Nomenclature of Restriction Enzymes,Nomenclature System,Smith,Nattens,E.coli

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	Nomenclature of Restriction Enzymes - As a large number of restriction enzymes have been discovered, a uniform nomenclature system is adopted to avoid confusion. This nomenclature was first proposed by Smith and Nattens in 1973. 1. The first letter of the restriction enzymes (RE) should be from the first letter of the species name of the organism from which the enzyme is isolated. The letter should be written in capitals and italics, e.g. RE from E coli will have E as starting letter.
2. The second and the third letters of RE should be from the first and the second letter of the genus name of the organism. The letter should be written in lower case and should be in italics, e.g. RE from E coli will have Eco as starting words. 3. If the RE is isolated from the particular strain of an organism then that should be written as fourth letter. It should be in capitals and not in italics. For example, RE from E coli R strain will be written as Eco R.
4. If the RE isolated is the first of its kind from that particular organism, then the number I should be given. If already two REs are isolated, then number III should be given for the new restriction enzymes. The number should be written in roman, e.g. the first E coli RE should be written as Eco RI whereas the third restriction enzyme isolated from E coli R strains should be written as Eco RIII .