What is "replisome"

n. (context genetics English) A matrix of enzymes that is the site of DNA replication in the nucleus of a cell

The replisome is a complex molecular machine that carries out replication of DNA. The replisome first unwinds double stranded DNA into two single strands. For each of the resulting single strands, a new complementary sequence of DNA is synthesized. The net result is formation of two new double stranded DNA sequences that are exact copies of the original double stranded DNA sequence.

In terms of structure, the replisome is composed of two replicative polymerase complexes, one of which synthesizes the leading strand, while the other synthesizes the lagging strand. The replisome is composed of a number of proteins including helicase, RFC, PCNA, gyrase/ topoisomerase, SSB/ RPA, primase, DNA polymerase III, RNAse H, and ligase.