[Anti-Restriction Activity of ArdB Protein against EcoAI Endonuclease].

ArdB proteins are known to inhibit the activity of the type I restriction-modification (RM-I) system, in particular EcoKI (IA family). The mechanism of ArdB's activity still remains unknown; the spectrum of targets inhibited has been poorly studied. In this work, it was shown that the presence of the ardB gene from the R64 plasmid could suppress the activity of EcoAI endonuclease (IB family) in Escherichia coli TG1 cells.

Crystal structure of a novel domain of the motor subunit of the Type I restriction enzyme EcoR124 involved in complex assembly and DNA binding.

Although EcoR124 is one of the better-studied Type I restriction-modification enzymes, it still presents many challenges to detailed analyses because of its structural and functional complexity and missing structural information. In all available structures of its motor subunit HsdR, responsible for DNA translocation and cleavage, a large part of the HsdR C terminus remains unresolved. The crystal structure of the C terminus of HsdR, obtained with a crystallization chaperone in the form of pHluorin fusion and refined to 2.

A residue of motif III positions the helicase domains of motor subunit HsdR in restriction-modification enzyme EcoR124I.

Type I restriction-modification enzymes differ significantly from the type II enzymes commonly used as molecular biology reagents. On hemi-methylated DNAs type I enzymes like the EcoR124I restriction-modification complex act as conventional adenine methylases at their specific target sequences, but unmethylated targets induce them to translocate thousands of base pairs through the stationary enzyme before cleaving distant sites nonspecifically. EcoR124I is a superfamily 2 DEAD-box helicase like eukaryotic double-strand DNA translocase Rad54, with two RecA-like helicase domains and seven characteristic sequence motifs that are implicated in translocation.

The helical domain of the EcoR124I motor subunit participates in ATPase activity and dsDNA translocation.

Type I restriction-modification enzymes are multisubunit, multifunctional molecular machines that recognize specific DNA target sequences, and their multisubunit organization underlies their multifunctionality. EcoR124I is the archetype of Type I restriction-modification family IC and is composed of three subunit types: HsdS, HsdM, and HsdR. DNA cleavage and ATP-dependent DNA translocation activities are housed in the distinct domains of the endonuclease/motor subunit HsdR.

Functional coupling of duplex translocation to DNA cleavage in a type I restriction enzyme.

Type I restriction-modification enzymes are multifunctional heteromeric complexes with DNA cleavage and ATP-dependent DNA translocation activities located on motor subunit HsdR. Functional coupling of DNA cleavage and translocation is a hallmark of the Type I restriction systems that is consistent with their proposed role in horizontal gene transfer. DNA cleavage occurs at nonspecific sites distant from the cognate recognition sequence, apparently triggered by stalled translocation.