• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 1988

Alterations in the amount of fibronectin during chick myogenesis were investigated. The amount of fibronectin as measured by immunoblotting was found to decrease during the process. As a first step in answering the precise mode of change in the level of ibronedin during myogensis, the interaction of 28,000 dalton(28 kDa) amino terminal fragment of fibronectin as well as 85,000 dalton (85 kDa) fragrxient with myoblasts was examined. The specific binding of 125 l-28 kDa fragment to myoblasts was time-dependent and reached a maximum within 60 min. Unlabelled 28 kDa fragment inhibited the binding of 125 I-28 kDa fragment, whereas 85 kDa fragment containing adhesion promoting activity did not inhibit it. This finding suggests that the 28 kDa fragment interacts with the matrix assembly receptors but not with the cell adhesion receptors. Accordingly, the decrease in the level of fibronectin is likely to correlate with the fall of fibronectin receptors on the myoblasts.

• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.353-358
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• 1995

Epitope tagging is the process of fusing a set of amino acid residues that are recognized as an antigenic determinant to a protein of interest. Tagging a protein with an epitope facilitates various immunochemical analyses of the tagged protein with a specific monoclonal antibody. The monoclonal antibody H8 has subtype specificity for an epitope derived from the preS2 region of hepatitis B virus surface antigen. Previous studies on serial deletions of the preS2 region indicated that the preS2 epitope was located in amino acid residues 130~142. To test whether the amino acid sequence in this interval is sufficient to confer on proteins the antigenicity recognizable by the antibody H8, the set of amino acid residues in the interval was tagged to the amino terminal of ${\beta}$-galactosidase and to the carboxyl terminal of the truncated $p56^{lck}$ fragment. The tagged ${\beta}$-galactosidase, expressed in Escherichia coli, maintained the enzymatic activity and was immunoprecipitated efficiently with H8. The tagged $p56^{lck}$ fragment, synthesized in an in vitro translation system, was also immunoprecipitated specifically with H8. These results demonstrate that the amino acid sequence of the preS2 region can be used efficiently for the epitope tagging approach.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1197-1205
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• 2013

Urokinase (uPA) and its receptor (uPAR) play an important role in tumor growth and metastasis. Targeting the excessive activation of this system as well as the proliferation of the tumor vascular endothelial cell would be expected to prevent tumor neovasculature and halt the tumor development. In this regard, the amino-terminal fragment (ATF) of urokinase has been confirmed as effective to inhibit the proliferation, migration, and invasiveness of cancer cells via interrupting the interaction of uPA and uPAR. Previous studies indicated that ATF expressed in Escherichia coli was mainly contained in inclusion bodies and also lacked posttranslational modifications. In this study, the biologically active and soluble ATF was cloned and expressed in Pichia pastoris. The recombinant protein was purified to be homogenous and confirmed to be biologically active. The yield of the active ATF was about 30 mg/l of the P. pastoris culture medium. The recombinant ATF (rATF) could efficiently inhibit angiogenesis, endothelial cell migration, and tumor cell invasion in vitro. Furthermore, it could inhibit in vivo xenograft tumor growth and prolong the survival of tumor-bearing mice significantly by competing with uPA for binding to cell surfaces. Therefore, P. pastoris is a highly efficient and cost-effective expression system for large-scale production of biologically active rATFs for potential therapeutic application.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.165-170
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• 1995

The 356 amino acid long lambda integrase protein of bacteriophage .lambda. constains two autonomous DNA binding domains with distinct sequence specificities. The amino terminal domain of integrase is implicated to bind to the arm-type sequences and the carboxyl domain interacts with the coretype sequencess. As a first step to understand the molecular mechanism of the integrase-DNA interaction at the arm-type site, the int(am)94 gene carrying an amber mutation at the 94th codon of the int was cloned under the control of the P$\_$tac/ promoter and the lacI$\_$q/ gene. The Int(am)94 mutant protein of amino terminal 93 amino acid residues can be produced at high level from a suppressor free strain harboring the plasmid pInt(am)94. The arm-type binding activity of Int(am)94 were measured in vivo and in vitro. A comparison of the arm-type binding properties of the wild-type integrase and the truncated Int(am)94 mutant indicated that the truncated fragment containing 93 amino acid residues carry all the determinants for DNA binding at the arm-type sites.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.1077-1083
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• 2012

Previously, an extracellular ${\alpha}$-amylase (BKA) had been purified from the culture of Bacillus sp. KR8104. Subsequently, the crystal structure of the active enzyme revealed a 422 amino acids polypeptide. In this study, the bka was cloned into E. coli, which encoded a polypeptide of 659 amino acids including two additional fragments: one 44 residues N-terminal fragment and another 193 residues C-terminal fragment. In order to investigate the role of the C-terminal fragment, two constructs with and without this region [$BKA{\Delta}$(N44) and $BKA{\Delta}$(N44C193)] were designed and expressed in E. coli BL21. The optimum pH, thermal stability, and the end-products of starch hydrolysis were found to be similar in both constructs. The $K_m$ and $V_{max}$ values for $BKA{\Delta}$(N44) were lower than $BKA{\Delta}$(N44C193), using either starch or ethylidene-blocked 4-nitrophenylmaltoheptaoside as a substrate.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.251-258
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• 2008

The neurotoxicity of C-terminal fragments of amyloid precusor protein (CT) is known to play some roles in Alzheimer's disease progression. In this study, we investigated the effects of the recombinant C-terminal 105 amino acid fragment of amyloid precusor protein (CT105) on cholinergic function using CT105-injected rat. To study the effects of CT105 on septohippocampal pathway, choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) positive neurons were examined in the medial septum and in the diagonal band after an injection of CT105 peptide into the lateral ventricle. Immunohistological analysis revealed that the number of ChAT-immunopositive cells decreased significantly in both medial septum and diagonal band. In addition, CT105 decreased ChAT-immunopositive cells in the hippocampal area, particulary in the dentate gyros. To study the effect of amyloid beta peptide ($A{\beta}$) and CT105 on the cholinergic system, each peptide was injected into the left lateral ventricle, and acetylcholine (ACh) levels were monitored in hippocampus. ACh level in the hippocampal area was reduced to 60% of control level in $A{\beta}$-treated group, and the level was reduced to 15% of control level in CT105-treated group, at one week after the injection. ACh level was further reduced to 35% of control in $A{\beta}$-treated group, whereas the level was slightly increased to 30% of control in CT105-treated group at 4 weeks after the injection. Taken together, the results in the present study suggest that CT105 impairs the septohippocampal pathway by reducing acetylcholine synthesis and release, which results in damage of learning and memory.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.369-374
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• 1996

The ${\beta}$-lactamase inhibitory protein (BLIP) produced by Streptomyces exfoliatus SMF19 was purified(33 kDa) and the N-terminal amino acid sequence was determined as NH2-ATSVVAWGGNND. Genomic DNA library of S. exfoliatus SMF19 was constructed in pWE15 and recombinants harbouring the corresponding gene were selected by colony hybridization to the mixture of 36-mer oligonucleotide designed from the N-terminal amino acid sequence. The corresponding gene (bliX) was isolated on a 4-kb ApaI fragment of S. exfoliatus SMF19 chromosomal DNA and then sequenced. The bliX consisting of 1, 119bp encoded a mature protein with a deduced amino acid sequence of 342 residues and also encoded a 40-amino-acid signal sequence. No significant sequence similarity to bliX was found by pairwise comparison using various protein and nucleotide sequences.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.508-514
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• 2001

A stuructural gene (ycl) encoding novel yeast cell wall hydrolase, YCL, was cloned from alkalophilic Bacillus alcalophilus subsp. YB380 by PCR, and transformed into E. coli JM83. Based on the N-terminal and internal amino acid sequences of the enzyme, primers were designed for PCr. The positive clone that harbors 1.8 kb of the yeast cell wall hydrolase gene was selected by the colony hybridization method with a PCR fragment as a probe. According to the computer analysis, this gene contained a 400-base-paired N-terminal domain of the enzyme. Based on nucletide homology of the cloned gene, a 850 bp fragment was amplified and the C-terminal domain of the enzyme was sequenced. With a combination of the two sequences, a full nucleotide sequence for YCL was obtained. This gene, ycl, consisted of 1,297 nucleotides with 27 nucleotides with 27 amino acids of signal sequence, 83 redundant amino acids of prosequence, and 265 amino acids of the mature protein. This gene was then cloned into the pJH27 shuttle vector and transformed into the Bacillus subtilis DB104 to express the enzyme. It was confirmed that the expressed cell wall hydrolase that was produced by Bacillus subtilis DB104 was the same as that of the donor strain, by Western blot using polyclonal antibody (IgY) prepared from White Leghorn hen. Purified yeast cell wall hydrolase and expressed recombinant protein showed a single band at the same position in the Western blot analysis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.305-308
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• 1995

From the plasmid library made from Sstl and San-digested genomic DNA of Streptomyces fradiae NRRL 2702, four positive clones were selected using an oligodeoxynucleotide probe from the N-terminal amino acid sequence of purified threonine dehydratase. The cloned gene for threonine dehydratase was a 2.0 kilo-base pair DNA fragment. The deduced amino acid sequence of PCR product (PCR245) was matched to that of the N-terminal part of threonine dehydratase from S. fradiae and this showed a high similarity to the threonine dehydratases of other organisms. This indicated that amino acid sequences of threonine dehydratases were highly conserved and the polypeptide product of the PCR245 was likely to be involved in the deamination of threonine.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.39-40
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• 1995

Thymopoietin(TP) was originally isolated from bovine thymic extracts on the basis of its ability to affect neuromuscular transmission when injected into mice (Goldstein, 1974). A 49 amino acid polypeptide was isolated and sequenced (Schlesinger and Goldstein, 1975). It is now evident that this molecule was created by proteolytic cleavage of larger thymopoietin proteins during isolation, and represents the N-terminal sequence of these proteins. Nevertheless, this proteolytic fragment was active in both neurophysiological and immunological experiments, and enabled the identification of an active pentapeptide. (amino acids 32 to 36, Arg-Lys-Asp-Val-Tyr, thymopentin), which. has been studied as an immunomodulatory drug.