• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.266-273
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• 1991

Hirudin, a 65-amino acid protein isolated from the salivary gland of the bloodsucking leech, Hirudo medicinalis, is a potent thrombin-specific inhibitor and blocks the thrombin-mediated conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin in clot formation. We have studied the gene expression and secretion of hirudin in yeast. Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A gene coding for hirudin was synthesized based on the amino acid sequence and cloned into a yeast expression vector $YEG{\alpha}-1$ containing the ${\alpha}-mating$ factor pre-pro leader sequence and galactose-inducible promoter, GALl0. Recombinant S. cerevisiae was found to secrete biologically active hirudin into the extracellular medium. The secreted recombinant hirudin was recovered from the culture medium and purified with ultrafiltration and reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography. Approximately 1 mg of hirudin per liter was produced under suboptimal culture conditions and brought to about 90% purity in two steps of purification.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.288-292
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• 1992

Kinetics of anaerobic ethanol fermentation by Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum were investigated for the one-step production of ethanol from starch. A mutant strain with a high ethanol yield was induced from C. thermohydrosulfuricum. The mutant, designated as ME4, produced anaerobically 6.1 g/l of ethanol, 3.1 g/l of lactate and 0.1 g/l of acetate from 20 g/l of starch at $68^{\circ}C.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.226-229
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• 1992

An ethanol tolerant mutant was selected by successive transfers of Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum ATCC 33223 into the media with progressively higher ethanol concentrations. The growth kinetics of the mutant were characterized under various growth conditions. Physiological differences such as enhanced growth, tolerance to various solvents, alteration of the optimum temperature and the ratio of end products during fermentation were noticed in the mutant.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1163-1169
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• 2004

An unstructured mathematical model is presented for lactic acid fermentation based on the energy balance. The proposed model reflects the energy metabolic state and then predicts the cell growth, lactic acid production, and glucose consumption rates by relating the above rates with the energy metabolic rate. Fermentation experiments were conducted under various initial lactic acid concentrations of 0, 30, 50, 70, and 90 g/l. Also, a genetic algorithm was used for further optimization of the model parameters and included the operations of coding, initialization, hybridization, mutation, decoding, fitness calculation, selection, and reproduction exerted on individuals (or chromosomes) in a population. The simulation results showed a good fit between the model prediction and the experimental data. The genetic algorithm proved to be useful for model parameter optimization, suggesting wider applications in the field of biological engineering.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.237-251
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• 2002

The recent progress on metabolic systems engineering was reviewed based on our recent research results in terms of (1) metabolic signal flow diagram approach, (2) metabolic flux analysis (MFA) in particular with intracellular isotopomer distribution using NMR and/or GC-MS, (3) synthesis and optimization of metabolic flux distribution (MFD), (4) modification of MFD by gene manipulation and by controlling culture environment, (5) metabolic control analysis (MCA), (6) design of metabolic regulation structure, and (7) identification of unknown pathways with isotope tracing by NMR. The main characteristics of metabolic engineering is to treat metabolism as a network or entirety instead of individual reactions. The applications were made for poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) production using Ralstonia eutropha and recombinant Escherichia coli, lactate production by recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae, pyruvate production by vitamin auxotrophic yeast Toluropsis glabrata, lysine production using Corynebacterium glutamicum, and energetic analysis of photosynthesic microorganisms such as Cyanobateria. The characteristics of each approach were reviewed with their applications. The approach based on isotope labeling experiments gives reliable and quantitative results for metabolic flux analysis. It should be recognized that the next stage should be toward the investigation of metabolic flux analysis with gene and protein expressions to uncover the metabolic regulation in relation to genetic modification and/ or the change in the culture condition.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.65-72
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• 1993

A heterologous gene expression and secretion system using a methylotrophic yeast, Hansenula polymorpha was developed for the production of anticoagulant hirudin. Hirudin gene was expressed under the control of a strong and inducible methanol oxidase (MOX or AOX) promoter. The mating factor a pre-pro leader sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was employed for hirudin to be secreted into the extracellular medium. Hirudin expression cassette was introduced into three strains of H. polymorpha, A16, HPBl and DLl which have different genetic backgrounds. This expression cassette was stably integrated into the host chromosomal DNA. Biologically active and mature hirudin was efficiently expressed and secreted into the extracellular medium. About 19 mg/L of hirudin was found in the culture supernatant in the case of a two-copy integrant of the strain HPBl under suboptimal culture conditions.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.9-10
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• 2003

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.425-431
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• 1996

The enzymatic characteristics of Alcaligenes latus were investigated by measuring the variations of various enzyme activities related to biosynthesis and degradation of poly-${\beta}$-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) during cultivation. All PHB biosynthetic enzymes, ${\beta}$-ketothiolase, acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, and PHB synthase, were activated gradually at the PHB accumulation stage, and the PHB synthase showed the highest value among three enzymes. This indicates that the rate of PHB biosynthesis is mainly controlled by either ${\beta}$-ketothiolase or acetoacetyl-CoA reductase rather than PHB synthase. The enzymatic activities related to the degradation of PHB were also measured, and the degradation of PHB was controlled by the activity of PHB depolymerase. The effect of supplements of metabolic regulators, citrate and tyrosine, was also investigated, and the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase was increased by metabolic regulators, especially by tyrosine. The activities of ${\beta}$-ketothiolase and acetoacetyl-CoA reductase were also activated by citrate and tyrosine, while the activity of PHB depolymerase was depressed. The increased rate and yield of PHB biosynthesis by metabolic regulators may be due to the increment of acetyl-CoA concentration either by the repression of the TCA cycle by citrate through product inhibition or by the activation of sucrose metabolism by the supplemented tyrosine.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 2010

Lactic acid bacteria display a relatively simple metabolism wherein the sugar is converted mainly to lactic acid. The extensive knowledge of metabolic pathways and the increasing information of the genes involved allows for the rerouting of natural metabolic pathways by genetic and physiological engineering. In this contribution, the lactic acid bacteria as an efficient cell factory for different (food) ingredients will be presented. The emphasis will be on some successful examples of metabolic engineering and on the physiology of these bacteria, which makes them so suitable as a cell factory.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.60-61
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• 2004

Metabolic engineering is now a well established discipline, used extensively to determine and execute rational strategies of strain development to improve the performance of micro-organisms employed in industrial fermentations. The basic principle of this approach is that performance of the microbial catalyst should be adequately characterised metabolically so as to clearlyidentify the metabolic network constraints, thereby identifying the most probable targets for genetic engineering and the extent to which improvements can be realistically achieved. In order to harness correctly this potential, it is clear that the physiological analysis of each strain studied needs to be undertaken under conditions as close as possible to the physico-chemical environment in which the strain evolves within the full-scale process. Furthermore, this analysis needs to be undertaken throughoutthe entire fermentation so as to take into account the changing environment in an essentially dynamic situation in which metabolic stress is accentuated by the microbial activity itself, leading to increasingly important stress response at a metabolic level. All too often these industrial fermentation constraints are overlooked, leading to identification of targets whose validity within the industrial context is at best limited. Thus the conceptual error is linked to experimental design rather than inadequate methodology. New tools are becoming available which open up new possibilities in metabolic engineering and the characterisation of complex metabolic networks. Traditionally metabolic analysis was targeted towards pre-identified genes and their corresponding enzymatic activities within pre-selected metabolic pathways. Those pathways not included at the onset were intrinsically removed from the network giving a fundamentally localised vision of pathway functionality. New tools from genome research extend this reductive approach so as to include the global characteristics of a given biological model which can now be seen as an integrated functional unit rather than a specific sub-group of biochemical reactions, thereby facilitating the resolution of complexnetworks whose exact composition cannot be estimated at the onset. This global overview of whole cell physiology enables new targets to be identified which would classically not have been suspected previously. Of course, as with all powerful analytical tools, post-genomic technology must be used carefully so as to avoid expensive errors. This is not always the case and the data obtained need to be examined carefully to avoid embarking on the study of artefacts due to poor understanding of cell biology. These basic developments and the underlying concepts will be illustrated with examples from the author's laboratory concerning the industrial production of commodity chemicals using a number of industrially important bacteria. The different levels of possibleinvestigation and the extent to which the data can be extrapolated will be highlighted together with the extent to which realistic yield targets can be attained. Genetic engineering strategies and the performance of the resulting strains will be examined within the context of the prevailing experimental conditions encountered in the industrial fermentor. Examples used will include the production of amino acids, vitamins and polysaccharides. In each case metabolic constraints can be identified and the extent to which performance can be enhanced predicted