The genomic structure and phylogenetic relationships of HSP88 genes from P. tenuipes Jocheon-1, P. tenuipes, C. militaris and C. pruinosa are described. The HSP88 genomic DNA from P. tenuipes Jocheon-1, P. tenuipes and C. militaris all contain 5 introns and 6 exons with the length of 13, 62, 32, 1438, 306, 288 bp, encoding 713 amino acid residues. C. pruinosa HSP88 genomic DNA contains 4 introns and 5 exons encoding 713 amino acids. The length of each exon of C. pruinosa HSP88 is 13, 62, 32, 1744, 288 bp and the length of exon 4 is identical to the total length of exon 4 and exon 5 of HSP88 of P. tenuipes Jochoen-1, P. tenuipes, and C. militaris. The deduced amino acid sequence of P. tenuipes Jocheon-1 HSP88 showed 99% identity with the P. tenuipes, 97% identity with the Cordyceps militaris, and 98% identity with the C. pruinosa. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that the P. tenuipes Jocheon-1, P. tenuipes, C. militaris and C. pruinosa HSP88 are placed together within the ascomycetes group of fungal clade.

In this study, a full-length heat shock protein88 complementary DNA (cDNA) of Paecilomyces tenuipes Jocheon-1 was obtained by screening of P. tenuipesJocheon-1 Uni-Zap cDNA library and 5' RACE polymerase chain reaction. The Paecilomyces tenuipes Jocheon-1 heat shock protein88 cDNA contains an open reading frame of 2,139 bp encoding 713 amino acid residues. The deduced amino acid sequence of the P. tenuipes Jocheon-1 HSP88 cDNA showed 77% identity to N. haematococca HSP88 and 45-76% identity to other fungi HSP88. Phylogenetic analysis and BLAST program analysis confirmed that the deduced amino acid sequences of the P. tenuipes Jocheon-1 HSP88 gene belonged to the ascomycetes group within the fungal clade and P. tenuipes Jocheon-1 HSP88 also contains the conserved ATPase domain at the N-terminal. The cDNA encoding P. tenuipes Jocheon-1 HSP88 was expressed as a 88 kDa polypeptide in baculovirus-infected insect Sf9 cells. Under different stress conditions, mRNA expression of P. tenuipes Jocheon-1 HSP88 were quantified by real-time PCR and the result showed that heat shock stress affected the mRNA expression levels of P. tenuipes Jocheon-1 HSP88.

Presently, We have constructed an olig-d(T) primed directional cDNA library from the silkworm Dongchunghacho, an entomopathogenic fungus, of which species is belonging to Paecilomyces tenuipes Jocheon-1. To isolate and screen genes in the fungus, 626 expressed sequence tags(ESTs) were generated by a partial sequencing from the cDNA library. Paecilomyces tenuipes Jocheon-1 cDNA encoding the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase(Pt-GAPDH) of Paecilomyces tenuipes Jocheon-1 was cloned from the above cDNA library. The complete cDNA sequence of Pt-GAPDHis comprised of 1,014bp encoding 338 amino acid residues. The deduced protein sequence of Pt-GAPDH showed higher homology with Beauberia bassiana-GAPDH(93% amino acid identity). Hydropathy analysis revealed that Pt-GAPDH protein is hydrophilic. The major three amino acids in its composition of amino acid residues were alanine(11.54%), valine(9.47%) and glycine(8.88%). The cDNA encoding Pt-GAPDH was expressed as a 37 kDa polypeptide in baculovirus-infected insect Sf9 cells. The Pt-GAPDH gene of Paecilomyces tenuipes entomopathogenic fungus consisted of three exons and two introns coding for 338 amino acid residues, and the genomic DNA length of the gene spans 1302bp. The accession number of the gene in GenBank are GU997099 for Pt-GAPDH cDNA and GU997102 for Pt-GAPDH genomic DNA.

Fungi belonging to the Paecilomyces spp. have recently been used as food and herbal medicines in Korea and are greatly popular as commercially available powdered supplement or dried fruiting body. Despite this acceptance and its use, little is known of the genes related to its reactive agents. Presently, We have constructed an olig-d(T) primed directional cDNA library from the silkworm Dongchunghacho, an entomopathogenic fungus, of which species is belonging to Paecilomyces spp. based on the previous identification of ITS1 and ITS2 at the molecular level and collected from Jocheon Miryang, Korea. To isolate and screen genes in the fungus, 626 expressed sequence tags(ESTs) were generated by a partial sequencing from the cDNA library. cDNA encoding the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase(Pt-GAPDH) of Paecilomyces tenuipes- Jocheon was cloned from the above cDNA library. The complete cDNA sequence of Pt-GAPDH is comprised of 1,014bp encoding 338 amino acid residues. The deduced protein sequence of Pt-GAPDH showed higher homology with Beauberia bassiana-GAPDH(93% amino acid identity). Hydropathy analysis revealed that Pt-GAPDH protein is hydrophilic. The major three amino acids in its composition of amino acid residues were alanine(11.54%), valine(9.47%) and glycine(8.88%). The Pt-GAPDH gene of Paecilomyces tenuipes entomopathogenic fungus consisted of three exons and two introns coding for 338 amino acid residues, and the genomic DNA length of the gene spans 1302bp. The accession number of the gene in GenBank are GU997099 for Pt-GAPDH cDNA and GU997102 for Pt-GAPDH genomic DNA. More investigation works including gene expression, immunological analysis etc. will be carried continuously without hesitation after this presentation.

A full genomic DNA microarray technique was employed to investigate the effects of Dongchunghacho on aortal and hepatic gene expression in apolipoprotein E knockout mice fed a high-fat/high-cholesterol diet. Male 8- week - old ApoE-/- mice were randomly divided into two groups, control(high cholesterol group; HC) and supplementation of Dongchunghacho (SD). All of the mice were fed a high-fet/high cholesterol diet with or without Dongchunghacho supplemented by 1% for 6 weeks. At first, lipid profile of the Dongchunghacho was measured by biochemical analysis. No differences were observed in serum triglyceride and total cholesterol levels between the two groups. Antigenotoxic effect of the Dongchunghacho was measured by the single cell gel electrophoresis assay (Comet assay) and quantified as % fluorescence in tail. Dongchunghacho supplementation decreased significantly leukocytic DNA damage and also there was a tendency of reduction in hepatic DNA damage in Dongchunghacho group compared with the control group. In up regulated genes in liver and aorta of the mice, genes with 0 to 2- fold difference in expression level between the two group (HD and SD) was very much more in liver than in aorta, on the contrary, those with 2-fold to 16-flod difference increased greatly rather in aorta than in liver. Also, almost the same results were observed in down regulated genes in liver and aorta between the two groups. These results suggested that supplementation of Dongchunghacho might be helpful in preventing leukocytic DNA damage induced by high fat diet, and has a more crucial roles in aortal gene expression.