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Concept
Polymerase
Summary
A polymerase is an enzyme (EC 2.7.7.6/7/19/48/49) that synthesizes long chains of polymers or nucleic acids. DNA polymerase and RNA polymerase are used to assemble DNA and RNA molecules, respectively, by copying a DNA template strand using base-pairing interactions or RNA by half ladder replication.
A DNA polymerase from the thermophilic bacterium, Thermus aquaticus (Taq) (PDB 1BGX, EC 2.7.7.7) is used in the polymerase chain reaction, an important technique of molecular biology.
A polymerase may be template dependent or template independent. Poly-A-polymerase is an example of template independent polymerase. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase also known to have template independent and template dependent activities.
DNA polymerase (DNA-directed DNA polymerase, DdDP)
Family A: DNA polymerase I; Pol γ, θ, ν
Family B: DNA polymerase II; Pol α, δ, ε, ζ
Family C: DNA polymerase III holoenzyme
Family X: Pol β, λ, μ
Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TDT), which lends diversity to antibody heavy chains.
Family Y: DNA polymerase IV (DinB) and DNA polymerase V (UmuD'2C) - SOS repair polymerases; Pol η, ι, κ
Reverse transcriptase (RT; RNA-directed DNA polymerase; RdDP)
Telomerase
DNA-directed RNA polymerase (DdRP, RNAP)
Multi-subunit (msDdRP): RNA polymerase I, RNA polymerase II, RNA polymerase III
Single-subunit (ssDdRP): T7 RNA polymerase, POLRMT
Primase, PrimPol
RNA replicase (RNA-directed RNA polymerase, RdRP)
Viral (single-subunit)
Eukaryotic cellular (cRdRP; dual-subunit)
Template-less RNA elongation
Polyadenylation: PAP, PNPase
Polymerases are generally split into two superfamilies, the "right hand" fold () and the "double psi beta barrel" (often simply "double-barrel") fold. The former is seen in almost all DNA polymerases and almost all viral single-subunit polymerases; they are marked by a conserved "palm" domain. The latter is seen in all multi-subunit RNA polymerases, in cRdRP, and in "family D" DNA polymerases found in archaea. The "X" family represented by DNA polymerase beta has only a vague "palm" shape, and is sometimes considered a different superfamily ().
Official source
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