• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.502-508
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• 1999

Chitin is an important structural component of fungal cell wall and is synthesized by chitin synthase I, II, and III. The chitin synthase II is an essential enzyme for the formation of primary septum in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Therefore, specific inhibitors of this enzyme might block the formation of fungal cell wall and could be used as effective antifungal agents. To search chitin synthase IIinhibitors from natural products, 67 plants were extracted with methanol and examined for the inhibitory activities against chitin synthase II of S. cerevisiae by our cell free assay system. As a result, the extracts from 16 plants showed more than 70% inhibition at the concentration of $280{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$. Of note, Laurus nobilis (81.4%), Lonicera maackii (81.5%), Berchemia berchemiaefolia (82.9%), Koelreuteria paniculata (87.9%), Chamaecyparis pisifera (86%) and Taxus cuspidata (83.9%) inhibited strogly the chitin synthase IIactivity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.251-257
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• 2000

Chitin synthases are identified as key enzymes of chitin biosynthesis in most of the fungi. Among them, chitin synthase II has been reported to be and essential enzyme in chitin biosynthesis, and exists as a membrane-bound form. To search and screen new antifungal agents from natural resources to inhibit chitin synthase II, the assay conditions were established using the enzyme isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisiae ECY38-38A(pAS6) that overproduces only chitin synthase II. This enzyme was activated only by partial proteolysis with trypsin. Its actibity reached the maximum at $80{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$ of trypsin and was strongly stimulated by 2.0 mM $Co^{2+}$, 1.0 nM UDP-[$^{14}C$]-GicNAc, and 32 mM free-GlcNAc. Under these assay conditions, the highest chitin synthase II activity was observed by incubation at $30^{\circ}C$ for 90 min. However, and extremely narrow range of organic solvents up to as much as 25% of DMSO and 25% of MeOH was useful for determining optimal assay conditions. After a search or potent inhibitors of chitin synthase II from natural resources, prodigiosin was isolated from Serratia marcescens and purified by solvent extration and silica gel column chromatographies. The structure of prodigiosin was determined by UV, IR, Mass spectral, and NMR spectral analyses. Its molecular weight and formula were found to be 323 and $C_{20}H_{25}N_{3}O$, respectively. Prodigiosin ingibited chitin synthase II by 50% at the concentration of $115{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.159-164
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• 1997

The phylogenetic study of Penicilium chrysogenum was performed based on amino acid sequence comparison of chitin synthase. Phylogenetic trees were constructed with the deduced amino acid sequences of the highly conserved region of chitin synthease gene fragments amplified by PCR. The BlasP similarity searcch and the bootstrap analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences of chitin synthase from P. chrysogenum with those form other fungi showed a close evolutionary relationship of Penicillium to ascomycetous fungi, especially to genus Aspergilus. The result from bootstrap analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences of the Class II chitin synthase from ascomyceteous fungi supported the usefulness of the Class II chitin synthease for phylogenetic study of filamentous fungi.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.263-268
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• 2003

Recently, we identified a domain, termed MIRC3-4, for the protein-protein interaction between yeast chitin synthase 3 (CHS3) and chitin synthase 4 (CHS4). In this study, the functional roles of MIRC3-4 were examined at the G1 phase and cytokinesis of the cell cycle by Calcofluor staining and FISH. Some mutations in MIRC3-4 resulted in disappearance of the chitin ring in the early G1 phase, but did not affect chitin synthesis in the cell wall at cytokinesis. The chitin distribution in chs4 mutant cells indicated that CHS4 was involved in the synthesis of chitinring in the G1 phase and in the synthesis of cell wall chitin after cytokinesis, suggesting that Chs4p regulates chitin synthase 3 activity differently in G1 and cytokinesis. Absence of the chitin ring could be caused either by delocalization of Chs3p to the bud-neck or by improper interaction with Chs4p. When mutant cells were immunostained with a Chs3p-specific antibody to discriminate between these two alternatives, the mutated Ch3p was found to localize to the neck in all MIRC3-4 mutants. These results strongly irdicate that Chs4p regulates Chs3p as an activator but not a recruiter.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.422-425
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• 1998

Chitin synthase null-mutants propagate in yeast form in RPMI medium with suppression of hyphal growth. This hyphal suppression is also observed in the wild type culture grown in RPMI medium supplemented with deer antler extract. To identify the possible target of deer antler extract, the enzymatic activities of chitin synthases were examined. The enzymatic activities of three chitin synthases, CAChsl, CAChs2, and CAChs3, were found to be differentially inhibited by deer antler extract. Of them, CAChsl, was the most sensitive to the extract. These results indicate that deer antler extract causes hyphal suppression, which resembles the effects of chitin synthase deletion, probably through direct inhibition of chitin synthases.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.943-949
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• 2002

It has been proposed that chitin synthase 3 (CHS3)-nediated chitin synthesis during the vegetative cell cycle is regulated by chitin synthase 4 (CHS4) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To investigate direct protein-protein interaction between the coding products of these two genes, a domain of Chs3p that is responsible for interaction with Chs4p was identified, using the yeast two-hybrid system. This domain of 54 amino acids, termed MIRC3-4 (Maximum Interacting Region of Chs3p with Chs4p), is well conserved among CHS3 homologs of various fungi. Some mutations in MIRC3-4 resulted in a decrease in the enzymatic activity and chitin contents. Chs3p carrying those mutations exhibited weak interactions with Chs4p, when assayed by the yeast two-hybrid system. Surprisingly, all the mutants were sensitive to Calcofluor regardless of changes in enzymatic activities or chitin contents. This report deals with a core region in MIRC3-4 that affects the interaction with Chs4p.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.509-515
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• 1999

To search for new chitin biosynthesis inhibitors from natural sources, several higher plants were examined the inhibitory activity against chitin synthase IIby enzymatic assay. Among them, the extract of Schizandra chinensis strongly showed the inhibitory activity against chitin synthase II. Gomisin N and wuweizisu C were isolated from Schizandra chinensis and showed $IC_50$ value of $62.4{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$ and $19.2{\;}\mu\textrm{g}/ml$, respectively. Activities of these compounds were more stronger than that of polyxin D. However, gomisin N and wuweizisu C showed weakly antifungal activities against various human pathogens.

• Mycobiology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.179-182
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• 2001

Chitin synthases(UDP-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine: chitin 4-$\beta$-N-acetyl-D-glucosaminyl transferase, EC 2.4.1.16) catalyze the synthesis of chitin from UDP-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. Two zymogenic type of chitin synthase gene(TmCHS1 and TmCHS2) were amplified and its nucleotide sequences were determined. By the amino acid comparison and UPGMA tree grouping, TmChs1 and TmChs2 were classified as class II and class IV chitin synthases respectively. The class II type TmChs1 was grouped with others of Agaricales ectomycorrhizal mushroom. Additionally the phylogenetic tree was well adapted to Hymenomycete previously classified by morphological and physiological characteristics.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.895-898
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• 2005

In the course of searching for potent chitin synthase 1 inhibitors from natural resources, Streptomyces sp. A6705 was found to exhibit potent inhibitory activity against the chitin synthase 1 from C. albicans (CaCHS1p). As a result, the inhibitor was isolated and identified using a series of chromatographies. Through chemical analyses with UV spectrophotometry, MS spectrometry, and various NMR techniques, the inhibitor was identified as N,N-bis(2-phenylethyl)urea. The compound exhibited strong inhibitory activity against the chitin synthase 1 from C. albicans with an $IC_{50}$ of 14 ${\mu}g$/ml, representing a similar inhibitory activity to that of the well-known chitin synthase inhibitor, polyoxin D ($IC_{50}$ 15 ${\mu}g$/ml). However, the compound showed no inhibitory activity against the chitin synthase 2 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae up to 280 ${\mu}g$/ml, which is structurally and functionally analogous to CaCHS 1 p. In addition, the compound exhibited weak antifungal activities against Cryptococcus neoformans and Rhizoctonis solani.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.222-227
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• 1997

DNA fragments homologous to chitin synthase gene were amplified from the genomic DNA of Beauveria brongniartii by PCR using degenerate primers. Cloning and sequencing of the PCR-amplified fragments led to the identification of a gene, designated BbCHSl. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence of BbCHSl with those of other Euascomycetes revealed that BbCHSl is a gene for class II chitin synthase. The Blastp search of the deduced amino acid sequence of BbCHSl displayed the highest rate of similarity, 95.8%, with CHS2 of Metarhizium unisopliae. Phylogenetic analysis of the amino acid sequences confirmed the taxonomic and evolutionary position of B. brongniartii, which was previously derived by traditional fungal classification based on morphological features.