Timeline for What is the function of the RNA primer in DNA replication?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 19, 2016 at 12:07 | comment | added | Armatus | Rather: being able to distinguish the first bases is good, and one possibility for this is to use RNA for them and DNA for the rest. To implement that, the easiest is to have two polymerases, one which makes RNA and can attach to single strands, and one which makes DNA but can only attach to existing double-stranded regions. | |
| Oct 18, 2016 at 18:14 | comment | added | Ramil | So basically, is the need for primer in replication because DNA polymerase requires double stranded region and this primer being RNA helps distinguish the first few bases added which are error-prone? | |
| Oct 18, 2016 at 9:17 | comment | added | Armatus | Presumably, when a polymerase attaches, the first few bases are quite error-prone (wobbly attachment to single-stranded DNA, proofreading at this point would risk the polymerase dropping off the strand). Once the first few bases are added, the resulting double-stranded region can provide more stable attachment and allow proofreading to function properly. When done, it would be better to know which bits of the resulting strand were the first few (error-prone) bases, so that they can be removed and re-done with proofreading. Using a different type of molecule for the primer makes that possible. | |
| Oct 17, 2016 at 19:56 | comment | added | Ramil | Can you elaborate on how the use of RNA primers plays a role in high fidelity? | |
| May 29, 2013 at 10:16 | history | answered | Armatus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |