Chapter 26, Problem S25.2BYB

Summary Introduction

To determine:

The role of the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) polymerase in DNA replication.

Given:

DNA replication is a biological process that occurs in all living organisms and copies their DNA.

Introduction:

The first evidence of the existence of an enzymatic activity capable of synthesizing DNA came in 1958 with the discovery of Escherichia coli Pol I by A. Kornberg and colleagues. The discovery of several other polymerase activities soon followed, and it was realized that they possessed significantly different properties. The different types of DNA polymerases have been found in a single organism, for example, three (DNA Pol I, II, and III) in E. coli or five (DNA Pol α, β, γ, δ, and ɛ) in higher eukaryotes, which are believed to perform a specialized in vivo function.