Detection of elsamicin‐DNA binding specificity by restriction enzyme cleavage

Abstract
The sequence specificity of elsamicin A, an anti‐tumour antibiotic, binding to DNA was elucidated considering the inhibition of the rate of digestion of linearised pBR322 DNA by AnII, ClaI, EcoRI, HindIII and NruI restriction enzymes. Elsamicin A inhibits the rate of digestion by NruI (recognition sequence TCG/CGA) to a greater extent than it does for the other enzymes thus evidencing the sequence‐selective binding of elsamicin to CGC regions in DNA. Our results also show the important role of the neighbouring sequences in the elsamicin A‐DNA interactions and their effects on the cleavage by restriction enzymes.