Activity
DNA polymerase III synthesizes base pairs at a rate of around 1000 nucleotides per second. DNA Pol III activity begins after strand separation at the origin of replication. Because DNA synthesis cannot start de novo, an RNA primer, complementary to part of the single-stranded DNA, is synthesized by primase (an RNA polymerase):
("!" for RNA, '"$" for DNA, "*" for polymerase)
--------> * * * * ! ! ! ! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | RNA | <--ribose (sugar)-phosphate backbone G U A U | Pol | <--RNA primer * * * * |_ _ _ _| <--hydrogen bonding C A T A G C A T C C <--template ssDNA (single-stranded DNA) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ <--deoxyribose (sugar)-phosphate backbone $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $Read more about this topic: DNA Polymerase III Holoenzyme
Famous quotes containing the word activity:
“Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished, or if it does, as in the case of the tilled field, this product of human activity requires still more labor, incessant, tireless labor, to maintain its identity as a work of man.”
—Mary McCarthy (19121989)
“Criticism is infested with the cant of materialism, which assumes that manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men, and disparages such as say and do not, overlooking the fact, that some men, namely, poets, are natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of expression, and confounds them with those whose province is action, but who quit to imitate the sayers.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.”
—Indira Gandhi (19171984)