Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several enzymes, such as endonucleases and exonucleases, that hydrolize nucleic acids.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A ferment which can cause the cleavage of nucleins. Specifically
  • noun One of several bacteriolytic ferments so-named on account of their ability to digest the nucleoproteids of the bacterial cells.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biochemistry Any of several enzymes capable of cleaving the phosphodiester bonds between the nucleotide subunits of nucleic acids.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun general term for enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of nucleic acid by cleaving chains of nucleotides into smaller units

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The enzyme, which they named FAN1, appears to be a nuclease, which is capable of slicing through strands of DNA.

    Newswise: Latest News 2010

  • The enzyme, which they named FAN1, appears to be a nuclease, which is capable of slicing through strands of DNA.

    innovations-report 2010

  • Support for a particulate substructure of chromatin came from electron microscopy and from nuclease digestion and sedimentation analysis.

    Roger D. Kornberg - Autobiography 2007

  • It was also demonstrated that a ribonuclease III-like nuclease, called Dicer, is responsible for the processing of dsRNA to short RNA34.

    Advanced Information: The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006

  • An RNA-directed nuclease mediates post-transcriptional gene silencing in Drosophila cells.

    Advanced Information: The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006

  • Each finger binds to a specific combination of DNA bases and is attached to a DNA-cutting enzyme called a nuclease.

    The Speculist: Body Language 2005

  • Each finger binds to a specific combination of DNA bases and is attached to a DNA-cutting enzyme called a nuclease.

    The Speculist: April 2005 Archives 2005

  • The micrococcal nuclease calcium dependence was put to good use by Hugh Pelham, a graduate student in the lab, who developed the use of nuclease treatment of the lysate to assay heterologous mRNAs.

    Tim Hunt - Autobiography 2002

  • One other thing I learned about during the studies on the inhibition of protein synthesis by dsRNA was that micrococcal nuclease, which requires Ca2+ for activity, did not inhibit protein synthesis in the reticulocyte lysate provided no Ca2+ was present.

    Tim Hunt - Autobiography 2002

  • F.A. Cotton, which has determined the three-dimensional structure of nuclease at high resolution.

    Christian Anfinsen - Biography 1973

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