Natural Meganucleases

Meganucleases are a particular class of “DNA scissors” with a high degree of specificity; they are capable of cutting a chromosome at a specific site in a living cell. In nature, meganucleases come from single-celled organisms, bacteria, yeast, algae and some plant organelles.

Natural meganucleases are active in all the organisms tested to date: they perform “cut-and-paste”-type changes in the genetic program at the site where their target sequence (very specific motif of 12-30 base pairs) has previously been inserted in the genomic DNA.

• Homing Endonucleases
• I-SceI