• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.17 no.1 s.81
• /
• pp.39-44
• /
• 2007

The Rqh1 gene is essential for vegetative growth in fission Yeast. The rqh1 mutant showed that sensitivity of DNA damaging agent, a wild range of phenotype including abnormal gene expression and cell elongation. This result showed that the rqhl-overexpression cell was sensitivity to DNA damaging agent like rqhl mutant. When Rqh1 have an over-expression by $nmt1^+$ promoter of pREP vector, rqh1 mutant DNA damaging agent sensitivity could be compensated. We isolated two strong mutant containing complementation gene, rqh156 and rqh172, respectively. This result observed that the DNA damaging agent sensitivity of rqhl mutant was complemented by the expression of rqh156 and rqh172. They induced mRNA expression in a dose-dependent manner HU, MMS and UV. The HU sensitivity of the rqhl was complemented by the expression of rqh156 and rqh172. The mRNA expression of rqh156 decreased on HU dose dependent but the mRNA expression of rqh172 did not decrease on HU dose dependent. The MMS and W sensitivity of the rqhl was complemented by the expression of rqh156 and rqh172. These results indicate that the isolated rqhl gene may play an important role in DNA metabolism.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.261-268
• /
• 2006

The Drosophila methuselah (mth) mutant has an approximately 35 percent increase in average lifespan, and enhanced resistance to various forms of stress, including starvation, high temperature, and dietary paraquat. To examine the transcriptional regulation of mth, we used luciferase assays employing Drosophila S2 cells. Two positive control elements were found at -542 ~ -272 (PE1) and +28 ~ +217 (PE2), where putative binding sites for transcription factors including Dorsal (Dl) were identified. Cotransfection of a Dl expression plasmid with a mth-luciferase reporter plasmid resulted in decreased reporter activity. PE1 and PE2, the minimal elements for strong promoter activity, were required for maximal repression by Dl protein. The N-terminal Rel homology domain (RHD) of Dl was not sufficient for repression of mth. We demonstrated by chromatin affinity precipitation (ChAP) assays in S2 cells that Dl bound to the putative PE1 binding site. Unexpectedly, semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that the level of mth transcripts was reduced in dl flies. However, the in vivo result support the view that mth expression is regulated by dl, since it is well known that Dl functions as both a transcriptional activator and repressor depending on what other transcription factors are present. These findings suggest that both innate immunity and resistance to stress are controlled by Dl protein.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.631-637
• /
• 2015

Streptavidin, a protein produced by Streptomyces avidinii, strongly binds up to four molecules of vitamin H, d-biotin exhibiting the dissociation constant of about 10⁻¹⁵ M. This strong binding affinity has been applied for detection and characterization of numerous biological molecules suggesting expression and purification of functional streptavidin should be very useful for the application of this streptavidin-biotin interaction. To express a soluble streptavidin in Escherichia coli, We synthesized streptavidin genes and cloned into pET-22b plasmid, which uses T7 RNA polymerase/T7 promoter expression systems containing pelB leader for secretion into periplasmic space and six polyhistidine tags at C-terminus for purification of expressed proteins. Although streptavidin is toxic to Escherichia coli due to strong biotin binding property, streptavidin was expressed very sufficiently in a range of 10-20 mg/ml. In SDS-PAGE, the size of purified protein was shown as 17 kDa in denatured condition (boiling) and 68 kDa in native condition (without boiling) suggesting tetramerization of monomeric subunit by non-covalent association. Further analysis by size-exclusion chromatography supported streptavidin’s tetrameric structure as well. In addition, soluble streptavidin detected biotinylated proteins in westernblot indicating its functional activity to biotin. Taken these results together, it concluded that our simple expression system was able to show high yield, homotetrameric formation and biotin binding activity analogous to natural streptavidin.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.880-886
• /
• 2005

Using carotenoid genes of Erwinia herbicola, metabolic engineering was carried out for lycopene production with the pAC-LYCO4 plasmid, which was composed of a chromosomal DNA fragment of E. herbicola containing the crtE, crtB, and crtI genes under the control of the tetracycline promoter and the ipi gene of Haematococcus pluvialis with the trc promoter. Plasmid pAC-LYCm4 was constructed for efficient expression of the four exogenous genes using a strong RBS sequence and the same tetracycline promoter. The optimized expression construct of pAC-LYCm4 increased Iycopene production three times as compared with pAC-LYCO4. pAC-LYCm5 containing ispA behind the four exogenous genes was constructed. There was no significant difference in Iycopene production and cell growth between pAC-LYCm4 and pAC-LYCm5. FPP synthase encoded by ispA was not rate-limiting for Iycopene production. Each gene of crtE, crtB, crtI, and ipi was overexpressed, using pBAD-crtE, pBAD-crtIB, and pBAD-ipiHPI, in addition to their expression from pAC-LYCm4. However, there was no increase oflycopene production with the additional overexpression of each exogenous gene. The four exogenous genes appeared to be not rate-limiting in cells harboring pAC-LYCm4. When pDdxs, pBAD24 containing dxs, was introduced into cells harboring lycopene synthetic plasmids, lycopene production of pAC-LYCO4, pAC-LYCm4, and pAC-LYCm5 was increased by 4.7-, 2.2-, and 2.2-fold, respectively. Lycopene production of pBAD-DXm4 containing crtE, crtB, crtI, ipi, and dxs was 5.2 mg/g dry cell weight with $0.2\%$ arabinose, which was 8.7-fold higher than that of the initial strain with pAC-LYC04. Therefore, the present study showed that proper regulation of a metabolically engineered pathway is important for Iycopene production.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.55-59
• /
• 2007

The study was carried out to develop transformants resisting to Phyophthora blight disease in the domestic pepper cultivar Subicho. In transforming of syn600 promoter with elicitin gene using Agrobacterium (LBA4404/pBI101 syn600-syn${\alpha}$-elicitin) to cotyledons of pepper, rate of shoot formation in 'Subicho' was 11.1% in medium containing 3 mg/L zeatin and 0.05 mg/L NAA, and also 12.8% in medium containing combination of 4 mg/L zeatin and 0.05 mg/L MAA. For PCR reaction using elicitin gene primer of transformants regenerated from cotyledons, we detected a specific band of 536 bp, and also showed strong signal at position of 536 bp in accordance with NPTII gene used as probe in Southern blot. Transformants pepper shown resistance to blight fungus was inoculated to seedlings of the $T_{1}\;and\;T_{2}$ transformants by concentration (density: zoo spore $10^{3}/mL$).

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.260-266
• /
• 2006

Methanol induction conditions with various additives for the enhanced production of recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg) were investigated in Pichia pastoris, which can utilize methanol as a carbon source and produce recombinant proteins under the control of strong, tightly-regulated alcohol oxidase(AOX) promoter. The presence of non-methanol carbon sources such as glycerol and glucose fully repressed the expression of AOX promoter. Various additives were tested to improve the production of recombinant protein and it was found that sorbitol could be a good carbon source during methanol induction period. An optimized concentration of amino acid mixture enhanced the production of HBsAg significantly. Pluronic F-68, a non-ionic surfactant, also improved the production of HBsAg without inhibiting cell growth. Addition of oleic acid at 0.01%(v/v) during the induction period showed positive effect on the production of HBsAg. Finally, 1.2%(v/v) of trace salts enhanced the production of HBsAg 1.9 times compared to that of control culture.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.68-75
• /
• 1998

The overproduction and high level secretion of Glucose Oxidase (GOD) from A. niger in S. cerevisiae was carried out by cloning GOD gene. For this purpose, using two different strong promoters (ADH1 promoter, GAL10 promoter) and signal sequences (${alpha}$-MF signal sequence of S. cerevisiae and ${alpha}$-amylase signal sequence of A. oryzae) and GAL7- and GOD terminator, four expression vectors were constructed. All the expression vectors were transformed in S. cerevisiae 2805 using auxotroph method. By the flask culture, transformants of pGAL expression vector series containing GAL 10 promotor showed much higher GOD productivity than transformants of pADH expression vector series containing ADH1 promoter Transformants of pGALGO2 containing GAL10 promotor and ${alpha}$-amylase signal sequence has shown the best productivity of GOD ($GOD_{total}$: 10.3 unit/mL, $GOD_{ex}$: 8.7 unit/mL) at 115 hr. This value was three fold higher than that of pGALGO1 containing GAL 10 promotor and ${alpha}$-MF signal sequence, even if the same promotor was involved. Through the ${alpha}$-amylase signal sequence of A. oryzae, GOD was secreted much more than the case of ${alpha}$-MF signal sequence from S. cerevisiae. These results suggest that signal sequence may play a important roles in not only the secretion but also the overproduction of foreign protein. Secretion rate of GOD in pGALGO1 and pGALGO2 was 89% and 84%, respectively, Because of the overglycosylation in S. cerevisiae the molecular weight of recombinant GOD in S. cerevisiae was much larger (250 kDa) than that of nature GOD in A. niger (170 kDa).

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.151-159
• /
• 2005

Injury caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS), known as oxidative stress, is one of the major damaging factors in plants exposed to environmental stress. Chloroplasts are specially sensitive to damage by ROS because electrons that escape from the photosynthetic electron transfer system are able to react with relatively high concentration of $O_2$ in chloroplasts. To cope with oxidative stress, plants have evolved an efficient ROS-scavenging enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and low molecular weight antioxidants including ascorbate, glutathione and phenolic compounds. To maintain the productivity of plants under the stress condition, it is possible to fortify the antioxidative mechanisms in the chloroplasts by manipulating the antioxidation genes. A powerful gene expression system with an appropriate promoter is key requisite for excellent stress-tolerant plants. We developed a strong oxidative stress-inducible peroxidase (SWPA2) promoter from cultured cells of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) as an industrial platform technology to develop transgenic plants with enhanced tolerance to environmental stress. Recently, in order to develop transgenic sweetpotato (tv. Yulmi) and potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Atlantic and Superior) plants with enhanced tolerance to multiple stress, the genes of both CuZnSOD and APX were expressed in chloroplasts under the control of an SWPA2 promoter (referred to SSA plants). As expected, SSA sweetpotato and potato plants showed enhanced tolerance to methyl viologen-mediated oxidative stress. In addition, SSA plants showed enhanced tolerance to multiple stresses such as temperature stress, drought and sulphur dioxide. Our results strongly suggested that the rational manipulation of antioxidative mechanism in chloroplasts will be applicable to the development of all plant species with enhanced tolerance to multiple environmental stresses to contribute in solving the global food and environmental problems in the 21st century.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.17 no.4 s.84
• /
• pp.522-528
• /
• 2007

In the present investigation, we studied the modulating effects of caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, and (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate(EGCG) on the methylation status of promoter regions of cell cycle regulator, p16, in human breast cancer T-47D cells. We demonstrated that treatment of T-47D cells with caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, or EGCG partially inhibited the methylation status of the promoter regions of p16 genes determined by methylation-specific PCR. In contrast, unmethylated p16 genes were increased with the treatment of T-47D cells with $20{\mu}M$ of caffeic acid or chlorogenic acid for 6 days. Treatment of T-47D cells with 5, 20 or $50{\mu}M$ of EGCG increased the unmethylation status of p16 gene up to 100%, and the methylation-specific bands of this gene were decreased up to 50% in a concentration-dependent manner. The finding of present study demonstrated that coffee polyphenols and EGCG have strong inhibitory effects of the cellular DNA methylation process through increased formation of S-adenosyl-homocysteine(SAH) during the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT)- mediated O-methylation of these dietary chemicals or an direct inhibition of the DNA methyltransferases. In conclusion, various dietary polyphenols could reverse the methylation status of p16 gene in human breast T-47D cells.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2005

Intramuscular fat content(lMF) is considered as one of major economic traits in the pig breeding and industry. In general, high IMF results in better meat quality. Several approaches to detect quantitative trait 10ci( QTL) for IMF indicated a strong possibility of the existence of a QTL related to IMF between the microsatellite marker SW71 and SW1881 on SSC6q. Porcine FABP3 has been considered as a candidate gene affecting IMF due to its physiological roles and position on the pig genome. Two novel mutations, g.-114T> C and g.-158T>G were detected by duplicate sequencing of the porcine FABP3 promoter region. These two mutations were identified as absolute linkage disequilibrium. The g.-158T> G mutation was used for investigating relationships with growth and fat deposition traits. The GG genotype of the g.-158T> G polymorphism showed highly negative effects(P< 0.01) on body weights at 3 and 12 weeks of age, and a positive effect(P< 0.05) on IMF. However, backfat thickness(BF) and carcass fat(CF) content were not significantly associated with the genotype. The result indicates that the novel mutations, identified in this study, could be utilized as possible genetic markers to improve IMF, independent with BF.