Endonucleases

As the second educt (B), the plasmid ONA with complementary sticky ends is prepared separately. In the first step the isolated plasmid DNA is cut open by a special type of enzyme called restriction endonuclease. It scans along the thread of DNA and recognizes short nucleotide sequences, e.g., CTGCAG, which ate cleaved at a specific site, e.g., between A and G. Some 50 of such enzymes are known and many are commercially available. The ends are then again extended witfa he aid of a terminal transferase by a short sequence of identical nucleotides complementary to the sticky ends of educt (A). 

Artificial endonucleases, ie, molecules able to cleave double-stranded DNA at a specific sequence, have also been developed. These endonucleases can be obtained by attaching a chemically reactive group to a sequence-specific oligonucleotide. When the oligonucleotide is bound to its complementary sequence, the activation of the reactive group results in double-stranded DNA cleavage. 

Nebularine. Nebularine(44) is a naturaHy occurring purine riboside isolated from S.jokosukanensis (1,3,4). It is phosphorylated, and inhibits purine biosynthesis and RNA synthesis, but is not incorporated into RNA by E. coli RNA polymerase. It has also found appHcation as a transition state analogue for treatment of schistosomiasis and as a substrate for the restriction endonuclease, Hindll (138—141). 

Exonucleases. Like the endonucleases they are restriction enzymes which act at the 3 or 5 ends of linear DNA by hydrolysing off the nucleotides. Although they are highly specific for hydrolysing nucleotides at the 3 or 5 ends of linear DNA, the number of nucleotides cleaved are time dependent and usually have to be estimated from the time allocated for cleavage. Commercially available exonucleases are used without further purification. 

Endonuclease-catalyzed hydrolysis of DNA at the internucleosomal linker regions into multimers of 180 base pairs which are visualized by electrophoresis as a ladder of nuclear DNA fragments. Access of the endonuclease to DNA is facilitated by depletion of polyamines, and the activity of the enzyme is mcrea.sed by and decreased by ADP-tibosylation. Thus, agents that increase intracellular Ca " or inhibit l>oly(ADP-ribose) polymerase can induce apoptosi.s. ... 

Table 11.5 lists many of the commonly used restriction endonucleases and their recognition sites. Because these sites all have twofold symmetry, only the sequence on one strand needs to be designated. 

Treatment of a linear lOkb DNA molecule with endonucleases gave the following results ... 

Treatment widi restriction endonuclease Agave 2 fragments, one 7 kb in size and one 3 kb in size, as judged by gel electrophoresis. 

Treatment of a diird sample with both restricdon endonucleases A and B yielded fragments 6.5, 2, 1, and 0.5 kb. 

FIGURE 11.33 Restricdon mapping of a DNA molecule as determined by an analysis of the electrophoretic pattern obtained for different restriction endonuclease digests. (Keep in mind that a dsDNA molecule has a unique nucleotide sequence and therefore a definite polarity thus, fragments from one end are distinctly different from fragments derived from the other end.)... 

FIGURE 13.3 Restriction endonuclease Ec691 cleaves double-stranded DNA. The recognition site for is the hexameric sequence GAATTC ... 

---