Restriction-Modification Systems

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Nomenclature
Genes of Type I R-M
DNA Cleavage
Subunit Assembly
Type I R-M Families
Control of R-M
Methylation

 

Introduction to site:

This Internet Site describes Type I Restriction-Modification Systems.

These enzyme were the first discovered of all of the restriction enzymes and pioneered studies of restriction endonucleases, which eventually led to the discovery of Type II Restriction-Modification, their characterisation as site-specific endonucleases and the development of Genetic Engineering.

Type I R-M enzymes are NOT site-specific endonucleases and have not found a use in Genetic Engineering, which means they have been somewhat neglected over the years.  However, they a very interesting multisubunit, multifunctional molecular motors with strong relationships to both recombination enzymes such as RecBC and to chromatin remodeling factors in eukaryotes.

Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in these enzymes, in part spurred by investigations that have addressed some of the early questions first raised by the presence of Restriction-Modification systems (Murray, 2000), but more recently due to the single-molecule studies of the enzymes as molecular motors (Seidel et al., 2004)

These web pages are a resource primarily aimed at those involved in research in this area, but will also provide useful background information to undergraduates and graduate students.


Contact Information:

You can contact the Web Team and Dr Keith Firman using the details below (please explain you are contacting about the Type I R-M Web pages):

Telephone
+44 2392 842059
FAX
+44 2392 842070
Postal address
School of Biological Sciences
University of Portsmouth
King Henry Building
Portsmouth PO1 2DY
United Kingdom
Electronic mail
General Information: keith.firman@port.ac.uk

 

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Copyright © 2006 Keith Firman
Last modified: 24-Nov-2007