Universitetet I TromsØ—norges Arktiske Universitet

Arcticzymes As

Biotec Pharmacon Asa

Terese Solstad

Olav Lanes

Marit Sjo Lorentzen

Morten Elde

Atle Noralf Larsen

Yvonne Piotrowski

Nils Peder Willassen

Elisabeth Lill Andreassen

Bjørn Altermark

Linda Havdalen

Ingar Leiros

Ronny Helland

Bjorn Altermark

The invention provides an exonuclease or an enzymatically active fragment thereof, said exonuclease having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:1 or an amino acid sequence which is at least about 50% identical thereto, wherein said exonuclease or enzymatically active fragment thereof (i) is substantially irreversibly inactivated by heating at a temperature of about 55&#xb0; C. for 10 minutes in a buffer consisting of 10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.5 at 25&#xb0; C., 50 mM KCl and 5 mM MgCl; (ii) is substantially specific for single stranded DNA; and (iii) has a 3'-5&#x2032; exonuclease activity. The invention further provides a method of removing single stranded DNA from a sample, a method of nucleic acid amplification, a method of reverse transcription and a method of nucleic acid sequence analysis in which the exonuclease or enzymatically active fragment thereof is used. The invention still further provides nucleic acids encoding said exonuclease or an enzymatically active fragment thereof and kits or compositions comprising the same.

Thermolabile exonucleases

The invention provides an exonuclease or an enzymatically active fragment thereof, said exonuclease having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID No. 1 or an amino acid sequence which is at least about 50% identical thereto, wherein said exonuclease or enzymatically active fragment thereof (i) is substantially irreversibly inactivated by heating at a temperature of about 55&#xb0; C. for 10 minutes in a buffer consisting of 10 mM Tris-HCI, pH 8.5 at 25&#xb0; C., 50 mM KCI and 5 mM MgCI; (ii) is substantially specific for single stranded DNA; and (iii) has a 3'-5&#x2032; exonuclease activity. The invention further provides a method of removing single stranded DNA from a sample, a method of nucleic acid amplification, a method of reverse transcription and a method of nucleic acid sequence analysis in which the exonuclease or enzymatically active fragment thereof is used. The invention still further provides nucleic acids encoding said exonuclease or an enzymatically active fragment thereof and kits or compositions comprising the same.

The present invention provides an endonuclease I or enzymatically active fragment thereof wherein said endonuclease I has the sequence of SEQ ID No. 4 or a sequence which is at least 70% identical thereto and wherein the amino acid residue which is immediately N-terminal of the FYCGC pentapeptide motif has been substituted with a residue which is negatively charged as well as nucleic acid molecules encoding these enzymes and methods of removing contaminating polynucleotides from a sample using these enzyme.

Endonucleases

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Kvaløysletta, Norway

Terese Solstad