Site-specific cleavage of single-stranded DNA by a Hemophilus restriction endonuclease.

Single-stranded viral DNA of bacteriophage f1 is cleaved into specific fragments by endo R-HaeIII, a restriction endonuclease isolated from Hemophilus aegyptius. The sites of the single strand cleavage correspond to those of the double strand cleavage. A single-stranded DNA fragment containing only one HaeIII site is also cleaved by this enzyme. This observation suggests that the reaction of single-stranded DNA cleavage does not require the formation of a symmetrical double-stranded structure that would result from the intramolecular base-pairing between two different HaeIII sites. Other restriction endonucleases may also cleave single-stranded DNA.