• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.207-211
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• 2012

Autoinduction is mediated by signaling molecules known as autoinducers (AIs) that are produced, released and detected by bacterium itself. We recently reported that Corynebacterium glutamicum possesses an autoinduction system which secretes autoinducers during the stationary-phase of growth, triggering the expression of acyltransferase gene. However, it is still not clear what may act as autoinducers for the autoinduction in C. glutamicum. In this study, we compared the inducing effects of cell-free culture fluids obtained from a number of microbes including Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Vibrio harveyi, and Escherichia coli. Fluids from A. tumefaciens did not increase the expression of acyltransferase, whereas fluids from V. harveyi BB120 ($AI-1^+$, $AI-2^+$) did. Interestingly, the expression was increased by the fluids obtained from the early exponential-phase culture of BB120. Furthermore, this induction was not observed by the fluids from autoinducer mutants of V. harveyi MM77 ($AI-1^-$, $AI-2^-$) and BB152 ($AI-1^-$, $AI-2^+$). Unlike the effect shown by BB152, fluids from E. coli ($AI-1^-$, $AI-2^+$) still induced the acyltransferase expression. Taken together, these results suggest that C. glutamicum autoinducers seem to be unidentified molecules which do not belong to AI-1 or AI-2.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2006

In order to minimize the reduction of lysine productivity by accumulation of lysine and byproducts in the end of fed-batch fermentations, a salt-tolerant mutant C14-49-3-15-7-3-20, which could grow at high concentrations of NaCl was isolated through mutagenesis from the Corynebacterium glutamicum mother strain I. In the evaluation of L-lysine productivity by fed-batch fermentations using a 5 L jar fermenter, the salt-tolerant mutant strain C14-49-3-15-7-3-20 produced 130.6 g/L of L-lysine with a 48.6% of yield. The mother strain I produced L-lysine concentration only 104.9 g/L with a yield 41.8%, implying the improvement of L-lysine productivity by introduction of salt-tolerance character.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.190-196
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• 1985

For frequency improvement of protoplast fusion in Brevibacterium flavum, Brevibacterium lactofermentum lactofermentum and Corynebacterium glutamicum, the effect of plasma expanders on fusion and cell wall regeneration, compatison between direct and two-step selection method, tendency of fusion frequency according to pH of fusion fluid and polyethylene glycol concentration were examined. By addition of 3% polyvinyl pyrrolidone to cell wall regeneration medium, regeneration frequencies were expressed 23 (Brevibacterium lactofermentum), 10.4 (Brevibacterium flavum) and 2.7 (Corynebacterium glutamicum) times higher than those of none polyvinyl pyrrolidone medium respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 1986.12a
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• pp.520.3-521
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• 1986

L-Lysine 생성균인 Corynebacterium glutamicum의 동종간 융합주 RS 99를 담체인 Alginate와 여기에 TiCl$_4$로부터 제조된 Titanium hydroxide를 혼합하여 각각 고정하고 이들의 Gel strength, 활성도 및 회분식 발효조건을 비교하였다. 그 결과 Alginate-Titanium hydroxide를 담체로 선정하여 고정화 C, glutamicum 융합주의 재사용성 및 안정성을 검토하였으며, Continuous-Flow Stirred-Tank Reactor를 구성하여 L-Lysine 의 연속발효를 시도하였다.

• The Microorganisms and Industry
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.30-39
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• 2001

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.1353-1360
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• 2007

Three csp-like genes were identified in the Corynebacterium glutamicum genome and designated cspA, cspB, and cspA2. The genes cspA and cspA2 encode proteins, comprising of 67 amino acid residues, respectively. They share 83% identity with each other. Identity of those proteins with Escherichia coli Csp proteins was near 50%. The cspB gene encodes a protein composed of 127 amino acids, which has 40% and 35% sequence identity with CspA and CspA2, respectively, especially at its N-terminal region. Analysis of the gene expression profiles was done using transcriptional cat fusion, which identified not only active expression of the three genes at the physiological growth temperature of $30^{\circ}C$ but also growth phase-dependent expression with the highest activity at late log phase. The promoters of cspA and cspA2 were more active than that of cspB. The expression of the two genes increased by 30% after a temperature downshift to $15^{\circ}C$, and such stimulation was more evident in the late growth phase. In addition, the cspA gene appeared to show DNA-binding activity in vivo, and the activity increased at lower temperatures. Interestingly, the presence of cspA in multicopy hindered the growth of the host C. glutamicum cells at $20^{\circ}C$, but not at $30^{\circ}C$. Altogether, these data suggest that cspA, cspB, and cspA2 perform functions related to cold shock as well as normal cellular physiology. Moreover, CspA and its ortholog CspA2 may perform additional functions as a transcriptional regulator.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.639-647
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• 2008

The heat-inducible expression vectors for Corynebacterium glutamicum and C. ammoniagenes were constructed by using the ${\lambda}O_L1$ and the cryptic promoters, CJ1 and CJ4 that express genes constitutively in C. ammoniagenes. Although the promoters were isolated from C. ammoniagenes, CJ1 and CJ4 were also active in C. glutamicum. To construct vectors, the $O_L1$ from the ${\lambda}P_L$ promoter was isolated and fused to the CJ1 and CJ4 promoters by recombinant PCR. The resulting artificial promoters, CJ1O and CJ4O, which have one ${\lambda}O_L1$, and CJ1OX2, which has two successive ${\lambda}O_L1$, were fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene followed by subcloning into pCES208. The expression of GFP in the corynebacteria harboring the vectors was regulated successfully by the temperature-sensitive cI857 repressor. Among them, C. ammoniagenes harboring plasmid pCJ1OX2G containing GFP fused to CJ1OX2 showed more GFP than the other ones and the expression was tightly regulated by the repressor. To construct the generally applicable expression vector using the plasmid pCJ1OX2G, the His-tag, enterokinase (EK) moiety, and the MCS were inserted in front of the GFP gene. Using the vector, the expression of pyrR from C. glutamicum was tried by temperature shift-up. The results indicated that the constructed vectors (pCeHEMG) can be successfully used in the expression and regulation of foreign genes in corynebacteria.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.40-49
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• 2001

The present work presents a novel approach for the dynamic quantification of respiration rates on a small scale by using lysine-producing Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 21253. Cells sampeld from batch cultures at different times were incubated ina 12-ml scale bioreactor equipped with a membrane mass spectrometer. Under dynamic conditions, gas exchange across the gas-liquid phase, specific respiration rates, and RQ values were precisely measured. For this purpose, suitable mass balances were formulated. The transport coefficients for $O_2$ and $CO_2$, crucial for calculating the respiration activity, were determined as $k_La_{O2}=9.18h^{-1}$ and $k_La_{CO2}=5.10h^{-1}$ at 400 rpm. The application of the proposed method to batch cultures of C. glutamicum ATCC 21253 revealed the maximum specific respiration rates of $q_{O2}=8.4\;mmol\;g^{-1}h^{-1}\;and\;q_{CO2}=8.7\;mmol\;g^{-1}h^{-1}$ in the middle of the exponential growth phase after 5 h of cultivation. When the cells changed from growth to lysine production due to the depletion of the essential amino acids theonine, methionine, and leucine, $q_{O2}\;and\;q_{CO2}$ decreased significantly and RQ increased. The respiration data exhibited an excellent agreement with previous cultivations of the strain [13]. This confirms the potential of the developed approach to realistically reflect the metabolic activities of cells at their point of sampling. The short-term influence of added threonine, methionine, and leucine was highest during the shift from growth to lysine production, where $q_{O2}\;and\;q_{CO2}$ increased 50% within one minute after the pulse addition of these compounds. Non-growing, yet lysine-producing cells taken from the end of the batch cultivation revealed no metabolic stimulation with the addition of threonine, methionine, and leucine.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.427-432
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• 1986

The regulation of three ammonia assimilatory enzymes, GDH (glutamate dehydrogenase), GS (glutamine synthetase) and GOGAT (glutamate synthase), has been examined in C. glutamicum. Three kinds of arginine auxotrophs blocked in each step of arginine biosynthetic pathway from glutamate were selected as arg 5, arg 6, arg 8. Histidine and tryptophan auxotrophs were also selected because histidine and tryptophan repressed GS biosynthesis in E. coli. These strains were cultured on the media containing nitrogen-excess and limited conditions, to compare the specific activities of ${\alpha}$-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase(${\alpha}-KGDH$), GDH, GS, GOGAT from the cell-free extracts. These results showed that enzyme levels of ${\alpha}-KGDH$ and GDH from 3 kinds of arginine auxotrophs, histidine and tryptophan auxotrophs in nitrogen-excess condition and those of GS and GOGAT in nitrogen limited condition were increased compared with opposite condition. The tryptophan and histidine auxotrophs showed higher level of glutamate and glutamine than parental strains and other mutants. it is assumed that the higher levels of ${\alpha-KGDH}$ and GDH from mutants in nitrogen-excess condition promoted the accumulation of glutamate and glutamine in fermentation broth. The inhibition of GS activities by ADP suggested that GS is regulated by energy charge in C. glutamicum. The results with histidine, tryptophan, glycine, alanine, serine and GMP implied that a system of feedback inhibition were effective. The GDH, GS and GOGAT biosynthesis in culture broth was markedly repressed by the nature and kinds of available nitrogen sources such as tryptophan, proline, glycine, alanine, serine and tyrosine.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.104-111
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• 1987

As a trial method of breeding L-lysine producing strains, the intraspecific protoplast fusion bet-ween Brevibacterium flavum ATCC 21528R and Brevibacterium flavum ATCC 21529S and the intergeneric protoplast fusion between Brevibacterium flavum ATCC 21528R and Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13058S were performed. The optimum conditions for protoplast formation of these strains were examined and the effect of plasma expander on regeneration and/or fusion was also observed. Both fusants No. CH23 and No. CH4l showed higher productivity of L-lysine than those of parental cells under the optimum cultural conditions at a rate of 21％ and 8.9％, respectively. And, activity of several enzymes in L-lysine biosynthetic pathway including aspartokinase, a rate-limiting enzyme, was determined. Besides, metabolic control mechanism of L-lysine biosynthesis in fusant No. CH23 and in No. CH41 was investigated to compare with that of parental strains.