Two new restriction endonucleases DraII and DraIII from Deinococcus radiophilus

In addition to recently characterized DraI (1), two new Type II restriction endonucleases, DraII and DraIII, with novel site-specificities were isolated and purified from Deinococcus radiophilus ATCC 27603. DraII and DraIII recognize the hepta- and nonanucleotide sequences (sequence in text) The cleavage sites within both strands are indicated by arrows. The recognition sequences were established by mapping of the cleavage sites on pBR322 (DraII) and fd109 RF DNA (DraIII). The sequence specifities were confirmed by computer-assisted restriction analyses of the generated fragment patterns of the sequenced DNA's of the bacteriophages lambda, phi X174 RF, M13mp8 RF and fd109 RF, the viruses Adeno2 and SV40, and the plasmids pBR322 and pBR328. The cleavage positions within the recognition sequences were determined by sequencing experiments.