• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.178-182
• /
• 2004

In the vegetative hyphae of Aspergillus nidulans, a zymogenic form of the class I chitin synthase activity was successfully measured by the assay condition for Saccharomyces cerevisiae class I chitin synthase, Chsl. The class I chitin synthase activity of the A. nidulans chsC wild type strain was increased about six-fold by trypsin-pretreatment, but that of the chsC disruption strain revealed no increase. Interestingly enough, level of the class I chitin synthase activity of the chsC disruption strain was almost the same as that of the chsC wild type without trypsin-pretreatment. These results indicated that the A. nidulans ChsC activity could be measured by account-ing the class I chitin synthase activity without the trypsin-pretreatment as an internal control. Consistence to the expression pattern of the chsC revealed by northern blot analysis, the activity of ChsC was increased upon reaching the culture time for acquiring developmental competence. Our results shown here also supported the previous report suggesting the possible involvement of ChsC in vegetative hyphal growth of A. nidulans.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
• /
• v.25 no.3 s.82
• /
• pp.167-175
• /
• 1997

The PCR fragments of two distinct chitin synthase genes, PdCHSl and PdCHS2, were cloned from Penicillium diversum KCTC 6786. The nucleotide sequences of PdCHSl and PdCHS2 contained uninterrupted open reading frames (ORFs) of 570 bp excluding the primer sequence. The similarity analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences using BLASTP indicated that the possible evolutionary relationship between P. diversum and ascomycetous fungi. Multialignment of the deduced amino acid sequences of PdCHSs using CLASTAL W revealed that the PdCHSs fell into two different classes: PdCHSl into Class I and PdCHS2 into Class II of chitin synthase defined by Bowen et al. (1992). By Southern blot analysis, it was shown that each of the two genes is present as a single copy in the genome of P. diversum KCTC 6786.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.335-342
• /
• 2005

We cloned seven genes encoding chitin synthases (CHSs) by PCR amplification from genomic DNAs of four strains of the genus Sporobolomyces and of Bensingtonia subrosea using degenerated primers based on conserved regions of the CHS genes. Though amino acid sequences of these genes were shown similar as 176 to 189 amino acids except SgCHS2, DNA sequences were different in size, which was due to various introns present in seven fragments. Alignment and phylogenetic analysis of their deduced amino acid sequences together with the reported CHS genes of basidiomycetes separated the sequences into classes I, II and III. This analysis also permitted the classification of isolated CHSs; SgCHS1 belongs to class I, BsCHS1, SaCHS1, SgCHS2, SpgCHS1, and SsCHS1 belong to class II, and BsCHS2 belongs to class III. The deduced amino acid sequences involving in class II that were discovered from five strains were also compared with those of other basidiomycetes by CLUSTAL X program. The bootstrap analysis and phylogenetic tree by neighbor-joining method revealed the taxonomic and evolutionary position for four strains of the genus Sporobolomyces and for Bensingtonia subrosea which agreed with the previous classification. The results clearly showed that CHS fragments could be used as a valuable key for the molecular taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of basidiomycetes.

• Journal of Chitin and Chitosan
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.185-193
• /
• 2017

Red tide Heterosigma akashiwo (H. akashiwo), a microscopic alga of the class Raphidophyceae, causes extensive damage to all marine ecosystems. It is essential to reduce the damage to marine ecosystems for them to be used as a resource. In this study, we used organic solvent fractionation to obtain an ethyl acetate-methanol extract from H. akashiwo (HAEM80) and then evaluated its anti-inflammatory activity in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells and a zebrafish model. HAME80 markedly inhibited the production of nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$). It also down-regulated the protein expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and decreased the secretion of interleukin-$1{\beta}$ ($IL-1{\beta}$) in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. HAME80 reduced yolk edema and improved the survival rate of LPS-stimulated zebrafish embryos; in addition, the extract significantly reduced the production of ROS and NO and attenuated cell death in this model. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) of the extract was used to confirm the identity of peaks 1-20. Taken together, our data suggest that H. akashiwo is a beneficial anti-inflammatory agent.