DNA polymerase epsilon is a member of the

DNA polymerase A DNA polymerase is a member of a family of enzymes that catalyze the synthesis of DNA molecules from nucleoside triphosphates, the molecular precursors of DNA. These enzymes are essential for DNA replication and usually work in groups to create ...

family of enzymes found in eukaryotes. It is composed of the following four subunits:

POLE Pole may refer to: Astronomy *Celestial pole, the projection of the planet Earth's axis of rotation onto the celestial sphere; also applies to the axis of rotation of other planets *Pole star, a visible star that is approximately aligned with the ...

(central catalytic unit),

POLE2 DNA polymerase epsilon subunit 2 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''POLE2'' gene. Interactions POLE2 has been shown to interact with SAP18 Histone deacetylase complex subunit SAP18 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''SAP1 ...

(subunit 2),

POLE3 DNA polymerase epsilon subunit 3 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''POLE3'' gene. POLE3 is a histone-fold protein that interacts with other histone-fold proteins to bind DNA in a sequence-independent manner. These histone-fold protei ...

(subunit 3), and POLE4 (subunit 4). Recent evidence suggests that it plays a major role in leading strand DNA synthesis and

nucleotide Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecule ...

and

base excision repair Base excision repair (BER) is a cellular mechanism, studied in the fields of biochemistry and genetics, that repairs damaged DNA throughout the cell cycle. It is responsible primarily for removing small, non-helix-distorting base lesions from t ...

. Research had conducted to study nucleotide excision repair DNA synthesis by DNA polymerase epsilon in the presence of

PCNA Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is a DNA clamp that acts as a processivity factor for DNA polymerase δ in eukaryotic cells and is essential for replication. PCNA is a homotrimer and achieves its processivity by encircling the DNA, wh ...

(proliferating cell nuclear antigen), RFC (replication factor C) and RPA (replication protein A). Either DNA polymerase epsilon or

DNA polymerase delta DNA polymerase delta (DNA Pol δ) is an enzyme complex found in eukaryotes that is involved in DNA replication and repair. The DNA polymerase delta complex consists of 4 subunits: POLD1, POLD2, POLD3, and POLD4. DNA Pol δ is an enzyme used fo ...

along with

DNA ligase DNA ligase is a specific type of enzyme, a ligase, () that facilitates the joining of DNA strands together by catalyzing the formation of a phosphodiester bond. It plays a role in repairing single-strand breaks in duplex DNA in living orga ...

can be used to repair UV-damaged DNA. However, it is found that DNA polymerase delta require the presence of both RFC and PCNA in order in DNA repair. In addition, it only produces small amount of fractionated DNA ligated products. DNA polymerase epsilon proves to be best suited for nucleotide excision repair. DNA polymerase epsilon is independent of both PCNA and RFC, and produces mostly ligated DNA products. It is also found that under one condition where DNA polymerase epsilon require PCNA and RFC: nucleotide excision repair in the presence of single strand binding protein RPA. PCNA and RFC function as anchor and direct DNA polymerase epsilon onto the DNA template.

References

Polymerase chain reaction DNA replication DNA repair DNA-binding proteins {{enzyme-stub