• Molecules and Cells
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.276-282
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• 2007

Protein phosphorylation is one of the major mechanisms by which eukaryotic cells transduce extracellular signals into intracellular responses. Calcium/calmodulin ($Ca^{2+}/CaM$)-dependent protein phosphorylation has been implicated in various cellular processes, yet little is known about $Ca^{2+}/CaM$-dependent protein kinases (CaMKs) in plants. From an Arabidopsis expression library screen using a horseradish peroxidase-conjugated soybean calmodulin isoform (SCaM-1) as a probe, we isolated a full-length cDNA clone that encodes AtCK (Arabidopsis thaliana calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase). The predicted structure of AtCK contains a serine/threonine protein kinase catalytic domain followed by a putative calmodulin-binding domain and a putative $Ca^{2+}$-binding domain. Recombinant AtCK was expressed in E. coli and bound to calmodulin in a $Ca^{2+}$-dependent manner. The ability of CaM to bind to AtCK was confirmed by gel mobility shift and competition assays. AtCK exhibited its highest levels of autophosphorylation in the presence of 3 mM $Mn^{2+}$. The phosphorylation of myelin basic protein (MBP) by AtCK was enhanced when AtCK was under the control of calcium-bound CaM, as previously observed for other $Ca^{2+}/CaM$-dependent protein kinases. In contrast to maize and tobacco CCaMKs (calcium and $Ca^{2+}/CaM$-dependent protein kinase), increasing the concentration of calmodulin to more than $3{\mu}M$ suppressed the phosphorylation activity of AtCK. Taken together our results indicate that AtCK is a novel Arabidopsis $Ca^{2+}/CaM$-dependent protein kinase which is presumably involved in CaM-mediated signaling.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.164-170
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• 2014

JL1, a specific epitope on CD43, is a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of acute leukemia. Although qualitative assays for detecting leukemia-specific CD43 exist, there is a need to develop quantitative assays for the same. Here, we developed two novel monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), 2C8 and 8E10, recognizing different epitopes on CD43. These clones are capable of pairing with YG5, another mAb against JL1 epitope, because they were selectively obtained using sandwich ELISA. Antigens recognized by 2C8 and 8E10 were confirmed as CD43 by western blotting using the CD43-hFC recombinant protein. When expression on various leukemic cell lines was investigated, 2C8 and 8E10 displayed a disparity in the distribution of the epitope. Enzyme assays revealed that these mAbs recognized a sialic acid-dependent epitope on CD43. Using normal thymus and lymph node paraffin-embedded tissues, we confirmed a difference in the epitopes recognized by the two mAbs that was predicted based on the maturity of the cells in the tissue. In summary, we developed and characterized two mAbs, 2C8 and 8E10, which can be used with YG5 in a sandwich ELISA for detecting leukemia-specific CD43.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.845-851
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• 2009

A vector harboring double cassettes; a heterologous gene expression cassette of pHCE-InaN-antigen and a ghost formation cassette of pAPR-cI-E lysis 37 SDM was constructed and introduced to E. coli DH5a. For the production of a bacterial ghost vaccine, bacterial ghosts from E. coli / Streptococcus iniae with four different types of antigens - enolase, GAPDH, sagA and piaA - were produced by the optimization of fermentation parameters such as a glucose concentration of 1 g/l, agitation of 300 rpm and aeration of 1 vvm. Efficiency of ghost bacteria formation was evaluated with cultures of OD$_{600}$=1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. The efficiency of the ghost bacteria formation was 99.54, 99.67, 99.99 and 99.99% with inductions at OD$_{600}$=3.0, 1.0, 2.0 and 1.0 for E. coli/S. iniae antigens enolase, piaA, GAPDH and sagA, respectively. Ghost bacteria as a vaccine was harvested by centrifugation. The antigen protein expressions were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and western blot analysis, and the molecular weights of the enolase, piaA, GAPDH and sagA were 78, 26, 67 and 26 kDa, respectively. The molecular weights of the expressed antigens were consistent with theoretical sizes obtained from the amino acid sequences.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.230-242
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• 2017

In the Arabidopsis genome, approximately 80 MAP3Ks (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinases) have been identified. However, only a few of them have been characterized, and the functions of most MAP3Ks are largely unknown. In this paper, we report the function of MAP3K16 and several other MAP3Ks, MAP3K14/15/17/18, whose expression is salt-inducible. We prepared MAP3K16 overexpression (OX) lines and analyzed their phenotypes. The result showed that the transgenic plants were ABA-insensitive during seed germination and cotyledon greening stage but their root growth was ABA-hypersensitive. The OX lines were more susceptible to water-deficit condition at later growth stage in soil. A MAP3K16 knockout (KO) line, on the other hand, exhibited opposite phenotypes. In similar transgenic analyses, we found that MAP3K14/15/17/18 OX and KO lines displayed similar phenotypes to those of MA3K16, suggesting the functional redundancy among them. MAP3K16 possesses in vitro kinase activity, and we carried out two-hybrid analyses to identify MAP3K16 substrates. Our results indicate that MAP3K16 interacts with MKK3 and the negative regulator of ABA response, ABR1, in yeast. Furthermore, MAP3K16 recombinant protein could phosphorylate MKK3 and ABR1, suggesting that they might be MAP3K16 substrates. Collectively, our results demonstrate that MAP3K16 and MAP3K14/15/17/18 are involved in ABA response, playing negative or positive roles depending on developmental stage and that MAP3K16 may function via MKK3 and ABR1.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.291-299
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• 2009

To elucidate HtrA3's functional roles in the HtrA3 mediated cellular processes, it is necessary to investigate its biochemical characteristics. In the present study, we constructed the plasmids encoding putative mature HtrA3 proteins (M1-HtrA3 and M2-HtrA3) based on the putative maturation sites of highly homologous HtrA1 and mouse HtrA3. We used the pGEX bacterial expression system to develop a simple and rapid purification for the recombinant HtrA3 protein. Although yields of the mature HtrA3 proteins were slightly low as 10~50 ${\mu}g$/L, the amounts and purity of M1- and M2-HtrA3 were enough to investigate their proteolytic activities. The putative mature HtrA3 proteins have proteolytic activity which could cleave $\beta$-casein as an exogenous substrate. We compared the proteolytic activity between the HtrA family, HtrA1, HtrA2, and HtrA3. The cleavage activity of HtrA3 and HtrA2 were 2 folds higher than that of HtrA1, respectively. Our study provides a method for generating useful reagents to identify natural substrates of HtrA3 in the further studies.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.4 s.71
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• pp.542-547
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• 2005

Hypersensitivity of cells lacking Brcal to DNA interstrand .ross-link (ICL) agents such as cisplatin and mitomycin C(MMC) implicates the important role of Brcal in cellular response following ICL treatment. Brca1 plays an essential role in DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair through homologous recombination (HR)-dependent and -independent process. Recently, our group has been reported that Brca1 involves in cellular ICL response through HR-dependent repair process (Yun J. et at., Oncogene 2005). In this report, the involvement of Brca1 protein in HR-independent repair process is examined using isogenic $p53^{-/-}\;and\;p53^{-/-}\;Brcal^{-/-}$ mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) and psoralen cross-linked reporter reactivation assay. Brcal-deficient MEFs showed significantly low HR-independent repair activity compare to Brca1-proficient MEFs. Hypersensitivity to MMC and ICL reporter repair activity were restored by the reconstitution of Brca1 expression. Interestingly, MEFs expressing exon 11-deleted isoform of Brca1 $(Brca1^{\Delta11/\Delta11})$ showed high resistance to MMC and ICL reporter repair activity comparable to Brca1-reconstituted MEFs. Taken together, these results suggest that Brca1 involves in ICL repair through not only HR-dependent process but also HR-independent process using N-terminal RINC finger domain or C-terminal BRCT domain rather than exon 11 region which mediate interaction with Rad50.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.1115-1123
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• 2016

_L-Asparaginase (E.C. 3.5.1.1) is an enzyme involved in asparagine hydrolysis and has the potential to effect leukemic cells and various other cancer cells. We identified the _L-asparaginase gene (_L-ASPG86) in the genus Mesoflavibacter, which consists of a 1,035 bp open reading frame encoding 344 amino acids. Following phylogenetic analysis, the deduced amino acid sequence of _L-ASPG86 (_L-ASPG86) was grouped as a type I asparaginase with respective homologs in Escherichia coli and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. The _L-ASPG86 gene was cloned into the pET-16b vector to express the respective protein in E. coli BL21 (DE3) cells. Recombinant _L-asparaginase (r-_L-ASPG86) showed optimum conditions at 37-40℃, pH 9. Moreover, r-_L-ASPG86 did not exhibit glutaminase activity. In the metal ions test, its enzymatic activity was highly improved upon addition of 5 mM manganese (3.97-fold) and magnesium (3.35-fold) compared with the untreated control. The specific activity of r-_L-ASPG86 was 687.1 units/mg under optimum conditions (37℃, pH 9, and 5 mM MnSO₄).

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.274-277
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• 2012

Cytokinesis is the final stage of cell division, dividing one mother cell into two daughter cells. For the cutting of a plasma membrane during bacterial cytokinesis, a tubulin homolog FtsZ protein is recruited from the cytoplasm to the division site. FtsZ protein polymerizes in a GTP-dependent manner and its N-terminal domain has a GTPase activity. In this study, we have begun to characterize FtsZ from Staphylococcus aureus (SA). Full-length SA FtsZ was cloned into pRSFDuet-1 vector and the clone was transformed into a BL21 (DE3) star cell. The recombinant SA FtsZ protein was purified using Ni-NTA affinity chromatography and dialysis. Using a spectrofluorometer, we showed that SA FtsZ undergoes a GTP-dependant polymerization in vitro. The polymer of the SA FtsZ protein disappeared after a few minutes, suggesting that the polymer is degraded as the GTP is consumed. This assay system may well be applied for inhibitor screening targeting S. aureus FtsZ.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.224-231
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• 1995

To increase the expression of a foreign protein in transgenic plant, the benefits of 5'-untranslated leader sequences of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) RNA or soybean glycinin gene, Gy2, fused to a protein coding sequence were exploited. pGA643-derived plasmid contains 355 promoter of cauliflower mosaic virus, protein coding sequence of maize 10 kDa zein (10kZ) and Gy2 terminator. The leader from Gy2 or TMV RNA was inserted between the promoter and the coding sequence in each construct. The recombinant DNAs were introduced into tobacco plants by Agrobacterium mediated leaf disc transformation method. Although the transgene without the leader had more transcripts than the others, mRNAs containing the leader were translated more efficiently. It might be due to difference in the length of 5'-untranslated sequence and context surrounding the AUG codon, but could be sequence specific rather. These results suggest that the leader sequences of Gy2 and TMV play important roles as an enhancer in translational control of foreign gene in transgenic tobacco plant.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.203-208
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• 2000

A Baczllus circdans KCTC3004 $\alpha$-amylase gene contained in a recombinant plasmid pAL850 was transferred into a new shuttle vector plasmid pALSIlI by ligating linearlzed DNAs of pUC19 and pUB110. B. subtilis RM125 and B. megatenurn ATCC14945 transfonned with pALS111 produced the $\alpha$-amylase substantially Most of the enzyme was produced during the exponential growth period. The maxiinurn activities of the $\alpha$-amylase produced by the Bucillus transformants were compared with that of the B. circulans gene donor strain. The B. subtilis RM125(pALS111) enzyme showed the actlvicy 95 times higher than that of the gene donor cells, followed by the B, nzegaterium ATCC14945(pALSlll) enzyme with activity 34 limes higher than that of the gene donor cells. While E coli secreted about 10% of the produced enzyme, B. subtilis excreted the enzyme inlo the medium wholly and B. megaterirun about 98% ofthe total product. The plasmid pALSI11 was quite stable inB. nzegaterium (92%), inoderately stable in B. subtilis (76%), but was unstable in E. coli (38%). The SDS-PAGE and zymogram of this enzyme produced in E. coli(pALS111), B. subtilis( pALS111) or B. megateril~m (pALS111) indicated a molecular weight of 55,000. The enzymes overproduced in three different host cells hydrolyzed starch to produce mainly maltoaiose and mallooligosaccharides.