S-adenosyl homocysteine and DNA ends stimulate promiscuous nuclease activities in the Type III restriction endonuclease EcoPI

In the absence of the methyl donor S-adenosyl methionine and under certain permissive reaction conditions, EcoPI shows non-specific endonuclease activity. We show here that the cofactor analogue S-adenosyl homocysteine promotes this promiscuous DNA cleavage. Additionally, an extensive exonuclease-like processing of the DNA is also observed that can even result in digestion of non-specific DNA in trans. We suggest a model for how DNA communication events initiating from non-specific sites, and in particular free DNA ends, could produce the observed cleavage patterns.