• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.209-214
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• 1991

The PRD1 DNA polymerase is a small multi-functional enzyme containing conserved amino acid sequences shared by family B DNA polymerases. Thus the PRD1 DNA polymerase provides an useful model system with which to study structure-functional relationships of DNA polymerase molecules. In order to investigate the functional and structural roles of the highly conserved amino acid sequences, we have introduced three mutations into a conserved amino acid of the PRD1 DNA polymerase. Genetic complememtation study indicated that each mutation inactivated DNA polymerase catalytic activity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.381-385
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• 1999

Taq DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus has been shown to be very useful in a polymerase chain reaction. Taq DNA polymerase has a domain at the amino terminus (residues 1 to 290) that has 5'-3' exonuclease activity and a domain at the C-terminus that catalyzes the polymerase reaction. Taq DNA polymerase is classified into the Pol I family, which is represented by E. coli DNA polymerase I. The alignment of amino acid sequences for the 5'-3' exonuclease domains of the Pol I family DNA polymerases shows ten highly conserved carboxylic amino acids. Crystallographic studies suggested that six of the carboxylic amino acids are clustered within a 7 $\AA$ radius by chelating three metal ions in the active site. Those six carboxylic residues are mutagenized to alanines in order to better understand their function. All six carboxylic residues, Asp l8, Glu1l7, Asp1l9, Asp120, Asp142, and Aspl44, are crucial for catalysis of 5'-3' exonuclease.

• BMB Reports
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.498-502
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• 1998

HBV polymerase shares several regions of amino acid homology with other DNA-directed and RNA-directed polymerases. The amino acid residues $Asp^{429}$, $Gly^{518}$, $Asp^{551}$, $Lys^{585}$, and $Gly^{641}$ in the conserved motifs A, B', C, D, and E in the polymerase domain of HBV polymerase were mutated to alanine or histidine by in vitro site-directed mutagenesis. Those mutants were overexpressed, purified, and analyzed against DNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity and affinity for DNA binding. All those mutants did not show DNA-dependent DNA polymerase activities indicating that those five amino acid residues are all critical in DNA polymerase activity. South-Western analysis shows that amino acid residues $ASp^{429}$ and $ASp^{551}$ are essential to DNA binding, and $Gly^{318}$ and $Gly^{585}$ also affect DNA binding to a certain extent.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.471-477
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• 1998

Taq DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus is very useful in the polymerase chain reaction. Taq DNA polymerase is classified in the pol I family, represented by E. coli DNA polymerase I. The three-dimensional structural alignment of 3'-5'exonuclease domains from the pol I family DNA polymerases explains why Taq DNA polymerase does not carry out proofreading in polymerase chain reactions. Three sequence motifs, Exo I, II, and III, must exist to carry out 3'-5'exonuclease activity for proof- reading by a 3'-5'exonuclease reaction, but these are abolished in Taq DNA polymerase. The key catalytic module in 3'-5'exonuclease is two metal ions chelated by four active-site carboxylic amino acids. Taq DNA polymerase was mutagenized to construct the catalytic module in the active site. The circular dichroism technique supported the formation of the catalytic module, and the radioactive assay showed that the 3'-5'exonuclease activity doubled in the mutant Taq DNA polymerase.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2006

Unlike other viral polymerases, HCV RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) has not been successfully inhibited by nucleoside analogues presumably due to its strong substrate specificity for RNA. Thus, in order to understand the RNA-specificity of HCV RdRp, the structural characteristics of the active site was investigated. The hereto unknown 2-OH binding pocket at the active site of RdRp provides invaluable implication for the development of novel anti-HCV nucleoside analogues.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.154-158
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• 1999

The arginine residue at position 243 (Arg 243) of the yeast transcription factor, Gcn4p, is invariably conserved among bZIP transcription factors. Using site-directed oligonucleotide saturation mutagenesis involving two-step polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, random mutations were successfully introduced at the codon of 243 in the basic domain of Gcn4p. This mutant library was transformed ito Gcn4p defective yeast strain and selected for the transcriptionally active colonies. All colonies which were transcriptionally active had arginines in the codon 243. In this study, the strand preference by Taq polymerase during mutagenesis was also tested. Oligonucleotides were specially designed to test whether or not the polymerase was preferred using the strand as a template. A population of randomly mutated products were cloned into an appropriate vector and characterized by DNA sequencing analysis. Saturation mutagenesis which was performed efficiently by this method revealed a strong bias in terms of strand preference of Taq polymerase by an approximate ratio of 3 to 1 in this study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1993.04a
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• pp.55-55
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• 1993

Farnesyl Protein transferase(FPT)는 발암유전자 ras의 단백질 산물인 p$^{21}$의 post-translational modification의 첫 단계인 ras-farnesylation에 관여하는 효소로 본 연구에서는 정제된 FPT와 E. coli에서의 발현 system을 이용하여 FPT의 구조와 기능을 밝히고 이를 FPT 방해제의 설계에 이용하고자 한다. Bovine testis에 존재하는 FPT를 30%-50%의 Ammonium sulfate로 fractionation하고, DEAE-Sephacel, Sephacryl S-300 column을 통과시킨 후 peptide(KKCVIM) affinity column을 이용하여 순수 정제하였다. 정제된 효소의 분자량은 gel-filtration에 의해 100KDa으로 추정되었고 SDS-PAGE 결과 49KDa과 46KDa의 두 subunit로 구성되었음이 확인되었다. 효소활성에는 $Mg^{2＋}$ 와 $Zn^{2＋}$가 필수적이며 최적 pH는 7.0이었다. Yeast의 FPT의 두 subunit 유전자는 Yeast genomic DNA를 template로 사용하고 각 subunit에 specific한 합성된 primer들과 vent polymerase를 이용하여 Polymerase chain reaction을 통하여 얻었다. 두 유전자를 pBluescriptII SK＋ vector를 변형시킨 두 vector, pBSK＋4와 pBChl＋4에 재조합 시킨 후 E.coli에 transformation시켜 발현시켰다. 현재 정제된 Bovine FPT와 E. coli에서 발현된 Yeast FPT의 chemical modification과 site-directed mutagenesis를 통하여 FPT의 active site와 substrate binding site에 관한 연구를 진행시키고 있다.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.285-291
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• 2005

The nonstructural protein 5B (NS5B) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), which is the essential catalytic enzyme for the viral replication and is an appealing target for the development of new therapeutic agents against HCV infection. A small amount of serum from a single patient with hepatitis C was used to get the genome of a Korean HCV isolate. Sequence analysis of NS5B 1701 nucleotides showed the genotype of a Korean isolate to be subtype 1b. The soluble recombinant HCV NS5B polymerase lacking the C-terminal 24 amino acids was expressed and purified to homogeneity. With the highly purified NS5B protein, we established in vitro systems for RdRp activity to identify potential polymerase inhibitors. The rhodanine family compounds were found to be potent and specific inhibitors of NS5B from high throughput screening (HTS) assay utilizing the scintillation proximity assay (SPA) system. The binding mode of an inhibitor was analyzed by measuring various kinetic parameters. Lineweaver-Burk plots of the inhibitor suggested it binds not to the active site of NS5B polymerase, but to an allosteric site of the enzyme. The activity of NS5B in in vitro polymerase reactions with homopolymeric RNA requires interaction with multiple substrates that include a template/primer and ribonucleotide triphosphate. Steady-state kinetic parameter, such as Km, was determined for the ribonucleotide triphosphate. One of compounds found interacts directly with the viral polymerase and inhibits RNA synthesis in a manner noncompetitively with respect to UTP. Furthermore, we also investigated the ability of the compound to inhibit NS5B-directed viral RNA replication using the Huh7 cell-based HCV replicon system. The investigation is potentially very useful for the utility of such compounds as anti-hepatitic agents.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.317-322
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• 1989

A gene can be selectively overexpressed in E. coli by utilizing the phage T7 RNA polymerase's stringent recognition and active transcription of the T7 promoter. The T7 expression system was constructed such that the T7 RNA polymerase gene is under the control of lacUV5 promoter in one plasmid, and that the target gene, the promoterless chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene with E. coli ribosome binding site is under the control of T7 promoter in the other plasmid. Only the E. coli cells containing both plasmids show high resistance to chloramphenicol. When the copy number of the runaway plasmid containing the polymerase gene was varied by a temperature shift, amounts of the CAT protein synthesized upon induction was correspondingly changed as shown in SDS gel electrophoresis.

• The Journal of Natural Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2004

T7 RNA polymerase is a single subunit RNA polymerase able to accomplish whole transcription process without auxiliary factors. In order to study transcription elongation mechanism of phage T7 RNA polymerse, stepwise walking of RNA polymerase was established by immobilizing biotinylated DNA template with streptavidin bead, series of active and stable elongation complexes were obtained, Transcripts were radio isotope labeled at the 16thm 17th and 18th nucleotide residues so stable elongation transcription complex of T7 RNA polymerase containing 22-40 nucleotide residues could be identified. We identified the positions of stablely formed transcription elongation complexes of termination site in intrinsic hairpin-independent PTH terminator sequence through the established stepwise walking of wild-type of mutant R173C T7 RNA polymerases. The results suggest that stable elongation transcription complexes were at the site of passing PTH terminator signal by mutant R173C RNA polymerase.