Restriction enzymes with 6-base pair recognition sites

The cuts in the two strands are made at the points indicated by the arrows. This one endonuclease will cut almost any DNA into long pieces averaging about 5000 base pairs each. These pieces can in turn be cleaved by other restriction endonucleases to form smaller fragments. Since there are about 2400 of these enzymes known, with 188 different specificities,536 it is possible to cut any piece of DNA down to a size of 100-500 base pairs, ideal for sequencing.537 539 Each fragment has known sequences at the two ends. Some restriction enzymes cleave outside their specific recognition sequence (see Table 26-2). Some recognize 16-nucleotide palindromes and cut at rare sites. 

Figure 9.3. Restriction map produced by Webcutter. The partial restriction map shows the nucleotide sequence of human lysozyme gene submitted to Webcutter using options for all restriction endonucleases with recognition sites equal to or greater than six nucleotides long and cutting the sequence 2 6 times (at least 2 times and at most 6 times). The restriction profile (map) is returned if Map of restriction sites is selected for display. The tables by enzyme name and by base pair number can be also returned if displays for Table of sites, sorted alphabetically by enzyme name Table of sites, sorted sequentially by base pair number are chosen.

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