• 한국잠사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국잠사학회 2003년도 International Symposium of Silkworm/Insect Biotechnology and Annual Meeting of Korea Society of Sericultural Science
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• pp.153-154
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• 2003

Trichoptera, or caddisflies, comprise one of the major aquatic insect orders. Like Lepidoptera, caddisflies are capable of spinning silk from specially modified salivary glands, and the diversity of ways this silk is used probably accounts for the success of the order as a whole. These utilize silk to construct both larval and pupal shelters, often incorporating materials from the environmental among the silk thread. In this study, we try to find and characterize novel type genes that should be translated to major component protein of aquatic silk. (omitted)

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.81-86
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• 2006

SET (Suppressor of variegation, Enhancer of zeste, and the Trithorax) domain-containing proteins are known to have methyltransferase activity at lysine residues of histone proteins. In this study, we identified a novel SET domain-containing protein from mouse and named Kodo7. Indeed, Kodo7 has methyltransferase activity at K9 residue of the H3 protein as demonstrated by a histone methyl-transferse activity assay using GST-tagged Kodo7. Confocal microscopy showed that Kodo7 is co-localized with histones in the nucleus. Interestingly, ectopic expression of Kodo7 by transient transfection induced cell death and treatment of the transfectants with a caspase-3 inhibitor, Ac-DEVD-AFC decreased Kodo7-induced apoptosis. These results suggest that Kodo7 induces apoptotic cell death through increased methylation of histones leading to transcriptional repression.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제22권11호
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• pp.1478-1481
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• 2012

Geldanamycin (GM) and its analogs are important anticancer agents that inhibit heat shock protein (Hsp) 90, which is a major chaperone protein in cancer cells. Accordingly, based on interest in obtaining novel natural GM derivatives, the potential of Streptomyces hygroscopicus JCM4427, a GM producer, was explored for novel natural GM derivative(s), resulting in the discovery of new GM analogs as a biosynthetic shunt product and intermediates from its fermentation broth. In this study, the fermentation, isolation, structure determination, and biological activity of the compounds, two new tetracyclic thiazinogeldanamycin (1) and 19-hydroxy-4,5-dihydrogeldanamycin (3), together with the three known 4,5-dihydrothiazinogeldanamycin (2), reblastatin (4), and 17-demethoxy-reblastatin (5), are described.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.376-380
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• 2006

Gene expression is regulated in large part at the level of transcription under the control of sequence-specific transcriptional regulatory proteins. Therefore, the ability to affect gene expression at will using sequencespecific artificial transcription factors would provide researchers with a powerful tool for biotechnology research and drug discovery. Previously, we isolated 56 novel sequence-specific DNA-binding domains from the human genome by in vivo selection. We hypothesized that these domains might be more useful for regulating gene expression in higher eukaryotic cells than those selected in vitro using phage display. However, an unpredictable factor, termed the "context effect", is associated with the construction of novel zinc finger transcription factors--- DNA-binding proteins that bind specifically to 9-base pair target sequences. In this study, we directly selected active artificial zinc finger proteins from a zinc finger protein library. Direct in vivo selection of constituents of a zinc finger protein library may be an efficient method for isolating multi-finger DNA binding proteins while avoiding the context effect.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.183-190
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was the purification and characterization of an angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptide purified from enzymatic hydrolysates of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss muscle. After removal of lipid, the approximate composition analysis of the rainbow trout revealed 24.4%, 1.7%, and 68.3% for protein, lipid, and moisture, respectively. Among six hydrolysates, the peptic hydrolysate exhibited the highest ACE inhibitory activity. We attempted to purify ACE inhibitory peptides from peptic hydrolysate using high performance liquid chromatography on an ODS column. The $IC_{50}$ value of purified ACE inhibitory peptide was $63.9{\mu}M$. The amino acid sequence of the peptide was identified as Lys-Val-Asn-Gly-Pro-Ala-Met-Ser-Pro-Asn-Ala-Asn, with a molecular weight of 1,220 Da, and the Lineweaver-Burk plots suggested that they act as a competitive inhibitor against ACE. Our study suggested that novel ACE inhibitory peptides purified from rainbow trout muscle protein may be beneficial as anti-hypertension compounds in functional foods.

• EDISON SW 활용 경진대회 논문집
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• 제3회(2014년)
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• pp.103-113
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• 2014

Hydrophobicity is the key concept to understand the role of water in protein folding, protein self-assembly, and protein-ligand interaction. Conventionally, hydrophobicity of amino acids in a protein has been argued based on hydrophobicity scales determined for individual free amino acids, assuming that those scales are unaltered when amino acids are embedded in a protein. Here, we investigate how the hydrophobicity of constituent amino acids depends on the protein context, in particular, on the total charge and secondary structures of a protein. To this end, we compute and analyze the hydration free energy - free energy change upon hydration quantifying the hydrophobicity - of three short proteins based on the integral-equation theory of liquids. We find that the hydration free energy of charged amino acids is significantly affected by the protein total charge and exhibits contrasting behavior depending on the protein net charge being positive or negative. We also observe that amino acids in the central ${\beta}$-strand sandwiched by ${\beta}$-sheets display more enhanced hydrophobicity than free amino acids, whereas those in the ${\alpha}$-helix do not clearly show such a tendency. Our results provide novel insights into the hydrophobicity of amino acids, and will be valuable for rationalizing and predicting the strength of water-mediated interaction involved in the biological activity of proteins.

• BMB Reports
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• 제50권8호
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• pp.411-416
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• 2017

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane protein complex subunit 6 (EMC6) is a novel human autophagy-related molecule. Here, using tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry, we report that EMC6 protein is lost or reduced in glandular cells of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma, compared to normal stomach mucosa. Overexpression of EMC6 in gastric cancer cells inhibited cell growth, migration, invasion, and induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at S-phase. Further investigation suggested that EMC6 overexpression in BGC823 human adenocarcinoma gastric cancer cells reduced tumorigenicity in a xenograft model, demonstrating that EMC6 has the characteristics of a tumor suppressor. This is the first study to show that EMC6 induces cell death in gastric cancer cells. The molecular mechanism of how EMC6 functions as a tumor suppressor needs to be further explored.

• 한국자기공명학회논문지
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.91-95
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• 2020

Transthyretin (TTR) is an abundant protein in blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), working as a homo-tetrameric complex to transport thyroxine (T₄) and a holo-retinol binding protein. TTR is well-known for its amyloidogenic property; several types of systemic amyloidosis diseases are caused by aggregation of either wild-type TTR or its variants, for which more than 100 mutations were reported to increase the amyloidogenicity of TTR. The rate-limiting step of TTR aggregation is the dissociation of a monomeric subunit from a tetrameric complex. A wide range of biochemical and biophysical techniques have been employed to elucidate the TTR aggregation processes, among which nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy contributed much to characterize the structural and functional features of TTR during its aggregation processes. The present review focuses on discussing the recent advances of our understanding to the amyloidosis mechanism of TTR and to the structural features of its monomeric aggregation-prone state in solution. We expect that the present review provides novel insights to appreciate the molecular basis of TTR amyloidosis and to develop novel therapeutic strategies to treat diverse TTR-related diseases.

• BMB Reports
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• 제51권5호
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• pp.242-248
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• 2018

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) show great promise for replacing current stem cell therapies in the field of regenerative medicine. However, the original method for cellular reprogramming, involving four exogenous transcription factors, is characterized by low efficiency. Here, we focused on using epigenetic modifications to enhance the reprogramming efficiency. We hypothesized that there would be a new reprogramming factor involved in DNA demethylation, acting on the promoters of pluripotency-related genes. We screened proteins that bind to the methylated promoter of Oct4 and identified Zinc finger protein 127 (Zfp127), the functions of which have not yet been identified. We found that Zfp127 binds to the Oct4 promoter. Overexpression of Zfp127 in fibroblasts induced demethylation of the Oct4 promoter, thus enhancing Oct4 promoter activity and gene expression. These results demonstrate that Zfp127 is a novel regulator of Oct4, and may become a potent target to improve cellular reprogramming.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제57권1호
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• pp.46-49
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• 2014

CHARGE syndrome has been estimated to occur in 1:10,000 births worldwide and shows various clinical manifestations. It is a genetic disorder characterized by a specific and a recognizable pattern of anomalies. The major clinical features are ocular coloboma, heart malformations, atresia of the choanae, growth retardation, genital hypoplasia, and ear abnormalities. The chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 7 (CHD7) gene, located on chromosome 8q12.1, causes CHARGE syndrome. The CHD7 protein is an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent chromatin remodeling protein. A total of 67% of patients clinically diagnosed with CHARGE syndrome have CHD7 mutations. Five hundred twenty-eight pathogenic and unique CHD7 alterations have been identified so far. We describe a patient with a CHARGE syndrome diagnosis who carried a novel de novo mutation, a c.3896T>C (p. leu1299Pro) missense mutation, in the CHD7 gene. This finding will provide more information for genetic counseling and expand our understanding of the pathogenesis and development of CHARGE syndrome.