Escherichia coli Ribonuclease III (RNase III; EC 3.1.24) is specific endoribonuclease. In E. coli, RNase III cleaves ribosomal RNA (rRNA) precursors during maturation of rRNA. Enzyme cleaves dsRNA into 12–15 bp dsRNA fragments with 2 to 3 nucleotide 3' o