Bacterial non-specific nucleases are ubiquitously distributed and involved in numerous intra- and extracellular processes. Although all nucleases share the basic chemistry for the hydrolysis of phosphodiester bonds in nucleic acid molecules, the catalysis comprises diverse modes of action, which offers great potential for versatile biotechnological applications. A major criterium for their differentiation is substrate specificity. Specific endonucleases are widely used as restriction enzymes in molecular biology approaches, whereas the main applications of non-specific nucleases (NSNs) are the removal of nucleic acids from crude extracts in industrial downstream processing and the prevention of cell clumping in microfabricated channels. In nature, the predominant role of NSNs is the acquisition of nutrient sources such as nucleotides and phosphates. The number of extensively characterized NSNs and available structures is limited. Moreover, their applicability is mostly challenged by the presence of metal chelators that impede the hydrolysis of nucleic acids in a metal ion-dependent manner. However, a few metal ion-independent NSNs that tolerate the presence of metal chelators have been characterized in recent years with none being commercially available to date. The classification and biotechnological potential of bacterial NSNs with a special focus on metal ion-independent nucleases are presented and discussed.Key Points • Bacterial phospholipases (PLD-family) exhibit nucleolytic activity. • Bacterial nucleases of the PLD-family are metal ion-independent. • NSNs can be used in downstream processing approaches.

中文翻译：

---

磷脂酶D超家族的细菌非特异性核酸酶及其生物技术潜力。

细菌非特异性核酸酶无处不在，并参与许多细胞内和细胞外过程。尽管所有核酸酶都具有水解核酸分子中磷酸二酯键的基本化学原理，但催化作用包括多种作用方式，为多种生物技术应用提供了巨大潜力。区分它们的主要标准是底物特异性。特异性核酸内切酶在分子生物学方法中被广泛用作限制酶，而非特异性核酸酶（NSNs）的主要应用是在工业下游加工中从粗提物中去除核酸，并防止微加工通道中的细胞团聚。在自然界，NSN的主要作用是获取营养源，例如核苷酸和磷酸盐。广泛表征的NSN和可用结构的数量是有限的。而且，它们的适用性主要受到金属螯合剂的存在的挑战，所述金属螯合剂以金属离子依赖性的方式阻碍核酸的水解。然而，近年来已经表征了一些能够耐受金属螯合剂存在的不依赖金属离子的NSN，迄今为止尚无商购可得。介绍并讨论了细菌NSN的分类和生物技术潜力，特别着重于与金属离子无关的核酸酶。要点•细菌磷脂酶（PLD家族）具有溶核活性。•PLD家族的细菌核酸酶与金属离子无关。