Crossword clues for polymerase
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1866, coined by Berzelius (1830) from Greek polymeres "having many parts" (see polymer).
Wiktionary
n. (context enzyme English) Any of various enzymes that catalyze the formation of polymers of DNA or RNA using an existing strand of RNA or DNA respectively as a template.
WordNet
n. an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of new DNA and RNA from an existing strand of DNA or RNA
Wikipedia
A polymerase is an enzyme (EC 2.7.7.6/7/19/48/49) that synthesizes long chains or polymers of nucleic acids. DNA polymerase and RNA polymerase are used to assemble DNA and RNA molecules, respectively, by copying a DNA or RNA template strand using base-pairing interactions.
A polymerase from the thermophilic bacterium, Thermus aquaticus (Taq) ( PDB 1BGX, EC 2.7.7.7) is used in the polymerase chain reaction, an important technique of molecular biology.
Other well-known polymerases include:
- Terminal Deoxynucleotidyl Transferase (TDT), which lends diversity to antibody heavy chains
- Reverse Transcriptase, an enzyme used by RNA retroviruses like HIV, which is used to create a complementary strand to the preexisting strand of viral RNA before it can be integrated into the DNA of the host cell. It is also a major target for antiviral drugs.
Usage examples of "polymerase".
DNA, built from scratch from the appropriate amino acids, then multiplied by polymerase chain reactions, were spliced into bacterial plasmids, which acted as vectors to transmit the recombinant genes to the nucleus of the egg itself.
Half an hour in his office before the press corps arrived and the district attorney would be explaining the process of polymerase chain reaction testing and short tandem repeats to them as well as the best serologists would do it on the witness stand at trial.
But it was useless without the vials of nucleotides, polymerases, and other biochemical reagents.
Mutations might occur during replication if the enzyme DNA polymerase makes a mistake.
But he had prepared great batches of a falcon-compatible DNA polymerase that bonded well to both species.