Wednesday, April 30, 2008

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 complementary to the template strand and identical to the template's partner strand.
DNA polymerase is considered to be a holoenzyme since it requires a magnesium ion as a co-factor to function properly. In the absence of the magnesium ion, it is referred to as an apoenzyme.
DNA-Polymerase initiates DNA replication by binding to a piece of single-stranded DNA.

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