• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2011

S-Adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (SAMDC; EC 4.1.4.50), a key enzyme for polyamines biosynthesis, was tightly regulated for homeostatic levels. Carnation SAMDC gene (CSDC9) has an small upstream open reading frame (uORF) of 54 amino acids in 5'-leader sequence. To explore the functional mechanism of uORFs in controlling translation, we used a GUS reporter gene driven with the 35S promoter and uORF region of SAMDC gene for making transgenic tobacco plants. In our experiment, there were a translational inhibition of its downstream GUS ORF by SAMDC uORF sequence or SAMDC uORF protein. Expecially, translational inhibition was most effective in point-mutated construct, in which the start codon was changed. Therefore, this results suggested the ribosomal stalling might be involved in this translational inhibitory process. The frame shift in amino acid sequence of SAMDC uORF with start codon and stop codon resulted in a moderate increasing in GUS activity, suggesting the native amino acid sequence was important for a function as a translational inhibitor. Also, we showed that the production of GUS protein was significantly inhibited in the presence of the small uORF using histochemical analysis of GUS expression in seedlings and tobacco flowers. Importantly, the small uORF sequence induced a real peptide of 5.7 kDa, which was provided the presence of SAMDC uORF peptide band using an in vitro transcription/translation system. The peptide product of uORF might interact with other components of translational machinery as well as polyamines, which was resulted from that polyamine treatment was inhibited GUS protein band in SDS-PAGE experiment.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2001

Two linear plasmid-like DNAs, 10.2 kb and 7.2 kb were found in the mitochondria of P. ostreatus. They have covalently linked 5'-terminal proteins in both ends. Two continuous fragments of 4.7 kb and 2.3 kb from 7.2 kb DNA were cloned and sequenced. Two long open reading frames (ORF1; 2982 bp, 993 a.a and ORF2; 2703 bp, 900 a.a) and one short open reading frame(ORF3; 771 bp, 256 a.a) were found in the 7.2 kb plasmid. The putative ORF1 and ORF2 have conserved motifs of DNA polymerases and RNA polymerases, respectively, while the ORF3 has homologous regions with phosphatase from Plasmodium, and also with adhesine from Mycoplasma.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.255-261
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• 2005

A 6.7kb DNA fragment containing the sprT gene encoding Streptomyces griseus trypsin (SGT) was cloned from Streptomyces griseus ATCC 10137, and the complete nucleotide sequence was determined. Nucleotide sequence and deduced amino acid or the EcoRI-HindIII fragment revealed the presence or the six complete ORFs containing the sprT gene and one incomplete ORF, which were named ORF1, SGT, ORF2, ORF3, ORF4, ORF5, and ORF6, respectively. ORF1 has homology with the oxidoreductases from several organisms. ORF2 and ORF3 show similarity with unknown proteins and transcription regulator that belongs to the ArsR family, respectively. ORF4 and ORF5 show homology with the peptidoglycan bound protein with LPXTG motif from Listeria monocytogenes and the membrane protein with transmembrane helix from several organisms, respectively. The last ORF, ORF6, shows homology with the lipoprotein from Streptomyces avermitilis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.1009-1017
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• 2012

The orf282 gene of Rhodobacter sphaeroides is located between the ccoNOQP operon encoding $cbb_3$ terminal oxidase and the fnrL gene encoding an anaerobic activator, FnrL. Its function remains unknown. In an attempt to reveal the function of the orf282 gene, we disrupted the gene by deleting a portion of the orf282 gene and constructed an orf282-knockout mutant. Two FnrL binding sites were found to be located upstream of orf282, and it was demonstrated that orf282 is positively regulated by FnrL. The orf282 gene is not involved in the regulation of spectral complex formation. The $cbb_3$ oxidase activity detected in the orf282 mutant was comparable to that in the wild-type sample, indicating that the orf282 gene is not involved in the regulation of the ccoNOQP operon and the biosynthesis of the cbb3 cytochrome c oxidase. The elevated promoter activity of the nifH and nifA genes, which are the structural genes of nitrogenase and its regulator, respectively, in the orf282 mutant, suggests that the orf282 gene product acts as a negative effector for nifH and nifA expression.

• ALGAE
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.183-190
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• 2003

Except for a group I intron in trnL-uaa occuring in eubacteria and plastids, group I introns are rarely documented in plastid genomes. Here, we report that a green alga, Caulerpa sertularioides, contains three group IA3 introns in the 16S gene (cpSSU), CS-cpSSU.i1, CS-cpSSU.i2 and CS-cpSSU.i3. Each intron has an open reading frame with LAGLIDADG motifs. CS-cpSSU.i1orf and CS-cpSSU.i3orf occur at Loop 6 in the intron secondary structure and CScpSSU. i2orf at Loop 8. CS-cpSSU.i1orf and CS-cpSSU.i2orf contain both LAGLI-DADG motifs but CS-cpSSU.i3orf has only one. CS-cpSSU.i1 and CS-cpSSU.i2 share the insetion sites and the ORFs at Loop 6 and 8 with CpSSU·1 and CpSSU·2 introns of Chlamydomonas pallidostigmatica (Chlorophyceae). In contrast, CS-cpSSU.i3, containing 28 copies of GAAATAT at Loop 6, is a novel intron found only in Caulerpa sertularioides. Possible scenarios of the evolution of the three introns and their possible use in systematic research are discussed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.819-822
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• 2003

Polyketides are an extensive class of secondary metabolites with diverse molecular structures and biological activities. A plasmid-based minimal polyketide synthase (PKS) expression cassette was constructed using a subset of actinorhodin (act) biosynthetic genes (actI-orfl, actI-orf2, actI-orf3, actIII, actⅦ, and actIV) from Streptomyces coelicolor, which specify the construction of an orange-fluorescent anthraquinone product aloesaponarin II, a type II polyketide compound derived from one acetyl coenzyme A and 7 malonyl coenzyme A extender units. This system was designed as an indicator pathway in S. parvulus to generate a hybrid type II polyketide compound via gene-specific replacement. The act ${\beta}-ketoacyl$ synthase unit (actI-orfl and actI-orf2) in the expression cassette was specifically replaced with oxytetracycline ${\beta}-ketoacyl$ synthase otcY-orfl and otcY-orf2). This plasmid-based hybrid PKS cassette generated a novel orange-fluorescent compound structurally different from aloesaponarin II in both S. lividans and S. parvulus. In addition, several additional distinctive blue-fluorescent compounds were detected, when this hybrid PKS cassette was expressed in S. coelicolor B78 (actI-orf2 mutant), implying that the expression of plasmid-based hybrid PKS cassette in Streptomyces species should be an efficient way of generating hybrid type II polyketide compounds.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.223-227
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• 2008

Human embryonic stem (ES) cells retain the capacity for self-renewal, are pluripotent and differentiate into the three embryonic germ layer cells. The regulatory transcription factors Oct4, Nanog and Sox2 play an important role in maintaining the pluripotency of human ES cells. The aim of this research was to identify unknown genes upregulated in human ES cells along with Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2. This study characterizes an unknown gene, named chromosome 1 open reading frame 31 (C1orf31) mapping to chromosome 1q42.2. The product of C1orf31 is the hypothetical protein LOC388753 having a cytochrome c oxidase subunit VIb (COX6b) motif. In order to compare expression levels of C1orf31 in human ES cells, human embryoid body cells, vascular angiogenic progenitor cells (VAPCs), cord-blood endothelial progenitor cells (CB-EPCs) and somatic cell lines, we performed RT-PCR analysis. Interestingly, C1orf31 was highly expressed in human ES cells, cancer cell lines and SV40-immortalized cells. It has a similar expression pattern to the Oct4 gene in human ES cells and cancer cells. Also, the expression level of C1orf31 was shown to be upregulated in the S phase and early G2 phase of synchronized HeLa cells, leading us to purpose that it may be involved in the S/G2 transition process. For these reasons, we assume that C1orf31 may play a role in on differentiation of human ES cells and carcinogenesis.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.956-962
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• 2005

Leishmania virus (LRV)1-4 has been reported to produce a fusion of ORF2 and ORF3 via a programmed +1 frameshift in the region where ORF2 and ORF3 overlap (Lee et a/., 1996). However, the exact frameshift site has not been identified. In this study, we compared the frameshift efficiency of a 259bp (nt. 2565-2823), frameshift region of LRV1-4, and the 71 bp (nt. 2605-2678) sub-region where ORF2 and ORF3 overlap. We then predicted the frameshift site using a new computer program (Pseudoviewer), and finally identified the specific region associated with the mechanism of the LRV1-4's+1 frameshift by means of a mutational analysis based on the predicted structure of LRV1-4 RNA. The predicted structure was confirmed by biochemical analysis. In order to measure the frameshift efficiency, constructs that generate luciferase without a frameshift or with a+1 frameshift, were generated and in vitro transcription/translation analysis was performed. Measurements of the luciferase activity generated, showed that the frameshift efficiency was about $1\%$ for both the 259bp (LRV1-4 259FS) and 71 bp region (LRV1-4 71FS). Luciferase activity was strongly reduced in a mutant (LRV1-4 NH: nt. 2635-2670) with the entire hairpin deleted and in a mutant (LRV1-4 NUS: nt. 2644-2659) with the upper stem of the hairpin deleted. These results indicate that the frameshift site in LRV1-4's is in the 71 bp region where ORF2 and ORF3 overlap, and that nt. 2644-2659 (the upward hairpin stem) playa key role in generating the +1 frameshift.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.229-233
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• 2010

Pluripotency and self-renewal capacity of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are retained by hESCs related genes as OCT4, SOX2 and NANOG. These genes are shown high expression level in diverse cancer cells and have potential role in the carcinogenesis. On the contrary to this, several genes which are up-regulated in the differentiated hESCs are involved to suppress the carcinogenesis or proliferation of cells. We discovered several genes in immortalized lung fibroblast (WI-38 VA13) by suppression subtractive hybridization. Among them, we focused chromosome 6 open reading frame 62 (C6orf62) which is uncharacterized, mapped to 6p22.3 and generated to Hepatitis B virus X-transactivated proteins (HBVx-transactivated proteins, XTP). Aim of this study was to characterize C6orf62 through analyzing of expression pattern in various cell lines. Expression of C6orf62 was significantly upregulated in diverse normal cell lines than cancer cell lines. And C6orf62 was up-regulated in differentiated hESCs (endothelial cells, neural cells) compared to those of undifferentiated hESCs. Also, C6orf62 in WI-38 cells was highly up-regulated during G1/S transition of the cell cycle. Taken together, C6orf62 is shown expression pattern similar to differentiated hESCs-associated genes which down-regulated in cancer cells. Therefore, we assume that C6orf62 may participate to suppress the proliferation and to induce differentiation through regulating the cell cycle.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.457-462
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• 2003

The complete nucleotide sequence of a plasmid, pMG1, isolated from Bifidobacterium longum MG1 has been determined. This plasmid, composed of 3,862 base pairs with 65.1% of G+C content. harbors two major open reading frames (ORF) encoding putative proteins of 29 kDa (ORF I) and 71 kDa (ORF II). ORF I showed relatively high amino acid sequence homology with replication proteins of other plasmids from Gr Im-positive and -negative bacteria. Upstream of ORF I, four sets of tandem repeat sequences resembling the iteron structure of related plasmids were found. S1 endonuclease treatment and Southern blot analysis revealed that pMG1 accumulates single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) intermediate, which indicate i the rolling circle replication (RCR) mechanism of this plasmid. Homology search indicated that ORF II encodes plasmid mobilization protein, and the presence of highly conserved oriT sequence in the upstream of this gene supported this assumption. RT-PCR showed that only ORF I is expressed in vivo. Based on these results, pMG 1 was exploited to construct a shuttle vector, pBES2. It was successfully transformed into Bifidobacterium and maintained stably.