Enzymes
Enzymes usedin plant biotechnology/
genetic engineering can be grouped into
four broad classes, depending on the type
of reaction that they catalyze:
Nucleases are enzymes that cut,
shorten, or degrade nucleic acid
molecules.
Ligases join nucleic acid molecules
together.
Polymerases make copies of molecules.
Modifying enzymes remove or
3.
Nucleases
‘Nucleases degradeDNA molecules
by breaking the phosphodiester
bonds that link one nucleotide to the
next in a DNA strand. In addition to
their important biological role,
nucleases have emerged as useful
tools in laboratory studies, and have
led to the development of such fields
as recombinant DNA technology,
molecular cloning, and
4.
“Processes undercontrol of
nucleases are for example protective
mechanisms against "foreign"
(invading) DNA, degradation of host
cell DNA after virus infections, DNA
repair, DNA recombination, DNA
synthesis DNA packaging in
chromosomes and viral
compartments, maturation of RNAs
or RNA splicing.”
5.
Nucleases arephosphoidesterases with
a tremendous variability in their
substrate requirements. There are two
different kinds of nuclease
Exonucleases remove nucleotides one at
a time from the end of a DNA molecule.
Endonucleases are able to break internal
phosphodiester bonds within a DNA
molecule.
6.
Classification
They areclassified by their specificity
of their requirement for either a free
end (exo) to start working or they
start from anywhere within a
molecule (endo) even when no free
ends are available as for example in
a covalently closed circle
7.
Exonucleases
The maindistinction between
different exonucleases lies in the
number of strands that are
degraded when a double-stranded
molecule is attacked.
For example Bal31 degrades both
strand and E. coli exonuclease III
degrades only one strand and only
from the 3′ terminus.
8.
The samecriterion can be used to
classify endonucleases
‘S1 endonuclease cleaves single strand
where
as DNase I cuts both single and
double-
stranded molecules’
Restriction enzymes are the special group
of endonucleases that cleaves double
stranded DNA only at a limited number of
specific recognition sites
Endonucleases
9.
Restriction endonucleases
the enzymesfor cutting DNA
The discovery of these enzymes, led to
Nobel Prizes for W. Arber, H. Smith, and D.
Nathans in 1978
Restriction endonucleases are synthesized
by many, perhaps all, species of bacteria:
over 2500 different ones have been
isolated and more than 300 are available
for use in the laboratory.
10.
Five differentclasses of
restriction endonuclease are
recognized, each distinguished
by a slightly different mode of
action.
Types I and III are rather complex
and have only a limited role in
genetic engineering.
11.
Type I
TypeI restriction enzymes were the first to
be identified and were first identified in
two different strains (K-12 and B) of E. coli
. For example EcoK .
These enzymes cut at a site that
differs, and is a random distance (at least
1000 bp) away, from their recognition site.
Cleavage at these random sites follows a
process of DNA translocation, which shows
that these enzymes are also molecular
motors.
12.
‘The cofactorsS-Adenosyl
methionine (AdoMet),
hydrolyzed adenosine
triphosphate (ATP), and
magnesium (Mg2+) ions, are
required for their full activity. ’
13.
The recognitionsite is asymmetrical
and is composed of two specific
portions— one containing 3–4
nucleotides, and another containing
4–5 nucleotides— separated by a
non-specific spacer of about 6–8
nucleotides.
These enzymes are multifunctional
and are capable of both restriction
and modification activities,
depending upon the methylation
status of the target DNA.
14.
Type III
TypeIII restriction enzymes (e.g.
EcoP15 and Bsm FI ) recognize two
separate non-palindromic
sequences that are inversely
oriented. They cut DNA about 20-
30 base pairs after the recognition
site
15.
Type IIrestriction endonucleases,
on the other hand, are the cutting
enzymes that are important in
gene cloning.
The central feature of type II
restriction endonucleasesis that each
enzyme has a specific recognition
sequence at which it cuts a DNA
molecule.
The exactnature of the cut
produced by a restriction
endonuclease is of considerable
importance in the design of a gene
cloning experiment.
Many restriction endonucleases
make a simple double-stranded cut
in the middle of the recognition
sequence, resulting in a blunt end
or flush end.
19.
Other restrictionendonucleases cut DNA
in a slightly different way. With these
enzymes the two DNA strands are not cut
at exactly the same position.
Instead the cleavage is staggered, usually
by two or four nucleotides, so that the
resulting DNA fragments have short
single-stranded overhangs at each end
20.
Type IV
Type IV enzymes recognize
modified, typically methylated DNA
and are exemplified by the McrBC
and Mrr systems of E. coli
It requires GTP for DNA cleavage
21.
It hasmethyltransferase (MTase)
and endonuclease (ENase) activity,
and are combined together in one
polypeptide chain and the ENase
activity is positively affected by S-
adenosine-L- methionine (AdoMet)
but ATP has no influence on activity
of the enzymes.
22.
Type V
TypeV restriction enzymes (e.g., the
cas9-gRNA complex from CRISPRs)
utilize guide RNAs to target specific
non-palindromic sequences found
on invading organisms. They can cut
DNA of variable length, provided
that a suitable guide RNA is
provided. The flexibility and ease of
use of these enzymes make them
promising for future genetic
23.
Ligases
The functionof DNA ligase is to repair
single-stranded breaks
(“discontinuities”) that arise in double-
stranded DNA molecules during, for
example, DNA replication.
DNA ligases from most organisms can
also join together two individual
fragments of double-stranded DNA
24.
The finalstep in construction of a
recombinant DNA molecule is the
joining together of the vector
molecule and the DNA to be cloned.
All living cells produce DNA ligases,
but the enzyme used in genetic
engineering is usually purified from
E. coli bacteria that have been
infected with T4 phage.
25.
Within thecell the enzyme carries
out the very important function of
repairing any discontinuities
Although discontinuities may arise by
chance breakage of the cell’s DNA
molecules, they are also a natural
result of processes such as DNA
replication and recombination.
26.
Polymerases
DNA polymerasesare enzymes
that synthesize a new strand of
DNA complementary to an existing
DNA or RNA template.
Most polymerases can function
only if the template possesses a
double- stranded region that acts
as a primer for initiation of
polymerization.
27.
Four typesof DNA polymerase are used
routinely in genetic engineering. The first
is DNA polymerase I, which is usually
prepared from E. coli. This enzyme
attaches to a short single-stranded region
(or nick) in a mainly double-stranded DNA
molecule, and then synthesizes a
completely new strand, degrading the
existing strand as it proceeds.
28.
DNA polymeraseI is therefore an
example of an enzyme with a dual
activity—DNA polymerization and
DNA degradation.
The polymerase and nuclease
activities of DNA polymerase I are
controlled by different parts of the
enzyme molecule.
29.
The nucleaseactivity is contained in the
first 323 amino acids of the polypeptide,
so removal of this segment leaves a
modified enzyme that retains the
polymerase function but is unable to
degrade DNA.
This modified enzyme, called the
Klenow fragment, can still synthesize
a complementary DNA strand on a
single- stranded template, but as it has
no nuclease activity it cannot continue
the synthesis once the nick is filled in
30.
Taq DNA polymeraseis DNA
polymerase I
The Taq DNA polymerase used
in the polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) is the DNA
polymerase I enzyme of the
bacterium Thermus aquaticus.
31.
Reverse transcriptase
Thefinal type of DNA polymerase that is
important in genetic engineering is
reverse transcriptase, an enzyme
involved in the replication of several
kinds of virus. Reverse transcriptase is
unique in that it uses as a template not
DNA but RNA.
The ability of this enzyme to synthesize
a DNA strand complementary to an
RNA template is central to the
technique called complementary DNA
(cDNA) cloning.
32.
DNA modifying enzymes
There are numerous enzymes that
modify DNA molecules by addition
or removal of specific chemical
groups. The most important are as
follows:
33.
Alkaline phosphatase(from E. coli, calf
intestinal tissue, or arctic shrimp), which
removes the phosphate group present at
the 5′ terminus of a DNA molecule.
Polynucleotide kinase (from E. coli
infected with T4 phage), which has the
reverse effect to alkaline phosphatase,
adding phosphate groups onto free 5′
termini.
Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase
(from calf thymus tissue), which adds one
or more deoxyribonucleotides onto the 3′
terminus of a DNA molecule.
34.
Homopolymer OR T/ATailing
Homopolymer OR T/A Tailing- The important
component in this method is terminal
deoxynucleotidyl transferase. This enzyme
adds nucleotides at the 3 -OH end of DNA
without any complementary sequence. It can
add up to 10-40 nucleotide which can be a
single type nucleotide (homopolymer) residue
at the end. This method can be applied to
both the vector and insert simultaneously.
35.
This methoduses the ability of
annealing of complementary strands
or sequences. Suppose a vector has
an oligo( dA) sequence at the 3 -OH
end and the insert has an oligo(dT)
sequence at its 3 -OH end. Then
when both the molecules are mixed,
the molecules are held by hydrogen
bond or can anneal until the ligase
joins them by phosphodiester bond.