• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.357-363
• /
• 1986

Synthesis of threonine and methionine in yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae shares a common pathway from aspartate via homoserine. HOM6 gene encodes homoserine dehydrogenase (HSDH) which catalyzes the inter-conversion of beta-aspartate semialdehyde and homoserine. The level of HSDH is under methionine specific control. A recombinant plasmid (pEK1: 13.3kb), containing HOM6 gene, has been isolated and cloned into E. coli by complenemtary transformation of a homoserine auxotrophic yeast strain M-20-20D (hom6, trp1, ura3) to a prototrophic M20-20D/pEK1, using a library of yeast genomic DNA fragments in a yeast centromeric plasmid, YCp50(8.0kb). Isolation of HOM6has been primarily confirmed by retransformation of the original yeast strain M20-20D, using the recombinant plasmid DNA which was extracted from M20-20D/pEK1 and subsequently amplified in E. coli. Eleven cleavage sites in the insery (5.3kb) have been localized through fragment analysis for 8 restriction endonucleases; Bgl II(2 site), Bgl II(1), Cla I(3), Eco RI(1), Hind III(2), Kpn I (1), Pvu II(1) and Xho I(1).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.226-233
• /
• 2007

Members of Methylobacterium, referred as pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophic bacteria, are frequently associated with terrestrial and aquatic plants, tending to form aggregates on the phyllosphere. We report here that the production of autoinducer molecules involved in the cell-to-cell signaling process, which is known as quorum sensing, is common among Methylobacterium species. Several strains of Methylobacterium were tested for their ability to produce N-acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) signal molecules using different indicators. Most strains of Methylobacterium tested could elicit a positive response in Agrobacterium tumefaciens harboring lacZ fused to a gene that is regulated by autoinduction. The synthesis of these compounds was cell-density dependent, and the maximal activity was reached during the late exponential to stationary phases. The bacterial extracts were separated by thin-layer chromatography and bioassayed with A. tumefaciens NTI (traR, tra::lacZ749). They revealed the production of various patterns of the signal molecules, which are strain dependent. At least two signal molecules could be detected in most of the strains tested, and comparison of their relative mobilities suggested that they are homologs of N-octanoyl-$_{DL}$-homoserine lactone ($C_8-HSL$) and N-decanoyl-$_{DL}$-homoserine lactone ($C_{10}-HSL$).

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.25-30
• /
• 2004

Combinatorial homoserine lactone mixtures and individual products were obtained from the methionine-functionalized resin in solid-phase synthesis. The four-step process consisting of a coupling step of an N-Fmoc-L-methionine, deprotection of N-Fmoc group, N-coupling with a carboxylic acid, and cleavage reaction through a polymer supported strategy is described. Gas chromatography-mass selective detector (GC-MSD) techniques provide the most powerful methods for identifying both the combinatorial mixtures and individual products.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.117-121
• /
• 2000

Recent advances in studies of bacterial gene expression and light microscopy show that cell-to cell communication and communication and community behavior are the rule rather than the exception. One type of cell-cell communication, quorum sensing in Gram-negative bacteria involves acyl-homoserine lactone signals. This type of quorum sension represents a dedicated communication system that enables a given species to sense when it has reached a critical population density. and to respond by activating expression of specific genes. The LuxR and LuxI proteins of Vibrio fisheri are the founding members of the acyl-homoserine lactone quorum sensing signal receptor and signal generator families of proteins. Acyl-homeserine lactone signaling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one model for the relationship between quorum sensing community behavior, and virulence. In the P. aeruginosa model. quorum sensing is required for normal biofilm maturation and virulence. There are multiple quorum-sensing circuits that control the expression of dozens of specific genes in P. aeruginosa.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.447-453
• /
• 2009

The quorum sensing (QS) inhibitors that antagonize TraR, a receptor protein for N-3-oxo-octanoyl-L-homoserine lactones (3-oxo-C8-HSL), a QS signal of Agrobacterium tumefaciens were developed. The structural analogues of 3-oxo-C8-HSL were designed by in silico molecular modeling using SYBYL packages, and synthesized by the solid phase organic synthesis (SPOS) method, where the carboxamide bond of 3-oxo-C8-HSL was replaced with a nicotinamide or a sulfonamide bond to make derivatives of N-nicotinyl-L-homoserine lactones or N-sulfonyl-L-homoserine lactones. The in vivo inhibitory activities of these compounds against QS signaling were assayed using reporter systems and compared with the estimated binding energies from the modeling study. This comparison showed fairly good correlation, suggesting that the in silico interpretation of ligand-receptor structures can be a valuable tool for the pre-design of better competitive inhibitors. In addition, these inhibitors also showed anti-biofilm activities against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.30 no.12
• /
• pp.1905-1911
• /
• 2020

Homoserine dehydrogenase (HSD) catalyzes the reversible conversion of ʟ-aspartate-4-semialdehyde to ʟ-homoserine in the aspartate pathway for the biosynthesis of lysine, methionine, threonine, and isoleucine. HSD has attracted great attention for medical and industrial purposes due to its recognized application in the development of pesticides and is being utilized in the large scale production of ʟ-lysine. In this study, HSD from Bacillus subtilis (BsHSD) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity for biochemical characterization. We examined the enzymatic activity of BsHSD for ʟ-homoserine oxidation and found that BsHSD exclusively prefers NADP+ to NAD+ and that its activity was maximal at pH 9.0 and in the presence of 0.4 M NaCl. By kinetic analysis, Km values for ʟ-homoserine and NADP+ were found to be 35.08 ± 2.91 mM and 0.39 ± 0.05 mM, respectively, and the Vmax values were 2.72 ± 0.06 μmol/min-1 mg-1 and 2.79 ± 0.11 μmol/min-1 mg-1, respectively. The apparent molecular mass determined with size-exclusion chromatography indicated that BsHSD forms a tetramer, in contrast to the previously reported dimeric HSDs from other organisms. This novel oligomeric assembly can be attributed to the additional C-terminal ACT domain of BsHSD. Thermal denaturation monitoring by circular dichroism spectroscopy was used to determine its melting temperature, which was 54.8℃. The molecular and biochemical features of BsHSD revealed in this study may lay the foundation for future studies on amino acid metabolism and its application for industrial and medical purposes.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.205-211
• /
• 2005

Water-soluble polyethyleneimine (PE) derivatives containing nucleic acid bases and hydrophilic amino acids such as homoserine (Hse) and serine were prepared by the activated ester method as nucleic acid models. From spectroscopic measurements, the polymers were found to interact with DNA accompanied by an induction of conformational change. Hypochromicity in UV spectra indicated that a stable polymer complex was formed between poly (A) with PEI­Hse-Ura by complementary hydrogen bonding with equimolar nucleic base units (adenine:uracil=1:1). The induced conformation of DNA by the interaction with the polymer containing uracil and homoserine (PEI-Hse-Ura) was concluded to be a super triple helical structure. The formation of the polymer complex, DNA: PEI-Hse-Ura, was found to be affected by the presence of metal ions such as $Ca^{2+}\;and\;Cu^{2+}$.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2000.11a
• /
• pp.619-622
• /
• 2000

For the production of $B^{30}-homoserine$ human insulin precursor, four types of fusion peptides LacZ, MBP, GST, and His-tagged sequence were studied in this work. Recombinant E. coli JM 103 and E. coli JM 109 containing fusion peptides were cultivated at $37^{\circ}C$ for 1hr, and gene expression was occurred when 0.5mM of isopropyl-D-thiogalactoside(IPTG) was added to the culture broth, and followed by longer than 4hr fermentation respectively. DEAE-Sphacel and gel filtration chromatography, amylose and glutathione-Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography, and nickel-affinity chromatography system were employed as purification of $B^{30}-homoserine$ human insulin precursor. Recovery yields of His-tagged, LacZ, GST, and MBP fused $B^{30}-homoserine$ human insulin precursor resulted in 47%, 20%, 20%, and 18%, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.50 no.2
• /
• pp.128-136
• /
• 2014

Acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) lactonase has been proved to be the AHL-degrading enzyme with the highest substrate specificity for AHL molecules and has shown a considerable potential as low-cost and efficient quorum quenching (QQ) technique. However, few studies focused on its inhibitory effect on biofilm formation which is also a quorum sensing (QS)-regulated phenomenon. In this study, QQ activity of six isolates from biofouled reverse osmosis membranes was studied using Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 and Agrobacterium tumefaciens NTL4 as biosensors under various conditions. All of the isolates belonged to the genus Bacillus and showed QQ activity regardless of the acyl chain length or substitution of AHL molecule. The isolates were capable of significantly inhibiting biofilm formation (46.7-58.3%) by Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and produced heat-sensitive extracellular QQ substances. The LC-MS analysis of the QQ activity of a selected isolate, RO1S-5, revealed the degradation of N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone (3-oxo-C12 AHL) and the production of corresponding acyl homoserine (3-oxo-C12-HS), which indicated the activity of AHL lactonase. The broad AHL substrate range and high substrate specificity suggested that the isolate would be useful for the control of biofilm-related pathogenesis and biofouling in industrial processes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.21 no.12
• /
• pp.1330-1335
• /
• 2011

N-Acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs) serve as the vital quorum-sensing signals that regulate the virulence of the pathogenic bacterium Erwinia carotovora. In the present study, an approach to efficiently restrain the pathogenicity of E. carotovora-induced soft rot disease is described. Bacillus thuringiensis-derived N-acyl homoserine lactonase (AiiA) was projected onto the surface of Pseudomonas putida cells, and inoculation with both strains was challenged. The previously identified N-terminal moiety of the ice nucleation protein, InaQ-N, was applied as the anchoring motif. A surface display cassette with inaQ-N/aiiA was constructed and expressed under the control of a constitutive promoter in P. putida AB92019. Surface localization of the fusion protein was confirmed by Western blot analysis, flow cytometry, and immunofluorescence microscopy. The antagonistic activity of P. putida MB116 expressing InaQ-N/AiiA toward E. carotovora ATCC25270 was evaluated by challenge inoculation in potato slices at different ratios. The results revealed a remarkable suppressing effect on E. carotovora infection. The active component was further analyzed using different cell fractions, and the cell surface-projected fusion protein was found to correspond to the suppressing effect.