Principles of Biochemistry Volume 3 - A. Lehninger 1985

Molecular mechanisms of genetic information transfer
DNA replication and transcription
DNA replication requires numerous enzymes and protein factors

Early studies by Kornberg and his colleagues paved the way for the direct investigation of METABOLISM/36.html">DNA Replication; however, to this day, we still lack a complete and detailed picture of the replication process, even in the case of viral DNA, which forms just a single small chromosome. Today, thanks to the efforts of Kornberg and many other researchers, we know that DNA polymerase alone is not sufficient for replication. This process apparently involves more than twenty different Enzymes and Proteins, each performing a specific function. Replication consists of A large number of sequential steps, which include recognizing THE ORIGIN OF replication, unwinding the parental duplex, keeping its strands at a sufficient distance from each other, initiating the synthesis of new daughter strands, elongating them, rewinding the strands into a helix, and, finally, terminating replication. All of these Stages of the replication process proceed at a very high speed and with exceptional accuracy. The entire complex consisting of more than twenty replicative enzymes and factors is referred to as the DNA replicase system, or replisome. Let us examine the MAIN STAGES OF the replication process in broad outline as they are known to us today.



Last update: 06/08/2026

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