Processivity - Polymerase Processivities

Polymerase Processivities

Multiple DNA polymerases have specialized roles in the DNA replication process. In E. coli, which replicates its entire genome from a single replication fork, the polymerase DNA Pol III is the enzyme primarily responsible for DNA replication and forms a replication complex with extremely high processivity. The related DNA Pol I has exonuclease activity and serves to degrade the RNA primers used to initiate DNA synthesis. Pol I then synthesizes the short DNA fragments that were formerly hybridized to the RNA fragment. Thus Pol I is much less processive than Pol III because its primary function in DNA replication is to create many short DNA regions rather than a few very long regions.

In eukaryotes, which have a much higher diversity of DNA polymerases, the low-processivity initiating enzyme is called Pol α, and the high-processivity extension enzymes are Pol δ and Pol ε. Both prokaryotes and eukaryotes must "trade" bound polymerases to make the transition from initiation to elongation. This process is called polymerase switching.