Homing endonucleases recognize specific long DNA sequences and catalyze double-stranded breaks that significantly stimulate homologous recombination, representing an attractive tool for genome targeting and editing. We previously described a two-plasmid selection system that couples enzymatic DNA cleavage with the survival of host cells, and enables directed evolution of homing endonucleases wi...

Nonspecific endonucleases hydrolyze DNA without sequence specificity but with sequence preference, however the structural basis for cleavage preference remains elusive. We show here that the nonspecific endonuclease ColE7 cleaves DNA with a preference for making nicks after (at 3'O-side) thymine bases but the periplasmic nuclease Vvn cleaves DNA more evenly with little sequence preference. The ...

Type I restriction enzymes bind to a specific DNA sequence and subsequently translocate DNA past the complex to reach a non-specific cleavage site. We have examined several potential blocks to DNA translocation, such as positive supercoiling or a Holliday junction, for their ability to trigger DNA cleavage by type I restriction enzymes. Introduction of positive supercoiling into plasmid DNA did...

Cleavage of a defined linear duplex DNA by vaccinia virus DNA topoisomerase I was found to occur nonrandomly and infrequently. Approximately 12 sites of strand scission were detected within the 5372 nucleotides of pUC19 DNA. These sites could be classified as having higher or lower affinity for topoisomerase based on the following criteria. Higher affinity sites were cleaved at low enzyme conce...

In order to study the sequence specificity of double-strand DNA cleavage by Drosophila topoisomerase II, we have mapped and sequenced 16 strong and 47 weak cleavage sites in the recombinant plasmid p pi 25.1. Analysis of the nucleotide and dinucleotide frequencies in the region near the site of phosphodiester bond breakage revealed a nonrandom distribution. The nucleotide frequencies observed w...

Mycobacterium smegmatis topoisomerase I has several distinctive features. The absence of the zinc finger motif found in other prokaryotic type I topoisomerases and the ability of the enzyme to recognise single-stranded and duplex DNA are unique characteristics of the enzyme. We have mapped the strong topoisomerase sites of the enzyme on genomic DNA sequences from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and ...

The effects of topoisomerase II-reactive epipodophyllotoxins etoposide and teniposide as well as amsacrine on the viability of thymocytes in primary culture has been examined. All three drugs were shown to produce DNA cleavage detectable by resolving isolated DNA by pulsed field agarose gel electrophoresis. The DNA cleavage was found to have two components. The first was due to the interaction ...