How do the enzymes that cut up parts of genomes work? I mean the sort that are used to remove the insulin-producing gene from people and insert it into bacterium.

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anonymous · Answer

They are called restriction enzymes. Wikipedia's article is not very good, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_enzyme I suppose you don't want a mechanism but just a general description. Take as an example the enzyme HindIII. It recognizes ----AAGCTT---- ----TTCGTT---- in double-stranded DNA and cuts it to produce: ----A AGCTT---- ----TTCGT T---- There are lots of such enzymes, most with different recognition sequences.