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I already know about recombinases (specifically excisionases), but was wondering if there were other mechanisms present.

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  • $\begingroup$ Welcome to Biology S.E.! If you need additional assistance, please visit The Help Center. $\endgroup$ – L.B. Mar 4 '15 at 0:23
  • $\begingroup$ The absolute standard way has to be PCR. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction Design primers for each end of a known sequence, provide DNA containing that sequence, and (hey presto!) amplify the length between the primers. $\endgroup$ – Teige Mar 4 '15 at 11:33
  • $\begingroup$ If you're asking about how sequences are excised in nature, an interesting case is the CRISPR-Cas viral defence system of bacteria, where sequences adjacent to a particular "handle" or "signal" in the viral genome are excised and added to an array in the bacterial genome which acts as a memory for immunity. I don't know how the mechanism works! $\endgroup$ – Teige Mar 4 '15 at 11:40
  • $\begingroup$ What about endonucleases? $\endgroup$ – rhill45 Mar 4 '15 at 15:43
  • $\begingroup$ I know about the Cas9 mechanism as well. I guess my question was more oriented towards the "cutting out" of a sequence of DNA and then a religation of the two flanking ends. Cas9 does the first part, but not the second part, while recombinases do both. $\endgroup$ – The Obscure Question Mar 5 '15 at 20:00
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Genome editing techniques like CRISPR-Cas and TALEN use non-specific recombinases coupled to a DNA-recognizing part that can be designed to be specific for any stretch of sequence, as it is constructed out of single zinc-finger 'modules' that each specifically bind a couple of nucleotides (one nucleotide each in the case of TALEN).

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