nuclease

English Thesaurus

1. general term for enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of nucleic acid by cleaving chains of nucleotides into smaller units (noun.substance)

hypernym	:	enzyme,
definition	:	any of several complex proteins that are produced by cells and act as catalysts in specific biochemical reactions (noun.substance)

hyponym	:	endonuclease,
definition	:	a nuclease that cleaves nucleic acids at interior bonds and so produces fragments of various sizes (noun.substance)

hyponym	:	exonuclease,
definition	:	a nuclease that releases one nucleotide at a time (serially) beginning at one of a nucleic acid (noun.substance)