• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.44 no.1 s.137
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• pp.15-20
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• 2006

Free-living amoebae of the genus Acanthamoeba are causative agents of granulomatous amebic encephalitis and amebic keratitis. Because the virulence of Acanthamoeba culbertsoni cultured in the laboratory is restored by consecutive brain passages, we examined the genes induced in mouse brain-passaged A. culbertsoni by differential display reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (DDRT-PCR). Enhanced A. culbertsoni virulence was observed during the second mouse brain passage, i.e., infected mouse mortality increased from $5\%\;to\;70\%.$ Ten cDNAs induced during mouse brain passage were identified by DDRT-PCR and this was confirmed by northern blot analysis. BlastX searches of these cDNAs indicated the upregulations of genes encoding predictive NADH-dehydrogenase, proteasomal ATPase, and GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase B, which have previously been reported to be associated with A. culbertsoni virulence factors.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.50-54
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• 2003

Genome of an extreme thermophile, Thermus caldophilus GK24 has been analyzed to construct the genomic map. The genomic DNAs encapsulated in agarose gel were digested with SspI, EcoRI, SpeI, and HpaI restriction endonucleases, and then the resulting genomic DNA fragments were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Its restriction map has been constructed by analyzing sizes of the restriction fragments obtained from both complete and partial digestions. The circular form of its genome was composed of about 1.98 Mbp and a megaplasmid. The genomic loci for the genes of xylose isomerase, thioredoxin, tRNA-16S rRNA, 23S rRNA, L5 ribosomal protein, ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, DNA-ligase, and Tca DNA polymerase were determined by both Southern hybridization and PCR.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.207-211
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• 1998

Melhylovorus sp. strain SS1 grown on methanol was found to show activities of key enzymes of the linear route, $NAD^+$-linked formaldehyde and formate dehydrogenases, and the cyclic route, hexulose-6-phosphate synthase, glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, for formaldehyde oxidation. The activities of the cyclic route enzymes were higher than those of the linear route enzymes. The bacterium also exhibited activities of the key enzymes of the ribulose monophosphate and Entner-Doudoroff pathways and transaldolase involved in the formaldehyde assimilation and the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of extracellular polysaccharide. Cells grown in the presence of 2.3 mM ammonium sulfate were higher in the productivity of extracellular polysaccharide, but lower in the growth yield, than those grown in the presence 7.6 mM ammonium sulfate. The activities of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, phosphoglucomutase, and UDP-pyrophosphorylase in cells grown under nitrogen-limited condition were higher, but that of 6-phosphogluconate dehydratase/2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate aldolase was lower, than those in cells grown in the presence of sufficient amount of nitrogen source.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.174-180
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• 2021

Chalcones exhibit multiple biological activities. Various studies have attempted to modify the structure of chalcones with a special focus on the addition of substituents to the benzene rings. However, these chemical modifications did not improve the water solubility and bioavailability of chalcones. Glycosylation can markedly affect the physical and chemical properties of hydrophobic compounds. Here, we evaluated the ability of a highly promiscuous glycosyltransferase (GT) BsGT1 from Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633 to biosynthesize chalcone glucosides. Purified BsGT1 catalyzed the conversion of 4'-hydroxychalcone (compound 1), 4'-hydroxy-4-methylchalcone (compound 2), and 4-hydroxy-4'-methoxychalcone (compound 3), into chalcone 4'-O-β-D-glucoside (compound 1a), 4-methylchalcone 4'-O-β-D-glucoside (compound 2a), and 4'-methoxychalcone 4-O-β-D-glucoside (compound 3a), respectively. To avoid the addition of expensive uridine diphosphate glucose (UDP-Glc), a whole-cell biotransformation system was employed to provide a natural intracellular environment for in situ co-factor regeneration. The yields of compounds 1a, 2a, and 3a were as high as 90.38%, 100% and 74.79%, respectively. The successful co-expression of BsGT1 with phosphoglucomutase (PGM) and UDP-Glc pyrophosphorylase (GalU), which are involved in the biosynthetic pathway of UDP-Glc, further improved the conversion rates of chalcones (the yields of compounds 1a and 3a increased by approximately 10%). In conclusion, we demonstrated an effective whole-cell biocatalytic system for the enzymatic biosynthesis of chalcone β-D-glucoside derivatives.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.20-30
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• 1999

In order to modify lipid production of Perilla qualitatively as well as quantitatively by genetic engineering, genes involved in carbon metabolism were isolated and characterized. These include acyl-ACP thioesterases from Perilla frutescens and Iris sp., four different $\beta$-ketoacyl- ACP synthases from Perilla frutescens, and two $\Delta$15 a-cyl-ACP desaturases(Pffad7, pffad3). Δ15 acyl-ACP desa turase (Δ15-DES) is responsible for the conversion of linoleic acid (18:2) to $\alpha$-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3). pffad 3 encodes Δ15 acyl-desaturase which is localized in ER membrane. On the other hand, Pffad7 encodes a 50 kD plastid protein (438 residues), which showed highest sequence similarity to Sesamum indicum fad7 protein. Northern blot analysis revealed that the Pffad7 is highly expressed in leaves but not in roots and seeds. And Pffad3 is expressed throughout the seed developmental stage except very early and fully mature stage. We constructed Pffad7 gene under 355 promoter and Pffad3 gene under seed specific vicillin promoter. Using Pffad7 construct, Perilla, an oil seed crop in Korea, was transformed by Agrobacterium leaf disc method. $\alpha$-linolenic acid contents increased in leaves but decreased in seeds of transgenic Perilla. Currently, we are transforming Perilla with Pffad3 construct to change Perilla seed oil composition. We isolated three ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGP) genes from Perilla immature seed specific cDNA library. Nucleotide sequence analysis showed that two of three AGP (Psagpl, Psagp2) genes encode AGP small subunit polypeptides and the remaining (Plagp) encodes an AGP large subunit. PSAGPs, AGP small subunit peptide, form active heterotetramers with potato AGP large subunit in E. coli expressing plant AGP genes.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.109-118
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• 1996

The Salmonella rfb gene encoding for the biosynthesis of the oligosaccharide-repeating units of the O-antigenic determinants was cloned and sequenced. A set of nucleotide primers(a forward and reverse) was selected to target a defined region of the guanosine diphospho-mannose(GDP-Man) pyrophosphorylase synthase gene : rfbM of Salmonella C serogroup. The primer set was used to develop a PCR-based rapid and specific detection system for Salmonella C1 serogroup. Amplification bands of predicted size(1,422bp) were generated from 11 different Salmonella C1 isolates. The bands were verified to be specific for the C1 serogroup by Southern blot analysis using reference homologous DNA specificity was further confirmed by the lack of reactivity with heterologous DNA derived from non-salmonella members of the family enterobacteriaeceae. A specificity of 100% was deduced along with a very high sensitivity shown by a detection limit of 1fg of a purified DNA template. The isolated DNA sequence was found to be 99.8% homologous to S montevideo but the related primers amplified with the predicted band sizes with all the Salmonella C1 serogroups tested. It is concluded that the PCR protocol based on the rfbM gene from S cholerasuis is optimal fast and specific for the detection of Salmonella C1 serogroup and also the corresponding probe is suitable for rapid detection of all Salmonella C1 serogroup DNA tested. This technology should facilitate the identification of contaminated pig products and for any other products contaminated with the Salmonalla C1 serogroup. The immediate impact of this developed method will be in the area of food safety of pig products with the potential prospect for adaptation to other food inspection technologies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.207-207
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• 2022

Eating and cooking quality (ECQ) is one of the most complex quantitative traits in rice. The understanding of genetic regulation of transcript expression levels attributing to phenotypic variation in ECQ traits is limited. We integrated whole-genome resequencing, transcriptome, and phenotypic variation data from 84 Japonica accessions to build a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) based regulatory network. All ECQ traits showed a large phenotypic variation and significant phenotypic correlations among the traits. TWAS analysis identified a total of 285 transcripts significantly associated with six ECQ traits. Genome-wide mapping of ECQ-associated transcripts revealed 66,905 quantitative expression traits (eQTLs), including 21,747 local eQTLs, and 45,158 trans-eQTLs, regulating the expression of 43 genes. The starch synthesis-related genes (SSRGs), starch synthase IV-1 (SSIV-1), starch branching enzyme 1 (SBE1), granule-bound starch synthase 2 (GBSS2), and ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase small subunit 2a (OsAGPS2a) were found to have eQTLs regulating the expression of ECQ associated transcripts. Further, in co-expression analysis, 130 genes produced at least one network with 22 master regulators. In addition, we developed CRISPR/Cas9-edited glbl mutant lines that confirmed the role of alpha-globulin (glbl) in starch synthesis to validate the co-expression analysis. This study provided novel insights into the genetic regulation of ECQ traits, and transcripts associated with these traits were discovered that could be used in further rice breeding.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.296-304
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• 2018

The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of climate change on rice yield and quality. Experiments were conducted using SPAR(Soil-Plant-Atmosphere-Research) chambers, which was designed to create virtual future climate conditions, in the National Institute of Crop Science, Jeonju, Korea, in 2016. In the future climate conditions($+2.8^{\circ}C$ temp, 580 ppm $CO_2$) of year 2051~2060 according to RCP 8.5 scenario, elevated temperature and $CO_2$ accelerated the heading date by about five days than the present climate conditions, resulted in a high temperature environment during grain filling stage. Rice yield decreased sharply in the future climate conditions due to the high temperature induced poor ripening. And the spikelet numbers, ripening ratio, and 1000-grain weight of brown rice were significantly decreased compared to control. The rice grain quality was also decreased sharply, especially due to the increased immature grains. In the future climate conditions, expression of starch biosynthesis-related genes such as granule-bound starch synthase(GBSSI, GBSSII, SSIIa, SSIIb, SSIIIa), starch branching enzyme(BEIIb) and ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase(AGPS1, AGPS2, AGPL2) were repressed in developing seeds, whereas starch degradation related genes such as ${\alpha}-amylase$(Amy1C, Amy3D, Amy3E) were induced. These results suggest that the reduction in yield and quality of rice in the future climate conditions is likely caused mainly by the poor grain filling by high temperature. Therefore, it is suggested to develop tolerant cultivars to high temperature during grain filling period and a new cropping system in order to ensure a high quality of rice in the future climate conditions.