• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.313-322
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• 2024

Mutations within the SCN5A gene, which encodes the α-subunit 5 (Na_V1.5) of the voltage-gated Na⁺ channel, have been linked to three distinct cardiac arrhythmia disorders: long QT syndrome type 3, Brugada syndrome (BrS), and cardiac conduction disorder. In this study, we have identified novel missense mutations (p.A385T/R504T) within SCN5A in a patient exhibiting overlap arrhythmia phenotypes. This study aims to elucidate the functional consequences of SCN5A mutants (p.A385T/R504T) to understand the clinical phenotypes. Whole-cell patch-clamp technique was used to analyze the Na_V1.5 current (I_Na) in HEK293 cells transfected with the wild-type and mutant SCN5A with or without SCN1B co-expression. The amplitude of I_Na was not altered in mutant SCN5A (p.A385T/R504T) alone. Furthermore, a rightward shift of the voltage-dependent inactivation and faster recovery from inactivation was observed, suggesting a gain-of-function state. Intriguingly, the co-expression of SCN1B with p.A385T/R504T revealed significant reduction of I_Na and slower recovery from inactivation, consistent with the loss-of-function in Na⁺ channels. The SCN1B dependent reduction of I_Na was also observed in a single mutation p.R504T, but p.A385T co-expressed with SCN1B showed no reduction. In contrast, the slower recovery from inactivation with SCN1B was observed in A385T while not in R504T. The expression of SCN1B is indispensable for the electrophysiological phenotype of BrS with the novel double mutations; p.A385T and p.R504T contributed to the slower recovery from inactivation and reduced current density of Na_V1.5, respectively.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 1996

Bacillus subtillis strains with transition state regulator mutations and a spore mutation were developed for the overexpression of apsE and for the enhancement of expression level. Among the many regulator genes, degU and hpr were chosen as a representative positive and negative regulator for the aprE, respectively. Spo II G was used for the construction of asporogeneous strains. All the mutants were constructed from two protease-deleted strain DB104 and the apsE gene was transformed with an integration vector pMK101. DB104(deg$U^h$(32) $his^+$)::pMK101(Cm) and DB104($\Delta$her(Em))::pMKl01(Cm) show 7-fold and about 2-fold increase in aprE expression level, respectively. But the effect of transition state regulator mutation on the aprE expression was diminished when the integrated aprE gene was amplified by the high concentration of chloramphenicol, i. e. 30 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml. DB104($\Delta$spoIIG(Pm) degUh(32) his+)::pMK101(Cm) and DB104($\Delta$spoIIG(Pm) $\Delta$hpr(Em))::pMK101 double mutant show 10-fold and 3-fold increase in aprE expression level, respectively. The results suggest that sporulation mutation and transition state regulator mutation have independent and additive effect on the aprE expression, and the same gene dosage effect on the transition state regulator mutation was also identified.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2003

Recent studies indicated that cancer cells become resistant to ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapy drugs by enhanced DNA repair of the lesions. Therefore, it is expected to increase the killing of cancer cells and reduce drug resistance by inhibiting DNA repair pathways that tumor cells rely on to escape chemotherapy. There are a number of key human DNA repair pathways which depend on multimeric polypeptide activities. For example, Ku heterodimer regulatory DNA binding subunits (Ku70/Ku80) on binding to double strand DNA breaks (DSBs) are able to interact with 470-kDa DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), and are essential for DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) activity. It has been known that DNA-PK is an important factor for DNA repair and also is a sensor-transmitting damage signal to downstream targets, leading to cell cycles arrest. Our ultimate goal is to develop a treatment of breast tumors by targeting proteins involved in damage-signaling pathway and/or DNA repair. This would greatly facilitate tumor cell cytotoxic activity and programmed cell death through DNA damaging drug treatment. Therefore, we designed a domain of Ku80 mutants that binds to Ku70 but not DNA end binding activity and used the peptide in co-therapy strategy to see whether the targeted inhibition of DNA-PK activity sensitized breast cancer cells to irradiation or chemotherapy drug. We observed that the synthesized peptide (HNI-38) prevented DNA-PKcs from binding to Ku70/Ku80, thus resulting in inactivation of DNA-PK activity. Consequently, the peptide treated cells exhibited poor to no DNA repair, and became highly sensitive to IR or chemotherapy drugs, and the growth of breast cancer cells was inhibited. Additionally, the results obtained in the present study also support the physiological role of resistance of cancer cells to IR or chemotherapy.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.91-97
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• 2018

The evolutionally conserved TREX complex member, Yra1/ALY, belongs to the REF (RNA and export factor binding proteins) family of hnRNP-like proteins, which has been implicated in multiple processes including transcription, nuclear RNA stability, and mRNA export. Fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, genome encodes two members of REF proteins. In addition to Mlo3 known previously as an mRNA export factor, there is the other REF protein, Tho4, which is predicted as a component of THO complex. Here we showed that deletion of tho4 (SPBC106.12c) gene does not inhibit both growth and nuclear mRNA export. However, overexpression of tho4 displays growth retardation and slight accumulation of $poly(A)^+$ RNA in the nucleus. Neither ${\Delta}tho4$ ${\Delta}mlo3$ nor ${\Delta}tho4$ ${\Delta}mex67$ double mutants exhibit additive growth defect. Moreover, yeast two-hybrid and co-immunoprecipitation analysis did not show that the Tho4 protein interacted with any members of TREX complex and mRNA export factor Rae1. Contrary to expectation, these observations support that the S. pombe Tho4 is not a component of TREX complex, and not directly involved in bulk mRNA export from the nucleus.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.729-733
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• 2022

Aggregation of normally soluble proteins can cause disease-related problems. Tryptophan synthase α-subunit (αTS) in E. coli adopts one of most popular structural scaffolds, the TIM barrel fold. Previous mutagenesis of the αTS gene resulted in many aggregation-prone mutant proteins. Here, Y173F (Tyr at residue 173 to Phe) substitution, which imparts increased stability, was tested for its ability to suppress aggregation of aggregation-prone mutant proteins (Y4C, S33L, P28L, P28S, G44S, D46N, P96L, and P96S). Aggregation was suppressed in all eight severe aggregate-forming mutants (all differing in their mutation positions), by the Y173F replacement. P28L αTS, which was available in pure form, was further analyzed and showed reduced secondary structure content, lower stability, and a looser structure with more exposed hydrophobic surface compared to the wild type protein. A double mutant P28L/Y173F protein showed almost no indication of these changes compared to the wild type protein. We hypothesized that Tyr at position 173 in αTS is positioned at the hydrophobic core and may serve to suppress the aggregation of this protein caused by other residues. Important residue (s) could be working widely in the prevention/suppression of protein aggregation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.77 no.4
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• pp.382-388
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• 1988

Improvement of productivity by forest tree breeding work in Korea was estimated for a few important tree species. Progenies of 17 plus trees of red pine (Pines densiflora) outgrew by 57 percentage compared with progenies of unselected trees at age 15. If best three families are selected among the 17, more than double in volume grow-th is expected. The hybrid Pinus rigida ${\times}$ P. taeda showed more than double volume growth compare to P. rigida at a southern plantation at age 15. However, the superiority of the hybrid decreased at northern plantations, mainly because of low coldhardiness of the hybrid. At a northern plantation, the hybrid grew less than the P. rigida on upper hill, while the hybrid grew much better than the P. rigida on flat area. Another hybrid Populus alba ${\times}$ P. glandulosa grew faster than both parents by two to two and half times according to planting sites at age 10. Introduction of Pinus rigida also showed increased volume growth. Volume increase by selection of best five provenances among 45 at age 12 was estimated as 53 percent compare to progenies of plus trees in Korea, Additional 19 percent of volume increase was expected by selection of the best families within the best provenances. Annual production of chestnuts reached about 70,000 M/T by planting resistant clones to chestnut gall wasp (Dryocosmus kuriphilus), which killed almost all susceptible trees. Although polyploid trees and mutants have been produced by colchicine treatments in over 10 tree species, none of them is economically important Remarkable improvement of productivity is expected by biotechnology in future through selection, hybridization, introduction of foreign genes at cell, cell organelle and gene level, and gene transformation. At present, mass propagation of superior planting materials by tissue culture will increase the productivity.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.73-78
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• 2012

We previously reported that the truncated Cel44C-$Man26A_{P558}$ ${\beta}$-glycosyl hydrolase protein exhibits multifunctional activities, including cellulase, xylanase, and lichenase. DNA shuffling of the truncated Cel44C-$Man26A_{P558}$ enzyme was performed to enhance the enzymatic activity of the multifunctional ${\beta}$-glycosyl hydrolase. Two mutant enzymes, M2Cel44C-$Man26A_{P558}$ that carries one mutation (P438A) and M21Cel44C-$Man26A_{P558}$ that carries two mutations (A273T and P438A) were obtained. The enzymatic activity of the M21Cel44C-$Man26A_{P558}$ double mutant was lower than enzymatic activity of the single mutant (M2Cel44C-$Man26A_{P558}$). However, both mutants displayed the enhancements in their enzyme activities that were ${\approx}1.3$- to 2.2-fold higher than the original enzymatic activity in Cel44C-$Man26A_{P558}$. In particular, the mutant M2Cel44C-$Man26A_{P558}$ exhibited an approximate 1.5- to 2.2-fold increase in the cellulase, xylanase, and lichenase activities in comparison with the control (Cel44C-$Man26A_{P558}$). The optimum cellulase, linchenase, and xylanase activities of ${\beta}$-glycosyl hydrolase were observed at pH 7.0, pH 7.0 and pH 6.0, respectively. These results, therefore, suggest that the amino acid residue Ala438 plays important roles in the enhancement of the activity of multifunctional ${\beta}$-glycosyl hydrolase.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.455-462
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• 2016

Pseudomonas aeruginosa P-5 is an unusual organism capable of synthesizing polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) consisting of 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) and medium-chain-length (MCL) 3-hydroxyalkanoate (3HA) monomer units when C-odd alkanoic acids are fed as the sole carbon source. Evaluation of the substrate chain-length specificity of two P. aeruginosa P-5 PHA synthases ($PhaC1_{P-5}$ and $PhaC2_{P-5}$) by heterologous expression of $PhaC1_{P-5}$ and $PhaC2_{P-5}$ genes in Pseudomonas putida GPp104 revealed that $PhaC2_{P-5}$ incorporates both 3HV and MCL 3HAs into PHA, whereas $PhaC1_{P-5}$ favors only MCL 3HAs for polymerization. In order to obtain $PhaC2_{P-5}$ mutants with altered substrate specificity, site-specific mutagenesis for $PhaC2_{P-5}$ was conducted. Amino acid substitutions of $PhaC2_{P-5}$ at two positions (Ser326Thr and Gln482Lys) were very effective for synthesizing copolymers with a higher 3HV fraction. When recombinant P. putida GPp104 harboring double mutated $phaC2_{P-5}$ gene ($phaC2_{P-5}QKST$) was grown on nonanoic acid, 2.5-fold increase of copolymer content with 3.8-fold increase of 3HV fraction was observed. The $phaC2_{P-5}QKST$-containing Ralstonia eutropha PHB-4 supplemented with valeric acid also produced copolymers consisting of 3HV and 3-hydroxyheptanoate with a high 3HV fraction. These results suggest that recombinants containing $phaC2_{P-5}QKST$ could be useful for production of new PHA copolymers with improved material properties.