Nucleases are enzymes that "cut" nucleic acids by breaking the phosphodiester bonds that link neighboring nucleotides on the sam
e strand. There are two general types of nuclease activity: endonuclease activity, which cuts within a molecule, and exonuclease activity, which removes successive nucleotides from the end of a molecule. Which type of nuclease activity is performed by DNA Polymerase (Pol III) to remove mismatched nucleotides during DNA replication?
DNA Polymerase is an enzyme of critical importance for the replication of the DNA. DNA needs to be replicated so, when entering Mitosis, each daughter cell can have a copy of the genetic material they need.
DNA Polymerase has an exonuclease activity in which mismatched nucleotides are removed from the newly replicated DNA strand in order to prevent mutations that can lead to malfunctioning or harmful proteins.
The DNA polymerase (Pol III) also possess an error proofreading mechanism apart from it DNA synthesis ability by which it is able to proofread and correct misplaced nucleotides during the process of replication in the cell. Upon encountering, a nucleotide that has been incorrectly incorporated, it corrects this error through the exonuclease activty which removes successive nucleotides from the end of a molecule.
