Why Choose Recombinant Enzymes?
Established in 1975 as a private cooperative of experienced scientists, New England Biolabs is a world leader in the production of restriction endonucleases and related products for recombinant DNA technology. NEB has consistently maintained a position at the forefront of this field, and has successfully linked enzyme production efficiency to basic research in the cloning and overexpression of restriction/modification enzyme systems. This enables NEB to introduce substantial cuts in reagent costs and unsurpassed improvements in product quality and purity. Presently, NEB supplies more than 275 restriction enzymes, over 250 of which are available in recombinant form, as well as numerous recombinant polymerases and modifying enzymes for a wide variety of applications.
Why choose a recombinant enzyme?
Purity
Once an enzyme system is cloned, choice of expression vector and strain background allows tight control over the production environment. For restriction endonucleases, this eliminates enzymes known to contaminate native preparations. For example, when producing AvrII (NEB #R0174) from the native strain Anabaena variabilis, great care must be taken to eliminate AvrI. Similarly, when producing HaeIII (NEB #R0108) from Haemophilus aegyptius, the enzyme must be purified free of HaeII (NEB #R0107). Choice of background strain also plays a key role in eliminating nonspecific endonucleases and exonucleases. Although recombinant enzymes and native enzymes are manufactured to meet the same rigorous quality control standards, it is recombinant enzymes that produce a more pure product with less processing time.
Consistency
Typically, the yields obtained for recombinant and overexpressed enzymes are significantly larger than those produced by native strains. Production of larger lots means greater product consistency and less lot-to-lot variation. Further, this large lot capability is ideal for customers that have a need for bulk quantities of enzymes. It simplifies their quality assurance procedures by reducing the time and effort normally spent to qualify enzymes supplied from different lots.
Affordability
At NEB, the introduction of recombinant enzymes has resulted in lower $/unit charges. Recombinant enzymes with lower $/unit cost allows our customers to experience substantial savings, while benefiting from improved purity and consistency of product.
Advances
Cloning does more than increase product quality and purity. There are many examples where native strains do not produce sufficient levels of desirable enzymes. For example, cloning of enzyme systems such as AvrII (NEB #R0174), BcgI (NEB #R0545), BspHI (NEB #R0517), HgaI (NEB #R0154), KasI (NEB #R0544), and NgoMIV (NEB #R0564) has led to these being commercially available. Also, recombinant enzymes are easier to manipulate at the genetic level often leading to the commercialization of new enzymes with useful biochemical properties. For example, the thermal stable enzyme Vent® DNA Polymerase has a 3´ - 5´ exonuclease. Cloning of the Vent® DNA Polymerase gene led to the production of an exo¯ version of the enzyme that is now widely preferred for DNA sequencing.
We are excited to announce that all reaction buffers are now BSA-free. NEB began switching our BSA-containing reaction buffers in April 2021 to buffers containing Recombinant Albumin (rAlbumin) for restriction enzymes and some DNA modifying enzymes.Find more details at www.neb.com/BSA-free.
Recombinant Enzymes From NEB:
