Selfish Behavior of Restriction-Modification Systems
- 10 February 1995
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 267 (5199) , 897-899
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7846533
Abstract
Plasmids carrying gene pairs encoding type II DNA restriction endonucleases and their cognate modification enzymes were shown to have increased stability in Escherichia coli. The descendants of cells that had lost these genes appeared unable to modify a sufficient number of recognition sites in their chromosomes to protect them from lethal attack by the remaining restriction enzyme molecules. The capacity of these genes to act as a selfish symbiont is likely to have contributed to the evolution of restriction-modification gene pairs.Keywords
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