Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.30.2 (endonuclease)
 18,621 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Novel restriction enzymes can be created by fusing the nuclease domain of FokI endonuclease with defined DNA binding domains. Recently, we have characterized a domain (Z alpha) from the N-terminal region of human double-stranded RNA adenosine deaminase (hADAR1), which binds the Z-conformation with high specificity. Here we report creation of a conformation-specific endonuclease, Z alpha nuclease, which is a chimera of Z alpha and FokI nuclease. Purified Z alpha nuclease cleaves negatively supercoiled plasmids only when they contain a Z-DNA forming insert, such as (dC-dG)13. The precise location of the cleavage sites was determined by primer extension. Cutting has been mapped to the edge of the B-Z junction, suggesting that Z alpha nuclease binds within the Z-DNA insert, but cleaves in the nearby B-DNA, by using a mechanism similar to type IIs restriction enzymes. These data show that Z alpha binds Z-DNA in an environment similar to that in a cell. Z alpha nuclease, a structure-specific restriction enzyme, may be a useful tool for further study of the biological role of Z-DNA.
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PMID:Construction of a Z-DNA-specific restriction endonuclease. 937 68