Partial purification and characterization of Ral8I, a class-IIS restriction endonuclease from Ruminococcus albus 8 which recognizes 5'-GGATC.

Heparin-agarose chromatography was used to isolate a restriction endonuclease (ENase) from the cellulolytic Gram+ anaerobe, Ruminococcus albus 8. The enzyme, Ral8I, was eluted from the column using 230-310 mM Na+. However, the preparation was active only with DNA substrates that were not Dam-methylated. Moreover, the restriction fragment pattern generated from simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA was not consistent with the expected number of Dam-methylation sites. Alignment of the Dam-methylation sites in SV40 DNA indicated that Ral8I may actually recognize the asymmetric sequence, GGATC. This was confirmed by nucleotide (nt) sequence analysis and, further, Ral8I was found to cause cleavage of the DNA approx. 5 nt downstream from the recognition sequence. Ral8I can therefore be classified as a type-IIS restriction endonuclease and is an isoschizomer of AlwI, BinI and BthII.