Definition of "recombinase" []

• An enzyme that catalyzes the exchange of short pieces of DNA between two long DNA strands, particularly the exchange of homologous regions between the paired maternal and paternal chromosomes. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Requiring only fifteen minutes to provide accurate results, the company's proprietary technology, called recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), comes in a battery powered device the size of a book."
• "The recombinase genes served as guideposts for researchers exploring how the gene mecA had arrived."
• "An ingenious development of gene targeting has been made by introducing recognition sites for the enzyme Cre recombinase, so-called loxP sites, into existing genes."