Clostridium butyricum is a butyric acid-producing anaerobic bacteriuma, and commonly present as gut microbiota in humans. This species has been used as a probiotic for the prevention of diarrhea in humans. In this study, we report the draft genome of C. butyricum DKU-01, which was isolated from infant feces, to better understand the characteristics of this strain so that it can later be used in the development of probiotic products. A total of 79 contigs generated by hybrid assembly of sequences obtained from Roche 454 and Illumina Miseq sequencing systems were investigated. The assembled genome of strain DKU-01 consisted of 4,519,722 bp (28.62% G + C content) with a N50 contig length of 108,221 bp and 4,037 predicted CDSs. The extracted 16S rRNA gene from genome sequences of DKU-01 was similar to Clostridium butyricum with 99.63% pairwise similarity. The sequence of strain DKU-01 was compared with previously reported genome sequences of C. butyricum. The value of average nucleotide identity between strains DKU-01 and C. butyricum 60E3 was 98.74%, making it the most similar strain to DKU-01. We sequenced the DKU-01 strain isolated from infant feces, and compared it with the available genomes of C. butyricum on a public database. Genes related to Fructooligosaccharide utilization were detected in the genome of strain DKU-01 and compared with other genera, such as Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus. We found that strain DKU-01 can metabolize a wide range of carbohydrates in comparative genome result. Further analyses of the comparative genome and fermentation study can provide the information necessary for the development of strain DKU-01 for probiotics.

Overexpression of CFH gene in pterygiumv patients

Background: Bone is continuously produced by osteoblasts and resorbed by osteoclasts to maintain homeostasis. Impaired bone resorption by osteoclasts causes bone diseases such as osteoporosis and arthritis. Most pharmacological treatment of osteoporosis focuses on inhibiting osteoclast differentiation, often to restore osteoclast/osteoclast balance. However, recent osteoporosis treatments have various side effects. According to a recent study, resveratrol, known as a stilbenoid family, is known to increase bone density, and the osteoclast inhibitory effect was confirmed using oxyresveratrol, a stilbenoid family. Here, we investigated the effect of oxyresveratrol on osteoclast differentiation and an ovariectomized mouse model. Methods: Mouse leukemia monocyte/macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 was treated with oxyresveratrol, and cell cytotoxicity was confirmed by measuring MTT assay. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), an enzyme marker for osteoclasts, was confirmed by staining. In addition, osteoclast differentiation markers and MAPK-related markers were confirmed at the mRNA level and protein expression. The effect of oxyresveratrol was confirmed using ovariectomized mice. Deoxypyridinoline (DPD) was measured using mouse urine and TRAP activity was observed using serum. Bone mineral density was also measured using Micro-CT. Results: The polyphenol oxyresveratrol inhibited receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-Β ligand (RANKL)-induced osteoclast differentiation of RAW 264.7 cells. Furthermore, oxyresveratrol inhibited TRAP activity and actin-ring formation. Moreover, oxyresveratrol suppressed the phosphorylation of the RANKL-induced mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) p38, JNK, and ERK and significantly reduced the expression of bone differentiation markers (NFATc1, cathepsin K, and TRAP). Conclusion: Oxyresveratrol inhibits osteoclast differentiation via MAPK and increases bone density in ovariectomized rats, suggesting it has therapeutic potential for bone diseases such as osteoporosis. We confirmed the osteoporosis prevention effect of OR in Raw 264.7 cells, and future studies should confirm the effect of OR using rat bone marrow-derived cells.

We present here the complete genome sequence of Bacillus subtilis strain DKU_NT_03 isolated from the traditional Korean food chung-gook-jang, which is made from soybeans. This strain was chosen to identify genetic factors with high-quality nattokinase activity.