• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.284-290
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• 2010

Replication of positive-strand RNA virus is mediated by a virus-encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). To study the replication of Ectropis obliqua virus (EoV), a newly identified insect virus belonging to the family Iflaviradae, we expressed the RNA polymerase domain in Escherichia coli and purified it on a Ni-chelating HisTrap affinity column. It is demonstrated that EoV RdRp initiated RNA synthesis in a primer and poly (A)-dependent manner in vitro. Furthermore, the effect of primer concentration, temperature, metal ions ($Mg^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$, and $K^+$) on enzymatic activity were determined. Our study represented a first step towards understanding the mechanism of EoV replication.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.367-373
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• 1995

The cDNAs derived from the coat protein (CP) genes of six plant RNA viruses, tobacco mosaic virus-pepper strains (TMV-P) and -ordinary strain (TMV-OM), potato virus Y (PVY), turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and potato leafroll virus (PLRV), were subcloned into the transcription vector, pSPT18, containing SP6 and T7 promoters. The digoxigenin (DIG)-labeled RNA polymerase after linearlization of the cloned pSPTs with XbaI or SacI, and were tested for their sensitivities for the detection of the six viruses. In slot-blot hybridization, dilution end points for the detection of TMV-P and TMV-OM were 10-4, while those of PVY, TuMV and CMV were 10-3. PLRV was detected at the dilution of 10-2. When each RNA probe was applied for the detection of the viruses in the preparations from the leaf disks (8 mm in diameter, and 12 to 15 mg in weight) of infected natural host plants, TMV-P, TMV-OM and TuMV could be detected from one disk, while PVY from 1 or 2 disks. CMV was detected in the preparation from two disks, and PLRV from three disks. With DIG-labeled RNA probe, PVY was detected at 5 days after inoculation, but with ELISA the virus was detected at 8 days after inoculation to tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi nc) plants on which symptoms appeared at 9 days after inoculation. No difference was observed in cross reaction between the RNA probes for the detection of TMV-P and TMV-OM.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.215-219
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• 2016

The problems of tuberculosis and its drug resistance are very severe. Therefore, rapid and accurate drug susceptibility assay is required. Recently, there has been an increased understanding of the genetic mechanism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) drug resistance as well as advancement of molecular technologies. While many gene mutations correlate well with drug resistance, many genes do not show a strong correlation with drug resistance. For this reason, the current study assessed the utility of rpoB mRNA as a target to detect live mycobacteria. In this study, RT-PCR targeting of rpoB mRNA in BCG treated with rifampin was performed. Conventional RT-PCR and real-time PCR targeting rpoB mRNA as well as 85B mRNA was performed to determine whether these two methods could distinguish between viable and non-viable MTB. The levels of rpoB and 85B mRNA detected by RT- PCR were compared in parallel with colony forming unit counts of BCG that were treated with rifampin for different periods of time. The data suggests that that even though both mRNA levels of rpoB and 85B decreased gradually when rifampin-treatment increased, the rpoB mRNA seemed to represent live bacteria better than 85B mRNA. This study clearly indicates that RT-PCR is a good method to monitor viable cell counts in the liquid culture treated with the anti-tuberculosis drug.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.181-186
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• 2009

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), which is a dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder, results from a CTG trinucleotide repeat expansion in the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of the myotonic dystrophy protein kinase (DMPK) gene. Retention of mutant DMPK (mDMPK) transcripts in the nuclei of affected cells has been known to be the main cause of pathogenesis of the disease. Thus, reducing the RNA toxicity through elimination of the mutant RNA has been suggested as one therapeutic strategy against DM1. In this study, we suggested RNA replacement with a trans -splicing ribozyme as an alternate genetic therapeutic approach for amelioration of DM1. To this end, we identified the regions of mDMPK 3'-UTR RNA that were accessible to ribozymes by using an RNA mapping strategy based on a trans-splicing ribozyme library. We found that particularly accessible sites were present not only upstream but also downstream of the expanded repeat sequence. Repair or replacement of the mDMPK transcript with the specific ribozyme will be useful for DM1 treatment through reduction of toxic mutant transcripts and simultaneously restore wild-type DMPK or release nucleus-entrapped mDMPK transcripts to the cytoplasm.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.36.1-36.3
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• 2018

Next generation sequencing (NGS), a high-throughput DNA sequencing technology, is widely used for molecular biological studies. In NGS, RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq), which is a short-read massively parallel sequencing, is a major quantitative transcriptome tool for different transcriptome studies. To utilize the RNA-Seq data, various quantification and analysis methods have been developed to solve specific research goals, including identification of differentially expressed genes and detection of novel transcripts. Because of the accumulation of RNA-Seq data in the public databases, there is a demand for integrative analysis. However, the available RNA-Seq data are stored in different formats such as read count, transcripts per million, and fragments per kilobase million. This hinders the integrative analysis of the RNA-Seq data. To solve this problem, we have developed a web-based application using Shiny, COEX-seq (Convert a Variety of Measurements of Gene Expression in RNA-Seq) that easily converts data in a variety of measurement formats of gene expression used in most bioinformatic tools for RNA-Seq. It provides a workflow that includes loading data set, selecting measurement formats of gene expression, and identifying gene names. COEX-seq is freely available for academic purposes and can be run on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux operating systems. Source code, sample data sets, and supplementary documentation are available as well.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.249-255
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• 2016

Exogenous nucleic acids induce an innate immune response in mammalian host cells through activation of the retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I). We evaluated RIG-I protein for RNA binding and ATPase stimulation with RNA ligands to investigate the correlation with the extent of immune response through RIG-I activation in cells. RIG-I protein favored blunt-ended, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) ligands over sticky-ended dsRNA. Moreover, the presence of the 5'-triphosphate (5'-ppp) moiety in dsRNA further enhanced binding affinity to RIG-I. Two structural motifs in RNA, blunt ends in dsRNA and 5'-ppp, stimulated the ATP hydrolysis activity of RIG-I. These structural motifs also strongly induced IFN expression as an innate immune response in cells. Therefore, we suggest that IFN induction through RIG-I activation is mainly determined by structural motifs in dsRNA that increase its affinity for RIG-I protein and stimulate ATPase activity in RIG-I.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.218-223
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• 2004

Myxobacteria are Gram-negative soil bacteria known to be a rich source of potentially useful secondary metabolites. We have isolated 204 strains of bacteriolytic myxobacteria from soil samples collected in Korea and determined their 16S rRNA sequences. Sequence analysis of the partially determined 16S rRNA sequences has suggested that 132 isolates (65% of total isolates) belong to the genus Myxococcus and 59 isolates (29% of total isolates) belong to the genus Corallococcus. Meanwhile, 4 isolates appear to be Archangium spp. and the other 4 isolates appear to be Stigmatella spp. Genera of the remained 5 isolates have not been identified because their 16S rRNA sequences are distantly related to those of known myxobacteria.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.248-256
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• 2009

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine if human PDL cells can produce osteoclastogenic mRNA and examine how compressive stress affects the expression of osteoclastogenic mRNA in human PDL cells. Methods: Human PDL cells were obtained from biscupids extracted for orthodontic treatment. The compressive force was adjusted by increasing the number of cover glasses. PDL cells were subjected to a compressive force of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 or $4.0\;g/cm^2$ for 0.5, 1.5, 6, 24 or 48 hours. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis was performed to examine levels of M-CSF, IL-$1{\beta}$, RANKL, OPG mRNA expression. Results: Human PDL cells could produce M-CSF mRNA. Human PDL cells under compressive stress showed increased M-CSF, IL-$1{\beta}$ and RANKL mRNAs expression in a force (up to $2\;g/cm^2$) and time-dependent manner. However, OPG mRNA expression was constant regardless of the level and duration of stress. Conclusions: Continuous compressive stress induced the mRNA expression of osteoclastogenic cytokines including M-CSF, RANKL, IL-$1{\beta}$ in PDL cells. Together with an unchanged OPG mRNA level, these results suggest that compressive stress-induced osteoclastogenesis in vivo is partly controlled by M-CSF, RANKL and IL-$1{\beta}$ expression in PDL cells.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.511-526
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• 2020

Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data consists of each cell's RNA expression extracted from large populations of cells. One main purpose of using scRNA-seq data is to identify inter-cellular heterogeneity. However, scRNA-seq data pose statistical challenges when applying traditional clustering methods because they have many missing values and high level of noise due to technical and sampling issues. In this paper, motivated by analyzing scRNA-seq data, we propose a novel spectral-based clustering method by imposing different weights on genes when computing a similarity between cells. Assigning weights on genes and clustering cells are performed simultaneously in the proposed clustering framework. We solve the proposed non-convex optimization using an iterative algorithm. Both real data application and simulation study suggest that the proposed clustering method better identifies underlying clusters compared with existing clustering methods.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.234-239
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• 1992

The experiment was performed to find out the possibilities to detect virus infection in oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus species by analysis of doublestranded ribonucleic acid (ds RNA). Ds RNA segments were extracted from virus infected isolates which grew abnormally. But virus free isolates didn't show any ds RNA segments. The ds RNA was consisted of one large segment of 8100 base pairs (bp) and 4 smaller segments with 2170, 2120, 1980 and 1984 bp. Whereas, cell free virus particles showed only one larger ds RNA segment. The ds RNA was dissolved by RNase A in low salt, 0.1 M SSC and melted at $85^{\circ}C$. It was possible to use the ds RNA analysis for detecting virus infection directly from the host cells.