Update

Related Content

Show Summary Details

Overview

Achilles' heel cleavage


Quick Reference

A technique that allows a DNA molecule to be cut at a specified site. The name comes from the legend in Greek mythology where Achilles' mother dipped him in the river Styx. The waters made him invulnerable, except for the heel by which she held him. In the AHC procedure a sequence-specific DNA-binding molecule is complexed with the DNA under study. A methyltransferase is then added to methylate all CpG sequences except those hidden under the sequence-specific DNA-binding molecule. Next, this molecule and the methyltransferases are removed, and a restriction endonuclease is added. This will cut the DNA only in the region where methylation was blocked, i.e., the “Achilles' heel.”

Subjects:


Reference entries