• Title/Summary/Keyword: gene screening

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Management of Infections with Rapidly Growing Mycobacteria after Unexpected Complications of Skin and Subcutaneous Surgical Procedures

  • Lim, Jong-Min;Kim, Jong-Hwan;Yang, Ho-Jik
    • Archives of Plastic Surgery
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    • v.39 no.1
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    • pp.18-24
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    • 2012
  • Background : Infection caused by rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) is not uncommon, and the prevalence of RGM infection has been increasing. Clinical diagnosis is difficult because there are no characteristic clinical features. There is also no standard antibiotic regimen for treating RGM infection. A small series of patients with RGM infections was studied to examine their treatments and outcomes. Methods : A total of 5 patients who had developed postoperative infections from January 2009 to December 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were initially screened using a mycobacteria rapid screening test (polymerase chain reaction [PCR]-reverse blot hybridization assay). To confirm mycobacterial infection, specimens were cultured for nontuberculous mycobacteria and analyzed by 16 S ribosomal RNA and rpoB gene PCR. Results : The patients were treated with intravenous antibiotics during hospitalization, and oral antibiotics were administered after discharge. The mean duration of follow-up was 9 months, and all patients were completely cured of infection with a regimen of a combination of antibiotics plus surgical treatment. Although none of the patients developed recurrence, there were complications at the site of infection, including hypertrophic scarring, pigmentation, and disfigurement. Conclusions : Combination antibiotic therapy plus drainage of surgical abscesses appeared to be effective for the RGM infections seen in our patients. Although neither the exact dosage nor a standardized regimen has been firmly established, we propose that our treatment can provide an option for the management of rapidly growing mycobacterial infection.

Screening of silkworm strains for efficient recombinant protein production by Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrosis virus (AcNPV)

  • Park, Yoon Mi;Kim, Kyung A;Kang, Min Uk;Park, Kwan Ho;Nho, Si Kab
    • International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.10-18
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    • 2014
  • Baculoviruses base vectors come to be regarded as methods for in vivo gene delivery and transient expression to the silkworm. In the case of silkworm, B. mori, two types of baculoviruses, AcNPV (Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus) and BmNPV (Bombyx mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus), are potentially applicable as vectors. Recently, AcNPV showed promising results with some silkworm strains despite different host-specificities. We searched for a highly-permissive silkworm strain in the B. mori stocks of Kyungpook National University that could produce high levels of recombinant protein. Seventy strains were screened using the recombinant AcNPV/BmA3-Luc virus. Based on the measured luciferase activity, the strains could be divided into three groups, high-, middle-, and low-permissive strains, according to their relative recombinant protein expression levels. At 48 hours post-injection, the luciferase activity in the high-permissive strains was 500-fold greater than that of the low-permissive strains. At 72 hours post-injection, a significant elevation in luciferase activity was observed in the hemocytes of all strains. Then, based on the above results, the High Permissive Strain (HPS) S10 and the Low Permissive Strain (LPS) S39 were pick up and was carried out Dot blotting, RT-PCR and Real time PCR.

Molecular Cloning of Differentially Expressed Genes in First Trap Leaf of Dionaea muscipula by Fluorescent Differential Display (형광 Differential Display법에 의한 파리지옥풀 포충잎트랩 특이발현 유전자 탐색)

  • Kang, Kwon-Kyoo;Lee, Keun-Hyang;Park, Jin-Heui;Hong, Kyong-Ei
    • Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.307-313
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    • 2003
  • Fluorescent differential display (FDD) is a method for identifying differentially expressed genes in eukaryotic cells. The mRNA FDD technology works by systematic amplification of the 3' terminal regions of mRNAs. This method involve the reverse transcription using anchored primers designed to bind 5'boundary of the poly A tails, followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification with additional upstream primers of arbitrary sequences. The amplified cDNA subpopulations are separated by denaturing polyacrylamide electrophoresis. To identify the genes involved in the development of first trap leaf, we applied a FDD method using mRNAs from leaf base, first trap leaf and flower tissue, respectively. We screened several genes that expressed specifically in first trap leaf. Nucleotide sequence analysis of these genes revealed that these were protease inhibitor (PI), myo-inositol-1-phosphate synthase and lipocalin-type prostaglandin D synthase. Northern blot analysis showed that these genes were expressed specifically in first trap leaf (in vivo and in vitro). FDD could prove to be useful for simultaneous scanning of transcripts from multiple cDNA samples and faster selection of differentially expressed transcripts of interest.

Cloning and Characterization of Novel Cytochrome P450 Hydroxylase Genes from Pseudonocardia autotrophica (Pseudonocardia autotrophica 유래의 신규 Cytochrome Cytochrome P450 Hydroxylase 유전자의 분리 및 염기서열 특성규명)

  • Myeong Ji Seon;Park Hyun-Joo;Han Kyuboem;Kim Sang-Nyun;Kim Eung-Soo
    • Korean Journal of Microbiology
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    • v.40 no.3
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    • pp.221-225
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    • 2004
  • Novel cytochrome P450 hydroxylase (CYP) genes were isolated and characterized from P. autotrophica cosmid DNA library using an actinomycete CYP-specific PCR product as a screening probe. The cosmids containing four unique CYP genes (pESK601, 602, 603, 604, 605) were identified, and the four CYP genes were completely sequenced to be homologous to other known Actinomycetes CYP genes involved in various secondary metabolic pathways. Among all novel actinomycete CYP genes found in P. autotrophica, the CYP genes present in pESK601 were revealed to be highly homologous to the CYP genes involved in polyene-type amphotericin and nystatin antibiotic biosynthesis. The nucleotide sequences of the CYP flanking region in pESK601 also revealed the polyene-type biosynthetic genes, implying the presence of a cryptic polyene-type antifungal biosynthetic gene cluster in P. autotrophica.

Nucleotide Sequences of an Aphid ribosomal RNA Unit (진딧물의 전 ribosomal RNA 염기배열)

  • Kwon, Tae-Young;An, Seung-Lak;Song, Cheol;Park, Jong-Kyun;Kim, Young-Sub;Hwang, Jae-Sam;Kwon, O-Yu
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.32-39
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    • 1998
  • The length and G/C concent of regions of an aphid rDNA unit that spans 13,061bo with 59% G/C content. flolowing belowing below are the those results, 5’ETS is 843bp in length with 69% G/C content, 18S is 2,469bp in length with 59% G/C content, ITS I is 229bp in length with 70% G/C content, 5.8S is 160bp in length with 63% G/C content, ITS II is 325bp in length with 70% G/C content, 28S is 4, 147bp in length with 60% G/C content, IGS is 4,888bp in length with 55% G/C content.

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Selection of Starter Cultures and Optimum Conditions for Lactic Acid Fermentation of Onion

  • Choi, You-Jung;Cheigh, Chan-Ick;Kim, Su-Woo;Jang, Jae-Kweon;Choi, Young-Jin;Park, Young-Seo;Park, Hoon;Shim, Kun-Sub;Chung, Myong-Soo
    • Food Science and Biotechnology
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    • v.18 no.5
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    • pp.1100-1108
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    • 2009
  • Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from various fruits and vegetables were screened in order to determine appropriate fermentation starters for manufacturing functional fermented onion juice. From the initial screening test comprising more than 700 isolated LAB, 16 isolates were selected based on their acid production rate. Among the selected isolates, the fermentation broth of KC-007 exhibited the highest electron donating and nitrite scavenging activities, with values at pH 1.2 of 95.6 and 68.7%, respectively. From the overall results obtained in this study, we finally selected the bacterium KC-007 as a fermentation starter. This bacterium was identified and named as Pediococcus pentosaceus based on its morphological and physiological characteristics, carbon-utilization pattern (as assessed using an API 50CHL kit), and molecular genetic characteristics (as assessed using the nucleotide sequence of the 16S rRNA gene). The optimal temperature, pH, and starter inoculation concentration (v/v) required for growth of the isolated strain were $40^{\circ}C$, pH 4.0-6.0, and 2%(v/v), respectively.

NSM00158 Specifically Disrupts the CtBP2-p300 Interaction to Reverse CtBP2-Mediated Transrepression and Prevent the Occurrence of Nonunion

  • Chen, Xun;Zhang, Wentao;Zhang, Qian;Song, Tao;Yu, Zirui;Li, Zhong;Duan, Ning;Dang, Xiaoqian
    • Molecules and Cells
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    • v.43 no.6
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    • pp.517-529
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    • 2020
  • Carboxyl-terminal binding proteins (CtBPs) are transcription regulators that control gene expression in multiple cellular processes. Our recent findings indicated that overexpression of CtBP2 caused the repression of multiple bone development and differentiation genes, resulting in atrophic nonunion. Therefore, disrupting the CtBP2-associated transcriptional complex with small molecules may be an effective strategy to prevent nonunion. In the present study, we developed an in vitro screening system in yeast cells to identify small molecules capable of disrupting the CtBP2-p300 interaction. Herein, we focus our studies on revealing the in vitro and in vivo effects of a small molecule NSM00158, which showed the strongest inhibition of the CtBP2-p300 interaction in vitro. Our results indicated that NSM00158 could specifically disrupt CtBP2 function and cause the disassociation of the CtBP2-p300-Runx2 complex. The impairment of this complex led to failed binding of Runx2 to its downstream targets, causing their upregulation. Using a mouse fracture model, we evaluated the in vivo effect of NSM00158 on preventing nonunion. Consistent with the in vitro results, the NSM00158 treatment resulted in the upregulation of Runx2 downstream targets. Importantly, we found that the administration of NSM00158 could prevent the occurrence of nonunion. Our results suggest that NSM00158 represents a new potential compound to prevent the occurrence of nonunion by disrupting CtBP2 function and impairing the assembly of the CtBP2-p300-Runx2 transcriptional complex.

Evaluation of Native Soybean Collection for Resistance to Purple Blotch (수집재래종대두의 자주빛무늬병(Cercospora kikuchii)에 대한 저항성검정)

  • Oh Jeung Haing;Kwon Shin Han
    • Korean journal of applied entomology
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    • v.20 no.3 s.48
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    • pp.131-134
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    • 1981
  • Native soybean collections were evaluated to search a resistant gene source to purple blotch caused by Cercospora kikuchii. Among 467 native lines, about $28.9\%$ of the lines was less than $0.1\%$ and $13.4\%$ was over $2\%$ in natural infection of purple blotch. Natural infection seemed to be significantly associated with weather conditions at the early podding stage. A significant correlation between natural infection and purple discoloration by seed inoculation was observed and this method seemed to be effective as a preliminary screening technique for resistance to purple blotch. Most of the late maturing native soybeans showed susceptible reaction by the seed inoculation contrary to low infection under natural conditions, indicating that the low natural infection might be due to disease escaping by the late maturing instead of their genetic resistance.

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Fission Yeast-based Screening to Identify Putative HDAC Inhibitors Using a Telomeric Reporter Strain

  • Chung, Kyung-Sook;Ahn, Jiwon;Choi, Chung-Hae;Yim, Nam Hui;Kang, Chang-Mo;Kim, Chun-Ho;Lee, Kyeong;Park, Hee-Moon;Song, Kyung-Bin;Won, Misun
    • Molecules and Cells
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.93-99
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    • 2008
  • Transcriptional silencing is regulated by promoter methylation and histone modifications such as methylation and acetylation. We constructed a Schizosaccaromyces pombe reporter strain, KCT120a, to identify modifiers of transcriptional silencing, by inserting the $ura4^+$ gene into a heterochromatic telomere region. Two compounds inhibited the activity of histone deacetylases, induced acetylation of histone H3 and caused apoptotic cell death in HeLa cells. Expression of gelsolin and $p21^{waf1/cip1}$ also increased, as it does in response to HDAC inhibitors such as TSA. Therefore, these compounds appear to be potent inhibitors of HDACs, and hence potential anti-cancer drugs. Our observations suggest that a yeast cell-based assay system for transcriptional silencing may be useful for identifying histone deacetylase inhibitors and other agents affecting chromatin remodeling.

Molecular Characterization of a Novel Vegetative Insecticidal Protein from Bacillus thuringiensis Effective Against Sap-Sucking Insect Pest

  • Sattar, Sampurna;Maiti, Mrinal K.
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.21 no.9
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    • pp.937-946
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    • 2011
  • Several isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) were screened for the vegetative insecticidal protein (Vip) effective against sap-sucking insect pests. Screening results were based on $LC_{50}$ values against cotton aphid (Aphis gossypii), one of the dangerous pests of various crop plants including cotton. Among the isolates, the Bt#BREF24 showed promising results, and upon purification the aphidicidal protein was recognized as a binary toxin. One of the components of this binary toxin was identified by peptide sequencing to be a homolog of Vip2A that has been reported previously in other Bacillus spp. Vip2 belongs to the binary toxin group Vip1-Vip2, and is responsible for the enzymatic activity; and Vip1 is the translocation and receptor binding protein. The two genes encoding the corresponding proteins of the binary toxin, designated as vip2Ae and vip1Ae, were cloned from the Bt#BREF24, sequenced, and heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. Aphid feeding assay with the recombinant proteins confirmed that these proteins are indeed the two components of the binary toxins, and the presence of both partners is essential for the activity. Aphid specificity of the binary toxin was further verified by ligand blotting experiment, which identified an ~50 kDa receptor in the brush border membrane vesicles of the cotton aphids only, but not in the lepidopteran insects. Our finding holds a promise of its use in future as a candidate gene for developing transgenic crop plants tolerant against sap-sucking insect pests.