• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.203-208
• /
• 1991

The dapA-complementing gene (L-2, 3-dihydrodipicolinate synthetase: DHDP synthetase, dapA) has been cloned by using a cosmid genomic bank of Corynebacterium glutamicum JS231 that is a lysine overproducer, AEC (s-(2-aminoethyl)-L-cysteine) resistant mutant. By enzymatic deletion analysis, the DNA region complementing the escherichia coli dapA host could be confined to 4.5kb SalI-generated DNA fragment. This DNA fragment was inserted into the C. glutamicum/E. coli shuttle vector pECCG117 to construct pDHDP5812. The specific activity of DHDP synthetase detected in C. glutamicum JS231/pDHDP5812 was increased about 10 fold above that of C. glutamicum JS231. The addition of leucine during growth did not repress the expressin of dapA, and the enzyme activity was not inhibited by lysine.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.7-11
• /
• 2024

Glutathione (GSH) is a vital compound composed of glutamic acid, cysteine, and glycine, crucial for cellular functions including oxidative stress defense and detoxification. It has widespread applications in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food industries due to its antioxidant properties and immune system support. Two primary methods for GSH synthesis are enzymatic and microbial fermentation. Enzymatic synthesis is efficient but costly, while microbial fermentation, particularly using yeast strains like Candida albicans, offers a cost-effective alternative. This study focuses on genetically modifying C. albicans mutants, specifically targeting glutathione reductase (GLR1) and gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (GCS1) genes, integral to GSH synthesis. By optimizing these mutants, the research aims to develop a model for efficient GSH production, potentially expanding its applications in the food industry.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.573-580
• /
• 2009

It has been previously reported that the carboxyl terminal residues 276 and 277 of ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin are important for actin affinity. In order to investigate actin affinities of these two residues of skeletal (HA) and smooth (QT) muscle ${\alpha}$-tropomyosins, a series of mutant tropomyosins were constructed in which residues at either 276 or 277 were individually replaced with a cysteine residue for chemical modification. These mutants were overexpressed in E. coli as unacetylated and Ala-Ser (AS) dipeptide fusion forms. While actin affinities of unacetylated tropomyosins were considerably low, those of AS/TMs were remarkably higher than those of corresponding unacetylated tropomyosins. However, actin affinities of AS/TM24 (QC) and AS/TM29 (HC) were dramatically lower than those of other AS/TMs and were close to those of unacetylated tropomyosins. In addition, actin affinities of unacetylated TM24 (QC) and TM29 (HC) failed to be restored in the presence of troponin, unlike unacetylated TM10 (HA) and TM23 (CA). These results indicated that the presence of a cysteine residue at 277 caused a drastic decrease in actin affinity, and also that the residue 277 is important for actin affinity of ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin. Since TM23 (CA) showed high actin affinity, it may serve as a valuable tool for chemical modification studies for investigating the interaction of the carboxyl terminal residues of ${\alpha}$-tropomyosin with actin and/or troponin.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.10
• /
• pp.4291-4295
• /
• 2015

Background: Chemokines and their receptors influence carcinogenesis and cysteine-cysteine chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) directs spread of cancer to other tissues. A 32 base pair deletion in the coding region of CCR5 that might alter the expression or function of the protein has been implicated in a variety of immune-mediated diseases. The action of antiviral drugs being proposed as adjuvant therapy in cancer is dependent on CCR5 wild type status. In the present study, distribution of CCR5${\Delta}32$ polymorphism was assessed in North Indian esophageal cancer patients to explore the potential of using chemokine receptors antagonists as adjuvant therapy. Materials and Methods: DNA samples of 175 sporadic esophageal cancer patients (69 males and 106 females) and 175 unrelated healthy control individuals (69 males and 106 females) were screened for the CCR5${\Delta}32$ polymorphism by direct polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: The frequencies of wild type homozygous (CCR5/CCR5), heterozygous (CCR5/${\Delta}32$) and homozygous mutant (${\Delta}32/{\Delta}32$) genotypes were 96.0 vs 97.72%, 4.0 vs 1.71% and 0 vs 0.57% in patients and controls respectively. There was no difference in the genotype and allele frequencies of CCR5${\Delta}32$ polymorphism in esophageal cancer patients and control group. Conclusions: The CCR5${\Delta}32$ polymorphism is not associated with esophageal cancer in North Indians. As the majority of patients express the wild type allele, there is potential of using antiviral drug therapy as adjuvant therapy.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.97-103
• /
• 2005

The role of residue C323 in catalysis by human glutamate dehydrogenase isozymes (hGDH1 and hGDH2) was examined by substituting Arg, Gly, Leu, Met, or Tyr at C323 by cassette mutagenesis using synthetic human GDH isozyme genes. As a result, the $K_m$ of the enzyme for NADH and ${\alpha}-ketoglutarate$ increased up to 1.6-fold and 1.1-fold, respectively. It seems likely that C323 is not responsible for substrate-binding or coenzyme-binding. The efficiency ($k_{cat}/K_m$) of the mutant enzymes was only 11-14% of that of the wild-type isozymes, mainly due to a decrease in $k_{cat}$ values. There was a linear relationship between incorporation of [$^{14}C$]p-chloromercuribenzoic acid and loss of enzyme activity that extrapolated to a stoichiometry of one mol of [$^{14}C$] incorporated per mol of monomer for wild type hGDHs. No incorporation of [$^{14}C$]p-chloromercuribenzoic acid was observed with the C323 mutants. ADP and GTP had no effect on the binding of p-chloromercuribenzoic acid, suggesting that C323 is not directly involved in allosteric regulation. There were no differences between the two hGDH isozymes in sensitivities to mutagenesis at C323. Our results suggest that C323 plays an important role in catalysis by human GDH isozymes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
• /
• 2000.04a
• /
• pp.157-167
• /
• 2000

A thermostable chitosanase gene from the isolated strain, Bacillus sp. CK4, was cloned, and its complete DNA sequence was determined. The thermostable chitosanase gene was composed of an 822-bp open reading frame which encodes a protein of 242 amino acids and a signal peptide corresponding to a 30 kDa enzyme in size. The deduced amino acid sequence of the chitosanase from Bacillus sp. CK4 exhibits 76.6%, 15.3%, and 14.2% similarities to those from Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus ehemensis, and Bacillus circulans, respectively. C-terminal homology analysis shows that Bacillus sp. CK4 belongs to the Cluster III group with Bacillus subtilis. The size of the gene was similar to that of a mesophile, Bacillus subtilis showing a higher preference for codons ending in G or C. The functional importance of a conserved region in a novel chitosanase from Bacillus sp. CK4 was investigated. Each of the three carboxylic amino acid residues were changed to E50D/Q, E62D/Q, and D66N/E by site-directed mutagenesis. The D66N/E mutants enzymes had remarkably decreased kinetic parameters such as $V_{max}$ and k$\sub$cat/, indicating that the Asp-66 residue was essential for catalysis. The thermostable chitosanase contains three cysteine residues at position 49, 72, and 211. Titration of the Cys residues with DTNB showed that none of them were involved in disulfide bond. The C49S and C72S mutant enzymes were as stable to thermal inactivation and denaturating agents as the wild-type enzyme. However the half-life of the C211S mutant enzyme was less than 60 min at 80$^{\circ}C$, while that of the wild type enzyme was about 90 min. Moreover, the residual activity of C211S was substantially decreased by 8 M urea, and fully lost catalytic activity by 40% ethanol. These results show that the substitution of Cys with Ser at position 211 seems to affect the conformational stability of the chitosanase.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.214-221
• /
• 1998

A Brevibacterium ammoniagenes gene coding for glucose/mannose-specific enzyme II ($EII^{Glc}$) of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system (PTS) was cloned by complementing an Escherichia coli mutation affecting a ptsG gene, and the complete DNA nucleotide sequence was determined. The cloned gene was identified to be a ptsG, which enables the E. coli transportment to use glucose more efficiently than mannose as the sole carbon source in an M9 minimal medium. The ptsG gene of B. ammoniagenes consists of an open reading frame of 1,983 nucleotides putatively encoding a polypeptide of 661 amino acid residues and a TAA stop codon. The deduced amino acid sequence of the B. ammoniagenes $EII^{Glc}$ shows, at $46\%$, the highest degree of sequence similarity with the Corynebacterium glutamicum EII specific for both glucose and mannose. In addition, the $EII^{Glc}$ shares approximately $30\%$ sequence similarities with sucrose-specific and ${\beta}$-glucoside-specific EIIs of the several bacteria belonging to the glucose-PTS class. The 161-amino-acid C-terminal sequence of $EII^{Glc}$ is also similar to that of E. coli enzyme $IIA^{Glc}$, specific for glucose ($EIIA^{Glc}$). The B. ammoniagenes $EII^{Glc}$ consists of three domains; a hydrophobic region (EIIC) and two hydrophilic regions (EIIA, EIIB). The arrangement of structural domains, IIBCA, of the $EII^{Glc}$ is identical to those of EIIs specific for sucrose or ${\beta}$-glucoside. While the domain IIA was removed from the B. ammoniagenes $EII^{Glc}$ the remaining domains IIBC were found to restore the glucose and mannose-utilizing capacity of E. coli mutant lacking $EII^{Glc}$ activity with $EIIA^{Glc}$ of the E. coli mutant. $EII^{Glc}$ contains a histidine residue and a cysteine residue which are putative phosphorylation sites for the protein.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.92-97
• /
• 1985

UV irradiation method was applied to Agrobacterium tumefaciens A 136 to obtain arginine auxotrophic mutant which is applicable as a host of Ti-plasmid. When the bacterial growth was measured at 600 nm, it showed the exponential phase between 7 and 16 hours after 2% inoculation (v/v) in TY medium and the generation time of 4.8 hours. Survival rate of $1{\sim}0.1%$ was reserved when irradiated at the intensity of $800\;{\mu}w/cm^2$ for $30{\sim}50sec$. Fifteen mutants were selected among 5,000 colonies after UV irradiation. Two of them were identified as arginine auxotrophs, three of them as asparagine auxotrophs, ana the other not as arginine, asparagine, glycine nor cysteine auxotrophs.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.46-51
• /
• 2003

RAD6 in yeast mediates postreplication DNA repair and is responsible for DNA-damage induced mutations. RAD6 encodes ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme that is well conserved among eukaryotic organisms. However, the molecular targets and consequences of their ubiquitination by Rad6 have remained elusive. In Aspergillus nidulans, a RAD6 homolog has been isolated and shown to be an allele of uvs). We screened a CDNA library to isolate UVSJ-interacting proteins by the yeast two-hybrid system. JIPA was identified as an interactor of UVSJ. Their interaction was confirmed in vitro by a GST-pull down assay. JIPA was also able to interact with mutant UVSJ proteins, UVSJl and the active site cysteine mutant UVSJ-C88A. The N- and the C-terminal regions of UVSJ required for the interaction with UVSH, a RAD18 homolog of yeast which physically interacts with Rad6, were not necessary for the JIPA and UVSJ interactions. About 1.4 kb jipA transcript was detected in Northern analysis and its amount was not significantly increased in response to DNA-damaging agents. A genomic DNA clone of the jipA gene was isolated from a chromosome I specific genomic library by PCR-sib selection. Sequence determination of genomic and cDNA of jipA revealed an ORF of 893 bp interrupted by 2 introns, encoding a putative polypeptide of 262 amino acids. JIPA has 33% amino acid sequence identity to TIP41 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae which negatively regulates the TOR signaling pathway.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.37-43
• /
• 2006

Gap junction is an ion channel forming between adjacent cells. It also acts as a membrane channel like sodium or potassium channels in a single cell. The amino acid residues up to the $10^{th}$ position in the amino (N)-terminus of gap junction hemichannel affect gating polarity as well as current-voltage (I-V) relation. While wild-type Cx32 channel shows negative gating polarity and inwardly rectifying I-V relation, T8D channel in which threonine residue at $8^{th}$ position is replaced with negatively charged aspartate residue shows reverse gating polarity and linear I-V relation. It is still unclear whether these changes are resulted from the charge effect or the conformational change of the N-terminus. To clarify this issue, we made a mutant channel harboring cysteine residue at the $8^{th}$ position (T8C) and characterized its biophysical properties using substituted-cysteine accessibility method (SCAM). T8C channel shows negative gating polarity and inwardly rectifying I-V relation as wild-type channel does. This result indicates that the substitution of cysteine residue dose not perturb the original conformation of wild-type channel. To elucidate the charge effect two types of methaenthiosulfonate (MTS) reagents (negatively charged $MTSES^-$ and positively charged $MTSET^+$) were used. When $MTSES^-$ was applied, T8C channel behaved as T8D channel, showing positive gating polarity and linear I-V relation. This result indicates that the addition of a negative charge changes the biophysical properties of T8C channel. However, positively charged $MTSET^+$ maintained the main features of T8C channel as expected. It is likely that the addition of a charge by small MTS reagents does not distort the conformation of the N-terminus. Therefore, the opposite effects of $MTSES^-$ and $MTSETT^+$ on T8C channel suggest that the addition of a charge itself rather than the conformational change of the N-terminus changes gating polarity and I-V relation. Furthermore, the accessibility of MTS reagents to amino acid residues at the $8^{th}$ position supports the idea that the N-terminus of gap junction channel forms or lies in the aqueous pore.