Evolution of Inosine-Specific Endonuclease V from Bacterial DNase to Eukaryotic RNase

Wu et  al. show that bacterial Endonuclease V (EndoV) cleaves DNA in the presence of an inosine (deaminated adenosine), but eukaryotic EndoV, due to insertions in two non-conserved loops, cleaves inosine-containing RNA only. A similar DNA-to-RNA evolution also occurs in Argonaute.

Source: Molecular Cell - August 19, 2019 Category: Cytology Authors: Jinjun Wu, Nadine L. Samara, Isao Kuraoka, Wei Yang Tags: Article Source Type: research