The DNA polymerase reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

DNA polymerase

A DNA polymerase is an enzyme that assists in DNA replication. Such enzymes catalyze the polymerization of deoxyribonucleotides alongside a DNA strand, which they "read" and use as a template. The newly polymerized molecule is complimentary to the template strand and identical to the template's partner strand.

All DNA polymerases synthesize DNA in the 5' to 3' direction. But no known DNA polymerase is able to begin a new chain. They can only add a nucleotide onto a preexisting 3'- OH group. For this reason DNA polymerase needs a primer at which it can add the first nucleotide.

Highly conserved.

DNAPI, DNAPII

holoenzyme. error correction. helicase.

Bacteria

Bacteria have 3 DNA polymerases:

• polI
• polII
• polIII

External links

• DNA polymerase: PDB molecule of the month

This is the "DNA polymerase" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.