Deoxyribonuclease components

Nucleic acids are broken down into their components by nucleases from the pancreas and small intestine (ribonucleases and deoxyribonucleases). Further breakdown yields the nucleobases (purine and pyrimidine derivatives), pentoses (ribose and deoxyribose). 

Fig. 5. The execution phase of apoptosis. An apoptotic stimulus causes the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria. The first box contains the components required to activate caspase 9 card refers to the caspase-recruitment domain. Caspase 9 then activates caspase 3 (second box), which in turn activates caspase 6 (last box). The amino-acid sequences at the cleavage sites are shown. Caspases 3 and 6 also have a prodomain that is not present in the active protease in caspase 6 an additional cleavage removes a small portion of the middle of the protein. Various substrates of the caspases are shown, including the pathway by which caspase-activated deoxyribonuclease (CAD) is activated which in turn leads to DNA...

Cytochrome 62 is also called yeast lactate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.2.3, lactate cytochrome c oxidoreductase) (204 205]. This cytochrome possesses both FMN and protoheme (206-211). Although the native enzyme also contains deoxyribonucleic acid, this moiety can be removed by deoxyribonuclease without affecting the enzymic activity of the enzyme (212) and is supposed to be a heterogeneous component (213). This enzyme completely differs in its heme content from animal lactate dehydrogenase and also from yeast n(—)-lactate dehydrogenase. 

In 1964, Merrick and Doudoroff isolated PHB granules from B. cereus using lysozymes and deoxyribonuclease to solubilize the peptidoglycans and the nucleic acids respectively. The enzymatic digestion of cell components usually released the nucleic acids in the suspension medirrm which made sirspension highly viscous and impossible... 

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