See Also: nick translation(medicine)
Herbal medicine (botanical medicine, herbology, phytomedicine)(health)
Nick(medicine)
Old Nick(dictionary)
Nick(dictionary)
nick(2)(dictionary)
nick(1)(dictionary)
Translation(medicine)
translation(dictionary)
translation(dictionary)

nick translation (medicine)


nick translation
<molecular biology, technique> A technique used to radioactively label DNA.

E. Coli DNA polymerase I will add a nucleotide, copying the complementary strand, to the free 3' OH group at a nick, at the same time its exonuclease activity removes the 5' terminus. The enzyme then adds a nucleotide at the new 3' OH and removes the new 5' terminus. In this way one strand of the DNA is replaced starting at a nick, which effectively moves along the strand. Nick translation refers to this translation or movement and not to protein synthesis.

In practice, DNA is mixed with trace amounts of DNAase I to generate nicks, DNA polymerase I and labelled nucleotides. Because the nicks are generated randomly the DNA preparation can be uniformly labelled and to a high degree of specific activity.