Question

Name the enzyme that is used for the isolation of DNA from bacterial and fungal cells for recombinant DNA technology.

Answer 1

Hint: For extraction of DNA from both fungus and bacteria cells have to be broken to release the content from it. Since both fungi and bacteria have a cell wall made up of chitin and peptidoglycan respectively the enzyme that can break them is used for the isolation of the DNA for recombinant DNA technology.

Complete answer:
The enzyme is used according to the cell type. For bacteria enzyme, Lysozyme and fungus enzyme Chitinase is used. Isolation of DNA is the first process of recombinant DNA technologies. The procedure for total DNA preparation from the culture of the bacterial cells can be divided into four stages: - A culture of bacteria or fungus is grown and then harvested. - The cells are broken open by using enzymes to release the contents of the cell.
- The cell component extracted in the previous step is treated to remove all components except the DNA. - The resulting DNA solution is concentrated.
Other molecules can be removed by appropriate treatments and the purified DNA ultimately precipitates out after the addition of chilled ethanol. This can be seen as the collection of threads in the suspension.

Additional Information: - Chitin is a hydrolytic enzyme that breaks the glycosidic bonds present in chitin, a component of the cell walls of fungi and exoskeleton of various animals like insects and mollusks. - Muramidase is another name for enzyme lysozyme. It is an antimicrobial enzyme also found as a type of innate immunity.

Note:
- Chitinase enzyme is present in the organism that either needs to reshape its cell wall or the animal that feeds on the animal that has chitin in their exoskeleton for its breakdown and digestion. - Lysozyme is abundant in the body secretions like tears, saliva, human milk, and mucus. - Lysozyme acts on peptidoglycans found in the cell wall of bacteria (especially gram-positive bacteria). - Lysozyme can also break glycosidic bonds but not as efficiently as chitin.