• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.76-82
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• 1990

In samples taken from mouth of the Nakdong River, mercury-resistant bacteria grown on the media supplemented with over 20 ppm of mercuric chlorice were below 0.3% of all aerobic heterotrophs. Among them, seven strains grown over 100 ppm of mercuric chloride were isolated and all were identified as Pseudomonas. The toxic effect of mercury on the growth of the most resistant strain N14 was influenced by the organic compounds and concentration. The growth and physiological activity to N14 strain were affected by toxic mercury in the early stage: The viable count and glucose turn over rate of N14 strain dropped to the lowest level as soon as the bacteria came into contact with mercury. During the extended lag period, however, bacteria accommodated to the stress and the viable count and glucose turnover rate increased. After the lag period, bacteria began to proliferate and their growth reached similar level to that of control. In crude extracts of N14 strain grown in nutrient browth containing. $10{\mu}M$ $HgCl_{2}$, a mercuric ion dependent oxidation of NADPH was demonstrated. Therefore the mechanism of mercury-resistance of the N14 strain involved the elimination of the mercury from growth media. In the N14 strain which a wide range of resistance to antibiotics was observed in, four multiple plasmids were detected. As a result, the supposition that N14 strain has a plasmid-encoded enzyme system may be quite within the realms of possobility.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 1982

A study was undertaken to examine the effect of curing agents on the stability, curing and segregation of R plasmid pSL100. And also the stability, transfer frequency, and recombination of its segregants obtained from curing agent treatment were studied. Ethidium bromide, acridine orange, and mitomycin-C were used as curing agent. The results obtained were as follows ; 1. The curing agent ethidium bromide, acridine orange, and mitomycin-C were not effective for curing the multiple antibiotic resistant determinant of pSL100 in Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli. However, they induced plasmid segregation with high frequency in S.typhimuruim LT-2strains. TcApSmCm, TcSmCmKm, TcApCm, TcAp, TcKm, Tc segregants were obtained. 2. The resistant markers of the segregents were transferred to S.typhimurium LT-2 strains with high frequencies whereas they were transferred to E.coli K-12 only with low frequencies. 3. The transconjugants obtained from conjugation between two different S.typhimurium segregants were similar to the phenotype of the original R factor pSL100 and the resistant markers were transferred to the S.typhimurium LT-2 or E.coli strain with equal frequencies, indicating that they are recombinants. 4. The transconjugants obtained from conjugation between pSL100 segrgants and pKM101, or pBR322 possessed the resistant markers of the two parental plasmids and they were transferred to both S.typhimurium and E.coli K-12 strains with the same frequencies and maintained stably, suggesting that they are also recombinants. 5. The recombinant pSL100 could be also obtained in rec A-strains of E.coli, suggesting that the gene function of rec A is required for the recombination of pSL100 segregants in E.coli.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.439-447
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• 2018

The aromatic compound p-hydroxybenzoate (PHBA) is an important material with multiple applications, including as a building block of liquid crystal polymers in chemical industries. The cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes are beneficial monooxygenases for the synthesis of chemicals, and CYP53A15 from fungus Cochliobolus lunatus is capable of executing the hydroxylation from benzoate to PHBA. Here, we constructed a system for the bioconversion of benzoate to PHBA in Escherichia coli cells coexpressing CYP53A15 and human NADPH-P450 oxidoreductase (CPR) genes as a redox partner. For suitable coexpression of CYP53A15 and CPR, we originally constructed five plasmids in which we replaced the N-terminal transmembrane region of CYP53A15 with a portion of the N-terminus of various mammalian P450s. PHBA productivity was the greatest when CYP53A15 expression was induced at $20^{\circ}C$ in $2{\times}YT$ medium in host E. coli strain ${\Delta}gcvR$ transformed with an N-terminal transmembrane region of rabbit CYP2C3. By optimizing each reaction condition (reaction temperature, substrate concentration, reaction time, and E. coli cell concentration), we achieved 90% whole-cell conversion of benzoate. Our data demonstrate that the described novel E. coli bioconversion system is a more efficient tool for PHBA production from benzoate than the previously described yeast system.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.615-621
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• 2020

Laccases are multicopper oxidases with important industrial value. In the study, a novel laccase gene (mco) in a Staphylococcus haemolyticus isolate is identified and heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. Mco shares less than 40% of amino acid sequence identities with the other characterized laccases, exhibiting the maximal activity at pH 4.0 and 60℃ with 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) as a substrate. Additionally, the Mco is tolerant to a wide range of pH, heavy metal ions and many organic solvents, and it has a high decolorization capability toward textile dyes in the absence of redox mediators. The characteristics of the Mco make this laccase potentially useful for industrial applications such as textile finishing. Based on BLASTN results, mco is found to be widely distributed in both the bacterial genome and bacterial plasmids. Its potential role in oxidative defense ability of staphylococci may contribute to the bacterial colonization and survival.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.21
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• pp.9211-9216
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• 2014

CXCR7 is involved in tumor development and metastasis in multiple malignancies. However, the function and molecular mechanisms of action of CXCR7 in human cervical cancer are still unclear. In the present study a loss of-function approach was used to observe the effects of recombinant CXCR7 specific small interfering RNA pBSilence1.1 plasmids on biological behavior including proliferative activity and invasive potential, as indicated by MTT assays with the cervical cancer SiHa cell line in vitro. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting revealed that CXCR7 was downregulated in transfected compared with control cells, associated with inhibited cell growth, invasiveness and migration. The expression of CXCR7 and CXCL12 was also determined immunohistochemically in 152 paraffin-embedded, cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), or normal cervical epithelial to assess clinico-pathological pattern and CXCR7 status with respect to cell differentiation and lymph node metastasis in Uighur patients with CSCC. CXCR7 and CXCL12 expression was higher in cervical cancer than CIN and normal cervical mucosa, especially in those with higher stage and lymph node metastasis. CXCL12 appeared to be positively regulated by CXCR7 at the post-transcriptional level in CSCC. We propose that aberrant expression of CXCR7 plays a role in carcinogenesis, differentiation and metastasis of CSCC, implying its use as a potential target for clinical biomarkers in differentiation and lymph node metastasis.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.136-142
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• 1992

Bacillus stearothemophilus isolated from soil was identified to express multiple extracellular xylanases. Two HindIII restriction fragments of 5.4 and 6.4 kb from B. stearothermophilus genomic DNA were cloned into pBR322 to obtain recombinant plasmids pMG0l and pMG02, respectively, which enabled E. coli HBlOl cells to produce $\beta$-D-xylosidase activity. By subcloning into pUC18 and Southern blotting, the loci of the $\beta$-D-xyiosidase genes were elucidated to be on non-homologous DNA fragments of 2.2 kb from pMGOl(pMG1) and 1.0 kb from pMG02(pMG2), respectively. The two enzymes produced in E. coli cleaved xylobiose, xylotriose, xylotetrose and xylotetrose to produce xylose as a major end product. The gene on pMG1, distinct from that on pMG2 was observed to encode a bifunctional protein that displayed both P-D-xylosidase (EC.3.2.1.37) and a-L-arabinofuranosidase activities (EC.3.2.1.55).

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.335-347
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• 2016

Multiple interferon tau (IFNT) genes exist in bovine. An antiluteolytic substance secreted by the bovine conceptus and primarily responsible for maternal recognition of pregnancy is bovine trophoblast protein 1 (bIFNT1), a new type I interferon tau (IFNT) genes. The objectives of this research were to investigate whether multiple, distinct gene encode bIFNT1 and other type I bIFNT gene in the bovine genome and to examine expression of bIFNT1 and other bIFNTc1 mRNAs during conceptus development. These transcrips could be regulated through caudal-related homeobox-2 (CDX2) and ETS2 and/or AP1 (JUN) expression, a transcription factor implicated in the control of cell differentiation in the trophectoderm. The presence of mRNAs encoded by bIFNT1 and type I bIFNTc1 genes were examined quantitatively via reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of total cellular RNA (tcRNA) extracted from on day 17, 20 and 22 bovine conceptuses. The expression level of bIFNT1 was higher on day 17 transcripts were gradually weakly detectable on day 20 and 22. However, the other bIFNTc1 gene examined transcripts was highly expressed on day 20 and transcripts were weakly detectable on day 17 and 22 bovine conceptuses. Furthermore, human choriocarcinoma JEG3 was co-transfected with an -1kb-bIFNT1/c1-Luc constructs and several transcription factor expression plasmids. Compared to each -1kb-bIFNT1/c1-Luc increased when this constructs were co-transfected with, ETS2, AP1(JUN), CREBBP and/or CDX2. Also, bIFNTc1 gene was had very effect on activity by alone ETS2, and AP1 (JUN) expression factors in choriocarcinoma JEG3 cell. However, bIFNT1 gene expression of the upstream region was not identified. We demonstrated that the activities of bIFN genes are regulated by differential, tissue-specific and developmental competence during pregnancy.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2012

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is one of the major agents responsible for food poisoning during summer in Korea, which is transmitted via seawater or seafoods. Recently, distribution of the bacteria in the marine environment has been increased due to global warming. Great concern also has been raised regarding public hygiene as well as marine culture by the emergence of pathogens with antibiotic resistance. Therefore, distribution of V. parahaemolyticus and antibiotic resistance of the isolates were monitored in 7 coastal areas of Kyonggi Province and Incheon by sampling seawater, fishes and clams monthly. V. parahaemolyticus was detected from 47.7% of 966 samples (seawater 61.9%, seafoods 41.8%) analyzed using $CHROMagar^{TM}$ and TCBS agar plates as well as multiplex PCR. Among 13 antibiotics tested, resistance to vancomycin and ampicillin was observed in 97.3% and 87.3% of the isolates, respectively, and the ratios of them resistant to cephalothin (48.8%) and rifampin (46.1%) were also high. The isolates were most highly sensitive to chloramphenicol (91.7%) and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (91.8%). The ratio of sensitivity for other antibiotics was also high in the descending order of gentamycin (82.3%), tobramycin (74.8%), nalidixic acid (71.6%), tetracyclin (69.4%), cefotaxime (63.0%). About 69% of the isolates showed multiple drug resistance toward 3 antibiotics including vancomycin and ampicillin. Two of them exhibited resistance for 11 antibiotics used in this study. Plasmid profile analysis of the isolates with antibiotic resistance revealed that 55.1% of them retained plasmids of 24 different types. However, no clear inter-relationship between the resistance and the plasmid profile has been observed.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.61-76
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• 2009

At the present study, it was aimed to explore the molecular genetic characterization of multiple antimicrobial resistant Salmonella spp. isolates from pigs and cattle. A total of 138 Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) isolates were typed with phage, among them, 83.3% of S. Typhimurium tested could divide into a 10 phage types. Definitive type 193 (DT193) (25.4%) and DT195 (24.6%) were exhibited as the dominant types. DT104 and U302 were found from pigs and cattle. On the other hand, S. Enteritidis had 6 phage types, of them, phage type 21 (PT21) and PT11b were the popular types. In the plasmid profiles, 135 of S. Typhimurium isolates were exhibited 1 to 6 plasmid bands which molecular weight ranged from 90 to 2kb. 35 isolates (25.4%) harbored a 90kb plasmid which is thought to be the serotype specific virulence plasmid. Two of twenty five S. Enteritidis had common plasmids at 2 and 1.5kb. With multiplex polymerase chain reaction, virulence genes (invA and spvC) were detected from all Salmonella spp. from 167 of S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis and chloramphenicol resistant S. Schwarzengrund, but some drug resistant genes, such as PSE-1, cml/tetR and flo were not determined but other drug resistant genes, for example TEM and int were found. The detection rates of spvC, TEM and int gene was 35.3%, 29.3% and 72.5%, respectively. The TEM gene was highly popular in S. Typhimurium, which was detected from ampicillin and amoxicillin resistant strains as 95.9%. int gene was able to detect from all the isolates identified as multidrug resistsnt (MDR), particularly DT193 was thought as the most prevalent virulence and multidrug resistance isolate. The major plasmid profile and drug resistance pattern of DT193 were 90, 40, 10.5, 6.3, 3.0kb and ACCbDNaPSSuT, respectively. MDR was commonly found in other phage types, particularly DT104, U302 and DT203.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

xylA promoter is a major promoter in xylose operon of Escherichia coli. xylA promoter is sufficient as the promoter for the construction of new expression vector because this promoter was tightly controlled and induced by the addition of xylose. For the construction of xylose-inducible expression vector, 600 bp of xylA promoter was ligated between AatII and HindIII of pUC18, named pXA600. In order to investigate the effect of XylR protein encoded by xylR gene on the xylA promoter, 1,988 bp of xylR gene including its promoter was ligated into downstream of multiple cloning site to the opposite direction of xylA promoter in pXA600, named pXAR600. For the measurement of expression level, 3,048 bp of lacZ structural gene was fused into xylA promoter in both plasmids pXA600 and pXAR600 as a reporter gene, named pXA600-lacZ and pXAR600-lacZ, respectively. The $\beta$-galactosidase activity of pXA600-lacZ and pXAR600-lacZ in E. coli JM109 was determined to be 1,641 and 2,304 unit by the induction with xylose in LB medium, respectively. The $\beta$-galactosidase activity of pXAR600-lacZ/JM109 was about 1.4 times higher by the induction with xylose than that of pXA600-lacZ/JM109. The $\beta$-galactosidase activity of pXA600-lacZ and pXAR600-lacZ in E.coli JM109 showed 6,282 and 9,320 unit by the induction with xylose in DM minimal medium, respectively. A regulator, xylR protein works as an activator for the gene expression by the addition of xylose in the xylose-inducible vectors because the level of gene expression in pXA600 is increased by the insertion of xylR gene into the same vector. The xynA gene of Streptomyces thermocyaneoviolaceus cloned in pXA600 and pXAR600 was successfully expressed in E. coli BLR(DE3). As a result, plasmids pXA600 and pXAR600 using xylA promoter are sufficient as new expression system to produce a foreign protein in E. coli.