• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1987.07a
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• pp.133-148
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• 1987

Gibberellin(GA) 3-$\beta$ hydroxylation is very important for the shoot elogation in the higher plants, since only 3$\beta$-hydryoxylated GAs promote shoot elogation in several plants. Fluctuation of 3$\beta$-hydryoxylase activity was examined during seed maturation using two cultivars of , P. vulgaris, Kentucky Wonder (normal) and Masterpiece (dwarf). Very immature seeds of both cultivars contain high level of 3$\beta$-hydroxylase activity (per mg protein). Both cultivars showed maximum of enzyme activity (per seed) in the middle of their maturation process. Gibberellin 3$\beta$-hydroxylase catalyzing the hydroxylation of GA20 to GA1 was purified 313-fold from very early immature seeds of P. vulgaris. Crude soluble enzyme extracts were purified by 15% methanol precipitation, hydrophobic interaction chromatogrphy, DEAE ion exchange column chromatography and gel filtration HPLC. The 3$\beta$-hydroxylase activity was unstable and lost much of its activity duting the purification. The molecular weight of purified enzyme was extimated to be 42, 000 by gel filtration HPLC and SDS-PAGE. The enzyme exhibited maximum activity at pH 7.7. The Km values for [2.3-3H] GA20 and [2.3-3H]GA9 were 0.29 $\mu$M and 0.33 $\mu$M, respectively. The enzyme requires 2-oxoglutarate as a cosubstrate; the Km value for 2-oxoglutarate was 250 $\mu$M using 3H GA20 as a substrate. Fe2+ and ascorbate significantly activated the enzyme at all purification steps, while catalase and BSA activated the purified enzyme only. The enzyme was inhibited by divalent cations Mn2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+ and Hg2+. Effects of several GAs and GA anaogues on the putrified 3$\beta$-hydroxylase were examined using [3H]GA9 and GA20 as a substrates. Among them, GA5, GA9, GA15, GA20 and GA44 inhibited the enzyme activity. [13C, 3H] GA20 was converted by the partially purified enzyme preparation to [13C, 3H]GA1, GA5 and GA6, which were identified by GC-MS, GA9 was converted only GA4, GA15 and GA44 were converted to GA37 and GA38, respectively. GA5 was epoxidized to GA6 by the preparation. This suggests that 3$\beta$-hydroxylation of GA20 and epoxidation of GA5 are catalyzed by the same enzyme in P, vulgaris.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1341-1346
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• 2007

An intracellular ${\beta}-xylosidase$ from Paenibacillus sp. DG-22 was purified to homogeneity by ion-exchange, hydrophobic interaction and gel-filtration chromatography. The molecular weight of the enzyme was measured to be 156,000 by gel filtration and 80,000 by SDS-PAGE, indicating that the enzyme consisted of two identical subunits. The purified enzyme exhibited maximum activity at $65^{\circ}C$ and pH 5.5. It retained 89% of its initial activity up to 60 min at $60^{\circ}C$ and had a half-life of 25 min at $65^{\circ}C$. The enzyme was highly specific for pNPX as the substrate. It showed little or no activity against other p-nitrophenyl glycosides and xylans. The $K_m\;and\;V_{max}$ for pNPX was 0.53 mM and 3.18 U/mg protein, respectively. The ${\beta}-xylosidase$ was strongly inhibited by $Ag^+,\;Fe^{2+},\;Hg^{2+}\;and\;Zn^{2+}$ and slightly activated by DTT. The hydrolysis product from xylobiose, xylotriose, and xylotetraose was xylose.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.553-561
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• 2018

Icariside II (ICA II) is used in erectile dysfunction treatment. Adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are efficient at improving erectile function. This study aimed to explore the action mechanism of ADSCs in improving erectile function. ADSCs were isolated from the adipose tissues of rats. Cell proliferation was determined using the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. The expressions of mRNA and protein were determined separately through qRT-PCR and western blot. The endogenous expressions of related genes were regulated using recombinant plasmids and cell transfection. A Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay was performed to determine the interaction between miR-34a and STAT3. Rat models with bilateral cavernous nerve injuries (BCNIs) were used to assess erectile function through the detection of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and intracavernosal pressure (ICP). ICA II promoted ADSCs' proliferation and differentiation to Schwann cells (SCs) through the inhibition of miR-34a. Suppressed miR-34a promoted the differentiation of ADSCs to SCs by upregulating STAT3. ICA II promoted the differentiation of ADSCs to SCs through the miR-34a/STAT3 pathway. The combination of ICA II and ADSCs preserved the erectile function of the BCNI model rats. ADSCs treated with ICA II markedly preserved the erectile function of the BCNI model rats, which was reversed through miR-34a overexpression. ICA II promotes the differentiation of ADSCs to SCs through the miR34a/STAT3 pathway, contributing to erectile function preservation after the occurrence of a cavernous nerve injury.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.4 s.71
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• pp.542-547
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• 2005

Hypersensitivity of cells lacking Brcal to DNA interstrand .ross-link (ICL) agents such as cisplatin and mitomycin C(MMC) implicates the important role of Brcal in cellular response following ICL treatment. Brca1 plays an essential role in DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair through homologous recombination (HR)-dependent and -independent process. Recently, our group has been reported that Brca1 involves in cellular ICL response through HR-dependent repair process (Yun J. et at., Oncogene 2005). In this report, the involvement of Brca1 protein in HR-independent repair process is examined using isogenic $p53^{-/-}\;and\;p53^{-/-}\;Brcal^{-/-}$ mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) and psoralen cross-linked reporter reactivation assay. Brcal-deficient MEFs showed significantly low HR-independent repair activity compare to Brca1-proficient MEFs. Hypersensitivity to MMC and ICL reporter repair activity were restored by the reconstitution of Brca1 expression. Interestingly, MEFs expressing exon 11-deleted isoform of Brca1 $(Brca1^{\Delta11/\Delta11})$ showed high resistance to MMC and ICL reporter repair activity comparable to Brca1-reconstituted MEFs. Taken together, these results suggest that Brca1 involves in ICL repair through not only HR-dependent process but also HR-independent process using N-terminal RINC finger domain or C-terminal BRCT domain rather than exon 11 region which mediate interaction with Rad50.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.1339-1348
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• 2015

Until now, considerable effort has been made to engineer novel nitrogen-fixing organisms through the transfer of nif genes from various diazotrophs to non-nitrogen fixers; however, regulatory coupling of the heterologous nif genes with the regulatory system of the new host is still not well understood. In this work, a 49 kb nitrogen fixation island from P. stutzeri A1501 was transferred into E. coli using a novel and efficient transformation strategy, and a series of recombinant nitrogen-fixing E. coli strains were obtained. We found that the nitrogenase activity of the recombinant E. coli strain EN-01, similar to the parent strain P. stutzeri A1501, was dependent on external ammonia concentration, oxygen tension, and temperature. We further found that there existed a regulatory coupling between the E. coli general nitrogen regulatory system and the heterologous P. stutzeri nif island in the recombinant E. coli strain. We also provided evidence that the E. coli general nitrogen regulator GlnG protein was involved in the activation of the nif-specific regulator NifA via a direct interaction with the NifA promoter. To the best of our knowledge, this work plays a groundbreaking role in increasing understanding of the regulatory coupling of the heterologous nitrogen fixation system with the regulatory system of the recipient host. Furthermore, it will shed light on the structure and functional integrity of the nif island and will be useful for the construction of novel and more robust nitrogen-fixing organisms through biosynthetic engineering.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.151-157
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• 2010

Barley malt produces two different $\alpha$-amylase isozymes (AMY1 and AMY2), which share up to 80% of amino acid sequence identity with each other. However, their enzymatic properties differ remarkably. In this study, five chimeric enzymes between AMY1 and 2 were constructed by staggered extension process (StEP) technique, and their enzymatic properties were characterized. According to the results, chimeric AMY-D2, D8, and E12 showed the mixed or intermediate types of calcium-dependent activity between AMY1 and 2. Meanwhile, only AMY-E10 chimera could be significantly inhibited by barley $\alpha$-amylase/subtilisin inhibitor (BASI) protein. Chimera AMY-C6 showed the same calcium-dependency as AMY1, while AMY-E10 was closely similar to AMY2. As a result, it can be proposed that some amino acid residues in the region II, III, and IV of barley $\alpha$-amylases can play very important roles in the interaction with BASI, and those in III, V, VI, and VII may partly affect on the calcium-dependent activity.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.789-795
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• 2016

A lymph node (LN) is one of the secondary lymphoid organs. An LN consists of a complicated 3 dimensional frame structure and several stromal cells. Fibroblastic reticular cells (FRC) are distributed in the T zone for interaction with T cells. FRC secrete homing chemokines such as CCL19 and CCL21. Moreover, FRC play a pivotal role in the production of extracellular matrix (ECM) into LN for ECM reorganization against pathogen infections. However, not much is known about the involvement of the immune reaction of FRC. The present report is for the characterization of FRC on immune response. For this, FRC were positioned in several infected situations such as co-culture with macrophage, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and TNFα stimulation. When a co-culture between FRC and macrophage was performed, a morphological change in FRC was observed, and empty space between FRCs was created by this change. The soluble ICAM-1 protein level was up-regulated by co-culturing with Raw264.7 and the treatment of the ROCK inhibitor Y27632. The activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) was up-regulated by LPS onto FRC. Furthermore, the inflammatory cytokine TNFα regulated the expression of ECM in FRC by a gene chip assay. Collectively, it suggests that FRC are involved in immune reactions.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.6 s.73
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• pp.904-908
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• 2005

Recently the pathological actions of CagA of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) on gastric epithelial cells have been reported. CagA is directly injected into the host cytoplasm and undergoes tyrosine phosphorylation in the cells. In addition, translocated CagA forms a physical complex with SHP-2. There are two major CagA subtypes according to the amino acid sequence in the 3'region of CagA; i) the East Asian type (A-B-D of EPIYA motifs) and ii) the Western type (A-B-C of EPIYA motifs). Repeated EPIYA motifs in the 3'region of CagA are involved in the interaction with SHP-2. The East Asian type conferred stronger SHP-2 binding activity than the Westrrn type of CagA. Here we analyzed the amino acid sequences of the SHP-2 binding site of cagA gene in H. pyzori, and investigated whether there is my relationship between the diversities of cagA and the disease out-come in Korea. Most of Korean H. pylori strains showed A-B-D motifs(the East Asian type), and only one strain showed A-B-B-D motifs. In Korea, the incidence of atrophic gastritis and gastric cancer is significantly high compared with Western countries. The high frequency of the East Asian type CagA among Korean H. pylori strains would be involved in increasing the risk of gastric cancer in Korean populations.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.199-208
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• 1974

An attempt was made to study on new method for the extraction of the regulatory proteins from myofibrils, and the procedures for the preparation of desensitized actomyosin and for complete extraction of troponin-tropomyosin complex were developed. When myofibrils were treated through the procedures developed in this study, actomyosin obtained had no Ca-sensitivity, indicating that Ca-sensitizing protein factor had been removed completely from myofibril. Consequently, it was concluded that the procedures developed in this study were convenient to test whether Ca-sensitizing proteins has been removed or not. When Mg-activated ATPase activity of myofibril were measured, the myofibrillar ATPase turned into the actomyosin type ATPase with the progress of the treatment. This result was interpreted to show that the regulatory proteins of the myofibril seems to play a cementing role on the structure of myofibril. When supernatant containing the regulatory proteins were fractionated with $(NH_4)_2SO_4$ saturation solution, regulatory proteins, ${\alpha}-actinin$ and troponia-tropomyosin complex, could be obtained and they showed their typical phyoislogical activity which modify the actin-myosin interaction. The amount of troponin-tropomyosin complex in myofibril was 72 mg per g myofibril. This result was in good agreement with the results reported by many investigators, and therefore it was concluded that our procedures for the extraction of troponin-tropomyosin complex were desirable to study on the quantitative analysis of troponin-tropomyosin complex.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.475-483
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• 2019

The use of stem cells in cell-based therapy has attracted extensive interest in the field of regenerative medicine, and it has been applied to numerous incurable diseases due to the inherent abilities of self-renewal and differentiation. However, there still exist some severe obstacles, such as requirement of cell expansion before the treatment, and low survival at the treated site. To overcome these disadvantages of stem cells, we used the carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 6 (CEACAM 6) gene, which functions to increase cell-cell interaction as well as anti-apoptosis. We first confirmed whether CEACAM 6 is expressed in various cell lines at the protein level (including in stem cells), followed by evaluating and selecting the optimal transfection conditions into stem cells. The CEACAM 6 gene was transfected into stem cells to prolong cell survival and preserve from damage by oxidative stress. After confirming the CEACAM 6 expression in transfected stem cells, the cell survival was assessed under oxidative condition by exposing to hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) to mimic the chronic environment-induced cellular damage. CEACAM 6 expressing stem cells show increased cell viability compared to the non-CEACAM 6 expressing cells. We propose that the application of the CEACAM 6 gene is a potential option, capable of expanding and enhancing the therapeutic effects of stem cells.