Current status of water reuse systems in Korea

In Korea, the current water resources will fall short by 2.6 billion tons to meet the 38 billion ton water demand in the year 2020. To overcome the future water shortage, it is desirable to minimize water consumption and to reuse treated wastewater. There are a total of 99 on-site water-recycling systems in the country. The potential capacity of the 99 systems is 429 thousands tons/day, which is 3.6% of the total service water. Compared to other industrialized countries, the number of the water recycling systems in Korea is extremely small. This is mainly due to the following reasons. First, in Korea, any building with more than 60,000 m2 of total floor space is required to install a water reuse system by law. However, only less than 0.5% of the total buildings have more than 10,000 m2. Therefore, the regulation is ineffective and merely nominal. Second, service water is supplied at low charge (0.20 US-dollar/m3 water). The inexpensive service water often discourages people to recycle treated wastewater. Third, people still think recycled water is not clean enough and can cause diseases. Therefore, they should be informed that a well-maintained recycling system does not fail to produce water with high quality.

Brillouin frequency shifts in silica optical fiber with the double cladding structure

We report theoretical and experimental analysis on Brillouin frequency shift in silica optical fibers with the double cladding structures that are comprised of GeO2-doped core, P2O5- and F-codoped inner cladding and silica outer cladding. The intrinsic Brillouin frequency shift was calculated for various fiber parameters utilizing boundary conditions for longitudinal acoustic waves. Optical fibers with different fiber parameters were fabricated and the Brillouin frequency shifts were measured in the wavelength region of 1.55m. We confirmed that the inner cladding in an optical fiber could provide a new degree of freedom in controlling the Brillouin frequency shift.

Genes that co-cluster with estrogen receptor alpha in microarray analysis of breast biopsies

The estrogen receptor plays a critical role in the pathogenesis and clinical behavior of breast cancer. To better understand the molecular basis of estrogen-dependent forms of this disease we studied gene expression profiles from 53 primary breast cancer biopsies. Gene expression data for more than 7000 genes were generated from each tumor sample with oligo microarrays. A standard correlation-clustering algorithm identified 18 genes that co-clustered with estrogen receptor alpha. Eleven of these genes had previously been associated with estrogen regulation or breast tumorigenesis including trefoil factor 1 and estrogen regulated LIV-1. Additional study of these 18 genes may further delineate the role of estrogen receptor in breast cancer, generate new predictive biomarkers for response to endocrine therapies and identify novel therapeutic targets.

Heterologous expression and characterization of endoglucanase I (EGI) from Trichoderma viride HK-75

Endoglucanase I (EGI) secreted from Trichoderma viride HK-75 has a unique transglycosylation activity. The genomic and cDNA clones encoding EGI (egl1) of T. viride HK-75 were isolated and characterized. The coding region of egl1, composed of 1392 bp, was found to encode a polypeptide of 464 amino acids that has extensive similarity (93.8%) with EGI of T. reesei. Expression of the egl1 gene in E. coli as a fusion protein (with N-terminal thioredoxin and C-terminal histidine tag) led to a large production of a nonglycosylated protein of 62.5 kDa. However, it formed an insoluble inclusion body. Upon denaturation with 8 M urea followed by dialysis and successive purification, the enzymatically active recombinant EGI (rEGI) was obtained at a level as high as 18.3 mg/l of 1,000 ml of culture. The rEGI had 67.8% activity for carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), compared to native EGI (nEGI). The optimum pH and optimum temperature of rEGI were lower than those of nEGI by 0.5 and 5 degrees C, respectively. The rEGI also had narrower CMCase ranges than nEGI in pH and temperature stabilities. However, the catalytic and transglycosylation abilities against cellotriose of rEGI were comparable to those of nEGI. These results suggest that the glycosylation is important for the stabilities of EGI but not critical for the essential enzymatic capacity.

Functional analysis of HO gene in delayed homothallism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae wy2

Saccharomyces cerevisiae wy2 exhibits a novel life cycle, with delayed homothallism caused by a defective HO gene. In this strain, gradual diploidization occurs during successive subcultures. Three amino acids of wy2 HO were different from those of wild-type (wt) HO, which included a nonsense mutation (TAG) from Trp-292 and two amino acid changes of His-475 to Leu and Glu-530 to Lys. The ho gene of heterothallic strain CG379 was also sequenced in this study. Four amino acids of ho were different from those of HO. Among different amino acids in wy2 HO and ho, the alteration of His-475 to Leu was common between them. His-475 in HO was previously suggested to be involved in the DNA binding. We constructed a variety of chimeric HO genes by exchanging the corresponding restriction fragments generated from the wt HO, wy2 HO and ho genes. These results and the site-directed mutagenesis studies allowed us to draw the following conclusions: (a) Gly-223 is essential for HO activity; (b) mutation of His-475 to Leu significantly reduces the HO activity; (c) amber mutation (TAG) in wy2 HO car be suppressed inefficiently.

Functional analysis of O-linked oligosaccharides in threonine/serine-rich region of Aspergillus glucoamylase by expression in mannosyltransferase-disruptants of yeast

The glaA gene encoding glucoamylase I (GAI) of Aspergillus awamori var. kawachi was heterologously expressed in mannosyltransferase mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in which the pmt1 gene and the kre2 gene were disrupted. The GAI enzymes expressed in these yeast mutant cells exhibited a lesser extent of O-glycosylation. Secretion of GAI expressed in the pmt1-disruptant and in the kre2-disruptant, respectively, was almost the same as that of GAI expressed in wild type (wt) strains. The number of O-linked mannose in GAI from wt yeast strain ranged in size from one (Man1) to five (Man5). On the other hand, the O-linked oligosaccharides of GAI from the pmt1-disruptant ranged in size from Man1 to Man4. Man5 was not detected and Man2-Man4 were reduced in proportion to the reduction of Man1. The O-linked oligosaccharides of GAI from the kre2-disruptant ranged from Man1 to Man4, and the molar amount of Man4 was reduced to 27.3%, compared to that of the wt strain. The hydrolyzing abilities for soluble starch and the adsorbing abilities on raw starch were comparable between both disruptants and wt strains. However, the digesting abilities for raw starch of the disruptants were decreased to 70% of those of the wt strains. Stabilities of GAI of the disruptants were reduced toward extreme pH and high temperature, compared to those of the wt strains. These results demonstrate that the O-linked oligosaccharides of GAI are responsible for the enzyme stability and activity toward insoluble substrates but not for secretion.

Functional analysis of a hybrid endoglucanase of bacterial origin having a cellulose binding domain from a fungal exoglucanase

A cellulose binding domain (CBD) of an endo-beta-1,4-glucanase (Ben) from the bacterium Bacillus subtilis BSE616 was replaced with the CBD of exoglucanase I (TexI) from the fungus Trichoderma viride HK-75. The resultant hybrid enzyme Ben'-CBDTexI, comprising the catalytic domain (Ben') of Ben and the CBD (CBDTexI) of TexI, was highly expressed at 20% of the total protein in Escherichia coli. The molecular mass of the hybrid enzyme was estimated to be ca. 38 kDa by SDS-PAGE, which was in good agreement with that calculated from 305 amino acids of Ben and 42 amino acids of CBDTexI. The hybrid enzyme exhibited almost the same activity as that of the original Ben toward soluble substrates, such as cellooligosaccharides. The hybrid enzyme showed higher binding ability and hydrolysis activity toward microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel), even though the length of the CBD of TexI was four times smaller than that of Ben. The hybrid enzyme was more resistant to tryptic digestion than the original Ben. The efficient binding ability of the hybrid enzyme to Avicel permitted purification of the enzyme using an Avicel-affinity column to the extent of ca. 90% purity.

Purification and characterization of a fibrinolytic enzyme produced from Bacillus sp. strain CK 11-4 screened from Chungkook-Jang

Bacillus sp. strain CK 11-4, which produces a strongly fibrinolytic enzyme, was screened from Chungkook-Jang, a traditional Korean fermented-soybean sauce. The fibrinolytic enzyme (CK) was purified from supernatant of Bacillus sp. strain CK 11-4 culture broth and showed thermophilic, hydrophilic, and strong fibrinolytic activity. The optimum temperature and pH were 70 degrees C and 10.5, respectively, and the molecular weight was 28,200 as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The first 14 amino acids of the N-terminal sequence of CK are Ala-Gin-Thr-Val-Pro-Tyr-Gly-Ile-Pro-Leu-Ile-Lys-Ala-Asp. This sequence is identical to that of subtilisin Carlsberg and different from that of nattokinase, but CK showed a level of fibrinolytic activity that was about eight times higher than that of subtilisin Carlsberg. The amidolytic activity of CK increased about twofold at the initial state of the reaction when CK enzyme was added to a mixture of plasminogen and substrate (H-D-Val-Leu-Lys-pNA). A similar result was also obtained from fibrin plate analysis.