• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.613-616
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• 2011

Streptomyces venezuelae YJ028, bearing a deletion of the entire biosynthetic gene cluster encoding the pikromycin polyketide synthases and desosamine biosynthetic enzymes, was used as a bioconversion system for combinatorial biosynthesis of glycosylated derivatives of tylosin. Two engineered deoxysugar biosynthetic pathways for the biosynthesis of TDP-3-O-demethyl-D-chalcose or TDP-L-rhamnose in conjunction with the glycosyltransferaseauxiliary protein pair DesVII/DesVIII were expressed in a S. venezuelae YJ028 mutant strain. Supplementation of each mutant strain capable of producing TDP-3-O-demethyl-D-chalcose or TDP-L-rhamnose with tylosin aglycone tylactone resulted in the production of the 3-O-demethyl-D-chalcose, D-quinovose, or L-rhamnose-glycosylated tylactone.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1675-1681
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• 2007

The pseudodisaccharide salbostatin, which consists of valienamine linked to 2-amino-1,5-anhydro-2-deoxyglucitol, is a strong trehalase inhibitor. From our Streptomyces albus ATCC 21838 genomic library, we identified thirty-two ORFs in a 37-kb gene cluster. Twenty-one genes are supposed to be a complete set of modules responsible for the salbostatin biosynthesis. Through sequence analysis of the gene cluster, some of the upstream gene products (SalB, SalC, SalD, SalE, and SalF) revealed functional resemblance with trehalose biosynthetic enzymes. On the basis of this rationale, we isolated the five genes (salB, salC, salD, salE, and salF) from the S. albus ATCC 21838 and cloned them into the expression vector pWHM3. We demonstrated the noticeable expression and accumulation of trehalose, using only the five upstream biosynthetic gene cluster of salbostatin, in the transformed Streptomyces lividans TK24. Finally, 490 mg/l trehalose was produced by fermentation of the transformant with sucrosedepleted R2YE media.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.269-282
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• 2000

Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids are a diverse group of natural products that include many pharmacologically active compounds produced in a limited number of plant families. Despite their complexity, intensive biochemical research has extended our knowledge of the chemistry and enzymology of many important benzylisoquinoline alkaloid pathways, such as those leading to the analgesic drugs morphine and codeine, and the antibiotics sanguinarine and berberine. The use of cultured plant cells as an experimental system has facilitated the identification and characterization of more than 30 benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic enzymes, and the molecular cloning of the genes that encode at least 8 of these enzymes. The recent expansion of biochemical and molecular technologies has creat-ed unique opportunities to dissect the mechanisms involved in the regulation of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthesis in plants. Research has suggested that product accumulation is controlled by the developmental and inducible regulation of several benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic genes, and by the subcellular compartmentation of biosynthetic enzymes and the intracellular localization and trafficking of pathway intermediates. In this paper, we review our current understanding of the biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular regulation of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthesis in plants. We also summarize our own research activities, especially those related to the establishment of protocols for the genetic transformation of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid-producing species, and the development of metabolic engineering strategies in these plants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.367-372
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• 2019

Deactivation of aminoglycosides by their modifying enzymes, including a number of aminoglycoside O-phosphotransferases, is the most ubiquitous resistance mechanism in aminoglycoside-resistant pathogens. Nonetheless, in a couple of biosynthetic pathways for gentamicins, fortimicins, and istamycins, phosphorylation of aminoglycosides seems to be a unique and initial step for the creation of a natural defensive structural feature such as a 3',4'-dideoxy scaffold. Our aim was to elucidate the biochemical details on the beginning of these C3',4'-dideoxygenation biosynthetic steps for aminoglycosides. The biosynthesis of istamycins must surely involve these 3',4'-didehydroxylation steps, but much less has been reported in terms of characterization of istamycin biosynthetic genes, especially about the phosphotransferase-encoding gene. In the disruption and complementation experiments pointing to a putative gene, istP, in the genome of wild-type Streptomyces tenjimariensis, the function of the istP gene was proved here to be a phosphotransferase. Next, an in-frame deletion of a known phosphotransferase-encoding gene forP from the genome of wild-type Micromonospora olivasterospora resulted in the appearance of a hitherto unidentified fortimicin shunt product, namely 3-O-methyl-FOR-KK1, whereas complementation of forP restored the natural fortimicin metabolite profiles. The bilateral complementation of an istP gene (or forP) in the ${\Delta}forP$ mutant (or ${\Delta}istP$ mutant strain) successfully restored the biosynthesis of 3',4'-dideoxy fortimicins and istamycins, thus clearly indicating that they are interchangeable launchers of the biosynthesis of 3',4'-dideoxy types of 1,4-diaminocyclitol antibiotics.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.04a
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• pp.34-34
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• 2019

About 60% of the present drugs were developed from natural products with unique chemical diversity and biological activities. Hence, discovery of new bioactive compounds from natural products is still important for the drug development. On the other hand, breakthrough made in synthetic biology has also begun to supply us with many useful compounds through manipulation of biosynthetic gene for secondary metabolites. Theoretically, this approach can also be exploited to generate new unnatural compounds by intermixing genes from different biosynthetic pathway. Considering the potential, we are studying about bioactive compounds in natural sources, as well as the biosynthesis of natural products including engineering of the secondary metabolite enzymes to make new compounds in order to construct the methodological basis of the synthetic biology. In this symposium, engineering of secondary metabolite enzymes that are involved in the biosynthesis of plant polyketides to generate new compounds in our laboratory will be mainly introduced.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.8-15
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• 2021

More and more available fungal genome sequence data reveal a large amount of secondary metabolite (SM) biosynthetic 'dark matter' to be discovered. Heterogeneous expression is one of the most effective approaches to exploit these novel natural products, but it is limited by having to clone entire biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) without errors. So far, few effective technologies have been developed to manipulate the specific large DNA fragments in filamentous fungi. Here, we developed a fungal BGC-capturing system based on CRISPR/Cas9 cleavage in vitro. In our system, Cas9 protein was purified and CRISPR guide sequences in combination with in vivo yeast assembly were rationally designed. Using targeted cleavages of plasmid DNAs with linear (8.5 kb) or circular (8.5 kb and 28 kb) states, we were able to cleave the plasmids precisely, demonstrating the high efficiency of this system. Furthermore, we successfully captured the entire Nrc gene cluster from the genomic DNA of Neosartorya fischeri. Our results provide an easy and efficient approach to manipulate fungal genomic DNA based on the in vitro application of Cas9 endonuclease. Our methodology will lay a foundation for capturing entire groups of BGCs in filamentous fungi and accelerate fungal SMs mining.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.507-517
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• 2019

Rhodotorula is a group of pigment-producing yeasts well known for its intracellular biosynthesis of carotenoids such as ${\beta}-carotene$, ${\gamma}-carotene$, torulene and torularhodin. The great potential of carotenoids in applications in food and feed as well as in health products and cosmetics has generated a market value expected to reach over $2.0 billion by 2022. Due to growing public concern over food safety, the demand for natural carotenoids is rising, and this trend significantly encourages the use of microbial fermentation for natural carotenoid production. This review covers the biological properties of carotenoids and the most recent findings on the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, as well as strategies for the metabolic engineering methods for the enhancement of carotenoid production by Rhodotorula. The practical approaches to improving carotenoid yields, which have been facilitated by advancements in strain work as well as the optimization of media and fermentation conditions, were summarized respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.973-979
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• 2023

Lycopene is a carotenoid widely used as a food and feed supplement due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer functions. Various metabolic engineering strategies have been implemented for high lycopene production in Escherichia coli, and for this purpose it was essential to select and develop an E. coli strain with the highest potency. In this study, we evaluated 16 E. coli strains to determine the best lycopene production host by introducing a lycopene biosynthetic pathway (crtE, crtB, and crtI genes cloned from Deinococcus wulumuqiensis R12 and dxs, dxr, ispA, and idi genes cloned from E. coli). The 16 lycopene strain titers diverged from 0 to 0.141 g/l, with MG1655 demonstrating the highest titer (0.141 g/l), while the SURE and W strains expressed the lowest (0 g/l) in an LB medium. When a 2 × YTg medium replaced the MG1655 culture medium, the titer further escalated to 1.595 g/l. These results substantiate that strain selection is vital in metabolic engineering, and further, that MG1655 is a potent host for producing lycopene and other carotenoids with the same lycopene biosynthetic pathway.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.174-179
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• 2004

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.1144-1154
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• 2019

There have been several studies regarding lichen-associated bacteria obtained from diverse environments. Our screening process identified 49 bacterial species in two lichens from the Himalayas: 17 species of Actinobacteria, 19 species of Firmicutes, and 13 species of Proteobacteria. We discovered five types of strong antimicrobial agent-producing bacteria. Although some strains exhibited weak antimicrobial activity, NP088, NP131, NP132, NP134, and NP160 exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against all multidrug-resistant strains. Polyketide synthase (PKS) fingerprinting revealed results for 69 of 148 strains; these had similar genes, such as fatty acid-related PKS, adenylation domain genes, PfaA, and PksD. Although the association between antimicrobial activity and the PKS fingerprinting results is poorly resolved, NP160 had six types of PKS fingerprinting genes, as well as strong antimicrobial activity. Therefore, we sequenced the draft genome of strain NP160, and predicted its secondary metabolism using antiSMASH version 4.2. NP160 had 46 clusters and was predicted to produce similar secondary metabolites with similarities of 5-100%. Although NP160 had 100% similarity with the alkylresorcinol biosynthetic gene cluster, our results showed low similarity with existing members of this biosynthetic gene cluster, and most have not yet been revealed. In conclusion, we expect that lichen-associated bacteria from the Himalayas can produce new secondary metabolites, and we found several secondary metabolite-related biosynthetic gene clusters to support this hypothesis.