title: Effect of unusual polyamines on cleavage of DNA by restriction enzymes.
abstract: The effect of unusual polyamines, such as thermine, caldopentamine, caldohexamine, tris(3-aminopropyl)amine, or tetrakis(3-aminopropyl)ammonium, on the activities of various restriction endonucleases was investigated by using an Escherichia coli plasmid as a substrate, which contains a high GC content fragment from an extreme thermophile. Restriction enzymes used were SmaI, BanII, NaeI, RsaI, and TaqI. Most of the polyamines tested were inhibitory to the enzyme activities. The larger and more branched a polyamine was, the more the activities of nucleases were inhibited. The inhibition was positively correlated with the polyamine concentration. The sites protected by a polyamine were identical to those protected by other polyamines, and also identical to those which were less sensitive to the restriction enzyme in the absence of polyamines. No sequence specificity was seen among these sites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Kanagawa.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kirino
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kuwahara
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hamasaki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oshima
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition; D001483:Base Sequence; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D010957:Plasmids; D011073:Polyamines / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D011073:Polyamines; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes