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In eukaryotic DNA replication, DNA polymerase has a primase activity and relativ

ID: 974233 • Letter: I

Question

In eukaryotic DNA replication, DNA polymerase has a primase activity and relatively low processivity, and DNA polymerase has a 3’ to 5’ proofreading activity, lacks a primase activity, and has a very high processivity when complexed with PCNA. Both enzymes replicate DNA by extending a primer in the 5’ to 3’ direction under the direction of a single-stranded DNA template.

a). Explain why DNA polymerase may act as the leading-strand polymerase and the DNA polymerase could be the lagging strand synthesizing enzyme.

Explanation / Answer

At least three DNA polymerases are required for eukaryotic genome replication: DNA polymerase alpha (Pol ), DNA polymerase delta (Pol ) and DNA polymerase epsilon (Pol )DNA polymerase could be the lagging strand synthesizing enzyme. Because its primary function in DNA replication is to create many short DNA regions rather than a few very long regions. DNA polymerase may act as the leading-strand polymerase. It is the polymerase enzyme primarily responsible for DNA replication. It assembles into a replication complex at the replication fork that exhibits extremely high processivity, remaining intact for the entire replication cycle.