• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.337-342
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• 2009

Background : Many previous studies have shown that elevated homocysteine in the serum is a well known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and this is associated with other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but any Korean data on this is limited. Objectives : This study aimed to calculate the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia and to analyze the relation between elevated homocysteine and the lifestyle factors of Korean adults. Methods : We conducted a cross-sectional survey that included 650 men and 743 women (age range, 20 to 79 years) who were residents of Gwangju City in Gyeonggi-do. These subjects participated in the health interview and examination survey from November to December 2005. The total homocysteine, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and triglyceride in the serum were measured. All the participants had their body composition measured such as height and weight, and we obtained health-related behavioral information through the self-entry questionnaire. Results : Very right-handed skewed distributions of homocysteine were shown in men and women. The prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia was 22.6% in men and 13.7% in women in Gwangju city. On the multiple logistic regression analysis, hyperhomocysteinemia was associated with age (OR=1.02, 95% CI=1.01-1.04), male gender (OR=1.60, 95% CI=1.02-2.52), severe general physical activity (OR=0.32, 95% CI=0.15-0.69) and nutrient consumption (OR=0.49, 95% CI=0.31-0.76). Conclusions : There is a great prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia in adults of Gwangju City, Korea and it was associated with both genetic factors and lifestyle risk factors. This study can suggest that comprehensive lifestyle modification is needed in order to diminish the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia and to prevent CVD.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1463-1467
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• 2009

Telomeres, comprised of tandem repeats of TTAGGG sequences, are special nucleoprotein structures that protect and stabilize chromosome ends. These structures form the crux of the telomere concept of aging, senescence and genomic instability. The classic terminal restriction fragment (TRF) analysis to quantify the amount of telomeric DNA is disadvantageous in species containing ultra long telomeres like in mice (100Kb). In this study, we used a more sensitive quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization (Q FISH) technique to quantify telomeric DNA, and used it as a biological aging marker in mice. 12 litters each of Senescence-Resistant (SAMR1) and -Prone (SAMP1) known as senescence accelerated mouse strains were purchased from Central Lab, Animal Inc. We quantified the amount of telomeric DNA using telomere specific DNA probes on the two strains of male mice at 8 weeks, 18 weeks and 26 weeks of age. The amount of telomeric DNA correlated with aging and age associated changes in body and organ weight between SAMR1 and SAMP1 strains of mice. These data suggest the usefulness of the amount of telomeric DNA as a biological aging marker in human aging studies.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.127-133
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• 2014

Four transgenic rice lines harboring insect-resistant gene cry3A showed ideal field performances characterized by high considerable resistance to rice water weevil (Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus Kuschel). In this study, we estimated the insertion number of foreign genes, and analyzed the flanking sequences of T-DNAs in rice genome. As a result, T-DNA of BT12R1 line was inserted in exon region of rice chromosome 10. Two copies of T-DNAs were inserted in line BT12R2. BT12R3 line was analyzed at only left border flanking sequence. BT12R4 line was confirmed one copy of foreign gene insertion at the position 24,516,607 ~ 24,516,636 of rice chromosome 5, accompanied by a deletion of 30 bp known genomic sequences. This intergenic position was confirmed none of expressed gene and any deletion/addition of T-DNA sequence. In conclusion, these molecular data of rice water weevil resistant Bt rice would be used to conduct the biosafety and environment risk assessment for GM crop commercialization.

• BMB Reports
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.334-341
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• 2001

Even though three isotypes of thioredoxins (-f, -m and -h types) have been identified in a variety of plant cells, there are only a few reports on thioredoxin-h that were recently identified. In this study, a cDNA encoding a h-type of thioredoxin was isolated from a cDNA library of Chinese cabbage, and named here CTrx-h. An open reading frame of the gene contained a polypeptide of 133 amino acids with a conserved active center, WCGPC, which appeared in all of the thioredoxin proteins. A deduced amino acid sequence of the CTrx-h showed the highest sequence identity with those of Arabidopsis thioredoxin-h2 (75.2%) and thioredoxin-h5 (46.6%) proteins, but it shared a low sequence homology to other isotypes of plant thioredoxinm and thioredoxin-f. The CTrx-h protein that is expressed in E. coli represented not only an insulin reduction activity, but also electron transferring activity from NADPH to thioredoxin-dependent peroxidase. A genomic Southern blot analysis using the cDNA insert of CTrx-h revealed that the gene consisted of a small multigene family in Chinese cabbage genome. On the contrary to other thioredoxin-h proteins that were widely distributed in most tissues of the plant, the CTrx-h was predominantly expressed in flowers. The expression was very low in other tissues. The data of the Northern blot analysis suggests that the CTrx-h may have other functions in flower development or differentiation, in addition to its defensive role.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.2093-2097
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• 2016

Background: HCV is a major global health problem. IL-27 is a member of the IL-6/IL-12 cytokine family with a broad range of anti-inflammatory properties. Recent studies highlighted the effect of a SNP in the IL-27 promoter region on modulating the progression of infectious diseases and individual responses to therapy. Aim of the work: The present study investigated the potential role of (-964 A/G) SNP in the promoter region of IL-27p28 gene (alleles rs153109) on the outcome of HCV infection among genotype 4a infected patients. Materials and Methods: HCV genotyping confirmed that all of the HCV-infected patients had genotype 4a infection. Genomic DNA was extracted from 111 patients with chronic HCV infection, 42 spontaneous resolvers (SR) and 16 healthy controls. IL- 27p28.rs153109 genotyping was assessed using PCR-RFLP then confirmed by DNA sequencing. Results: The frequency of IL-27-p28.rs153109AA, AG, and GG genotypes among chronically infected subjects were 74.8 %, 25.2%, and 0% while among the SR, they were 57.1%, 35.7%, and 7.14%, respectively. Our data show the unique presence of G/G genotype in the SR group (3 patients; 7.14%). Moreover, the "G" allele frequencies among chronic and resolved subjects were 12.6% and 25.0%, respectively (p=0.0136). Importantly, subjects with the GG genotype were more likely to clear their HCV infection than those with the AA genotype (p=0.0118). Conclusions: HCV genotype 4a subjects with the IL-27-p28.rs153109 A/G and G/G genotype were more likely to clear their HCV infection. Therefore, we propose IL- 27p28.rs153109SNPas a genetic biomarker for predicting HCV infection outcome.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.1749-1752
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• 2012

Colorectal cancer (CRC), now the third most common cancer across the world, is known to aggregate in families. USP7 is a very important protein with an important role in regulating the p53 pathway, which is critical for genomic stability and tumor suppression. We here genotyped eight SNPs within the USP7 gene and conducted a case-control study in 312 CRC patients and 270 healthy subjects in the Chinese Han population. No significant associations were found for any single SNP and CRC risk. Our data eliminate USP7 as a potential candidate gene towards for CRC in the Han Chinese population.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1691-1699
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• 2018

Objective: In Korea, there are three main cattle breeds, which are distinguished by coat color: Brown Hanwoo (BH), Brindle Hanwoo (BRH), and Jeju Black (JB). In this study, we sought to compare the genetic diversity and divergence among there Korean cattle breeds using a BovineHD chip genotyping array. Methods: Sample data were collected from 168 cattle in three populations of BH (48 cattle), BRH (96 cattle), and JB (24 cattle). The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping was performed using the Illumina BovineHD SNP 777K Bead chip. Results: Heterozygosity, used as a measure of within-breed genetic diversity, was higher in BH (0.293) and BRH (0.296) than in JB (0.266). Linkage disequilibrium decay was more rapid in BH and BRH than in JB, reaching an average $r^2$ value of 0.2 before 26 kb in BH and BRH, whereas the corresponding value was reached before 32 kb in JB. Intra-population, interpopulation, and Fst analyses were used to identify candidate signatures of positive selection in the genome of a domestic Korean cattle population and 48, 11, and 11 loci were detected in the genomic region of the BRH breed, respectively. A Neighbor-Joining phylogenetic tree showed two main groups: a group comprising BH and BRH on one side and a group containing JB on the other. The runs of homozygosity analysis between Korean breeds indicated that the BRH and JB breeds have high inbreeding within breeds compared with BH. An analysis of differentiation based on a high-density SNP chip showed differences between Korean cattle breeds and the closeness of breeds corresponding to the geographic regions where they are evolving. Conclusion: Our results indicate that although the Korean cattle breeds have common features, they also show reliable breed diversity.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.215-221
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• 2009

Site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins in vivo can be achieved by co-expression of an orthogonal pair of suppressor tRNA and engineered aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (ARS) that specifically ligates an unnatural amino acid to the suppressor tRNA. As a step to establish this technique, here we generated an Escherichia coli reporter strain DH10B(Tn:lacZam) by integrating amber mutated lacZ gene into the chromosome of E. coli DH10B strain. In vivo expression of E. coli amber suppressor $tRNA^{Gln}$ produced blue colonies in culture plates containing X-Gal as well as dramatically increased $\beta$-galactosidase activity. In addition, expression of an orthogonal pair of Saccharomyces cerevisiae suppressor $tRNA^{Tyr}$ and tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase also produced blue colonies as well as moderate increase of $\beta$-galactosidase activity. These data demonstrate that our reporter strain will provide an efficient method to assess amber suppression in both qualitative and quantitative manners.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.165-169
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• 2004

The BLAST server for the mollusk was constructed on the basis of the Intel Server Platform SC-5250 dual Xeon 2.8 GHz cpu and Linux operating system. After establishing the operating system, we installed NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) WebBLAST package after web server configuration for cgi (common gate interface) (http://chimp.kribb.re.kr/mollusks). To build up the stand alone blast, we conducted as follows: First, we downloaded the genome information (mitochondria genome information), DNA sequences, amino acid sequences related with mollusk available at NCBI. Second, it was translated into the multifasta format that was stored as database by using the formatdb program provided by NCBI. Finally, the cgi was used for the Stand Alone Blast server. In addition, we have added the vector, Escherichia coli, and repeat sequences into the server to confirm a potential contamination. Finally, primer3 program is also installed for the users to design the primer. The stand alone BLAST gave us several advantages: (1) we can get only the data that agree with the nucleotide sequence directly related with the mollusks when we are searching BLAST; (2) it will be very convenient to confirm contamination when we made the cDNA or genomic library from mollusks; (3) Compared to the current NSBI, we can quickly get the BLAST results on the mollusks sequence information.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.110-115
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• 2004

This study was undertaken to develop PCR primers for the simultaneous detection of Fusobacterium nucleatum and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, using two species-specific reverse primers in combination with a single conserved forward primer. These primers target the variable and conserved regions of the 16S rDNA. The primer specificity was tested against (i) four F. nucleatum and three A. actinomycetemcomitans strains and (ii) seven representatives of the different species of oral bacteria. The primer sensitivity was determined by testing serial dilutions of the purified genomic DNA of F. nucleatum and A. actinomycetemcomitans. The data indicate that species-specific amplicons could be obtained for all the F. nucleatum and A. actinomycetemcomitans strains tested, which were not found in the seven other species. The multiplex PCR could detect as little as 4 fg of chromosomal DNA of F. nucleatum and A. actinomycetemcomitans simultaneously. These findings suggest that these PCR primers are highly sensitive and are suitable for applications in epidemiological studies, diagnosis, and monitoring F. nucleatum and A. actinomycetemcomitans after the treatment of periodontitis.