A spite specific endonuclease from thermus thermophilus 111, Tth111I.

A site specific endonuclease with novel specificity has been isolated from Thermus thermophilus strain 111 and named Tth111I. Tth111I cleaves lambda DNA into three fragments of 23.5, 25.7 and 50.8% of the total length, and ColE1 DNA into two fragments of nearly equal length. The sequences around Tth111I cleavage sites of ColE1 and lambda DNA were determined by the Maxam and Gilbert method and the two dimensional mapping method. The results suggest that Tth111I recognizes the DNA sequence (formula: see text) and cleaves the site as indicated by the arrows. Assuming that the first T.A pair in the sequence can be replaced for any base pair, the Tth111I recognition sequence has the symmetry with the two-fold axis as most type II restriction endonucleases do.