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DNA Polymerases: Structural Diversity and Common Mechanisms
Open accessAbstract
Possibly the earliest enzymatic activity to appear in evolution was that of the polynucleotide polymerases, the ability to replicate the genome accurately being a prerequisite for evolution itself. Thus, one might anticipate that the mechanism by which all polymerases work would be both simple and universal. Further, these enzymatic scribes must faithfully copy the sequences of the genome into daughter nucleic acid or the information contained within would be lost; thus some mechanism of assuring fidelity is required.
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“Crystal structures (Refs.15-22 and references therein) reveal that polymerase binding to DNA strongly reshapes the primertemplate, e.g. the backbone at the templating base can be bent by 90°.”
From DNA Replication Fidelity (2004) · cites this paper as [17]
In the citing paper
“Polymerases in families A, B, X, and RT have nascent base pair binding pockets that tightly accommodate a correct Watson-Crick base pair (Fig. 2A and additional images in Refs.15-19 and references therein).”
From DNA Replication Fidelity (2004) · cites this paper as [17]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Steitz, T. A.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Steitz, Thomas A.
- ORCID
- Steitz, Thomas A.
- Venue
- Journal of Biological Chemistry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1999-06
- Volume
- 274
- Issue
- 25
- Pages
- 17395-17398
- ISSN
- 0021-9258 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2067371216
- Cited by
- 848
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 36 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 32.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Biological Chemistry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Structural Biology › Enzyme Structure and Function
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA Repair Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry
- Keywords
- DNA polymerase, structural diversity, polymerase mechanism, DNA replication, replication fidelity, polynucleotide synthesis
- MeSH terms
- DNA, DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase, Escherichia coli, Metals, Models, Molecular, Templates, Genetic, Taq Polymerase, HIV Reverse Transcriptase
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