A deoxyribonuclease from Chlamydomonas reinhardii. 2. Substrate specificity, mode of action and products

A deoxyribonuclease purified Chlamydomonas reinhardii has been shown to be specific for single-stranded DNA. The enzyme is most active on thermally denatured DNA, but also degrades single-stranded termini from double-stranded DNA. The enzyme has no effect on single-stranded or double-stranded intact circular phiX174DNA, suggesting that it requires DNA termini for activity. DNA is digested progressively to oligonucleotides and then mononucleotides. The product of the reaction is nucleoside 5'-monophosphates. The enzyme has no effect on RNA, nor does it possess phosphatase or phosphodiesterase activity. No specificity was demonstrated for phosphate or hydroxyl groups at either the 5' or 3' termini of DNA. The enzyme may be able to initiate hydrolysis at either the 3' or the 5' termini, since radioactivity was released more rapidly from 5' and 3' termini than from bulk DNA. The enzyme has been tentatively named Chlamydomonas reinhardii exonuclease 1.