• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.408-412
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• 2008

FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) in Arabidopsis are homologous proteins that perform opposite functions: FT is an activator of flowering, and TFL1 is a repressor. It was shown before that change of a single amino acid (His88) of TFL1 to the corresponding amino acid (Tyr) of FT is enough to convert the floral repressor to an activator. However, structural basis of the functional conversion has not been understood. In our molecular dynamics simulations on modified TFL1 proteins, a hydrogen bond present in native TFL1 between the His88 residue and a residue (Asp144) in a neighboring external loop became broken by change of His88 to Tyr. This breakage induced conformational change of the external loop whose structure was previously reported to be another key functional determinant. These findings reveal that the two important factors determining the functional specificities of the floral regulators, the key amino acid (His88) and the external loop, are correlated, and the key amino acid determines the functional specificity indirectly by affecting the conformation of the external loop.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.376-380
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• 2021

The accurate detection of hydrogen gas molecules is considered to be important for industrial safety. However, the selective detection of the gas using semiconductive metal oxides (SMOs)-based sensors is challenging. Here, we describe the fabrication of H₂ sensors in which a nanocellulose/graphene oxide (GO) hybrid membrane is attached to SnO₂ nanosheets (NSs). One-dimensional (1D) nanocellulose fibrils are attached to the surface of GO NSs (GONC membrane) by mixing GO and nanocellulose in a solution. The as-prepared GONC membrane is employed as a sacrificial template for SnO₂ NSs as well as a molecular sieving membrane for selective H₂ filtration. The combination of GONC membrane and SnO₂ NSs showed substantial selectivity to hydrogen gas (R_air / R_gas > 10 @ 0.8 % H₂, 100 ℃) with noise level responses to interfering gases (H₂S, CO, CH₃COCH₃, C₂H₅OH, and NO₂). These remarkable sensing results are attributed mainly to the molecular sieving effect of the GONC membrane. These results can facilitate the development of a highly selective H₂ detector using SMO sensors.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.243-248
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• 2012

Nearby spiral galaxies M101 and M81 are considered to have undergone a galaxy-galaxy interaction. M101 has experienced HI gas infall due to the interaction. With AKARI far-infrared (IR) photometric observations, we found regions with enhanced star forming activity, which are spatially close to regions affected by the interaction. In addition, the relation between the star formation rate (SFR) and the gas content for such regions shows a significant difference from typical spiral arm regions. We discuss possible explanations for star formation processes on a kiloparsec scale and the association with interaction-triggered star formation. We also observed the compact group of galaxies Stephan's Quintet (SQ) with the AKARI Far-infrared Surveyor (FIS). The SQ shows diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) due to multiple collisions between the member galaxies and the IGM. The intruder galaxy NGC 7318b is currently colliding with the IGM and causes a large-scale shock. The 160 micron image clearly shows the structure along the shock ridge as seen in warm molecular hydrogen line emission and X-ray emission. The far-IR emission from the shocked region comes from the luminous [CII]$158{\mu}m$ line and cold dust (~ 20 K) that coexist with molecular hydrogen gas. Survival of dust grains is indispensable to form molecular hydrogen gas within the collision age (~ 5 Myr). At the stage of the dusty IGM environment, [CII] and $H_2$ lines rather than X-ray emission are powerful cooling channels to release the collision energy.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.188-191
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• 1964

A new gas-chromatographic method for determining carbon and hydrogen in organic compounds has been developed. After sample combustion was performed in a regular analytical combustion tube with an internal oxidant (a mixture of silver oxide and manganese dioxide) under a helium flow, the water produced was converted to acetylene by passing through a calcium carbide tube. The carbon dioxide and acetylene were trapped by a molecular sieve 5A column at room temperature. The trapped gases were released under programmed temperature raise up to $340^{\circ}C$ and the released gases were passed through a silica gel column. The adsorption of $CO_2$ and $C_2H_2$ in the molecular sieve 5A trapping column were found to be quantitative and the silica gel column showed an excellent resolution of $CO_2$ and $C_2H_2$ for analytical purpose. The analytical results for various known compounds based on the out-put of the thermal conductivity cell calibrated for the amounts of carbon and hydrogen contents in benzoic acid, showed average errors ${\pm}0.5%$ and ${\pm}0.33%$ for carbon and hydrogen, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2002.02a
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• pp.57-57
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• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.26-26
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• 1998

Superoxide dismutases are metalloenzymes catalyzing the dimutation of superoxide anion radical to hydrogen peroxide and molecular oxygen. Examples of enzymes containing Cu, Mn and Fe as the redox-active metal have been characterized. Recently, an SOD containing one Ni atom per subunit was reported.(omitted)

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.153-156
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• 1999

We have introduced the nonresonant holes in the satellite hole spectrum to examine the interaction of two tautomers of thionin to various polynucleotides, including [d(GC)7]2 , [d(AT)7]2 and calf thymus. The saturated depths of nonresonant holes are much reduced upon interacting with [d(GC)7]2 and calf thymus than with [d(AT)7]2 , implying that the binding affinity of thionin to [d(GC)7]2 and calf thymus is stronger than [d(AT)7]2 . In addition, the less perturbation on the exocyclic amino group of the amino -form of thionin upon interacting with [d(AT)7]2 suggests that a direct hydrogen bond formed between the amino group of thionin and the phosphate of nucleic acids is unlikely.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.2787-2790
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• 2014

Quercetin is a major dietary flavonoid found in onions, apples, tea, and red wine, and potentially has beneficial effects on disease prevention. We carried out this study to investigate the effect of quercetin on UVB-induced matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) expression in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells and to further understand the mechanisms of its action. The anti-inflammatory activity of quercetin was investigated and quercetin significantly suppressed the NO production in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 mouse macrophages. Post treatment of quercetin decreased UV irradiation-induced phosphorylation of JNK, p38 MAPK, and ERK by 91%, 21%, and 17%, respectively. MMP-1 is mainly responsible for the degradation of dermal collagen during the aging process of human skin and quercetin suppressed the UVB-induced MMP-1 by 94%. Binding studies revealed that quercetin binds to p38 with high binding affinity ($1.85{\times}10^6M^{-1}$). The binding model showed that the 4'-hydroxy groups of the B-ring of quercetin participated in hydrogen bonding interactions with the side chains of Lys53, Glu71, and Asp168 and the 5-hydroxy group of the A-ring formed a hydrogen bond with the backbone amide of Met109. The major finding of this study shows that quercetin inhibits phosphorylation of JNK, p38 MAPK, and ERK pathway leading to the prevention of MMP-1 expression in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells. Therefore, our findings suggested the potentials of quercetin as a skin anti-photoaging agent.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.2695-2699
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• 2011

${\beta}$ Ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase III (KAS III) initiates fatty acid synthesis in bacteria and is a key target enzyme to overcome the antibiotic resistance problem. In our previous study, we found flavonoid inhibitors of Enterococcus faecalis KAS III and proposed three potent antimicrobial flavonoids against Enterococcus faecalis and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis with MIC values in the range of 128-512 ${\mu}g/mL$ as well as high binding affinities on the order from $10^6$ to $10^7\;M^{-1}$. Using these series of flavonoids, we conducted biological assays as well as docking study to find potent flavonoids inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus KAS III with specificities against Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Here, we propose that naringenin (5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavanone) and eriodictyol (5,7,3',4'-tetrahydroxyflavanone) are potent antimicrobial inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus KAS III with binding affinity of $3.35{\times}10^5$ and $2.01{\times}10^5\;M^{-1}$, respectively. Since Arg38 in efKAS III is replaced with Met36 in saKAS III, this key difference caused one hydrogen bond missing in saKAS III compared with efKAS III, resulting in slight discrepancy in their binding interactions as well as decrease in binding affinities. 4'-OH and 7-OH of these flavonoids participated in hydrogen bonding interactions with backbone carbonyl of Phe298 and Ser152, respectively. In particular, these flavonoids display potent antimicrobial activities against various MRSA strains in the range of 64 to 128 ${\mu}M$ with good binding affinities.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.1311-1314
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• 2008

Bacillus halodurans O-methyltransferase (BhOMT) is an S-adenosylmethionine dependent methyltransferase. In our previous study, three dimensional structure of the BhOMT has been determined by comparative homology modeling and automated docking study showed that two hydroxyl groups at 3'- and 4'-position in Bring and structural rigidity of C-ring resulting from the double bond characters between C2 and C3 of flavonoid, were key factors for interaction with BhOMT. In the present study, BhOMT was cloned and expressed. Binding assay was performed on purified BhOMT using fluorescence experiments and binding affinity of luteolin, quercetin, fisetin, and myricetin were measured in the range of $10^7$. Fluorescence quenching experiments indicated that divalent cation plays a critical role on the metal-mediated electrostatic interactions between flavonoid and substrate binding site of BhOMT. Fluorescence study confirmed successfully the data obtained from the docking study and these results imply that hydroxyl group at 7-position of luteolin, quercetin, fisetin, and myricetin forms a stable hydrogen bonding with K211 and carboxyl oxygen of C-ring forms a stable hydrogen bonding with R170. Hydroxyl group at 3'-and 4'-position in the B-ring also has strong $Ca^{2+}$ mediated electrostatic interactions with BhOMT.