title: Structure and function of restriction endonucleases.
abstract: Structures of two restriction endonucleases, BamHI and PvuII, were reported in the past year. This doubles the number of restriction endonuclease structures now known from two to four, and enables a comparative analysis of their structures and modes of DNA recognition. Despite a lack of sequence homology between the enzymes, BamHI turns out to resemble EcoRI, and PvuII turns out to resemble EcoRV. The active-site regions are structurally similar in all four enzymes, but their mechanisms of cleavage may differ.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
mesh_terms: D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D011487:Protein Conformation
chemical_list: D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific