that different classes of intronless disease related genes have experienced diverse selective pressures and are enriched for higher level functionality that is essentially needed for developmental processes in complex organisms. It is expected that these insights will enhance our understanding of the nature of these genes and also improve our ability to identify disease related intronless genes.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.209-214
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• 2003

Expression of 43 flowering-related genes was examined in two inbred lines of Chinese cabbage, Chiifu and Kenshin, under different photoperiod, vernalization and flower development stages. The floral genes cloned by RT-PCR with degenerated primers showed high homology with Arabidopsis counterparts. Genes in two inbred lines, TOC, CRY1, CO, RGAL and GAl, were highly expressed under all tested conditions. However, expression of three genes was regulated by particular experimental conditions. The expression of LHY gene was predominant in Chiifu under the short-day conditions, whereas the expression of RGAL gene was influenced by vernalization in both inbred lines. Besides, the expression of NAP gene was induced by vernalization only in Chiifu. Most of the flower identity-related genes were expressed during flower development. The transcript level for several genes was not detected in this experiment.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.371-378
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• 2010

For sensitive and accurate gene expression analysis, normalization of gene expression data against housekeeping genes is required. There are conventional housekeeping gene (e.g. ACT) that primarily function as an internal control of transcription. In this study, we performed an in silico analysis of 278 rice gene expression samples (GSM) in order to identify the gene that is most consistently expressed. Based on this analysis, we identified novel candidate housekeeping genes that displayed improved stability among the cross experimental conditions. Furthermore four of the most conventional housekeeping genes were included in our 30 other housekeeping genes among the most stable genes. Therefore, these 30 genes can he used to normalize transcription results in gene expression studies on rice at a broad range of experimental conditions.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.693-699
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• 2010

Imprinted genes are essential for fetal development, growth regulation, and postnatal behavior. However, little is known about imprinted genes in livestock. We hypothesized that certain putatively imprinted genes affected normal peri-implantation development such as embryo elongation, initial placental development, and preparation of implantation. The objective of the present study was to investigate the mRNA expression patterns of several putatively imprinted genes during the porcine peri-implantation stages from day 6 to day 21 of gestation. Imprinted genes were selected both maternally (Dlk1, IGF2, Ndn, and Sgce) and paternally (IGF2r, H19, Gnas and Xist). Here, we report that the maternally imprinted gene IGF2 was expressed from day 6 (Blastocyst stage), but Dlk1, Ndn, and Sgce were not expressed in this stage. These genes were first expressed between days 12 and day 14. All the maternally imprinted genes studied showed significantly high expression patterns from day 18 of embryo development. In contrast, paternally imprinted genes IGF2r, H19, Gnas, and Xist were first expressed from day 6 of embryo development (BL). Our data demonstrated that the expression of H19 and Gnas genes was significantly increased from day 14 of the embryo developmental stage, while IGF2r and Xist only showed high expression after day 21. This study is the first to show that the putatively imprinted genes were stage-specific during porcine embryonic development. These results demonstrate that the genes studied may exert important effects on embryo implantation and fetal development.

• Genes and Genomics
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.1287-1300
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• 2018

Hydrogen sulfide ($H_2S$), a small bioactive gas, has been proved functioning in plant growth and development as well as alleviation of abiotic stresses, which including promoting seed germination, accelerating embryonic root growth, regulating flower senescence, inducing stomatal closure, and defending drought, heat, heavy metals and osmotic stresses etc. However, the molecular functioning mechanism of $H_2S$ was still unclear. The primary objective of this research was to analyze the transcriptional differences and functional genes involved in the $H_2S$ responses. In details, 4-week-old plantlets in tissue culture of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) cultivar 'Zuoyouhong' were sprayed with 0.1 mM NaHS for 12 h, and then transcriptome sequencing and qRT-PCR analysis were used to study the transcriptional differences and functional genes involved in the $H_2S$ responses. Our results indicated that 650 genes were differentially expressed after $H_2S$ treatment, in which 224 genes were up-regulated and 426 genes were down-regulated. The GO enrichment analysis and KEGG enrichment analysis results indicated that the up-regulated genes after $H_2S$ treatment focused on carbon metabolism, biosynthesis of amino acids, and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, and the down-regulated genes were mainly in metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and plant hormone signal transduction. Analyzing the transcription factor coding genes in details, it was indicated that 10 AP2/EREBPs, 5 NACs, 3 WRKYs, 3 MYBs, and 2 bHLHs etc. transcription factor coding genes were up-regulated, while 4 MYBs, 3 OFPs, 3 bHLHs, 2 AP2/EREBPs, 2 HBs etc. transcription factor coding genes were down-regulated. Taken together, $H_2S$ increased the productions in secondary metabolites and a variety of defensive compounds to improve plant development and abiotic resistance, and extend fruits postharvest shelf life by regulating the expression of AP2/EREBPs, WRKYs, MYBs, CABs, GRIP22, FERRITINs, TPSs, UGTs, and GHs etc.