• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.586-594
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• 2013

Post-translational O-GlcNAc modification (O-GlcNAcylation) of serine or threonine is a new protein modulation mechanism. In contrast to the classical glycosylation, O-GlcNAcylation occurs in a one-step transfer of O-GlcNAc on both nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. In contrast to the general consensus that O-GlcNAc is a final modification, a recent paper (J Proteome Res. 2011 10:2725-2733) showed the presence of O-GlcNAc-P on a synaptic assembly protein AP180. This finding raises a fundamental question about its prevalence. To address this question, we used proteomics to identify those proteins that were phospho-signal enriched by GlcNAc kinase (NAGK). Comparison of pDsRed2-$NAGK_{WT}$-transfected HEK293T cell extract with pDsRed2-$NAGK_{D107A}$-transfected control culture revealed 15 phospho-signal increased spots. Excluding those spots that had no detectable amount of protein expression yielded 7 spots, which were selected for ID determination. Among these, two duplicate spots (two $HSP90{\beta}$ and two ENO1 spots) were shown to be O-GlcNAcylated, two (dUTP nucleotidohydrolase mitochondrial isoform 2, glutathione S-transferase P) were not known to be involved in O-GlcNAcylation, and one (heat shock protein gp96 precursor or grp94) was a glycoprotein. The increase in the phospho-levels of O-GlcNAc by NAGK strongly indicates that these proteins are phosphorylated on O-GlcNAc. Our present data support the idea that O-GlcNAc is not a terminal modification.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.324-331
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• 2013

The addition and removal of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) molecules on serine or threonine residues of a protein is called O-GlcNAcylation. This post-translational modification occurs on both cytoplasmic and nuclear protein, and is fast and reversible as comparable to phosphorylation. In contrast to the phospho-signaling cycles, this emerging moon-lightening signaling is cycled by only two enzymes, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-GlcNAcase (OGA). The simple machinery is a good evolutionary adaptation of a cell for quick accommodation to continuously fluctuating intra- and extracellular microenvironments. Rather than "switching" on or off a specific proteins - this would be done by phosphorylation where numerous specific kinases and phosphatases are involved - O-GlcNAcylation would play a "rheostat" which would be much more delicately increase or decrease the efficacy of signal transductions in response to cellular nutrient and stress conditions. Interestingly, recent evidence indicates that O-GlcNAc is further modified by phosphorylation. The O-GlcNAc-P will upgrade the modulation efficiency of cellular processes to continuous 'analogue' level. So far, only one protein AP180 was reported to have O-GlcNAc-P on Thr310. But, proteomic data from our laboratory indicate that there are multiple O-GlcNAc-P proteins, constituting "O-GlcNAc-P'om". This will focus on the possibility of existence of "O-GlcNAc-P'om".

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2004

Dynamic modification of cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins by O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) on Ser and Thr residues is ubiquitous in higher eukaryotes. And this modification may serve as a signaling mod-ification analogous to protein phosphorylation. Addition and cleavage of O-GlcNAc are catalyzed by O-linked GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-linked N-acety1glucosaminidase (O-GlcNAcase), respectively. Two types of human O-GlcNAcase gene were cloned and expressed as three fusion proteins in Escherichia coli. O-GlcNA-case activity showed in the order of thioredoxin fusion> $6{\times}His$ tag> GST fusion. O-GlcNAcase had enzy-matic activity against only ${\rho}$NP-GlcNAc of seven tested substrate analogs. Blast search revealed that O-GlcNAcase has two conserved domains, amino terminal hyaluronidase-like domain and carboxy terminal N-acetyltransferase domain. Extensive deletion studies were done to define catalytically important domains. The deletions of hyaluronidase-like domain and N-acetyltransferase domain abolished enzyme activity. But, N-ter-minal 55 amino acid deletion and C-terminal truncation showed lower activity. Based on deletion analysis, we suggest that hyaluronidase-like domain is essential for enzyme activity and carboxy terminal N-acetyltrans-ferase domain may be modulatory function.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.306-311
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• 2002

O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) is an abundant posttranslationally modified compound in eukaryotic cells. Human O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) was produced as a maltose binding protein (MBP) fusion protein, which showed significant catalytic activity to modify recombinant Sp1, transcription factor. To facilitate the production of O-GlcNAc modified proteins, instead of using the tedious in vitro glycosylation reaction or expression in eukaryotic cells, a MBP-fusion OGT expression vector (pACYC184-MBPOGT) was constructed using pACYC184 plasmid, which could coexist with general prokaryotic expression vectors containing ColE1 origin. By cotransforming pACYC184-MBPOGT and pGEX-2T vectors into Escherichia coli BL21, intracellular O- GlcNAcylated proteins could be obtained by a simple purification procedure. It is expected that this may be a useful tool for production of O-GlcNAc modified proteins.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.955-959
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• 2006

A dynamic cycle of addition and removal of O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) at serine and threonine residues is emerging as a key regulator of nuclear and cytoplasmic protein activity. In this work, immunocytochemistry was carried out to investigate the subcellular expression of GlcNAc kinase (NAGK, EC 2.7.1.59) that catalyzes the phosphorylation of GlcNAc to GlcNAc 6-phosphate. Immunostainings of cultured rat hippocampal neurons revealed patchy or punctate distribution of NAGK. When NAGK is doublestained with caveolin-1 or flotillin, markers for caveolae and lipid rafts, respectively, NAGK was co-localized with these markers. These results indicate that most, if not all, of the NAGK immunopunctae represent caveolae and lipid rafts, and suggest NAGK's role in these membrane microdomains.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.65-67
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• 2004

O-GlcNAcylation of p53 has been already identified and reported, but the function of O-GlcNAc on p53 has not been studied well. In this report, the general function of O-GlcNAc modification on p53 has been investigated using mouse fibroblast cell, L929. When streptozotocin (STZ), a non-competitive O-GlcNAcase inhibitor was treated to L929, O-GlcNAc modification level was dramatically increased on nucleocytoplasmic proteins, including p53. Because it has been already reported that $TNF\alpha$ induced the production of p53 in L929, $TNF\alpha$ was treated to obtain more p53. Approximately two times more amount of p53 was found from the cells treated STZ and $TNF\alpha$ simultaneously compared to the cell treated $TNF\alpha$ alone. The p53 increment in the presence of STZ was not caused by the induction of p53 gene expression. When new production of p53 induced by the $TNF\alpha$ was inhibited by the treatment of cycloheximide, O-GlcNAc modification decreased and phosphorylation increased on pre-existing p53 after $TNF\alpha$ treatment. But in the presence of STZ and $TNF\alpha$ at the same time, more O-GlcNAcylation occurred on p53, The level of ubiquitination on p53 was also reduced in the presence of STZ. Approximately three times less amount of Mdm2 bound to this hyperglycosylated p53. From this result it might be concluded that treatment of STZ to inhibit O-GlcNAcase increased O-GlcNAc modification level on p53 and the increment of O-GlcNAc modification stabilized p53 from ubiquitin proteolysis system.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.501-505
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• 2021

The pathogenic free-living amoeba Naegleria fowleri causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, a fatal infection, by penetrating the nasal mucosa and migrating to the brain via the olfactory nerves. N. fowleri can induce host cell death via lytic necrosis. Similar to phosphorylation, O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) glycosylation (O-GlcNAcylation) is involved in various cell-signaling processes, including apoptosis and proliferation, with O-GlcNAc addition and removal regulated by O-GlcNAc transferase and O-GlcNAcase (OGA), respectively. However, the detailed mechanism of host cell death induced by N. fowleri is unknown. In this study, we investigated whether N. fowleri can induce the modulation of O-GlcNAcylated proteins during cell death in Jurkat T cells. Co-incubation with live N. fowleri trophozoites increased DNA fragmentation. In addition, incubation with N. fowleri induced a dramatic reduction in O-GlcNAcylated protein levels in 30 min. Moreover, pretreatment of Jurkat T cells with the OGA inhibitor PUGNAc prevented N. fowleri-induced O-deGlcNAcylation and DNA fragmentation. These results suggest that O-deGlcNAcylation is an important signaling process that occurs during Jurkat T cell death induced by N. fowleri.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.210-214
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• 2001

GlcNAc 2-epimerase gene from human was cloned. However GIcNAc 2-epimerase was expressed in E. coli as inclusion body formation. Several approaches were tried such as expression in low temperature and low concentration of IPTG. With these treatments production of active form of human GIcNAc 2-epimerase ι ,vas enhanced. For the direct synthesis of NeuAc from GlcNAc and pyruvate, NALase and GlcNAc 2-epimerase were characterized in terms of temperature effect on activity. equilibrium and stability, inhibition by pyruvate etc. For cheap and ease preparation of both the NALase and GlcNAc 2-epimerase, pEN24ma vector was made. which express both the NALasc and GIcNAc 2-epimerase simultaneously. In addition, E. coli BL21(DE3) harboring two plasmids was also made. Of the two systems, the latter was better for the expression of both enzymes.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2004

Protein modification by N-acetyl-${\beta}$-D-glucosamine (O-G1cNAc) on the hydroxyl groups of Ser or Thr ubiq-uitously occurs in eukaryotic cells and is involved in many cellular phenomena. The level of O-G1cNAc-mod-ified protein is regulated by OGT and O-GlcNAcase enzymes. We have tried to produce recombinant O-GlcNAcase in E. coli as an effort to establish in vitro screening system for modulators of O-GlcNAcase. The culture conditions for improvement of O-GlcNAcase productivity, were as follows: induction temperature, $30^{\circ}C$; the concentration of L-arabinose, 0.02% and induction time, 5 hr. Under these culture conditions, E. coli cells containing O-GlcNAcase gene had no enzyme activity until up to 3 hr culture. However, O-GlcNAcase activity dramatically increased from 3 to 5 hr culture. It almost maintained the same level after 5 hr culture. Western blot analysis verified the amount of expressed O-GlcNAcase increased with culture time, being con-sistent with activity data. The optimal reaction condition determined in this study was as follows: protein quan-tity, $5{\mu}g$; reaction time, 30 min; reaction temperature, $45^{\circ}C$; substrate concentration, 2 mM; reaction pH, 6.5. Methanol had little effect on O-GlcNAcase activity and 90% of activity were retained at 10%. Only 15% resid-ual activity were detected at 5% of chloroform.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.1315-1319
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• 2008

A trisaccharide, 6d-Altro-Hepp$\alpha$ (1$\rightarrow$3) GlcNAc$\beta$ (1$\rightarrow$3) Gal$\alpha$ (1$\rightarrow$$OCH_2CH_2N_3$, as an O-antigenic repeating unit of Campylobacter jejuni serotypes O:23 and O:36, was synthesized. Coupling of the 6d-altro-Hepp$\alpha$ (1$\rightarrow$3) GlcNAc$\beta$ (1$\rightarrow$SEt donor with Gal$\alpha$ (1${\rightarrow}OCH_2CH_2Cl$ acceptor in the presence of NIS-TfOH promoter afforded the trisaccharide having the $\beta$ (1$\rightarrow$3) Gal linkage. $\beta$ -Stereospecificity and the desired regioselectivity for the 3-OH Gal are obtained. Subsequent hydrogenation, acetylation, azide displacement, hydrazinolysis, Nacetylation, and finally deacetylation furnished the title trisaccharide hapten for further glycoconjugation.