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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Single-Molecule Dwell-Time Analysis of Restriction Endonuclease-Mediated DNA Cleavage
Published on: February 7, 2021
Biochemical and mutational analysis of EcoRII functional domains reveals evolutionary links between restriction
Gintautas Tamulaitis1, Merlind Mucke, Virginijus Siksnys
1Institute of Biotechnology, Graiciuno 8, Vilnius LT-02241, Lithuania.
Abstract:
The archetypal Type IIE restriction endonuclease EcoRII is a dimer that has a modular structure. DNA binding studies indicate that the isolated C-terminal domain dimer has an interface that binds a single cognate DNA molecule whereas the N-terminal domain is a monomer that also binds a single copy of cognate DNA. Hence, the full-length EcoRII contains three putative DNA binding interfaces: one at the C-terminal domain dimer and two at each of the N-terminal domains. Mutational analysis indicates that the C-terminal domain shares conserved active site architecture and DNA binding elements with the tetrameric restriction enzyme NgoMIV. Data provided here suggest possible evolutionary relationships between different subfamilies of restriction enzymes.
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