Arthrobacter luteus

Arthrobacter luteus (ALU) is a gram stain positive bacteria (not to be confused based on its abbreviation with the ALU retrotransposon element). A. luteus is a species of facultatively anaerobic, pleomorphic, branching, non-motile, non-sporulating, non-acid-fast, and catalase-positive bacterial rods (0.6-1.0 x 0.8-10.0 μm x μm). All members of the Arthrobacter family are obligate aerobes. A restriction endonuclease enzyme is extracted from Alu that acts at the centre of a palindromic tetranucleotide sequence to give even-ended duplex DNA fragments phosphorylated at the 5'-end. The restriction site Alu-I itself is a 4-base cutter: AGCT.