Even though DNA polymerases have proofreading abilities, they still make mistakes -- on the order of about one misincorporation per 10? and 10? nucleotides polymerized. What are the implications of this fact? Why have exonucleases evolved to have this inherent rate of error? Explain.
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Chapters 6 and 7 explained that mistakes made by DNA polymerase are corrected either by proofreading mechanisms during DNA replication or by DNA repair systems that operate after replication is complete. The overall rate of errors in DNA replication is about $1 \times 10^{-10},$ that is, one error in 10 million base pairs. RNA polymerase also has some proofreading capability, but the overall error rate for transcription is significantly higher $\left(1 \times 10^{-4},$ or one error in each \right. $10,000 \text { nucleotides }) .$ Why can organisms tolerate higher error rates for transcription than for DNA replication?
Adi S.
DNA polymerases are capable of editing and error correction in a process called DNA proofreading, whereas the capacity for error correction in RNA polymerases appears to be quite limited. Given that a single base error in either replication or transcription can lead to an error in protein synthesis, suggest a possible biological explanation for this striking difference. (15 pts)
Sana M.
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