• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.34-38
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• 1999

Fumonisin B1 is a secondary metabolite of Fusarium moniliforme, a contaminant of corn and corn product. Fumonisin B1 has been shown to be responsible for major toxicological effects of the fungus in rats, horses, and pigs. Fumonisin B1 induced λ DNA fragmentation, which was increased with incubation time, reducing agent NADPH and metal ion (Cu2+). The DNA damage was inhibited by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or mannitol as radical scavenger for free radicals. DNA fragmentation, induced by fumonisin B1 in the presence of 1 mM NADPH and 0.1 mM CuCl2, was inhibited by 100 mM DMSO. By the in vitro reaction of fumonisin B1 with supercoiled plasmid pBR322 DNA, plasmid DNA was relaxed, eventually linearized in the agarose gel electrphoresis. From rifampicin sensitive E. coli CSH138 in bacterial mutagenesis system, the rifampicin resistant E. coli mutants were obtained by fumonisin B1. These results suggest that fumonisin B1 may be a possible environmental mutagen in bacterial mutagen assay system.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.268-277
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• 2024

Erwinia pyrifoliae is a gram-negative bacterial pathogen that commonly causes black shoot blight in pear and apple tree. Although the pathogenicity of this bacterial species is very similar to E. amylovora, there is no specific explanation of its pathogenic genes and mechanisms. In this study, our investigation into E. pyrifoliae pathogenicity involved generating seven YKB12327 mutant strains using Tn5 transposon mutagenesis. Observations revealed weakened growth rate and loss of pathogenicity in these mutants. Whole-genome sequencing and alignment analysis identified transposon insertions within the coding sequences of five strains and in the intergenic region of two strains. Annotation analysis elucidated genes directly or indirectly associated with pathogenicity. Notably, mutant strain MT16 displayed a transposon insertion mutation in the cyclic-di-GMP phosphodiesterase (pdeF) gene, a key player in bacterial signaling, governing microbial behavior and adaptation to environmental changes. Our findings provide insights into the genetic regulation of E. pyrifoliae pathogenicity, suggesting potential avenues for further research aimed at understanding and controlling this bacterial pathogen by targeting pdeF to mitigate apple black shoot blight disease.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.229-233
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• 2004

The bacterial leaf blight, which is caused by Xantho-monas oryzae pv. oryzae, is the most damaging and intractable disease of rice. To identify the genes involved in the virulence mechanism of transposon TnS complex, which possesses a linearized transposon and transposase, was successfully introduced into X. oryzae pv. oryzae by electroporation. The transposon mutants were selected and confirm the presence of transposition in X. oryzae pv. oryzae by the PCR amplification of transposon fragments and the Southern hybridization using these mutants. Furthermore, transposon insertion sites in the mutant bacterial chromosome were deter-mined by direct genomic DNA sequencing using transposon-specific primers with ABI 3100 Genetic Analyzer. Efficiency of transposition was influenced mostly by the competence status of X. oryzae pv. oryzae cells and the conditions of electroporation. These results indicated that the insertion mutagenesis strategy could be applied to define function of uncharacterized genes in X. oryzae pv. oryzae.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.265-270
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• 1995

Transposon mutation of Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) was induced by using transposon omegon ($\Omega$)-Km (Tn $\Omega$Km), which was confirmed by resistance to kanamycin (KMr), and nonpathogenic mutants were selected through the inoculation test on pepper plants. The mutagenesis frequency was about 6$\times$10-8, and 53 out of 2,000 Kmr bacterial colonies tested were nonpathogenic to the pepper cultivar Cheung-Hong. Optimum conditions for the Tn $\Omega$Km mutagenesis of Xcv were Luria Bertani (LB) broth medium for culture of Xcv, yeast extract-dextrose-CaCO3 (YDC) agar medium for selection of Tn $\Omega$Km-mediated mutants, and over 1 to 2 in the ratio of the donor (Escherichia coli S17-1 with the plasmid pJFF350 $\Omega$Km) and the recipient (Xcv) in the culture for the mutagenesis. One of the 4 nonpathogenic mutants (WNP1, WNP3, WNP4 and WNP5), which had been reconfirmed through the inoculation on pepper cv. Dabokgun, showed no differences in the production of exoenzymes such as protease and polygalacturonase and extracellular polysaccharides in vitro and the bacterial growth rate from those of the wild type of Xcv.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.57-61
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• 2001

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), when incorporated into mouse liver microsomal membranes, selectively inhibits the mutagenesis of 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f] quinoline (IQ). Nine-week old female ICR mice were given (p.o.) 0.1 mL olive oil alone (control), 0.1 mL olive oil plus 0.1 mL linoleic acid, or 0.1 mL olive oil plus 0.1 mL CLA, twice weekly for four weeks. The animals were then sacrificed and liver S-9 fractions were prepared. Activation of IQ for mutagenesis by the liver S-9 from CLA-treated mice was significantly reduced in comparison wit liver S-9 from control or linolic acid-treated mice. By contrast, the activation of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a] anthracene (DMBA) and benzo[a] pyrene (BP) was unaffected. Hence, CLA incorporated into phospholipids may selectively affect cytochrome P450 isozymes responsible for activating IQ, but not those which activate BP or DMBA. The addition of free CLA or the methyl esters of CLA, linoleic acid, or oleic acid, to control S-9 inhibited the activation of all three mutagens (IQ, BP, and DMBA).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.359-365
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• 1998

This study was carried out to investigate mutagenecity and antimutagenic effects from crude extract, heating extract and alcohol extract of Korean mistletoe(Viscum album L.) on the bacterial short-term tests, such as Ames test, spore rec-assay, SOS spot test and SOS chromotest by using several kinds of mutagens. In the Ames test, each extract did not show any mutagenesis, but each extract showed inhibitory effects of 80∼95% and 70∼94% against mutagenesis induced by 3-amino-1, 4-dimethyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b] indole(Trp-P-1) and 2-aminofluorene(2-AF) in Salmonella typhimurium TA98, respectively. In th spore rec-assay, mistletoe ectracts showed antimutagenic effect with inhibiton zone in the range of 5∼11mm against mutagenicity induced by mitomycin C(MMC, 18mm) and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidne (MNNG, 24mm), respectively. The heating and alcohol extracts in the SOS chromotest showed 96% and 70% inhibition against benzo-α-pyrene[B(α)P] and Trp-P-1 induced mutagenesis, respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.869-872
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• 2009

The cyclic undecapeptide cyclosporin A (CyA), one of the most valuable immunosuppressive drugs, is produced nonribosomally by a multifunctional cyclosporin synthetase enzyme complex by the filamentous fungus Tolypocladium niveum. To increase CyA productivity by wild-type T. niveum (ATCC 34921), random mutagenesis was first performed using an antifungal agar-plug colony assay (APCA) selection approach. This generated a mutant strain producing more than 9-fold greater CyA than the wild-type strain. Additionally, a foreign bacterial gene, Vitreoscilla hemoglobin gene (VHb), was transformed via protoplast regeneration and its transcription was confirmed by RT-PCR in the UV-irradiated mutant cell. This led to an additional 33.5% increase of CyA production. Although most protoplast-regenerated T. niveum transformants tend to lose CyA productivity, the optimized combination of random mutagenesis and protoplast transformation described here should be an efficient strategy to generate a commercially valuable, yet metabolite low-producing, fungal species, such as CyA-producing T. niveum.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.217-228
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• 2009

Mobile genetic segments, or transposons, are also referred to as jumping genes as they can shift from one position in the genome to another, thus inducing a chromosomal mutation. According to the target site-specificity of the transposon during a transposition event, the result is either the insertion of a gene of interest at a specific chromosomal site, or the creation of knockout mutants. The former situation includes the integration of conjugative transposons via site-specific recombination, several transposons preferring a target site of a conserved AT-rich sequence, and Tn7 being site-specifically inserted at attTn7, the downstream of the essential glmS gene. The latter situation is exploited for random mutagenesis in many prokaryotes, including IS (insertion sequence) elements, mariner, Mu, Tn3 derivatives (Tn4430 and Tn917), Tn5, modified Tn7, Tn10, Tn552, and Ty1, enabling a variety of genetic manipulations. Randomly inserted transposons have been previously employed for a variety of applications such as genetic footprinting, gene transcriptional and translational fusion, signature-tagged mutagenesis (STM), DNA or cDNA sequencing, transposon site hybridization (TraSH), and scanning linker mutagenesis (SLM). Therefore, transposon-mediated genetic engineering is a valuable discipline for the study of bacterial physiology and pathogenesis in living hosts.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.365-374
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• 2005

To find potential targets of novel antimicrobial agents, we identified essential genes of Streptococcus pneumoniae using comparative genomics and allelic replacement mutagenesis. We compared the genome of S. pneumoniae R6 with those of Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus, and selected 693 candidate target genes with > 40% amino acid sequence identity to the corresponding genes in at least two of the other species. The 693 genes were disrupted and 133 were found to be essential for growth. Of these, 32 encoded proteins of unknown function, and we were able to identify orthologues of 22 of these genes by genomic comparisons. The experimental method used in this study is easy to perform, rapid and efficient for identifying essential genes of bacterial pathogens.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.623-632
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• 2006

To find potential targets of novel antimicrobial agents, we identified essential genes of Staphylococcus aureus N315 by using comparative genomics and allele replacement mutagenesis. By comparing the genome of S. aureus N315 with those of Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, a total of 481 candidate target genes with similar amino acid sequences with at least three other species by >40% sequence identity were selected. of 481 disrupted candidate genes, 122 genes were identified as essential genes for growth of S. aureus N315. Of these, 51 essential genes were those not identified in any bacterial species, and 24 genes encode proteins of unknown function. Seventeen genes were determined as non-essential although they were identified as essential genes in other strain of S. aureus and other species. We found no significant difference among essential genes between Streptococcus pneumoniae and S. aureus with regard to cellular function.