Restriction enzymes
Enzimas de restricción
- Date
- 1968-1970 · confidence high
- Place
- Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States / Geneva
- Credited to
- Werner Arber, Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans
- People
- 👤 Daniel Nathans1928–1999👤 Hamilton O. Smith1931–2025👤 Werner Arber1929–
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Bacterial enzymes that cut DNA at specific sequences (HindII, 1970). Nathans used them to produce the first physical map of a viral genome (SV40).
Nobel Prize 1978.
What it led to
- recombinant DNA and genetic engineering
- physical maps of genomes
- genetic fingerprinting (RFLP)
- industrial biotechnology
Built on
- bacteriophages and restriction-modification