Question

What happens when two different DNA samples are snipped with a similar sticky end restriction enzyme?

Answer 1

Restriction enzyme:

1. These are endonuclease enzymes that cleave a DNA molecule at a particular site called the restriction site.
2. The restriction enzyme cleaves the DNA sequence asymmetrically to produce short and single-stranded structures which are called sticky or cohesive ends because these can stick together on treatment with a ligase to form the DNA molecule again.
3. For example, a six nucleotide palindromic sequence recognized by the restriction enzyme EcoR1 cleaves both strands of DNA at different locations.
4. Thus, when two DNA samples are treated and cleaved with a similar sticky end restriction enzyme then the fragments of different lengths of DNA sequence are observed because in both DNA sequences the recognition or restriction site would be different.