Editing Restriction enzyme (section)

== Nomenclature ==
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; text-align:center;"
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! colspan="3" | Derivation of the EcoRI name
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! Abbreviation
! Meaning
! Description
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| style="width:50px;"| '''E''' || ''Escherichia'' || genus
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| '''co''' || ''coli'' || specific species
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| '''R''' || RY13 || strain
|-
| '''I''' || First identified || order of identification<br />in the bacterium
|}
Since their discovery in the 1970s, many restriction enzymes have been identified; for example, more than 3500 different Type II restriction enzymes have been characterized.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-HwCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |title= Restriction Endonucleases (Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology) |author=A. Pingoud |publisher=Springer |year= 2004|page= 3 |isbn= 9783642188510 }}</ref> Each enzyme is named after the bacterium from which it was isolated, using a naming system based on bacterial [[genus]], [[species]] and [[Strain (biology)|strain]].<ref name="pmid4588280">{{cite journal | vauthors = Smith HO, Nathans D | title = Letter: A suggested nomenclature for bacterial host modification and restriction systems and their enzymes | journal = Journal of Molecular Biology | volume = 81 | issue = 3 | pages = 419–23 | date = December 1973 | pmid = 4588280 | doi = 10.1016/0022-2836(73)90152-6 }}</ref><ref name="pmid12654995">{{cite journal | vauthors = Roberts RJ, Belfort M, Bestor T, Bhagwat AS, Bickle TA, Bitinaite J, Blumenthal RM, Degtyarev SK, Dryden DT, Dybvig K, Firman K, Gromova ES, Gumport RI, Halford SE, Hattman S, Heitman J, Hornby DP, Janulaitis A, Jeltsch A, Josephsen J, Kiss A, Klaenhammer TR, Kobayashi I, Kong H, Krüger DH, Lacks S, Marinus MG, Miyahara M, Morgan RD, Murray NE, Nagaraja V, Piekarowicz A, Pingoud A, Raleigh E, Rao DN, Reich N, Repin VE, Selker EU, Shaw PC, Stein DC, Stoddard BL, Szybalski W, Trautner TA, Van Etten JL, Vitor JM, Wilson GG, Xu SY | display-authors = 6 | title = A nomenclature for restriction enzymes, DNA methyltransferases, homing endonucleases and their genes | journal = Nucleic Acids Research | volume = 31 | issue = 7 | pages = 1805–12 | date = April 2003 | pmid = 12654995 | pmc = 152790 | doi = 10.1093/nar/gkg274 }}</ref> For example, the name of the [[EcoRI]] restriction enzyme was derived as shown in the box.