• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.253-257
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• 1999

Effects of polyamines such as cadaverine, putrescine, spermidine and spermine on the self-splicig inhibition of the T4 phage thymidylate synthase(td) intron by spectinomycin have been investrigated. Without polyamine 7mM spectinomycin caused 40% reduction of the splicing rate. Cadaverine reduced the splicing rate over the concentrations of 0.1 to 5 mM. Putrescine at 0.5 mM increased the splicing rate by 13%. Spermidine at 0.5 mM enhanced the splicing rate by 11% while spermine at 0.01 mM enhanced the splicing rate by 16%. Of the all polyamines tested, spermine exhibited the maximum activation effect to counteract the splicing inhibition by spectinomycin. This effect appears to be due to the role of polyamine in stabilizing the conformation of td intron ribozyme essential for the catalytic function.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.208-213
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• 1993

The structural and functional roles of IGS element of T4 td intron in thymidylate synthase activity in vivo were investigated Site-directed mutagenesis was employed to crete mutations of IGS element of T4 td intron, When a U-G pari was changed to a U-C pari in the 5' splice site of P1 stem of td intron, the activity of thymidylate synthase was completely abolished whereas the wild type retained the normal activity of enzyme. When U at 12 position within IGS element was changed to C, the activity of thymidylate synthase was approximately 32% of that of the wild type. Comparison of enzyme activities suggests that IGS element within P1 structure is an essential requirement for splicing of td gene in vivo.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.160-164
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• 1995

The splicing activity of T4 phage td intron RNA has been examined with various Mg$^{2+}$ ions such as MGCl$_{2}$, MgS $O_{4}$ and magnesium acetate using various splicing conditions such as different incubation time and temperature. The maximum splicing of td intron RNA occurred at the concentration of 5 mM MgCl$_{2}$. Raising the Mg$^{2+}$ concentration up to 15 mM appeared to promote P2 delection mutant to overcome the loss of some splicing activity. In both wild type and mutant, a complete hydrolysis of RNA occurred at 30 mM MgCI$_{2}$ MgS $O_{4}$ and magnesium acetate exhibited the rate and pattern of RNA splicing identical to MGCI$_{2}$. The optimal splicing conditions involve the incubation of RNA with 5 mM MgCI$_{2}$ at 58 .deg.C for 15 min. The results suggest that Mg$^{2+}$ may play a key role in the catalytic mechanism of td intron RNA.n RNA.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.141-144
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• 2000

Effects of deamido-$\textrm{NAD}^{+}$on self-splicing of primary transcripts of the phage T4 thymidylate synthase gene (td) was investigated. The self-splicing was not affected by deamido-$\textrm{NAD}^{+}$- at concentrations up to 2 mM. However, it began to decrease at 5 mM and the formation of splicing products such as the linear intron, intron-exon 2 and exon 1-exon 2, was slightly reduced. At 20 mM the self-splicing activity was almost completely abolished. This analog of the coenzyme $\textrm{NAD}^{+}$- inhibits the self-splicing of td intron RNA although it does not possess a guanidine group in its structure. The analysis of inhibitory concentrations and structural examination suggests that the key structural features of deamido-$\textrm{NAD}^{+}$ responsible for the inhibition of splicing may be the ADP-ribose moiety.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.243-247
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• 1999

Effects of divalent cations on self-splicing inhibition by the antibiotic spectinomycin of the phage T4 thymidylate synthase intron (td) have been investigated. $Ca^{2+}$ ion at 1mM concentration suppressed splicing inhibition of spectinomycin by 10% and 50 ${\mu}M\;Co^{2+}$ ion also suppressed splicing inhibition of specinomycin by 10%. $Mg^{2+}$ ion at 6 mM concentration decreased splicing inhibition of spectinomycin by 42% while $Mn^{2+}$ ion decreased the splicing inhibition by 10%. $Zn^{2+}$ ion at 10 uM concentration lowered the splicing inhibition by spectinomycin of 15%. Of all divalent cations tested, $Mg^{2+}$ ion was the most effective in suppressing splicing inhibition by specinomycin whereas $Ca^{2+}$ ion was the least effective. The results suggest that spectinomycin may interact with specific and functional $Mg^{2+}$-binding sites within intron RNA that lead to a displacement of $Mg^{2+}$ essential for catalytic activity.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2002

Effects of divalent cations such as $Mg^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$ and $Zn^{2+}$ on the self-splicing inhibition of the T4 phage thymidylate synthase (td) intron by the coenzyme thiamine pyrophosphate have been investigated. The splicing activity increased in proportion to the concentration of $Mg^{2+}$ up to 30 mM. Without $Mg^{2+}$in the splicing reaction the $Zn^{2+}$ ion tested in the range of 0.1-6 mM concentration only produced the splicing activity about 20% that of the normal splicing rate. A majority of the splicing products were I-E2 and E2 but El-E2 ligation product, Cl and Ll were not detected. Similar patterns of splicing products were also observed with $Mn^{2+}$. At 6 mM $Zn^{2+}$the intron RNA was hydrolyzed. $Mn^{2+}$produced a little higher splicing activity than that of $Zn^{2+}$over the range of concentrations used and at 8 mM about 28% splicing activity was observed. In contrast, $Mn^{2+}\;and\;Zn^{2+}$ ions promoted the splicing activity about 35-40% on an average in the presence of 10 mM $Mg^{2+}$. Of all divalent cations tested, $Mg^{2+}$exhibited the maximum activation effect to counteract the splicing inhibition by thiamine pyrophosphate. This appears to be due to the stabilizing effect of td intron ribozyme structure essential for the catalytic function by $Mg^{2+}$.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.49-53
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• 1996

The effects of K$^{+}$ ion on the activity of RNA splicing of T4 phage thymidylate synthase gene have been investigated. The splicing activity was stimulated within the range of 5 to 20 mM concentration of KCI. When the concentration of KCI in the splicing reaction was brought to 100 or 200 mM a small amount of the exonl-intron product (1, 4 kb) was formed with large proportion of primary RNA transcript not undergoing splicing. This observation strongly suggests that there may exist come kinds of interferences with transesterification at the first step of splicing. Overall it can be concluded that K$^{+}$ ion exhibits very unique roles in RNA splicing of tdd gene depending on its concentration.ion.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.134-139
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• 2002

Effects of GTP on the inhibition of self-splicing of primary transcripts of the phage T4 thymidylate synthase gene (td) by thiamine pyrophosphate and its analogs have been investigated. The order of the inhibitory efficiency for compounds tested was as follows: thiamine pyrophosphate > thiamine monophosphate > thiamine. of all compounds examined, thiamine pyrophosphate was the most potent inhibitor, Increasing GTP concentration in splicing reaction tended to overcome the suppressive effects of self-splicing by thiamine pyrophosphate and its analogs. The inhibition by thiamine pyrophosphate was most sensitized to a higher concentration of GTP, It has been speculated that the key structural features in thiamine pyrophosphate and its analogs responsible for the inhibition of splicing may be a thiamine moiety in which the phosphorylation of 2-hydroxylethyl group on 5-position of thiazolium ring rendered further stimulation of inhibition in self-splicing reaction..

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.153-161
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• 2002

Sox4, a transcription factor, consists of three functional domains: an HMG-box domain as a DNA binding domain, serine rich region as a transactivation domain and glycine rich region (GRR), an unknown functional domain. Although Sox4 is known to be functionally involved in heart, B-cell and reproductive system development, its physiological function remains to be elucidated. We used pGEX expression system to develop a simple and rapid method for purifying Sox4 protein in suitable forms for biochemical studies of their functions. Unexpectedly, we observed that full-length Sox4 appears to be protease-sensitive during expression and purification in E. coli. To map the protease-sensitive site in Sox4, we generated various constructs with each of functional domains of Sox4 and purified as the GST-Sox4 fusion proteins using glutathione beads. We found that the specific cleavage site for the proteolytic enzyme, which exists in E. coli, is localized within the novel GRR of Sox4. Our study suggest that the GRR of Sox4 may a target for the cellular protease action and this cleavage in the GRR may be involved in regulating physiological function of Sox4. Additionally, our study may provide a useful method for investigating the proteolytic cleavage of the target molecule in E. coli.