Centre of Excellence
Founded in 1975 as the all Union Research Institute of Applied Enzimology, currently, the Institute of Biotechnology is mainly involved in research and training in the fields of biotechnology and molecular biology, including research and development of recombinant biomedical proteins, genetic and molecular studies of restriction modification phenomenon, developing of viruses diagnostics, epigenetic study of small RNA, drug design and synthesis, bioinformatics.
Laboratory of Protein - DNA Interactions
|
Chief Scientist and Head: Tel. +370 5 2602108 |
Lab. Members: Saulius Grazulis, PhD Graduate Students: Dima Golovenko, M.Sc. Undergraduate students: Justas Butkus |
Type II restriction endonucleases recognize specific DNA sequences, typically 4-8 bp in length, and cleave phosphodiester bonds in the presence of Mg2+, within or close to these sequences.
Enzymes from 3000 bacteria species with nearly 200 differing specificities have been characterised (see REBASE). Restriction endonucleases have now gained widespread application as indispensable tools for the in vitro manipulation and cloning of DNA. However, much less is known about how they achieve their specificity. In the Laboratory of Protein-DNA Interactions we focus our studies on molecular mechanisms by which restriction enzymes achieve their function. Among the questions being asked are: How do the restriction enzymes recognize the particular DNA sequence? What common structural and molecular principles exist among restriction enzymes that recognize related nucleotide sequences? How do the sequence recognition and catalysis are coupled in the function of restriction enzymes? Answers to these questions are being sought using X-ray crystal structure determination of restriction enzyme-DNA complexes, site-directed mutageneses and biochemical studies to relate structure to function.
Support:
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA; International Research Scholars Program
International Quality Network; DAAD, Germany;
EC Fifth Framework Programme (FP5)
Project