Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

Biology

Chapter

Biotechnology -Principles and Processes

Question:

Read the passage and answer the following question :

In 1963, enzymes that restricted the growth of bacteriophage in Escherichia coli were discovered. Among them, restriction endonucleases played a vital role. Five years later, Hind II, the first restriction endonuclease, was isolated and characterized. Hind II was known for its ability to cut DNA molecules at a specific point by recognizing a unique six-base pair sequence, which was termed the "recognition sequence" for Hind II. Currently, over 900 restriction enzymes have been identified from more than 230 bacterial strains, each recognizing different recognition sequences. For example, EcoRI is derived from Escherichia coli RY 13, where the letter 'R' represents the name of the strain, and the Roman numeral indicates the order of enzyme isolation from that strain. Restriction enzymes belong to a larger class of enzymes that can be divided into two types: exonucleases and endonucleases. Exonucleases remove nucleotides from the ends of DNA, while endonucleases make cuts at specific positions within the DNA. Each restriction endonuclease "inspects" the length of a DNA sequence until it finds its specific recognition sequence. Once located, it binds to the DNA and cuts both strands of the double helix at specific points in their sugar-phosphate backbones.Notably, each restriction endonuclease recognizes a specific palindromic nucleotide sequence in the DNA.

 

What  does the letter 'R' in EcoRI represents ?

Options:

Genus

Species

Order

Strain 

Correct Answer:

Strain 

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option (4) -Strain

The convention for naming these enzymes is the first letter of the name comes from the genus and the second two letters come from the species of the prokaryotic cell from which they were isolated, e.g., EcoRI comes from Escherichia coli RY 13. In EcoRI, the letter ‘R’ is derived from the name of strain. Roman numbers following the names indicate the order in which the enzymes were isolated from that strain of bacteria.