Lexic.us

Definition of Restriction endonuclease

1. Noun. Any of the enzymes that cut nucleic acid at specific restriction sites and produce restriction fragments; obtained from bacteria (where they cripple viral invaders); used in recombinant DNA technology.

Medical Definition of Restriction endonuclease

1. Class of bacterial enzymes that cut DNA at specific sites. In bacteria their function is to destroy foreign DNA, such as that of bacteriophages (host DNA is specifically modified at these sites). Type I restriction endonucleases occur as a complex with the methylase and a polypeptide that binds to the recognition site on DNA. They are often not very specific and cut at a remote site. Type II restriction endonucleases are the classic experimental tools. They have very specific recognition and cutting sites. The recognition sites are short, 4-8 nucleotides and are usually palindromic sequences. Because both strands have the same sequence running in opposite directions the enzymes make double stranded breaks, which, if the site of cleavage is off centre, generates fragments with short single stranded tails, these can hybridise to the tails of other fragments and are called sticky ends. They are generally named according to the bacterium from which they were isolated (first letter of genus name and the first two letters of the specific name). The bacterial strain is identified next and multiple enzymes are given Roman numerals. For example the two enzymes isolated from the R strain of E. Coli are designated Eco RI and Eco RII. (10 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Restriction Endonuclease

Literary usage of Restriction endonuclease

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Genetic Manipulation in Crops: Proceedings of the International Symposium on by International Rice Research Institute (1988)
"The new DNA cleavage specificities are created in vitro by modifying DNA at specific subsets of the recognition sequence of a restriction endonuclease, ..."

2. Rice Biotechnology by Gurdev S. Khush, Gary H. Toenniessen (1991)
"Digestion of the DNA with a restriction endonuclease and separation of the fragments by electro- phoresis before transfer to the filter membrane provide the ..."

3. Statistics in Molecular Biology and Genetics: Selected Proceedings of a 1997 by Françoise Seillier-Moiseiwitsch (1999)
"A cladistic analysis of phenotypic associations with haplotypes inferred from restriction endonuclease mapping and DNA sequence data. III. ..."

4. Rice Genetics II: Proceedings of the Second International Rice Genetics by International Rice Research Institute (1991)
"Second, restriction endonuclease analysis was performed on ... were subjected to restriction endonuclease analysis with 6 enzymes: EcoRI, Hind\\\, Pst\, ..."

5. DNA Fingerprinting and Plants (Including Pathogens): Sponsored CRIS/ICAR by Andrew Kalinski (1994)
"... restriction endonuclease. Fifty-four serogroup B isolates (isolated from classical cases of hemorrhagic septicemia) reacted with somatic serotype 2 or 5 ..."

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