• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제22권12호
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• pp.1644-1652
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• 2012

Iron plays a key role in host-pathogen interactions. Microbial pathogens require iron for survival and virulence, whereas mammalian hosts sequester and withhold iron as a means of nutritional immunity. We previously identified two paralogous genes, CFT1 and CFT2, which encode homologs of a fungal iron permease, Cft1 and Cft2, respectively, in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Cft1 was shown to play a role in the high-affinity reductive iron uptake system, and was required for transferrin utilization and full virulence in mammalian hosts. However, no role of Cft2 has been suggested yet. Here, we identified the third gene, CFT3, that produces an additional fungal iron permease homolog in C. neoformans, and we also generated the cft3 mutant for functional characterization. We aimed to reveal distinct functions of Cft1, Cft2 and Cft3 by analyzing phenotypes of the mutants lacking CFT1, CFT2 and CFT3, respectively. The endogenous promoter of CFT1, CFT2 and CFT3 was replaced with the inducible GAL7 promoter in the wild-type strain or in the cft1 mutant for gain-of-function analysis. Using these strains, we were able to find that CFT2 is required for growth in low-iron conditions in the absence of CFT1 and that overexpression of CFT2 compensates for deficiency of the cft1 mutant in iron uptake and various cellular stress conditions. However, unlike CFT2, no clear phenotypic characteristic of the cft3 mutant and the strain overexpressing CFT3 was observed. Overall, our data suggested a redundant role of Cft2 in the high-affinity iron uptake and stress responses in C. neoformans.

• 한국병원경영학회지
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.1-14
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• 2018

Purpose : Customers with loyalty are very important to hospitals for sustainable growth in their medical market. Individuals with loyalty are likely to visit same hospital repeatedly when they need medical services. This study was to identify factors associated with selection of specialty hospitals among customers with loyalty. Methods : The subjects of this study were 735 inpatients in 22 specialty hospitals in 6 designated fields(joints, spine, colorectal-anal, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology). Customer types classified as customers with high loyalty, neutral customers, and customers with low loyalty according to net promoter score(NPS). Factor analysis was conducted to classify 22 hospital selection factors into some similar properties. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to confirm the selection factors related to loyal customers. Findings : Most of specialty hospitals received high NPS of 8 points or higher in all the designated fields. Five factors associated with selection of specialty hospital are (1) hospital facilities and convenience, (2) trust in doctor and hospital, (3) rapidness of treatment, (4) hospital awareness, and (5) accessibility. As a result of logistic regression analysis, selection factors related to loyal customers were 'hospital facilities and convenience', 'trust in doctor and hospital' and 'rapidness of treatment'. Differences in the degree of importance of three selection factors by customer types appeared for each designated field. Practical Implications : This study confirms the high level of patient experience among inpatients of specialty hospitals. Factors associated with selection of hospital among inpatients with loyalty are 'facilities and convenience of hospitals', 'trust of doctor and hospital' and 'rapidness of treatment'. This study will be meaningful as basic data to systematically enhance the roles and functions of the health care system and to provide securing competitiveness according to designated fields in the management aspect of specialty hospitals.

• BMB Reports
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• 제54권10호
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• pp.497-504
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• 2021

EGR1 (early growth response 1) is dysregulated in many cancers and exhibits both tumor suppressor and promoter activities, making it an appealing target for cancer therapy. Here, we used a systematic multi-omics analysis to review the expression of EGR1 and its role in regulating clinical outcomes in breast cancer (BC). EGR1 expression, its promoter methylation, and protein expression pattern were assessed using various publicly available tools. COSMIC-based somatic mutations and cBioPortal-based copy number alterations were analyzed, and the prognostic roles of EGR1 in BC were determined using Prognoscan and Kaplan-Meier Plotter. We also used bc-GenEx-Miner to investigate the EGR1 co-expression profile. EGR1 was more often downregulated in BC tissues than in normal breast tissue, and its knockdown was positively correlated with poor survival. Low EGR1 expression levels were also associated with increased risk of ER+, PR+, and HER2- BCs. High positive correlations were observed among EGR1, DUSP1, FOS, FOSB, CYR61, and JUN mRNA expression in BC tissue. This systematic review suggested that EGR1 expression may serve as a prognostic marker for BC patients and that clinicopathological parameters influence its prognostic utility. In addition to EGR1, DUSP1, FOS, FOSB, CYR61, and JUN can jointly be considered prognostic indicators for BC.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• 제19권5호
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• pp.372-377
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• 2018

MgO or gadolinium-doped ceria (GDC, $Ce_{0.9}Gd_{0.1}O_{2-{\delta}}$) was added as a promoter to improve the oxygen transfer kinetics of $MgMnO_3$ oxygen carrier material for chemical looping combustion. Neither MgO nor GDC reacted with $MgMnO_3$, even at the high temperature of $1100^{\circ}C$. The average oxygen transfer capacities of $MgMnO_3$, 5 wt% $MgO-MgMnO_3$, and 5 wt% $GDC-MgMnO_3$ were 8.74, 8.35, and 8.13 wt%, respectively. Although the addition of MgO or GDC decreased the oxygen transfer capacity, no further degradation was observed during their use in 5 redox cycles. The addition of GDC significantly improved the conversion rate for the reduction reaction of $MgMnO_3$ compared to the use of MgO due to an increase in the surface adsorption process of $CH_4$ via oxygen vacancies formed on the surface of GDC. On the other hand, the conversion rates for the oxidation reaction followed the order 5 wt% $GDC-MgMnO_3$ > 5 wt% $MgO-MgMnO_3$ >> $MgMnO_3$ due to morphological change. MgO or GDC particles suppressed the grain growth of the reduced $MgMnO_3$ (i.e., (Mg,Mn)O) and increased the specific surface area, thereby increasing the number of active reaction sites.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제31권7호
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• pp.912-920
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• 2021

SOS response is a conserved response to DNA damage in prokaryotes and is negatively regulated by LexA protein, which recognizes specifically an "SOS-box" motif present in the promoter region of SOS genes. Myxococcus xanthus DK1622 possesses a lexA gene, and while the deletion of lexA had no significant effect on either bacterial morphology, UV-C resistance, or sporulation, it did delay growth. UV-C radiation resulted in 651 upregulated genes in M. xanthus, including the typical SOS genes lexA, recA, uvrA, recN and so on, mostly enriched in the pathways of DNA replication and repair, secondary metabolism, and signal transduction. The UV-irradiated lexA mutant also showed the induced expression of SOS genes and these SOS genes enriched into a similar pathway profile to that of wild-type strain. Without irradiation treatment, the absence of LexA enhanced the expression of 122 genes that were not enriched in any pathway. Further analysis of the promoter sequence revealed that in the 122 genes, only the promoters of recA2, lexA and an operon composed of three genes (pafB, pafC and cyaA) had SOS box sequence to which the LexA protein is bound directly. These results update our current understanding of SOS response in M. xanthus and show that UV induces more genes involved in secondary metabolism and signal transduction in addition to DNA replication and repair; and while the canonical LexA-dependent regulation on SOS response has shrunk, only 5 SOS genes are directly repressed by LexA.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제17권12호
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• pp.1949-1954
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• 2007

A simple way to prevent protein hyperglycosylation in Hansenula polymorpha was found. When glucose oxidase from Aspergillus niger and carboxymethyl cellulase from Bacillus subtilis were expressed under the control of an inducible methanol oxidase (MOX) promoter using methanol as a carbon source, hyperglycosylated forms occurred. In contrast, MOX-repressing carbon sources (e.g., glucose, sorbitol, and glycerol) greatly reduced the extent of hyperglycosylation. Carbon source starvation of the cells also reduced the level of glycosylation, which was reversed to hyperglycosylation by the resumption of cell growth. It was concluded that the proteins expressed under actively growing conditions are produced as hyperglycosylated forms, whereas those under slow or nongrowing conditions are as short-glycosylated forms. The prevention of hyperglycosylation in the Hansenula polymorpha expression system constitutes an additional advantage over the traditional Saccharomyces cerevisiae system in recombinant production of glycosylated proteins.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• 제36권4호
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• pp.275-281
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• 2012

Embryonic stem cell-preconditioned microenvironment is important for cancer cells properitities by change cell morphology and proliferation. This microenvironment induces cancer cell reprogramming and results in a change in cancer cell properties such as differentiation and migration. The cancer microenvironment affects cancer cell proliferation and growth. However, the mechanism has not been clarified yet. Using the ES-preconditioned 3-D microenvironment model, we provide evidence showing that the ES microenvironment inhibits proliferation and reduces oncogenic gene expression. But ES microenvironment has no effect on telomerase activity, cell viability, cellular senescence, and methylation on Oct4 promoter region. Furthermore, methylation of Nanog was increase on ES-preconditioned microenvironment and supports results that no difference on RNA expression levels. Taken together, these results demonstrated that in the ES-preconditioned 3-D microenvironment is a crucial role for cancer cell proliferation not senescence.

• 미생물과산업
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.17-20
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• 1988

A genetic analysis of the complex Bacillus subtilis transcriptional apparatus is essential to understand the function, regulation, and interaction of the transcriptase components during growth and sporulation. This approach in Escherichia coli has uncovered fundamental mechanisms regulating gene expression Cole and Nomura, 1986; Lindahl and Zengel, 1986) and an analysis of the B. subtilis transcriptase will allow comoparison of the E.coli system to another bacterium that has evolved under different selective pressures. To this end we used antibody probes to isolate the alpha, beta, and beta' core subunit genes from a .lambda.gtill expression vector library. To address the question of function ans regulation of the minor sigma factors that confer promoter specifity on the polymerase core (Losick et al., 1986), we used the same approach to isolate the gene for the 37,000 dalton sigma factor, sigma-37.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.18-21
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• 2004

The root hair provides a major entering spot for the symbiotic legume rhizobia. It is obvious that dynamic cell wall modification occurs in the plant root hair during the early microbe invasion. Expansins are nondestructive cell wall-modifying proteins that are involved in cell growth and differentiation. Among about 40 expansin genes in Arabidopsis, two expansin genes are expressed specifically in the root hair cell. Orthologous genes of this Arabidopsis root hair expansins have been found in other Brassica members, rice, and Medicago truncatula (a legume). In this review, I discuss the probable function of expansins during the early symbiotic process between the root hair and microbes and the regulation of root hair expansin genes in a comparative approach.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.267-273
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• 1988

Transformed, hybrid strains of the yeast Saccharomyces capable of simultaneous secretion of both glucoamylase and ${\alpha}-amylase$ have been produced. These strains can carry out direct, one-step assimilation of starch with conversion efficiency greater than 93% during a 5 day growth period. One of the transformants converts 92.8% of available starch into reducing sugars in only 2 days. Glucoamylase secretion by these strains results from expression of one or more chromosomal STA genes derived from Saccharomyces diastaticus. The strains were transformed by a plasmid(pMS12) containing mouse salivary ${\alpha}-amylase$ cDNA in an expression vector containing yeast alcohol dehydrogenase promoter and a segment of yeast $2{\mu}$ plasmid. The major starch hydrolysis product produced by crude amylases found in culture broths is glucose, indicating that ${\alpha}-amylase$ and glucoamylase act cooperatively.