Deoxyribonuclease II


Deoxyribonuclease II is an endonuclease that hydrolyzes phosphodiester linkages of deoxyribonucleotide in native and denatured DNA, yielding products with 3'-phosphates and 5'-hydroxyl ends, which occurs as a result of single-strand cleaving mechanism. As the name implies, it functions optimally at acid pH because it is commonly found in low pH environment of lysosomes.
The action of DNase occurs in three phases. The initial phase introduces multiple nicks in the phosphodiester backbone. The second phase produces acid-soluble nucleotides. The third phase, which is the terminal phase, consists of hyperchromic shift resulting from reduction of oligonucleotides.
There are several known DNases II, including: