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RestrictionEnzymes© is a Macintosh program useful for evaluating ligated DNA sequences for resultant restriction enzyme sites. The program can also determine compatible ends for restricted sites.

RestrictionEnzymes© was written (a long time ago) using Think's Lightspeed Pascal by Scott Young and Alex Hsu in the Laboratory of Cell Biology (now Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Regulation), National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.

NOTE: RestrictionEnzymes© appears to have a conflict with Apple's version 8 of Date & Time control panel, although version 7.52 seems to work fine (and with system 8). Not updated for Mac OS X.

The Macintosh application RestricitionEnzymes© reads from the text file ResEnzFil.Text which contains the restriction enzyme data. This file may be altered by SimpleText, or through functions Command A(dd) and R(emove), as described below. The file is limited to 240 enzymes.

Download the two (plus ReadMe) files here. Make sure that there is no suffix after ResEnzFil.Text.

RestrictionEnzymes© has 8 commands:


Command 1: This function searches for restriction sites within the sequence produced when two DNA ends generated by restriction enzymes are blunted and then ligated. First, the table of restrictions enzymes is displayed. Select two enzymes by placing the cursor over an enzyme and clicking that enzyme and then selecting either the phrase "Restrict both ends with the same enzyme" or another enzyme. Change the selections by selecting a different enzyme. "Restrict both ends with the same enzyme" refers back to the last enzyme selected. To proceed, press any key. If the an enzymethat was selected leaves a 5' overhang, then you will be asked whether you wish to fill in (e.g, by Klenow) or trim back (e.g, by T4 DNA polymerase) to blunt the DNA end. If the enzyme leaves a blunt or a 3' overhang, no option is presented. The 3' overhang is trimmed.

Command 2: This function lists the restriction enzymes (if any) that produce ends compatible with an end left by the restriction enzyme selected from the displayed table.

Command 3: This function lists restriction sites within an inputted sequence (limited to 250 bases). The nomenclature of the International Union of Biochemistry is listed when this function is chosen. No information on position of the sites is given as this function is handled by numerous sequence analysis programs.

Command 4: This function displays the list of restriction enzymes to which RestrictionEnzymes refers.

Command A: This function allows the user to add a restriction enzyme to the reference list in the file ResEnzFil.Text. The function can accommodate symmetrical and asymmetrical cutters. Only the first 210 enzymes are accessed.

Command R: This function allows the user to remove an enzyme from the file ResEnzFil.Text. The selected enzyme from the displayed table is deleted.

Command P: This function prints the accumulated results of the selected functions.

Command Q: This function ends the run.

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