Chimeric restriction endonucleases

Fig. 5. Schematic of the construction and function of chimeric restriction endonucleases (Chandrasegaran and Smith, 1999). (a) The type IIS restriction enzyme Fokl has a nonspecific endonuclease domain (FN) and a DNA-binding domain. Swapping Fokl s DNA binding-domain for that of another DNA binding-domain results in a chimeric restriction enzyme with new specificity. The flexibility resulting from less intimate contact between the Fn domain and its new DNA-binding domain translates into DNA cleavage at several locations near the binding site, (b) The modular nature and tunable specificity of zinc...

Fig. 24.3 The construction of a chimeric (or recombinant) DNA molecule hy joining together two DNA fragments produced by cleavage of different parental DNA molecules with the same restriction endonuclease.

DNA molecules containing covalently linked segments derived from two or more DNA sources are called recombinant DNA. (Another name for recombinant DNA is chimeric DNA, named after the chimera, a monster in Greek mythology that had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent.) The production of recombinant DNA was made possible by the isolation of restriction endonucleases. 

Fig.5. In vitro generation of a chimeric plasmid containing foreign DNA. The required sticky ends are created by cleaving both the plasmid and the foreign DNA with the same restriction endonuclease (in this example, EcoRI).

---