Question

Nomenclature of restriction enzymes.

Answer 1

Nomenclature of restriction enzymes consists three parts:

1. Indicates the genus and species of specific organism by using abbreviation into three letters. EXAMPLE: Eco is for Escherichia coli; here first letter ‘E’ is for genus whereas last two letters ‘co’ is for species.
2. Indicates the strain of the relevant species by using a letter, number or its combination.
3. Indicate specific restriction modification systems present in the same organism or strain by using a roman numeral.

EXAMPLE: the name of EcoRI restriction enzyme is derived as:

E : Escherichia (genus)

co : coli (species)

R : RY13 (strain)

I : first identified in the bacterium