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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 types 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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© University of Portsmouth
Author Dr Keith Firman,
Page last updated September 28, 2008