Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase: the story of a misguided DNA polymerase.

ABSTRACT: Nearly every DNA polymerase characterized to date exclusively catalyzes the incorporation of mononucleotides into a growing primer using a DNA or RNA template as a guide to direct each incorporation event. There is, however, one unique DNA polymerase designated terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase that performs DNA synthesis using only single-stranded DNA as the nucleic acid substrate. In this chapter, we review the biological role of this enigmatic DNA polymerase and the biochemical mechanism for its ability to perform DNA synthesis in the absence of a templating strand. We compare and contrast the molecular events for template-independent DNA synthesis catalyzed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase with other well-characterized DNA polymerases that perform template-dependent synthes

SUBMITTER: Motea EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2846215 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature