Polymerase Switching in DNA Replication

Switching between polymerase and exonuclease sites in DNA polymerase ε

The balance between exonuclease and polymerase activities promotes DNA synthesis over degradation when nucleotides are correctly added to the new strand by replicative B-family polymerases. Misincorporations shift the balance toward the exonuclease site, and the balance tips back in favor of DNA synthesis when the incorrect nucleotides have been removed. Most B-family DNA polymerases have an ex...

DNA polymerase switching on homotrimeric PCNA at the replication fork of the euryarchaea Pyrococcus abyssi.

DNA replication in Archaea, as in other organisms, involves large protein complexes called replisomes. In the Euryarchaeota subdomain, only two putative replicases have been identified, and their roles in leading and lagging strand DNA synthesis are still poorly understood. In this study, we focused on the coupling of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-loading mechanisms with DNA polymer...

Polymerase Dynamics at the Eukaryotic DNA Replication

This review discusses recent insights in the roles of DNA polymerases (Pol) and in eukaryotic DNA replication. A growing body of evidence specifies Pol as the leading strand DNA polymerase and Pol as the lagging strand polymerase during undisturbed DNA replication. New evidence supporting this model comes from the use of polymerase mutants that show an asymmetric mutator phenotype for certain m...

DNA Replication: A familiar ring to DNA polymerase processivity

Structural similarity reveals that prokaryotic and eukaryotic DNA polymerases share a mechanism for processivity--but the conservation of additional chromosomal replication mechanisms remains to be determined.

Role of yeast DNA polymerase epsilon during DNA replication