• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.113-113
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• 2003

A number of studies have demonstrated recently nonthermal interactions of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields with cellular systems, such as the cells of the immune system. Particular concern came from epidemiological findings, which correlated environmental exposure of human body to weak electromagnetic fields with an elevated risk for developing certain type of leukemias and cancers. Several home/environmental sources generating extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields, such as 50 - 60 Hz high-voltage transmission lines, video display terminals, electric blankets, clinical nuclear magnetic resonance imaging procedures, etc., may interact with the human body. In this study we examined the effects of static magnetic fields (SMF) on the phagocytosis of the murine peritoneal macrophages (C57BL/6). The cells were exposed in vitro for 24 h at 37$^{\circ}C$ to 400 G SMF. The phagocytic activity of peritoneal macrophages was determined with a luminometer. Exposure to the SMF decreased phagocytic activity of murine peritoneal macrophages. In order to provide a more exact mechanism of the phenomenon, we analyzed peritoneal macrophages for alteration in their proteomes. The expression levels of these 5 proteins were increased in the SMF. In total 5 proteins which were differentially expressed in the SMF compared with control group were identified. The expression levels of these 5 proteins were increased in the SMF.

• ALGAE
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.133-144
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• 2020

Pythium porphyrae is responsible for devastating outbreaks in seaweed farms of Pyropia, the most valuable cultivated seaweed worldwide. While the genus Pythium contains many well studied pathogens, the genome of P. porphyrae has yet to be sequenced. Here we report the first available gene repertoire of P. porphyrae and a preliminary analysis of pathogenicity-related genes. Using ab initio detection strategies, similarity based and manual annotation, we found that the P. porphyrae gene repertoire is similar to classical phytopathogenic Pythium species. This includes the absence of expanded RxLR effector family and the detection of classical pathogenicity-related genes like crinklers, glycoside hydrolases, cellulose-binding elicitor lectin-like proteins and elicitins. We additionally compared this dataset to the proteomes of 8 selected Pythium species. While 34% of the predicted proteome appeared specific to P. porphyrae, we could not attribute specific enzymes to the degradation of red algal biomass. Conversely, we detected several cellulases and a cutinase conserved with plant-pathogenic Pythium species. Together with the recent report of P. porphyrae triggering disease symptoms on several plant species in lab-controlled conditions, our findings add weight to the hypothesis that P. porphyrae is a reformed plant pathogen.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.178-183
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• 2006

Microbes are one of the most important bioresources in bioindustry and provide high economic values. Although there are currently about 6,000 bacterial species with validly published names, microbiologists generally assume that the number may account for less than 1% of the bacterial species present on Earth. To discover the remaining species, studies of metagenomes, metabolomes, and proteomes related to microbes have recently been carried out in various fields. We have constructed an information system that integrates various data on microbial resources and manages bioinformation to support efficient research of microorganisms. We have designated this system 'Bio-Meta Information System (Bio-MIS).' Bio-MIS consists of an integrated microbial resource database, a microbial resource input system, an integrated microbial resource search engine, a microbial resource online distribution system, a portal service, and management via the Internet. In the future, this system is expected to be connected with various public databases. We plan to implement useful bioinformatics software for analyzing microbial genome resources. The Web site is accessible at http://biomis.probionic.com.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.33-43
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• 2020

Ginseng is popularly known to be the king of ancient medicines and is used widely in most of the traditional medicinal compositions due to its various pharmaceutical properties. Numerous studies are being focused on this plant's curative effects to discover their potential health benefits in most human diseases, including cancer- the most life-threatening disease worldwide. Modern pharmacological research has focused mainly on ginsenosides, the major bioactive compounds of ginseng, because of their multiple therapeutic applications. Various issues on ginseng plant development, physiological processes, and agricultural issues have also been studied widely through state-of-the-art, high-throughput sequencing technologies. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the number of publications on ginseng has rapidly increased, with a recent count of more than 6,000 articles and reviews focusing notably on ginseng. Owing to the implementation of various technologies and continuous efforts, the ginseng plant genomes have been decoded effectively in recent years. Therefore, this review focuses mainly on the cellular biomolecular sequences in ginseng plants from the perspective of the central molecular dogma, with an emphasis on genomes, transcriptomes, and proteomes, together with a few other related studies.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.3.1-3.16
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• 2011

Investigation of the genetic functions in complex biological systems is a challenging step in recent year. Hence, several valuable and interesting research projects have been developed with novel ideas to find out the unknown functions of genes or proteins. To validate the applicability of their novel ideas, various approaches are built up. To date, the most promising and commonly used approach for discovering the target proteins from biological system using small molecule is well known a forward chemical genetics which is considered to be more convenient than the classical genetics. Although, the forward chemical genetics consists of the three basic components, the target identification is the most challenging step to chemical biology researchers. Hence, the diverse target identification methods have been developed and adopted to disclose the small molecule bound protein. Herein, in this review, we briefly described the first two parts chemical toolbox and screening, and then the target identifications in forward chemical genetics are thoroughly described along with the illustrative real example case study. In the tabular form, the different biological active small molecules which are the successful examples of target identifications are accounted in this research review.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2017

Protozoan viruses may influence the function and pathogenicity of the protozoa. Trichomonas vaginalis is a parasitic protozoan that could contain a double stranded RNA (dsRNA) virus, T. vaginalis virus (TVV). However, there are few reports on the properties of the virus. To further determine variations in protein expression of T. vaginalis, we detected 2 strains of T. vaginalis; the virus-infected ($V^+$) and uninfected ($V^-$) isolates to examine differentially expressed proteins upon TVV infection. Using a stable isotope N-terminal labeling strategy (iTRAQ) on soluble fractions to analyze proteomes, we identified 293 proteins, of which 50 were altered in $V^+$ compared with $V^-$ isolates. The results showed that the expression of 29 proteins was increased, and 21 proteins decreased in $V^+$ isolates. These differentially expressed proteins can be classified into 4 categories: ribosomal proteins, metabolic enzymes, heat shock proteins, and putative uncharacterized proteins. Quantitative PCR was used to detect 4 metabolic processes proteins: glycogen phosphorylase, malate dehydrogenase, triosephosphate isomerase, and glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, which were differentially expressed in $V^+$ and $V^-$ isolates. Our findings suggest that mRNA levels of these genes were consistent with protein expression levels. This study was the first which analyzed protein expression variations upon TVV infection. These observations will provide a basis for future studies concerning the possible roles of these proteins in host-parasite interactions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.89-95
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• 2007

Improvements in the dissolution of proteins in two-dimensional gel electrophoresis have greatly advanced the ability to analyze the proteomes of microorganisms under a wide variety of physiological conditions. This study examined the effect of various combinations of chaotropic agents, a reducing agent, and a detergent on the dissolution of the Streptomyces peucetius cytosolic proteins. The use of urea alone in a rehydration buffer as a chaotropic agent gave the proteome a higher solubility than any of the urea and thiourea combinations, and produced the highest resolution and clearest background in two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Two % CHAPS, as a detergent in a rehydration buffer, improved the protein solubility. After examining the effect of several concentrations of reducing agent, 50 mM DTT in a rehydration buffer was found to be an optimal condition for the proteome analysis of Streptomyces. Using this optimized buffer condition, more than 2,000 distinct and differentially expressed soluble proteins could be resolved using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis with a pI ranging from 4-7. Under this optimized condition, 15 novel small proteins with low-level expression, which could not be analyzed under the non-optimized conditions, were identified. Overall, the optimized condition helped produce a better reference gel for Streptomyces peucetius.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.911-920
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• 2006

[ $CD8^+$ ] T Iymphocytes with the cytotoxic activity and capability to release various cytokines are the major players in immune responses against viral infection and cancer. To identify the proteins specific to resting or activated human CD8$^+$ T cells, human CD8$^+$ T cells were activated with anti-CD3+anti-CD28 mAb in the presence of IL-2. The solubilized proteins from resting and activated human CD8$^+$ T cells were separated by high-resolution two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and their proteomes were analyzed. Proteomic analysis of resting and activated T cells resulted in identification of 35 proteins with the altered expression. Mass spectrometry coupled with Profound and SWISS-PROT database analysis revealed that these identified proteins are to be functionally associated with cell proliferation, metabolic pathways, antigen presentation, and intracellular signal transduction pathways. We also identified six unknown proteins predicted from genomic DNA sequences specific to resting or activated CD8$^+$ T cells. Protein network studies and functional characterization of these novel proteins may provide new insight into the signaling transduction pathway of CD8$^+$ T cell activation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.373-382
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• 2020

Candidatus Carsonella ruddii is an endosymbiont that resides in specialized cells within the body cavity of plant sap-feeding insects called psyllids. The establishment of symbiotic associations is considered one of the key factors for the evolutionary success of psyllids, as it may have helped them adapt to imbalanced food resources like plant sap. Although C. ruddii is defined as a psyllid primary symbiont, the genes for some essential amino acid pathways are absent. Complete genome sequences of several C. ruddii strains have been published. However, in-depth intra-species comparison of C. ruddii strains has not yet been done. This study therefore aimed to perform a comparative genome analysis of six C. ruddii strains, allowing the interrogation of phylogenetic group, functional category of genes, and biosynthetic pathway analysis. Accordingly, overall genome size, number of genes, and GC content of C. ruddii strains were reduced. Phylogenetic analysis based on the whole genome proteomes of 30 related bacterial strains revealed that the six C. ruddii strains form a cluster in same clade. Biosynthetic pathway analysis showed that complete sets of genes for biosynthesis of essential amino acids, except tryptophan, are absent in six C. ruddii strains. All genes for tryptophan biosynthesis are present in three C. ruddii strains (BC, BT, and YCCR). It is likely that the host may depend on a secondary symbiont to complement its deficient diet. Overall, it is therefore possible that C. ruddii is being driven to extinction and replacement by new symbionts.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.367-372
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• 2013

Effects of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) on cellular protein expression are essential for viral pathogenesis. To characterize the cellular response to EBV infection, differential proteomes of gastric epithelial AGS cells were analyzed with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) and liquid chromatography electrospray/ionization ion trap (LC-ESI-IT) mass spectrometry identification. Mass spectrometry identified 9 altered cellular proteins, including 5 up-regulated and 4 down-regulated proteins after EBV infection. Notably 2-DE analysis revealed that EBV infection induced increased expression of heat shock cognate 71 kDa protein, actin cytoplasmic 1, pyridoxine-5'-phosphate oxidase, caspase 9, and t-complex protein 1 subunit alpha. In addition, EBV infection considerably suppressed those cellular proteins of zinc finger protein 2, cyclin-dependent kinase 2, macrophage-capping protein, and growth/differentiation factor 11. Furthermore, the differential expressional levels of partial proteins (cyclin-dependent kinase 2 and caspase 9) were confirmed by Western blot analysis.Thus, this work effectively provided useful protein-related information to facilitate further investigation of the mechanisms underlying EBV infection and pathogenesis.