The phenomena of prokaryotic restriction and modification, as well as anti-restriction, were
first discovered five decades ago but have yielded only gradually to rigorous analysis. Work …

Restriction enzymes are well known as reagents widely used by molecular biologists for
genetic manipulation and analysis, but these reagents represent only one class (type II) of a …

Restriction–modification (RM) systems are composed of genes that encode a restriction
enzyme and a modification methylase. RM systems sometimes behave as discrete units of …

BREX (for BacteRiophage EXclusion) is a superfamily of common bacterial and archaeal
defence systems active against diverse bacteriophages. While the mechanism of BREX …

In several host-adapted pathogens, phase variation has been found to occur in genes that
encode methyltransferases associated with type III restriction–modification systems. It was …

The known nucleoside triphosphate-dependent restriction enzymes are hetero-oligomeric
proteins that behave as molecular machines in response to their target sequences. They …

Bacteriophages or phages are viruses that infect bacterial cells (for the scope of this review
we will also consider viruses that infect Archaea). Constant threat of phage infection is a …

Staphylococcus aureus is an versatile pathogen that can cause life-threatening infections.
Depending on the clinical setting, up to 50% of S. aureus infections are caused by methicillin …

Bacteria commonly endow their DNA with an identity mark. When DNA is transferred from
one bacterium to another strain of the same species, DNA that lacks the identification mark …

A restriction enzyme gene is often linked to a modification methylase gene the role of which
is to protect a recognition site on DNA from breakage by the former. Loss of some restriction …