Which of the activities of DNA polymerase I is most important in its role of proofreading?
Which of the activities of DNA polymerase I is most important in removing the primer? The proofreading of DNA is especially good because “the identity of each base pair is checked before the enzyme moves on to the next base pair.”
Can damaged DNA repair itself?
Most damage to DNA is repaired by removal of the damaged bases followed by resynthesis of the excised region. Some lesions in DNA, however, can be repaired by direct reversal of the damage, which may be a more efficient way of dealing with specific types of DNA damage that occur frequently.
Can DNA mutations be repaired?
In contrast to DNA damage, a mutation is a change in the base sequence of the DNA. A mutation cannot be recognized by enzymes once the base change is present in both DNA strands, and thus a mutation cannot be repaired.
What are the three steps in DNA repair?
There are three types of repair mechanisms: direct reversal of the damage, excision repair, and postreplication repair. Direct reversal repair is specific to the damage. For example, in a process called photoreactivation, pyrimidine bases fused by UV light are separated by DNA photolyase (a light-driven enzyme).