Star activity

The Star - activity or star activity describes in molecular biology, the ability of a restriction enzyme to bind under special conditions other than the default recognition sequences to the DNA and to divide them there. A STAR activity thus reduces the selectivity of DNA digests by the restriction enzyme and is therefore a significant problem in biotechnological processes dar. STAR activity has been found for a number of different restriction enzymes, including EcoRI, EcoRV, HindIII and TaqI, and can occur, in particular in case of deviations from the standard conditions, thus contributing to high glycerol concentration (> 5 %), organic solvents, too high pH and also has a high enzyme concentration (> 100 U / ug DNA ), or a long exposure time.